People all over the world (Sisters and brothers)
Join hands (join, come on)
Start a love train (ride this train, y’all), love train (Come on)
People all over the world…
by O’Jays

This Monday, January 16th, you can board the Freedom Train in San Jose at the Dirdon station, 65 Cahill St. and ride up to San Francisco for a special celebration at Civic Center.

The train departs San Jose at 10am. $5 charter tickets can be purchased at a stand set up for this event.

For the rest of January the Darkroom theater (mission @ 18th) will be home to “Emperor Norton: The Musical”
http://www.darkroomsf.com/norton/

To quote the rotten.com biography:
“These ludicrous declarations (of 1859) might have gone unnoticed, but Norton quickly developed a cult following. People on the streets would bow and curtsey when’er he passed, and San Francisco was all too willing to accept him as their wise, caring monarch.
In no time at all, Bay Area newspapers were competing for the honor of posting his proclamations, and more than once they published fakes to generate sales – a practice the Emperor condemed. Norton’s self styled “Imperial Government” even went so far as to manufacture its own currency in fifty-cent, five and ten dollar denominations. His money was accepted without question, at a time when U.S. paper currency was still considered unreliable.”

The last time I handled a Rubik’s cube was, oh, maybe two years ago. And even then it was to look at it helplessly and place it back meekly on the shelf. Despite that, I have an unusual fascination with the colorful cubed puzzle, and even more fascination with those who are able to solve it in no time flat. This is why I’m particularly excited to see that the Rubik’s Cube competition has come to San Francisco this year, to be held at the Exploratorium (natch) today, Saturday January 14 2006. Here are the details, as per SF Station:

“Come watch the world’s greatest solvers of the Rubik’s Cube compete for the fastest times under improbable circumstances in the 2nd Northern California competition since 1981. In past years, many world records have been set at such tournaments including the 3x3x3 cube single solve (11.75 seconds), the one-handed solve (23.76 seconds), and the blindfold solve (1:58:32).

Among the Rubik’s Cube elite expected to attend are Jessica Fridrich, the creator of the most popular speed cubing system, the Fridrich Method; Lars Petrus, 4th-place finisher in the 1982 Rubik’s Cube World Championships representing Sweden; Shotaro Makisumi, a 14-year-old freshman from Japan attending high school in Pasadena and number one in the world of the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube, average solve at 14.52 seconds; and Tyson Mao, holder of the blind solve record at 1: 58:32.

Entry is open to anyone. Event is included in the price of admission.”

Yeah you read that last part right — if you think you have the cajones to beat these speed cubers, you can actually challenge them to a Rubik’s Cube showdown. A puzzle-duel, if you will. Registration is free, as long as you pay the price of admission to the Exploratorium. I still don’t know how this competition will apparently last 4-6 hours (especially if these Rubik’s stars are so talented), but it might make for an interesting Saturday nonetheless.

Exploratorium
415-561-0360
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123

Sat 01/14/06 (10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.) » Registration 10-11am

This morning it was just beautiful outside. I’m trying not to get used to it though. I’m sorry it’s been sparse on the photos the past few days. Been getting over a mild cold so schlepping around on Muni while sick isn’t the best idea in the world. Will try and pick up the pace as I recover. I really try and post photos I take on the same day since I’m trying to convey what it’s really like here on a day by day basis but sometimes the fates conspire against me.

Click on the image for a larger version.

You may think that San Francisco, with its gnarly hills and traffic, would be a terrible town for bicycles. But in this last year I have found out just how practical bikes are.

San Francisco is a small town. For many destinations, biking is faster than public transit. The Mission/Haight areas are pretty flat and especially bike friendly. Even the longest cross town trip can be made in a half hour, which is coincidentally the amount of time you can expect to search for parking in the Mission/Haight. Traffic lights are a great equalizer, where you’ll often meet the cars that sped just passed you. You also get to roll past lines of autos at stopsigns, and roll through them if no cars are coming. Bikes are required to ride in the street with traffic, but they can become a pedestrian instantly to take advantage of a crosswalk or go against traffic for a short distance.

