Tag: San Francisco

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Living on the Faultline, by Nicholas

          Late that
pleasant afternoon, after I’d finished classes, I walked across campus to do
some work in the library. On the third floor I found the book I needed and was
about to sit down at a table when things began to rumble. It was Oct. 17, 1989
and San Francisco was about to get a shaking like it hadn’t felt in decades.
Floors and walls trembled in the familiar motion of a California earthquake.
Fixtures rattled a little and swayed. Then the real shaking began. Ceiling
lights knocked around and flickered and then went out. Books were flung off
their shelves. Filing cabinets toppled over. People dove under tables and I
quickly placed my brief case over my head to protect against falling debris. I
had been through many earthquakes in San Francisco—felt the building sway,
heard the rattling, been waken up in a rippling bed, felt the floor jumping
around beneath my feet—but this time, for the first time, I was afraid. “God, I
could die here,” I thought.
          Then, it
stopped. Fifteen seconds that felt like 15 years. The lights were out but being
5 o’clock in the afternoon, there was enough light for us to thread our dazed
way down three flights of stairs and out of the building. There was no panic as
hundreds of students climbed over piles of books and papers and dust to leave.
Outside, people milled about the campus. I was in probably the worst building
in the worst spot for an earthquake. The San Francisco State University campus
sits almost exactly atop the San Andreas fault and the soil is mostly sand
which tends to magnify the waves of an earthquake. The building I was in was
built of concrete slabs, the kind that respond to shock waves by simply
collapsing. It’s called “pancaking” in which the floors just slide down onto
each other, crushing anything in between. I was glad to be outside.
          Since all
power in the city was out, no traffic lights worked, cars just stopped on the
street, dazed drivers wondering what to do next. No streetcars could run
either. The city just stopped.
          The first
reaction to a major earthquake is confusion. Buildings and the ground they’re
built on aren’t supposed to move like that. Disorientation is the first shock.
          The campus is
in the southwest corner of the city and with traffic totally snarled and no
public transit operating, I figured I might as well start walking home which
was close to the city center, probably 4-5 miles away. I started walking, heading
toward clouds of billowing black smoke. I hoped it wasn’t our house burning
down.
          The streets
were crowded with walkers and some people had transistor radios to get some
news. Remember, this was way before Internet, Facebook, cell phones. No such
thing as instant communication.
          One lady stood
in front of her house and announced to passersby that “That quake ran right in
front of my house.” Had the tremor run right in front in your house, I thought,
you wouldn’t be standing here now. The actual shift in tectonic plates was
probably miles deep in the earth.
          Somebody said
the Bay Bridge collapsed—a part of it, in fact, had. A freeway in Oakland had
collapsed, killing 60 people. The Marina District, built on landfill by the
bay, took the worst damage and was burning. All highways, bridges and trains
were unusable. If you couldn’t walk to where you needed to be, people were told
to just stay where they were. I kept walking, stepping around the occasional
pile of bricks and stucco that had fallen off buildings.
          Finally, I got
home. Everything was OK. We lived on a hill overlooking Golden Gate Park, the
most solid geology you could find in San Francisco (the hill, not the park
which is sand). Walls cracked and books had wobbled to the edges of shelves,
but nothing toppled or collapsed.
          Jamie got home
soon after I did. He’d been in a highrise office building downtown and had to
walk down ten flights of stairs but managed to drive home taking a circuitous
route through neighborhoods to avoid traffic jams. Some of the office towers
had actually banged against one another at the height of the shaking—or so we
heard.
          Shortly after
we arrived home, two friends showed up. They both worked in SF but lived in
Oakland and couldn’t get home so they hiked to our place and stayed with us.
There was no power in the house, so we built a fire outside in a little hibachi
grill and heated up some leftovers. The city was dark except for the glow to
the northeast where the Marina District kept burning. We felt oddly safe on our
bedrock hillside.
          We did
actually perform one rescue that dangerous night. The woman who lived in the
flat below ours was stranded in East Bay which meant her cat Darwin needed
feeding. He sat mewling at our back door until we invited him in and gave him
some food. Next day Darwin repaid the favor by leaving us a dead bird on our
doorstep.
          In the days
that followed, the city slowly got back to a new normal. Mail delivery was
cancelled for three days and many shops remained closed. The World Series
between SF and Oakland resumed. Buildings and freeways were inspected and some
condemned. BART resumed running trains the next day but the Bay Bridge was to
stay closed for at least a month until the collapsed section could be repaired.
Ferry boats started running across the bay—actually a nicer way to commute. We walked
through the Marina District over the rippled pavement and past the leaning or
burnt out flats. Everywhere you went you calculated how safe it was or wasn’t
until you realized there was no place safe but you went on anyway. Living on
the faultline. 
©
19 April 2015 
About the Author 

