Happy Halloween! Sundance Saloon

After the day down the coast I got a disco nap before I made my costume for the Sundance Saloon costume ball. That's always a fun party, but it's difficult to make a costume that is comfortable to dance in, can sweat in, and can exchange the undershirts as they gets too sweaty. Usually the dancing fever also means that face paint it out. This year I thought I'd just have an accent I could wipe off and reapply as necessary. I'm still taking it east on the knees and foot since Stompede, so I only sweat through two shirts this time. Again, not really an "I'm going as such-and-such" costume as just Halloween dress-up. Still "costume" though.


Liam and friends brought it as usual, with a classic:


And the fun people all participated.








Is that a genie in my pocket or am I just happy to see you?


Ah, Johan. He was a genie in a bottle, and I wanted to rub him the right way. Which, incidentally, would be granting one wish.

Bonus: Sundance arranged for a big screen to show Game Four in the bar.


Watching the game was such a nail biter, and I am so glad I was there to witness the final pitch.

Holy Halloween. The streets were insane trying to get home though, as I had to traverse the length of Cesar Chavez. Stupid, stupid girls running in the darkened streets in the mist wearing all black into very fast six lanes of traffic dodging construction. While waving a broom. She almost got killed, and I would have been first in line for the witness stand defending the poor motorist who smacked these stupid people throwing themselves into traffic because the Giants won. Almost as stupid as the rioting and setting shit on fire to celebrate civic pride. Friends were movie uploading from the Castro, which was merely revelrous with the most vandalism being toilet paper from the muni wires. Friends have posted some great shots of the celebration, but by the time I got there the streets had cleared so I headed home.


Around 4:30 a.m. though, another crew tore through the Castro, clearly not locals, and smashed windows to stores, clinics, and the LGBT History Museum. I hate stupid people.

But love the Giants! Between the team and the holiday, I have had to ration the orange and black!


I love this town for fans though. The non bridge-and-tunnel riot set. The view of the City at night as you crest over Twin Peaks is a sight to see: City Hall and most of the downtown buildings have changed their exterior lighting to all orange. As is the beacon atop the TransAmerica Pyramid. Nice.

And then there was this:


I'll keeping singing the song: I love this town.

World Series Victory Parade!

We would have had a much better view if we had stayed at work and watched it online, but we took the time off they gave us to be a part of it all. Muni etc was a complete clusterfuck so se took a shuttle to Buchannan and walked from there. There were hoards of other people walking down Market Street and we were still a dozen blocks away. I snapped this pic of a storefront window, pretty much sums it up:



"Back at 1:00. Go Giants!"

Even after the parade started it would be more than an hour before the first part of the parade—the boring people like the Investors Club and Support Staff, made their way by. But we checked out the scene at Civic Center and got as close as we could to the parade route, which was about a half block away from the turn off Market onto McAllister.

Here was some of the scene from my perspective, but the television coverage is amazing.




It was a gorgeous day! And the swarm was all orange and black. And cameras. taking photos of any part of the parade they could catch.




The crowds managed to bring all public transit to a standstill, and closed several station due to overcrowding. The Sfist coverage has a set of "people on top of things" and I got a pic of someone just as their ass fell through the top of a bus shelter. While the crowd was often ugly in multiple ways, they were enthusiastic fans, which is fun.  (Please note the dog in the fan's arms in the pic to the right is wearing a Giant's bandana/cape.)


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We were well away from the ticker tape part of the parade, and the AP (Eric Risberg) has some great shots.

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A special treat was running into Christopher Land. Shilpa pointed him out saying, "I love that guy's shirt." and I promptly introduced her. His friends were two blocks away and completely inaccessible through the immovable hoard. He was happy to join us and the other friends/fans we met along the way.


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At one point another friend piped up and said, "Anybody want a Jello shot?"

Excuse me, what? They were selling them at some bar last night to raise money for a good cause so she bought some, put them in her purse, and promptly forgot about them until she saw all these people drinking and smoking at the parade. Chris and I were happy for the breakfast. As he collected our empty cups in his cargo shorts, he discovered another treat left over in his pockets.


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Free drink chips for 440! Shilpa and I had to rush back to work, but Chris abandoned his plan to meet his friends or brave the ridiculous mass of people and decided he'd just head to the Castro and cash in those chips.

Footage of the City Hall ceremonies has been great. Check it out on CBS, YouTube, and MLB.com.

Giants parade

The World Series celebration starts at 11:00 a.m. and follows the route the Giants took when they fist came from New York in the 50s.

