Many Mission residents are currently rejoicing in the death of a corporate chain fast food “restaurant” at 22nd and Valencia. KFC shut its doors last month to little fanfare. Rumor has it that KFC still owns the property but that it will become a Hawaiian BBQ joint. (On the downside, another rumor has it that the antique store, Harrington’s, at 17th and Valencia is slated to become an Urban Outfitters. Again, only a rumor but, ‘Oh the humanity’.)
Ratdogs run from smoke too
I am still recovering from my night out with Sandra, I reek of booze as I sweat out toxins at the gym, but there is one stink I don’t have. I don’t stink of cigarette smoke. Do you know how lucky you are San Francisco, to have smoke-free bars? Oh. My. God. How nice it is!
Leaving a bar, I don’t have the desire to shower off the smoke. I need not dry clean my fancy shirt. Best of all, no cig butt burns! Oh how I wish we were Smoke Free DC on the other coast.
San Fran, I’m jealous.
At the base of the traffic light pole at the corner of Haight & Fillmore. In front of Raja Cuisine of India. (Despite the spelling error, it’s certainly my personal belief system …especially as I head to the Toronado…)
How the night starts
I type this while spread-eagle on my floor, crippled by jetlag + hangover. I type this unable to even see the keys clearly. And I type this giggling at every memory. See, while I am paying for it now, and may not even leave my hotel room today, last night’s foolery was well worth today’s payback.
Starting out at Beauty Bar, where I had a manicure with my martini, I coordinated a Metblog meetup with SF Metblog’s very own Sandra H. By the time she made it to Kilowatt, I was a few sheets to the wind, but she caught up fast.
Much was said, many were met, and I have little memory of either. Luckily, my camera phone does. Might you?
Home, James
Midnight munchies
Taking 280 from San Francisco to San Jose, just after Edgewood Rd. and off to the right side of the road, I would often get a glimpse of a giant snake. Today, I decided to check it out. I took Woodside Rd. to Canada Rd. turning left at Runnymede. I came to the snake-like coil.
Turns out to be a private collection of 150 sculptures called Runnymede Sculpture Farm. There is a locked gate at #980 Runnymede and do not enter demands. A few pieces are visible from the road.
My friends, Melissa Hudson, and Jeremy Townsend, teamed up to present “Dessert First” at CounterPULSE in SOMA (between 9th and 10th on Mission), an “innovative fusion of food and contemporary dance”. The performance kicked off with Melissa dancing to Eartha Kitt, dressed in a 50s reminiscent apron and skirt), preparing a batch of brownies. As the dance piece progressed, the audience connected with its emotion as Melissa’s character became more and more zealous over the thought of devouring the brownies and finally deriving so much ecstasy from consuming the chocolate. The second piece centered around coffee, set to a sexy Brazilian song, and featured 4 female dancers. Instead of evoking laughter as the first had done, the audience sighed in awe at the beauty and elegance of the piece.
Another notable piece was called “Potato Dreams”, performed by Bibliodance. The music was Danny Elfman’s theme for “Peewee’s Big Adventure” and this was definitely a fun piece, depicting a girl in a straitjacket, presumbly in a padded solitary confinement cell. A projector threw the image of what seemed to be a cooked turkey with legs, and the music stopped to a halt with the scratch of a record. Then came out a potato with legs who danced and pranced to the Peewee Big Adventure theme! It was hilarious! The girl in the straitjacket mimicked the potato and eventually 4 potatoes appeared onstage. At one point, we were teased with the prospect of 20 potatoes taking stage with a can can, but instead the girl escapes with three potato dancers, leaving one of the potatoes to take her place in the cell!
At each intermission, or “pause”, Jeremy Townsend of Ghetto Gourmet, dished out appetizers that went with the dance pieces, such as potato empanadas, and chocolate brownies. At the second pause, Melissa called on classical guitarist, Fred Boette, to do a little bit of improv. She challenged Fred and her dance troupe to perform improv according to the food they were given to taste, and she challenged the audience to guess the food based on the performance. The samples ranged from pungent garlic, to honey. The hardest to guess was pluot, and pineapple (you’d think a hula would give it away!).
The performance closed with the HudsonDance troupe dancing a “first course” of pizza and Dino singing “That’s Amore”.
I’ve lived in the Bay Area for just about 4 years now, and I’ve never ventured out to Half Moon Bay. Last Sunday, I took my brand new Nikon SLR along with me, as I joined my friend Toan, and his former USF classmates, Francis, See, Joelle and Sabrina, for a walk along Pillar Point at Half Moon Bay. Our guidebook didn’t do a great job getting us to Pillar Point, but a friendly fisherman, who was just about to kayak into the bay to catch crab, pointed us in the right direction. We arrived and parked in a cramped parking lot as families unloaded fishing gear and baby strollers. As we walked towards the beach, dogs of all shapes and sizes trotted past with their owners. The sky was a bit overcast, but as we turned the bend, the Pacific Ocean and sky opened up to us. I’m old school, and I snapped photos (yes, real film) with the feverish fervor of the paparazzi on the red carpet. I soon ran out of two rolls of film, so I suppose that’s when digital is handy… If it weren’t for the windchill, I felt as if it were May not February! At the end of Pillar Point, we discovered tidepools, and Francis picked up a FAT pink starfish. I don’t recommend molesting starfish like he did! You’d think we were going on a more strenuous hike since the guys had packed apples, tangerines, and even a can of sardines! We ended the “hike” with lunch at the Hawaiian Ono Grill – we ordered what the big lady in the Hawaiian floral print muu muu did — the #24 (teriyaki chicken and kalbi beef with macaroni salad and two scoops of rice). We headed back up Hwy 92. Did you ever notice that there are a lot of places to get pony rides in Half Moon Bay? Why is that? We stopped at the intersection of Hwy 92 and 35 to go hiking at Crystal Springs trail, which the guidebook rated a 7. What a mistake! From the road, you could see how beautiful Crystal Springs is, but there’s a green chainlink fence keeping you at least 100 feet from the water. We felt like prisoners escaping Folsom! So skip Crystal Springs.
Switch for a map of China
Walking around San Fran today, I noticed a curious little sign suggesting that nearby was the country of Italy. Now as I’ve never been to Italy, but rumor has it that my Great-Grand-dad was Italian, I wanted to check out the familial roots.
I turned right on Kearny and kept following it, expecting to find a land of Olive Oil and Coliseums. I only found more hills and more streets till I came yet again to my nemesis – San Fran’s “kill ya in the morning” stairs.
Would whoever though up that silly little joke, please take down the Italy tease? As the map later told me, it’s not possible to get to Italy via Kearny Street. Chinatown maybe, but not Italy.
Our sister Metblog city of Dublin is having some serious craziness going on. Check out Daragh Mc Grath’s coverage of the Dublin riots . It saddens me to see the people doing this kind of damage to such a wonderful and old city.
Looks easy, no?
While DC Metblogs, may have the thigh-burning Exorcist stairs in Georgetown to yap about, San Francisco has multiple free StairMasters that put them to shame. Take my gentle morning run for example.
I decided to start my week in SF with a run up to Telegraph Hill, forgetting how hilly “the Bay Area” really is. Coming from the Embarcadero, I see these stairs leading uphill and think it would be a good wind-sprint to jog to the top. Right. There needs to be a heart-attack warning at the bottom that says:
Even if you’re Olympic-distance Triathlon fit, do NOT attempt this hill without hill-run training – Especially you who is hung over from a night singing at Lefty O’Doul’s
