try the tossed beet salad

This posted by fellow Wildcat Hottie Horsnby:

Which prompted me to ask—

Pink Manhole: Drag queen or gay bar?

And I'd like to think some time, some place, there is an all-guy P!nk cover band calling themselves P!nk Manhole Covers.

checked out

Many of you know I have a Libary Science degree but do not work in a library.  This would be my inner dialog to anyone checking out Fifty Shades of Grey.



except for the date part.

The Eagle is a phoenix

After much, much brouhaha and hubbub, it looks like the San Francisco's iconic, historic, and community-centric Eagle Tavern will fly again. Since I posted about the chicanery behind its demise before, I thought I should follow up with its resurrection.

then smiled in that special way

Well, look at her. Just El DeBarging in here like she owns the place.

"cultural differences at work here"

...is putting it lightly.

If I were told by a stranger that I had been overcome with evil spirits who then offered to "cleanse" my wallet of said spirits, I'd say some colorful form of "No."

From the SFist: Grifters Caught On Tape Scamming Little Old Asian Ladies.

cowboys like us

Apparently, this is a real thing:

GayCowboysPersonals.com

It appeared as a contextual ad and I had to click through. Looks a bit dodgy, but real.

I shared and received some interesting comments. According to one actual cowboy, "There are no gay cowboys there, but it's a real thing." According to a non-cowboy who tends to know these things, "es, it's one of the thousands of Online Personals/Dating sites owned & operated by Online Connections, Inc. Behold, the Asperger's Dating Site. Sadly, there seems to be no interest in Divorced Mechanics of Tulsa."

Fraternity Brother Sean replied, "I love that. And I'm not even a cowboy." Which is cool because the Not Even Cowboys love him too.

When you live in SF, the lyric, "I want to be a cowboy's sweetheart. I want to learn to rope and to ride" sounds a lot dirtier than it's meant to. Speaking of, the fun fundraiser Nasty returns to the Powerhouse this Friday.

And The Best Buck in the Bay is next weekend, Sept 14-16!

mind the gap

My two front teeth used to be so tight together that I could spray a steady stream of water through the tiny chip at their intersection using my tongue. In the past three months, they've shifted enough to create a gap I could receive mail through. WTF?

I can't believe that I just turned 42 and will be getting a retainer. For my teeth. Like I'm in seventh grade. And will be paying $$$ for it, even with insurance covering half. I shudder to think what those full braces cost my parents.

fifty shades of no grey matter

I'm a Guy Branum fan. But only just discovered The Thrash Lab and his web series The Factuary though his Twitter feed.

Here's his short on the there's-no-hope-for-a-literate-America successful book Fifty Shades of Grey. Fun.



I retweeted. And even better was the reply from one of my strong woman friends: "UGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Who ARE these middle-aged twi-hards?!?!? Get some self-worth. That is the path to awesome, uninhibited, awesome sex."

Path? I can't even find the trailhead. So to speak.

shocking

Two words of awesome: Tesla gun.

how'm I doing?

I am writing my employee self-assessment...and the computer just auto-corrected it to "self-abasement."

Everyone's a critic.

Foodie SF

I have so many friends who visit SF and every one asks me for dining recommendations.  SF is such a town for eating, but I am the worst person to ask.  I love a fine meal, clearly, but am not even foodie-adjacent.  While I love a good meal I also treat it like fine wine—I truly enjoy it in the moment, but there is only such much that I enjoy it.  I'm the kind of guy that would rather spend the $150 dinner tap on new tech, hard drives or a super special edition DVD box set.  I prefer my indulgences to be durable (and am saving for a new car, home, etc), and so have a much lower price point for luxury consumables such as dinner and wine.  However, make it an event, and I am there.

So while I am often asked about best dining destinations in a context, my repertoire of recommendations is limited.  And once I really enjoy a place, I often forget all about it—that's just not a catalog I keep in my head.  I tried to make some recommendations once, which is where I generally refer casual friends who ask.

Actually, I suppose I am technically foodie adjacent as two of my best friends are total foodies.  They follow the blogs, they read the mags, and they explore the menus, destinations, carts, trucks, and festivals.

So I asked them for you.

Here are the best food-destination recommendations for visitors to SF from my Foodie Queen and King. My personal OMFG destinations are marked in bold, and combine an extraordinary culinary experience with an appropriate or even too reasonable price point.

