michael and steve in the big city (pt.3)
3:25 p.m.
hi, welcome back!
here's the final installment...
tuesday, sept. 21st.
tuesday morning, we walked down to sfmona..i was sure they opened at 10am, but i guess thats just the bookstore...so we went across the street to yerba beuna gardens...wow, that's quite a place! i don't even know what's all there, most of it was closed. there's a kid's museum, a carousel...the buildings are very cool.
in s.f right now there's this big public arts project going on called "hearts in s.f."...they're all over the city, and we took pics of a bunch of them...here's steve with one at YBG...
and here's me with one, also at YBG...
each one is different...very cool stuff.
we walked across the street and went into st. patrick's...
...cuz steve said we needed to cleanse ourselves after going to daddy's... it's a cool church.
then we went back to YBG, just kind of strolled around...here's steve looking good in black...
this is one of the buildings at YBG...
hmmm, let's take a closer look....
oh, it's just a couple of hot guys...they're everywhere.
spent a couple hours at sfmoma, saw so much great stuff, it's kind of a blur..here's steve in the atrium, doing his seal impression...
i mean seal the singer, not the mammal...
saw my first max beckman up close, nice. there was a great show with matisse and related artists...one room had some jazzy looking miro's and a calder mobile, and i totally got the connection...saw some mondrians, some grids...oooh! and several cindy sherman photos, from the "untitled film stills" series....got a big art boner from that.
spent some time in the bookstore, but i didn't buy anything, i was good.
we walked up to market and had lunch at wendy's...man, when they say fast food, they ain't kidding! sat upstairs..it hit the spot.
then went looking around the union square area, hit some shops...diesel, fossil, sur la table, urban outfitters (steve bought a shirt), fcuk...oh! and we went to armani...i was the sugar daddy and steve was my boytoy...here he is in 1000 bucks of stuff...
i tried on a ring, it was nice but had a logo on it, ugh. the cute japanese guy was chatting me up while steve was getting dressed..he left and steve said "hurry, take a picture before he comes back!" he told us there was stuff downstairs (it was a bit cheaper down there)...i had a feeling he could tell we were just lookie-loos...oh well...it was fun.
made our way back to the hotel, got the car. went and found the steepest hill in s.f....it's filbert between hyde and leavenworth...then we saw coit tower up on the hill,
haven't been up there in 25 years....that was nice up there, not too crowded. we didn't go up in the tower, but the view is amazing. you can see the bay, the golden gate, and on the other side is a great view of downtown and the bay bridge. there's a nice lawn on that side, so we sat and smoked and just chilled....oh, but that damn blimp was cruising around again! look at this...
showed that to rob c. when i got home, and he said it was like a weird 9/11 thing....hmm, well, yeah...
drove around north beach, saw some nice places to eat, decided we'd come back there for dinner.
headed out to the castro again...stopped on the way to have a look at st. mary's...
it DOES look like a washing machine agitator..i dig modern churches. it wasn't open, but we were able to get a peek through the windows, it's really amazing inside.
spent a few hours in the castro, it was afternoon...lots of people around. hit a bunch of stores, just looking mostly...went to different light bookstore, got a few things...a book called "how the homosexuals saved civilization" by cathy crimmins..."over the past fifty years, the line between what is straight and what is gay has blurred to the point where most heterosexuals are unaware of the vast contributions gay men have made to american culture. the 'queering' of america has gradually been shaping the way straight people talk, think, dress, and eat. our irony-saoked culture draws liberally from the attitudes of gay thinkers, artists, and entertainers; our sense of fashion and beauty is informed to a great extent by the discriminating tastes of gay men; and even the unlikely realm of urban renewal has become more 'gay.' "
you go, girlfriend.
had a little trouble with the credit card at different light, cuz when i go out of town and make a few purchases, it red flags my account, and they want me to verify that it's me using it..but my home phone answering machine was full, so i didn't get the message...i went outside and called the number on the back of the card, ok'd the recent purchases, and went back in and got my books...no biggie.
we got stopped by a kind of homeless guy on the side walk, he was selling poems for a dollar...six on a sheet..i said sure. i looked 'em over and he said "hey, if you dont like those, i've got a whole bunch more!" and proceeded to flip through a binder full..he said if i saw something i liked, he could make me a copy of those instead..i said these looked fine and gave him a buck...so here's "no stink" by easy cool...
