Seeing as how castroshopper's Ray F. has some choice shots of the Castro's conversion to 1978, we thought we'd thrill you with a few more recent images of the world's most flowery neighborhood.

Also, it seems to have gone through a big transformation -- bigger than we thought, in fact -- but many of the stores that are there today seem faithful to the stores' genres of yesteryear, at least according to Van Sant's version of it. Take a look! (And remember, you can still sign-up for the candle-light march re-enactments. Go here for more details.)