Here just a few recent mood pictures.

Was going to a party on 19th Avenue and accidentally went here, to 19th Street, in stead. Nice place but not worth the two hour delayal

Dolores park some weeks ago when it was a bit warmer

Something for everyone

Studying with Lucie

Waiting for the bus on a rare rainy night

Jazz at Yoshi's

A Carlsberg - finally! And my Swedish friend agrees

Night at Civic Center Station

California is in trouble - yet toilets have only one flush-option: Full flush

A Hawiian christmas party on 10th Avenue

Friends: My fellow officers in the International Education Exchange Council (IEEC) at San Francisco State University

The always unreliable MUNI. Will not miss American public transportation. San Francisco's is some of the best in the country

Dragqueen Marlena at "Marlena's". She's been there 40 years

Sunset at Ocean beach

Someone's porch I passed on the way home one night

Street art on Clarion Street in The Mission district

About to see "Milk" in the Castro Theatre. Though it is very much a San Francisco experience, everyone should see this film!

Well, that is it for now. I may be back here soon. So long and thanks to everyone who read my blog and commented on the entrys!

As a last thing I would like to let you in on my two motto’s, which I stole from the Danish Refugee Council and J.R.R. Tolkien, respectively, and which have come to ring even truer to me during my stay here:

- No one can help everyone, but everyone can help someone

- Not all those who wander are lost…

First, upon arrival – before any of us (70 students) were allowed in the cabin – we had to sign a waiver saying that we would pay for anything we broke. The organizers were fierce about it and quite annoying – even though it was not their fault but the contract-loving American society. This was soon forgotten when we entered though, as we found the cabin to be huge and well equipped to cure any boredom: Outdoors heated jacuzzi, projector and movies, a 60″ (at least) tv, volleyball, basketball, tabletennis, board games etc.

A disgusting waste of energy. But nice. I am the one with the hat.

Second, when renting snowboard and boots we had a new contract experience. Everyone had to first type in their name and adress on a computer. It then printed two copies of a contract and someone called your name – there was an abundance of personnel everywhere. So one guy found your boots, a second guy found your board, a girl sold you an insurance and a second girl took your regular shoes.

Third, after all this we were finally getting ready to get in the lift when an desperate teen asked me to help him. He had driven the 200 miles from San Francisco with his board only to find that the store would not rent boots to him because he was not 18 yet. Maybe it was a contract thing. They did not give a reason. But when I went into the store with him and showed my ID it was all ok. Ridiculous! I mean, it is not like he was renting liquor. And he had the money. But up we went.

Going up.

Fourth, in California you do not wait for snow to go skiing. There was precious little snow on the mountain but four slopes were open – the snow on them was mainly fake. It was very good powder to ski in so who needs nature. But very odd to be at the top of a mountain snowboarding in beatiful nature but with so little snow around and with the peculiar view of Nevada desert on the one side.

Fifth, on American lifts there is nothing to rest your feet on. Rubbish! Every time you go up it is painful.

Sixth, they must have really hired too mush personnel – maybe to fight the economic crisis. While going up in the first lift we passed a get on/off point where a guy was standing only to tell everyone: “Hi you guys. Have a great time! It’s just five more minutes and you’re there”. And in the other lifts there was one person hired to stand by the line and constantly ask people to please get on four and four, another person to make sure nothing went wrong when people sat down on the lift (and he said: “Hey guys, have a great time!” every single time) which went extremely slow where you got on and a third guy to make sure you got off alright. This is besides all the ones sitting in the little cabins overlooking the lifts.

The shadow of the mountain on the Nevada desert.

Seventh, there were even more people hired there in completely unnecessary functions. On the top of the hills guys in silly elf hats walked around trying to get people to have their picture taken by them, which you could then look at and buy at the bottom. Going to the bottom there were not only huge signs everywhere saying “SLOW” – behind the signs were personnel waving there hands like traffic cops at everyone going by. Has to be in the top 10 of the most boring jobs on earth.

Eighth, when we got down with the lift there were two openings in the building: On to the side where we were returning our gear and one in the other direction. There were no other people except five or six employees hanging around but when we wanted to exit towards the rental place we were told that we could not do that – because that was the entrance side. So we had to walk around the building even though there were not even doors but huge openings to enter and exit and no other people. Man, I hate persons who are always strictly by the rules – even in situations when there is not even a hint of a valid reason to enforce the rules.

