with Jorge at the Mission

after a reasonably pain-free excursion to the bowels of bureaucratic bullshit at INS on Wed. morning through early afternoon, i BARTed it over to the Mission and met up with Jorge at the 24th Street station. called him when i got there, and went up to street level to wait, standing in front of the map of The City at the bus stop, looking at the various places where students live... Evelin in the Tenderloin, Greed in the Fillmore, Edwin at Bernal Heights, Trev on Twin Peaks/Castro, etc. and soon enough, Jorge came walking up, looking remarkably relaxed and cool. that's what the dog days of summer can do to ya. ;-) it was good to see him again, as it's good to see any of you any time the summer classes aren't in session.

i love walking around the Mission... always have, since coming to the Bay Area in the early 80s. it just feels like home to me somehow. i grew up in a city on the southern island of Mindanao, whose main streets were just like Mission and Valencia Streets. well, not exactly similar, but the 'feel' of it, certainly. as an undergrad at Cal, i'd come and visit friends here (some really artsy and journalist types, long gone to other areas and climes), watch foreign movies at the Roxie, eat at Pancho Villa's, write at the La Boheme cafe, watch the seasonal Carnaval parades...

(more to come, as it is currently spectacular outside, and i wish to read The Professor and the Madman out on the lawn right now.)

continuing, @5:13 p.m.

so anyway, Jorge and I started down Mission (back towards downtown SF), and the life and colour of the street flooded my senses. having been immured in various INS offices during the earlier part of the day, just walking down the street was exhilarating. smells of tropical fruits commingling with your usual off-sidewalk scents of sewage and grime, bold splashes of colours everywhere and, of course, the abundance of murals and graffiti. we turned right down 21st, then left along Folsom for a few blocks, as i wanted to see my cousin Aaron's new school, John O'Connell High. the brand spanking new building looked space-agey, and well it should, as it has taken almost 11 years to build, since the old one was razed after the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.

from there, we walked back up Folsom to 24th, then right all the way up to Valencia, many blocks back down to 16th, down again to Market, then straight back up to 24th, where we had dinner at the new taqueria Jorge mentioned in one of his recent weblogs, La Corneta, before i caught the BART back home to the East Bay. all in all, about a 40-block circumnavigation of the heart of La Mission, SF. (a highly recommended tour, by the way, for locals and visitors alike.)

along the way... the profusion of cognitively dissonant images astounded me: brand new dot-com company buildings in what was once exclusively industrial areas while, on a nearby block lies a contaminated patch of land where construction for a children's park has been put on hold... a huge warehouse with vertiginous man-made cliffs for rock-climbing, coexisting with La Iglesia de Dios de Ultima Profesia... vivid, two-story high murals living side by side with graffiti... quaint, family-owned restaurants jostling for space with shiny, fashionable and chic new tapas bars.

and along the way... Jorge's stories of his school and family life, a catalogue of late 20th century Central American history in America, a panoply of the American immigrant experience, things resonating in my mind and in my heart, about things long gone in my own past and yet still deeply embedded in there somewhere, brought to light by his shy but resolute way with words, and that fleeting smile of his. and in the meantime, my camera fixing on bits what my brain does on neuronal pathways, for retrieval soon. this was a cool day, as Jorge said on his weblog, too. as you can tell, Jorge isn't as prolific a writer as many of you are (English not being his native tongue, to begin with), but I go to his weblog daily, and read it for the remarkable snapshot of life that it is: his, in his neighborhood, his city, his adopted new country. his simple, straightforward words compel engagement... the starkness of his images enlightens and charms. that's why he often appears at the top of the list on the left. even a few, telling, words have great depth and power. i should learn from him, and quit being so wordy and windy sometimes... ;-)

7 p.m. update Eric's back from London!

eric2427: hey!
lloydinberkeley: hello Eric, welcome back!
lloydinberkeley: how was your trip? baggage hold out okay? ;-)
eric2427: yep, just fine. you're right though...
eric2427: i really didn't need those wheels
eric2427: they just get in the way
lloydinberkeley: lol. yeah.
lloydinberkeley: how was the weather in London?
eric2427: it rained about half of the time
eric2427: on and off
eric2427: hey, did you know that absolutely no one in england has a dryer yet?!
lloydinberkeley: dryer as in clothes dryer?
eric2427: yea. they still hang their clothes out to dry!
eric2427: even though it rains so much
lloydinberkeley: that's incredible!
eric2427: very strange
eric2427: no one has showers either
eric2427: they all have really old bath tubs with little spray handles
lloydinberkeley: well, i would understand if it was in Asia or Latin America... but Europe? lol
eric2427: so primitive ;-)
lloydinberkeley: did you figure out how to get the toilets to flush?
eric2427: actually, the toilets were one of the funniest parts...
eric2427: they have absolutely no water pressure
lloydinberkeley: so...
eric2427: so you seriously have to wait 20 min inbetween flushings !!
lloydinberkeley: ack! *snicker*

Jul Sep

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