Neptune Landing

         Known as the new Chinatown, San Francisco's Inner Richmond district has become the darling of the culinary scene. Located north of Golden Gate Park and south of the Presidio, the Richmond lies on a suburban grid but the blocks contain a few real gems. Not least of these is SF's answer to NY's Strand Bookstore. Ours is known as  Green Apple Books . It's a wooden and creaky wonderland with dozens of shelves of new and used books and a lovely shelter for our monsoon winter days. For fun I picked up Llewwllyn's 2013 Witches' Companion , a perfect purchase preceding The Hobbit which we enjoyed tonight in Japantown.         Afterwards I spotted the inimitable " Burma Superstar " on Yelp and knew we had to experience the legend. Burma is known as one of the ten best restaurants in San Francisco and is a mere two blocks away from Green Apple. For a to...

December 21, 2012 is fast approaching and I still haven't picked out my apocalypse outfit. But what's the deal? Should I spring for that new pair of kicks? Is the Mayan prophecy real or just another way to waste time surfing the internet? I like to think of "the Mayan subject" as the menacing end of the internet spectrum; if you get bored of cute kittens you always have your dueling doomsday psychics. Is 2012 just another way to avoid cleaning the bathroom? There are serious questions and I'll need a bit of time and space here to answer them. Sure doomsday is a sexy topic but it sucks all the air out of the room. And it largely misses the point. I believe that on a ground level, what we need to focus on is loss of biological diversity and ever increasing public health threats. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the one nonprofit to which I regularly contribute, "The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1...

Who knew that the month of November would prove so achingly beautiful to Boston, Massachusetts? The fall colors were supposed to elude Mauricio and I but global warming had extended October's palette into the week of Thanksgiving. Upon his first time in my base city, he opted for us to stay at the Park Plaza and I said nothing to discourage him. The neighborhood surrounding us was placid and squeaky clean. In fact our afternoon walks convinced us that we could dine off these Back Bay streets and trust in the power of civic government. Tis true that Boston is quiet, classy and pristine with a pace that is sleepy and a confidence that is earned. Boston is superior in at least one area of dining; good Indian food. There is a dish I discovered years ago at Jamaica Plain's Bukhara Restaurant which hugs the corner of Thomas and Burroughts Streets. The dish of the devas is called Malai Kofta and it doesn't seem to exist in San Francisco.  Malai Kofta, also known as v...

In a city that worships at the alter of the new, there's something infinitely comforting about respecting that which came before. The streetcars are a perfect example. MUNI, the shorthand for the San Francisco Municipal Railroad, honors its centennial birthday this year. One big celebration will take place this Sunday, November 11 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the San Francisco Railway Museum with early 20th century cars taking history-lovers down the new T line tracks. MUNI was born when voters approved a $2 million bond in 1909 that would insure a public system. Streetcars and cable cars had been operating since 1873 through the private enterprise of the Market Street Railway Company and later the much-maligned monopoly of the United Railroads. MUNI, however, gave the public a bit of an edge in deciding how they'd like their wheels to roll. The F Line, our only official streetcar line, glides from Fisherman's Wharf to the Castro and you can choose from the followin...

Is this the future of American Democracy? While the Massachusetts State Constitution is the oldest, continually-working constitution in the world (and the one that inspired the U.S. Constitution), the California equivalent is the longest one on the planet (aside from the nation of India and the state of Alabama). If voters have their say this time around, we in California, would tackle issues as varied as: Education funding (Proposition 30) Budget cycles (Proposition 31) Union dues (Proposition 32) Auto insurance (Proposition 33) Death penalty (Proposition 34) Human trafficking (Proposition 35) Prisoner sentencing (Proposition 36) Food labeling (Proposition 37) More Education funding (Proposition 38) Clean energy regulation (Proposition 39) Redistricting for state senators (Proposition 40) My head is dizzy and I'm a politics guy. These choices, mind you, do not include any of the SF City and County ballot measures or any candidate on the local or national le...

Things have been very pitched in San Francisco and around the U.S. recently: Halloween, the Giants' victory, the volatile and destructive weather, the lagging economy and of course, the campaign(s) and upcoming election. Being lucky to work outdoors, I've been quick to track strange animal and elemental behavior and ponder its relationship to the topics covered on NPR and FrontLine. Native American and Celtic philosophy doesn't sever the affairs of humans with that of our finned, furred and feathered brothers and sisters. Animals, plants and elemental forces are just persons in different forms. Photo by Francois Portmann As a fledgling "out" psychic, a particular situation keeps interrupting my dreams. It's the image of a snowy owl seated in a courtroom of crows. Now before you reach for that comment button warning me to get my ass home (before the land of fruits and nuts spoils me for good!), just do me a favor and observe if anything you have read h...

There is no better day than Halloween to come out. So I'm coming out as a psychic and shamanic practitioner. Let me back up. There are a few individuals in every circle or society who have been touched by the spirit world. As a child I was often poked fun as being "oblivious," or "having my head in the clouds." This was not time spent wasted but rather valuable communication with things that are unseen. In short, as the Irish say, I'm "touched." During a stretch in my 20's, the spirits took a break, and it looked like I may have a shot at leading a normal, productive life here on Earth. A lot of that was shattered with my testicular cancer diagnosis in May of 2007. On November 1st, I celebrate five years of good, cancer-free health. But the cancer, I'm convinced, was part of my "initiation illness" or "initiation crisis," the reality that there are grave threats if you deny your calling. Year after year, the spirit...

