[Cut and pasted the material below from Hotmail, and in the transfer, for some reason, some of the spacing lines didn't get included. I like to have the text pretty perfect, typographically, generally, but this is close enough...]
...have got out from the S.F. Public a Ravi Shankar CD - three ragas recorded in 1956. The first one is nearly thirty minutes, and the two others about fifteen each - so these would've fit onto sides of an LP back then. Great stuff, the usual of that sort of music. I learned from the liner notes also.
And...one of Shankar's daughters is in the current My Blueberry Nights. Here's a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86kckraMXtI. Don't know exactly what Norah Jones' body looks like - her face is nice. I'd like her figure to match...according to my tastes. Which would be slim, but built. (Here's a link to Tawnee Stone, who pretty much is a dream in terms of face and figure:
http://main.tawneestone.com/res/typein/pr/rev/tt/con/co/fc. But it's likely she is not the kind of superlative musician Norah is...)
Also have out a Firesign Theatre comedy disc, called Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death, from about ten years ago. Had it out before, and it's great to revisit it. Played it yesterday when I had a guest over, my friend Spence, and he enjoyed it. Great was him buying a four-liter Carlo Rossi Sangria - now he is a fella who knows how to be a good guest. Me, I always bring something for the host...
And...typed out a description of a recent visit to Union Street - was walking along it 'cause I had an hour before the library nearby on Green was open. Sent it to a relevant merchants group, but have had no response yet. Maybe it wasn't written in the style they want. But I think the verbiage had quality, and there were many links to some of the businesses, the ones I liked. Something may come of that...
...saw a copy of a A.E. van Vogt paperback at the Russian Hill Bookstore -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._van_Vogt, and
http://www.russianhillbookstore.com/. In the bargain cart outside - title is The Battle for Forever. But at two bucks, not really a bargain. Higher prices than I'd been used to in the Tenderloin for paperbacks, especially when I was buying 'em from unlicensed vendors right on the street. But even at the Goodwill there on South Van Ness and Mission, paperbacks are a buck-39. Not a fan of van Vogt's myself, but a friend, Robert, would probably like it. I like getting appropriate gifts for friends.
And walking along Polk, was approached by a young woman wanting to defeat John McCain, and get my signature to that effect. I told her I admired him. And that's because in the recent Rolling Stone - Eagles cover - Don Henley says he admires McCain. Tho' he wouldn't vote for him. Hey, whatever Henley says, I second that emotion.
And speaking of the Eagles, mentioned in the article is a book I didn't know about, an autobiography by former band member Don Felder, called Heaven and Hell. From the line in "Hotel California": "...this could be heaven or this could be hell..." - guess he wrote the tune. Am mucho enjoying it...still only near the beginning - he goes into the life of his parents, details of his childhood. Now he's just met other former Eagle Bernie Leadon, who was very influential in Felder's life. (In the R.S. article, it says Don Henley's least favorite activity is giving depositions whenever Felder sues, which apparently happens often. An acrimonious parting had Felder.)
And...there are plenty of pet-related shops in the Polk Zone. One has two little dog statues propping open the door. But it services both dogs and cats. So went in and asked about this - shouldn't there be a dog AND a cat? The lady didn't know why the double poochies - maybe 'cause it's harder to find a suitably heavy cat one, she thought.
And...have only fifteen minutes at this "express" library terminal...so making it short...here's another link to Tawnee Stone:
http://www.tawneestone.com/daily/index.php?r=laxtime-rev. I really like her wholesome image. And her bod's killer...
And...three minutes left...in the window of a Polk Street Walgreens, noted a "resistance cord" from The Firm, an exercise device, for a penny short of thirteen, not including tax. Could see getting this - need to firm up a bit. But I can image my friend Sunbad the Paler telling me: just get some piece of elastic for a fraction of the cost and it'll do the same. But I may just go for it when I have money again in a week, less than a week...
...the Broadway Tunnel, visible to the west a few blocks when crossing Broadway during my daily walks along Polk Street. An easy transit through it to North Beach. But, really, I've "been there and done that" in terms of that zone of the city. Used to meet up with a good friend, Sunbad the Paler, at the San Francisco Brewing Company, when he worked in the area. Should be seeing him soon, but I think we'll just be hanging out at some place in the Polk area and environs. (...an echo of the line from Finnegans Wake about Howth Castle:
http://yp.amazon.com/phrase/Howth-Castle...)
