Jeffrey and I snuck away to San Francisco for a day on Sunday. I booked us a room at the Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin. It's a little gem in a bad neighborhood, and I like it. I'd long known of the Phoenix, because when I lived in the City, I'd sometimes hang at the Caribbean restaurant/bar that used to be attached to it. It's no longer a Caribbean spot--it's the Bambuddha Lounge now. Even though I was familiar with the Phoenix, I'd never stayed there until last March. It's a hipster hang--loved by musicians, authors, celebs. The day we arrived last March, there was a swimsuit photo shoot happening (with models running between the pool area and a couple of upstairs rooms) and what appeared to be an interview being conducted poolside. It's a bit of a party place, but I had a feeling it would be very quiet over Christmas Eve, and it was. The Bambuddha was closed for the week and when we checked in, the gal at the desk said only five rooms had been booked for the 24th. PERFECT. It was almost like having the place to ourselves. I put up a Flickr photo set here. (The last row contains pictures taken this trip.)
We got settled in our room and then ventured out for coffee. We walked two blocks over to Van Ness and then down a couple of blocks to Opera Plaza where we managed to sneak into a Peet's right before they closed for the holiday. (And if you're a coffee lover, treat yourself to some Peet's, because it really is great coffee. I had a gingerbread latte--my first Peet's one this season--and it put all those Starbucks gingerbread lattes to shame.)
Jeffrey has long been fascinated with Catholic Mass, ever since he visited the Vatican while on tour in Europe. We've often talked about attending Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, but never have--resorting instead to tuning in to the Vatican's Mass on the Catholic channel, so he can get his once-a-year fix. But St. Mary's Cathedral (it has a longer, proper name, but everyone just calls it St. Mary's Cathedral) was within walking distance of our hotel, so after grabbing coffee, we hiked up the hill to take a look. I hadn't been inside since I lived in the City. I didn't think to take an exterior shot, but you can see what it looks like on their website. While J stood outside with the remainder of our coffee drinks, I ran inside and snapped a few photos. They were taken about 4:00 in natural light (often works better on our crappy camera than using the flash)--the Flickr set is here. Gotta hand it to the Catholics (and I can say this, having been raised as one)--they do know how to do religious iconographic art. They have it down. It really is quite lovely inside for a modern church.
Then we headed back to our room to lounge a bit before our first venture of the evening, which was the annual gospel concert at Slim's given by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. I used to attend every Christmas Eve when I lived in the City. But the old choir, she ain't what she used to be (at least in my opinion). First of all, this year's concert wasn't given by the entire choir--it was performed by a scaled-down version they call their Ensemble. They were backed by a trio of keyboard, bass and drums. We arrived fairly early to pick up our will call tickets, but the place was still packed when we walked in. We wanted to have a bite to eat, so we wanted a table. We ended up at a booth table against the back wall in the loft-style balcony. In other words, we couldn't have been farther from the stage, but Slim's isn't that big, so really there are almost no bad seats. I've been to a lot of shows at Slim's in the past--a LOT. It was my primary hang for years. And it made me sad to think of my old pal Bob Johnson who was the head of security there for years--he died a few years ago. It wasn't the same not seeing him near the door. Slim's is where I first laid eyes on Jeffrey a long time ago. Curtis had told me he had a new drummer and when the band came down from Portland to play Slim's, it was the first time I'd seen the new drummer. Jeffrey and I sat up in the balcony on Sunday night and tried to figure out if that show had been in '89 or '90. All I know is that on some level, the moment I saw him walk onstage, I knew. And all these years later, I've never stopped knowing...even though it took us years to get up the nerve to speak to each other. Who could have predicted that we'd be sitting in Slim's as a couple all these years later listening to a gospel show? :) The show was only okay in my book (and maybe I'm a tough gospel audience), but even so, we had a nice time together.
We went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before heading off to Midnight Mass at the cathedral. Jeffrey flipped on the TV and soon found Bruce Almighty in progress. He loves that movie and will always stop and watch at least a bit of it if he stumbles upon it. So we curled up on the bed, him content with his movie and me planning to catch an hour-long nap. We'd seen in the program during our afternoon stop at the cathedral that Midnight Mass would be preceded by a carols concert at 11:30, so we planned to arrive early to hear that. We'd expected a large choir--the cathedral is, after all, the gem in the diocese's crown, so to speak. The choir was very small, but they were very good. The music, of course, couldn't have been more of a contrast to what we'd just heard at Slim's. But they sounded wonderful and we were sitting fairly close to the massive organ pipes, so it was quite lovely to hear. There was a large crowd for Mass, and it was presided over by the Archbishop. It was a High Mass (always a given at Midnight Mass, at least in my experience), so I told him that every other Mass would now pale in comparison. I thought he'd be bored to tears--he asked me at one point if there would be any clapping. "Clapping?! God, no!" But, shockingly, at the end of the Mass, everyone clapped! I have never witnessed that in a Catholic church outside of a wedding. Alright, Catholics, you're starting to loosen up a bit! :) He actually quite enjoyed the experience and found the rituals sort of appealing.
