Bar hopping: The final chapter…

Posted on June 4, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Well, there are Big Johnny and I, at the last bar we visited at the end of a very long day in San Francisco. Man, I was pretty toasted by that point.

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I think, by that point, I had walked about ten miles, if you include the walk to the BART station from my mom’s house, my long ramble along the bay front in San Francisco, our exploring the museum with the cool sixties exhibit, and then, after we were dropped off by John’s family, our long walk from Haight Ashbury all the way to downtown. So we hopped on Muni. I have never been on Muni… which is the municipal railway, which is almost like a small BART… (Bay Area Rapid Transit)…. train system.

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Why do you care? You probably don’t… but I was hammered, so I took pictures.

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Why does he keep making that face at me???

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We got off the little train right where my San Francisco adventure had begun… almost twelve hours before…

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Yes, by the Embarcadero BART station.

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Which was handy, because, after vising the last bar in the photo at the top, I had to get back on BART, travel back under the mud at the bottom of the bay, pass through Oakland and Berkeley and other places over on the East side of the water, and take a cab to my mom’s house. It was a long day.

Also, here is a hint. If you are very drunk, don’t bend over backwards to take photos of tall buildings in the dark. No, I didn’t fall over, but I am an awesome photographer and I can hold my liquor.

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A lonely cable car, on its way back to the barn for the night. See, even my drunk photos are good.

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Big Johnny waited patiently for me to take my pictures. Okay, that is it for that one day full of cute kids, good friends, sixties history, and dive-bar hopping.

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Bar hopping: In which I explain how a visit to a sixties exhibit at a museum ties in nicely with a long walk interspersed with much beer drinking… part 3…

Posted on June 4, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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In spite of the title, I am not really going to explain why I was with Big Johnny, dive-bar hopping through the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, or who Big Johnny is, or how all this came about. You just need to read all the previous posts in this series. Or the whole blog.

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This brings us back full circle to the weird photo of the weird skull-bunny that I took in front of a Catholic church, and which, I think, I posted to start off the part of my latest Bay Area adventure that ended up with the two of us… I mean Big Johnny and me, not me and the skull-bunny… being more than a little drunk. And this is just one day on my week-long adventure.

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Notice that, even when snockered, I still paused between bars to take a few photos of pretty Victorian houses.

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I am that awesome.

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Big Johnny likes dogs too.

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No, that face isn’t because of the food or the beer, it was just for my benefit.

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Speaking of food, I think this place won the contest to be the best dive-bar in San Francisco. They didn’t serve food, but the little German place next door did, and you could bring the food into the bar. That is a German sausage on a roll, with grilled onions and peppers, and some potato salad. With German beer. Oh, yeah.

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I know it looks like he is flipping of the San Francisco Giants, but he is really, in an amusing way, pointing to the MIRV sticker. Because we know the guitar player in that band… an old high school friend of mine, who also plays with Les Claypool of Primus… whom I also know. Fun facts.

Okay, I am actually back in San Digeo now. I am days behind on this whole Bay Area adventure trip thing. There is one more post of our drunken wanderings, and then get ready for cute kids, sunsets, cute dogs, parts of California that even I have never seen before, and other stuff.

 

 

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Just a hint of the cuteness you have to look forward to…

Posted on June 3, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Yup, it’s my little cousins. I am, at this moment, in Santa Cruz, California. I stopped by on the way back from my mom’s house in the Bay Area, and spent the night. Today, we are doing fun stuff.

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No, I am not done with my crazy adventure in San Francisco, and the drinking part of the story. I am about four days behind on this whole Bay Area trip thing.

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So just bear with me. Man, it is hard to get both of those guys in focus. They never stop moving. Okay, I have to get ready for some kid fun, and then the long drive back to San Diego, so I probably won’t be posting again until tomorrow.

See ya!

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Bar hopping: In which I explain how a visit to a sixties exhibit at a museum ties in nicely with a long walk interspersed with much beer drinking… part 2… ***(Oh, and if you read all the posts about my adventure in San Francisco from the top down, the way the wordpress overlords have it set up, it will make even less sense than my blog usually does)***

Posted on June 2, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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The little postscript note in my title brings up an interesting problem we face as bloggers. If you do multiple posts about the same thing, the odds are that people will red them in the wrong order… a 2

Which means that you probably have no idea why you are looking at a pair of giant legs sticking out of a window… and I doubt my post title helped clear up any questions you might have. Even though I try to be helpful by numbering the posts in the titles… sometimes…

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So what do we do? Should I re-explain in every post how I ended up in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district?

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Should I explain again who this guy beside me is, and why we were doing a walking tour of the best dive bars in that district, starting at three in the afternoon?

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Should I retell the story about how a trip to a museum ties in with this drunken wandering?

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Or re-relate how I even ended up in San Francisco in the first place?

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Sure, I could do that each and every time… or…

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Or, you could just go back and read all the earlier posts… in order… and I don’t mean just the numbered ones, I mean all the ones from the start of my journey to the city. Hell, just go down and read my whole blog from the beginning. That will answer all your questions, and you will know me better than you know your spouse, lover, mother or kids. Because my whole life is down there.