I must admit I was a bit annoyed by these things but I had a fantastic time all the same. Mostly it was a cultural experience like so many others here. Everything is pretty much the same as in Europe/Denmark but there are still little differences to everything which reflect the values of the society you are in.

Could be a Vegas motto

I spent two nights in Las Vegas as part of a road trip and though I am glad to have experienced the place I am even more glad to be out of there and I doubt I will ever go back. There are two atrocities about the city (which to a lesser extent are true about societies globally): It is wholly fake and it is all about the money.

The two characteristics are of course connected but I will take them one at a time. Fakeness first.

Though cities and societies in general are manmade culture rather than untouched nature, they are mostly so to fulfill practical human needs and wants. In Vegas everything is unnecessary, everything looks and feels like a movie set, things are like props and people are like extras.

The Venetian

Fountains at the Bellagio

In order to stand out the casinos have different themes. One Casino is a pyramid (Luxor), one is a fairy tale castle (Excalibur), some are twisted miniatures of other cities (New York New York, Paris Las Vegas, The Venetian), one has huge water fountains (Bellagio) and one has live lions (MGM).

This gives you the surreal feeling of being trapped in huge movie set or in a Lynch-like dream. We arrived at night and partied and when we woke up and went out the next day, the sun was shining and there was daylight. And this was strange. It felt wrong for Vegas, like the place was supposed to be only neon-lit.

The feeling of being trapped in a maze of glitter and greed is made stronger by the way Vegas subtly hunts your money. One thing is how people try to get money from you for eveything.

Capitalism in the bathroom: The Piss Off

For me this was most vividly exemplified by a toilet visit where I realized while pissing that I could put a quarter in a machine – The Piss Off – by the urinal which would then tell me how much piss I produced, if I could piss more than the fictitious “Uncle Billy Bob”, how long it would take me to fill a swimming pool etc.. And by a booth on the sidewalk where you paid to get to sit on a motorcycle which was then projected onto a screen so it looked – a little bit – like you were driving through town. And by the dvd of you singing you could buy by the Karaoke bar. And other things.

Why would any adult pay for this?

The most exhausting annoying aspect, however, is how the whole city is constructed to constantly send you on detours through the casinos and other options to use money.

For example, the public train (the Monorail) runs along the Casino center of Vegas (known as The Strip) and stops at the back of seven Casinos in stead of at the front. This means that you have to go all the way through the casinos – and that is an unimaginably long way – to get to the street. Similarly, casinos will advertize cheap drinks or food on their Strip-side fronts and make you go all the way through the slots to some puny bar in the back to get the drinks.

It is like a grotesquely enlarged, surreal version of supermarkets that place dairy and other essentials in the back of the store to make sure costumors are tempted by all the other merchandize on the way. The scale of this is extreme. Walking continuously from The Strip through the MGM Casino to its Monorail Station, for example, takes more than 15 minutes.

The Stratosphere

At The Stratosphere – a Casino and restaurant which stands out by being really tall – we (me and three exchange student friends) went up to get the view of the city. First, of course, we had to go to the ticket office through a slot yard and then (after being loured into also paying for one of the three trill rides at the top of the building) from the ticket office to the elevators following signs which lead us on a winding carpet road through the whole casino.

When we finally arrived at the elevators our picture was taken on a green-screen background so we could buy our selves put on a Vegas sky-line background when we came down again. After an elevator ride we were able to enjoy the admittedly remarkable view of the city from an inside observation deck on the 108th floor without any further manipulation but to go outside and to get our thrill rides (see video below) we had to use another elevator to get to 109th and this elevator was located inside the gift shop. More pictures were taken on the thrill rides and offered for us to buy.

As we descended we found out that we could walk almost straight out of the casino – the signs were only there to send people around the maze of slots and stores.

To keep your thoughts off anything but spending, there are no windows or clocks inside the casinos. And to keep your money loose they have an artificially high oxygen level in the air and many places provide free drinks so long as you are gambling.

Altogether it made me nautious after a day. And not because of the cheap margaritas we found in the back of Bill’s Gambling Hall but because of everything this city encapsuled. It takes the worst features of human culture to their purest form.

Like one of my friends, Swedish Thesa, said after getting the feel of Las vegas:

- Bring your money but leave your soul.

Because if you have some empathy with you, Vegas is really deeply sad. The lions in the MGM Casino broke my heart.

