Greetings from S.F.!

(Photo from the San Francisco Chronicle. More here.)

Howdy everybody. What a time indeed out here in San Francisco! Great friends, great weather and yesterday I got to participate in one of the strangest events on the planet, the annual Bay To Breakers, "a party disguised as a footrace" as it was described by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Outlandish costumes were the rule for the more than 60,000 folks who wound their way through the heart of the city. Some ran it in all seriousness; the vast majority turned out simply for the festiveness of the damn thing.

Freaktown and I went as the Dude, if the Dude were going jazzercizing, sipping Caucasians along the way. Not too bad, and I was surprised we saw no other Dudes along the way. There were at least four Viking ships, tons of pirates, an elaborate 1970s disco group, at least two groups representing Team Zissou, several Never Nudes and all manner of other nonsense, including, as I was warned, a sizable contingent of folks who decided not to costume at all.

Other than that, I've been sharing and talking music with my wonderful hosts and other friends. Reminiscences of my last visit and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, another free and uplifting gathering of tens and tens of thousands of people, have been great, and we've been listening to several of those performances, especially Jeff Tweedy and Emmylou Harris. And don't look now, but Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2008 is around the corner and even few acts already announced are very impressive. I'll be back - S.F. is already a second home.

So that's the quick update. I'm now back to vacationing.

DOWNLOAD:
Jeff Tweedy - Pecan Pie (live, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2007)
And check out the whole show at Owl and Bear's amazing Wilco archive.