Another National Park to Notch Off- Alcatraz in October 2014

We may never pass this way again I told my husband when we took the bait and hopped a plane to 'Frisco. In fact I am almost certain I shall never again go to Alcatraz (perhaps maybe in/at the movies as we have now avowed to collect up the ones made on the island) again. But the journey was sooooo worth the trip. I loved it for all it was and for all the history and notoriety it brings. It captivates, it awes, it amazes. The stories, the park rangers, the LIVING former prisoner- all, all of it was just amazing. I count it up there among my top 3, and I still have reams of Parks to go! Okay, enough gushing, bring on the pictures.

 We were fortunate to get the early bird cruise, which can sometimes sell out. We had no idea how many tourists actually come to this awesome place. It meant an early rise and ride down to Pier 33, but the views were spectacular!

 The island itself is only 1.5 miles offshore, yet it seemed further away. Anticipation caused the multiple camera clicks!

 CLOSER

                      ...AND CLOSER

                                                     

                                                      GETTING SO CLOSE!

                        LOOK- THERE ARE BUILDINGS ON IT!

AND MTNS. IN THE BACK GROUND AND THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

                                 WOW!

  ANTICIPATION WAS MOUNTING...

AND THEN, LAND AT LAST!

  The last view from the boat showed a lot= the lighthouse (oldest operating one on the west coast). The original one built in 1854 was damaged in the Mother of an Earthquake that seemed to rock SF to its core and then some in 1906 + the one standing was built to replace it in 1909. The next building in view is actually only the shell of a building (Warden's House) as it was burnt out in an accidental fire started in June 1970 during the time of the Native American Occupancy. Finally, closest in view is a building that used to be residential apartments.

Yes, we were so psyched to be there! This tiny little piece of real estate is only a mere 22 acres. And despite all its notoriety as a Federal Penitentiary from 1933 to 1963, it was also a station for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and also a military prison in 1868.  

After gathering us up and saying hello, the Park Ranger gave the mike to a former prisoner who gave a little speech. We were pleasantly surprised at this and quickly tried to do the math and figure out when and how old he was when he was here. 

Guardtower

 The Main cellhouse on the top of the hill. The inmates had different street names for the blocks

 Could you imagine me trying to chase a prisoner up or down these stairs!?!

 The people standing around looking like they are in a daze is because we all have headsets and are guided by an audio tour.

 These were our "guides."

 This was a hard place to try to imagine being. As you heard it was a place someone was sent to from other prisons, not for the kind-hearted. There were 336 cells in B & C Block. There were 36 segregation cells, and 6 solitary confinement cells  in D-Block. Two cells on the end of C-Block were used as restrooms for the guard staff. The cells in A-Block were only used a few times for (rare) short term lock-up periods when an inmate did not require full solitary confinement seclusion, but needed to be fully isolated from other inmates.

 A typical cell,  5 feet by 9 feet.

 I would not have wanted to spend any time alone with any of these guys. I wondered what made them the way they were? The audio told us that they had to keep the men segregated by race because they didn't get along. Also, one of the most asked questions is about deaths while on the rock. There were eight people murdered by inmates on Alcatraz. Five men committed suicide, and fifteen died from natural illnesses.

 It was mentioned that most prisoners loved reading. There were only certain books that were allowed and philosophy was a popular subject.

 They had some recreated cells and stories that told of the inmates who lived in them. All fascinating to me.

 The guard station with the listing of the inmates and the control panels (below)

 Upstairs was the medical ward where many prisoners went after they "lost their minds" or had mental breakdowns as well as those who had medical illnesses.

 A part of the infirmary.

 The famous or infamous Birdman of Alcatraz (who had no birds there) was not liked by prisoners nor guards alike. He was imprisoned here for 19 years, spending 11 of them up here on the medical ward d/t his health.

 The prison fell victim to the elements of the San Fransisco bay, the harsh winds and saltwater deteriorating the buildings and so the penitentiary was closed after only operating for 29 years in 1963.

Some avian inmates created a nice little nest amongst the ruins!

Now on to the outside:

 She just snuck in there for the sheer brilliance of her hair in the midday sun!

 This is a piece of a remnant of what was (below)

The Officer's Club (above and below)

The oldest structure on the island is being stabilized and rehabbed, and so much of it was under wraps.

 Oh you know I just love these plaques!!!