Who are we to do this?

Caught in a glass cage with fake rocks and plastic leaves in the dark casino, probably drugged to calmness, they spend their days looking at drunken tourists taking pictures of them. Something so wild turned into paper. And why? For the money, is the simple answer but I still cannot understand how someone could get that idea and actually carry it out.

Can animals feel sorrow, frustration, despair? Watching these lions, it felt that way

To some extent zoos are the same way, caging wildlife, but again this was grotesque. At least in most zoos, animals are outside in pretty good conditions, zoos cooperate to save endangered species etc. This was just appalling, it made me physically nautious and brought tears to my eyes. Both for the lions and for us humans.

Outside on the sidewalk, we were once again offered cards with pleasure girls from poor and probably illegal immigrants on the streets who completely gave up their dignity to muddle through life in Vegas.

Get young wild Vicky for only $25. You can also buy Hope or Faith

They stand on the sidewalk along The Strip in flashy t-shirts, sometimes with huge cardboard signs attached to their backs, dealing pictures of silicone pumped girls to gamblers.

And even on the sadness of Las Vegas money is made. In one gift shop I saw a t-shirt with the silhouette of a pole dancing stripper where the text read: “Supporting single moms in Vegas”.

We walked from 15th & Mission to 16th & Mission and was just looking for bars when we saw a crowd in the street. Not a big, dancing, cheering crowd like on election night but about 50 people sitting solemnly and having a good time on the ground by the BART station. Many were drinking beer but a few of the required brown paper bags had been made into candle holders. The crowd was street poets.

Waiting eagerly for their turn – which was settled by jumping to the center of the crowd as the first person after the end of an act and beating any opponents at rock-paper-scissors – almost every one in the crowd contributed with something.

One really gay guy had a song about being beautiful. Another act was two afro-guys who were poetry-rapping about/against their abscent fathers. Another was a completely cracy guy with a flute (the photo above). Everyone cheered at everyone’s act and everyone seemed happy with a sense of union as semi-outkasts.

And then there was Uncle Scam. He was my favorite. Wearing the tall hat of Uncle Sam he entered the center and gave a sarcastic anti-establishment speech with much heart and humor:

- I’m Uncle Scam / That’s who the hell I am / Been hiding in the swamps of ‘Nam / And making you believe I am / Hunting Bin Laden, he roared pointing his finger around in the crowd.

While war was his main theme there was also room for a note on health care:

- Just don’t get sick / in the US of A / ‘Cause every little thing you own / You will have to pay

So Uncle Scam rocked. It was not all good though, there were very banal poems about things like the rain – how it covers us all! – and really boring songs too. But it was all in a great mood with a sense of community and sharing on the street. So much a San Francisco experience.

I learned that they gather every Thursday night 10pm in the same place. And once again I fell in love with this city.

It is Halloween – something I had never experienced before – and not just the American way but the San Franciscan way. That means midnight brings a show of horror by and with dragqueens. Behold! The nightmare…

(NOTES: 1) I am featured in some of these images as I entered a ‘funniest costume’ contest where I almost got 1st place but was beaten by a pig. 2) If you endured the Folsom Fair entry you will easily live through this one.)

One of the hostesses (blue wig) with company.

The other hostess.

Some zombies.

If that is not scary I do not know what is.

So here I am

And here I am trying to get my snake to befoul that pig who would take my prize a little later.

Sarah Palin zombie with her pregnant teenage daughter.

Two Danes who did a very Danish thing: dressing up as fart balloons (in Danish: pruttepuder).

I am comforted

Yikes!

And in the end there is a lost angel.

The Governator used to be an actor and there are others of those as well. Indeed, Sean Pean and fellow liberals love to hang out in the city, and in November a new movie about Harvey Milk (see also post from August 29th) will open starring – you guessed it – Sean Penn as Harvey Milk.

But what there is most of in this city the size of Copenhagen is – thankfully – top quality music artists. Since I arrived the has been concerts by Radiohead, Ben Harper, Ziggy Marley, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sigur Rós and probably others that I have missed. And soon The Killers are playing, too.

Tonight, however, I had the profound pleasure of attending the best jazz concert of my life: Dave Brubeck Quartet in Davies Symphony Hall. See a little of it here:

They were there for the San Francisco Jazz Festival and played for two and a half hours. This is truly amazing with front man Dave Brubeck being 87 and the quartet having an average age of around 70. Besides the Brubeck superhit “Take Five”, the concert had the best piano solo, the best bass solo and the best drum solo of any concert I have attended.

