I love this city!

Tonight I went to the monthly Rumpus at the Makeout Room, just over on 22nd St. I mentioned therumpus.net in my very first posting. They are an online magazine focused on culture vs. pop culture. They have a monthly event called, strangely enough, the Monthly Rumpus. And for any of you who remember the details of my post, there was this guy I saw twice talking to homeless people, with the most shining, loving, focused look on his face. Stopping and talking to him on the way home from my last day of work was the only reason I knew about The Rumpus. He is their only "paid" employee. Tonight was his birthday, and a benefit...which is how he gets paid.

I love this city and the Mission in particular. There's a coffee shop/bar a couple blocks from my house that regularly has great live music...often classical or jazz. And then there's an event like tonight's. It seemed a new incarnation of the variety show concept.

There were several authors who read excerpts from their books: Tony Dushane, Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk; Kevin Sampsell, A Common Pornography (very funny about his growing up in rural WA); Ethan Watters who was just on the Daily Show being interviewed about his book, Crazy Like Us, The Globalization of the American Psyche (yeah, a different level of smarts in that one); Robin Ekiss, a poet...I'm not the biggest fan ever of a lot of poetry, but I LOVED hers and am going to buy her book, The Mansion of Happiness; and last but definitely not least was Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, whose smart humor reminded me of witty pens like Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris...he has definitely gone on my "to read" list.

They were interspersed with a couple musical and humorous acts, but the "shining" moment, literally, was a hoopdance by Richard Porter. A guy with bleach blonde hair, in tight striped pants, dancing with glowing hoola hoops to Cirque du Soleil-esque music. SOOO COOL!...or should I say "sick"?

I linked to his profile, but check out the rest of his and his performance partner's site. I didn't know there was something called hooping, or that it has an international following and community, or that there could be instructional classes, much less a DVD, or that there are Hoopie awards. I know I saw Michelle Obama do a little hoola hooping, but that is nothing compared to this!

 

 

This seemed like a natural progression for my bending light series of photos. IF ONLY I had thought to switch modes and take a video of this! Ah well, this is all a learning experience.

So sign up for their email and join me at the next one. I'd love some company next month.

My next new outing is a walk in Golden Gate Park (and probably the beach as well) on Saturday with forageSF. I'm not sure I'm ready to start scarfing down edibles from the wilds of SF, but I think it'll be a really interesting time learning about what is edible in the area and actually seeing where it grows. And I'm sure there'll be some good pics to post as well. More to come...