 The remains of what once was housing for guards and their families. This was the most bizarre thing to me, I couldn't believe that children lived and grew up here. They took a boat to and from school and lived alongside some of the baddest mf'ers in the land!

 The Warden's house then (above) and now (below).

I sure wish I could come back on 5/3/2073 and see what is in that Time Box.

San Fran from the Rock.

 The international orange bridge (aka the golden gate bridge)

 Of course there was the flora and the fauna too!

 i was more than a little in love with this shot!

 Only one good bug shot the whole trip, geez!

And just when you think I couldn't have possibly taken anymore there are these:

I knew nothing of this very important action, what it meant, what it sparked, what it changed. It wasn't in any of my learnings  at any of the educational points of my life. So I was thrilled for the new knowledge I gained on my time on the rock. 

Rock on Red Power! Peter was the one who caught the symbolism of Ai Weiwei's logo. Check back up top and see for yourself.

Then when you want to cringe for the excesses, I had to compile a personal favorite block, so here they are: I am calling them The views from Alcatraz.

Ai Weiwei’s first blog post in 2005 was just one sentence: “To express yourself needs a reason; expressing yourself is the reason.”

Can bloggers borrow from other bloggers? Artists do it all the time, right? There is nothing original in this, excepting sin if you ascribe to certain religious dogma, which I don't, so I don't feel like less of a human for borrowing from others. I will most certainly give it back. In fact, I am giving back right now as I write. For the nature of the new beast is to grow it up and out. Beyond the constrains of one sentence as Ai Weiwei had, to the lava flow of other words, thoughts and deeds. And by just the mention of the man, the promulgate his mission- spread his word. I help to germinate for the man imprisoned by his own country. I am agent-like in the quest for the world to know this most interesting and talented man. So there, I did it I got my start.

Not sure when or how he caught my eye, buzzes come from such bizarre places these days. But the connection was made none-the-less for I had been to China. I had been dwarfed by the numbers, shocked and awed by the size, and made fearful by the might. China the place that was in the process of obliterating a culture and a people (the Tibetan people living high up on that plateau in the North-eastern region of the Himalayas) in much the same way we have done to the Indigenous Peoples of places we conquer and control. 

The complexities of place are overwhelming in general, but the nuanced stuff even stranger still. There I was disliking the Chinese for what they did to the Tibetans only to learn of the horrors visited upon the Chinese by the Japanese during times of imperialistic war crimes on their own land when I visited this far-off and once unvisitable land. Oh so then I wanted real bad to hate on those Japanese for such awfulness, and then I had to pause. Oh snap! Now wait a minute here, didn't we...didn't we...yeah we did something downright dirty to the Japanese both near and far. How could I ever forget? I taught the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, have probably made over 1,000 cranes myself, stood silent each Aug. in memory of the awfulness of what our country did and loathed men and the Manhattan Project. I learned and knew little of the interment of Japanese-Americans in our country because it wasn't in my history books or rolling off my teacher's tongues when I was growing up. It came as quite the shock when I learned that over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. for the crime of being of Japanese ancestry.

So back around to Chinese and Japanese, and add one of the largest states by population and size and you get the gist of where I am going here, or more aptly- where I went.

I went on a quick jaunt out to California, specifically to San Francisco and the National Park, Alcatraz to go see a temporary and unusual exhibit put on by the following:

@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz is presented by the FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. 
 

For more information I direct you to the link: http://www.for-site.org/project/ai-weiwei-alcatraz/

So I am going to be disordered here and show you what we found.

 We first espied the logo on the streets down of San Francisco,
but their presence increased as we went down by the Pier.

This is Ai Weiwei!

So let's see if I was able to capture my favorite sounds:

It was hard to find and be in the space in the way I would have really wanted to be, which oddly enough was in a solitary way. I stole seconds of alone time, for that was all I could take.

The second instillation was a harder one for me to grasp. In the starkness of the decrepit cells were these porcelain flowers in everyday mundane containers. Symbolic? Of what? A head scratcher. Here you look:

  Is it art if you don't know the backstory? What kind of art? I will readily admit that I did not find it appealing at all. What is he trying to say? I think, when given the choices, I think I liked the thought of this one: 

The profusion of flowers rendered in a cool and brittle material could also be an ironic reference to China’s famous Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956, a brief period of government tolerance for free expression that was immediately followed by a severe crackdown against dissent.

