And Next

Since the walking tour ended back at Harvey Milk Plaza, we were right there as people started to gather around the theater for the afternoon / evening. Fuzios is just 2 doors down and we pretty much took over this tiny eatery for a few hour prior to the curtain call.




Mario snapped this series, to rave reviews:








Snacks consumed we headed up to mill about. Some folks were still arriving just in time for the showing, some had had to leave earlier... Very fluid group this weekend.




"My Cronies"


Everyone who was within ear shot when we decided to take this photo... Heh.

Inside the theater we'd amassed many of the memoriabilia items from the movie that our members have acquired. It's quite impressive, really.









Also in "our" possession is this billboard which was displayed outside of Tower Records in San Francisco. After Tower went belly up, Eric noticed the billboard was still out there. He called em up and managed to get it from them.




Ted swears someone goosed him!

Inside the theater is spectacular:








The immenently huggable Ted


The movie? I really wondered what the movie would be like -- again on the big screen. It's actually only my 6th viewing - we're infants in viewings compared to most of the folks around us. The big screen experience really cannot be replicated anywhere else. So, it still packs a punch. As usual the theater was slow to empty out and tears and hugs were all around.

I think many were reluctant to leave, so fortunately our faithful local bar guide forcefully inserted a dozen or so folks into cabs and told the driver where he was going... Turns out it was to a "Biker Bar Beer Garden" called Zeitgeist (sp?) in the middle of San Fran. Who Knew?? But after all the build up? I really didn't expect the bikes to be of the peddeling variety! LOL Indeed there were 2x4 racks built along one fence and Mountain Bikes hung up. Grace said - no really, motocycle bikers also tend to hang out there.. but it was a Sunday night and they must have been... somewhere else.


Ingmar and Chuck


Chuckie started doling out shoulder rubs!

We thought we were so fortunate finding a large set of tables free for our group.. Porta Potties? Eh - who cares!


Ms. Karen and me.

It was in leaving here that someone asked where we'd left our car all day. We said in the parking garage at the RinCon center - where we'd had Dim Sum that morning. What time does the garage close, they inquired. CLOSE? Um.. didn't even THINK about that! LOL. So we hastily waved good bye to everyone headed back to the hotel with promises that we'd be knocking on door 876 pretty soon if we were unable to get our car out of the lot. Hastily, I say, because Grace was once again shoving us into a cab. "Well??" She proclaims.. "They LEAVE if you don't get in right away!"

Dim-Yum

Sunday we went into the city to meet up with our folks for Dim Sum at Yank Sing. Woah, talk about a great way to stuff yourself with food to beyond bursting in a very short time! LOL. We had 3 large tables of people. It was a madhouse, but all fun madness as is typical with our group.





Jess, Monica, Grace, Ted, Beth





Jess, Linda, Ingmar, Jimmy





Larry, Monica, Theresa





Mario and Gail



After stuffing ourselves -- what better is there to do but go walking?





Heading out across town, led by Pete





To catch a street car!





Audra and Dave in the streetcar



The walking tour was given by City Guides, and this one was of the Castro District - named as such for the Castro Theater whom Eric (see pic from my last blog entry) had talked into bringing back Brokeback Moutain for one more day's run in a big theater. It is a gorgeous old theater, one of the best remaining (and still operating!) specimens from the 1920's. But... more on the theater later.







Following the 'summer of love' (1967) in the Haight Ashbury district not far away, the Castro rose as the gay center of town. Comprising of a business disrict and the neighborhoods surrounding it, the Castro has a distinct flavor all its own. The intersection of Market and Castro has been designated as Harvey Milk Plaza, and is marked by this enormous rainbow flag and plaque and gardens below. The dozen of us who signed up met our guide at the base of this flag.







On the tour we learned about Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man elected to be a city supervisor for San Francisco, in 1977 (third openly gay man elected to office in the US). He failed to be elected in the two previous elections, but when the city went to election-by-district that year Milk easily won his campaign. He was a vocal gay advocate and owned a business in the Castro. Milk and Mayor Mosconi were assasinated in 1978. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk



Beyond the policial history, the Castro district is interesting in that it did not burn in the 1906 earthquake/fire, and thus it has some of the oldest architecture in the city.



















This glass mosaic over childrens art adorns the walls of the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy -- it's astonishingly beautiful.









Bougainvillea





Back at Castro Street







And that was just our first 4 hours of the day... ;)

Yee Haw!!

Oh, we had such a fantastic time on our trip! Due to changing plans, and work and what not - we actually didn't get back home until Friday afternoon. It was quite the lap of luxury to get such an extended break.

Saturday, our first day in San Fran -- we actually never got to San Fran. ;) That was the day we all were headed for The Best Buck in the Bay - the gay rodeo held in La Honda. So we picked up our rental car and headed on over. We arrived about 1:00, which was perfect timing to mill around all afternoon greeting old friends and meeting new ones. Even got a little bit of rodeo watching in. LOL.


Driscoll Ranches provided the rodeo grounds


We had a booth set up with our Beyond Brokeback book available


Ha, something sure had our attention! Beth,Ted, Me, Dave, and Grace

What are we looking at?? Oh wait - I think it was these folks:





Ted, Me, and Eric - who instigated this whole weekend.


A good one from Chuck

Linda snapping a pic of Ingmar, Michael and Larry
One thing is for sure, none of our group are camera shy!

By the time we got most of the greetings out of the way, the rodeo was just settling down into their really silly events. Fine with me as I've never been too keen on traditional rodeo anyways. These people really know how to let their hair down and have fun!


The cheering squad

Goat Dressing: Teams of two have to put a pair of underwear on a goat, and run back across the line in the best time. (And yes, they did switch out the goats so the same pair weren't abused all afternoon!)




But my most favorite event was the Wild Drag Race: 3 person teams - 1 woman, 1 man, 1 person(man or woman) in drag. You had to get a steer over a line and then put the person in drag on it's back and Drag the steer back across a line.









It was a full afternoon that we couldn't have asked for to be more fun. That broke up around 6 and we headed back to Dave's sister's place in Foster City. We had a terrific evening with Caroline, Greg and Alek.