Entries by Green Tortoise Hostel

So Lovevolution should be
a damn good party. But why stop there? It's on saturday and this is
your holiday/vacation isn't it? Sunday you can keep the festivities
going at the Folsom Street Fair.

This is a fair that is not
for the faint of heart, or the easily spooked though. It is a BDSM
festival of debauchery and and leather clad honies, male and female
honies at that. For those of you still reading this blog after that
post you are obviously intrigued, your curiosity has been piqued, you
may even becoming aroused at this very moment, you dirty little sl. .
. wait I need to tone it down a little I think and just give you a
link: http://folsomstreetfair.org/

Come one, Come all, the
folsom street fair encourages anyone who loves to have fun to come. .
. time and time again in fact.

LovEvolution is here! Known by many as "Love Fest," this electronic music parade and festival rocks the streets of downtown San Francisco this Friday 12 noon to 8pm. The movement started with Berlin's Love Parade, with the idea that "dance promotes peace, love, unity and
respect;" last year, $100,000 of proceeds went toward local and international
non-profits.

So dress in your finest (which might be nothing at all) and get ready to dance (and love) all day long. You'll get to see Isaiah Martin, Jes, The Glitch Mob, Pendulum, and The Plump DJs on the main stage and a ton of others in the shaded "chill area," including Rob Garza of Theivery Corporation. Enjoy the Indian Summertime the way San Franciscans do...partying with wild abandon half naked on floats. Oh yeah and there will probably be 100,000 other people there too.

If you can't wait for Friday, Love Week starts tomorrow with shows and pre-parties, then continues through the weekend with more concerts and after parties. Check out the website at sflovevolution.com for more details.

Tickets are only $25, $40 at the gate, and everyone 18+ is welcome.

It's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass time, my friends. The festival, which is, by the way, COMPLETELY FREE, is a massive 3-day music experience in Golden Gate Park starting on September 30th. Not just bluegrass anymore, this banjo infused, funky folk extravanganza is perhaps my favorite weekend in the city. Bring a blanket, beers, and a picnic lunch and park it in the park for all three days. Make sure to get there early and stake out a lovely green spot of lawn...it gets crowded as the day wanders on.

Check out the concert website at http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/, and for quick reference, here is the lineup (if you have no idea who these people are, check out the ones in bold...it's where I'll be). Happy fiddle frolicking!

FRIDAY SEP 30 (11am - 7pm)
David Bromberg Quartet, Conor Brings Friends for Friday: Bright Eyes, M. Ward, The Felice Brothers, Kurt Vile & the Violators, Woods, Simon Joyner & Jonathan Wilson , John Prine, Maxim Ludwig & the Santa Fe Seven, Jolie Holland, Southern Culture on the Skids, Zigaboo Modeliste - King of the Funky Drums, Mekons, Seldom Scene, Blame Sally, Bill Kirchen, Thurston Moore, Chris Isaak, South Memphis String Band, Charlie Musselwhite, The Del McCoury Band & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Robert Plant & the Band of Joy

SATURDAY OCT 1 (11am - 7pm)
Broken Social Scene, Hugh Laurie, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Ruthie Foster, River Whyless, The Flatlanders featuring Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock, Reckless Kelly, Alison Brown Quartet, Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses, Robyn Hitchcock, The Belle Brigade, Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, Steve Earle & the Dukes (and Duchesses) featuring Allison Moorer, Patty Griffin, Irma Thomas, Nell Robinson & Jim Nunally & Their All-Star Band, Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile, The Band of Heathens, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, AllofaSudden, Wendy Bird and her Band of Miscreants, A.A. Bondy , Earl Scruggs, Greensky Bluegrass, The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Otis Clay with Chick Rodgers, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Cass McCombs Band, Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson, Buckethead, Kris Kristofferson & Merle Haggard, Seamus Kennedy

SUNDAY OCT 2 (11am - 7pm)
Emmylou Harris , The Swanson Family Band, Frank Fairfield, The Low Anthem, Bill Orcutt, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Dry Branch Fire Squad, DeVotchKa, Fitz & the Tantrums , Elbow, The Devil Makes Three, Gomez, Abigail Washburn, Buddy Miller, Those Darlins, Justin Townes Earle, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin, Dark Star Orchestra, The Civil Wars, Dive Bar Dukes, The Jayhawks, Moonalice, Ollabelle, Over the Rhine, Dr. John & the Lower 911, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Conspiracy of Beards, The Mother Hips, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Joe Purdy, Hot Buttered Rum, Bob Mould, Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer , The Blind Boys of Alabama

As many of you may already know, Outside Lands Music Festival is happening this weekend and San Francisco is almost at full capacity!  We are certainly all booked up here at the Green Tortoise until about Monday August 15th which means we've been super busy but we'd love to hear about the great time you guys have been having at the festival!  

