enjoying the California winter

It feels like summer here in San Francisco, so the calitexican and I have been playing hooky lately, enjoying the sunshine while we can.

Come back next week for more updates from my trip to Brazil, some of my sunny SF adventures with Cycle SF, the Bike Snob and (drumroll, please!) my new film, The Spinster.

Enjoy the weekend!

Vogue Around The Globe - Baby It's Cold (no it ain't!)

Since I'm still spending most of the days in my pajamas at my home office, and shots of my cat curled up in front of the fireplace would be out of context for this blog, here I go with Other People's Pics from other parts of the world, starting with...

Meligrosa in our homegrown fog right in front of our Golden Gates!


a.pic.a.day rolls in houndstooth tights on icy NYC pavement. You go girl!


Bart Omeu documents invierno en Barça! (That's where I'll be end of January 2011!)


Oh yeah, and while the Northern Hemisphere gets cozy, the Southern Hemisphere is taking it off.

Candy Cranks cranks up the heat in fishnets in Sydney.


Quiltro Elemento brings us the dog days of summer in Santiago de Chile.


Lexitos shows us that it's getting hotter and hotter - though this doesn't look like The Hague to me...

Sunny Day in the Park

When the sun shines on Dolores Park, the hipsters congregate avec bicyclette...


or electric bike.

Bring on the heat.

oh where oh where has my Indian Summer gone?

Seems like just yesterday, I was riding around jacketless, the sunshine beaming down and bronzing my skin, a thirst for a cold cold drink.... wait it was just yesterday! Alas, vacay is over and I'm back in the pea soup fog of SF. Great to be home, but today I pine for one sunny warm day as I cast layer upon layer over my shoulders.

A couple shots from the heat wave here in SF a couple weeks ago from the infamous corner of 16th & Valencia.

The sunshine brings out all colors.


Wither the weather, dear friends, and ride on!

Dog Days of Summer

No helmet. No leash. (I'm not advocating, just documenting.)


As Mikael puts it, Style Over Speed.


Hope you're all enjoying the hot weather!

Sunshine!!!!!

Yes, people! Sunshine has finally come to San Francisco!!!! One need not contemplate layers for even a single moment!!!! I, for one, have chosen to forgo sleeves! Oh happy day!!!!!

One more day of this lovely sun! For a short time, we do live in California.

¡Viva España + SF + Africa!

My Spain outfit was much more Friday night than my France outfit.


See what I'm talkin about?


I met Ms. Wheelright at a gallery party at Secession SF - fashion + dj's + urban art = cool. I love my city!


This shorty was the coolest chick there.


Ms. Wheelright and I hightailed it over to Coffee Bar to make our reservations for dinner at the nomadic restaurant Radio Africa & Kitchen [yum].


Ramona says, "This is how we do it!" to all y'all who have NOT submitted your bike to bar pics yet! ;-)


My pal dj Goyo was spinning some rare Afro beats and was dressed to the nines on the first day of World Cup.

Summer 2010 is off to a great start!

And for your viewing pleasure:

Hot Dude|Hot Bike

Oh, um... did I mention the hot dudes in Salvador?

Enjoy. Apriece. Disfruta.

Salvador Saudade

Like me, David Byrne has visited Salvador de Bahia in Northeastern Brazil. He has [Bravo!] ridden a bike around that town. Although he didn't devote a whole chapter about his Salvador adventures in Bicycle Diaries, to me, the one about Istanbul most references what Salvador is all about. The opening lines for Istanbul could have been written about Salvador:

"Ride a bike in Istanbul? Are you nuts? Yes... and no. The traffic here is pretty chaotic and there are a number of hills... As in many other places I'm almost the only one on a bike. Again, I suspect status might be a big reason for this - bike riding, in many countries, implies poverty."

This city seemed to lack the bike lanes of Rio, and the very active bike communities of São Paulo and Curitiba. Traffic was in gridlock much of the time, and like most cities in Brazil, at night motorists do not stop at stoplights for fear of carjacking.

