22.06.12 - Meeting the Trans

I went to meet the reporter at the Cross Generational Trans Brunch in Dolores Park in the Mission district. Dolores Park is a local hang out spot for the inhabitants of the Mission who are, from what I’ve been told, cool and trendy but not like Shoreditch trendy. More like music enthusiast, meets hippy, meets computer geek with a bit of foodie thrown in. It is near the Castro which is the gay area and the other side is the Latino area but the trendies are slowly pushing them further east.

    The crowd at the brunch was a total mix of the young gender curious, very attractive transexuals, very confused individuals and the older transgender crowd who had definitely been through the wars and fought for equal rights through the tough times. There is even an old peoples home specifically for transgender OAPs. I am improving my terminoligy slowly and I’m sure that I am eternally putting my foot in it. The reporter, Jess, described herself as queer identified (i.e. gay), the word dyke is being reclaimed by the lesbian community, black people are definitely African-Americans, illegal immigrants are undocumented immigrants. It is a minefield, especially at New America Media where people are sensitive to these kinds of things. Any desire to make a mildly inappropriate joke has to be suppressed. My other favourite was “I’m going to reach out to them tomorrow” translates as “I’m going to telephone them tomorrow”. There is definitely a lack of sense of irony amongst my fellow interns, they are very serious.

When we were done I walked around the district, all the way up and down Valencia street which is a mixture of trendy shops, vintage shops, places to eat (there are lots of delicious looking places everywhere), venues. I found a photography shop that specialises in doing tintype portraits (an old method of photography using plates of metal rather than negatives, the results look amazing) and instant film photography (i.e. Polaroid). They have a photography walk on Sunday which I will try to go to. They also pointed me in the right direction for hiring a macro lens for my camera, ironically from Calumet where is who I get the same equipment from in London.

Jess had suggested a Mexican place to get lunch. It looked awful, flies and dirty tiles, but it was definitely the place she had recommended (I rang to confirm) and the food was really good. The burrito lasted me two meals, like a lot of American food.
I walked to Calumet and hired a lens. The deposit in London is £1,000, here it is $100. They obviously think that Americans are more responsible. I’ve noticed that thier road system also calls for more responsibility from drivers, cyclists and pedestrians which surprised me in the nation of litigation. Cars can still turn right at a red light so everyone has to watch out and be aware. And the intersections without lights do not have a right of way for one road over another so all traffic has to give way to each other. Actually cars are much more courteous here than in London; they let you pass and don’t try to kill you. And pedestrians don’t try to kill themselves, they diligently wait for the green light to cross. I have only been beeped several times on one occasion and that was when I was happily cycling the wrong way down a one way street; they do not have huge, red no entry signs here so I got confused.

 I wandered out with my camera on Friday evening, did some grocery shopping, avoiding the fertile eggs, and then decided that I should have a drink at The Pig & Whistle in honour of the Toon. Hoping that it would be a quiet bar with a few old Geordies in who could become my new random SF friends I was disappointed to find it full of people being sociable on a Friday night, so I had half a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale on my own and then went home to bed.