San Francisco and what to do in it

In addition to having clipping. tonight, Tuesday night (aka Mardi Gras) Brick+Mortar has MJ's Brass Boppers (best nola-style brass band in the area) and before that a second line around the mission with MJ's and some other folks. Should be some good dancing going down.

Chaki's doing another Prince night at Elbo Room tomorrow (Thursday).

It's a benefit for Planned Parenthood.

Wire at Slim's tonight, apparently show's at 7, there's an opener ... any guess on when Wire goes on stage? 8? 8:30?j

question for SF ilx mind - is there anywhere you'd recommend for decent swimming in SF? preferably outdoor/natural sea/freshwater but decent swimming pools will do as well?

i'm there for a few days next week and looking to get a bit of energetic activity in my day. i don't run unless sorely provoked, which leaves cycling and swimming.

internet suggests preponderance of pool party pools rather than places to actually swim (mission pool? north beach pool?)

(i will of course be mining this thread for the far more important places to eat/drink etc.)

I've been to a few public pools because we have my kids in swim lessons. Here's the ones I know:
- Janet Pomeroy Center. This pool is actually the best because it's both heated and indoors. It's clientele is largely (as far as I can tell), old people, kids, and the developmentally disabled (since that's who the center was built for). So there's a lot of "therapeutic swim" hours and whatnot. It's at the total ass-end of town out by the zoo/ocean beach.
- Rossi Pool. This is a great indoor pool in the inner Richmond. Not heated but pretty big, maybe the biggest public pool I've been in in the city.
- Mission Pool. This one is, oddly, open-air even though it's in a building, and is not heated. Long and narrow, best for swimming laps. My daughter takes her swim team lessons here.
- Garfield Pool. This one's allright, I haven't actually swam in it but my daughter had lessons there for awhile. Might have the most open hours/be the easiest to get in to. It is indoors and unheated.

I wouldn't recommend swimming in the ocean at the beaches in SF in general - water is freezing and there are often crazy rip-tides/cross currents. Unprepared people drown on the regular.

that is awesome Οὖτs, thank you. i swim in freshwater in U.K. all but jan and feb these days so temp not a problem, rip tides not so much tho. Rossi sounds up my street. Will pack my bathers. thanks again.

I used to go to Hamilton pool every Friday morning and it was nice and quiet. looks like it's been refurbished since. then used to go to bun mee for lunch. those were the days

i'm guessing they are the days no longer?

(oh also recs for second hand bookshops.)

Golden Apple, Borderlands (if yr into sf/fantasy/genre fiction), Adobe, Aardvark

There's a pool near Fillmore and Geary that has a couple sweet waterslides, I can find out more if you want

Hamilton...? http://sfrecpark.org/destination/hamilton-rec-center/hamilton-pool/

I've never been there but seems like I should check it out, kids love waterslides

If you are interested in 2nd hand bookshops -- you should venture to the East Bay and go to Moe's in Berkeley, which is my favorite, followed by Green Apple, which is in San Francisco.

lol Golden Apple duh I meant Green Apple

xp

My fav used bookstore is Aardvark Books on Church. They always have EXACTLY what I want and I find some amazing treasures every time I go there. Also it's run by rad old gays that love Fairport Convention and there's a rad store cat.

Aardvark is always one of those places I drive by on the way somewhere else that looks cool, but I never stop because parking sucks.

Aardvark really is a bit of "old" Castro, v cool. Dunno what fortuitous circumstances have enabled them to last this long when so many others have tanked.

also they always buy my grateful dead books that i can't get through.

yup, Hamilton Pool. They're pretty short waterslides but it's amazing how fast you end up going.

xp - damn was looking forward to that 29 hour long punk show next weekend

it's an experimental hip hop show!

dope!

ya sadly I'm not living the footloose and fancy-free life in SF any more and God today is one of the days I really wish I was...
Sometimes I daydream my agenda for a weekend in SF, mainly based around what food I'd eat

one thing i can say, regardless of amenities, is that SF people are the most immediate and best for recommendations. i feel i've got enough already for three days of flaneur-ing and general dicking about already. thank you all!

also a) i also love waterslides and b) yes, science-fiction second hand sounds great. will be checking all of these out. Aardvark sounds a must, and also Green Apple.

