Dolores Park farewell and they made speeches about how i've changed people's lives n sh.....iit. Me? Sun _was_ strong, maybe it addled em.
Beatiful, beautiful day. So many people came through there, it was delightful. Thanks again, y'all. Love.
lyrics now:
Why should I stay when leavin feels so good / Love this song so much I'll tell this song goodbye
butts Posted on August 27, 2003 # What is it about this week? I've seen more crack peeking above low-riding jeans this week than 15 grand'd buy you at the corner of 16th & Mission.
Up in this WonderBread part of town, I'm just another mediocre salsa-class-taking guy to be avoided.
Still resent the places that see me as though I ought to belong, and therefore some sort of competition.
the ubiquitous steve Posted on August 20, 2003 # He's everywhere. On the way to the library, on the way back from the bar, at the coffee shop, and now he just popped into the Vietnamese joint where I'm ordering lunch. It can't be the small donations I make to his cup; I just really like the guy, and am surprised to have found a valued friend so quickly. And in such an obvious but rare place: the end of a panhandle.
His story is a good one, I'll put that one on the main page.
soft ass bitch on the 22 Posted on August 13, 2003 # "...girl had an abortion today." "that her first one?" "yeah, bitch kept callin me, like 'I'm scured, I don wanna get on the table' and then called me from the waiting room, the recovery room. I'm like, 'bitch, quit callin me at work. damn." [pause] "oh shit, I thought I dropped mah weed." [pulls out a dime bag] "there it is. oh and d'I tell you about esaw? that fuckin reject..."
far side Posted on August 06, 2003 # The other side of the 22: 2 identical z3's, one car apart. Williams-Sonoma and spiffy appetizer plates on every corner.
birds of different feathers Posted on August 05, 2003 # I don't suppose they need to be like me for me to feel comfortable; too many similarities continue to creep me out. At Pops again, dive bar deep in the mission, everyone seems brutally urban-hipster, and almost as much as the fucking queens at Home, they aren't my ilk.
Still, it took all kinds across oceans, so why not among my own white-colored crowds? Maybe the more acute differences are just harder to bear.
To me, "I've had his penis checked. It's ok." (While sharing a drink.)
Not so necessary.
The younger man is clearly embarrassed to be with someone so uncouth.
Now the old dude is talking about his video collection.
"Oh-ho-ho-HO! Ha-ha-HO!"
Ew.
southwest's favorite pushover Posted on August 02, 2003 # First on the list for people to get bumped off my return flight to Oakland. Would actually credit me back more than the price paid for the ticket--though i'd likely miss Mariza, famous Fado singer performing at Bimbo's tonight.
Incidentally, my 2 hours in San Diego have been lovely.
22 owl Posted on August 02, 2003 # I am literally the only fool taking a bus to the Marina, the priciest part of town, at 12:15am. Even better, I'm now the only fool sitting in a dark, no-emissions bus that just derailed from the power lines.
tochaku desu Posted on July 25, 2003 # Chix curry and drinks @ Mecca last night; now it's on to a few days of company admin. So tired my stomach aches and those damn dark circles are back.
I sleep in a queen mattress flat on the floor, you know. Taking a siesta feels like the most luxurious kindergarte aptime ever (and it makes the room feel more spacious, too). Imagine my joy should the colleague/boss flying in from Japan need a little shuteye as well.
metrosexual asian day Posted on July 16, 2003 # The 22 crosses through Japantown, and getting off at Jackson to visit Kiehl's (such an intelligent location), I find myself the paragon of metrosexuality. Light blue BR button-down, facial moisturizer, hair goo, even my Japanese specialty goods--I need that T-shirt more than ever. I fear for my unibrow.
22 fillmore Posted on July 16, 2003 # Back on the 22, north to J-town. Another hushed conversation about my Sidekick (I should use this bus for a cheap confidence boost whe I need it), amidst stories of senseless shootings. Two languages I can't begin to place, and the foodrunner from work who's saving money to continue studying English at university in Mexico.