And a change noted in the Polk area from when I was working there a few years back: there was a liquor outlet, warehouse-like, at Pacific and Polk, but it's now a linen outlet. But then noted a big liquor warehouse across the street, so I guess it moved. Called "Jug" something or other...
And a lot of mommies and daddies pushing babies in strollers. Noted one child sleeping with his or her head to the side in an uncomfortable position. If I was a parent I'd be aware of that - not good for the child's neck. But at that very young age, I guess they're flexible enough. But still...
And, from the liner notes of a Ravi Shankar disc from 1956 I have out from the library...learned that the man did film scores in Bombay and Calcutta. Didn't know that...so he's always been sort of a non-traditional kinda guy, I guess...and knocked up some Texas woman to produce Norah Jones, so that indicates a non-trad manner to him as well...
And...learned a bit about the raga form that Shankar espouses...the "jhala" is the "final movement and climax", played very fast. Ha, "climax"...yeah, very vigorous...and at the end, Ravi spurts his seed into the sitar, ha ha ha! (Ragas are designed for different times of day and different moods - there must be ones specially designed for lovemaking...)
And...one of the three cuts is called "Ahir Bhairav"...which is also, by the way, a tasty lentil dish. And a prominent star of Bollywood, ha ha ha...
And...wanted to note the excellent small paintings of Frisco scenes by Greg Gandy and Jeremy Mann, at the Studio Gallery on Polk:
http://www.studiogallerysf.com/page15.html. Liked much one of a Muni bus, the size of an LP record. Fine work. But they have an excellent model in Gomorrah by the Golden Gate...
And another thing I've been noticing on my sojourns west of Van Ness to get to a small branch library I like: intersections with no traffic lights! Have been so used the past several years to the high concentration of vehicles in the Tenderloin, and the necessary presence of so many lights. Nice change for me...
...walking up Polk Street - been doing that lately since a small branch library I like is out of my new neighborhood and requires a walk. A lot of nice little shops and restaurants...there a wine bar that was really hoppin' the other day - fifteen buck glass o' port. And a cheese selection to die for, if that's your taste...
And...have got out a twenty disc collection of old-time radio from the library. Included is a 1947 version of The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson his own bad self. But just couldn't get into it. Twenty years after the original flick, I believe. (Also couldn't get into a version of "Sorry, Wrong Number", with Agnes Moorehead. Just too overly dramatic, and really, not a pleasant story.
And...how about Dionne Warwicke doing "I Say a Little Prayer"? On my mind for some reason -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wby9ntdYpEk. Am in the market for both a wife and a mistress - wifey would be in her thirties, the mistress in her late teens, early twenties. Can imagine these ladies out there somewhere thinking of me as in this song...especially the wifey...
And also was thinking of the Dirty Harry "you're a legend in your own mind" line. And here are some other quotes from Inspector Callahan:
http://uk.imdb.com/character/ch0007342/quotes...
And after this, may head over to the main library and see about getting Paul Theroux's travelogue The Pillars of Hercules, specifically for his description of visiting Paul Bowles in Tangier. His take on visiting Jorge Luis Borges in Buenos Aires in one of his other ones was really, really great - had it on audio and listened to it repeatedly. Am into a Bowles thing...not so much his writing as how he conducted himself as a writer away from the creation of his fictions...
And...another note on my new 'hood...going north on Polk, the shops pretty much end at Filbert. There may be one or two little ones, but mostly, heading to the western side of Aquatic Park, it's just residences...
And...there's this place called the Cafe Biologique. What that mean? They serve gigged frogs?
And also, the usual for this, a link to Tawnee Stone:
http://main.tawneestone.com/32775/pr/pps - warning, there's a photo of her licking a guy's penis, so stay away if you don't wanna see that...
[HERE'S SOMETHING I DID FOR AN E-MAIL, BUT I LIKE IT SO I'M POSTING IT HERE. IN THE LAST PART, AFTER THE CUT AND PASTE, HAD SPACES REMOVED - STILL LEGIBLE, AND I'M NOT IN THE MOOD TO ADD THEM AGAIN...]
