San Francisco Blog

A good majority walked barefoot through the park, and there were so many sitting next to me that I had to be careful where I stepped when I got up to get food. Of course, keeping with the setting, most things offered --chocolate, coffee, granola, and even kebabs -- were organic. I approached a separate booth labeled Beverage Tent, seeking water. There was everything but. I opted for some Pomegranate White Tea and that hit the spot.

I met some interesting folk at the festival, starting with an artist named Jessie, who sat to my right. Warren Hayes was on and Jessie was doing some black and white paintings in the shade of a sidewalk. The guy apparently paints to music and likes to hang out by the Black Thorn Tavern patio on Wednesdays doing just that.

Another intriguing soul I encountered was Michel Johnessy, an ethics teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School, who sat in the grass surrounded by colorful glass bead bracelets. I leaned over and asked him where they were from and he replied "Boramese, Ghana, a village so small it’s not even on the map." His son, Ira, is in the Peace Corps over there and the beads were made from discarded glass from the village and melted together.

I sat in silence as he told me the story of the beads and how the tool to make them was broken -- and how the Peace Corps fished $500 out of their own pockets to buy a new machine so the town would have its special craft back. I didn’t want to speak after that, I wanted to hear another story about this town that made these beads in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

I left the festival thinking that San Francisco is full of wonderful, wholesome individuals. But some of them could invest in a little deodorant.

Critic's Notebook

Personal Bias: Many beautiful women showed their skin in flowing summer dresses; even I turned my head to check them out. Who says straight girls can't appreciate the beauty of another woman?

Random Detail: So many people were barefoot against the cool grass, but I wonder if they knew that their feet were going to be that brown after.

By the Way: Please please please don’t leave your house without putting your deodorant on when you know its going to be 90 degrees outside and you’re going to be smashed into thousands of people. Au naturale or not, b.o. is not cool.