michael and steve in the big city (pt. 1.)
1:32 a.m.
alrighty then, here's the run down of the first day and a half of my vacation...
sunday, sept. 19th.
left home about 8:30 am...it was smooth sailing all the way, though i had a few brief rainstorms around santa rosa. put "lowdown" by boz scaggs on when i came out of the tunnel of course, that's my "entering san francisco" song! before i knew it i was in the lobby of the triton...the lovely amanda at the front desk was very cool.."oh, i see you've stayed with us before!" "yes, and i'll be back in a few weeks!", etc., etc...here's room 312...
got a room on the street side this time, i was worried about those reviews i read that mentioned the garbage trucks picking up loads of glass to recycle at all hours of the night, but wow, having the window closed cut down on the traffic sound by about 90%, so i wasn't really worried.
the hotel sign was right outside my window...
and here it is at night...
(that one's for jason!)
got right down to sfmoma, to catch the last day of the big pop art exibit...oh man, was that a treat! lots of warhols, the triple elvis was like 8 ft. tall...two great liz's, tunafish disaster, some electric chairs, one of the early shoe paintings that his mother signed for him, the brillo boxes, and a few soup cans...raushenberg, reinquist, jasper johns, that ed ruscha painting of the gas station on fire was there! i was just smiling like a fool! the building is awesome, that atrium thing way at the top with the bridge across it, well, you can look down through it and see the lobby 4 floors down. it's this round white space with skylights, and clouds were passing by, so the light was constantly changing, i should have been stoned!
after that, went to the virgin megastore and bought a few magazines...heading up the escalator to the third floor, there were two guys i saw heading down, just average looking boys, i didn't even really read them as gay...the one in front kind of leaned back into his friend behind him, who wrapped his arms around the guy in front...i watched them float down to the floor below, and almost started crying, it was such a cute, innocent little moment...you can't really do that around here, ya know?
got a sandwich at subway and went back to the room to read and chill. later i got the car and headed out to the haight to amoeba..no, i never did make a list of cd's i wanted to look for...parking was a bitch out there. then i saw the mcdonalds around the corner...a HUGE lot with hardly any cars...signs all over, "parking for mcdonalds customers only, violators will be towed, 40 minute time limit."
blah blah yadda yadda...eat me, clown.
i went in and had a big mac and coffee, just in case anyone was watching, then went out the haight st. door and went to amoeba. spent about 65 bucks, got three boswell sisters collections (that's from the 20's and 30's, kids), birthday party, knitters, the brian eno "ali click" remix thing i've wanted for years, and two joni's...don juan's reckless daughter for me, and court and spark for jason ( i took him hejira as a howdy gift my first time up to see him, and he enjoyed it. that, i feel, was her artistic peak, and so i thought he should hear her commercial peak too.)
back to the triton, listened to music, chilled some more. smoked some pot later, had too much, i got very twitchy. first time in a few weeks...just not the right time, i guess. got to sleep around 2am.
monday, sept. 20th.
steve called about 5am...he got to chicago from columbus, but there was gonna be a half hour delay for the flight out here. went back to bed.
got up around 7am, went down to the media room, got online to check the flight...coming in 2 hrs. late! got down to bart soon after anyway, cuz i wanted plenty of time to scope out the airport and figure out where i should be. walked the 4 blocks to the montgomery st. station and was at the airport around 9:30...found the baggage claim, and where arrivals, errr...arrive. had breakfast, read the paper. took pics outside.
steve arrived at 11:20. he called my cell and said he wasn't sure where to go...i said "just follow everyone else , lots of people coming down the escalator here." i was looking towards the top of the escalator, and stepped too far foward, cuz all these fucking blue lights went off and a voice said "step back! do not enter!"
steve said he was wearing a red jacket, and all of a sudden, there he was!
big hugs! we were laughing...i mean, i know this guy so well, i'm sure we've spent 100 hrs on the phone, and there was that voice coming out of a living, breathing person! for about 30 seconds i think i was a bit thrown..."wow, steve's tall...look, that's how he walks..." and then all of a sudden he was totally familiar.
we got his bag and went upstairs to catch the airbus to the airport bart station...in a few minutes we were whisking our way towards the city...
got to market st. in a half hour...2 blocks up post, turn right on grant, 2 blocks to the hotel. steve dug it big time, it really is a cool place. check out that shirt...
"menage" on the front, and a "3" on the back....dirty boy!
got steve all settled, and then we ran around the corner to cafe claude...steve had a smoked chicken sandwich, and i had the veggie foccacia, good lord, that was good!
(that wall behind us, by the way, is the background for this template!)
we both had creme brulee, the carmelized top was like glass, oh, yum! i had told him about the beautiful waiter with the shaved head and the sexy accent...well, there he was! waiting on US! 
i said "oh, your name is thomas, right?" "oh no, i am jean-michel, thomas eez on vacation. people confuse us because of zee hair!" hmm, an honest mistake, haha!
hmm, ok, i think i'm gonna pause the story here, this is gonna take a few entries!
(just in case you missed it, there's some random pics in the previous entry, too...)
come back in a few days for...a blimp...public urination (me!)...breathtaking views, and a bar full of men in their underwear (and less!)
see ya soon,
- m