shifter

What can be said about the great American sport that is NFL? Not a lot really. Its a fucking ridiculous game. That said, the Americans know how to do it well. There's so much going on that is not the game it nigh on impossible to get bored. It also came to my attention after the game that I'd picked up an accent, due to the fact that vendors can't understand shit, and you have speak like a yank for them to make your order correctly.

There's a lot of touristy things to do in SF, and being a WA boy I was pretty skeptical of them. WA's track record of interesting tourist attractions is pretty lame. So I was quite uninspired when I set off for my trip to see Alcatraz.

It turns out, also that I was unprepared.

It was a fairly warm day in Mill Valley, and as such I had a polo shirt and some shorts on when I set out. When to the SF docks for the second time it was quite windy. And the wind bought the chills. So I headed down pier 39 and came across the NFL shop, a sporting apparel store. My timing was quite good on this visit as the Oakland Raiderettes were instore selling calenders, signing things and taking pictures, so obviously I had to get one. Jennifer (left) and Rachael (right) seemed pretty chatty and more intelligent than I expected for cheerleaders. Jennifier actually had some family in Sydaney and was pretty keen on hearing more about Aus. Oh, and I bought a Fighting Irish hoodie to get drunk in...

Which turned out to be an awesome buy. As the day passed noon, I headed to the line up for the ferry to Alcatraz. The sunny day dropped off a bit and the wind picked up. Me, like the unthinking person I am decided to stand at the bow of the ferry. Needless to say, it was quite windy.

So Alcatraz? What can I say? Hollywood's done this place up more than I ever could, but I do have a tonne of photos lying around. What was really interesting, and what made the trip worthwhile, was the audio tour. If you've never done one before, basically they give you this ipod type device, some headphones and that guides you through the whole prison. It allows you to get lost in the buildings, and ignore every other tourist that is around. Best thing is you can stop, start, rewind whenever you want. Just like your own personal tour guide.

Around SF there are quite a few art museums. I was lucky enough to take in two on my trip in the same day, but unlucky in the fact that I wasn't allowed to take pictures on the inside of either museum.

The first place I hit up was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. There was two exhibitions besides the general paintings and sculpture that normally live there. Headlining the show was Henri Matisse, with an exhibition title Painter as Sculptor.

The show basically consisted of Matisse's attempts at sculpture over the years. He'd generally try an do his own spin on other artist's famous work, sometimes in very different ways, much like we have a lot of musical covers floating around nowadays. I was exceptionally impressed with one work, of 4 parts which spanned 3 decades from start to finish. Matisse basically re did a sculpture of a lady 3 times, gradually changing his style each time. I'm not much of an arty person, but I quite liked what I saw in all exhibits.

The second venue I visited was the Asian Art Museum. When I got there I was dead tired from walking from the SFMOMA, practically stumbled into the joint. They have the best thing ever though, a manga room. Filled with comics and beanbags. I must've sat and read for a good 30 minutes or so. However, the primary focus of the visit was to see Tezuka: Marvel of Manga. For those not in the know, Osamu Tezuka is the creator of Astro Boy, and Kimba the white lion among many others. Regarded as the godfather of manga, its interesting to see how Tezuka's works have influenced modern day Anime, and even American animation and comics. Myself and Mick found a new friend on our tour.

What was a big surprise was the second exhibition at the museum. Entitled Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales, it was a collection of very early Japanese art by Taiso Yoshitoshi, who went through depicting comic-like tales of things like Monkey and Pigsy (Monkey magic!). The room was darkened as well, apparently these works don't stand up to light very well, but once used to the gloom, this guy's genius was a sight to behold. Basically what I was looking at amounted to 19th century manga, very close to it's origin.

After stepping outside of the Asian Art Museum, it was hard not to ignore the granduer of Union Square at night. So I got a little arty.

Not quite, but there's a factory outlet store in Folsom. Kel and I headed there to do some clothes shopping, and I'm sure the girls would love a big story and details. I'm not about the details. Its shopping. You get in and out. I got out with:

• 2 pairs of jeans
• 2 belts
• 2 pairs of shorts
• 1 t-shirt
• 1 polo shirt
• 1 vest
• 1 business shirt
• 1 sports shirt
• socks.

I looked cool in all of them. You may not have.