Beatles from the R Bar the other day as I passed, “I Feel Fine”. Had to look that up - not so very into the group that I knew the title right away. R Bar - one of the many such establishments in my neighborhood - located on Sutter between Larkin and Polk: www.yelp.com/biz/r-bar-san-francisco. Never been in there - it’ll pay for me to avoid bars for the next spate of time. But I’d like to mention it anyway…then a usual stroll up Polk before going back into my crib - the nice Polk a Dot store has bit the dust - was in there a few times, knew the owner, Michelle. Sign in front says she’ll continue to search for “cool and weird vintage” - more power to her…
Ran into a friend, and we stood and talked for a while - on a Shakespeare kick right now, he is - bought a personal DVD player and is watching BBC productions of many of the plays. He takes part in readings of them also at the North Beach public library - seems to really like the evil characters - they can be more fun to watch than the good guys…told him I was listening to a lot of audio books, including The Prince. He said there’s some line in one of the Bard of Avon’s plays in which a character compares himself to Machiavelli, says he’s even worse than him. One of the Richards, II or III, I think. Friend also said something about this villain changing colors like a chameleon, or something. (Looked it up - Richard III essay with this in there somewhere: www.msu.edu/user/gietzeng/shakespeare.htm. “I can add colors to the chameleon…” is the line…and see the following for a discussion of Shakespeare and Machiavelli, if you’re in the mood to wade through a lot of English lit analysis, with ol’ Michel de Montaigne thrown in for good measure for measure: www.phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/machmont.htm.)
Book heard about on the radio that sounds good: Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track - about roller derby. See: www.rollergirlthebook.com/. Haven’t thought about this “sport” in a while - quotes because it seems as much theatre as a sport, like pro wrestling. Like the name “jammer” for one of the players. Apparently this is really popular now. (This from To the Best of Our Knowledge, on the radio - here’s a link to the program, featuring material about David Mamet: www.topix.com/city/glengary-wv/2008/09/to-the-best-of-our-knowledge-making-movies.html.)
…a Monday morning, 5:30am, awake in my crib, still dark. Had been fasting for almost ten hours - sleeping during much of that, but that counts…have got my digestive system, my core, pretty well in order - doing a lot of abdominal lifts, not eating much - there’s some slight excess at my sides that I wanna take off, but not much. Recommended for all is the yogic practice of abdominal lifting - see something like: www.dhyansanjivani.org/stomach_life.asp. (This isn’t the best site about this procedure I’ve seen - posted here not long ago one from a Chinese system that included great pictures…but…this site has interesting material about other topics, such as the “Sextherapy” link that goes to “22 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Sex Life”, if that’s a concern…good general advice…)Was interested in a current movie about Scott Walker, some sort of music person. But my interest decreased after reading some reviews, like one by a Jennifer at the S.F. Weekly…something about “dour disposition pouring out of my stereo.” No, don’t want no dourness either…here’s an official trailer, about a minute and a half: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBMJ79ly3B4. Brian Eno said to have named Walker as an influence, which isn’t shabby. Jennifer says: “…while Walker’s story is intriguing, his music can be a challenging listen.” Also, about the music or movie, “…uncompromisingly bleak, like an old David Lynch film sucked dry of humor.” Think I’ll pass… Also pulled from a local free paper an interview with concert promoter Parker Day - a 24-year-old woman - “Parker” could be a guy’s name…was a party photographer, but her ambition’s grown…was at the 222 Club - near where I used to live, in the Tenderloin…says she’s created “borderline pornographic posters” for Tits, her nomadic party - not sure if I’ve seen those…here’s her MySpace: www.profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=94465.
Woman with a pretty big greyhound dog on Polk. Thought of a friend who thinks no one in the city should have a dog, especially such a big one, and especially one that really would like to be sprinting along across vast distances. Maybe a little lap dog would do in town.
The Osho Zen Tarot in the window at the Fields bookstore: www.misfitslife.com/zen.htm. Had this once...wouldn’t mind having it again - not a traditional deck - cards have names like “Existence”, “Inner Voice”. And there’s an additional card called “The Master”, I think…and also a deck called The Fifth Tarot: Restoring the Fifth Element: www.thefifthtarot.com/thefifthtarotproducts.htm. Says this “represents and reflects the harmonics and vibrations of the now.”
And continued a walk around the ‘hood - the Internet café at Frank Norris not yet open - a Sunday, opens later than weekdays…the Bikram yoga studio street-level door was open for a class in fifteen minutes…at City of Zen, the Mona Lisa analog clock I liked was gone from the window…had found an unopened package of Orville Redenbacher popcorn and had much of it, left the rest beside a sleeping person…