By 8:00, people were already posting photos of the crowd.  Reports of Muni's inability to handle the crowds are coming in as well.  Work gave us a couple of hours to take the train down and catch some of the event before having to be back at 1:00 for meetings.  The two trains that passed me on my walk to work were filled with orange and black.  I am wondering how poor the Muni service will be getting me back to work.

This is from Tersh Barber at 8:00 this morning, midway along the parade route:

UPDATE: SF City Hall is openly hostile to car owners/drivers and has hailed itself as a "Transit First!" city and operates under the assumption that everyone, everyone, should be taking public transportation; and then continues to operate public transportation agencies completely incompetently and screws everyone. Another example today, buried in the information release from the SF Visitor's and Convention Bureau: "No transportation agency is adding service for the parade."

A half a million or so people are expected.

Yes, Mission-dwellers, I am calling you 'tards.

More reports are coming in from the riot in the Mission last night. WTF? I know it is relatively common, but still an incredible act of dumbassery and disrespect to damage your own community to celebrate a community victory. WTF? "Riots" (and looting) are not "celebrations." And for the record, addressing some of these reports, setting fire to shit is not an act of "civil disobedience."

Although one account dig give me a new favorite term "hiptards."

From the Uptown Almanac: "If this doesn't tell you everything about the ethnic divide in the Mission, I don't what would. This Mission princess was standing there lighting a giant transcan fire in the dead center of 24th and Shotwell while some kid got beat up by a half dozen or so guys for being a part of the wrong gang a few feet away."

Woot! Giants Win

random sections of the City had to be shut down for fans filling the streets. The Mission, Civic Center, and the area in front of the ball park most notably. The World Series very much brought us all together in one massive ball of enthusiasm and City pride. Halloween and Giants winning the series in the same? San Franciscans are exhausted and out of clean orange and black clothes.

We met up in the Castro where the streets were forcibly open last night (Halloween) and closed tonight. Such a great vibe.




I sent some photos via MMS to my nephew who is a huge sports fan and sportscaster. He was a bit snide about it I think, texting back that "fair weather fun is best." Pishaw. We are all SF. And we are Giants. And beating Texas on their own soil is just gravy to us—we who are always spurned by Texan politicians and derided for our *gasp* San Franciscan Values. Right on. Mess with Texas.

I had hoped that in the way of fans in the streets, the bad loonies would be outnumbered by the good SF loonies. I think for the most part they were. The only "vandalism" I saw was toilet paper streamers, and drunks who had to pound excitedly on any vehicle who dared to, you know, drive down the street. I never understood sports fans trashing their own city to show their civic pride. Undirected energy I suppose.  (Update:  The dumbasses in the Mission apparently did go too far and into vandalism and violence such as throwing bottles at SFPD.  Seriously?  Morons.)

Of course Facebook was nuts with posts. And I was astounded at how many friends were posting the same mobile photos I was yet I never ran into them in the street.

My friend Matty had the best post though:

Dear San Francisco Giants,
Well done.


Dear San Franciscans,
Please stop trashing the city and screaming "WE DID IT", "GO GIANTS", or "WHOOOOOOO".


Dear Texas,
This game hasn't had an affect on my feelings for you. I still hate you.

Update II: This cracks me up: Man Exposes His Penis to Riot Cops in Mission

World Series Game 5, Go Giants!

By special permission from Fox Sports, tonight's game will be broadcast on a jumbotron in Civic Center Plaza. Very cool.

Also tonight, I am supposed to go to the screenplay table read of Mary Guzman's latest film Lost Dog. Add to that some Day of the Dead Brain Farts and I need to be in three places at once. Hurumph.

I do love how this has brought the entire city together (and reports that bars and clubs uniformly and loudly Booooo! whenever the Bushes appear on screen.). Public and private buildings are lit orange—Coit Tower and City Hall are particularly striking— and the TransAmerica Pyramid has changed its top beacon to an orange flare.

And I love this display the the corner bike shop window.

play balls!

I am loving the Giants in the playoffs and now the World Series.  I've lived in cities with major league sports teams before, but there is something about the Giants that is just so SF.  And I love that outisiders see that the players are almost as freaky as their fans, and the love runs both ways.  Sure, Shilpa loves the 'Niners, but the Giants are just a bit more "San Franciscan."  Maybe it's that their pennant is really a freak flag.  And while we may quietly love our Giants during the regular season, but go all 1906 during the World Series, that's just cool too. 

Me?  I just want in on that beard action.  And get me some awesome Wilson's Beard memorabilia.

Fear the Beard!  Go Giants!