Traffic is actually mellow on most streets, and the hills aren’t that problematic if you know how to avoid them. It will still take one or two months for a new rider to work up the endurance to breeze around town, but just keep at it. And fear not: there are official routes through the city that don’t require you to tackle more than a medium grade for a few blocks. The SF Bike Coalition publishes a map of bike routes color coded with grade information. They also teach classes in urban riding (where they probably tell you not to breeze through stop signs or ride through cross walks). Check out all thier resources online.

Everything looks different on a bike. People and places you pass along the way suddenly become part of your world. You can stop or change direction on a whim, and park right next to your destination. Driving feels cumbersome after experiencing such freedom. Cars become much more annoying. You quickly realize that even modern cars are spewing out huge amounts of smelly air.

It helps to get the right gear. For city riding, I strongly recommend a bike with the larger 700c wheels. It’s the frame height, not wheel size, that determines how it fits you. Knobby tires are fine for mountain trails, but smoother thinner tires go faster with less exertion. Though the forward leaning road bikes are fastest, I’m really happy with my hybrid for commuting. Compared to a road bike, it has straight handlebars, slightly thicker tires, and a more upright posture. Spending a ton of money to get a bike that’s 5 lbs lighter doesn’t make sense for everyday riding around town (especially after loading up with groceries). A comfortable bike seat may be the $30 purchase that keeps you wanting to ride.

The Bike Kitchen is a great community resource in the Mission.
Members get a space to work on their bikes, easy access to parts and expertise. They will teach you to be your own bike mechanic, and if you volunteer a bit they will even give you all the parts to build one!

Once you’ve sold your car and become a hardcore biker, you’ll need a way to carry stuff around. You need a trunk. May I suggest a Chrome Bag?
They’re a San Francisco company with an outlet on Folsom street, and the bags are made in the US. Their messenger bags are in the $100 range, but they’re durable and can fit way more than your average backpack.

Perhaps you want to express your love of bikes in a more active sort of way along with hundreds of other devout riders while taking over major city streets? You are probably looking for Critical Mass.
On last Friday of every month, a couple hundred bicyclists meet at Herman plaza around 6pm. They ride through the streets at a leisurely pace for a few hours in a multifaceted political statement that I won’t venture to describe here. Oakland has their own critical-mass, as do many other major cities.

So there’s some stuff I’ve learned in a year of riding. What am I leaving out?

I came across this fantastic statement about waste and the great US of A on Grove Street tonight. Styrofoam Hummer by local artist Andrew Junge is to scale (1/1) and the attention to detail is marvelous.

Styrofoam Hummer is currently on exhibition at the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, View 155. 24 Hours / 7 Days a week. 155 Grove Street (across from south side of city hall) ’till January 13, 2006.

From the Artist’s Website:

“This life-size model of a civilian Hummer H1 was constructed from Styrofoam scavenged from the trash, during a three-month residency at SF Recycling & Disposal’s Artist In ResidenceProgram. This program gives artists the opportunity to create art from materials found in the San Francisco dump. SF Recycling & Disposal provides a studio on the dump premises, tools, a small stipend, and most importantly access to SF’s waste stream. This experience culminates in a two-day show of the artist’s work at the end of the residency. Styrofoam Hummer was the centerpiece of this show, entitled American Detritus.

The Styrofoam Hummer was handcrafted brick by Styrofoam brick from thousands of individual pieces of shaped polystyrene, glued together and then either shaved and sanded down, cut with a hot-wire tool, or skinned with a sheet of polystyrene veneer. The assembled pieces sit on a frame made of plywood and 2×4 lumber, also scavenged from the dump. Held together with five gallons of StyroWeld glue, a case of Liquid Nails, a case of PL polyester adhesive, and various screws, bolts, metal rods and pipes, this model weighs between 400 and 700 pounds. It is 17 feet long, 6 feet high, and with mirrors, over 8ft wide. It probably floats. Flexible sheets and tubes of polyethylene, a cousin of polystyrene, were also used to create some things for the Styrofoam Hummer, such as the soft top and brush guard. To construct the vehicle to the correct proportions a 1/25 plastic model was used and then scaled to life size. Measurements were also taken from a real Hummer H1, which, incidentally, is owned by a local SF man who runs his H1 on bio-diesel fuel.”

