Amazing but True

I recently watched a TV special about this autistic man who was able to draw a 12-foot panorama of London after flying over in a helicopter and drawing it from memory.

Revealed: How autistic genius Stephen Wiltshire drew his amazing picture of London's skyline

The quite remarkable talents of the London-born artist Stephen Wiltshire, who was awarded an MBE for his "services to art" two years ago, are to be celebrated this week in a television documentary about extraordinary people. In particular, the Channel Five programme shows the young black artist, 34 later this month, drawing a 13ft long panorama in pen, ink and pencil of a seven mile stretch of the London skyline after just one brief helicopter trip along the Thames - and doing so in just five days.

In the huge curving canvas, which was completed at the Mayor of London's office, almost every major building in the city is drawn to scale - from the Swiss Re Tower (better known as the Gherkin) to the high rises of Canary Wharf - with the number of floors and architectural features all recaptured in precise detail. It is no mean feat for a young artist who is autistic, a condition memorably brought to life by Dustin Hoffman in the Oscar-winning film Rain Man.

Indeed, like Hoffman's film persona, Wiltshire is also a "savant", a man trapped in his own private world but with an exceptional talent, said to be one of only 100 diagnosed throughout the world.

Here's a link to the remainder of the story: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-557942/Revealed-How-autistic-genius-Stephen-Wiltshire-drew-amazing-picture-Londons-skyline.html

Events gone by the wayside...some good...some..

I have a page on our website dedicated to a number of events that we have done over the years' and have gone by the wayside. They are no more. Some of them were pretty interesting and very good and of course several of these I am grateful that they no longers exist.

This event was held a number of years in San Jose. If you wish to read more about this one, please visit Do You Remember.

SOFA STREET FAIR, San Jose, CA along first street in San Jose
South of A Street Fair. More commonly known as the SOFA Street Fair. Believe it or not, there would be a bunch of people who would haul out their old beaten up couches (sofa's) and set them up on the sidewalk to watch the goings-on. This event was popular during the 90’s and was held on First Street near the night clubs. A one-day event, it attracted a wide array of vendors and quite an assortment of fair-goers.

I do not know what happened to this event, but we did it for 3 years. It was wild at times as there were numerous bars and night clubs located along the street. All kinds of people were attracted to this event.

I have also written about the following events there:

MID TOWN STREET FAIR, Sacramento SOFA STREET FAIR, San Jose, CA FAIRGLEN ART FESTIVAL, San Jose, Ca FOSTER CITY 4TH of July CELEBRATION, Foster City, CA NEW AGE RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL, San Jose, CA PINOLE SPRING FESTIVAL, Pinole, CA HARVEST DAYS, Vacaville, CA BURRITO BASH, Watsonville, CA VACAVILLE BIZARRE BAZAAR, Vacaville, CA

Chabot College Flea Market

Hi People. DandL CREATIONS (shoulder bags, fannypacks and a lot more) will be in spaces 538 and 539 this Saturday, September 20 at the Chabot College Flea Market on Hesperian Blvd. in Hayward. This is one of the better flea market around and there are sure to be lots of vendors. We should be all set up by 9:00 and will close between 2-3:00PM. We will have a reduced setup and will not have our wrap-skirts and we will not set up the canopy. Just a bunch of grids and tables this time to make things easier.

So, come on down. Have had a lot of people asking about the Flea Market when we did the Zucchini and Castro Valley Fall Festival. We only do this flea market 2-3 times during the year and might be there one more time this year.