Nicholas grew up in
Cleveland, then grew up in San Francisco, and is now growing up in Denver. He
retired from work with non-profits in 2009 and now bicycles, gardens, cooks,
does yoga, writes stories, and loves to go out for coffee.
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A Picture to Remember, by Carol White

In the early 1980s my
partner Judith and I had attended the Gay Games in San Francisco, the second
one to be held in that city.  It’s
actually the Gay Olympics, but the “real” Olympics would not allow us to use
that word, so the founders decided to call it the Gay Games.  And they decided that the third one should be
held outside the United States, but not too far away, so that it would have
more of an “international” flavor to it. 
They decided on Vancouver, British Columbia for August 1990, and they
would call it Celebration ’90: Gay Games and Cultural Festival, since they were
adding many of the arts as well as the sporting events.
Around the beginning of 1988
I got a harebrained idea that it would be fun to organize and conduct a world
chorus to sing at that event, and that it would be called the Celebration ’90
Festival Chorus.  So I made a couple of
trips to Vancouver to meet with the organizers of the games and managed to convince
them to let me do it! 
We formed a small organizing
committee in Denver that met in our living room, and we began two years of
effort to make that dream come true.  At
that time we had no computers and no email and no Facebook or websites to aid
us in our recruitment efforts.  So we
began to put ads in gay and lesbian publications across the country, as well as
advertising through the Gay Games themselves, and trying to use GALA Choruses
too, although most of the choruses were not interested because they were so
busy with their own rehearsals and concerts. 
I rented a P.O. Box at a nearby post office, and I would go by there
every day and check to see if we had a new soprano or alto or tenor or bass. 
I decided what music we
would sing and we raised money to order all the music, as well as black folders
and T-shirts that one of our members had designed.  Somehow I got rehearsal tapes made, which
were really the old cassette tapes, and as the time approached, we had mailing
parties to send out all the music and tapes and fold and pack all the
shirts. 
Meanwhile we were working
full time at our jobs and we were not out at work.
After many trials and
tribulations, we flew to Vancouver on a Friday in August of 1990 with great
anticipation but not knowing exactly what to expect.  The next morning we went to the church where
we were supposed to rehearse, and 400 singers showed up with music in hand and
ready to go.  We had members from 20
states, seven Canadian provinces, the Yukon Territory, Australia, England,
Germany, France, and South Africa.  We
arranged them in sections where the congregation would normally sit, and I was
up front.  You can just imaging that the
first sounds that came out of that choir were absolutely thrilling! 
We had three hours to
rehearse that morning, then a lunch break, and that afternoon we rehearsed at
B.C. Place, which was Vancouver’s domed stadium, to perform there that very
night with three songs for Opening Ceremonies. 
They had built risers for us and they were set up on the field. 
By the time we got to the
stadium that night for Opening Ceremonies, the energy was through the
roof.  There were approximately 10,000
athletes from all over the world, and approximately 10,000 spectators from
around the world in the stands who had come to observe.  The chorus went out onto the risers and sang,
“Come celebrate, come celebrate, come celebrate our spirit.  The sound of hearts that beat with pride, now
let the whole world hear it.” 
Then we sat together in the
stands while we had the parade of athletes just like the Olympics, where they
marched in in teams from all the different countries and they congregated in
the middle of the field.  After some
speeches and other performances, the chorus went back out and sang “Do You Hear
the People Sing” from Les Mis.  This song
happened while they were running the torch into the stadium, and just as they
ran up the stairs and lit the Olympic flame, we finished the song with “Tomorrow
comes.”  It was midnight. 
The next morning I could
hardly get out of bed.  My body ached all
over.  But we had to rehearse all morning
every morning for a concert that we were going to give on Friday night at the
Plaza of Nations, an outdoor venue which had been built for the World’s Fair
when it was held there. 
So Sunday through Friday we
worked on the concert program as follows: 
Diversity, Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, March of the
Hebrew Captives from Verdi’s Nabucco, Song of Peace from Finlandia, Living with
AIDS, The Great Peace March, Brothers and Sisters, and Singing for Our
Lives.  And early Friday evening we
performed all of those selections to a packed crowd at the Plaza of
Nations.  Here is the “picture to
remember” from that concert.
Then we rehearsed
again on Saturday for the Closing Ceremonies that were to be held that night
back at B.C. Place, where we sang “We’re gonna keep on moving forward, Keep on
moving forward, Keep on moving forward, Never Turning Back, Never Turning Back.” 
After the chorus sang
that night, Judith and our friend Bob and I went up into the stands to watch
the rest of the show.  They used the
chorus on the field to form two long lines holding up flags for the big parade
to pass through.  I remember looking down
at that scene as the happiest time in my whole life.  We had actually pulled it off!  I think it was an extremely happy time for a
lot of other people there too.
After everyone went
back home, several of the individuals who had sung in that chorus organized gay
and lesbian choruses in their home towns, including Winnipeg, Manitoba;
Toronto, Ontario; Victoria, B.C., and Sydney, Australia. 
I have not attended
any Gay Games since then, but it is my understanding that each one has included
a Festival Chorus.
© April 2015
About
the Author 
I was born in Louisiana in
1939, went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas from 1957 through 1963,
with majors in sacred music and choral conducting, was a minister of music for
a large Methodist church in Houston for four years, and was fired for being gay
in 1967.  After five years of searching,
I settled in Denver and spent 30 years here as a freelance court reporter.  From 1980 forward I have been involved with
PFLAG Denver, and started and conducted four GLBT choruses:  the PFLAG Festival Chorus, the Denver Women’s
Chorus, the Celebration ’90 Festival Chorus for the Gay Games in Vancouver, and
Harmony.  I am enjoying my 11-year
retirement with my life partner of 32 years, Judith Nelson, riding our bikes,
going to concerts, and writing stories for the great SAGE group.
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Bathing by Nicholas

