A Streetcar Named Trolley
#106: MST Trolley, Beach Town Art, Maya Angelou, Lang Kambay Dulay (T'boli T'nalak), Valeria Haedo, LindaLay, Lobde Kim, Claude Cahun, Streetcars, and Desire.
HERE AND NOW
Last week, I became a tourist in my own town; I rode the MST Trolley to Cannery Row. I have spent most of my life living in one tourist beach town or another. Summer was always punctuated by surfing contests, art & wine festivals, and chowder competitions (Santa Cruz, Capitola); car shows, blessings of the fleet, boat races, and cruise ship dockings (Monterey). These events raised revenue for local business owners.
I looked forward to the end of summer: tourists would leave and we locals could have some peace. Admittedly, I had a sniffy attitude about Monterey’s MST trolley carrying its load of tourists—after all, it’s only a replica “trolley shuttle.” It looks like an old-fashioned wooden trolley or cable car, but rolls on rubber tires and has neither a cable nor an electric wire to power it.
I was born in San Francisco. The trolleys in Monterey do not sound like the fabled clanking, rattling cable cars in my “cool grey city of love,”1 and Monterey trolleys don’t require a specially trained and uniformed conductor who can manipulate all the complicated levers to get the thing rolling down the tracks. Sniff . . .
Ah, but now that I’m a carless local, I humbly realize that the MST trolley is a great FREE public transit option if I want a ride to my favorite vegan restaurant, El Cantaro, for lunch. And while I’m in the area, I can stop at Doc Ricketts’ old lab and have a look around; get an espresso or chai at a café and lounge on one of the public patios; or walk up a short hill to Happy Girl café on Lighthouse Avenue and buy one of their excellent cookies. I regretted not having brought my drawing paper and pens; it was a perfect day for people-watching and urban sketching.
Riding the MST Trolley gave me a chance to view Monterey through the eyes of tourists. I saw a grandma get on with her two grandkids and heard them oohing and aahing about Fisherman’s Wharf and all the beautiful boats out in the bay. I saw parents of all sizes, shapes, colors, and economic status pushing kids in strollers. At El Cantaro, I glimpsed a South Asian grandfather holding his grandchild, less than a year old, as he repeatedly and lovingly kissed her pudgy little hands.
Riding past the Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa, I was reminded that some of the pricier hotels offer access to cafes and wide public patios that look out on gorgeous views of the bay and the wharf. There are bicycle rentals, and families riding off down the bike trails together. In that little neighborhood, once the site of Monterey’s fishing industry, now geared to its tourism interests, people looked mostly happy. I imagined that some had jobs in the Bay Area or the Central Valley and traveled to Monterey for a change of scenery and time with family.
Sure, as we were waiting in front of the Aquaruim for the trolley to pick us up in the afternoon, some of the kids were getting a little fidgety and cross. Parents were ready to get back to their hotels and chill, or perhaps head home.
What the hell, they’re all just folks with families and jobs who are happy to get away for the weekend. In short, getting out and being among the people made me relax my guard and get off my high horse (goodbye, Prius). I had a good time among the hoi polloi—because I’m one of them.
ART
Images from two touristy beach towns I have lived in—from my urban sketching days, many years ago:
LINKS
How Dr. Maya Angelou became San Francisco’s first black streetcar conductor (on the Oprah Winfrey Show):
I recently copyedited a book for the Tracing Patterns Foundation in Berkeley. That work and their website introduced me to the world of textile scholars and artisans. Craig Diamond discusses T’boli T’nalak weaving.
T’nalak artisan weaver Lang Kambay Dulay:
Valeria Haedo recently received some media attention because of her experience with phone scammers. Fortunately, she escaped before they were able to complete the scam. But I want to focus here on her beautiful stained-glass art. The reflections and environment created by her art are as important as the glass itself:
Also in the Monterey Bay area, artist LindaLay gets settled into her space and gets to know her garden inhabitants during Summer Solstice.
Self-taught, Seoul-based artist Lobde Kim is inspired by shamanism. I find his art to be both puzzling and mesmerizing.
I had never heard of this artist until a couple weeks ago: androgynous surrealist artist Claude Cahun:
SOUNDINGS
Experience a San Francisco cable car ride (inselvideo):
Soundtrack from the film A Streetcar Named Desire, performed by the Four Deuces, composer Alex North. ℗ A Capitol Records Release; ℗ 1951 Capitol Records, LLC:
Thanks for reading Eulipion Outpost!
Feel free to share this newsletter . . .
Some of my other spots on the internet and Fediverse:
• My Neocities website
• CommonwealthCafe newsletter
• My Ko-Fi page (donations appreciated)
• @jeanevergreen at montereybay.social
• @jeantangerine on Mastodon.art and PixelFed (alternative to Instagram)
Poem by George Sterling.