San Francisco and what to do in it

You might find it worthwhile to hit the Ferry Building.

Ynak Sing

Yank Sing?

Yeah, sorry. Insufficiently caffeinated.

s'alright!

That place looks really good, though may be out of my price range for lunch (it sounds like me and my bro are gonna spened quite a bit on dinners--he's booked Chez Panisse for Monday night).

Mastrelli's in the Ferry Bldg = killer Italian deli, great for lunch. Tu Lan is really great Vietnamese food (was Julia Childs' favorite, or something?) I also recommend Rotee on Howard St for great, cheap, quick Indian lunches (kinda greasy but mmmm delish and pretty close to lunch food you would actually get in northern India)

Cool. Yes once I put it together that I would be close to the Ferry Building (which I had already heard about), I figured I'd be there a lot. Am definitely going to the farmer's market Saturday before heading to a panel on "Nabokov and Repetition."

The above should tell you that I've only been to SF once, for two days, when I was thirteen.

(It was part of the best Bar Mitzvah present anyone gave me: family friends who were huge baseball fans like me took me on that year's annual baseball vacation--an eight day trip which took in games in L.A., Anaheim, San Diego, SF, Oakland, and Seattle. I believe they saw a game in every MLB stadium over maybe five consecutive summers.)

pretty OT, but just browsing thru ethiopian reviews in yelp, and seeing a bunch of praise for assab in SF -- is it not common knowledge that the best ethiopian food is in the east bay? I've never been to assab, but hard to imagine it being too much better than any number of places in north oakland

It is common knowledge.

yeah, no mystery there

That said I don't get out to the East Bay so I make due with Assab and Waziema.

lol MLA alert

have no idea what that means

Should anyone feel inclined I'll be with my sis and a slew of her friends at Wildside West later this evening from around five to seven.

this is relevant to my interests... may not be able to make it before 7 though :(

ned, would i were there. that's totally my hood.

Is anything interesting happening for New Year's?

ryan seacrest is going to be on tv

I don't have tv

Love Unlimited NYE Party at Paradise lounge www.paradiseloungesf.com

Then Free Blood at the DNA Lounge Jan 9th http://www.gunclub.dj/events.html

that is, www.paradisesf.com

goddamn links... http://www.paradisesf.com/

How freaking boring is Tiburon? yes, it's beautiful. I could watch the fog roll in forever. In fact, that's all I'm going to do for the rest of the holiday because there is NOTHING ELSE.

I might go take the ferry into town today and go look for Amoeba if it stops bloody raining. Sigh.

Tiburon is particularly grim in winter.

xpost I went to that Love Unlimited NYE party- had fun dancing upstairs to Bus Station John, but didn't hold out until 4 am for the 'free breakfast'- did any ilxors make it across the 6 am finishline?

Sorry, I didn't manage to get in touch, Michael, I didn't get to take the ferry, as I was abducted by my brother and taken to the DeYoung. Which is, quite possibly, the ugliest art museum I've ever set foot in. Today my father and I are driving up into wine country.

I don't actually mind the winterness of Tiburon - I like seaside towns better in the winter, because the only thing worse than this would be this place filled with HORRIBLE PEOPLE. Are you around next week at all? Wait, I should email you off board probably.

Who advised you to visit SF in the winter?

It was neither my choice of destination, nor of time of year.

I was summonsed by my family, who live in Tiburon, for the holidays. Neither Feast nor family are moveable.

My 'summonsed' and 'abducted' on luxury holiday ordeal...

One person's heaven is another person's hell. If I could have given this trip to someone else, or donated the money to charity in its plaec, I would have. But I guess it just makes me a bad person for even being here.

No, but the self-sanctimonious whining about it is kinda tiresome.

Feb 10-17, finally I get a vacation. Staying in the Hotel Carlton on Union Square - supposedly $125+tax usually, down to $75/night with tax thanks to an Orbitz coupon.

Wow that's cheap. Woo hoo for desperate hotel rates!

Hopefully the weather will still be nice when you get here.

Well it's ridiculously nice right now. If I was visiting I'd settle for half this good.

Protest against police violence @ Civic Center BART at 5pm tonight... could get rowdy.

Oops thanks for the heads up.

oh great

76F... right now... 4pm PST...

San Franciscans! This is almost two weeks late, but you've got a wonderful city wow. I'm still not sure how they built a city there, what with the actually insane hills and being wedged between a bay and an ocean. I had a great time, despite being stuck for four days at a pretty weird conference that was unfortunately downtown. (Downtown was the only part of SF that I didn't like, like really didn't like. That juxtaposition of loads and loads of white tourists and posh shops with totally dilapidated blocks filled with an alarming amount of the mentally ill (presumably) homeless right there...whoa.)

But the rest of the city/area! Loved the mission (where my brother lives), the castro, even sort of liked the haight! Had one day of just walking and touristing, and we rented a car for an hour to drive across the GG Bridge and up the vista or whatever, which was, to sound like a total obvious tourist, absolutely spectacular. The whole city's just so beautiful.

Had great meals at Bar Tartine (small plates better than big) and the cafe at Chez Panisse (pretty much perfect), some great banh mi in the tenderloin, excellent tacos and buritto at El Farolito, and pretty good szechuan at some place called Szechuan Trenz(?). Ferry Building farmer's market's pretty great, though I do understand it's mostly for tourists and people with more money than sense--the produce everywhere (even at shitty little grocers) looked awesome, even in late December. My one sob story was taking the bus all the way out west one night to PPQ Dungeness to meet my brother only to find out that they were OUT OF CRAB. Me and my bro went in to eat anyway (where else were we going to go?) and I almost cried staring at the whole full restaurant, every other table chowing down on huge dungeness crabs ;_;

That juxtaposition of loads and loads of white tourists and posh shops with totally dilapidated blocks filled with an alarming amount of the mentally ill (presumably) homeless right there...whoa.

thats a very british observation

"totally dilapidated blocks filled with an alarming amount of the mentally ill (presumably) homeless"

Thanks, Reagan!

I have friends visiting from IL today, so I'll certainly plan to keep them away from the Civic Center around 5. That is, unless they want to gawk, which they won't.

thats a very british observation

haha maybe I've been away from the states too long..

I know loads of cities have a homeless problem, and it's not like London is a bastion of economic equality (nor do I like spending time in the equivalent 'downtown' of London). It just seemed clear that loads of money had been pumped in to 'revitalize' the downtown area for tourists with money who like being able to take the cable car up to Williams Sonoma, while the Tenderloin, which is right there, looks pretty much left to rot.

All of this, of course, is just a shallow observation by a first-time visitor who's got no real knowledge of local politics, city planning, the history of the area, etc. I'm just trying to put into words what turned me off.

"I have friends visiting from IL today, so I'll certainly plan to keep them away from the Civic Center around 5."

Above ground all I saw was a shitload of cops.

geez, the SF Eagle appears to have ceased their annual mud-wrestling tournament. What's supposed to get me out there this summer?

What was the bar you were at before meeting us at the Kilowatt?

I don't remember! 3000 miles is a long way to go for cheap margaritas.

Apparently quite a successful bar if you can't remember it.