We're lucky to live two blocks from Alamo Square, the park where "the painted ladies" can be seen. The ladies are a string of six Victorian homes that survived both the '06 and '89 earthquakes. Together, before a breathtaking view of Downtown San Francisco, they make up "Postcard Row." Supposedly, the cast of "Full House" lived in one of these dwellings. Alamo Square is an uneven piece of green topography that many say is the dividing line of weather fronts. It's often fog-enshrouded, separating the oceanic West from the drier East. Dogs and their owners come to cavort on the Western half while tourists and neighbors come to picnic on the eastern slope. There is an absence of commercial activity as this is a historic residential area (and one that features quite a few halfway houses). The change in weather patterns mirrors the behavior patterns needed to get these folks sober.

Should I have named this post "Sex and the City?" That's how it feels sometimes, in this neighborhood especially, but that narrative from my fingertips would be deceitful. On the contrary, I find myself in a stable, loving relationship in a town of free love. When I met Mauricio in the Civic Center neighborhood on a Monday afternoon, we caught eyes as I was exiting the trolley. Everyone around us was looking down at their handheld gadgetry; an exercise I've had to mimic in order to keep up with opportunities. Our chance encounter was in late April about five weeks after my arrival. In my big move here, I assumed I was entering a new libertine period of my life especially since I had landed an apartment off unrepentant Church Street. The universe, however, had different plans. That shouldn't stop your curiosity about dating in this city of magic. The Castro, smack in the middle of the city, was once a middle-class Irish Catholic neighborhood referred to a...

No, this is not the name of some drag queen in the Mission but it is the Spanish phrase for Foreign Flowers of which San Francisco has many. In fact, the most illustrious and fragrant of these female spirits are introduced species. Here are a handful of the most noteworthy specimens that grow "wild" in our Fog City neighborhood spaces and Victorian front steps. Small things pack a big punch. Jasmine , a member of the olive family and native to subtropical and tropical climes of Asia and Africa, has tiny white flowers exuding a delicious, vanilla scent. It seems to adorn every stoop here. Jasmine is sometimes applied to Green Tea (which I personally dislike, finding it allergy-producing) and most widely known as a perfume. The leaves remain green year-round. Jacaranda Trees can be spotted all over the Mission and Bernal Heights. They flower in Spring and last until early Summer. They are native to subtropical and tropical areas of Central America, South America and t...

             I'm going to let the photos (nearly all taken by Mauricio Rojas) do the talking tonight. More words later in the week.

                There’s a small exercise you can do when you are seeking periods of growth and action. Sit in lotus position facing south and make an oval with your two hands over your solar plexus. This is the area above your belly button and below your breast bone. Imagine a yellow ray of light shooting through the portal and ask God, the Universe or The Great Spirit for cooperation in achieving your goals. Better yet do this in the sunshine as this third chakra activity feeds on fire and sunny self-esteem. Customize your prayer or wish and do this every day for a week. You’ll be amazed at what happens.  So it goes with the emboldening energy of the South direction. In California there is even a whole wild region that caters to growth and action. Starting one hundred and forty miles south of San Francisco on coastal Route 1 is an area known as Big Sur. The Spanish explorers named this pl...

The Mission District has historically been a middle-class Mexican and Latino neighborhood. Certain parts, since the 90's, have been anglicized with hipsters and restaurant entrepreneurs. It's a fun, colorful neighborhood in which to stroll, thrift-shop, dine and grab a drink or coffee. The best and cheapest Super-Veggie burritos can be found here in places like Pancho Villa Taqueria   and Taqueria Cancun . "It's always sunny in the Mission" is a truism that bears fruit for this flat, large, heavily populated area stretching over a hundred blocks. To the West ascends the tempestuous Castro District and to the East stands Portero Hill with her high cheek bones. The Mission, or what some dare to nickname "The Mish," is well-served by BART and several bus lines. There can be some post-apocalyptic aspects like the characters hanging out on the corner of Mission and 16th. The Mission, along with maybe Lower Nob Hill, resembles the feel of New York ...

Fall in Boston is delivered by a frenzy of fresh-faced college kids (and the cavalry of Uhauls they drive) followed by the sun-draped discoloration of our red maples and yellow birches. Here is San Francisco fall is known by the light. It's far sunnier in early September compared to the moodier August but it's a light that is steady, golden, slanted. Seasonal changes here are subtle and I'm told there is no noticeable change in color and that the leaves stay green year-round. With my rudimentary science, I know that conifers are green and that deciduous trees lose their leaves. Does this town buck the basic laws of botany? In many native american cultures, the direction of the WEST corresponds to the element of WATER which corresponds to the season of FALL. According to Bear Heart who wrote the wonderful tome, The Wind Is My Mother , "West is the direction of gratitude. When the sun goes down in the West, it's the benediction of another day. At the end of eac...