Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Literary Laundromats
If your clothes are dirty and your mind is open, head over to
BrainWash
(1122 Folsom St., at Rausch;
%
415/255-4866; no cover),
a laundromat/
cafe/evening performance space. Seven nights a week from 7 or 8pm,
something's up, be it music, readings, or something more experimental.
Thursday is Comedy Night, hosted by local name Tony Sparks. A good idea,
right—to sit and enjoy a show while your duds are swishing around? Its
website keeps current the list of upcoming acts, including links to the
home pages of almost all of them.
Not quite stealing the same idea is
Soap Box at Bernal Bubbles
(397
Cortland Ave., at Bennington;
%
415/821-9530; www.bernalbubbles.com),
which, on the first Saturday of the month at 10pm, invites 30-minute lec-
tures by truly interesting or established names, which in the past have
included Tiffany Shlain (founder of the Webby Awards) and Annie Sprinkle
(porn star-cum-feminist performance artist). After the lecture, everyone
adjourns to a gallery down the street to get to know each other better over
drinks. And if you spill your red wine on yourself, you can just go back from
whence you came.
CHESS WITH THE LOCALS
The Mechanics Institute
(57 Post St., at Montgomery;
%
415/393-0101; www.mi
library.org; $10 day pass, $35 weekly pass)
is well-known for its chess club, the
oldest in the United States (founded in 1854), which is a great place to get
creamed quietly if you don't know what you're doing. It's open for casual play
weekdays 11am to 9pm and weekends 11am to 5pm; on Saturdays at 10:30am,
there's a lecture on chess technique followed by a play session. Absolute beginners
are welcome then. Once here, you may check out the place (free tours are given
Wed at noon). Founded in 1854 it's a priceless institution for the inquisitive, with
some 140,000 items available for anyone to look at. In addition to the archives,
the institute schedules frequent events and talks by world-class experts, and 9
months a year it programs its surprisingly intellectual CinemaLit film series (usu-
ally $10), in which movies both old and newish are shown and local film writers
and critics weigh in.
HOW LOCALS WORK
True, you can't go to the offices and workshops where millions of San Francisco
residents earn their daily bread, but there are a few places you can go to see them
in action. I'll start with an opportunity to gape at politicos in action, go on to
seven fascinating factory tours, and introduce you to the combination
museum/engineering post that runs the city's famed cable cars.
The Board of Supervisors,
the city's 11-member legislative branch, meets
every Tuesday at 1 or 2pm in its opulent chambers at City Hall, and they keep
snarking at each other, amusingly, until they're worn out. Debate is lively and can