Been looking for an excuse to wear your
rainbow mesh shirt? Find yourself wishing you can dance to crazy
techno music in front of City Hall? Well you are in luck because it's
that magical time of the San Franciscan year again: Pride!

Every year hundreds of thousands of
people come to SF to celebrate diversity and acceptance in the
two-day Pride celebration. This event embodies so much of what San
Francisco is about so YOU MUST GO!

The week before is full of fun and
crazy events to take part in during the Pride parade and celebration.
Here are a few that are not to be missed:

<-- they're coming!

Dyke March
Enjoy our diverse dyke
culture with a radical political edge, then Marching together in all
our strength and glory!

6/25/11 - 3pm Rally; 7pm March to the
Castro. Free - $5-10 suggested donation.

Dolores Park, Dolores & 18th Sts,

Annual Mamas & Papas Pride Potluck
Brunch (All Families Welcome!)

Join us in celebrating Pride month by
joining us at our combined social brunch. Bring your favorite potluck
dish to share.

6/25/11, 11am, Free

Civic Center Playground at Larkin and
Grove Streets, San Francisco, 94102

The San Francisco Men's Spanking Party

A men's only event, for guys into
Spanking and Paddling. Open to all men 18+ (Gay, Bi or Straight)

6/25/11, 1pm to 6pm, $20

The Power Exchange 220 Jones Street San
Francisco, 94102

Go BANG! Go PRIDE!

Authentic San Francisco Disco! Bring a
smile & shoes that will allow you to dance from opening til last
call!

6/25/11, 9pm-3am, $5

Deco Lounge 510 Larkin & Turk San
Francisco, 94102

See you there!

Ladies and Gentlemen, and .. gentleladies and rugged sweaty men -

Pride is back in the lubed up streets of San Francisco the June 26th to put the spring back in your step and the trannies back in your life. Get your best dress on and your dildo in the air, you'll want to look your best when these guys comes flailing down the street!

Now, lets be clear. PRIDE isn't just about supporting the gay community and being drunk in public. It's about loving life! and yourself! and hopefully a few other people while you're at it.

 If you've never been to San Francisco, this is the time to do it. Sure we have amazing music shows... great nightlife, hippies and hipsters but you've never been kissed by a man with boobs the size of his head have you!

In the end, its an amazing party and you'd be a fool to miss it! Drinks and naked chicks all day long, lots of love and lots of crazy.. crazy people. Come join the party!!!! It goes all day, all night, the night before and the morning after. And not to mention the Green Tortoise after party ;')

Well ladies
and gents, it’s that time of the year again: Sunday, May 15^th is the
100th Bay to Breakers! I will preface my description of what this event
actually is with pictures from past B2Bs:

Did that clear
it up? Yeah, didn’t think so. Basically B2B is a 12K race through the city,
beginning at the Embarcadero and ending at Ocean Beach. For those of you who
would rather drink then run, worry not my dear friend, you too will be taken
care of! While B2B is officially a race, it’s unofficially a chance to dress up
in themes/costumes with your friends and imbibe in some of the sweet nectar.
Although according to the rules you will NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONSUME ALCOHOL
DURING BAY TO BREAKERS (they say that every year), it’s rarely enforced.
However, I would suggest pre-gaming just to be safe. No matter which way you
spin it, it’s a hell of a time and should not be missed while you’re visiting
our fair city.

If you want to
register for the race, go to: http://zazzlebaytobreakers.com/

Have fun and
see you there!

So here in the Bay Area we are home to two of the coolest baseball teams in all the lands. The Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants, now normally you can pick up cheap bleacher tickets for less than $20 (not bad for a few hours of camaraderie while participating in Americas favorite pastime) however there is another way. That way is $2 Wednesday @ A’s Games! ‘Tis a magical day where the tickets for the A’s are two dollars and the hot dogs are but a single dollar note.

So here it is the full list of $2 Wednesdays. If you are gonna be in San Francisco for any of these days make sure to buy the tickets now cause the do go fast. You can always try day of, who knows, you may get lucky.  The dates coming up are:  May 4th, May 18th, June 1st, June 15, June 29, July 6, and July 27.

