San Francisco is My Home

30
Sep

Hot Cookie

Author: kris, Category: Shopping

If you’re too stuffed to make it all the way to Sweet Inspirations, but you still need a little sugar hit to finish off a meal, you might try Hot Cookie, on the corner of Castro and 17th Street. Their siren-song aromas of baked cookies might make you gaze longingly at the fresh-baked, but local know that the day-old cookies are just as wonderful and a third of the price.

Hot Cookie also sells men’s briefs printed with the logo which make a great stocking stuffer for the fella in your life.

30
Sep

Zadin

Author: kris, Category: Food, Shopping

Nestled into the Castro’s slew of high-end stationary stores and wonderfully greasy pizza places is a new Vietnamese restaurant called Zadin. And, good lord, it is a mouth-party.

Start your meal off with one of their famous rolls. We tried the summer rolls, which were excellent, but next time I think I’d go with the imperial rolls. After that, order something beef. Even if you’re vegetarian. (Well, ok, no.) Zadin knows how to cook beef. My favorite was the Bo Hanh Huong (grilled beef with aromatic shallots), which comes arranged in a delicate beef flower around a center of skinny onion rings. However, the Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) is also an excellent choice, with a subtle cinnamon flavor to it.

Zadin is open 6-10 pm, Tuesday through Sunday, and it’s like a pedicure for your tongue. Don’t miss it.

28
Sep

The Hobohemians

Author: kris, Category: News

The debut show of local band The Hobohemeians is coming up this Sunday, September 30, at Irelands 32 on Geary. The band describes their music as “old-timey blues folk rock”…well, they’re not really sure what they are. Audience members are invited to assail them after the show with genre suggestions.

The Hobohemians will be sharing the bill with jazz singer Hanna Rifkin and a band called 5 Cent Coffee who play “neo-skiffle blues.” I haven’t even heard the old skiffles yet. What IS a skiffle, anyway? Come to the show and find out.

Show starts at 8 pm and it is free free free. See you there!

28
Sep

Drive it again for the first time

Author: kris, Category: Landmarks, Museums

In a globally warming world, it’s getting harder to enthuse over the rounded, gleaming, gas-guzzling lines of classic cars. But the Academy of Art’s classic car museum has a cure for that. Students at the Academy study the gorgeous, classic designs, and apply what they’ve learned to new designs for eco-friendly autos.

Whether you’re green with environmental do-gooding, or just green with envy, the Classic Car Museum is worth a visit.

27
Sep

And it’s all still happening

Author: kris, Category: Events, Literature

It was a beautiful day down at Fort Mason, sunny and breezy, in the low seventies. The fort lies on the edge of the blue water looking out at the iconic Alcatraz Island and the orange tips of the Golden Gate Bridge peeking over a fog bank. In other words, a perfect day to line up in the sun while you wait for the Library Book Sale to open.

“Look, a queue for losers,” quipped a Fort Mason worker as he walked by the line of grim-faced bibliophiles clutching out boxes and shopping bags. But two hours later I emerged from the warehouse-like Festival Pavilion covered in dust and clutching a head-high stack of British comic fantasy novels. Who’s a loser now, eh? Ha ha ha!

…Hmm.

26
Sep

Summer smells

Author: kris, Category: Seen

San Francisco’s true summer happens in September and October (and sometimes, for reasons passing understanding, in February, but let’s leave that out of it for the moment). There is nothing so charming as a summery September walk through the Duboce Triangle, a small, flowery neighborhood that abuts the Castro. The architecture is interesting, with lots of our patented turrets, scrollwork and purple paint jobs; the sidewalks are wide and lined with potted plants and flowers; and the people are friendly and smiling. And every lamppost and tree seems to be wound round with star jasmine, which exudes a uniquely sweet smell that almost serves to overlay the stench of the backed-up sewers. Something about summer just makes the Duboce Triangle sewers run wild. It’s particularly pungent today. In fact, I’d recommend you avoid this lovely summer stroll altogether until they do something about the fumes.

25
Sep

72 Hours

Author: kris, Category: News

You’re sitting alone in your apartment on Tuesday. Maybe you’re peacefully watching an old episode of Buffy, or playing Yoshi’s Island on SNES, because you are a professional writer and this is how you spend your days.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek shatters the stillness. And it goes on for fifteen screaming, ear-clapping seconds.

Yes, along with clown school, drag queen nuns, fanciful Victorian architecture and a pack of urban coyotes, San Francisco now has its very own outdoor warning system. Every Tuesday at exactly noon, you’ll hear the wailing din broadcast over speakers positioned around the city, drowning out the honking traffic and the chiming trolley bells.

It’s all part of our new emergency services package called 72 Hours. Here’s a quote from their website:

“Imagine that you have no electricity, no gas, no water and no telephone service. Imagine that all the businesses are closed and you are without any kind of emergency services. What will you do until help arrives?”

Apparently, you will listen to the sweet siren song of, well, sirens.

But seriously folks. Much as I hate the noise — which takes me by surprise every single week, something that probably says more about me than it does about the sirens — there’s nothing wrong with preparing for disasters, and 72 Hours offers a number of helpful suggestions for how to cope. Check it out now, before the earthquake hits and your internet crashes. And hope like hell that disaster doesn’t strike on a Tuesday at noon, or however will we know?

25
Sep

Loud, proud and cow’d

Author: kris, Category: Groups, News

Okay, let’s get to the bottom of this, no pun intended. What is this leather pride flag all about?

Above, you see an image of the flag, courtesy of Wikipedia. The creator of the flag, Tony DeBlase, has been quoted as saying “I will leave it to the viewer to interpret the colors and symbols.” However, some leather-proud folks like to refer to it as “Black and Blue with Love,” perhaps because it is sometimes associated with BDSM.

That interpretation takes care of the black and blue stripes and the heart, but what does the central white stripe stand for? Maybe that stripe was left blank to symbolize the blank expression we uninformed folk make when presented with the flag. Maybe it is white to symbolize the purity of this community’s devotion to just one kind of material: they are not naugahyde-proud, nor vinyl-proud, nor spandex-proud. Or maybe DeBlase just couldn’t think what other color to add. We may never know.

24
Sep

Fair and a little unbalanced

Author: kris, Category: Events, News

In keeping with this week’s celebration of all things cowskin, the Folsom Street Fair is happening this Saturday and is not a sight to be missed. There you will find something to cater to every fetish, and you’ll find most fetishes being catered to on the street while you watch. Don’t miss this unique San Francisco salute to debauchery.

24
Sep

Leather pride

Author: kris, Category: Groups

Looking out my window, I can see that the enormous rainbow flag that floats over the Castro 51 weeks a year has been replaced by the leather pride flag, for this week is Leather Pride Week. The leather flag, counter-intuitively, is not made of leather; instead, it’s blue and white stripes with a big red heart.

I have always wondered why the leather pride group gets a whole week with its own flag up the pole, but none of the other LGBT groups do. Every year I intend to ask, but every year I am pleasantly distracted by the leather daddies wandering the streets of my neighborhood in leather chaps and outfits of every description. I love the fanciful costumes people concoct. Though every year I am also a little nervous that a roving gang of vegans might pick this week to invade the Castro. It would mean a rumble of epic proportions.