"nobody, could say, hey
there's anything about my room,
cause i always think, that any stank,
it would come out of you, ooooo yeah,
yeah, my baby, darling, you should of
taking a shower, before, we made any kind,
of love, oooooo that's my baby, but i'm so
glad, that you gave it up ,oooooo but you're
still stink, everyday, oooo wash up your ass,
just one more time for old time sake ooo honey."
hey, i've seen worse....i've WRITTEN worse!
went to the body shop, where the very nice jennifer gave us hand massages with sea salt and lavender oil...that was a treat.
favorite t shirt i saw ...in some store out there..."when i want your opinion, i'll take my dick out of your mouth."
as we were heading up the hill to the car, we saw this big stoned looking guy on the sidewalk on the next block, he was wearing shorts and a littlle blouse or something, he looked like he was gonna get in drag but gave up...he was waving at cars going by... when we walked past him he said in a kind of breathy whisper to us...."hiiiiii...i wanna suck your ass!"
luckily, we saw a few more hot boys, or that would have been our last memory of the castro!
it was getting dark...we headed back to north beach....parking was ridiculous!...had to walk quite a way...got to washington square park, and went into ristorante fior d'italia..."america's oldest italian restaurant"....oooh it was good! we had a nice table looking out at the park...
we both had ravioli, mine had pumpkin and pine nuts with sage butter...dessert was fruit sorbet for steve and i had a cannolli...matty called us right when we sat down, that was sweet.
after dinner we went back to the ocean, steve wanted to take some sand home... i kinda forget that not everyone lives by the ocean. had a nice chat going down fulton, following the park west again...there were people with fires on the beach, i didn't think you could do that. tried to take some pictures of the moon over the ocean, i have to tweek those a bit.
saw another homeless guy taking a leak...
heeheehee!
drove down the great highway a few miles, turned east on sloat blvd....sloat...sloat...oh right, the zoo is out there! went into an albertson's to get a six pack of coke, cuz steve had one out of the fridge in the room, and he had the brillaint idea that if we got a six pack and replaced the one in the room, it would be a better deal, i mean, the one in the room is like 3 bucks! but no, no six packs of classic coke...weird, cuz before we got to the ocean, we had stopped at a safeway, and they were out too. so we got a 12 pack, so steve could take a few on the plane...he's got a coke problem, i never knew...sometimes 4 cans a day!
got onto potrero, and just sailed down the hill, and all of a sudden there was the city below us, all lit up...just beautiful! the bay bridge has lights too...we were blasting "hellagood" by no doubt, fun stuff, what a view!!!
potrero meets up with market at castro...right before we go there, i just KNEW where i was, my sense of direction in the city is coming back big time. the only time i get confused is going across market, what a mess!
got back to the hotel, tried out the massage chairs in the lobby...it was after midnight now. walked up bush a bit, some cool funky neighborhood bars up there, it felt safe walking around.
went back to the room and watched some episodes of full house, haha! they had scenes of everywhere we had been, like coit tower...too funny!
wednesday, sept. 22nd.
got up, and went down to macy's basement, cuz jamba juice is down there...the day before steve stopped some girl with a jj cup and asked her where it was...he went to one when he came out to see jr in l.a. last year and loved it. so we had power smoothies...i had a couple cookies.
going up the escalator, i saw this stunning guy going up the OTHER up escalator...reddish blond hair, white shirt and jeans..i said "hi! how are ya?" like i knew him, it was so funny...he was like trying to think where he knew me from...
went inside this french church which is right by the hotel...
spent a quarter to light a candle, it was electric!
zipped through chinatown, steve bought a little box for his cali sand.
got back to room, got ready. checked out, drove down to the garage at sfmoma, it's cheap. didn't have time to go to cafe claude again, damn. wanted to see jean-michel and have another creme brulee, oh well. walked to the montgomery st. staion...by this time we were just rating guys with numbers, haha!
here we are, waiting for bart...
and here's steve making a booboo face, cuz he doesn't wanna go back to ohio...
got to sfo, got off bart, onto the escalator...
and onto the airbus...
steve tried to do the fast check-in, but the plane left in 45 minutes, so we needed help, you can't check in that late by yourself, it was close....
time for a quick hug and he got in line...
oh, that makes me sad....byeeeeeee steve!
when i was waiting for bart, i got a text from jason on my phone, that made me smile big time, what great timing! it took me most of the trip back to the city to text him back, i'm so slow with that shit.
got the car, and headed out of the city.
crossed the bridge...
approached the gay tunnel...
drove THROUGH the gay tunnel...
...and in 5 hours i was home!
whew, this has been some big project, these last few entries...thanks for all your sweet comments...tomorrow i'm heading back to see the new york dolls...and backpacking sometime this month, got my hiking boots thursday! i think that's gonna be quite an experience...jason's gonna take me on an easy trail the first time...
ok, kids, love ya....gotta pack, see you in a few days...
- m.