I live to serve

I've got an extra ticket to Whitney at the Independent tonight if anyone wants to join me.

arrived yesterday, by luck rather than judgment found i was staying around mission - coming out of the transit at 24th was an immediate "yes!" moment. found a place to have a beer - quite appealing down-at-heel place - Clooney's? - with a bunch of people who looked like they'd comfortably checked out of worrying about too much shit. Played some dice game for a dollar. didn't win. went somewhere else much less appealing on 24th. asked where i shd eat a burrito. barman said papalotes was good. went to papalotes, had burrito. it was fine. not mindblowing, but fine. large. met a friend in town at somewhere much worse called... mirkeller is it? because friend was playing a gig nearby rather'n choice. that central area didn't really grab me. by now beer plus jet lag was making me feel like a creature from another planet, saw two songs of the gig and then decide i must immediately go home and lie down forever.

which of course meant until about half three in the morning. got up at half six and went for a walk to the top of bernal heights, which was great at that time in the morning. didn't see the coyote i was warned about.

went to aardvark books - great shop! - spent about an hour and half in there picking books up and putting them back because i can't carry them all home. did get a late edward dorn. no idea what he's like outside of Gunslinger, which i loved. Adobe books on 24th is pretty good as well? Picked up a book about Brecht and a Dashiell Hammett, and a book on philosophy by Arthur C Danto and cd easily have picked up more.

Went for a swim in the mission pool - thanks again for the rec Οὖτις. It is a bit narrow, as you say, but it did the trick. then cycled down through Golden Gate Park and the colossal haze of dope smoke. really enjoyed that ride, tho the bit up to Land's End is a bit of a killer.

Went down to China Beach and did end up having a bit of a swim in fact cos i was hot from the bike ride. felt extremely refreshed and had a fairly full throated rendition of edinburgh man by the fall to entertain/horrify the sparse beachgoers.

being taken out to Al's place tonight, tho i'd probably prefer something a bit more informal.

any current eating recs for chinatown? thinking of heading there tmrw. will sleep like a dog tonight i suspect.

jfc dude

i mean, well done! really all that's left is to join a burning man camp. do you have any interest in building a giant inverted pyramid?

and yes that climb up to the legion of honor is no joke

oh for chinatown - Z&Y is my favorite, it's better with > 3 people. but you could go alone and get the explosive chicken and not regret it. make sure to focus on sichuan specialities.

thanks lukas. right now it feels *absolutely necessary* i have the exploding chicken. i felt i shd probably have gone into the legion of honour to see the monet exhibition and almost did but i was knackered and just wanted to go downhill on the bike for a bit and go in the sea.

might see if i can fit in berkeley as well tho. hmm. will have a think.

oh explosive not exploding. still.

if you're around this weekend, you could go to the Buchlafest thing that geeta helped organize. I have to work Saturday night, but should be there Sunday.

i would love to but sadly must go to vegas for work on saturday morning. a place i do not love. maybe unfairly idk.

there's some dope food in Vegas iirc

I have Buchlafest tickets I can't use if someone wants them :(

One of my favorite chinese place is right in the edge of chinatown: house of nanking. Dont order off the menu. (Cheg jia's next door is also good)

Hmm wonder if i can get babysitting for that buchla thing on saturday...

Clooney's used to be a cop bar iirc

there's some dope food in Vegas iirc

there's a brilliant and cheap BYO thai place in a front of shops which i try and get to whenever i go. other than that i tend to scramble between whatever's least bad from standard casino fare, punctuated by occasional higher end client meals.

colleague is taking me up for a trip to zion park on sunday. which sounds good. otherwise it's trade show/sales people hell.

Clooney's used to be a cop bar iirc

that makes sense based on banners i saw above the windows when i went past it earlier this evening - didn't see exactly what they represented but saw "thanks to sfpd" on one.

didn't quite sit easy with the locals banner on folsom i've walked past a few times now commemorating the person shot by sfpd in a doorway there. US is one of those places where i feel extremely wary of the police. i mean, certainly it's something worth bearing in mind wherever you are always, but some places the violence inherent in the system feels s little closer to the surface than others.

Blackout in the Bay Area? how bad is it?

I was unaware of it but sounds like it's hit a sizable amount of the city north of Market St

fire at the Larkin St substation

shit, apparently LAX and Midtown Manhattan are down too

p sure that's just coincidence

😰

lol this is a p huge area
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C99BN0_UwAABTb4.jpg:large

I am just outside it, but now I don't have anywhere to get lunch!