The brave souls I did see riding their bikes were always men who rode not alongside and with the car traffic, but often head on into the traffic, and not on the sides of the roads, but intermingled across and through the lanes. No blinky lights. No reflective clothing. No helmets. The men who were out there cycling - day or night - seemed to have nothing to lose.

In Salvador, I witnessed the aftermath of a horrible car accident with a cyclist. I also witnessed a hit-and-run with a little boy's dog.

To be quite honest, Salvador is fast developing in a bad way, high-rises spreading like fungus, and bumper-to-bumper traffic clogging most arteries. The streets at night replete with criminals and prostitutes. I really didn't want to die in this city.


And yet. I. Must. Bike. So we took to the Ciclovia.


Carlos is no longer my BF, but I do have him to thank for our loaner bikes during our stay in Salvador. [Obrigada.]

The day we biked to the beach is still a wonderful memory - maravilhosa.

I give the city of Salvador muito credit for building a separated bike lane right along the beach. (But why am I the only one using it?)


Beach + Bikes = KT is a happy girl!



We found an oasis in this sugar cane juice stand. (A common and welcome sight along the sun-drenched Ciclovia.)


Bike @ Beach.


This cute dog guarded our bikes while we took in the sea and sunshine.


Back to the Ciclovia. You'd like to see a few more shots, yes? Oi ciclistas!


Exclusively for cyclists. Way better than battling those automobiles!


And this one: Your leisure with safety. (OK, so biking isn't just a leisure activity folks! Your mode of transport and your life with safety!)


Tchau Ciclovia. Tchau Salvador. Tenho saudades de você.

But I'm happy to be home.

ladies' night

Hello my dear readers! Your good ol' KT is suffering a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad week. I'm super low on sleep and energy. So, instead of writing much about these fine ladies of the night, I'll let you just gawk at their two-wheeled beauty.

Boots and skinny jeans in the Panhandle.


Black on black in the Castro.


Hot mama fixes rolled pant leg.


There, that's much more practical.

she wears short shorts

I almost took these painted on short shorts for spandex when this sexy lady pulled up to the curb where the Panhandle meets the Park on this sunny Sunday afternoon. What an overall radical look with the red shorts, brown leather boots and glam glasses!

And away she goes!

winter in SF

After visiting Cycle Chic's recent post about subzero temps in Copenhagen, and hearing the news of blizzards back east, I am guiltlessly enjoying near 90 degree Fahrenheit temps in SF. It's like summer in the middle of January. And what better way to enjoy the heat wave, but to ride to the Park to relax in your bikini with your sweetie. I took this shot two days ago near Hippie Hill.

All I can say to the rest of you is that we are very sorry (sort of).

more Sunday in the Park

The weather in SF is notoriously unpredictable. In summer we get thick pea soup fog interspersed with sunny days, and this winter has felt more like spring with unbelievable heat waves following brief stints of rain, which have had me reminiscing about those sunny Sundays picnicking or simply gallivanting in Golden Gate Park. So I dug up some pics from our Indian Summer to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside even if it's cold and wet outside... or not!

This woman is simply beautiful with her light red and black plaid jacket flowing in the tailwind.

And how about this cutie giving a coup d'oeil to the roller disco park, enjoying the sun with his mp3s streaming over his headphones?

And because I can't enough of doubling the phun, here are my pals Ohleev and Spud (a.k.a. the Twins Brothers) from Paris when they were here in October. Hopefully we'll have another heatwave for their next visit scheduled for February.

Le Fat, C'est Chic!

This was the happiest parade of cyclists in the bitter cold of San Francisco's summer that I've ever witnessed. I stopped at an island to snap away at all the fancy bikes and cyclists at last Saturday's Tour de Fat, sponsored by the New Belgium Brewery.

I've posted a small sampling of the beauties I witnessed here, but you can also check out my Flickr photostream here.