From Foodie Queen:

Brunch:
Mama's
Zazie
Mission Beach Cafe
Brenda's Soul Food Kitchen (and I'm adding another OMFG)
Universal Cafe
The Polker (great burgers)

Off the Beaten Path:
Mission Street Chinese
Mr. Pollo
Club Deluxe Gone to crap since they ousted Giovani in a coup

Mexican (budget friendly)
Papalote
La Torta Gorda
Puerto Alegre (I say get the stewed burrito, or for brunch the grilled shrimp omelette)
Tacolicious

Cocktails
Rye
Tropisueno
Burritt Room
The Library
Bourbon & Branch (reservation/password required)

Dinner
Range
Bar Agricole
Gitane
Terzo (Beware, it's the Marina)
A16 (Also in the Marina)
Canteen

Places You Can't Get a Reservation, but Might Get a Seat if You Get There Early:
Frances
Flour+Water (The name derives from pasta, but I call it 'Paste.')
State Bird Provisions


From Foodie King:

• Cotogna – North Beach
• Mission Chinese Food - Mission
• Mr. Pollo – Mission (great 20 four course meal.  One of the best.  No reservations and they open at 6.  You can put your name down and they will call you.  Head across the street to Rosamundes for a beer.)
• Hog Island Oysters – Ferry Building
• Tartine -  Mission/Dolores
• Tacolicious – Mission
• Puerto Allegre – Mission
• Range – Mission
• State Bird Provisions – Fillmore
• Zazie – brunch, of course
• Alembic – Haight
• Magnolia – Haight
• Club Deluxe - Haight (a cool bar with crafted cocktails and ridic tasty artisan pizzas)

And finally, my recommendations:

• Mission Bowling Club—The foodies took me there for my birthday.  SO tasty, and very cool.  Excellent service.
• Globe—where chefs go to be impressed, but sort of hidden and not a scene at all.  YUM.
• Woodhouse Fish Co.—Surprising.  Tiny space, fresh seafood, and their simple crab sanwhich is just three ingredient awesomeness: fresh bread, butter, fresh crab and done right.  
• Jake's—in the 2223 Market space, and while a superior and inventive menu, it has my new favorite burger.  Excellent cocktails too.  
• And I'll Reiterate Puerto Allegre for fun Mexican in the Mission.  
• And Chow (or Park Chow) for good home cookin'!

Wilburrrr

I think those "horse whisperers" are just a bunch of nay-sayers.

you saw me standing alone

We get a blue moon tonight. As a luna-tic, I love blue moons. But as SOKOMC, let me remind everyone that blue moons are not all that rare. To happen "once in a blue moon" means "not all that often." But not "rarely." We get a blue moon about twice as often as Leap Day. It's a function of having a slightly imperfect lunar calendar (months are actually "moonths").

Enjoy it, and celebrate by doing something you seldom do!

And here's my favorite smart guy, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, on the subject:

A blue moon is just a second full moon. The average time the moon takes to complete a cycle of phases is 29.5 days. Every month except February can have a second full moon. Chances of a full moon on the first of the month, like we had this month, is about 1 in 30. So blue moons happens about once every 30 months. About 2 1/2 to 3 years. Not really that rare, my friend.

white trash tv

Little Honey Boo Boo is hoppin' through the forest, scoopin' up the field mice and boppin' 'em on the head.

You know it's happening.

I really wish we as a society would stay paying these people so much attention rewarding such behavior. But the show came up in work conversation today, and now that ditty is stuck in my head. I had to make a jpg to get it out.

Birthday!

So, 42 isn't really a milestone birthday, except now I expect to have the answer to everything.

Brother Mac gave me some sweet Starfleet Academy cuff links and a French-cuffed shirt with which to wear them—and I'm wearing both today.


Awesome Ellen sent me some pens she made at camp in her glass/ceramics class. He handmade some gorgeous color beads and some pig beads and made the pens for me.




I love the pigs. Love.

And then Ellen pointed out: "It's a pig pen!" get it?" Oh dear. Love more.


And here she is making them!


Happy birthday to me! Off for the final performance of Designing Women Live followed by dinner and possibly bowling at Mission Bowling Club.

you make me wet

From iO9's 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

3) Lwaxana Troi was supposed to be a major recurring character In the DS9 bible Lwaxana Troi was described as a major supporting character, on par with Jake and Nog. Special emphasis was placed on her pursuit of Odo as a love interest, with her finding "reasons to come back and see him" on a regular basis. Says the bible: "He tries to discourage her: Ma'am, I turn into a liquid at night. LWAXANA: I can swim."

hot and cold

I've returned from the balmy bosom of a Nashville southern summer to the arctic death grip of a foggy San Francisco. OMFG it's so cold here I am been sleeping in flannel pajamas, and once when I got up in the middle of the night this week I thought I should turn on the Christmas lights and it took me a moment to realize it wasn't December. Brrr.

