Went to see Billy Elliot yesterday. I was a bit paranoid about arriving late, since waiting for the Muni can take quite awhile (I guess especially on Sundays when you can expect to be standing around for half an hour or so. Lesson learnt and reinforced several times >_<), but I arrived safe and sound anyway.

What struck me was how many children there seemed to be in the audience. I assume it's because the cast for Billy Elliot has a lot of kids, so that would draw the kids in, although the show is not exactly aimed at kids, the plot about the miner's strike might be a bit too difficult to understand (I did hear a kid sitting behind me asking his mom what happened a few times) not to mention the liberal dusting of obscenities throughout the show, which is intended to be funny, but I'd understand a parent being queasy about their kid watching.Then again, it might still be a good opportunity to introduce kids to broadway. The other reason to explain the amount of kid audience is just a guess, but I suspect some of them might know the performers, since a lot of parents seem to know each other (or just being very talkative before the show?)

So how was the show? It was ok. Didn't quite hit the target, but that's probably just me having too high expectations. The thing is, I listen to the cds from the show, and I form some mental image of the show being perfect. But when you think about it, the cd would most likely sound better than a live performance since they can record a few times and edit it to perfection. And putting up Billy Elliot has a few technical dilemmas to overcome too, like the issue of the cast having to put on a northern British accent (when it's easy to spot a fake accent, and then it gets a little distracting)and also the accent is so thick, you could miss a few lines. Also, if you were expecting to see top notch dancing, you have to remember that most of the dancers in the script are supposed to be bad at dancing, except for the title character.

But there were several hits too. The choreography was interesting to watch; my favourite was Grandma's song (incidentally, my least favourite track on the cd). The humour felt a bit forced, but the touching scenes were pretty spot on (I suspect the kid sitting next to me started crying at one point, and there was an outburst of parents hugging their kids during the intermission)

Today was SF Pride Parade day, so for sure I went for it. You can't be in SF and not go for the Pride parade.It's the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual celebration here, and although there are a few smaller ones around the world, I think this one is probably the main one.

I knew it was going to be crowded, but even getting on the train to go to the parade area was an adventure by itself, haven't seen the train so crowded before. And you could tell that everyone was going to the celebration, not least because of the rainbow flags and skimpy clothing some of the commuters had on(one guy had on a fishnet top, hot pants and high heel shoes).And also because of the infectious happy united atmosphere starting in the train even before we are at our destination.And lots and lots of gay couples, of course.

Got to Market Street (parade area) just in time to see the first congregation pass by. Luckily I got to stand up on wall leading to the subway(illegally, but then everyone was doing the same thing), so I could get a good view despite the crowd.I'd imagine all the other streets in the city must be completely deserted, except for some sad employees that have to stay in the department stores and places and quietly wait for the customers to come back into the shops.
It was a pretty long parade, slightly under 3 hours, with everything from motorbikes, cars, politicians, pole dancers, naked people, flamboyantly dressed people, companies, kids, senior citizens, pro-gay straight people, religious groups, schools, bands, to cheerleaders, and everything inbetween.
This guy has such an aura of Oscar Wilde/Aubrey Beardsley and the gang of gay art noveau artists of that time, which is totally cool with me.
Gay police officers. They've got the crowd charmed, you can tell by the loud cheering.
Quite a lot of companies had floats.
The spectators were pretty wild too, lots of naked or at least semi naked people walking around.I'm guessing lots of them are not LGB or T, but just trying to get attention though, especially the women.

Well Fargo in all it's gay splendour.
I guess some of the parade participants are still in Carnaval mood.
Men in dresses. Awesome.

The dude on the car was so totally enjoying himself. But then again if I were gay I'd be enjoying the day to it's fullest too,before having to go back to everyday life.


The bondage crew. There's another bondage celebration called the Folsom Street Festival, which I missed. Sounds a little dodgy though, but interesting. The bondage flag is that blue striped thing with the heart.




Straight people for gay rights. Btw, in some other congregations, it was funny to see some gay couples holding hands, and then next to them would be a straight couple, you could almost hear the guy saying to his wife: quick, hold my hand so I don't look gay.
Beach Blanket Babylon. It's one of the theater shows here.
Yes, male pole dancers, now you're talking.
Please fuck safely. Have a nice day.
Out of the closet is a clothes store, but I'm not sure what they do besides. LGBT support of some sort probably.
Whole Foods, one of the organic supermarket chains here. Honestly when I saw the cupcake out of the corner of my eye I thought it was something else unflattering(you can guess what it is), but now it looks kind of cute.
Facebook's congregation. Very loud cheers here too.
PETA with some horny suggestions. SPCA went along the same lines too.
My uni's LGBT club was in there too :D
Rocky Horror Picture Show, another one of the theater shows.


And what's a Pride parade without some cowboys? Ow!
It was pretty nice to see lots of religious groups, schools and family groups parading as well. Actually I was expecting some homophobic attacks sometime, but there were none, and there was generally a very supportive atmosphere instead.

A crowd favourite, for sure.
This is just some random mural that I passed by, but since it's at the edge of the dangerous Tenderloin area, now's a good time to take a picture, when it's safe and crowded.
One of the oddly dressed attendees. Too bad I don't have any pictures of the naked women with painted nipples, or the guys in leather bondage, or neon underwear. Or guys frenching each other :D
Didn't hang around much after the parade ended, it was way too crowded to look around the stalls. My direction was only decided by the way the crowd was jostling me. Just had a general feel of what was going on; street fare food, life concerts, gay porn for sale, car companies trying to promote their latest model, then edge my way out and try not to get trampled on the way.

