As you may have heard, a full-scale replica of the Niña, one of the ships captained by Christopher Columbus, is visiting the port of Petaluma. KRCB Auction Assistant Mike Palumbo headed down there with his camera, and had this to say:

This ship was built in Brazil 17 years ago. By hand. No power tools.

The "Skiff" (lifeboat) was built the same way by a 14 year old Brazilian boy.

The Coat of Arms denotes on top the two royal families that Columbus brought together, Spain and Portugal. The five anchors represent the five seas that Columbus sailed. The dots on the bottom left represent all of the islands that Columbus discovered. The globe on top represents a new continent on the planet earth depicted by the new equatorial band around the globe. The cross represents Christianity.

This crest was a gift to Columbus by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

It took 300 days to sail 3000 miles.

There are 32 tons of ballast rocks in the hull.

It took 3 years to build this replica ship.

And it will be there until Tuesday.

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This Saturday I went to the Outside Lands Concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The multiday festival showcased a variety of musical acts, from alternative, to funk to hard rock on six stages. I got a chance to check out a few acts ( Galactic's Crescent City Soul Crewe: great energy, underappreciated because they played so early; Kaki King: a little off-key but got better as they warmed up; Primus: excellent, a little heavy on the moshing; Tom Petty: exactly how you'd expect, but in a good way), and also attended a press conference of Kaki King, Primus's Les Claypool, and a few others discussing the festival, including its green theme. Plates and cups were compostable, and a variety of environmentally-inclined vendors were present, from an electric car company (it only goes 25 mph), to several solar panel companies and a store where you could purchase items using recyclable cans and bottles as cash.

At the press conference there was also a discussion of the need for San Francisco to have an ongoing music festival like other cities. Golden Gate Park makes for a nice space for the concert, and there is clearly an audience for such an event (the place was packed).

You can see more at the Outside Lands webpage .

Opinions? Leave them in the comments.

Images top to bottom: Galactic's Crescent City Soul Crew in concert; KRCB volunteer Raj Gupta with Primus bass guitarist Les Claypool.

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