Here is a great article on the stratovolcanic mountain in Washington State know as Mt. Rainier.

Read More Here

While in San Francisco, he will attend two fund raising events sponsored by the San Francisco Ron Paul Meetup.com group.

 A “Breakfast with Ron Paul” will be at the Palace Hotel on New Montgomery Street, in the Presidential Suite, beginning at 9am -11am. Afterwards, around noon, he will attend a event entitled “Lunch with Ron Paul” at Palio D’Asti Restaurant, located in the Financial District, at 640 Sacramento Street.

If you love freedom and liberty, and you want to help elect someone who will truly make government smaller and lawful, come out and support Ron Paul for President in 2008.

If you haven’t yet made your plans for the weekend, here are some of the things you can think about doing:

FRIDAY:

The Ant Show - Indie Band Showcase at The Red Devil Lounge. Starts at 8 p.m. - $10.

Gutter Mob Record Release Party and Fecal Face Closing Party - both from 9p.m. - 2 a.m. at 111 Minna.

Sweet Baby Jai @ Biscuits and Blues

Jay Mohr @ Cobb’s Comedy Club. Starts tonight and goes through the weekend.

SATURDAY

CharitySmith Green Tie Fundraiser Event at Bimbo’s 365

Spreading love through art - fun lecture event tonight at 10.

Soul in the City fundraiser brunch in The Castro.

The Cinema of East Germany @ SFMoMA

Pre-Labor Day Part. Learn more from Craigslist.

SUNDAY

Hipwaders CD Release show @ 12 Galaxies

Hairrison Street Fair - for the bear inside you

- The Ghosts of San Francisco - Admittedly I know quite a bit about this book since I’m its author. But I’m not ashamed to spread the word because I worked hard to do a significant amount of research on the topic, relating tales gathered from a variety of different sources.
- San Francisco Ghost Society - This is one of the most extensive resources on ghosts in San Francisco. Make sure to listen to their podcasts which provide a wealth of interesting information.
- Walking Tours - There are walking tours in the area that show off the history and information about ghosts in San Francisco. Learn more from last week’s post on the topic.
- SF Heart’s list of haunted places in San Francisco gives you the brief story about a number of reported ghost sightings. See that here.
- About.com has an interesting article on one specific haunted location in San Francisco: The Queen Anne Hotel.
- Haunted San Francisco: Ghost Stories from the City’s Past is another book about the topic. This one is by Rand Richards.

Music is important to me and so is San Francisco so it’s no wonder that I’ve got something of a collection going of songs that are about San Francisco or which reference San Francisco in some way. Here are just a few of those songs:

I Left My Heart In San Francisco - I think everyone knows this song or at least that line from the song. Admittedly, it’s not even my favorite song but I reference the line every time that I leave the city and my heart leaps out and remains behind.

Little Boxes - This song by Pete Seeger was a favorite of mine as a kid, introduced to me by my dad. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that the ticky tacky houses references in the song were related to San Francisco. Go figure, the life in SF is less tolerant of a ticky tacky kind of mainstream way of living than it is of all the oddities to be found throughout the city.

The Village People song about San Francisco. What can I say, it’s the Village People.

Lyrics by local singer songwriter Shane Papatolicas reference San Francisco in a way that is familiar to people who have spent time recently in the city.

The Be Sure To Wear Flowers in Your Hair song by Scott McKenzie is all about the hippie days in SF. And it’s perfect this year on the 40th Anniversary of the Summer of Love.

Furry Sings the Blues by Joni Mitchell. I don’t actually know if this song has anything at all to do with San Francisco but I think of it every single time that I have a reason to be on Beale Street.

There are more San Francisco songs listed on this Amazon list and at SF Heart. There’s a list of California songs on Wikipedia.

I happen to be one of those people that loves Craigslist. I use it for everything. Craigslist was the way that I found my apartment, all of my closest SF friends, and the guy that I’m seeing along with some casual dates, some tickets to stuff, rides to different cities and information about area events. I’m a firm believer in the thought that if you know what you want and you can articulate it clearly, you can get it on Craigslist, at least in San Francisco. But not everyone agrees with me. Some of my good friends say that it’s great for getting certain things and not so good for others. Here are some of the things to use Craigslist for:

- Jobs. As a freelancer, I check the gigs and writing jobs on CL every day. I check other cities as well as SF. I also regularly check the creative gigs and I contact other artists through posts in the community section for collaborative work. But I’ve heard rumors that CL isn’t so good for getting work that’s more “normal” or “steady”. Apparently this is because the jobs posted there are highly competitive so people use bigger sites like Monster.com to get jobs. So they tell me.

