June on the West Coast

A Weekend in San Francisco


A prelude:

So, my perception of California stems from a very wild perception as the land of opportunity, mystical, magical place where everyone is really friendly, the weather is always awesome, and happiness grows on trees; and not the government utitility privatization, budgetary crises, the horrid WE garden, smog, pretentious, prop 8 hypocrisy that tends to jade the public perception. Nonetheless! There are many a thing that makes made me feel like california was disneyworld on top of an icecream sundae in a chocolate waffle sugar bowl, but it really boils down to the following stream of conscious thoughts (and entertainment plugs):

My love for Groove, an indie movie about the San Francisco Warehouse rave scene in the early/mid nineties; my love of sunlight and all the smiley people from the west coast I met on the east; the very wrong assumption that being in a different time zone meant that waking up at 7 AM PST is really like waking up at 10 AM EST everyday; the food and farming culture (albeit built on the backs of the Grapes of Wrath) and my overall desire to be around diversity, tolerance, innovation, execution, and social responsibility in an urban sprawl.

San Francisco is that - and everything else.

Before this blog post bores you without content, here was my agenda and commentary highlights for y'all to enjoy; and perhaps join in one day; as this is a city I would love to live in for lots of days of my life.

FRIDAY

• United Nations Square - this is a pristine government center with a cool 'growing' tree exhibit on the middle lawn, with tons of homeless people in various states of ebriation
  
• Chinatown -omg, so many hills, so much dimsum, so clean, and soooo many faux jewelry stores playing bryan adams
  
• Union Square Shopping center - their Westfield shoppingtown has a spiral escalator and a touch screen navigation map
• Telegraph Hill - had some photos up of this peak point; the walk up there was terribly steep and sweaty, and I was really hoping to see some "wild" parrots, but maybe it's not the season? no parrots = not happy; but a great view
• grabbed some sustenance at a spot called Caffe Greco - where the tiramisu is spongy, the lattees are frothy, and the wifi is free - in.heaven.
• walked a bit north and hit fisherman's wharf - the wildwood/timesquare/harboryard of San Francisco. Not doing that ever again, unless i'm dragged there by tourists in fannypacks, and high socks, and who use digital SLR cameras with autofocus and spf 45. but they had that cool crocodough (breadadile?)
• Lombard street - the crookedest street in the city - another horrendous uphill walk, to see tourists drive down what looks like a life-size version of marble works, or something from the Mouse Trap board game.
  
  
  
• Ate a vegetarian, buddhist inspired restaurant by the eastern side of the GGB - decent fair, nice camera shots, but nothing spectacular. not even going to post the name here, it was that unmemorable
• HAIGHT ASHBURY! highlight of the Friday - hipster,sketch,singles area, littered with tattoo shops, cafes, dive bars, music shops, head shops, and cafe sunshine - a small hookah spot a few blocks down haight where I met some people who did film production and talent search work for fox searchlight and I may be realizing an opportunity, or at least, a very cool hobby. Kind of represents everything I could dream of - the cool, the ambition, the socialability, the easygoingness - all to a backdrop of trip hop, breaks, and atmospheric drum and bass. Not to mention the lemon mint hookah, and the melon/honey mix i got to sample out. end of day, and I'm exhausted from work and play. which moves us on to...

SATURDAY

• woke up at a suitably reasonable hour; grabbed a cup of arabic joe at Phil's Coffeeshop on the explicit recommendation of Dave, and was gratefully impressed. eff starbucks.
  
• but really, why did I wake up early (re: 8:40)? Because of the CUESA Farmer's Market - where I could gush about for a good 2k plus words, but I'll limit myself - suffice it to say that I spent the entire morning there, ate oodles of samples, left with a lunch of goat cheese made fresh that morning, strawberries picked fresh that morning, an heirloom tomato that was as purple as it was red, and a small loaf of french bread, still warm and crusty from the oven. oh, and also these guys were performing:
  
  
  
• Balmy Street - trekked out on the BART subway system to see the free art of San Francisco - aka, this one walking block down balmy street that has the impressive murals I took some photos of in the last post
• back to haight-ashbury for some relaxing, and caught a quick bite at a mexican shop there, as well as another coffee and some more free wifi - at this point, my feet are starting to feel hella sore and painful, as we're now approaching my 10th walking mile for the weekend
• walked through golden gate park. and i'm going to throw this out there: golden gate park > central park. Refer to my previous posts, and if you don't believe me, check out my national geographic film skills:
  
  
• So from there, I mosy my way up the 29 bus (at this point i'm ready to saw my feet off) and head out to land's end and china beach. At this point, I'm feeling a huuuuge wave of relief and accomplish, for after 12 years of spitting my mouth on it, I've made it to the west coast and dip my feet in the pacific. A dolphin starts surfacing (AND I HAVE THE PICTURES TO PROVE IT!) and all seems right with the world. A sign? most definitely.
• hit one more coffeeshop back in the tenderloin district, meet up with a few people for dinner at Tataki, a sustainable sushi restaurant in a trattoria setting with Yann Tiersen (Amelie fame) playing in the background, catch the last half of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon up in Russian Hill for movie at the park, and call it another night. i've got only one more day, and that's

SUNDAY

• we're up a little bit later now - and I get to catch brunch with David and Karen @ Serpentine, a spot a little south of their place (and in the same warehouse district where I dreamed of raving in!). They are fantastic people (and hella cute together) and I really can't say enough about how grateful I am to them, but they deserve this embarassing shout out. Serpentine had incredible ingredients, the coffee wasn't burnt or watery, and the bloody mary had a glorious morning kick to it.
• took some more shots around Union square area, looked at things i didn't want to buy, and got to see a tango performed by the San Francisco Argentinean society to a back drop of a nike town building poster - who was the poster of? LeBron James? ARod? Matt Cassell? Nope - it's Christiano Ronaldo. Nike is choosing to advertise an iconic world soccer player over any American sport export. Crazy. it's the little things like that; those are the things that make me smile about the city - like wait times showing how long the buses will take; or the advertisements for mcdonalds, clearly labeled "this advertisement does not necessarily reflect the views of the San Francisco Muni" or something like that; or how the colors are so deep; or the food is so earthy; or how the sun shines when you get cold, and how the wind gusts when you get warm. I was able to grab a convertibl minicooper that last afternoon and drive over the GGB, down into Sausalito (the watchhill/hamptons), drive down the western coast, listening to Franz Ferdinand and the local radio new music show, and the local radio pop station (which plays Faithless, Vaiio, Annie, and the Klaxons) and hip hop (hyphy still strong; federation, keak da sneak, mistah fab)

That's probably enough gushing, so suffice it to say that I had a hella wicked time, and I hope it's a city I get to experience, and learn to complain about, because right now, it seems to live and breathe what i want to living and breathing.

oh, and there was a fire, a manhole explosion, and an earthquake while i was there.

And the truth is I've been dreaming of some tired tranquil place
Where the weather won't get trapped inside my bones
And if all the years of searching find one sympathetic face
Then it's there I will plant these seeds and make my home
~Conor Oberst, June on the West Coast