I like bathing. I like luxuriating in a hot bath after a vigorous bike ride or before going to bed. It’s relaxing, soothing, and comforting in ways that showers aren’t.

I like bathing at baths even more. It’s always nice to bathe with other bathers. At communal baths, like Lake Steam Baths on W. Colfax Avenue, tubs or pools are bigger than mine at home, the water hotter, the sense of luxury greater. Sinking into hot water to completely submerse my body feels absolutely primordial. To adapt the common Biblical phrase: From water I came and to water I shall return.

My favorite bathing establishment is the Kabuki Spa in San Francisco and I was there just last week. It is one of the must-do things whenever I am in San Francisco. The Kabuki is an old Japanese-style communal baths in the heart of an area in SF called Japantown. Japantown used to be a thriving Japanese-American community until the U.S. government rounded all Japanese Americans and sent them to concentration camps in Colorado and elsewhere in 1942. But some of the community returned and the neighborhood is still called Japantown.

When I first went there, the place had all the tackiness of post-war Tokyo—cold tiles, garish colors, 1950s modern décor; cheap looking like a Japanese monster movie. Then it got bought up by some New-Agey California operation and became a spa, not a bathhouse. All the lights were dimmed and colors softened to mellow earth tones and though it was quiet before, now quiet became meditative silence with meditative music in the background.

The new owners spruced up the place but kept all the main features—the hot pool, the cold pool, the steam room, the sauna, and, best of all, massage. There are alternating men’s and women’s days but clothing is not optional, you go naked once you hang up your clothes in a locker.

I must point out that this is not a sex palace. Sex is prohibited and staff (i.e., monitors), while they refill water pitches, trays of fruit, and towels, are constantly bustling about to make sure nobody is misbehaving. This is not to say that the atmosphere is not erotic. I mean, you can’t put 20 to 40, naked, wet, steamy men (or women on other days) in one room and not have certain interests rise. Once in a while, one man will discreetly touch another but no sex ever happens. It’s kind of refreshing.

But I digress. I have my ritual at the Kabuki. First, I take a Japanese bath. I sit on a low stool and pour buckets of water over my head, soap up and then pour more buckets of water over my head. Then I head for the steam room to warm up and loosen up and breathe hot humid air to clear out my sinuses.

Then the main attraction. After a little break, I step into the hot pool and suddenly every inch of my skin tingles as I slowly slide down into the hot and wet. It’s big enough to stretch out in and even do some bending and stretching. It is the most totally relaxing feeling I have ever had.

Usually when I go to Kabuki, I sign up for a half-hour refresher massage. You can get all sorts of massage and other body treatments lasting forever and costing a fortune if you want. I used to request this one woman masseuse because she had big soft hands that kneaded my flesh like bread dough. The massage usually takes me past the relaxation phase and into the re-invigorating phase with a calm energy returning.

When I walk out of the Kabuki two hours later, I feel not only rested but energized.

This bathing establishment is all about the real pleasure of bathing—washing, soaking, steaming. Getting clean is a pleasure all its own. Getting wet is truly a sensuous gift to your body. Water is an amazing substance. It is plain but powerful in its ability to stir our senses as well as ease our minds. Water, that most pliable of substances, can also be a source of strength and vitality. Try it. I think you need a bath.

