Also a
short one, mostly because I didn’t do too much... I got up late, wandered down
to get brunch, made my way to the SFMOMA, decided I wasn’t really in the mood
to spend 18 bucks meandering through exhibitions so checked out the gift shop
to make sure I wasn’t missing much... Which, as I decided I wasn’t, - and I didn’t
buy anything either – I instead went across to the Jewish Contemporary Museum,
which I did want to see... It always
irks me that I know nothing about my Jewish heritage, friends have been wishing
me Shanna Tova, and I didn’t know it was the New Year... Every so often I think
about doing some kind of Jewish cultural studies course, but at the JCM I
bought myself a book which might be the start of getting to be more
informed... And after that, I’ll look
into what’s next.
But the
museum was really good, an exhibition of the work of Charlotte Saloman, and
also a Houdini exhibition. Which of
course I was very interested in... I
didn’t know much about some of his stunts in the past, but, well, hmmm....
;-)
Then,
perhaps taking inspiration from Houdini, I decided to take a walk down to 8th
Street to do some shopping, the kind you can’t do in Union Square... But I was
very disappointed by the shopping available.
Really, in London, we definitely seem to have the best... It was amusing
later when I met my friend John – who I also haven’t seen for maybe 17 years –
and I said I’d been shopping on 8th Street, he said, oh, did I mean
xxxxxxx. And he’d nailed it. Maybe it’s obvious. Or maybe, I was disappointed because the shop
I had been seeking out had stopped selling its line of womens clothes, and had
more in store that a gay man might know about.... ;-)
And then
San Francisco redeemed itself. Walking
down on Mission, on my way back into town, I stumbled across an oasis of
goodies, and spent a fortune...
Dinner with
John was fantastic. He picked me up from
my hotel, and we went down to his district, Castro, where we had a couple of
delicious concoctions called a Cherry Cherry Bang Bang and a Ginger Tom... I
got chatted up by a very good looking man, who loved my English accent and just
wanted to keep me talking... I have no
objection to flattery, even if it’s just about my accent, and even if the man
involved is definitely gay. So rare to
be chatted up by a good looking man, I wasn’t complaining!
Then we went
to a Japanese restaurant, choosing the 7 course tasting menu and a jug of
sake. The food was amazing, delicious,
sublime. The sake went to my head. I had an awesome time, getting reacquainted
with an old friend, we shared a number of confidences and I hope we get to
spend many more such evenings together.
