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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Okay, so there I was in San Francisco…

Posted on May 31, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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I was admiring the giant model of Alcatraz island and its famous prison, and I noticed that big canon you can see in the background above. Now, I am an amateur military historian by nature, and I knew what it was… but that isn’t the thing that struck me as funny.

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I knew this was a Civil War-era gun, and that it had likely been brought over either from Alcatraz Island, which was a Union Fort back in those days, or from Fort Point, which is located underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, believe it or not. No, the thing that struck me as funny is where the gun is pointing…

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I’m sure you guessed what’s coming. That gun is aimed right across the bay… at the hills just North of Berkeley… where my mom’s house is… which is where I was coming from. I think San Francisco has declared war on the East side of the bay.

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I decided to ignore this blatantly hostile and provocative gesture, and resume my wandering.

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But not before taking one last look at that model… because the detailing was phenomenal.

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One more gratuitous shot of Coit Tower, as I made my way along the bay.

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And I had to stop and take a few pictures of the boats.

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I love boats. Behind all those masts, you can almost make out the actual Island of Alcatraz.

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And then my friend, Big Johnny, picked me up, and we were driving to his house to pick up his wife… and his kid… who happens to be my godson.

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Whoops… I totally lied to you…

Posted on May 31, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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I said that I was, for a change, going to post all the photos from my adventure in San Francisco yesterday in the order in which I took them… except for that very first picture of the human skull in a bunny costume that I took in front of a Catholic church… but then I remembered that I took some pictures with my phone, too.

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It’s just too hard to take selfies with my big camera. But, as you can see, these were taken right after I got off the Bart train, after traveling through the mud underneath the bay.

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Now, we can resume our adventure where we left off in the last post. And yes, that was indeed a Mississippi paddle boat, in the San Francisco bay.

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There is another icon of the city by the bay, Coit Tower, on Telegraph Hill.

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Anyway, by this point, my friends having been delayed, I was just wandering along the bay in the general direction of their house, which happens to be on the other side of Fisherman’s Wharf.

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I didn’t make it all the way to Fisherman’s Wharf… they picked me up right before I got there… but I have done lots of posts about that part of San Francisco, that is what the search bar thing is for. And if you want to know about Coit Tower…

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Well, that is what that ‘Google’ thing is for.

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I did happen to find something that I haven’t seen before. A really big, really awesome model of the federal prison on Alcatraz Island… which is funny… because the actual Alcatraz Island is like right there… in the bay.

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The detail was stunning. Now, unfortunately because I have determined that nine is the correct number of photos to put in each post, I have to leave it here… or there… for now.

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I told you I was going to be all up in San Francisco’s business… district…

Posted on May 31, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Ironically, as much as I do like the joke in the title, I wasn’t actually supposed to end up in the Embarcadero portion of San Francisco at all. The original plan was to meet up with my friends somewhere else, but they got delayed. I just got off the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) near the water… which is easy in San Francisco… and started walking.

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I have decided, with all the pictures I have of my adventure yesterday, that, for once, I am just going to do them in order. No doing special sets of posts based on things like art or architecture or dogs or birds or boats or whatever. I am not even going to save all the best pictures for one last super-awesome post.

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Nope, I am going to post them in the same order in which I took them. So you can follow along with me on my adventure as it happened.

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I like the juxtaposition of old and new… I mean, not as old as, say Rome or London, but still.

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Looking back across the bay towards my mom’s house, you can see where the Oakland Bay bridge passes right through Treasure Island… where they filmed the Myth Busters TV series.

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I can’t believe some seagull pooped on Gandhi’s head!

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I know, not all of you will care about a lot of these pictures.

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There is the iconic Transamerica building, peering shyly at us from behind some other buildings. Like the Eiffel  Tower in Paris, many locals did not take to the pyramid-shaped monstrosity at first. But it grew on them, and became beloved, and a symbol of the skyline of the city… even though it is now getting lost in taller buildings springing up around it.

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Wait… what is that, behind that old ferry boat… is that a paddle wheel steamer? I guess you will have to come back later to find out.

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This photo pretty much sums up my adventure in San Francisco yesterday…

Posted on May 31, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Because it makes no sense, and it is funny and confusing at the same time. I mean, what is it exactly? A skull in a bunny costume… in front of a Catholic church. I am a little hung over, and I have a lot of pictures to share with you, and it will take a while, so just settle back and enjoy the ride.

You will see pictures of San Francisco, and a bunch of other stuff. I might even do these pictures and stories in order, for a change… except for these ones. HA!

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