I was channel-surfing a bit last night and in between Rock of Love and Extreme Engineering I saw “Ghetto TV”. How. Could. I. Not. Click. On. Ghetto TV??? This was on local cable access (channel 29, I think) and I gotta say I can totallly dig it. Hard to find much on the internet, but check out Ghetto TV on MySpace.

in case you’ve forgotten: Huntington, Crocker, Stanford, Hopkins.

I happened to look at the Chron just now, and saw that Jim Mitchell died. RIP – a true SF icon.

One of those small world stories, in a way, I suppose. I was in Fabric8 today getting CreditCovers a place on the shelf (done, btw!), and someone was asking Olivia if it was OK to take a picture, and then I started talking to her, and she and mentioned this “Guess Where SF” thing on Flickr… So I got home and checked it out, and of course the pic she took of the shop is already up there. This is the sort of thing an obsessive native like myself appreciates.

I’ve often wished for a simple list of San Francisco Zip codes by neighborhood… I finally found it — along with a great, free Zip Code Google mashup map

San Francisco Zip codes by neighborhood

• 94102 – Civic Center
• 94103 – SoMa West
• 94104 – Financial District North
• 94105 – Financial District South
• 94107 – Potrero Hill/SoMa East
• 94108 – Chinatown
• 94109 – Nob Hill/Downtown
• 94110 – Mission/Bernal Heights
• 94111 – The Embarcadero
• 94112 – Outer Mission/Ocean View/Crocker Amazon
• 94114 – Castro/Upper Market
• 94115 – Pacific Heights
• 94116 – Parkside
• 94117 – Haight Ashbury
• 94118 – Inner Richmond/Presidio Heights
• 94121 – Outer Richmond/Seacliff
• 94122 – Sunset
• 94123 – Marina
• 94124 – Bayview
• 94127 – West of Twin Peaks
• 94128 – SFO
• 94129 – Presidio
• 94130 – Treasure Island/YBI
• 94131 – Noe Valley/Twin Peaks/Diamond Heights
• 94132 – Lakeshore
• 94133 – North Beach/Russian Hill East
• 94134 – Visitacion Valley/Excelsior West
• 94143 – UCSF
• 94158 – Mission Bay

OK, so I hate reggae, most of the time… but there’s a lot more to love. Fresh ravioli, mortadella, coppa, cheese, bread, wine and just about anything else at Lucca on Valencia. Ramen with gyoza — or any other lunch special — at Iroha in Japantown. The view of the city from my back deck, especially late at night. Doing laps around Twin Peaks, or up and down Pescadero Road… Riding across the GG bridge, watching the swell roll in. Taking old friends around Chinatown and North Beach: Buddha Bar, Spec’s, Tony Nick’s, Osteria del Forno, Tosca, Li Po… Walking down to Farley’s and Goat Hill, any day or night of the week. Breakfast or lunch at Just For You in Dogpatch. Oyster BBQ’s in Tomales Bay. Lower Hayes. Lower 24th St. The hipsters, hip-deep in front of Bogaloo’s, the St. Francis, and the Pork Store. Moped kids, and friends’ new kids. Shows at the Make Out Room and in the back room at the Hemlock. Running into old friends everywhere.

Don’t get me wrong, there _are_ some things that bug me, but in general, it ain’t all _that_ bad.

One of my favorite bands is X. One of my favorite songs of theirs is The Have Nots, where they reel off a whole string of names of bars, real and parhaps imaginary. The one that’s always stuck out to me is the Zircon Lounge, not sure why, but I like the name. One day a few years ago I called 411 and asked for the listing here in San Francisco, and strangely enough there was a listing. I’d certainly never heard of a place here in town by that name. I rang the number and they answered “Place Pigalle”, which is a bar down on Hayes. That night I went down there and asked the ‘tender about the Zircon Lounge, and she said that the owner had almost used that name, but decided at the last minute to go with Place Pigalle instead. The only other evidence of this I can find is their email address, which I found posted here. Funny little story. The question is: is Place Pigalle somehow the Zircon Lounge that Exene was talking about?

Listen, I’m proud to be from SF, and also to surf Ocean Beach — or at least try. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m basically hopeless at it, but I have to say something about the conditions. Having surfed a couple other places where the waves are actually good (Baja, Santa Cruz), OB flat out sucks most of the time. It is a great place to surf, simply because you’re on a huge exposed Pacific Ocean Beach, and it’s quite dramatic, but that doesn’t have anything to do with how the surf is. I know that it’s possible to get decent rides there, and I do like to surf, and OB is the closest place, etc. but frankly it’s often the case that I just don’t really enjoy myself out there. Maybe I’m just a pu**y, but even a crappy point is better than heaving beachbreak. I’m still going to surf OB — and Pacifica (which is usually even worse) — but I may have to take up windsurfing or something again for better water time.

X got back from another trip to Berlin, and we had a nice weekend here in San Francisco. I caught another session of the real estate course that I’ve been “auditing” (i.e. sitting in on for free) over at UC Berkeley — great stuff! Caught the redeye to NYC and a cab to Vasco and Kitty’s place in Brooklyn. It turns out that they were moving that morning, so I had a cup of coffee and then lugged a few boxes down stairs in a gentle fall rain. The new place is on 6th St between First and A, East Village. Funny thing is that Loren had been to the same apartment many times in the past, since it was Ari’s place. I fixed the gas by, well, turning it back on. Apparently Ari had been using a hotplate for the past seven years.

I spent the afternoon at the IAB Ad Operations “Summit”, and the rest of the week taking meetings with AdMonsters sponsors. Vasco and I walked down Bowery Wednesday afternoon and had fun checking out all the restaurant supply places. I had to resist buying a 40-quart stockpot – not good carryon material! Got my pizza in at Lombardi’s — the best! A bunch of us had dinner Thursday night at some local place on First Ave, and I caught a flight back to SF early Friday morning.

Flying back West, I was wondering why I had bothered to get such an early flight out of New York. Landing at SFO, I saw clear skies, no wind – a perfect fall day. I called Marc from the cab and said I’d pick him up in an hour to head for Linda Mar. We had a two-hour surf during which I caught maybe a wave and a half, which is to say it was a perfect session. Just what I needed right off the plane: a headful of sun and cold salt water.

Saturday brought us an awesome surprise TOGA party for Marc and Jessica’s birthdays (only a day apart – go figure). J is such a super planner, she booked a groovy sixties band and laid out a spread on the pool table at the Make Out Room. I ran down to the discount fabric store on Mission St. and got the toga goods. The whole shindig came off really well. Here are a couple of thumbs, check the gallery for all the photos.

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The following day (that would be Sunday), a bunch of us piled in the White Van and headed up to Tomales Bay Oyster Co. It was a sparkling fall day, and the parking lot was full of Explorers with B.C.S. (Baja California Sur) plates, Norteño music playing through the open doors. I staggered home after a hundred BBQ’d oysters and few Hot Sluts (Mexican hot chocolate with Frangelico).

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X’s GMAT finally came around on Monday… and so what else could we do but throw a pumpkin-carving BBQ to celebrate! The apartment is really coming along, and it was nice to have some people over. I made tri-tip with Maker’s Mark and Habañero marinade, and Kevin showed up with some lobsters. We managed to get the carving and grilling done just in time before last night’s rain rolled in.

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I’m taking the night off so that I can get some work done… and get ready for ReWired tomorrow night!