The last weekend of September is always fun in SF

[gordonzola]

As if further proof was needed of the sectarian left being out of touch with The People, ANSWER organized a "troops out!" demo on Sunday on the same day as the Folsom St Fair Predictably, only about 5000 people showed up to the demo which is a pretty dismal showing in SF for a "mass" Sunday afternoon protest. I think there were that many people a few years ago for the joke "Legalize PCP!"* rally someone called to make fun of the NORML folks.

Emma Goldman might not have agreed in her historical time period, but this definitely fell in the frame of that fake "If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution" quote attributed to her every five minutes or so.* Folsom St. is one of SF’s big weekends, smaller in size than Pride and Halloween, but equal in prep time and looking-forwardism.

If the Leftoids ever got out of the house and had fun they might have realized that it was a bad idea to "restart" the anti-war movement on a day where they were competing with SF’s pervy population, truly the soul of the city, as well as the SF Blues Fest. We’ll leave out the Niners game ‘cuz they’re sucking so badly this year. Here’s a pic from the demo *** and here are two crowd shots of Folsom St. last year. Good or bad organizing? You be the judge.

Even though I was deathly ill all week, I knew I had to roll out of bed for Folsom. First off, vestalvixen had come all the way from Boston for it and I was already being a whiney and terrible host, second, I was scheduled to work a booth for my workplace and third, I always have fun at Folsom even though I’m not usually a dress-up kinda boy.

Thankfully, I woke up feeling good so I dressed to show off my cheese tattoo and headed down to our booth to hand out licorice whips and fruit leather. Everything was free, we consider it community outreach**** since our store is a block away from the fair, but people were wary and skeptical. "Do I have to give my e-mail address?", "Is the prize free after my free spin?", "What if I don’t like my prize?" Sheeesh. Of course, every time I guaranteed someone there was "no catch", they’d spin the wheel and land on the tiny little square that read, "We whip you with a licorice whip!" But it was just one smack and then they got to eat the licorice, so no one seemed upset. My RSI arm is my smacking arm so I just handed stuff out.

I know you all were giving me sympathy yesterday, but I felt good enough on Sunday to drink the beer that we smuggled in, check out The Shocker (with Jennifer Finch from L7), and make out a little with a hott LJ babe***** (not my houseguest). My favorite line of the day was one I ran into an acquaintance who was complaining that none of her freak friends wanted to go this year. She continued, "I told ‘em, if you’re not gonna go to Folsom, you might as well just move somewhere with cheap rent. It’s why we’re here."

vestalvixen seemed impressed by the whole thing. I’d run into someone, say hi, then someone else would come up from behind and my friend and they would start fooling around or go underneath the stage together. VV kept saying, "I love your city!". Yep, VV, it’s like this every weekend here.

I only have one question and I need to ask one of my bear friends but I’ll post it here anyway. Do bears roll around on the carpet, building up static electricity to get their body hair to stand that far off their bodies? Do they have to recharge after awhile? Do they have little pieces of carpet tucked away along the route for this purpose? Are their bear fashion mags that teach their tricks?



*"New studies show that PCP is as safe and beneficial as blue-green algae."

**The Chron had an exceptional recent butchering of this fake quote (can you butcher a fake quote?) but the search feature on their archive is so bad that I gave up trying to find it. It was something like, "If I can’t have fun, I won’t join your social movement".

***There was an overhead shot on the SF Indymedia website, but since it seems to be down again I subbed the Chron one.

****There is some irony to our (almost) vegetarian store hanging out at the leather event, but NOT ONE person pointed that out.

*****Name not mentioned because it was a bit of a pity makeout on her part. I was still a little exhausted from all the not-eating last week. It was like I was a little birdy who wasn’t strong enough to go gather my own food.

******If you can’t get enough Folsom, here’s last year’s entry.

Comments

[surlygrrrl.livejournal.com]

only every weekend? i thought it was every day??

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well yeah, but I didn't want to oversell it. ;)

YOU LOOKED HOT AT FOLSOM!!!

[bornbent.livejournal.com]

Do you really think it was a pity make-out? Maybe she just knows you well enough to know that you would take a pity make-out over a make-out born of unmitigated desire because of your deep fear of unmitigated desire?

Lucky, lucky girl. If i didn't live in LA I would find her and kick her ass. I am so fucking jealous. I bet you are great at street fair make-outs.

Also, what's up with the extra T in HOTT? i think it might be kinda lame, no?

what was she wearing? is she skinny? bitch.

Re: YOU LOOKED HOT AT FOLSOM!!!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

is she skinny?

she was big enough to deserve a 2nd "t" in "hott"

[amarama.livejournal.com]

You people, just come clean with your public, bisexual, making-outness!

I have no idea what you are talking about.

[bornbent.livejournal.com]

no, no, no, amatoxic. my make-out was a "random boy." G is far from random.

you think you know, but you don't know...

Re: I have no idea what you are talking about.

[amarama.livejournal.com]

I'm sensitive to many layers of security, but often get them completely wrong, as G can attest. So can Felix. Actually, I have a demonstrated history of trying to figure out layers of security like a plant for the CIA and completely failing.

Re: YOU LOOKED HOT AT FOLSOM!!!

[bornbent.livejournal.com]

Good for you!

You luuuvvv the big'uns, don't you G?

So, the extra T goes by, what? Bra size? Ass size? IMPACT? What would it take to get a 3rd T? just curious.

[luuuvuuul.livejournal.com]

wow, it's so sad that 5000 people in anywhere but dc is considered "poor"... like, yeah, did someone say nation's capital??

