Sound of San Francisco

                                                         

I've been poking around SF lately (they hire some really great artists to play with the symphony). If I could rank the major cities in terms of livability, it would be something like this:

1) Philly

2) SF

3) LA

4) NYC

Outdated ad :3

Also, I'm basing this off of my experience in their downtown areas, not suburban. Philly and SF have a great amount of things to do and see in the city center. NYC is overdoing it and downtown LA is pretty much barren compared to the others. Musically though, I prefer Philly and NYC, simply because their halls are better and the student subscription to the Phil Orch is a really nice deal (as in like $1 to see the best orch in the world in concert). Although I haven't attended many operas, I think SFOpera also has a pretty good program- I saw their "La Boheme" on the telly one night and it was fantastic. There was this one scene where a guy sung beautifully to his coat... you can only find this kind of stuff in Italian operas mang.


Anyway, I used to think that SF was pretty posh compared to the more ghetto Philly and NYC, until I almost stepped in dog crap in Chinatown. It depends on the specific neighborhood too, I guess. 

Also, there is pretty much no variation in the Chinatowns of each metropolis... they all start to look/seem the same after a while haha.

I don't know what my mum was doing.

The day after Black Friday, I had a rehearsal and a Gil Shaham concert in the area and consequently spent an entire day there. My parents and I visited Pier 39 and walked around. It was the same old tourist hubbub, with generic gift shops spammed every few meters.

Then, on a whim I decided to hike up one of the infamous hills. At first, my mum was reluctant, but the sense of fulfillment when we got up there (albeit half-dead) was satisfying. It also had a better view of Alcatraz than down at the pier! 

Mi madre

Also, I saw one family in a car approach the apex of the hill, and all the kids in it started screaming as they drove down the slope as if it was a roller coaster. Heh, tourists.


Afterwards, we sought a public space for me to fiddle a bit in, and we stumbled upon a relatively peaceful dog park. A husky was mildly interested in Bach. :3