Barflies

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The original plan for today was to pay a visit to Golden Gate park and then the bridge, but the weather scuppered my plans yet again so I couldn't be bothered. Instead I walked the 7 or 8 blocks to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, despite the fact I decided a few months back I'd had enough of galleries to last me a lifetime.

The art on display was OK, but a number of the galleries were closed again, so I didn't get to see as much as I could have. And what I did see didn't impress me much in the words of Mark Twain's daughter Shania.

The weather was still crap when I left so I pressed on the the Beat museum on Broadway, where they had about 2 exhibits, one of which being a typewriter similar to one used by Allen Ginsberg. Great. They did show a pretty cool film though with Johnny Depp and Dennis Hopper.

Afer somehow spending 2 hours in a museum with hardly anything in it, I was accosted by the doorman of the strip club next door, who asked me if I wanted to see some hot naked girls. I replied that of course I did, but why would I pay for it when I could see that kind of thing for free. It was only after this show of bravado I realised this was a blatant lie.

Needing a drink after that excitement, I stopped in at Caffe Vesuvio, a former haunt of Jack Kerouac, and one of the top 5 bars in the world according to an anonymous English publication. And to be fair, it was the closest I came to finding an English style pub on my trip. I almost expected to see Chauncey Monkhouse in the corner reading his paper.

My appetite whetted but not sated by the 2 pints I had here, I decided to continue drinking at the hotel bar, where i got chatting to 2 middle aged American guys, one of whom was nice enough, the other thought he was a big shot, but in fact he was an idiot. He told me that we had it easy in the UK as we paid hardly any tax, until I explained that actually we had higher rates that in the US. To which he replied 'Yeah, but my car insurance was $1,300 this year'. Good argument pal, maybe you shouldn't drive a bloody tank like everyone else does here.

Still, he did buy me a beer so he can't have been all bad.

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