14 posts tagged “san francisco”
Dudes, just a little warning here... the Lebowskifest is coming to our quiet beach community next month. So if you are not already booked up that weekend at Jackie Treehorn's beach party, you should get yourself tickets to the Lebowskifest.
I just picked up this neat tid-bit from the SFist...
Local movie star, sometimes activist, and Tosca regular Sean Penn will play gay for pay in the long-incubated version of Randy Shilts' 1982 "The Mayor of Castro Street". (An amazing book for those of you who have yet to read it.) He'll play murdered San Francisco Supervisor and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who was shot and killed along with Mayor George Moscone by Supervisor Dan White. Perma-boy Matt Damon gets to play the hot piece of crazy ass that was Dan White.
No word yet on who gets the choice diva role of Dianne Feinstein, but her part had best steal the film. How could it not? The career-making footage of Feinstein telling the media about the assassinations is priceless. (Here's an old, somewhat moving NBC Nightly News report on that day in 1978, featuring Feinstein's announcement.)
It looks like BART is thinking of putting TV's on the trains and on the platforms and they are going to be showing ads. That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Just what I need in the morning, a bunch of ads blazing in front of my bleary eyes. The rub is that this stupid scheme won't even get much money for BART, only .01% of their annual budget. So, not only do they sell us out, but they do it for cheap!
If you think this is as stupid as I do, check this
http://antiadvertisingagency.com/news/do-you-want-tv-ads-on-bart/
and then, check this
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/commercialalert/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12158
So let's just say I'm a truck driver. And I have a load of thousands of gallons of highly flamable gasoline. It is three in the morning. There's no traffic on the road. I'm on a straight road, with gentle curves, where there are any. I'm thinkin, "hey man, this whole not crashing thing is for dummies... I'mma crash my rig right now!" Unfortunately for everyone else, that just so happened to be right where three major freeways that connect the entire San Francisco Bay Area come together. Right next to the Bay Bridge and an area which carries something like a quater of a million cars per day. Ok, so I'm going to crash there. Cool. But the idiot really picked the right spot, because he did it right under a major raised overpass, and the freaking inferno he unleased MELTED the freakin freeway above him. What a total jackass! Now the freeway that I take to get home from SF is a pile of molten lava pancaked on top of one of the busiest freeway sections in the Bay Area. What joy. Tens of millions of dollars later, months and months from now, things might be back to "normal" for here, which is bascially grilock in front of Berkeley on 80... but until then, that freeway is going to be a total disaster area. I guess I'm taking the scenic route from now on when going north!
Friends, I'll tell you, I do love me some chocolate. And for those of us who love the chocolate in the bay area, there is a great little cafe called "Bittersweet." There is one near me in Oakland, and I think there is also one on Fillmore in the city. I've had their hot chocolate many times. I will tell you, getting their Euro-style hot chocolate is a deliciously punishing experience. It is like mainlining chocolate. So good! I've also had their American-style hot chocolate, which is excellent as well, though not nearly as intense as the Euro-style. They also make a chocolate milk, which is so freakin good. But last weekend. Last weekend, friends... I had their chocolate pudding. Oh dear, this is seriously the freakin best freakin pudding I have had. If you live in the bay area, do not deny yourself this, one of life's true pleasures. It tastes like two hundred and fourty dollars worth of pudding, but it only will actually cost you five. And, it is oh so worth every penny.
When I was about eight or nine, I had a sticker on my BMX bike with a little gremlin on it. The gremlin was flipping you off, and said "Disco Sucks". I thought it was pretty bad-ass at the time, even though I really didn't have any idea what disco exactly was, or why it might suck. Nevertheless, I never really got into disco, I was too young for that, instead, I started off on a steady diet of Van Halen, AC/DC, Zep, and other rock type bands. It took me awhile before I found "alternative" music. Needless to say, my musical horizons have opened up since those days. Nevertheless, I'm not a huge fan of disco, but I do enjoy
My friend Richard's podcast, "Sparkletack" is back! I'm excited... I was beginning to worry that he'd be so busy that he would not have time to take up the podcast again. Thankfully, I was wrong. His first podcast after his hiatus is on the Crocker "Spite Fence." This is a great story, even if you don't know much about SF history. Give it a listen, and then check out his other podcasts. Sparkletack is just excellent...
Just to a little teaser... the episode is about the fence, that is highlighted in green above. It was built on Knob Hill in San Francisco by a fabulously wealthy railroad tycoon around the turn of the century to wall in a house of poor neighbor who wouldn't sell his land. It is a great story.
P.S. By the way, when you are enjoying this installment, listen for the shoutout I get about halfway through the episode. Heh.
I just saw this in the paper... a circumzenithal arc, which appeared in San Francisco last month...
Besides circumzenithal arcs, I also enjoy rainbows, long walks on the beach, ponies, and also unicorns.
I had an eventful Sunday. First, we went to the Alameda Flea Market, which is always a good time. We picked up a few things, and mainly added to our growing collection of Danish modern style wooden serving wear. We got a nice set of wooden plates for not a lot of bread, which was nice. There were a few other things that tempted me, but I resisted...
Then I went over to my friends' place on Treasure Island for their traditional Super Bowl party. I honestly didn't really know who was playing before I got there, this is how much I care about football... however, I did know that Prince was playing the halftime show! It was pretty cool for a superbowl halftime show, if you ask me. He played a few of his hits, and a few covers. Even though it was pouring rain, it looked pretty sweet. Everyone was busting up when he did the whole "my guitar is a penis" shadow show in the middle of the concert. Nice touch for the post-wardrobe-malfunction world... Someone told me the Colts won, so that's nice for them.
During the game, we went for a walk around the shore of Treasure Island to check out the arrival of the biggest ship to sail in the bay, the Queen Mary 2. They had anchored it just off Treasure Island for a few hours while they were getting it ready to dock. I'm sure the skyline must have been magnificent view from the decks of the ship!