I just finished reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.Now I want to wax lyrical about it.

If you've watched Food Inc., this book is pretty much about the same topic, but explaines more in detail.Basically the author tracks down the origins of four meals from 3 categories; fast food, organic and hunted/gathered.

It was a very interesting read, because it really does link up much about the evolution of produce (corn, cows), the farming policy in the US and the obesity epidemic among other things. If you were reeling in horror about the industry's dirty secrets when you watched Food Inc., things get worse in this book. Hopefully the food industry is not as bad in smaller countries like Malaysia, but when money is the aim at the end of it all, so much can get way out of hand.

The author also talks about the absence of a strong food culture in the US, being a mostly immigrant country, and how that makes the population confused about their relation to food, on one end consuming fast food and other pseudo-food, on the other going crazy for the next great diet scheme and food supplements. (compared to countries with strong food cultures, viewing it as eating for pleasure:slow food, and as a social activity. The French seem to eat without care, wine, cheese, pastry, but still are generally healthier than Americans).

In the last part of the book, the author prepares a meal exclusively out of ingredients he has hunted/gathered/planted by himself, which is the most natural and ethical form of obtaining a meal. It was particularly uplifting reading this part, even after the gloom of reading about industrial food production in the earlier 2 parts (even organic food is not as organic as you would be led to believe)More than being just about food, it was more about being human and full awareness of your part in nature as a consumer of food compared to being a cog in the industrial scheme of things, not knowing how food is produced, or even what it is.

I really enjoyed reading it. It was chock-full of information, but was still a light read and not preachy, with some humour thrown in. It was objectively written, not siding with the mega-companies, and not siding with the animal-rights activists, but more towards the way things should be in nature and striking the balance of symbiosis between eater and eaten, between plant, animal and human.

Bytheway, if you haven't watched Food Inc., where have you been, man? Here's a trailer:

Recently I've been meeting up with the Malaysian kakis over here quite a lot, I think in part because it was just before the start of the Summer term, so it's like squeezing as much fun in as possible before getting back to work. Here are some pictures (very few in my camera, I just realised)

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Bonfire organised by one of the uni's dorms. I don't stay in the dorm anymore, but I got invited by a friend who does. We started at 1pm, which is very early considering sunset is now at 9pm. (It used to be at 4pm in Winter, what a difference,right?) Much more fun then I expected. I thought everyone would be keeping to themselves since nobody knew each other (just moved in for the new term), but turns out they brought kites and frisbees and were sharing among each other. The bonfire was more of a campfire, and we started it before sundown, but we had a good time toasting hotdogs and marshmallows anyway. Not many pictures since my camera got jammed with sand halfway. Luckily it's back to normal now, I thought I would have to cough out some money to get it fixed. This is what happens when you get overexcited at the beach. My last camera got broken after I dropped it getting sort of chased/intimidated by macaques in Sarawak.

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And then there was Gi's birthday. Our gang went for karaoke before dinner. I was a bit uncertain since I've never been karaoke-ing before that, but I guess it wasn't bad at all, eventhough the others were mostly Chinese-song types. They kept putting in some English oldies that they know so I wouldn't feel left out, which was pretty nice of them. Now I have another thing on my list to do when I get back to Malaysia; enjoy cheaper karaoke. (Enjoy cheaper everything)

After that we had a buffet Korean grill for dinner. Gi ate for free since it was his birthday. And I swear that buffet paid back for all my months so far of eating vegetarian.
The next day our gang met up again for dinner at my place, and after all the meat, and especially after all the oil and fat of the day before, we tried putting together a detoxifying dinner (ahem...not really) of vegetable pie, scones, parfait and tea.
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Also went for one of the free museum days at the Golden Gate park. There are several museums in there, but the one I went to was the Conservatory of Flowers. It's housed in a pretty little antique greenhouse.


Predictable angle, I know, but now you know how the whole conservatory building looks like.
Walked a little around the Haight-Ashbury district just outside the park after that, but didn't manage to finish it, I'll have to go back some other time. It's the hippy district, so a lot of weird shops to look at.

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And with a big oven like this,it's time to try some baking experiments.

What is supposed to become cream puffs. Tasted ok, except that they were stuck to the tray. And being puffs, they were totally empty inside and got squished when I tried to pull them off the tray. So here is a nice presentable picture of them before destruction.
Also, cherries seem to be in season, so I made a cherry pie. Not bad, I think. It uses tapioca pearls to thicken the juice into a jam-like consistency.

Some thoughts about home furnishing.

A feature light. It can be a huge lamp taking a corner of the room, and can be a pendant or standing light.

Lights along a wall. Built either into the ceiling or into the wall, but provides a long strip of ambient light.
Alternatively, place a row of small lamps along a wall.
Or dangle lights in a row from the ceiling. These also work well clustered together in the middle of the room.
Lights can also provide a nice pattern.
Look at how stores/restaurants/hotels light their spaces. Notice the rows of round lamps on the left.
Wallpaper. I like flowery Victorian stuff, you can tell, right?

If it's for a feature wall, dare to make it bold in colour or texture.
These are the same wallpaper and the same wooden panel, but in different colours. Above is more like a classy bar (possibly velvet wallpaper, padded wall), and below more like a beachside chalet.
And a note about colour. Plain backdrop, with sparing pops of colour work well. One large bright coloured object can be complimented with several small items of the same colour or small patterns of the same colour in the wallpaper.