I know what you’re thinking, how ever do I get to the ballpark, it’s all the way in Oakland! Well that’s simple, just take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It’s the underground train that can take you all over Berkeley, Oakland, and the rest of the East Bay. Just take the Dublin Pleasanton train and get off at the Coliseum/Oakland Airport stop, trust me from there you can follow the sea of green and yellow A’s fans into the stadium that is just a?short walk away.

If you cant make it out for those games or you’re just dead set on seeing the SF Giants play than you can find schedule and ticket info at athletics.mlb.com/ for the A’s or www.sfgiants.com/ for the Giants.

You might be wondering what to do on an otherwise dull Monday night. Not to fear! San Francisco will provide. My favorite place to be is in the Mission for the weekly FREE music shows just a few of blocks apart. 

Classical Revolution at the Revolution Cafe:

The Classical Revolution music movement started here in 2006 and has since spread worldwide, from Houston to Berlin.  It's classical music for the people, for ALL the people, not just rich white socialites in symphony halls.  I can't really describe how delightful it is, sitting at a grungy table outside listening to a bunch of brilliant musicians jam with everything from piano concertos to interpretations of hip hop involving french horns and violins. There's a couple of down-and-out folks closing their eyes, smiling, and bobbing their heads next to skinny-jean hipsters next to a quartet of old bearded professor types and a woman with the most beautiful afro-mohawk I've ever seen.  And unlike at most classical concerts, you can DRINK and you can TALK (quietly, sure).  So even if you are not usually a fan of classical music, please give it a try.  Especially if you are just traveling through; it is a quintessential San Francisco event.  Regulars won't get bored either, because every Monday the crew changes; tonight features an electro-acoustic cello, while next week WindSync is on tour playing Beethoven and the Beach Boys.

learn more at:
http://www.classicalrevolution.org/
and
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Revolution-Cafe/398859449697

3248 22nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
415 642 0474
9-11ish

Bluegrass Mondays at Amnesia:

One of the sweetest, sweatiest, swingingest little bars in the Mission hosts a weekly bluegrass night on Monday from 9-whenever (11:30).  Tonight happens to be Belle Monroe and Her Brew Glass Boys, and while I'm not familiar with them, I've yet to see Amnesia host a bad band.  Keep in mind that the bar gets more bustling as the night goes on, so what may start as a relaxing banjo ballad will end, by midnight, in a drunken honky-tonk extravaganza (they don't serve liquor, but there is a good selection of reasonably priced beers on tap).  This place gets crowded and humid, but on a Monday night when you are craving that sort of squeeze and noise, there is nothing better than cozy red lights and standing room only...

 853 Valencia St
Bluegrass Mondays (FREE)

Belle Monroe & Her Brew Glass Boys
9:00pm

http://amnesiathebar.com/newp/

This Sunday at the tortoise will will be deconstructing the ideas of easter and this supposed bunny.  So I went to Wikipedia to find out a little cultural history and found it to be very informative.  Here is a good look at what they had to say:

English and German

The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word ?astre or ?ostre (IPA: [?æ??stre, ?e?ostre]), which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to Eostur-monath (Old English "?ostre month"), a month of the Germanic calendar attested by Bede, who writes that the month is named after the goddess ?ostre of Anglo-Saxon paganism.^[4] Bede notes that ?ostur-monath was the equivalent to the month of April, yet that feasts held in her honor during ?ostur-monath had gone out of use by the time of his writing and had been replaced with the Christian custom of "Paschalseason".

Using comparative linguistic evidence from continental Germanic sources, the 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm proposed the existence of a cognate form of ?ostre among the pre-Christian beliefs of the continental Germanic peoples, whose name he reconstructed as *Ostara.

Since Grimm's time, linguists have identified the goddess as a Germanic form of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn, *Hausosand theories connecting ?ostre with records of Germanic Easter customs (including hares and eggs) have been proposed.

Modern German features the cognate term Ostern, but otherwise, Germanic languages generally use the non-native term pascha for the event (see below).

Semitic, Romance, Celtic and other Germanic languages

The Greek word ????? and hence the Latin form Pascha is derived from Hebrew Pesach (??????) meaning the festival of Passover. In Greek the word ????????? (upstanding, up-rising, resurrection) is used also as an alternative.

