Listening to Fiery Furnaces' version of Norwegian Wood over and over again over the wi-fi in my room just after midnight. It's intensely good especially after a few listens to get use to the wobble. Blueberry Boat was my favorite album title last year. On the same set of sites { http://www.kcrw.org to cite sources}
So.
I arrived at the How Weird Festival as it was unwinding into the wilderness of after party-dom, somewhere on Utah Street, in a big place, I suppose, since it seemed Everyone was invited. I thought a moment about going along and then thought better of it. I was not dressed for the whacky occassion, but I enjoyed the last few throbbing beats of electronic music. I suppose I should have gotten here earlier, as it wrapped up at 8pm around Howard and 12 street. I'll put this fest in my tickler file for next year. The sun must have made it quite a blast.

This glorious afternoon, I found myself with a friend in The Mission, along Guerrero, walking and talking, to 23rd where there's a garden lot, a fantastic palm shop set up between old vics, near a big famous church.
Amongst those succulents and fern, shade trees and air plants a person could get lost for hours and spend a pretty penny on plants too.

On the way back we thought to go to the golden fire hydrant, to pay a small tribute to the survivors of 1906. It's at the northeast corner of Dolores park, across the street from the train stop. I thought back as much as I could to a fiery furnace storming across the peninsula, when the quake and carelessness set fire that came right to the very edge of The Mission, along 15th, 16th, 17th to the edges of Dolores Park.
The Liberty Hill Preservation District doesn't betray the closeness of destruction a hundred years ago -- the flames that at turns lit these homes or saved them. The hydrant stood as a golden font. Still does.

Later, along How Weird Street, the final dots and dashes from the dj stage mess out and flutter across the faces of a few policemen, who seem a bit changed by the gig. I wandered home to my district and donned the headphones to hear Brooklyn calling -- Fiery Furnaces and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.