I find it hard to imagine living in a time of tolerance and free expression only to be followed by such a period of harsh and severe circumstances. The people who enjoyed and partook (i.e. who drank the love and peace koolaid) were then sent off to "re-education" places. It was hard learning about this when I was in China, it was hard thinking about this again for this exhibit. It is as if Ai Weiwei, who was allowed to study in the U.S. and got to hang in NYC (i.e. only got a mere few sips of the koolaid), is showing through his dissident status and militant stance against what the government tries to do to him that he refuses to be imprisoned. That this exhibit is in the hospital ward of the prison spoke to me. It all is a profusion of madness and sickness and none of it, nothing about the prison industrial complex- the players, the prisoners, the families is anything I can touch, taste, or know. I was thankful that I had vision, for at least I could see. Eyes and iphones allow me to scan and scan and scan again. Windows into worlds unknown. So what did I see next? Here it is:

Now you just sit and ponder this and think if it is so. I shudder at the thought. But what if...what if your government said all people who are_______are criminals and then imprisoned ________, guess what you/I/we would become. It's all about who controls our destinies and how far out on limbs we are willing to go. I have traversed some thin lines on shaky branches, but fortunately so far I am and hope to remain a free bird. Potential convict is not a moniker I want.

The Peace Crane on a Star of David- bam! I like it, I want it, but alas, it's not my choice to make. And in light of all that has gone on at our last year's controversial vacation destination (Conflict Kitchen in Pittsburgh, PA) death threats for providing a perspective on a food wrapper are a real and present danger in our country too. It all is a sad shame to me. I wonder what Ai Weiwei thinks of the whole Palestine/Israel scene. I think this kite tells me what I already know.

 I liked how you could walk freely among the kites and get close up views. The colors were vivid and refreshing.
This kite reminded me a bit of the one someone in our tourist group in China tried to fly in the Forbidden City Park. The couple was from Washington State I think and they were by far the "Hippy People" in our mostly shy and conservative mostly engineering group of astronomy geeks. It was with glee that I watched him unfurl and get into a good wind his awesome and colorful kite. It was in horror and embarrassment that others in our group quickly moved away from him as armed guards came and shook a stern "no-no" finger at him and forced him to land his Forbidden Kite. China, the land of the Forbidden Kite will always stay in my mind.

The dragon just reminded me of the traditional ones I remember seeing as a kid. When China was such an enigma and the only thing I knew of it was the Panda's Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing that they gave Nixon when he visited in 1972. I wanted to go see them so bad, but when we went to drop my brother at Univ. of Maryland and dad and I then touristed around D.C. we did not go see those dang bears. By the time the kids and I did go to the Zoo (we actually went to see the Dalai Llama's Peace Prayer on the National Mall w/ a zoo side trip) in 1999, the remaining Panda (Hsing-Hsing) had been put to death d/t kidney failure. And did anyone out there ever know what we gave them in turn? Musk Oxen. Now what the heck are they? Another thing I just remembered was the rooms upon rooms of wickedly kitschy stuff that other countries gave to the imperial people and they now house in these museums in the Forbidden City where Bazillions of people cram into in horrid heat to espy. It was a polar opposite to what we viewed here on Alcatraz in these vast, cavernous spaces.

Finally, I have to say that I heard the most about the Trace exhibit. Most likely b/c I have a Lego-lover little big boy husband (who still has his original thousands in a bucket somewhere up in the attic), and this exhibit was all about the legos. We spent more time than we probably should have at this and the Yours Truly exhibit (well really we were wow'ed by the whole place and after 4 hours had to call it a day), so we actually missed a few of the installations. One was below us in the gun gallery and together hubby and I said we were uninterested in weaponry while unbeknownst to us it actually housed an AW exhibit (refraction). We were a tad sad at these oversights once home, but had such an AMAZING day and were extremely grateful for what we got.




Trace
176 Individuals from 33 countries- Heroes of our times. The trace of them embedded in Legos the number of which it took to build I am uncertain and I don't really care. It was overwhelming to think of the AMAZING bravery these prisoners of conscience have/have had. I am awed, I am awed, I am awed. Feeling small, feeling small, feeling small. But it's okay, I love heroes and we really have had so many more than the 176 that could fit in here on 6 carpets of Legos. I thank you for reminding me Ai Weiwei





https://picasaweb.google.com/100895537524141489194/AWAlcatrazTrace#slideshow/6080233296144517042

And finally...we had our goodbyes to do: