Covering SF: Thursday April 9th: Art, Planes & Baseball

So…it’s been a while. Let’s catch up for a minute. How are you doing? Everything well? I know, this weather’s been crazy. Are the Braves scaring you as much as they’re scaring me?

I got back from San Francisco on April 13th and I kept meaning to write about what happened out there but it was going to take too long and I kept putting it off. I’ll break it into separate entries to make it easier to go through.

Have I mentioned that I’m writing this on a different computer? Does it look different? My right arm feels funny while writing on this computer. I wonder what that means.

When I first left for San Francisco, I was writing down notes in my cell phone to remember and then transcribing them into a journal that my girlfriend gave me before the trip. But then pretty soon, my notes and everything became less detailed and you’ll see why once I tell you what happened.

Converting Audio Files

When I left you little Droogies, I had learned that all those audio books I’d downloaded wouldn’t play on my mp3 player. I’d found a conversion program but it would only convert three minutes at a time unless I paid for the full version. Since it appeared to work and the initial tests showed that it would play on my player, I paid the extra $20 to get the ‘key code’ and start converting.

The conversion took forever. I had 13 files and I ended up going to bed with it still converting and when I woke up at 5am, it was still converting. I was able to get 12 of the 13 files completed and on my player for the flight out there.

Waking up Thursday

I struggled going to sleep Wednesday night. I was thinking about the plan, the conversion process and about different things that I needed to remember. I fell asleep around 12:30am and I kept waking up through out the night off and on. I probably slept about 3 hours all together.

At 5:50, we left for the airport and I was hungry but I thought initially I would just eat something at the airport. But then I couldn’t wait, so we stopped at Chick-fil-a. Turned out it wasn’t open yet. I swear that I’ve seen Chick-fil-a restaurants open at 6am but this one didn’t open until 6:30. So I thought we could stop at one on the way.

At Hartsfield

I expected traffic to be heavy but moving. Instead, it was really moving and we made really good time on the way up there and arrived at the airport around 6:30, so I never stopped and ate anything first.

There wasn’t a line for the initial security check, so I breezed through that and there were only a handful of people waiting to take their shoes off and go through the metal detector. That went pretty quick too. I was already at the gate by 6:45 and my flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 8:30 (and didn’t leave until 8:45). I really didn’t plan on everything going so easily, leaving me two hours to just sit and wait.

All the vendors that served real food weren’t open yet, at least I didn’t see one that was open. There was a newsstand like place that sold candy but that wasn’t what I was looking for.

On Wednesday, Pardon the Interruption was on ESPN2, so while I saw the episode, I missed ‘the big finish’ that airs during SportsCenter. I was able to download that part of the show on video podcast and I watched it at the gate along with several video MLB podcasts.

The biggest annoyance at the airport were those beeping carts that carry certain people to their gates. Why do those people get a cart for and why is that beeping sound so high pitched. There’s something about that tone that drives me insane. I could’ve bit one of those cart people.

And those cart people. They looked so smug up there on their cart. Glancing around at the rest of us who were born without the privilege of a cart waiting to take us from gate to gate. The repetitious beeping probably didn’t even bother them. They grew up with it. I bet they miss the beeping when they’re not on the cart. Bastards.

On the Plane

Once I got on the plane, I looked around to see if there were any Arabs on board. Is that bad? Should I not admit that? And whenever there are Arabs on board, I always feel a little better when I see a couple soldiers dressed in army fatigues. It’s like I think that those soldiers are used to battling Arabs overseas, fighting them on a plane should be second nature (even if the soldiers are flying in from serving on an airbase in Germany, never seeing any combat in Iraq).

Well, there weren’t any Arabs on the plane and I felt relieved. You know, that sounds bad…I think…maybe.

I was so tired and I was on the plane and I wanted to go to sleep but I knew I wouldn’t be able to. I flew first class from Las Vegas to Atlanta on a red eye and I still couldn’t fall asleep. If you can’t sleep on a flight like that, you can’t sleep on any flight.

The two people next to me were boyfriend/girlfriend, or a really handsy brother/sister. The guy wouldn’t shut up. He just kept babbling about what the weather is usually like in California and how much better the West Coast is. Thankfully, once we were in the air, they both fell asleep.

When the flight took off, my side began to seize up. When we started to descend, it seized up as well. I was concerned since the next day would be my major walking day with at least five miles of walking.

Playing Trivia

Each seat had its own television screen and you could watch television, pay-per-view movies and make CD playlists. But the best thing they had were video games, most notably trivia.

I love trivia and I’ve been on flights where they have trivia. Those flights will show you a question, give you a few seconds to think of the answer and then it reveals the answer. This one, though, was interactive and you could play against other people on the plane. I won the first several games that I played, my main competition coming from a passenger named JAAACK. He was pretty good and one a few while I was playing.

Sometimes I would take a break from playing and watch television, or one of my podcasts but every time I’d go back to trivia, JAAACK was still at it. He was my rival. He was like Lex Luther to Superman or Martin Luther to Charles V.

While on the Plane

The other thing you could do on this screen was track where the plan was as it flew across the country. What struck me most about flying over America was how different each area was. You had the long stretches of plains, then mountains, then reddish mountains/canyons, followed by desert. It was pretty amazing.

They served food on the flight but the menu was weak. Because it was morning, there was the choice of a bagel, a croissant (a word I refuse to say), and a fruit plate. They also had Peanut M&Ms and Pringles for sale and the standard peanuts and cookies that were free.

Additionally, I had a bag of Reece’s Pieces that my girlfriend had given me for the flight (two bags actually, one for the flight out there and one for the flight back). I started with the cookies, followed by the Reece’s and I ended with two bags of peanuts. And that was my breakfast.

Arriving in San Francisco

I landed in San Francisco at 10am (Pacific Time) and the airport was right on the water, so it looked like we were going to land on the water and it was kinda freaking looking. The airport was smaller than Hartsfield but was very crowded and there wasn’t a lot of room to walk without running into someone. It felt like I had to walk around half the airport to get to the BART, the system that takes you into San Francisco.

It wasn’t raining, though it was clear that it had been raining and might start raining again very soon. It was windy and while I was glad I had my jacket on, the heat was jacked up very high in every building I went inside of.

At the Visitor's Center

From the airport, I went to the SF Visitor’s Center to pick up my City Pass. My first concern of the trip was that the pass would have some loopholes on it that would keep me from visiting the places I wanted to go to or would have some cap on how many times I could ride the buses or something.

I’d scheduled several minutes at the Visitor’s Center because I was going to ask several questions about the city and the City Pass but it was clear that the guy at the counter didn’t really want to answer any questions.

I asked how the MUNI pass (within City Pass) works and he said, “I’ll answer that when I explain how the pass works.”

All he said was how long it was good for and that I’d better not remove the coupons myself or they’ll be voided. I really didn’t know how I was supposed to get on the bus (and especially the subways) with the pass. I figured I could just ask the drivers or someone at the station when I needed to use the pass.

I was turned around and asked Visitor Center Guy where the Mosser (my hotel) was. I wish I could reprint his directions because they were the most convoluted set of instructions I’ve ever been given, especially when I realized where the hotel was. I knew I was only a block and a half away but he said ‘turn here’ at least four times. Instead, he could’ve just said go up the stairs and turn right at Old Navy. I looked at my map and got to the hotel without a problem.

At the Hotel

I was concerned I would be allowed to check in so early. I’d packed so that the bag I’d carry with me out in the city was inside the luggage bag and if they wouldn’t let me check in, I could either carry my luggage bag with me to the Modern Art Museum, Yerba Buena Park and the Cartoon Museum or they might let me check in my bag up front. If they did that, I’d unpack the luggage bag, and take only what I needed that day with me in the smaller bag I’d carry around with me.

As it turned out, they let me check in without any problems. I was on the eighth floor and while the hotel was old, it wasn’t dirty or anything. It was just very small feeling. The bed was about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide and reminded me of a coffin. There wasn’t much space between the bed and the sink.

The restroom was in the hallway and there was a men and women’s restroom, though both simply had a single toilet in them. There was just enough space for the door to open without hitting the toilet. At first, I couldn’t figure out how to turn the light on. There was no light switch to be found. So when I got there, I closed the door and peed in the dark. I mean, I’ve been using the toilet for a lot of years and if I just aim straight, there’s no reason I really need light.

It turned out that there was a button that you could press for the light and depending on how many times you pressed it, the light would stay on for a certain amount of time. For instance, if you pressed it once, it would stay on for five minutes, twice would be ten minutes.

The bathroom was also in the hallway and the light worked much the same way. It was a bathtub with a shower and like everything else in the hotel, it was small.

When I’d checked in, they gave me the option to upgrade to a bigger room, one presumably without shared facilities but the cost was $25 per night. I didn’t really think it was worth $100 to upgrade, especially when I wasn’t sure how much bigger the rooms would be.

The room did have a television, and it was mounted up high in the room near the door like it was a hospital. There was no air conditioner and initially the room was hot but there was a fan and it worked okay enough. While there was a closet, there wasn’t a chest of drawers. Each morning, I just kept repacking my suitcase, except for my shirts, which were hung up in the closet.

I never did figure out how to work the clock radio. The only time I could set the alarm for was 7:30am. I kept trying to change it to an earlier time but I couldn’t do it. The first night I used my cell phone alarm but it didn’t work either. The rest of the trip, I just woke up when I woke up and thankfully I never overslept.

To Yerba Buena Park/MOMA

After reconfiguring my luggage so that my smaller bag that I’d carry around with me would have everything I needed that afternoon, I walked to Yerba Buena Park. On the way there, I saw Mel’s Drive-In and Denny’s, both places I’d planned to eat at on my trip and they were both a half block or so away from the hotel. Also nearby was the Metreon, which housed a full movie theater that included an IMAX screen.

The Park wasn’t far from the hotel either but it was much smaller than I’d expected. I only took pictures of a waterfall and the front of the Modern Art Museum but there wasn’t anything else worth taking shots of. I spent a lot less time in the park than I’d expected.

Seeing Art

The Modern Art Museum (or MOMA as it’s called) was the first test for my City Pass. I took it to the admissions desk and they ripped out the coupon and gave me a ticket. I walked around the museum and…well, I saw stuff. Nothing really worth taking pictures of (though I’m not sure we were supposed to take pictures of it or not).

I feel funny about taking pictures of art. In many cases, someone saw something, took a picture of it and then drew a picture of what they took a picture of. So I’m taking a picture of a picture they drew of a picture they took.

Of course, many things in the museum weren’t drawings of anything. They were splashes of paint on a canvas. I don’t know how you determine if that piece of art is good or not. How do you judge that art?

I’d look at those sorts of pieces and move to the next one but I wasn’t going to spend a bunch of time trying to figure anything out. But there were those who were more than willing to spend time with each piece. Staring at it. Left hand against his chin. Pondering. Awaiting some sign that would give him a supernatural understanding of that piece. Just what were those seemingly random lines trying to convey. He just kept studying it. A certain look of self-importance. He was going to understand this piece. They weren’t just random lines. There was a meaning.

I found starting at him more interesting than the pieces themselves. He was wearing a brown suit jacket with dark blue jeans. And sandals…with socks on (did you have hafta ask if he had socks on? Of course he had socks on).

But he spent too much time with each piece and I had to keep moving. One canvas had four squares drawn within each other. It was called Homage to a Square. That is not art. It’s a faithful rendering of a well-known geometric shape…four of them inside each other. Not art.

I did see a Jackson Pollack painting. Can’t really say I was impressed but it did make me think of Ed Harris and in a couple of days I was going to see Alcatraz, which was in the movie ‘The Rock,’ which also starred Ed Harris. Ed Harris is good.

Seeing Cartoons

I got through MOMA pretty quickly, all four floors of it and I moved on to the Cartoon Museum. It was very small and I had some misgivings about even going inside of it. I mean, I’m not a cartoon guy. Part of what intrigued me though is that it said that they also had the history of political cartoons and I thought that sounded interesting.

When I was putting the plan together, the website for the museum listed a cost of $4. When I got there, it was $6. It’s not like it’s a huge difference but I checked the cost of everything a couple days before leaving. The website was update again on 4-14, the day after I got back to Atlanta and it lists a charge of $6.

The museum was small and they didn’t allow photography. I debated whether to pay the money or not but I decided to go ahead anyway.

Mainly it was a museum about ‘Watchmen’ with a couple other cartoon strips. And I mean that literally. There was a cartoon strip of Dennis the Menace and a couple from the Peanuts. There was no cohesive story or history being displayed. A couple of sketches from some well known artists but mostly it was just ‘Watchmen.’ Some of the displays appeared to come from the movie, you know, like props but others appeared to be replicas of props used in the movie. I wasn’t sure what was from the movie and what wasn’t.

There were some original sketching for the comic (excuse me, graphic novel) but there wasn’t much of an appeal in that. I’d planned on taking pictures of those things and sending them to my brother who would at least be interested in those sorts of things.

There was a constant video running of the making of ‘Watchmen.’ I watched the part about Dr. Manhattan. Somehow I was able to make it through the rest of the trip without visions of a blue penis dancing in my head, which is especially impressive considering that I was in San Francisco.

As for the ‘history of political cartoons,’ there were three or four cartoons. That was it.

Seeing Baseball

My next stop was AT&T Park to watch the Giants play the Brewers. This was my first chance to use my City Pass to ride the bus and I was a bit nervous about it. At the art museum, they ripped out my coupon. Was the bus driver supposed to rip out this coupon? Maybe giving me an actual MUNI pass instead?

I stood and waited for the bus and I got on, showed the driver the inside of the Pass, turned to the actual MUNI pass page but he said that he needed to see the date it was validated, which was April 9th. He seemed to say that it was only valid for that date. I was confused and he told me to just sit down, which I did.

I followed his path on my map so that I could get out at the right time. I got out on the corner of 3rd and Townsend and walked the rest of the way to the ballpark, past a McDonald’s and a handful of scalpers. (Those the park was at least a third empty at its peak, so I don’t know how much any scalper could make off a game like this)

I was concerned that the stadium officials would let me in with my bag, which is a bit larger than regulations allow. But when I went in, I had it opened, the guy peered in and let me through.

It was cold, though not unbearable…until I got inside the stadium, above right field where homeruns count as ‘splash hits.’ It’s right above the bay and the wind ripped through and it was VERY cold. I had my jacket on but I’d taken the inside lining out so it was basically nothing more than a windbreaker. And that was fine through most of the day but it was difficult during the game.

I noticed the flags were flying at half-mast and I wondered who had died. I took a picture of the flags to show how hard the wind was blowing. I took several pictures around the stadium, most of which would’ve turned out better had the weather been better.

The tarp was on the field when I got there and I wasn’t sure whether the game was going to be played or not. I’d gotten to the park a couple hours early, in hopes of seeing batting practice but the players were warming up inside instead.

Meeting Manson

I went to check out where my seat was and I was pretty sure I could find it without help but an usher asked if he could help. The usher was wearing a large dark green jacket with his hood up and he had ungroomed looking beard, and he reminded me of Charlie Manson. I told him I was looking for section 327. He said ‘It’s all around you. Be more specific.’ I said, “I’ll be sitting in row 5 seat 5.” And he pointed behind me and said, “It’s up there.” He turned away, mumbling, ‘Thank you for that.’

And that’s something I would notice a lot in San Francisco. If you asked for directions, most people would point. There was a lot of pointing going on. The funny thing is that at the Visitor’s Center, when pointing would’ve actually helped, that’s when I get the long drawn out instructions that were impossible to follow.

It’s not that the usher pointed though. I mean, row 5 seat 5 was right that and there’s no directions you can really give for that. It was the strange mumbling that I found odd.

I went and bought a hotdog and drink and went back to my seat to wait for nearly two hours for the game to start. The cup was like the one I got in St. Louis. It was really cheap and I don’t think it’ll last very long before it starts breaking down.

While I was sitting in my seat, a person mentioned that the flags were flying because of a player who’d died. I couldn’t hear everything, so I checked my cell phone (which now had no bars of battery power) to see what had happened. Angels’ pitcher Nick Adenhart died just a little bit after having pitched six shutout innings against the A’s in his season debut, with his father in the stands. He was hit by a drunk driver who’d run a red light. The driver was driving on a suspended license due to a conviction for drunk driving.

Over the next few days, I kept thinking back to Adenhart’s death. Especially because the game he’d pitched in was against the other Bay Area team and the news in the area was covering it every day.

Almost Winning Money

Around the fifth inning of the game, a woman was selected to play Concentration on the big board. Her job was to match each card in under 30 seconds and her row would win a $20 gift card. I was barely paying attention but she won and the woman behind me slapped me on the shoulder and said that I’d just won $20 because she was in my row. She offered to switch places with me and I just laughed.

Then the woman who’d won the game came back to her row and when they checked her ticket, it turned out that while she was sitting in row 5 and on the big board stated she was sitting in row 5, her ticket was for row 6, meaning I didn’t win anything and the woman behind me walked away with the $20 gift card.

Leaving the Game

I left the game in the sixth inning because it was really cold and I was nervous that I might get sick since it was also misting a little. I went out the wrong exit and wound up having to walk the entire distance around the stadium, which was made worse when a street was closed because of player parking. I had to walk through the marina area to get to a bus stop.

I got on the bus, and this time I just showed the front of my city pass and was waved on by the driver without a problem.

I got back to the hotel by about 6:30. The goal was to be in bed by 7pm in each night so that I could stay on East Coast Time. I was very tired and I knew I’d have no trouble going to sleep.

I watched a little bit of television before checking my plan and setting my cell phone alarm for 4:30am.

Next Entry

The next post will cover what I did Friday, when I visited Castro Street, Golden Gate Park and Haight-Ashbury. But the biggest thing that happened Friday is I twisted my knee that morning, which would impact the rest of my time out there.

Final Thoughts

At work, they’re planning a Biggest Loser, weight loss challenge. They’re also putting together a snack day for each week. Hmmm…

If you get a chance to watch ‘Thrilla in Manilla,’ an HBO Documentary about the third Ali-Frazier fight, watch it. Even if you aren’t a boxing fan, it’s worth watching.

If you get a chance to watch ‘Flash of Genius,’ starring Greg Kinnear…don’t watch it. While it does eventually end, it’ll feel like it’s been the 10 years the movie covers.

To the person getting married for the third time: You know what they say, ‘The third time’s the first time after the second time.’