Sunday in the Park

San Francisco usually gets the rap of being cold all the time. Drizzly fog and greyness. And generally this has some truth to it but last Sunday was the exception. Warm breezes, spring fragrances, naked people playing in the park and non-stop techno beats. What I'm getting at is that we get so few days of luxurious warm weather that when one comes along, Dolores Park explodes with activity. Usually along the top edge, there is an ocean of thong wearing Castro-ians, down towards the middle reaches, picnics and dogs and then some Frisbee and soccer in the plains. Everyone is smoking weed and drinking beer and dancing to some booming system near the playground. It was so good that I headed over to the new boutique ice cream shop to pick up a snack. Check out the dark chocolate and coconut macaroon ice cream sandwich. Damn straight!

Spring in SF

I guess technicaly it might not be spring but both of my plum trees in my yard are lighting up with blooms of tiny white petals. An explosion really. and damn I had to post something cause I'm sick of looking at that crazy haircut situation, which has grown in quite a bit BTW

Hair Fun

So I have this thing that I do when I jump into the pool. I always take a quick leap and while in mid air I try to stop for a split second and think, 'What the hell am I doing?" I don't know how cold the water is? Am I ready for the shock? Then realize that I'm pretty committed at that point and here it comes. Well, I've never really liked my hair, ever. I've done a few things with it over the years and it basically always sucks. Thin, flat and stringy. So if it's not going to cooperate, screw it. It's gone. Here is the before shot. I hadn't had a haircut in about 7 months. It was about 8 to 10 inches long I guess. I decided to just start cutting before I thought about it too much. You know, just jumping in. Oh, also, enjoy the nudity.


Here is the part where I've committed to cutting it. I actually took a second here and realized what I was doing. Trying to think if I could pull off leaving it like this. It is San Francisco after all.


and at this point I realized the comb over wasn't going to work. I've always thought that the comb over was wasted on the old. Any reason why the youngsters don't try it? Basically shave the center part out of a perfectly full head of hair and comb baby. Anyway, it seems kind of stinky and I decided to finish the job.



So here it is, my scalp. It's OK I suppose. Easy to take care of but it doesn't leave you with many hair options. And it seems like cheating a bit. Not much imagination required for that 'concentration camp' look.

8th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Event

OK, so I'm getting all viral and shit but could anything be more San Francisco: childish, pointless, (most likely) drunken mayhem. An annual event of careening idiots in banana costumes, riding Big Wheels down Lombard Street. All set to the thrashing beauty of Motorhead's Ace of Spades. Check out the video and let's check it out Easter Sunday. Good timing too, after those skull cracking bricks, we will rise from the dead like zombies, like Jesus... oh wait, that blasphemous, like San Francisco. Enjoy (PS - Ben - bachelor party idea?)

Old Wallpaper

Not much more exciting than the old wall paper I found lurking under a million coats of old paint. Hard to believe this stuff ever went out of style. Hold on, hold on... ahhhh

House Finds

Have you ever taken you house apart and found old stuff? Stuff people forgot in the walls or things that just stood out as old. Taking apart the closet area of the house, I found an old SF Datebook / Pink Section in the wall dated March 1 1959. So what was going on in March 1959 in SF?


Looks like there is a interesting double feature, Hoodlum Girls "Thrill Mad, Without Shame, Wanton and Dangerous " or Teen Age Jungle "Violence and Vice". Haven't heard of those movies but amazingly you can get them still and on DVD even.


Or maybe a dark, philosophic movie like Ingmar Bergman's, "The Seventh Seal". I saw this recently at the Castro Theater so it caught my eye. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to see this when it first came out back in the day. It got a "jumping out of the seat" review. But if you actually read the review, it does review anything. Just a very short description.


It looks like the always popular Jack Benny is in town. Wouldn't want to miss that. And then there is that Disney cartoon. It's in Technarama 70! Who knows, it might take off.

Deferred Maintenance

So when I got the house appraised a couple of years ago, generally things were good but there were several "deferred maintenance" issues. I thought that was the best way I could remember of someone calling me lazy. It's like saying, you know there is work to do (plaster falling off the walls, rotten floor boards, etc... ) but that you are just too busy (football season, sleeping in, drinking beer... ) to get to it today: deferred maintenance.

Anyway, I realized that if left up to me actually doing the work, it was likely that the maintenance would be deferred another decade or so, so I asked around and, hopefully, found the right guy. He's the brother in law of a co-worker and is a construction foreman by day. Weekends and night he does side jobs like -

1) replacing the buckling plaster and nasty sconce cans in my living room by hanging new dry wall. I know some of you out there like sconces, but tough. They're gone.


2) framing and hanging dry wall on that ridiculous 4th door leading into the master bedroom. Can anyone really NEED four doors in the bedroom. If you need to get out of that room that fast then there are probably much more serious issues.


3) actually making a real closet out of the "window" closet I've been living with since I bought this place. Why would anyone have a closet that didn't go all the way to the floor or left about two feet of ceiling space inside that was inaccessible. Weird. Oh, and it turns out that the closet used to be a door. So FIVE doors into this room. Seriously, why?


OK, now this isn't gonna sound PC but I was hesitant on hiring the guy to hang dry wall because he, well, he's got a hook where one of his hands used to be. I know, I know, bad Mat... but have you ever wrestled with dry wall? The stuff is brittle, heavy and just plain a pain in the ass. I asked my friend and yes, it is weird but he's really good so just do it. So Salvador shows up with all the gear and promptly starts kicking ass. So far so good. He is busy taping up the dry wall joints in the living room and it all looks good. But I have to wonder, there are a few small holes in the middle of the panels that he has taped over that look suspiciously hook sized.