After getting off the plane I cruised back to the place where I'm staying
and cooled out for the day (Tuesday the 28th..) That evening i cruised
into the local town-ship, Palo Alto (right near Stanford uni) and checked
it all out. It was fairly happening, with some guys performing in a little
sqwuare and quite a few ppl here and there cooling out at cafes etc. Let
me just say that it was nice for many reasons, especially considering I was
comfortable walking around in just a t-shirt (well, I was wearing jeans and
shoes too, but you know what I meanm! ;-) Anyway, my point is that only
two days ago I was down in Taz freezing with nice temperatures of 10 C
(about 50 F?) and below! Now I'm wlaking around at night and it's warmer
that that! :-) Also here I scoped a CD store which had quite an
impressive collection of second-hand discs (e.g. Urban Species album
"Listen" for $7 and Craig Mack's album for $8.)
Anyway the next day (30/6/95) was to see my journey to SF: The City!!!
Damn, what an eye-opener. Coming from Hobart, a city of 110,000 people,
you'd be able to see that San Fran is quite different (I've been to bigger
cities [Sydney = 4 million ppl,] but there is definetly a different vibe
operating over here....) Anyhow I jump off the train and almost straight
away I'm faced with something new. Namely all those people asking for
change and sleeping in the streets etc. There are *so* many, I was really
spun out. Some blocks maybe 10 to 20 people. Anyway being an out-of-towner
it was kinda hard for me to continually pass them by (it seems that you
build up an immunity to it or something? I personally have never been
faced with this sort of situation! For sure Taz has homeless ppl, but they
are for the most part invisible, with the only ppl asking you for cash
being the alcoholic thugs travelling in groups of four of more. "Hey mate!
Can you spare a doallr or two?" "Sorry, I don't have a cent!" <---
blatant lie! "Oh yeah? Well F%$% you then mate! We're gonna smash you're
f**$$*g face in! etc.") Back to the point, it's hard to ignore them when
they come up to you as soon as you come out of a burger joint of something
and you're eating and all they want is a few cents. I gave a couple of
guys less than 10 cents (my loose change,) and they were like "Thanks
brother we really appreciate it!" and they smile and shit and wander off to
the next victim (and they say all that without apparent hint of sarcasm!)
Anyway, like I said it was wierd experience for an out-of-towner.
Anyway, I decided that I wnated to check Haight St. first as most of you
guys had sent me addresses of stores there. At this stage I was on Market,
so I grabbed $50 (which was *supposed* to last to N.Y.C! :-), headed to
Haight and started to walk up the street (having zero comprehension of the
transit system.) A long time later I reached lower Haight where I soon
discovered Groove Merchant was closed (opening at 12,) and "Love And
Haight" was closed (gone for good in fact,) but there was a cafe by the
same name (which leads me to think that I'm confused and no "Love and
Haight" record store ever existed..) which I didn't stop in at.
I continued trekking and eventually reached upper Haight where it was
really going on. Lots of people, lots of stores and a pacey vibe! First
place I checked into was "Recycled Records" @ 1377 Haight on Masonic. All
2nd hand stuff (CD's too!) and quite a bit of it at that! I picked up some
*gold* here and left quite a bit of it behind for all you local
"gold-diggers"! ;-) Anyway this is what i picked up (All prices in U.S.
dollars and as they say , read them and weep!)
CDs: Big L - "Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous" $7
Da Bush Babess - "Ambushed" (promotional "not for sale" album, but
who cares! :-) $4
VINYL:Casuual - "Fear Itself" $2
Run D.M.C. - "Raising Hell" 99 cents!!!!
Jeru the Damaja - "The Sun Rises In The East" $7.50
and one another nifth score (as it's pretty much a collector's piece...)
"Star Wars: The Motion Picture Soundtrack" $5!!!
...so as you might imagine i was pretty happy! :-)
Then I moved on to "Reckless Record" I think (it was about two doors along
after crossing a street,) but they they didn't really have anything so I
soon moved on, after grabbing a copy of the SF "Gaurdian", as well as the
other free "haps paper". The next place i hit was "Rough Trade" I think,
and whilst their selection was better than "Reckless" I still didn't pick
up anything there. O.K., i continued to cruise up the street stopping here
and there. "X-Large" was a bit of a non-event and it seemed to me that it
catered for the techno style fashions rather than dealing with hip-hop
(strange considering it was initially started off by one of the Beasties?)
After wandering for awhile I managed to find "Behind The Post Office" which
was a cool store and deserves all the props everyone gave it! I was
talking to the guy in there and he was real cool also and a big help.
Still, I didn't buy any clothes because my overiding philosophy continually
won the day. i.e. I can buy this $80 jacket *or* I can buy more records!
:-) What I did want to get was "Bored Stiff" (a local SF crew,) but I
decided to pick it up on the return journy (that was only $7 but real short
I hear.) Anyhow the guy in BTPO told me to check Zebra records out down in
lower Haight, which I had completely forgotten about.
It was a good thing he reminded me as i tracked down heaps of cool stuff
down there. Once again i didn't buy anything (having already spent what I
wanted too for the day,) but I did peep some stuff I've wanted to hear for
awhile as having the change to check a DJ playing in there (he was playing
what you guys call "house" though it had a slight hip-hop feel to it
[strenghtened by his frequent scratching,]...) This also looks like the
place where I'll buy my turn-tables from and apparently I can get 1200s as
they have a voltage selector under the actual turn-table. Once again the
guys running the store were cool and friendly. One of the dudes ran a
complete price-check on all this equipment for me with the distributor etc.
That's pretty much it. I bought one more record in a 2nd hand place down
on Market St. (Knuckleheadz - "Savages", which i have no idea what it's
like.) I also managed to get some cool snaps of all the graf around the
place.
Some other memorable moments:
Talking to this girl selling stuff in Haight some guy walks past and snarls
"I *HATE* men who like women!!!"
This dude asks me for a dollar and after explaining I just gave what was
left of my change to a guy about 25 metres up the street and then proceeds
to tell me how he only needs a record contract and he'll be *very* rich.
(He actually looked alot like Wu-Tang's ODB and had freaky pig-tail dreads
going on!) I ask him about and he does some freestying for me! :-) As
you guys say, it was a trip! ;-)
All these dudes in Haight hassling everyone that passes them and I was like
"Hmm.. Should I cross the road and avoid hassles? Nah!" Anyway as I get
closer one of them caught my eye and it becomes inevitable that they were
gonna say something. Sure enough they did, "Hey man!"
"Hey whassup?"
"Nothing. you cool?"
"Yeah!"
"Cool!"
I walk on hassle-free and happy whilst they start hassling the guy about 20
metres behind me suffers their wrath! :-)
And finally,
I was almost run over about 20 times after stepping out onto the road
looking completely in the opposite direction of the traffic (remeber Oz
drives on the other side of the road! :-)
Anyway, tomorrow i plan on hitting the touristy spots and then on Saturday
it's Berkely and Oakland.
All in all, I like San Fran! "It's a trip!" :-)
I'll keep you all informed!
Dino!
Michal the Milkman
Milkman@Quake.Net
(415) 328-2124