Christians speaking Arabic or other Semitic languages generally use names cognate to Pesa?. For instance, the second word of the Arabic name of the festival ??? ????? ??d al-Fi??, [?i?d ælfis??] has the root F-?-?, which given the sound laws applicable to Arabic is cognate to Hebrew P-S-?, with "?" realized as /x/ in Modern Hebrew and /?/ in Arabic. Arabic also uses the term ??? ??????? ??d al-Qiy?mah, [?i?d ælqiyæ?mæh], meaning "festival of the resurrection", but this term is less common. In Maltese the word is L-G?id. In Ge'ez and the modern Ethiosemitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, two forms exist: ??? ("Fasika", f?s?k?) from Greek Pascha, and ???? ("Tensae", tin??'?), the latter from the Semitic root N-?-', meaning "to rise" (cf. Arabic nasha'a—? merged with "sh" in Arabic and most non-South Semitic languages).

In all Romance languages, the name of the Easter festival is derived from the Latin Pascha. In Spanish, Easter is Pascua, in Italian and CatalanPasqua, in Portuguese Páscoa and in Romanian Pa?ti. In French, the name of Easter Pâques also derives from the Latin word but the s following the ahas been lost and the two letters have been transformed into a â with a circumflex accent by elision. Additionally in Romanian, the only Romance language of an Eastern church, the word Înviere (resurrection, cf. Greek ?????????, [anástasis]) is also used.

In all modern Celtic languages the term for Easter is derived from Latin. In Brythonic languages this has yielded Welsh Pasg, Cornish and Breton Pask. In Goidelic languages the word was borrowed before these languages had re-developed the /p/ sound and as a result the initial /p/ was replaced with /k/. This yielded Irish Cáisc, Gaelic Càisg and Manx Caisht. These terms are normally used with the definite article in Goidelic languages, causing lenitionin all cases: An Cháisc, A' Chàisg and Y Chaisht.

In Dutch, Easter is known as pasen and in the Scandinavian languages Easter is known as påske (Danish and Norwegian), påsk (Swedish), páskar(Icelandic) and páskir (Faeroese). The name is derived directly from Hebrew Pesach.^[5] The letter å is a double a pronounced /o?/, and an alternate spelling is paaske or paask.

Slavic languages

In most Slavic languages, the name for Easter either means "Great Day" or "Great Night". For example, Wielkanoc, Ve?ká noc and Velikonoce mean "Great Night" or "Great Nights" in Polish, Slovak and Czech, respectively. ???????? (Veligden), ????????? (Velykden), ???????? (Velikden), and ?????????? (Vyalikdzyen') mean "The Great Day" in Macedonian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Belarusian, respectively.

In Croatian, however, the day's name reflects a particular theological connection: it is called Uskrs, meaning "Resurrection". It is also called Vazam(Vzem or Vuzem in Old Croatian), which is a noun that originated from the Old Church Slavonic verb vzeti (now uzeti in Croatian, meaning "to take"). InSerbian Easter is called Vaskrs, a liturgical form inherited from the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic. The archaic term Velja no? (velmi: Old Slavic for "great"; no?: "night") was used in Croatian while the term Velikden ("Great Day") was used in Serbian. It is believed that Cyril and Methodius, the "holy brothers" who baptized the Slavic people and translated Christian books from Greek into Old Church Slavonic, invented the word Uskrs from the Croatian word krsnuti which means "to enliven".^[6] It should be noted that in these languages the prefix Velik (Great) is used in the names of the Holy Week and the three feast days preceding Easter.

Another exception is Russian, in which the name of the feast, ????? (Paskha), is a borrowing of the Greek form via Old Church Slavonic.^[7]

Finno-Ugric languages

In Finnish the name for Easter pääsiäinen, traces back to the verb pääse- meaning to be released, as does the Sámi word Beassážat. The Estonian name lihavõtted and the Hungarianhúsvét, however, literally mean the taking of the meat, relating to the end of the Great Lent fasting period. However in Hungarian it can also be taken to mean sin of eating meat sincevétek means transgression, sin, vice, trespass, offense.

 For more information go to Wikipedia

But here at the tortoise we have a little tweak.  Instead of bunny rabbits and eggs like some places throughout the world we decided, "Why not hunt for beer?"

So Happy Beaster everyone!  and come have a great time at the tortoise this Saturday night and a spectacular Sunday morning!

Winters chill is past

At last a celebration

Spring flowers grow fast

Read more: http://authspot.com/poetry/haiku/celebration/#ixzz1KBoYInYf

I should be living in the wilderness. Luckily, this city is perfect  for metro-phobes like me and has plenty of open spaces, secret hills, and eucalyptus groves.  Recently I spent a whole day walking and didn't hit a single city street...so I thought I'd share.   