THE LUST LETTERS #1 by Gnarly Downside, for his dearest Miss Octavia
My dearest Octavia:
Had an hour until a library I go to opened, so I took a stroll up one side of Union Street then back, and I now describe this...
But before that, was walking to the Union Street area - the Golden Gate Valley branch of the S.F. Public system is in that zone of the city...on Polk, at the Red Devil Lounge, checked out upcoming music shows. Dramarama is coming in June - an Eighties band...cannot think of a single tune of their's, but that's what a search engine's for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramarama_(band) - I don't see any tune at the Wikipedia entry I recognize...also, AC/DShe will be at the same place...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC/DShe - they do only Bon Scott era songs by AC/DC. Me, I like the Brian Johnston ones as well. Well, I wouldn't pay the twenty bucks to see 'em...
Then walked a bit down Polk, window shopping. Saw books in one place and spent time with The Bedside Kama Sutra - http://www.amazon.com/Bedside-Kama-Sutra-Positions-Pleasure/dp/1931412790?tag=dogpile-20. A REALLY hot book, with a great lady model. Ten bucks, half the cover price, and worth it...
(Well, am using a fifteen-minute computer and my time's nearly up for this...but will start a new one with my next session...)
THE LUST LETTERS #2 by Gnarly Downside, for his dearest Miss Octavia
...continuing with a description of a walk up and down Union Street today...still on the way there, on Polk Street. There was the Pasha restaurant - I remembered this from a few years back. Never been, but it looks good. It's being refurbished, and will open in two weeks, said a guy coming out. Here's their site: http://www.pasharestaurant.com/ - interesting menu outside painted onto the wall - thirty bucks for a feast, it says...the word "Sufi" dropped...stuff like charbroiled quail with limes and sage. Me, generally avoid animal products, but I'd make an exception for this place...
Then continuing north on foot on Polk...there's the former location of the Alhambra single-screen movie theater, one of the many such flick venues in Frisco closed due to the effect of modern film delivery tech. Now it's a fitness center. I feel such a closure is a loss to the cultural life of the city. But there's a single-screen near the Presidio, I read, that just opened up, so that's good. But, really, I don't actually support these places with my money, since I rarely go out to the movies - when I have cable, that's how I see flicks...
Then took a left, to the west, on Green - the library I was heading to is at Green and Octavia...and admired a chalked sign, in Italian, for what I thought was another restaurant, called Biondivino: http://www.dailycandy.com/san_francisco/article/28348/Divine+Wine. Would like it better as a food place...but I DID much like the chalked sign, and in Italian. Wouldn't patronize the joint...I like my wine red and cheap and sweet: Carlo Rossi Sangria is what I go for - http://beerinfood.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/nutritional-info-for-carlo-rossi-sangria/...
Then continuing west, across Van Ness - there's a church, Russian Orthodox, I believe, which, last time I was there, years ago, had some nice beeswax candles, which is a reason to go there again and buy the holy implements of ritual, so to speak. (Running out of time again, another fifteen minutes of non-fame gone...but I'm getting through my notes, and no one is waiting to use this computer...)
THE LUST LETTERS #3 by Gnarly Downside, for his dearest Miss Octavia
...then walked a few more blocks west on Green Street...an hour until the library was open at 1pm. But I had a plan: check out the several blocks of shops and restaurants and other businesses on Union, a block north...and for sure had to use a restroom, 'cause I'd been drinking a lot of yerba mate tea this morning and the relief of urine release was coming overdue...
But it wasn't so entirely urgent...I strolled west on the north side of Union, and noted a few things down. Such as a fortune teller Tarot card reader. Ten bucks for a session. I do that sort of thing myself, and probably wouldn't frequent such a service...
And there was Carol Doda's shop...a Sixties Frisco figure due to her topless and maybe even bottomless performances in North Beach. See http://www.yelp.com/biz/carol-dodas-champagne-and-lace-lingerie-boutique-san-francisco. A pioneer in her field...
