My mum grew up in North London, and one of her friends from her teenage years there now lives in San Francisco. On short notice he invited us to stay over at his one evening, took H and me out to dinner with friends of his, and gave us a fantastic tour of the city the next day.
Andrew, an epidemiologist, lives in Noe Valley, near the famous Castro district, and up a bloody great hill from the end of the street car line down Market Street. The house has been occupied by him and his sons since 1974, and it has the feel of a good, arty, bloke's house - with fantastic views over the city from the back balcony.
We didn't bring the camera out to dinner, which was a real shame. Our hosts were Sandra, a photography curator, and Steven, a poet, and the other guests were all poets - Gloria, Daisy and George. The food was lovely, and it was an interesting evening, but for me the highlight was listening to Daisy's perspective on Nicaragua, Brazil, Venezuela, Chiapas and the prospects for greater Latin American unity - speaking as she was as the ex-vice minister of culture from the Sandinista government! It was great to hear a little of the hope and vision that had inspired the very young government as every school and college in the country took a year off to sort out the illiteracy problem (very successfully, by all accounts), and tragic to hear again of the "low intensity warfare" (meaning bombing schools and hospitals instead of military installations) with which the US/Contras brought the new goverment to its knees. H wants to put her in touch with Senait, who wrote about women and Nicaragua's revolution from the perspective she formed in Eritrea's liberation struggle - I hope this happens!
Next morning, the four globe-trotters climbed into Andrew's swish black BMW for the Moss Frisco tour, which we can most highly recommend. In a few short hours we mosied merrily through the Castro, Haight-Ashbury, the Mission and the Golden Gate Park; over the Golden Gate Bridge to the National Park on the other side (home to coyote and mountain lions); in and out of coffee shops and a nice little italian diner in North Beach; past cable-cars and christian evangelists; into Coits Tower to see Diego Rivera's students' work and into the San Francisco Art Institute where he taught to see his own work, and a couple of other interesting exhibitions (including one from this lot); into City Lights bookstore; through the posh Sea Cliff district (via Robin William's house) to the Pacific ocean; and through Chinatown to Macy's in Union Square - from where back to the CalTrain for our return to Palo Alto.
And all this with much interesting conversation about China, Africa, life, kids, work, the world ...
- Mark
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