Travels and Tales

Cool Kid Travels: Cambridge Art Wall

I had some time to kill between listening to hipsters talk about sports bras and chugging pints of Magic Hat Circus Boy so I did one of my favorite Boston activities: walking the length of Mass Ave.  Back when I did it, it usually was usually to avoid paying a $1.25 subway fare (earning $7,500 a year didn't go very far, even with $160/month rent) and not photograph graffiti but hey, what the hell.

The last time I was in Central Square was three years ago and this art wall was nothing like it was today.  Meaning, it didn't fucking rule.

This last one was a new Banksy from around the corner that went up during the week.  Unlike SF, people in Boston either don't know who Banksy is or don't give a shit.  The piece of Valencia was photographed to death and for over a week, you couldn't walk past Amnesia without seeing someone gawking.  I was near this thing for a little while and didn't see a single other person glance at it.

Win Some Tickets to Big River Man

Normally I wouldn’t let this blog do such a promotion, but Big River Man (Epic River Man?) is a fat alcoholic that likes to do epic adventures (read: me in 25 years).  Given that I love alcohol and windows into my future, I’d like to let you know that Big River Man is playing at The Roxie for a few weeks, starting May 28th at 7pm.

Do you want free tickets?  Tell us your best swimming (or water-related) story in the comments and the best story wins them.

(In the event no stories are told, the first comment will win them.  If no one comments, it will prove what I always suspected: no one reads this thing.  Am I talking to myself again?)

(Buy tickets here)

The first of hopefully many summer mini-vacations

On Friday afternoon, I decided to get out of the city and its horrid overcast weather and spend the day drinking beers in a rowboat.

Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds.

We met up in Berkeley and drove out Highway 24 into the picturesque (read: bougie, white) town of Lafayette. In town we failed to find Four Loko anywhere (god, suburbia, get it together!) and ended up buying beer and Cooks instead. At the Lafayette reservoir we rented a rowboat and set out to sea lake pond. I won’t go on about the rest of our afternoon, I just wanted to share this lovely day trip with Uptown readers because I imagine many of us tire of spending every sunny day at Dolores Park and, especially given the impending closures, it’s nice to have alternative places for outdoor daytime drinking.

Although we drove, the Lafayette Reservoir is highly BART-able. Once you’re there, parking is $6 and boat rental is $25 for up to 5 hours. There’s a Safeway pretty nearby for picnic food and drink. If you intend to get Lok’d though, you’ll probably have to make a pit stop in Oakland or be sorely disappointed like we were. More info about the Lafayette Recreation Area can be found here. Let’s go Summer 2010!

Is North East San Francisco the “Northeast” of San Francisco?

Ice Tubes, a delicious blog about cooking popsicles, has a pretty compelling list that attempts to prove that Russian Hill/Marina and other parts of SF that I never go to are just like the northeast.  As a former resident and avid fan of New England, I have to protest that their list is only based off of the Cape Cod/Rhode Island “Tea Partay” stereotype (believe me, plenty of those people exist).  Clearly anyone who has ever been to Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont/Western Mass. knows that most of New England, dare I say “the Real New England,” is all rednecks, shotguns, blueberry bushes, pickup trucks, cold-ass winters, nothing but white people, moose, damn good beer, and epic wind.  Therefore, I say that the northeast of San Francisco is Cold Beer, Cold Water.

(link)

ROAD TRIP WITH AK47s!

This seems like a fairly typical “two bros* get canned and travel across the country” movie, although they used a real camera and filmed experiments with gunpowder.  Solid!

Anyways, you can watch the trailer, featuring a sick shot of a rotating Mission St. sign, or go see The Recess Ends in person on May 7th (who plans that far in advance?  DAMN)

Event Schedule:
7-8pm Uphill Bike Race (Bottom of Chinatown to Medicine Agency)
8-9pm The Recess Ends Free Screening. Come and watch the film, eat some popcorn, drink some beers, etc.
9-close The Recess Ends After Party.

Where:
Medicine Agency - 1262 Mason Street

Better be cash prizes for the bike race and hella free PBR.

* they are literally brothers, not douchebags**
** I don’t actually know they aren’t douchebags

Today my friends and I pieced out a KFC Double Down

So curiosity (and not-at-all-420-related munchies) led my two friends and I to sample the controversial unsandwich known at KFC as the “Double Down.”

The Double Down consists of two pieces of boneless fried chicken, with jack cheese, bacon and the Colonel’s special sauce in between. Pretty appalling. With 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and 1380 milligrams of sodium, it’s truly a heartstopper. Reviews? I say … blech, bacon plus fried chicken is just too much, and I felt stomach acid and nausea before I even finished eating. I do not recommend it. My friend George somewhat agrees. My friend Ryan, on the other hand, is totally on board, proclaiming the Double Down his “new Burger King Quad Stacker.”

Has anyone else tried this monstrosity? Reactions?

Pages