The Perfect Storm

San Francisco sky is usually gray. It's easy to be a San Francisco weatherman. Just predict partly cloudy every day. Today, however, three gaps in the clouds collided to form one big blue anti-cloud. The perfect storm...of light.

Castro Plaza an urban "mini-park" at Castro and Market is traffic-free. Potted plants prevent cars from turning into it. Citizens and tourists alike board antique street cars (of the "Presidential") model, painted different colors based on the city of their origin. They make a screeching noise as the round the corner that resembles the trumpeting of an elephant.

Those Darned Harmonicas!

Everyone knows of the San Francisco harmonica troupe "Those Darned Harmonicas!" Their name, no doubt is based on "Those Darned Accordians!" They play every size and key of mouth organ. Entire suites are performed using no other instrument. Small venues are best for harmonica quintets and they have played at the Duck Creeke Inn, Chez Spencer, Radish, and the K.O. Room. Another harmonica favorite of ours is Tin Sandwich, a one-man band. He wears a coat of many pockets where he keeps his many harmonicas from peewee to one the size of a roast beef sandwich.

The Kama 'aina

A kama 'aina is not someone born in Hawaii, but someone who has lived there a long time. Such a person is Dick Van Patten, who, in a Hawaiian television commercial in the 80's advertised timeshares (or something like that), ending his spiel by saying "Take it from me, the kama 'aina."

Every since then Dick was dubbed, by my friends and me the Kama 'aina.

One day as I pushed out the revolving doors of the Digdug Cuckoo Clock Company's tower, there, jogging on the bricks of Market Street, San Francisco, in a pair of too-tight 70's running shorts was the Kama 'aina. I immediately called a friend and shrieked in the phone: "GUESS WHO I SAW ON MARKET STREET? THE KAMA 'AINA!" There was silence on the other end of the phone. I guess he wasn't as impressed by bad celebrities as I was.