Harvey Milk Unveiled in City Hall

May 22nd is the birthday of composer Richard Wagner, official gay martyr Harvey Milk, and yours truly, so the city of San Francisco decided to honor us all with a bust in the rotunda of City Hall on Thursday evening.



In truth, I'm joking. The bust at the top of the grand stairway was in honor of Harvey Milk, and before its unveiling later in the evening, the thing looked like a mummy wrapped in a condom.



The public was invited to an unveiling party which unfortunately was marred by a succession of gasbag politicians...



...including Mayor Gavin Newsom.



The real movers behind the fundraising and commissioning of the $85,000 sculpture were Joey Cain and Dan Nicoletta (above)...



...who were having their pictures taken by Rink and Michael Petrelis.



The party itself was a blast, helped along by the Svedka vodka people, who were pouring free drinks of a potency that ensured everyone was seriously hammered in record time.



It seemed that I knew every other person in the crowd, which was fun...



...and even the people I can't stand such as Pat Murphy (above)...



...couldn't put a damper on a very jolly occasion.

Birthday Bodysurfing

Wishing I was bodysurfing on my birthday at Bondi Beach. Maybe next year.

Bay to Breakers 1: Merchandising

A registration "expo" was held on Saturday at Bill Graham Auditorium in anticipation of Sunday's annual Bay to Breakers footrace.



The hall was filled with an eccentric selection of goods for sale, most of it only nominally having anything to do with running.



There was everything from Mini cars...



...to the perfectly appropriate Naked Juice (see posting below) hawking their wares.



For those who had actually plunked down their money to be an officially registered racer...



...there was a long line to receive one's Official T-shirt.



Interestingly enough, now that the Examiner newspaper is no longer sponsoring the race, this may be one public event that is getting less corporate as the years go on. In fact, most of the participants the next day didn't even seem to be bothering with registering as you will see.

Bay to Breakers 2: Youthful Beauty

Though the tens of thousands of people who run and/or walk from the Bay Bridge to Ocean Beach across town include everything from infants in strollers to elderly fitness freaks...



...the overwhelming majority of participants are twenty-somethings...



...and many of them are spectacularly beautiful.



One large group was calling themselves "Baywatch to Breakers" and they looked like they actually could star in a revival of the show.



The early morning race has become something of a collegiate rite of passage...



...for most of Northern California.



In fact, the event is about as close to a pagan Maypole dance as our culture provides...



...and is genuinely sexy.