We've already had an amazing weekend

[gridlore]

And it's still Saturday!

Last night, kshandra and I went up to San Francisco to see Eddie Izzard on his Force Majeure tour at the Golden Gate Theater. We picked a hell of a day to go. Earlier in the day the Warriors held their championship parade and celebration in Oakland (and as an aside, I watched in on TV. For the love of God, people do not want to hear every single member of the ownership group make speeches. They aren't there for you, they are there for the coaches and players. Give them the spotlight! It was actually boring!) so the streets were filled with ever-so-slightly drunk Warriors fans, Obama had flown in that morning and was only a few blocks from where we were, and San Francisco City Hall was celebrating its 100th anniversary. So traffic was interesting, to say the least. We also saw a USCG helicopter circling constantly over downtown.

By the way, if you ever visit San Francisco, take the time to visit the Civic Center and City Hall. They are magnificent, and were built to show that the city had indeed risen like a phoenix from the ashes of 1906. Oh, all that gold on the City Hall dome and such? Real. Not paint. Real gold brought to San Francisco during the gold rush.

But anyway. We we parked a short walk from the theater with plenty of time to kill. We were meeting britgeekgrrl to hand something over, so we went to dinner at Show Dogs. OMG. Kiri had the House Maple Pork Sausage with bacon chutney, house brown mustard, and arugula. I had the Organic Beef Chili and an order of the Garlic Cheese Fries. The chili is Texas-style, and amazing. My fries came with fresh powdered Parmesan cheese on top. Best of all, they had The Trooper on tap. Really good beer, very creamy start and a nice bitter finish.

After finishing our dinners, and saying our good-byes to britgeekgrrl, we still had time to kill so a walk was in order. I still love downtown SF, it is the home of my heart, and I love any chance to see it again. We walked down Market past the Warfield, up Turk (where we regretted our meals as there was a guy making delicious-smelling food on a grill) to Jones, Jones to Golden Gate where we walked to the theater. They kindly let us in early to sit in the lobby.

Then the show. Eddie Izzard is not a guy who tells jokes, really. You get this stream of thought that is bizarrely funny. He started by yelling "San Francisco", then explaining that this only gets cheers in America, the saying of the city name, and in France they sit and stare at you. Then we were off on human sacrifice, Charles I, people wearing dogs on their head in Charles I's court, why being executed pretty well proved he wasn't chosen by God, God being confused by email and not noticing that Charles I was about to be executed, Constantine streamlining religion because it will save time if you only pray and get ignored by a single god once, and, and.. Well, it all comes down to the fact that Mr. Stevens, head of catering, who has a metal tray stapled to his hand, is a god because he stopped God and Darth Vader from fighting over the Spaghetti Carbonara.

There was a song praising Mr. Stevens.

I really haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

After the show, we traveled to Oakland where a friend of Kiri's had offered us a place to sleep for the night, so we wouldn't have to drive all the way home and have her have to come back to SF the next day. This nice lady had very friendly dogs. I was pleased.


Welcome to the ORG. Be one with the ORG

This morning Kirsten had training for the Black Rock City Department of Mutant Vehicles. I've now been across the new span of the Bay Bridge twice, once in daylight, once at night, and I can say it is much cooler looking at night.

Anyway, the Burning Man offices are a fascinating mixture of the weirdness and art you think of when you think about Burning Man, and the infrastructure of a business that handles millions of dollars and deals with very real legal issues year round. The training itself was fun to watch, and it just reinforced the reality that it takes a hell of a lot of organization and effort to create the event.

I've decided that if this year goes as well for me as last year did, I might look into volunteering. Not with the DMV, I couldn't meet the physical requirements, but maybe with BMIR, Burning Man Information Radio. I may wander down their way to ask about volunteer opportunities and requirements.

So far, a great weekend, and now I'm resting.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The nice lady with the nice dogs is jannypanlj (though she hasn't posted in a while).

kshandra
Too lazy to log in on my phone

[nodrog]

That's definitely a winner.  I'd say you were due this, karma-wise. 

You now can see why there was a considerable groundswell to cast Mr Izzard as Doctor Who.  As I recall it the motion failed for two reasons - one, he said no thanx, and two, the same problem with Stephen Frye in the role:  Way too recognizable as himself.  I don't think that last was valid, because he played Long John Silver in a production of Treasure Island, he's done other roles since, and he can look distinguished as all hell.  So who knows.

I remember britgeekgrrl!  [Well, from Livejournal, and probably through you, but still…]

… Yes, that whole evening sounds wonderful. [Helo:  Why the Coast Guard, d' ye think?]

[gridlore]

The Bay has several large USCG bases, so they had the SH-60 to spare. I strongly suspect it was enforcing the no-fly zone around the President.

[claidheamhmor]

I remember her from LJ too. Always seemed very interesting.

При́пять

[nodrog]

I thought to establish diplomatic relations, 'subscribe' and 'access' and like that, but she hasn't been here since 2014 - she views this merely as a lifeboat in case LJ founders, whereas I've already shifted my weight over here and view Livejournal in the past tense, as indeed most people now do…

Re: При́пять

[claidheamhmor]

Me too. Though it's really quiet here too. :(

[claidheamhmor]

Sounds like a lot of fun!