Not the best seats - but the best concert

It was brilliant, just beautiful, I lack adjectives in this language. My father should have been here, he would have loved it. Also, the music was extremely diverse and entertaining. And even though old Brubeck had to use sax player Bobby Militello as a cane when he left the stage (as you can see in the video above), he was a real showman, throwing anectodes about life on the road and playing in the mud every now and then.

The hall

Jazz – you gotta love jazz!

Looking forward to my next celebrity meeting…

Democracy is Greek and means the people rules. In most countries this is brought about by a government governing for the people and elected by a majority of the people. But not in America. Or at least it does not have to be – a person can win the presidency without winning the popular vote, as it happened in 2000 when Al Gore got 500.000 more votes than George Bush and Bush, alas, became president.

This is because of the electoral system in America which is a ‘winner takes all’ for each state. Because of this it is also close to impossible for other parties to gain any kind of influence. There are other parties though – like Ralph Nader‘s Peace and Freedom Party which visited San Francisco State University on Thursday.

When you use an old computer box for a poster your campaign is far from wealthy.

Nader was in a bad mood, speaking in a low and hopeless voice in the beginning, then raising a roar as he awoke his own anger against the system.

- People have the votes but the politicians don’t obey them. They obey corporations. That’s not democracy! he said to several hundred people gathered in the university’s McKenna Theatre adding that this was obvious in all parts of politics from health care over war to the bail out and the presidential debate.

- The debate was steril and ridiculous. It was won by state terrorism, big business and military budget, he said.

As you can gather from the quotes, Nader is a leftie with his major issues being to double the minimum wage, tax the rich, end nuclear power and discrimination, abolish the death penalty, make education and health care free, legalize marijuana, protect the environment and develop public transportation.

With all this one would think that he would be more angry with the GOP’s than the Democrats but that did not seem to be the case Thursday. On the contrary:

- Obama is a snivelling coward who will walk over anybody just to be the president – including his own people, Nader almost yelled out in the theatre.

Nader was not happy

Whether this is because Nader is envious of Obama might actually becoming president or he feels that the Dems have betrayed their voters is hard to say – probably a bit of both. The Dems do not like Nader either. Back in 2000 he was accused of costing Al Gore the presidency by attracting liberal votes which could have won the election for the Democrats (as it were, the difference between Gore and Bush in the deciding state of Florida was only 537 votes and Nader’s party got 97,421 votes in Florida so Nader’s votes really could have won it for Gore). Nader argued that Gore could have just done a better job.

Viewed with European eyes the whole thing is a farce. Had it been in Denmark, Al Gore would have won the election and Ralph Nader would have been represented in parlament with seats according to the 2.7% who voted for his party.

The crowd agreed loudly when Nader urged them to "vote for the person you really agree with - not just the lesser of two evils!"

Still, there are some advantages to the American way in America. Many states, like California, are either red or blue to an extent that discourages any competetion. This saves millions in campaigning and leaves the candidates free to concentrate on the deciding toss-up states.

The injustices easily outweigh the advantages though and if the American people were offered the choice a large majority would most likely vote for deciding elections by the popular vote. Well, they probably will not be for many years to come.

It was “The World’s biggest leather event” at Folsom Street. Some 500.000 people visit the Folsom Fair in one day and look like something from a non-mainstream porn movie. We do not have anything like this in Denmark so I will let the pictures and the video speak for themselves, with just a few comments:

Beware of the video, it is a tad extreme. As are some of the pictures. Everyone seemed to enjoy the fair though.

The homeless are always creative.

This guy was every cliché from a porn film. Behind him was an elderly fellow who seemed shy and at the same time very eager to show his little Willie.

She was actually very sweet. Or at least she looks sweet, just lovely. I did not talk to her.

I have a lot more but you get the general picture. Plus I have spared you the painful spanking pics in case I get censored.

This Sunday I went to a gospel mass at Glide’s methodist church on 330 Ellis St. and it was amazing! Having never been religous or cared about church or hymns this came as quite a surprise to me. But it was totally different from Denmark.