© 22 Oct 2012

About the Author 


Nicholas grew up in Cleveland, then grew up in San Francisco, and is now growing up in Denver. He retired from work with non-profits in 2009 and now bicycles, gardens, cooks, does yoga, writes stories, and loves to go out for coffee.

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A Meal to Remember – Giving Thanks by Nicholas

It was our first Thanksgiving together in our first flat together in San Francisco. We loved the place up the hill from Parnassus Avenue above Cole Valley. The street was Woodland, named so, we presumed, because it ended in a small forest of eucalyptus that ran up Mt. Sutro in the heart of the city. The rent was a bit steep even then but we fell in love with the redwood shingle house of which we occupied the first floor. We were right at the usual fog line so we could watch the fog roll in from the ocean at the front and see the sun at the back.

Our flat was elegant. Old wood trim, arched front window with beveled glass, neat little kitchen with lots of counter space that was a deep, lustrous purple. I loved those deep purple countertops. That was the first kitchen that I loved to cook in.
Being our first Thanksgiving in our own place, we decided to entertain at home with friends coming over instead of joining Jamie’s family in Menlo Park, an hour south. It was kind of a statement of independence from the family and a statement that holidays were ours. So, we invited a bunch of friends and began planning dinner for eight on Thanksgiving Day. We asked each person or couple to contribute something like an appetizer, a salad, a side dish, dessert, wine. We ordered the turkey and would roast it and make stuffing.
We got a 12 pound bird and studied up on what to do with it. What’s to cooking a turkey, we thought. You throw it in the oven early in the morning, check it now and then, and, voila, dinner was ready. Truth is, this wasn’t the very first turkey I had cooked. A previous boyfriend and I had cooked a turkey one holiday so I thought I knew what I was doing. I should have learned more from that turkey, I mean, the boyfriend. 
With the bird in the oven in plenty of time, we thought we were in fine shape to get other things done. Jamie decided to call his mom just to wish her a happy holiday and remind her of what a wonderful time we were having. Mom, being mom, couldn’t leave things alone and had to start asking questions about what was, to her, our cooking experiment. Had we washed the turkey, had we wrapped it in foil or a roasting bag, had we made stuffing, had we gotten the giblets and other parts out of both ends.
Wait a minute, I said, both ends? Turkeys have two ends? I know they do in nature but in the supermarket? I had pulled some extra body parts out of one end, where was this other end and what was supposed to come out of it? Humbled and desperate, we dashed to the oven and yanked the damned bird out of the heat. The cavity was empty, as it was supposed to be. We pried open the other end, having discovered that indeed there was an opening there too. That’s when we realized we were in trouble. The back side, or maybe it was the front, was still frozen solid. I neglected to mention that we had gotten a frozen turkey and had given it what we thought was a proper 2-3 day thawing, but the damn thing was still ice inside.
We threw it back into the oven, cranked up the temp and hoped it would cook. Guests were due to arrive soon. Turkeys are slow birds, especially in the oven. Hours seemed to go by and it was only warm. 
Since we’d planned a leisurely meal, we told people to come over early so we could nosh. We did just that. Guests and their dishes arrived to great cheer and our anxious announcement that dinner might be a little later than planned. We did not elaborate.
We opened the wine. We ate the appetizers. We ate the salad. We opened more wine. The turkey was gradually getting warmer, even starting to cook.
Then the second disaster of our elegant holiday feast arrived. The friend assigned to bring a nice dessert showed up late, though that was no problem compared to the one in the oven. “What did you bring for dessert,” we asked. He proudly pulled out a five-pound bag of apples, just apples, like from a tree. He said it would be a healthy dessert. I said, let me show you where the flour, butter and sugar are and you can bake a pie, like now. Or, I gave him a choice, I could put one of his apples in his mouth and throw him into the oven so we could have two turkeys. He opted instead to go out and buy something.
We were just about ready for dessert by then anyway since we had consumed the entire meal including sweet potatoes and vegetables when at long last the fucking turkey was ready to eat.
We did have our lovely Thanksgiving dinner though the order was slightly reversed with the main course last. I’ve never again purchased a frozen turkey but have successfully cooked fresh, never frozen birds to the delight of hungry guests. I do not recommend buying frozen turkeys.

©
March 2014

About the Author

Nicholas grew up in Cleveland, then grew up in San Francisco, and is now growing up in Denver. He retired from work with non-profits in 2009 and now bicycles, gardens, cooks, does yoga, writes stories, and loves to go out for coffee.