The Nashville week was intense, full of tumultuous emotion, some raw grieving, some visceral celebration, and a lot of ridiculously happy fun times.



But I am glad to be back. And this stone isn't going to grind itself.

I am looking forward to posting reports when I have the chance.

Love to you all. Well, most of you. Some of you can suck it. But mostly: love.

a rosebud by any other name

Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene II

ROMEO: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized.

Annotation: "Butt Love" Romeo is into anal.

my card...

Those who know me or have met me in a dark bar, know I am all about the calling card. And being suited for every occasion. I have 24 different calling cards (36 if you count the holiday cards), and which one I hand you depends on who you are, the situation, and what I might want to convey. The titles and tag lines on my cards range from the simply respectable "Gentleman" to the fan favorite "Show me on the doll where the bad man touched you." with plenty more filling the range in-between.

Apple discontinued their MobileMe, iDisk and web hosting services, so the URL on my cards is now dead. I took this opportunity to print some more and update the look and lines.



Bring it on.

I've mentioned earlier that all it really takes is a solid esoteric Buffy/Firefly reference for someone to become an instant close personal friend. I also realized this year that any potential love interest of mine is going to have to have a strong nerd streak with a deep vein of Whedon. I'm going to start using Whedon lines as my glass slipper. Glass boot? Whatever. If you don't get it, you're not Prince Charming.

And after my encounter with the Handsome Babcock, who responded to my unconsciously cast line perfectly, I have found my glass slipper.

first day

In the "they grow up so fast"/"tug on the heart strings" category, my sister-in-law shared some photos of my brother walking my little nephew walking to the street corner to take his fist school bus ride to his very first day of school.

It's pretty iconic, and I can feel the emotions as heavy as the humidity on the August morning.

So beautiful.

And yet.... now I kind of want to give it a caption contest.  This just begs for a meme.

I heard the people sing

Last week Kevin and I went to the 25th anniversary production of Les Misérables at the Orpheum.

Accordingly, I purposely dressed in the blood of angry men and the dark of ages past. (That's the theater and show signage in the background.)


Our friend Randy got us amazing seats: third row, center orchestra. Here is an excited Kevin shortly before an usher accosted me for taking a cell phone shot in the theater, facing away from the stage, well before showtime. Whatever.


It's an interesting update to the show. I did recall years ago that they chucked out the Little People number, which I still think is a mistake which reduced Gravroche to a "who the hell is that?" character, and eviscerates most of not all of the emotional impact of his death. I did really enjoy the new set design, which loses the signature turntable in favor oaf period street scenes and interiors and some digital projection assistance.

There is so much more going on in this production, the ensemble is talented and active, so much so that the Master of the House number was so full of side antics that I felt like I was on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Peter Lockyear is a force as Jean Valenjean, and it's nice to see a hot, young, lithe Jean Valjean who can fill the notes and the role of a bull of a man. It's a shame they shaved his gorgeous head of hair just for the opening scenes as a convict, leaving him to wigs for the rest of the show. Don't get me wrong, the wigs are flawless, but having seen the shaved and carved head, the rest of the show you know these are wigs. The Thénardiers of this production are much more active and colorful than any other iteration I have seen, and wonderfully so.

Unfortunately for cast an audience, the producers seem more concerned with quantity than quality. The show is edited and ridiculously rushed for time. Half of the show is run through so quickly you might think Fantine accidentally left the iron on someplace. The result is that this show sounds like the cast album LP recorded for 33 RPM is being played at 45. The deep, emotional pleading of I Dreamed a Dream and On My Own are left harried and incidental. The actors talents lie wasted, and the audience cheated.

But even so, a great show.

Kevin had IM'd me a pic of these two fun ladies as he waited for me to arrive, as they too were in Les Miz theme of Red & Black. We met up with them at intermission and learned it was entirely accidental. However, they would be telling people from then on that it was entirely purposeful.


Good shows all around.

running mild

What's the best present you can give your friend three days after they ran the SF marathon?

Foot massages!



There's a new reflexology and massage place at 3420 Geary at Stanyan. They're not in Google yet (and the street view still shows the empty retail space), but they're pretty amazeballs. And a ridiculous bargain.

official song of summer 2012

Carly Rae Jepson's Call Me Maybe continues to be infectious, and unlike the other overplayed tunes this year I still smile when it comes on the radio.

Continuing the YouTube love of this song, here is a pretty awesome Call Me Maybe lip dub: The Chat Roulette Version! And the number of people who join in shows just how pervasive and widely loved this ditty really is.