Then saw a bar on the other side of the street and figured that'd be a good place to find relief...called the Bus Stop. In I went, took off my mirrored sunglasses, saw an older gent who looked like he was in charge, and I asked very nicely if I could use the facility - didn't intend to buy anything - and he was very agreeable. So I went to the can and quickly did my thing, and was out of there, and thanked the man upon leaving. I should be back when I wanna buy - http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/911222/san_francisco_ca/bus_stop.html. (Oh, Dylan was on the sound system, which is just okay with me. Not a big Dylan fan. Tho' I've been known to play "Desolation Row" on a jukebox...)
...then back to the other side of Union to continue walking west...there's Perry's, I think a place mentioned in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novel...lemme check: http://www.mistersf.com/cinema/index.html?cintales.htm - yeah, I was right. Well, it, like the rest of this particular neighborhood in general, isn't my style - remember, I was there only 'cause the library wasn't open yet. Would never go to this Perry's...
Then down a ways along the street and stopped at some framing shop, I think it was, that had great images of old San Francisco, such as a 1907 photograph of Ocean Beach. And a painting of the old Playland near there, called "The Last Exit", by some artist with the last name of Morgan. (Time's nearly up again...nearly at the end of these notes...one more fifteen minute session should do it...)
THE LUST LETTERS #4 by Gnarly Downside, for his dearest Miss Octavia ...okay, my dearest Octavia, this last session should do it...continuing west on Union, waiting for the library to be open...there's a Lush outlet in this zone - I love the one on Powell Street...see http://www2.lush.com/cgi-bin/lushdb/stores.html?mv_arg=USA for a listing of stores around California and the rest of the country... And made note of the many outdoor cafes - great day for that activity, it being a warm and blue-skied day in Frisco...and there was at least one wine speciality shop - three bucks for a glass of the selection of the day... Then at Fillmore, looked north, downhill - the Matrix/Fillmore nightclub is there - a former rock and roll venue, now a restaurant and nightlife place, but also sort of a shrine to what it was in the Sixties...http://www.matrixfillmore.com/matrixfillmore/. Was there once or twice years ago, wouldn't mind being there again... And also...rushing this a little...a whole lotta ladies' clothes of a hip kind to be had on Union. I was actually approving of the styles I was seeing from outside, and I'm kind of hard to please in some things...and there was the Great Overland bookstore - had heard about this - met the son of the owners once, I believe, a friend of a friend. Walked up to check the outside...bargain books of a decent kind for sale... Then heading back east along Union - nearly time for the library...Samsara, a store, with a golden dancing Shiva statue in the window, plus Eastern items like rings and whatnot - I give it a thumb up...then Osha, a restaurant, accessible through a recessed entranceway, which I liked. I'd go there...I'd put in the links to these places but I wanna get through all my notes in this session, and I've got less than five minutes left... And paused at socks in a window of a store...thought of the lady I'd lived with a while back - she would like one with an Indian (Bombay, not Navajo) motif of a woman on a lotus...then a French-named eatery that was popular, many diners. I didn't like it - don't usually like French things, except kisses and fries... Then past the Bus Stop bar again - opened in 1900, so that's good, I like to patronize the historical in this city...then a Starbucks - Slutbucks...then a Pasta Pomodoro, popular. But if it's a chain, I wouldn't go there. I wanna put money into the independent outfits...and then, that's about it...on the way to the library, saw that the famous Octagon House was open for free touring, so went in, and a nice lady hostess told me, frankly, way more than I wanted to know about the place and the antiques inside, some from, like, 1760. Well, my cell phone's alarm went off, and I was able to make that an excuse to leave without further information...so then got here to the library, and did this for you, my dearest Octavia, with the best of my lust...
[P.S. - okay, got another fifteen, so I do wanna include the links I passed over in the last part of the above...for the Great Overland: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-great-overland-book-company-san-francisco-3. And Samsara: http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/44978346/san_francisco_ca/samsara.html. And...Osha, a Thai place, discreetly situated: http://www.yelp.com/biz/osha-thai-san-francisco-2. And...skipping Slutbucks and what I believe is a chain Italian joint...the Octagon House: http://www.octagonhouse.org/. So...I believe that covers it all, at least for now...
