Area by Area (or thing by thing if you will, just some general bits and pieces)

NORTH BEACH is san fran's little italy. an italian lady shopkeeper was rude to me. first person to be rude to me since i got to america. i hate italiens. i also finally went to city lights bookstore. i think the main reason i wanted to go to san fransisco was just to visit this place. i went to a free poetry reading there featuring david meltzer. i think he's quite famous (american lit afficiandoes can i have some confirmation of this? i know i could just wiki him, but thats not really my style ) anyway everyone in the room laughed twice as loud at his jokes in a referential manner. the other poets were very good as well. i spoke to the one that was the best looking and got him to sign my book and told him to come to london to do a reading.

CASTRO is the gay district, but its a bit dull in a smart moneyed sort of a way. there is a beautiful cinema there though that was screening 'milk'. i love it when things are that predictable. i walked down fulsom which is the s&m street. on the subject there is also this amazing shop in the haight which i think operates just to provide clothing for gay club hosts and hostesses. they sell spandex hot pants in every colour of the rainbow amongst other things.

THE ART MUSEUMS are all predictably gorgeous. the MOMA is small but beautifully formed and i saw a good william kentridge show. i visited the fine art institute of the art school. the architecture is styed like a moorish church and it is right on top a hill with a roof terrance that has stunning views across the city. unbelievably it was open on easter sunday with studio access. sickening really. there is also a fairly impressive diego rivera mural in one of the galleries. i can't really think of anything camberwell has on a par with that.

MISSION is the east london/mitte part of town. i found a shop that sold nothing but 'zines and other bits fashioned by graphic design students. i also did some thrift shopping and bought a shell suit top with a sequinned parrot on it. the vintage shops are really good but friscan twats seem to generally dress like BRMC extras so all the good stuff is ripe for the picking.

OTHER THINGS TO NOTE are that the main shopping centre has the same name and logo as westfield in london. i'm not sure what that means. also i ate a big mac meal yesterday. it was pretty good but i'm not enough of a macdonalds regular to tell you if it was any better than ones at home but i swear the 'regular' size is bigger here. katie has dared me to get a supersize at one point. i'll let you know hat happens when i do.