Creepy, fun times.

the Doctor, the Master,

and the Nanny.

We should have noticed this sooner.

those neon lights

really did shine for Xanadu.


Thanks to Woodruff for pulling together an enthusiastic crew of devotees and virgins for a wonderful showing and surprisingly packed and participatory audience.

I only have to close my eyes, Dear, and suddenly I'm where you are...

love my San Franvillage

Sometimes living in SF feels like living in a great European city. I'm not the first one to say this, but there are times when I walk from neighborhood to neighborhood all lined with Victorians and interesting people, often speaking different languages or sporting different styles, and bright sunshine and cool air, I just have to sigh and smile.

Especially in this sort of season when I can walk a mere three blocks to a farmer's market and stock up on fresh veg and flowers from open carts, and walk home with it all in a canvas bag.


And the tomatoes are in season. Can't wait. Even my kitchen table looks happy to see me when I get home.

neon lights are gonna shine

There is a fun group of like-minded and clearly similarly-aged gay guys rallying around the centerpiece of tonights roller disco triple feature at the Castro Theater tonight.

I think our instigator and organizer Woodruff may be the only guy who loves Xanadu more than I do.  There may be glitter, but I don't think I will repeat the costume enthusiasm of 2007 Midnight Mass.

And it has been fun sharing photos and history stories of the Pan Pacific all day.

Hat tip to Neil for the Disney lesson.

Go Go Glasgow

The summer fun continued this week with an intense visit from Jan and her wife Paula, who literally kicked off their first weekend in the bay Area with the San Francisco Marathon.

After six hours of dancing at Sundance Saloon on Thursday. Ouch.

We partied most of the week, but when Sunday came I took them to the starting line around 5:00 a.m., then went back to bed, and had my own marathon of fun at Dore Alley. Special thanks to Michael Smith who took me out to the Dore after party Play T-Dance. I am usually far too tired from the day's events to go to these things, which are not really my scene anyway. I do love DJ Craig Gaibler, and I wound up having a great time. I may go to the next one, now that I know that when hot guys are rolling at the disco, I become all sorts of sexy.

Saturday the sun managed to burn back the fog for us to have pretty awesome tourist day. We had planned a happy hour at my place with Peurto Allegre to follow, but we never managed to leave the house. Watching the history unfold during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London was made soooo much better with history teacher Jan proving some context and history lessons.


NBC as expected sucked epically and was painful to watch and shameful to watch in front of non-Americans. Shameful. Ugh.

We were pretty wrecked from Saturday morning, which was solved by coffee infusions at Spike's,

a lovely driving tour of the "other side" of town, a soul food lunch at Hard Knox,




and a stop at Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous,




Nice.

And of course more lovin'.

SF Hills and Scottish Highlands

Scotland may have the Highlands, but SF is the Queen of Urban Hills which makes the San Francisco Marathon a bit daunting.

But not enough for fun Jan and her wife Paula who are in from Glasgow for the challenging run, and two more weeks of party time in the City. A few mutual and close friends are coming over to toast the lassies before I take them out for some awesome at Puerto Allegre.



Someone asked Jan how we met, and in telling the story she realized that we have now known each other for 20 years. Wow.

By the way: she hasn't aged a day. Or gained a pound. Sigh.

Dedication

The newly renovated Indian Springs Shelter wil be dedicated and named for John Hardcastle in a ceremony starting at 6:00 on Thursday, August 26 in Percy Warner Park.

All are welcome!

Humor Abuse returns to ACT

For a limited engagement, the absolutely entertaining and thoroughly wonderful laugh out loud one-man show Humor Abuse returns to ACT for a week in August. If you missed it the first time, don't miss it the second.

Some seats are also available at a discount via Goldstar. But better seats available from the ACT box office. See ACT's pages on the current run.

And Lorenzo's own page on the show.

Also, he's one hot clown.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Carrington Nelson Fox celebrated John Hardcastle's birthday with her sons by enjoying the Warner Parks Nature Center Dad helped make possible.  And she sent some love via text message along with this pic of "his bench":

Happy birthday Dad—











I miss you.  A lot.

Friday silliness

My love of Muppets continues unabated.

Although it does occur to me that Ernie and Bert would look creepy if they used a comb.

ode to joy

In a world that can at times be so horrific, here's to all the people who go out of their way to make beautiful things happen just for the joy of it.



Cheers!

layered

Comment from Mr. Heist:

"Don't be fooled by Wilson's cheery exterior, inside he is a boiling cauldron of rage and fury. However, inside that cauldron, there is a cute fluffy bunny."