I think the pictures in this post of me and Big Johnny are taken in only the second bar we visited… but I look pretty happy already.

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Bar hopping: In which I explain how a visit to a sixties exhibit at a museum ties in nicely with a long walk interspersed with much beer drinking… part 1…

Posted on June 2, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Well, some of you may have seen this coming a mile away… which is about how far ‘the Haight’… (as we who grew up the Bay Area call the Haight/Ashbury district in San Francisco)… is from that museum.

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If you don’t know how Haight Ashbury relates to the sixties… as in: ‘was the freekin’ center of it’… you should Google that. I had a great time with my godson and his mom, Eva, but they had stuff to do at home, so they dropped Big Johnny and I off, and left us to our own devices.

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No, this isn’t going to be a bunch of photos taken inside dim bars showing drunk people doing stupid stuff. I am too classy for that. Also, I already did a bunch of posts like that just a few months ago, when I was up in the Bay Area for Big Johnnie’s 50th birthday party. Oh man, that was crazy. You should look at those pictures.

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No, this will be two or three posts of tasteful and artistic shots of San Francisco and its delightful quirkiness.

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Just things that caught my eye as we wandered… getting slowly drunker and drunker… from three in the afternoon until… well… that is the question, isn’t it?

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Now, you might remember that I am doing all the photos from this adventure in the order in which they were taken, so I hadn’t even started drinking when I took those.

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And this was all just one short block of the Haight.

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There we are. I tried to limit myself to one, tasteful selfie, with Big Johnny, at each bar we stopped at. You should know that we weren’t looking for upscale, classy bars. We were trying to find the best dive bars. You know how you do that? You ask bartenders where they go to drink.

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Okay, I might have time for one more post before I leave my mom’s house in the Bay Area, and head for Santa Cruz to see my cousins. See you soon!

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We came groovin’ up slowly…

Posted on June 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Okay, I swear this is the last post for today, about my big San Francisco adventure a couple of days ago…

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I will finish off with the top picture of me, and that picture of Big Johnny, in a room splashed with color… at that 60’s exhibit at the museum we went to. But tomorrow morning, I am going to explain exactly how this trip to the museum… and the past… tied in with what Big Johnny and I did after we left there… which will include much drinking of beer…

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Because Eva, Johnnie’s wife, and Willie, his son and my godson, dropped the two of us off someplace interesting… that has very much to do with the 60’s… and that is how this all ties together… oh, yeah.

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So, our favorite part of the museum exhibit, as I may have mentioned, was this white room that only contained furry bean-bag chairs, where they projected tie dye and color bubbles on the walls.

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They also played some good sixties music.

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Once again, I was ten-years-old when the sixties ended. But I can tell you this about the sixties…

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They didn’t start at the beginning of 1960 and they didn’t end at the end of 1969. Just like the seventies weren’t neatly contained within a ten-year period spanning a decade. It was a thing… a happening… a feeling…

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Why does John look so happy?

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Love. And maybe that was what the sixties were about. I know for a fact that is what the seventies were mostly about… at least for me… or I wouldn’t have spent so much time looking for it. HA!

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Okay, tomorrow I will move on to the next phase of my San Francisco adventure, and then, I have to leave, and I have to stop on the way back to San Diego, to see my two little cousins… and their mom, my slightly bigger cousin.

 

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Sixties, schmixties… that dress is funny in any generation…

Posted on June 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Just sayin’…

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Well, sorry, Willie, but if you stood still, you wouldn’t be blurry… sheeeesh… four-year-olds.

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I know, you don’t really care about a museum exhibit about the 60’s, and I know, I am doing too many posts today.

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But I am leaving my mom’s house in the Bay Area tomorrow, to drive back to San Diego… with a brief stop overnight in Santa Cruz to see my two adorable little cousins…

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And I have crack squirrels living inside my head… so…

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Ooooh… I do like that purse!

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And actually, now that I think about it, it doesn’t really make sense to rush, because I need to explain how this 60’s museum bit ties in with the rest of my adventure in San Francisco, and I will probably get interrupted by my leaving, so… uh… yeah…

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There are Big Johnny, Eva, and William… groovin’ to some 60’s tunes.

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That might have been the best part of the exhibit. A plain, white room, with furry bean-bag chairs strewn around, where they projected tie dye colors on the wall while playing classic rock.

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So, yeah, man, lighten up, we can get through this.

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Wait… what the heck is the sum of love, exactly???

Posted on June 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Is this one of those ‘new math’ problems? Either way… or no way at all… that is a good picture of Big Johnny, and my godson, William.