An Amen! to everyone

It was pure joy. Much more a pure praise of love than the dull Danish praise of God. But most of all it was an inspiring gospel concert with a great band and choir. It was so crowded that people had to sit in the window frames but a lot of the time we all stood up, singing, dancing, clapping to songs like “This little light of mine”

(I recorded a bit of video from the mass)

The thing that really made me like this church, though, was that it wanted to be a church for EVERYONE. Pastor Donald Guest with his big body and bald black head spoke passionately about everyone being welcome.

- Even if you don’t believe in God I know you believe in love so you on the right way! I don’t care if you Jewish or Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. I don’t care if you democrat or republican…

At this point there was a silence in the audience who had so far been cheering. Then we started laughing at our selves, and Don went on:

- I come from a family of republicans, believe it or not. There are gays, lesbians and transgender here. We don’t tolerate nobody – we celebrate everybody!

Outside of Christmas, churches are only packed at funerals in Denmark. I wonder why.

Well, if you don’t have to believe in any diety to join a church I guess I could go. It was a beatiful experience to feel so much love and joy and hope between people. And when pastor Don said “show your neighbor there is love!” we all got up and hugged the people around us whom we did not know.

Also, I can certainly identify with the ideals of Glide’s. Not only did Don speak about how identifying with Jesus is identifying with the poor and the outkasts – it was also clear that this included non-heterosexual people. For example the big screen at the mass (yes, they had a slideshow) had signs saying “NO on 8″, the proposition that could ban same sex marriage in California at the election.

The (to put it mildly) frowning upon different sexualities – and, indeed, sexuality altogether – is one of the things that has caused my deepest disrespect for many religious groups. But this one did not frown. Now I just have to find out how they view things like abortion and research in stem cells.

However, I think I will leave it at going to church without joining. I still cannot stand the whole obsession with Jesus. Why do we need this guy to praise joy and love? I don’t. And I don’t believe in anything beyond that.

Well, $1000 is a lot of money, I will give the SFPD that much. They are trying. With the taxpayers’ money of course but that is not the problem. The problem is that it will not make any difference. This measure does not go to the root of the problem: the liberal gun legislation.

Posters in and on busses encourage San Franciscans to tip the SFPD on illegal fire arms. The city wanted to ban guns but was not allowed to by the courts.

So what if you find a few illegal guns? There are way too many legal ones out there making it a Sysiphus work attempting to get rid of the illegal ones. Guns – legally and illegally possessed – kill. There are just too many guns altogether.

Michael Moore tried to figure out why Americans are gun crazy in Bowling for Columbine. I think the obsession with the Second Ammendment’s right “keep and bear firearms” is about an individualist distrust in society and the profoundly American belief that every man makes his own luck.

Seals of the city and its Police Department behind the campaign.

Owning a gun gives people the feeling that they are empowered to protect themselves and whatever else they may care about. It is the individual in control of his destiny. Not some regulating state that might not be there to save your ass when the burgler turns violent.

The problem with this is quite obvious. When few trust the government to guarantee safety many get guns to ensure their own thereby making the world very much more dangerous to everyone: Themselves, their loved ones, and the ones who chose to not own fire arms.

It is like when people drive huge cars and defends that choice by saying that if they are in a car accident with someone else they will not be in the car that gets crushed. This is makes traffic much more dangerous to those who do not get an SUV or other form of tank.

When people in California are not required to have a license to buy guns or even to register their firearms guns will spread throughout society leading to other peole’s death. Like Jordan whom I wrote about in the last entry and who was buried today. Why you would not change a system which so obviously carries tragic, innocent deaths with it is just beyond me.

How can the individual’s right to own guns be paramount to general safety in a society? To the death of even one person? I heard the other day that privately owned guns are more likely to be used on friends or family members than on criminals. There are no words for such stupidity!

Charlton Heston, you dick. Besides being an actor he is the former president of The National Rifle Association who fight for gun owner rights (He is now known for the quote “From my cold, dead hands!” referring to when the gun-opposing Al Gore could hope to take Heston’s gun away from him in a 2000 speech). And they promote it as a civil liberties struggle.

As in other cases San Francisco is more progressive than other parts of the country and after a majority vote of 58% in 2005 San Francisco banned the sale, manufacture and distribution of firearms and ammunition as well as the possession of handguns within city limits. Well, the NRA filed a lawsuit saying that San Francisco was violating state law by introducing a ban and they won. So now San Francisco has no ban on firearms even though its citizens voted for it.

Democracy? In a very twisted way. Justice? No such thing. I will write about something happier next time.