But Then I Change My Mind

J, his pooch and I had a very pleasant brunch today down the street from their place in Noe Valley. Good food, coffee and watching the people in the 'hood go buy as we talked about bad pop culture, the past, the future and the meaning of life. We three have a little more history (ahem) than I am willing to go into on this site at this time.

We concluded that on Labor Day we'll combine some of my random, waiting to go out the door stuff in his garage sale (though of course, he doesn't have a garage). What distinguishes Noe Valley from the Mission is that they have illegal garage (or stoop) sales, and we have illegal fireworks going off much of the year. So much for the rumor of the gentrification of my 'hood.

Afterwards, I strolled up and down Church Street, stepping into the increasing number of upscale shops. Church used to be a fairly sparse corridor with only a couple of restaurants and shops, but dang has that changed. I stepped into the Lovejoy (tea room) Annex and picked up a bag of Darjeeling and was struck by the sign at the top of the post I thought about adopting that as the new moniker of this site, but maybe that's too much of a restating of the obvious.After that I stopped into Big Lots (is it just me, or do you think that would make a great name for a porn site or porn shop), a place that I step into very randomly and always find such random, weird things. Ninety-nine-point-nine of their stuff is utter garbage. Not worth its price at any price. Such as these oddities I found but did not buy. What gets me about this place is its parking lot. Yeah, they had a lot of Halloween stuff out, but their lot always gives me the willies. I don't know what it is exactly. It's so dark and dingy, sort of like the setting of some French Connection sequel. Anyway, it just doesn't look like the parking lot for some nationally advertised chain. It sure doesn't have the sunny, wholesome Target vibe.





What's really spooky is that you know somebody will actually buy this junk. It'll probably end up in some of next Labor Day's Noe Valley stoop sales.

Hey you guys (have I gone totally SoCal or what?), I am really blown away by all the sweet, encouraging comments about Junk Thief TV's second season premier. I can just hear my mom after I did one of my famed family gathering song and dance routines: "Please don't encourage him. He'll never stop now!" As those who know me, behind my meek, polite veneer lurks a began piece of near vegan ham, always looking for an audience to witness one of my hysterical song and dance routine,.

However, for the time being I'm planning to assume the guise of all hammy actors who plead, "What I really want to do is direct!" with a special guest star and working on some more tours of the Mission. So no song and dance numbers for just a while. But I'm sure there are more ahead. I was pleased to hear so many interested in seeing more of my quirky little neighborhood. Sometimes I forget that I live in such an amazing place. My old neighborhood of Park Slope (Brooklyn) has been coming up a number of times recently, and I'd be hard pressed to say which I prefer. My slice of the Mission is still a lot edgier than PS (which is much more like Noe Valley these days.) Sometimes I really miss the subdued colors and gravitas of the Brooklyn brownstones, but then on a glorious crisp, cool day like today, I have no regrets about living on the edge of the Pacific.