Fresh from its (former) home in Monterey, The Beat Museum opens in San Francisco tonight. In the event that you haven’t been to Monterey lately/have no idea what The Beat Museum is all about, details below:

What: The Beat Museum, opened by the folks from Kerouac.com in Monterey, CA in 2003. The mission of the museum? To tell the story of the Beat Generation to the new generation in particular, and to the general population as well. Authors featured in the museum include: Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, L. Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, John C. Holmes, LeRoi Jones, Bob Kaufman, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, Lew Welch and Philip Whalen. The museum staff encourages the study of beat themes, and what they mean to the world today.

When: Starting tonight — tentative hours are 1-8 p.m.

Where: 1345 Grant Avenue, SF

Why: Because you’re cultured, dammit!

Better blogged late than never . . . .

My friends and I primed our stomachs to drink in the New Year at Tamal, a . . . hmm, how to categorize – Latin fusion restaurant located in, uh, the Mission/SOMA neitherland.

Energetically orange, this corner hipster of a restaurant features the omnipresent small plates format, which means the food is expensive enough that you won’t want to order as much as you actually want to eat. It’s like tapas for stereotypical Americans: everything bigger is better, right?

To disparage the size is not to disparage the taste – make no mistake.

The options range from new spins on tradition to traditional takes on trendy cuisine. Catchy, eh? My friend’s chile relleno was one of the most gorgeous things I ever seen on a plate – green, robust, and oozing with goodies like goat cheese, onions, and a complex salsa.

As the name suggests, Tamal offers a wide range of tamales that are a far cry from my great aunt’s. I had the Tamal Vache Ivres ($8.50) – a beef tamale doused in a cabernet reduction with succulent shitaki mushrooms. My other dish – shared with a friend – was a set of tasty crab cakes ($8) that were like me: mostly traditional but with a hint of flair. Another friend ordered the Tres Campanas – a trip of corn tortilla tacos presented upright, like little taco soldiers on a plate. One soldier went a bit past my palate, despite containing duck – one of my favorite foods. The Pato (uh, duck, like I said) taco was stuffed with confit of duck in a scharffen berger chocolate, orange, and chile mole that was about as chocolatey as a mole can be. It was an advanced set of flavors that probably would’ve been better had it not come at the end of the meal after I’d wowed the old ‘buds enough for one night.

As you’d expect from any tapas-y establishment, sangria in smaller-than-you’d-want pitchers figured prominently into our night. It wasn’t the best ever, but it was still a lovely companion. And by the third pitcher, it was really, really lovely.

Holidays mandate dessert and New Year’s in no exception. I mean, hell, EVERYONE swears to make the coming year the year of fitness, so why not be egregiously bad in the passing year? Yeah, that worked for us. So goat cheese cheesecake for all! Goat cheesecake? No, that would’ve led to a misunderstanding. But call it what you will, it was luscious. It didn’t taste fantastically different from the kind of cheesecake you’re likely to find in North Beach – the ricotta kind. If you aren’t used to that, it might surprise you compared to the ubiquitous New York Style that is probably more commonly known. If you like goat cheese or cheesecake or adventure, its worth stopping just for the dessert even if the rest of the menu doesn’t appeal to you.

And lastly – a note on service: Tamal is a small restaurant and our unruly, indefinitely sized group put the staff through the paces by moving the tables on our own (much to the staff’s chagrin), asking for various check splits, but through it all, they were friendly, warm, helpful, and good-spirited. Especially considering they were working on New Year’s Eve. Good service always makes everything taste better.

Tamal: 1599 Howard Street at 12th Street, 415-864-2446, Dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 5pm-10pm, small plates range from $7-$13, good date atmosphere.

Cirque du Soleil has been in town for a while but I finally got to go out and see the new show, Corteo on Friday. It’s one of the best road shows they’ve done in a while. Highly recommended if you can catch it. It’s moving to San Jose from January 19 through March 5th. If you’re a Cirque Club member they have an exclusive ticket deal right now for tickets from February 19 to March 5th.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Apparently someone tried to blow up a Starbucks today. The police defused the bomb but no word on what size it was. I hate Starbucks as much as the next guy but jeez. More info.