$10. Rakim & Mos Def

26th Oct 09

To our delight we see a concert advertised at Ruby Skye. Mos Def & Rakim. Tickets were $10. This blew us away, in Australia we would pay around $80 + to see artists like this in concert. Amy was thrilled to be able see her future husband Mos. The show was incredible and much love to Dan the Automator and DJ Von.

Also Amy and I ventured to Oakland to see En Vogue perform at Yoshi's, no camera's allowed, that show was actually impressive, the ladies looked and sounded as good as ever.

This girl was just to the left of us during the show, she was an incredible sight, knew every lyric to every song and went in hard on the dancemoves. I really wanted to meet her.

Photos by Felis.

If that's your boyfriend he wasnt last night...

Oct 09

Saturday night we head to see Meshell Ndegeocello at The Independent. Yes it was Oestrogen Fest, but it was the most raw, gritty, funkdified, total stank face, make love to the bass kinda performance *grunts*

On the trip home from the show we made friends with Dennis at the bus stop. We found him bumpin & grindin with the bus stop pole whilst listening to his ipod. Ended up sharing a cab with him downtown as there were no buses in sight.

Photos by Felis.

Dumprings

Oct 09

After a day of retail therapy down Haight and Ashbury, Felis did some research and found the best dumpling place I have possibly ever been too. After a 40 minute bus ride to the Richmond area of San Fran we found Shanghai Dumpling King and were greeted by our host Ryan...

Dumpling master

BEANS!

Smashed in record time 15:13min


A friendly farewell, Ryan said he'll miss us

Photos by Felis.

T-Mobile = Treat Mobile

October 09

Ventured in to get myself a U.S. simcard at T-Mobile and we were greeted with eye candy for days. Nuff said.



Photo by Felis.

Tender Loins

October 09

The Tenderloin district of San Francisco had to be my favourite. Not everyone's cup of tea, the homeless rome the streets, begging on nearly every corner, but full of characters who we came across.

To the 40 year old man carrying a boombox on his shoulder at 1am, bless you, such a vision.

Wandering the streets one night after dinner we were serenaded by a homeless man singing 'stand by me' doo wop style, he walked side by side with us for 2 blocks & we even joined him in chorus.

.

Sitting outside the Nile Hookah Cafe a homeless lady with a walker rolls past, chats up a storm with us, while the manager of the cafe tries to move her along, she wasnt going no where. We talked about how much she misses Michael Jackson and how she had been on the streets for 25 years, quite touching, but she was in great spirits. She also told Felis not to hide behind her glasses and that she needs to start wearing mini skirts!

Felis had people falling in love with her at the drop of a hat. A young guy walks past and asks her 'do you believe in love at first sight?' He was a real looker, poppin his collar & opening his jacket The Fonz way, seemed to be his mating call. Then asking 'do you know where 1pm is?'...

The man that always put a smile on our face was on the corner nearly every day. He remembered us and would always say hi. He was happy to give tourists directions and have a chat all whilst balancing upside down.

Photos by Felis.

The Journey Begins - 3 months in the U.S.A.

Friday 23rd October 2009 - San Francisco

I survived my flight. Hallelujah! Much love to Air New Zealand for a great flight and banging music on the plane. I boarded to Tupac and departed to The Alchemist. 17 hours later I arrive at Oakland Airport. Customs was interesting. My customs officer was named 'Brooks', a young military type who possibly had dilled cucumbers stuck up his ass, but I really wasnt surprised.

I waited around at the airport for an hour for Amy to arrive from Los Angeles. I got a tad lost in the airport tromping around with my luggage, finally found the American Airlines arrivals whilst schfitzing up a storm (airports never have decent aircon).

Made it to the hotel, our cab driver commented on how well our English was...

After missing her flight from Vancouver, Felis arrived later that night, was so exciting to see my girls on the other side of the world. Now our hotel is another story. It was possibly appropriate that the hotel we end up booking is in the 'Tenderloin' district, haha. A blog dedicated to the Tenderloin is coming up... But for now a tribute to our hotel 'The Adante' & being in California & the tender loins in this film clip.

'someone feed me long islands and take advantage of me, please!"