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well, unless it's a direct action dealie, I consider anything under pro football stadium sellout size a failure. we need to raise our goals.

[felicks.livejournal.com]

ok, first of all, i hadn't heard about the PCP rally, but that is fucking funny.

second of all, my understanding is that the Emma Goldman quote is fer real, just often misquoted. i don't have the real quote on hand of course - but i think the generally used misquote doesn't distort her point.

3rd point - on an east bay tip, last weekend was also How Berkeley Can You Be and a Raiders game (also Arab American Film Fest - both sides of the bay.) I planned to go to about 3 of this weekends events and instead went to none. sad.

Finally - cheese tattoo? I want to see. I'm going to ask this of anarqueso as well (maybe you two could collaborate), but i've been meaning to ask you to do an entry devoted to cheese. Kind of a cheese advice column. Like, what cheese do i use to impress a date? What cheese should i smuggle into a movie theater (for snacking purposes only)? What cheese should I bring as a gift when I'm going to be a houseguest? etc. whaddaya think?

[bornbent.livejournal.com]

oh felix, just look at his archives. cheese advice is everywhere. don't encourage him. he's gets so...insufferable.. around cheese.

nice to see you this weekend, by the way. I would love to sit down and have a conversation with you when I am not distracted or overwrought- i really can focus, believe it or not.

like the way i take over gordonzola's journal for my own selfish purposes. he loves it. it makes him feel like girls like him.

[felicks.livejournal.com]

Ya, maybe we should get him one of those 'Feminist Chicks Dig Me' T-Shirts. (this is truely a low-blow on my part since i don't know him at all and only met him once and there was a cheese counter between us. on the other hand, i've thought of getting that shirt for myself too.)

and yes, I'd love to talk and hang out more. i'm sure we will!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I would totally wear that shirt, me with my womens' studies minor. I learned all the SNAG tricks in college...

[jactitation.livejournal.com]

Nope, and the link to the article is now dead, but it was in the Women's Review of Books at some point in the early 1990s. Alix Kates Schulman, who wrote one of the early "rescuing" biographies, was contacted by a T-shirt printer friend of hers who wanted a radical woman to immortalize on a T-shirt. He asked her for a good quote, and she says she directed him to certain pages of Living My Life and told him that basically Emma was saying if I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.

Academics forget that other people don't always triple check sources. He wrote that down, printed it up, and the rest is history. So those alternate versions are just as "real" as the first. History's bunk, I've got no culture.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

i don't have the real quote on hand of course - but i think the generally used misquote doesn't distort her point.

I agree. misquote/fake quote it sums up the point she was making. Those Stalinists have corpses in their mouths. or something. (yes, I know the quote was pre-Stalin)

as for cheese advice, I get paid for that, I don't give it out free. ;) I try to work it into the entries, otherwise I wouldn't get a break.

[epanastatis.livejournal.com]

Just to play devil's advocate (OK, WWP's advocate--they're Latter-Day-Stalinists, so close enough), it's not as though the decision to hold the protest was specifically geared to San Francisco. It was supposed to be an international day of protest, and so the decision was just as much down to such entities as the Stop the War Coalition in Britain as to ANSWER.

Of course, the convenient thing about such "international" actions is that the failings of the various local events can always be chalked up to local mitigating circumstances--street festival in SF, cold rainy day in NYC, etc., thus giving the organizers convenient excuses. But that doesn't explain the disappointments in places where there are no such mitigating circumstances, such as LA or London.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

before the war they actually had to postpone an international day of action demo because it conflicted with Chineses New Year and people were totally outraged. sometimes though, I think the Left has fallen in love with its own image of being comprised of over-serious losers.

but it's not like ANSWER would admit that many of those fetishy people would have been at the demo anyway so I don't know how convenient an excuse it is.

Show us..

[substitute.livejournal.com]

..the cheese tattoos. NOW!

Re: Show us..

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to post pics or have web spce for hosting. sorry

Re: Show us..

[elusis.livejournal.com]

But your legions of fans have both the knowledge and the resources...

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Aww, I missed the cheese tattoo? In fact, I missed yer whole booth. It must've been (logically enough) in the food section, which I never quite get around to bothering with.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

no, we were like the second booth you came to from 11th st on Folsom. between the Sisters and the Society of Janus. because we were giving stuff away they put us with the non-profits.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I must have just been out of it, because I remember the SoJ booth. Of course, I also missed the Exiles on my first pass -- and Fantasymakers on my second, after I supposedly knew where they were. OK, I'm just lame.

Joining the peanut gallery

[freshwater-pr0n.livejournal.com]

Pictures! Tattoo pictures now!

[ginoushka.livejournal.com]

i love:
"I told ‘em, if you’re not gonna go to Folsom, you might as well just move somewhere with cheap rent. It’s why we’re here."

and god, do i miss san francisco, ridiculous rent or no.

xo,
gina

[kest]

I wandered kinda slowly by your booth to see if you were there, but didn't see you, only a tall girl. Didn't know you were giving out free stuff though! Would have stopped.

We should hang out when you're feeling better: I not only want to see your cheese tattoo like the rest of your adoring fans here, I have the means to take pictures of it so everyone is happy.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

that wasn't a tall girl. it was a girl with 8 inch boots.

and yes to hanging out. It may be after my coop conference though.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I don't believe for a second that it was a pity makeout.

[bornbent.livejournal.com]

i imagine they both deserved pity when they had to peel apart and she had to leave to go wherever it was that she was going. ;)

much, much, pity. or so I imagine...

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your faith in me. I still baby bird in the nest though. You should come out for Folsom one year, I think you'd like it.