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Oh… right… we went to that museum in San Francisco… and they had this exhibit…

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Sorry that one came out blurry… no flash allowed in the museum… but if you are telling yourself that nobody ever dressed like that, not even in the 60’s… that just proves you missed the 60’s… and also that you have never been to Berkeley… because I have seen people dressed like that just wandering the streets… when the Grateful dead wasn’t even playing anywhere nearby, or even still playing at all… just sayin’. (This is why I love the Bay Area, and in particular, the Berkeley part of it, and why I always say: “Everywhere is the center of the universe, but Berkeley is the center of many universes”).

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This was not the best exhibit I have ever been to in a museum. It wasn’t like they had the guitar that John Lennon played, or the sweaty headband worn by Jimi Hendrix. It was mostly a lot of album art and posters for rock shows.

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Whoops… I thought that old guy in the tie dye was one of the mannequins… until he moved…

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But this was a fun way to spend a few hours, and it will tie in with what me and big Johnny did after Eva and Willie went home. *Try scrolling up and down while you look at the picture above, it will blow your mind)*

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Even though I grew up in the Bay Area, very near to Berkeley, in the 60’s and 70’s, I am not an expert on the 60’s. Because I was born in 1960. I was ten when the 60’s ended. That being said, I am a product of the 60’s, and I certainly still listen to a lot of the music that came out of that decade. I also benefited from the sexual revolution… I was at the after-party… known as: the 70’s.

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For now, we can just enjoy the pretty colors. We have a few more posts of this stuff to make it through, and then, you get to see how the end of this adventure ties in with this part of the adventure.

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I think you will enjoy it. I know I did.

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This pirate statue is both funny and deeply thought-provoking, but you have to look closely to figure out why…

Posted on June 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Did you spot it right away? I know, right? Two peg legs, two hook hands, two parrots, and two eye-patches. It takes a moment to sink in. I mean, obviously, it is humorous. But once you begin to ponder the implications, beyond the obvious ones of how dangerous a pirate’s life actually is, you start to feel a little moved. This guy can’t pick up gold doubloons or pieces-of-eight. He can’t wield his twin cutlasses or load his brace of pistols. He can’t even feed his two parrots. That keg beside him is either full of rum or gunpowder, and I have a sneaking suspicion that our poor pirate intends to either drink himself to death, or blow himself up. Maybe Willie should get down before either of those things occur.

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There is my buddy, Big Johnny, and Willie, running on ahead, as we enter the place we are going… or were going, since this all took place a few days ago, now.

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The place we were going is now the place we were at, if you see what I mean. And it had an observation deck. Why are you being so mysterious, indirect, and roundabout in your description of this portion of your San Francisco adventure day, Arthur, I hear you asking  yourself.

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Please enjoy these views of San Francisco while I try to answer that question.

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I am not trying to be coy or mysterious. I am trying to be funny. This is a humor blog.

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And, because I have these pictures of the view from the top of… the place we went to… I have a little time to kill. I could fill the voids between the pictures telling you more about the people I was with, but I feel like you should know who Big Johnny, Eva, and Willie are by now, or you don’t want to know, or you are new here, in which case, I suggest you type: ‘Big Johnny’ in the search bar on my blog and learn about him, because we have had some awesome adventures together. His birthday party, not long ago, was an epic tale of debauchery.

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Also, there is an art to pacing these things. If I give too much away too fast, it spoils the surprises. Adding to that, don’t forget that I am posting all these photos in order. I don’t usually do that. On most of my adventures, I mix things up, I do a post about one aspect of what I did, a post about the animals I saw, or the interesting art, or the scenery.

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Hey, there is a place you might remember from other posts. That building with the plants on the roof is full of cool stuff, which I have posted about before.

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But we aren’t going there today… or, that is to say, I didn’t go there two days ago… sigh…

 

 

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I know, I know, I am making you sit through multiple days of multiple posts full of multiple photos of one, single day in my life, and I’m not even mixing it up with any of my weird Photoshop posts or amusing rants and rambling observations, but trust me, the pace is picking up, and you must admit, at the very least, that I do know how to have an adventure day…

Posted on June 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Yes, that picture was taken from a moving car… but at least, this time, I wasn’t the one driving it. It was Big Johnny in the driver’s seat. Do you remember who big Johnny is? I feel like I have introduced him to you a number of times, so I won’t do it again… or maybe I will in later posts.

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We have made it through my rambling walk along the San Francisco Bay, and the adventure is picking up steam! We are on our way to pick up this guy…

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Willie! Okay, that isn’t the best picture of my godson ever. He was watching the last three minutes of his favorite show… kids… what are you gonna do?

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Now that is the Willie that we all know and love, charging me at full speed, wearing a monster hat and a smile.

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Oh yeah, lunch time with Big Johnny, Eva, and Willie!

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Wait, why did I take a picture of a giant, 12-foot-tall, metal urn?

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To give some context to this photo, a close up of some of the details on the big urn… where I happened to notice a giant spider attacking a cherub… that is just weird.

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As is that.

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I will finish this post with that picture of Willie saying hello to a cast-aluminum pirate. When we pick up the story in the next post, I will explain why that pirate is both awesome and thought-provoking, as well as what we were doing in that park in San Francisco, and how it ties in to the rest of the adventure.

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