Dropped by to see Laurel, who was appropriately charming when I told her she's without question my official Bay Area stylist. Had lunch at Herradero, first place I ate in the neighborhood.
winger Posted on July 11, 2003 # Hair by Kip Winger Glasses from The Wedding Singer Full-body zebra jumpsuit Knee-high black boots Acoustic guitar Corner of 17th and Valencia.
superior court Posted on July 08, 2003 # What a crafty crew these legal-types make. First of all, $340 for running a red light?!? Lucky I'm not on the guillotine, I suppose.
Court date for "leniency" arrives, and I find myself in the vast majority of these victims of the profitable side of the law choosing traffic school as an alternative to trial. $50 fine, $24 in admin costs, plus whatever the cost of traffic school will be--is sure to be less than $340. I feel economically herded into government profiteering, and worse, that the trip was a success.
Of all those years in Japan, this is among my dullest, clink-clank moments as a cog in the machinery.
Got the shaker, 6 bottles of liquor, a dozen and a half limes, and a heap of meat. 6 friends, 2 of whom I've seen just once since we did this last July 4th. 3 nights in Yosemite, plan completely open.
midway - sfo Posted on July 01, 2003 # It's this plane. This sfo-midway route. It smells like pee again. Oof. And there's a waft of designer imposters new "young mother in baby formula."
Sigh. Where'd I put those sleeping pills.
I met a man Posted on July 01, 2003 # Shuttle driver to the metro has 9 kids (youngest are twins), 30 grandkids, a heap of great-grandkids, and 2 great-great-grandkids. I, on the other side of the seat cushion, have 1 girlfriend and am balking at the idea of a puppy.
beautiful blue Posted on June 20, 2003 # Dolores Park is the closest thing I have to a mistress. Tired, frustrated, alone--and my love nowhere nearby to pick me up--I turn wearily to Dolores, book in hand, sarong beneath, and she soothes so sweetly with sunbeam kisses and gentle grass carpet caresses.
free concert Posted on June 15, 2003 # Free concert in the park today: Luce (local band), 6 pence none the richer, and macy gray. The event site touts 6 pence with a clip of them covering the La's "There She Goes"??!! And they opened w/ it. ???
even the birds Posted on June 10, 2003 # Even the birds in San Franciso are loopy. Sitting in the Enterprise waiting area, next to an impossibly fetid old man, watching a small black and blue bird attack every passing pedestrian. This after the man roaming my corner today, persistently and silently following a mother and her daughter.
Creepy.
ambivalent much? Posted on June 06, 2003 # Like that on the same corner with the Mission there are a synagogue and a Lutheran church, the latter with both English and German services.
fuckin mission Posted on June 03, 2003 # For all the culture being a ghetto grants the Mission, it sucks to watch an old man so run down that the crack balloon falls from his fingers as he absently tries to bring it to his mouth.
22 fillmore Posted on June 01, 2003 # Goes straight to Japantown, through the Haight. Read in a free local that "Little Osaka" is one of just 3 left in the U.S.
dolores park Posted on May 28, 2003 # Sitting in lovely Dolores Park, glad that while it's all so bloody confusing I'm at least comfortable. And sunny. Also like that "dolor" means pain. I feel the grass commiserates.
r' Posted on May 26, 2003 # I did it! I finally created something of universal meaning and worth! From now on, to 'bow' in email or type, I'll use
r'
to do so. A bit culturally affected with the hands behind the waist, but certainly an attentive bow (da naa).
blame them, not me Posted on May 22, 2003 # Damn rental car has no plates! Of course they'll pull me over for running a pink. Fuck. There goes my clean driving record, and all because I got confused driving home from a work trip.
Can't help that I'm hopelessly conditioned to kiss my fingers to the roof. Must have been a traffic cop who started that fool tradition.
Wow. And now, last minute, they pull up to insult me. "As a resident of San Francisco, I don't appreciate you driving like that."
"Oh. I thought you said you were a tourist or something."
Teens at Risk activists marching next to a Viking in the buff.
French fries, a taco, ketchup and other "fast food."
Dave! The guy in the pink bodysuit/mini silver cape on the unicycle!
A Roamin' Catholic.
A fleeing French army tank. "No one runs like the French army."