We slept well (since the hotel was nearly empty), but didn't sleep long since we were up at 7:30 to grab a quick continental breakfast poolside. Then we walked to Glide to attend the 9 am celebration there. The streets of the Tenderloin were still fairly quiet (since we left our hotel at 8:00--if you go, you'll want to go early, especially on a holiday). We greeted each person we passed with a "Good morning and Merry Christmas!" Sadly, there were many who were still sleeping on the sidewalk. Cecil announced that they expected to serve 6,000 meals to the homeless yesterday. And that the owner of House of Prime Rib had donated 4,000 pounds of prime rib the day before, and on Christmas Eve the House of Prime Rib owner and his crew had served prime rib to 4,000 homeless people at Glide. But this is nothing unique for Glide--they serve over a MILLION meals to homeless people every year. If you've seen The Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith, you've witnessed Glide in action. [Cecil had to audition for his role in the film...as himself. He said yesterday that on one of his shooting days, it took 21 takes for him to get it right, so he's retiring from the film industry.] :)
Instead of one of them delivering a sermon, Cecil and the other two ministers took mikes into the congregation--and his wife Janice Mirikitani (a remarkable woman) stayed onstage with a mike for any members of the Glide Ensemble who wanted to share--and they allowed anyone who wanted to to share what they were feeling. We heard some remarkable stories. We heard from an older woman from France who was experiencing S.F. and Glide for the first time and how she and her friends were so far from their families at Christmas, but felt like Glide was their family in that moment. We heard from a young man who was visiting the U.S. for the first time from Malaysia and how his room was up on Broadway which isn't that close to Glide and he wasn't sure about public transporation, so he literally ran [thankfully, it's downhill] to the church to make the service. We heard from a woman from Georgia who was there for the first time with her husband and children and how they'd never been away from home on Christmas before but wanted to see Glide because her husband's grandfather had been pastor of the church in the early 1900's. We heard from a man from Cape Town, South Africa who was spending his last day in S.F. at Glide because his pastor in Cape Town had said that if he came to S.F., he must go to Glide. And there were many more...but the recurring theme in everyone's story was how much Glide feels like HOME and FAMILY to them--even if it's their first time there. I was tempted to raise my hand to speak, but I was so teary from hearing all of those stories that I didn't think I could speak without crying. What I would have said is that I first went to Glide in 1972, and in the almost 35 years that have passed since then, I always carry it with me, no matter where I am. Because it's the only place I know that gives me what it does--I can breathe in Glide.
When we go to Glide, J and I always follow the celebration with breakfast at a little hole-in-the-wall place a few doors down. It doesn't look like much, but the food's good and the staff is super-nice. And as we made our way down the sidewalk past the line that snaked nearly around the block to get into the 11 am celebration, we anticipated a packed restaurant, but it was nearly empty. We guessed that most had gone home to have Christmas breakfast with family. Jeffrey enjoys Glide, and as we sat having breakfast, I told him that I
want us to commit to going more often. I really, really need to go
there--I need what Glide gives me. He agreed that we could go more
often. That's one of the things I really want in 2007. As we were walking back to our room, we passed a food giveaway happening in front of the Tenderloin police station. (And Glide had already begun serving their Christmas meals.)
We hit quite a lot of traffic driving home (surprising), but had a couple of hours to relax before heading to my brother's house for Christmas dinner. We had a nice evening with the family, and exchanged our gifts with one another. And we were thankful that unlike those we'd seen sleeping on the street, we had a beautiful family dinner to attend. We may be broke by a lot of people's standards, but our lives are very rich indeed.
The only down note in all of this was that I shot some video of the Glide Ensemble to share with all of you, only to discover this morning (having never used the video function on our 'new' crappy camera before) that it doesn't capture audio. ACK! So that just means you'll all have to go to Glide to witness it for yourselves. :)
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