- Rides. Many people I know say that they feel safe using CL for things like renting an apartment but not for getting rides from random strangers. I successfully used CL to get rides to other cities and states, but I’m fairly cautious about who I meet and how I screen them. I’ve found that it’s basically normal people just like myself on CL in San Francisco which may not be as true of others areas where online interaction isn’t as common. So I think it’s fine to get rides here if you’re safe and sensible about it but I don’t know that I’d do it everywhere that CL has a portal.

- Friends, casual dates, hook-ups and relationships. Worked for me on every level. Again, I screen carefully, make common sense choices and try to be very clear about what I’m seeking and what my boundaries are. And again, I think it’s common in San Francisco for a wide range of people to be on CL.

- Apartments. I actually don’t even know how I would go about trying to get an apartment in San Francisco other than by using Craigslist. It’s how everyone does it here.

- Tickets. I actually don’t think this is the best thing to use CL for. But I know people who do it. For me, I’d rather just buy my tickets to events straight out, rather than trying to scheme for a discounted rate on anything. But that’s just a personal preference.

- Free stuff. This one is hard for me because I don’t have a car in San Francisco and anything I’d want would be big enough that I’d need a car. I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a rideshare post to get a free item that I really wanted. For people who have time and transportation, the amount of free stuff you can get is endless.

What else do you use CL for?

Well, my travel plans changed and I ended up having to stay in Los Angeles for another week. Truth be told I had fun there despite how much I talked last week about the differences from San Francisco that I don’t like so much. But there were definitely still things in San Francisco that I missed seeing.

Here are some of the things that I could have seen last week in San Francisco that I missed out on:

- 2 Great Live Music Shows - A CD release party for bilingual singer-songwriter Tiffany Joy happened at The Purple Onion in North Beach and a general live music concert by local performer Kate Isenberg was the same night over in The Mission. I missed them both because I was in Los Angeles.

- The Mission Indie Mart. I just found out about this monthly event which happens in The Mission. It’s a clothing designer event in which inie designers and other artists come together to share their stuff. There’s also some organic food and lemonade - a down-to-earth DIY affair. I’ll let you know more about it when the next one takes place.

- Sunshine, supposedly. I heard rumors that there were a bunch of sunny SF days while I was gone. Meanwhile, there were actually a couple of cloudy days where I was at. Go figure.

- The Haight. For some reason I’ve been craving a trip to The Haight. I think it’s because I haven’t been there in awhile, but I’m definitely due for a trek up there. I want to catch a flick at The Red Vic, get some mashed potatoes at Asqew and spend too much money on thrift store clothes.

If you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to spend your San Francisco weekend, here are some of the events and activities happening around town, starting with those that are going on tonight.

FRIDAY:
• Afrosolution @ Madron Lounge. Learn more: http://www.madronelounge.com/calendar.php
• Shawn Ryan orchestral concert @ Herbst Theatre. Starts at 8. Learn more: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/eve/390070464.html
• Timmy Curran @ Hotel Utah (concert)/ Learn more: http://www.thehotelutahsaloon.com/calendar.php.

SATURDAY:
• RebelGrrl Dance Party @ Rickshaw. Learn more: http://rickshawstop.com/phpEventCalendar/eventdisplay.php?id=1143.
• Rhythm at the Palace (http://www.cityboxoffice.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=1116&c=9&pg=) – The Palace of Fine Arts is a beautiful place and they’re going to have some beautiful sounds to make it shine.
• San Francisco Birth and Baby Fair (www.birthandbabyfair.com). Hey, if that’s your thing, it’s a during-the-day affair.

SUNDAY:
• Arab Cultural Festival. Day-long event. Learn more: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/eve/361854267.html.
• Cabaret d’Amour @ Café du Nord featuring Mademoiselle Kiki and Kitty Kitty Bang Bang (http://www.cafedunord.com/?temp=calendar).
• Family Festival from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Learn more: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/eve/392241524.html.
• Jill Sobule concert @ Red Devil Lounge (http://www.reddevillounge.com/calendar_july.html).
• Open House and Film Screening @ San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/eve/381845312.html).