San Francisco, CA

A week has passed now since I went to the San Francisco Theatre Festival, but it’s worth mentioning in the round-up of things that I saw in the city this past week because of how wonderfully fun it was. It’s an annual event (this was its fourth year) that happens at and around the Yerba Buena Center near the Metreon. They set up ten stages and each has live plays happening about every half hour all day long. Dozens of theatre groups from around the city come together to put on shows ranging from improve comedy to Shakespeare.

San Francisco’s theatre scene as an interesting one and we’ve got more than just this festival to honor it (there’s Fringe Fest in the fall) but this one really highlighted all of the different types of theatre that exist in this city. I didn’t stay long, but in the short time that I was there I saw a modern play about Marilyn Monroe, a truly funny crowd-participatory improve group and a play-in-progress being workshopped to the audience to make it work better when it goes on stage in New York. And it was all free!

I also saw lots of people at the event crowded together under the shade that was available because everyone around here thought last Sunday was really hot. I, myself, was quite happy to get some sunshine since it seems like fog and mist are all over the sky around here all of the time. I felt a bunch of that mist on Wednesday when I walked through Chinatown and the Union Square area to go to my dentist. The best thing I saw on that walk though was this trendy girl wearing knee-high boots that were bright mustard yellow and totally gorgeous on her. I mention it because it reminded me of how many people here are able to pull off unique fashion styles. I’m convinced this is due, at least in part, to the fact that so many people here are just okay with being who they are.

Another interesting fashion thing that I saw was a pair of peace sign suspenders holding up the bright pink pants of a mine on my bus. But that’s not what was really interesting about this guy. This was one of those guys here that is some sort of victim of a mental health problem, which I know because he was talking at me, telling me that my shoes (heels) were products of the devil. He laughed evilly for a solid five minutes about this, and he only stopped laughing because he began talking to the person seated next to him. Except that there was no one seated next to him. This seems to be a regular occurrence around this city.

Mental health isn’t the only issue of concern to people here, of course, as noted by the fact that Friday night was the last Friday of the month which meant that it was Critical Mass. I’d never actually seen the bicyclists on the streets of SF before, but I saw them this time because they rode straight down Lombard Street and right past our apartment. It went on for quite a long time (and included one girl running her bike accidentally into a parked car because it’s hard to brake on those hills; she was okay).

Speaking of transportation, I also got to see some interesting SF transportation this past week. It was a pick-up truck with this monstrous homemade camper shell attached to it. The camper shell was made from a leopard print cloth. And the rest of the truck was covered in a velvet-like material that was also leopard print. It appeared to have been done quite some time ago since it was falling apart all over the place. As my good friend Nicolas pointed out, the truck was molting.

And that’s just a few of the things that I saw in San Francisco this past week.