Carnaval

I have a ton of photos from today's street party but I've lost my Internet connection, and am online only courtesy of a hack that I surprised myself by being able to accomplish. I'll have to keep this brief, and just post some representative photos for now, because I may lose this tenuous connection at any minute.

It was cloudy all day in the Mission. Carnaval is a lot of things, but one of its signature aspects, much like beaches in Tahiti, are lots of semi-naked women. There also are lots of photographers with zoom lens on their cameras. Funny, but they all seemed to be men.

In San Francisco, exhibitionism is not limited to any one gender. The Gay Pride parade next month will have more semi-naked men than women, if past parades are any guide. There are also a lot of photographers there, and funny, almost all of them seem to be men.

This post, then, is about voyeurism, which seems to be mainly a male predilection. True to form, and loyal to my gender, I seem to always spot an attractive woman in any crowd; when it's a party like today's, such shots are all too easy.

I stand guilty as charged.

***

However, I've got another 20 photos I will upload when I am confident in my bandwidth. Many of these tell other stories -- the cultural diversity of those who have immigrated to this neighborhood. This festival combines the sensuality of Brazil with the colors of Guatemala and the long-term dominance in this area of Mexico. Many other ethnicities and races also were represented. It was striking, for instance, how many African-Americans participated, here in the city with such a small black population, perhaps six percent.

There also were the corporate "sponsors"-- Advil, and the NBA, among others.

And then there was the crowd, many of who dressed up for the occasion. By late afternoon, the air was redolent with marijuana and cerveza, so I exited the scene.

Tonight, my face feels hot. Oh yeah, cloudy skies don't block UV radiation, so I got a bit of sunburn out there today.

More photos to follow, when I can get them up...

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