San Francisco – March 2008
Started the month on a weekend, went cycling all over the city again with Amanda on the 1st – visited Coit Tower (good free stuff, murals on the ground floor and the obligatory car park on the
top of a hill), up Lombard Street and Haight Street (which I hate). Got visited By Chris and Tara on their way back from New Zealand, which was such fun too.
Saturday night was a very sober 1990s-style-party in Fairfax, Marin. Not like I expected it to be at all, but very worthwhile and good to get out of the city.
Sunday we took another ride down to Heron’s Head Point and Hunter’s Point. Funny wasteland corner of The Bay, old industry awaiting cleanup and redevelopment.
Tuesday was this month’s free museum day but I did not get it together to go visit any.
Thursday was Balken Beatbox the the Filmore, but they canceled due to visa problems which is very odd as I thought they were all from New York.
Thursday the 13th is Gogol Bodello at the Warfield, Gypsy Punks in San Francisco. I can’t tell you how good they were
, so amazing (awesome, even), they did something like two hours, maybe more, of non-stop high-energy tunes, loved every moment of it, spent half the gig right at the front, it was like being eighteen again, came out at nearly midnight dripping wet from (other people’s) sweat and came home to some weird fog over downtown.
On the 15th and 16th we hired a car from Rentawreck (first company to give us what we asked for, a small car!) and visited Hopland, one-hundred miles north of San Francisco, where the local equivalent of CAT is, The Solar Living
Insinuate. There I took lots of Biodiesel pictures, visited a whole load of local eco-houses and hiked a little in the mountains of California. We also took in some Redwoods and drove the coast road home, Highway One, which is a much slower route but much more worthwhile, winding along the dramatic Pacific coast.
Eco-house in Hopland:
Drive home, through redwoods:
Hermit’s house in Nothern California:
Biodiesel stuff at the Solar Living Institute:
Amanda went to Washington DC for the last week of March 2008 leaving me home alone in the city over the Easter weekend. I went to The Opel 6 Year Anniversary Event at Temple SF with Nicola and Giorgia, walked home on my own at 5am which was a spooky experiences as, with the exception of one or two rough sleepers and the odd person going to/from work, I had what felt like the whole of downtown San Francisco to myself.
Amanda came home in time for the weekend of the 29th and 30th but we did nothing much but drink a few beers with Kate D who was in town for the weekend, eat a fabulous Mexican breakfast at 22 & South Van Ness, and later we just watched videos….. a lazy end to the month.
