The longer I live in the country, the more fabulous the City becomes. When I lived in San Francisco, my streetwise senses were jaded, and I took the basic facets of urban life for granted. Nowadays when I return, I feel like I am 10 years old, and I walk around with my mouth hanging open, staring up at the unbelievably tall buildings, marveling at the sheer mass of humanity.
View of Union Square and beyond, from the 18th floor of the Sir Francis Drake
Chris and I hadn't been to San Francisco since December, and we both missed a friend's fabulous wedding down there in February while we were laid up with MegaFlu 2010. We vowed to make it up to ourselves, so we planned this weekend, first around one very special concert, then around two very special concerts, and then around two concerts and a musical birthday party. (Yes, all in 48 hours.) When a screaming internet deal came up for a room at the swanky Sir Francis Drake in the center of Union Square, we lept on it.
Okay, but let's back up first: when we first arrived in the City, we ditched our car at our friends Tammy and Aimee''s house in Bernal Heights (since parking in Union Square is so crazy expensive). Here is Tammy, showing off a portrait of her mother Ruthie from the 60s. Tammy's mom was going to be a Breck model, but then along came Tammy, and she had to change her plans! Isn't she a classic East Coast beauty? Love the perfectly flipped 'do.
And now for a tour of all the fabulous details of their house. The devil, they say, is in those details, and I have to agree- it's not the big things in a house that fascinate me, but the little ones, where you can really see the workings of the creative mind:
We left Tammy and Aimee's house and went to catch the BART train to downtown from 24th and Mission, where naturally we ate a burrito. I am not sure if anywhere in Northern California has as many burrito stands per block as the Mission. It was only $5, as big as my arm, and even splitting it, we were filled up all night long.
Checking into the Sir Francis Drake, we were awed by the opulence:
The stairs leading up to the lobby
Our room- small but adorable!
We had a few moments to put our bags down and rush up the hill- literally, straight up the hill- to Grace Cathedral, to catch Pharaoh Sanders in concert. Saxophonist Sanders is probably best known for his landmark free jazz piece from the 60s, "Karma" (aka "The Creator Has a Master Plan"), which you can hear in the YouTube clip below. At this show he incorporated the natural 6-second reverb of the interior of the immense Grace Cathedral into his performance. His purposeful movement within and manipulation of the space created a total synesthesia, and I saw/felt huge birds in shimmering colors spiraling up into the gothic arches of the vast ceiling as he played. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime concert.
When the performance was over, we ran down the hill for an entirely different kind of show, albeit one that also featured a saxophone player! One of my favorite art-rock-pop-punk bands, Love Is All, from Sweden, were playing at the small indie club The Rickshaw Stop. I have been listening to them so much this winter that I actually started to wear out my CDs, so you can imagine how excited I was to see them live! I went a little crazy dancing-- sorry to anyone that I might have whipped with my hair.
***Here is a video that has lots of live footage, so you can get an idea of their incredible energy.***
I was trying to continue the party afterwards, but the City was shutting down for the night, so we got Japanese candy and Vitamin Water from the drugstore across from the hotel and went to bed. We were lulled to sleep by the great humming of a thousand machines, from the elevators and heaters in the hotel to the planes and trains and automobiles below and above us.
We started the next day with Thai food for breakfast, because, well, we could. Then we set off for Japantown on foot, where it turned out they were having a huge Cherry Blossom Festival street fair:
The cherry trees in the right of the picture... I don't know if you can really get the fruit in San Francisco, because of the summer fog, but the blossoms were beautiful!
Cherry blossoms are lovely, but the real reason we came was to take a peek at the U.S. flagship stores of the famous Tokyo Lolita/punk clothing boutiques, Baby The Stars Shine Bright and Black Peace Now. Seeing these elaborate clothes in person was not only better than I even imagined, but I ended up falling head over heels for the Alice and The Pirates line at Baby The Stars Shine Bright, and heels over head (that's a joke, just in case you were wondering) for the shoes. There was one pair of candy red platform heels in particular.... sigh. No pictures were allowed, and that's probably for the best, so I can just forget all about them and their $350 price tag. (As if I could ever forget.)
The lobby of the New People building in Japantown, where the clothing boutiques are located
We crossed back through the City, climbing a steep hill where we saw, much to our surprise, dozens of bright parrots flying from tree to tree. Come to find out, these are the famous "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" (a la the documentary film), escapee pets gone feral, whose colony is going strong despite all odds:
Heading down the hill into Chinatown: Stop in the name of Love!
Back to the details again: Chinatown has some of the very best.
From Chinatown it is literally just a few blocks to North Beach, home of the amazing City Lights bookstore. We spent a long time in there, and then hunted down some cappuccino and tiramisu. We ate our afternoon snack in the park, while I tried on my new shoes. Not the $350 shoes, mind you, but still pretty awesome, especially paired with these (toddler sized) tights that I am turning into legwarmers! Total cost: $12.50.
After we were done lounging in the park, it started getting dark, so we had to high-tail it back to our car, and cross the bridge into Oakland for our friend's birthday party. There was an amazing line-up of musicians playing, including Chris himself (aka The Dazzling Strangers). My picture-taking abruptly stopped at this point, so you'll have to imagine the rest... but suffice to say good times were had, and I'm all partied out, at least for now.
When we got back to Grass Valley on Sunday night, tall skyscrapers were replaced by tall trees, and the hum and bustle of the city were replaced by the singing of the frogs. As much as I love the City, it's those darn frogs that always get me. Nothing in all of San Francisco sounds quite as peaceful and beautiful as they do. There's no place like home....
Amazing writing! I could really empathize with this story as I moved out of Chicago 2 years ago to a very small rural town in Illinois and when I visit the city on occasion I feel a new perspective and appreciation for the culture,cuisine,and energy of the big city. I immensely enjoyed reading this and will share it with others.
Posted by: Lanie McCain | 04/22/2010 at 08:13 AM
Turning toddler tights into leg warmers = GENIUS.
Looks like so much fun!
Posted by: Violet Folklore | 04/26/2010 at 11:04 AM
I found your blog researching the mysteries of what makes a boutique great. I don't know if my Facebook profile pic will show up here, but I freaked out a little looking at your post because we look a lot alike! (Hope you don't take that as an insult.)
Anyway, great blog, great post!
Posted by: Mary Hiers | 04/27/2010 at 01:04 PM