??If you are one of the fortunate Green Tortoise Guests, take the 71 bus from Market street over to Golden Gate Park.  Golden Gate Park is huge, so you'll have to wander around for yourself, but a couple of my favorite spots are the Cal Academy of Sciences green roof, the sculpture garden next to the De Young, SF botanical garden, and most importantly, the BISON PADDOCK! I love bison, and you probably do too.??

Keep walking west until you hit the giant windmill and tulip garden, where you'll find the Great Highway and beautiful Ocean Beach. Watch surfers, sunbathers, and puppies while you perhaps eat a picnic lunch.  If you really like to plan ahead, get a sandwich from Molinaris Deli in North Beach just as you are leaving the Green Tortoise hostel.  That is, if you can wait to eat it. ??

At this point in your travels, you can follow my lead and take a short post-lunch nap, or walk striaight up Ocean Beach to the north, where Land's End rises from the surf.  At the top of the hill near the parking lot you'll find the beginning of the Land's End trail, which is a truly breathtaking hike along the coastal cliffs.

The trail offers up fantastic views of the Marin Headlands, the Golden Gate, and during low tide, shipwrecks!  Also a great area for relaxed people watching; I came across a man nestled in a sunny, grassy pocket overlooking the Bridge, sipping a coffee, and reading the newspaper.  Just through a cypress grove and down a hill of wooden steps, a couple of banjo playing 20-somethings. On a windy, open cliffside, an artist was painting a group of California Poppies.  Skip the fisherman's wharf wax museum and see real people, out in the world, breathing Pacific air and watching the ships come in.??

Some other green places: ??

Tank Hill Open Space- Perhaps the best view in the entire city.?

Alta Plaza- It's a shame adults can't play on playgrounds by themselves. If you must, kidnap your cousins and enjoy the most scenic swingset in SF.?

Mt. Sutro- A few years ago, conservation volunteers found the remnants of century old riding trails in the Eucalyptus forest of Mt. Sutro. After much rebuilding, 5 miles of dirt paths now wind through hills and valleys of flowering trees and quiet groves.  Watch out for mountain bikers zooming by.?

Crissy Field- A beautiful grassy expanse at the water's edge.  A giant sculpture of an elephant seal. In the shadow of Golden Gate Bridge. Not to mention the bomber Planet Granite climbing gym in one of the old warehouses and the popular "warming hut" coffee shop. ?

Grand View Park- The gem of the Sunset district, in my opinion.  A challenging set of stairs snakes up the west side to a small hill summit adorned with grizzled cypress trees and a single bench overlooking the park, the headlands, and the Pacific.

Konnichiha travelers.  Spring has come to the Green Tortoise and the best thing about spring in San Francisco is the blossoming of the cherries.  That's right, its the Cherry Blossom Festival!  The weekend of April 9th & April 16th the formal parade will be held on Sunday the 17th.  There will be food booths, cultural performances, martial arts, live bands, the annual Queen Program, and more.

The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is said to be the second
largest festival outside of Washington, D.C. to celebrate the blooming
of cherry blossoms; and held at one of three remaining Japantowns in the
United States.

I would suggest going on either of the Saturdays a little before noon to catch the San Francisco Taiko Dojo.  They are FANTASTIC, and alone they are well worth the trip.

Ladies and Gents! It's the weekend you have all been waiting for, well... its the weekend I have been waiting for, and if you are of the nerdy ilk like I am you should be very, very excited!

 Its WonderCon weekend! 

 It is a weekend full of gaming, comic books, and general nerdery.  (And yes, I will be trying to create as many mutations of the word nerd as I can.) 

WonderCon is the second largest comic book convention in the states and it happens right here in San Francisco.  It's smaller than the behemoth that is San Diego ComicCon which just means that its a more intimate experience.  Its held at the Moscone Center which is super easy to get to from the Tortoise, which means that if are of the nerdist persuasion you have no reason not to go

This year is gonna be jam packed with meet ups and panels of epic proportion.  Jon Favreau will be there presenting footage from the upcoming scifi thriller Cowboys & Aliens.  Ryan Reynolds will be there talking about his upcoming Green Lantern flick.   And the GREAT Neil Gaiman will be there discussing his writing gig on Doctor Who panel.  What more could you want in a weekend?

The three day pass is $50 the one day on Sat/Sun is $25 and the Sunday pass is $15.  Even if you don't go to too many panels there will be a ton of exhibitors selling there wears.  Plus a Browncoat meet up and a Slave Leia dress up table.

So if you're gonna be in SF for this most epic of weekends spend your days at the con and spend your nights partying it up in the Ballroom at the Tortoise.

 Cheers!