Smokey the Bear with a gas can and oversized matches, fleeing the Park Service firemen. Saddam's body doubles, a bevy of Supermen, a Viking ship, an R2D2 keg, a pool party, and heaps of naked people.
driven under a bad sign Posted on May 17, 2003 # Blame it on the lunar eclipse? The full moon? Cars everywhere have risen up--and died. If the city isn't worth the taxes and high prices, is the equity earned in a house worth the expense of a car?
country fried vengeance Posted on May 08, 2003 # Riding through northwest D.C./rich suburban Maryland in a jacked up Ford F150 with 98.7 blaring some Texas-throwback country tunes. The one song asking us if we all forgot the Twin Towers and Bin Laden, and reminding us how we should feel with such inspired lines as:
"some folks say we're just out lookin for a fight/ After 9-11, I can say they're right."
Some other guy's going on now about justice, Texas-lynch-mob style, and orderin up "beer for the horses." Even better's the galumphin white dude on the sidewalk totin a dead fox by the metal trap its neck is caught in.
kansas Posted on May 01, 2003 # That's right. 4 attendants clustered around me at an abandoned Southwest desk in Kansas City. Come to think of it, I don't even know what state this is.
Rather than a 4 hour layover later, and a flight to Baltimore next to a very energetic, middle-aged blonde (who was audibly disappointed I chose to bump), I now have a complicated Chicago-Indy-same plane to Jacksonville arrangement. Plus a one-way flight credit and a voucher. Provided they actually do deliver the bags (including business suit...cue ominous organ music...), I'm good with the chess-knight aerial tour.
itte kimaaaasu Posted on May 01, 2003 # One of those evenings when you just cherish your roommates. If, and I suppose when, I do leave here, it's official: I'll miss the still un-renamed 36.
After another expediting shift tonight at Home, Alex met up with me and we had a couple drinks at Mecca to see David. At least an hour getting to know each other better, and it feels more than even that I have a thousand reasons to feel good to have a home to come back to on the 12th.
muni 2 Posted on April 29, 2003 # 16th & Valencia, waiting on a bus. Plainclothes bust on the corner of 2 apparent dealers. Small tins seized--crack?
Here in SF, where everyone looks to me too intelligent, too dorky, too grown-up college-grad for the regular-schmoe clothes they wear, I couldn't have told these two guys from any other post . com bloke on the block.
muni Posted on April 29, 2003 # Woman in the back's on the phone with Sheila, breaking down the domestic violence in someone's house. Girl in front of us is hugging on her guy and cleaning blood from his chin. Driver on the last bus, the 38 Geary, got 8 blocks of kind advice from a regular on not giving money to the ex who just moved out.
AFLAC won't even insure Muni drivers anymore. Too many disabilities; no profit.
acces: denied Posted on April 29, 2003 # SF Int'l film festival sold out tix for L'auberge Espagnole already. How many times have plans to see this Barcelona-set film been dashed by now?
Wonder if it's actually worth all this. Seen it, anyone?
snarf Posted on April 29, 2003 # Blurphgrgl. Gargling knockoff Listerine as the company phone rings, and I stupidly gurgle out to be sure. Have to spit blue foam out the downstaris window in order to take the order.
missing piece Posted on April 28, 2003 # For some reason, Vietnamese tonight in the Mission stikes a chord, and I'm nostalgic, even homesick, for Ikebukuro and all things Japanese.
Specifically, the conversation styles, the others-first approach to interaction, and the language. I still remember it all clearly enough to be glad to be here, and to smell the pho mingling stickily with the polluted Tokyo air.
Choque Posted on April 23, 2003 # Taking the 22 to the storage unit and a guy gets smacked. 16th, just east of Mission. He's down, not moving. A small crowd instantly gathers, and the bus is paralyzed. Already one bystander is on the phone to 911, and there's nothing much to do but direct traffic.
Trying to help out, and satiate my instinctive curiosity, I borrow cones from the construction workers and turn the oncoming cars back. I've left a bag behind, and the scene as well, but couldn't bear to add to the wave of pain-gawkers pooling around the blood. When police and fire show up within 2 minutes, they cut him from his clothes, and I take my bow.
