The Alamo Square Flea Market and Techboy is Old

the morning (1pm due to a rough, but pleasant, night) began with the search for my pants and a gentle trip to the flea market. i figure there are a few things i miss about san jose, but one of the many is definitely flea markets. there is one every first-saturday of the month across the street from coffee society (my former home) and it was pretty much the only thing that could successfully wake me up before noon on a weekend.

san francisco seemed to not only lack flea markets, but even the thrift stores are picked through by packs of wild hipsters who will fight you over a stripey tie.

needless to say, the alamo square flea market was something i didn't plan to miss.

at first glance, the event seemed very san francisco-- there were no old asian men selling used dvds or knick-knacks, rather a large amount of young vendors dressed in vintage clothing and selling homemade artwork. it was neat, but not exactly what i was looking for. as selfish as it may sound, i feel like an idiot buying other people's art when i could just make my own. what i wanted to see was the 1900's tchotchkes and unloved shoes.

but the thing with all flea markets-- city and suburb alike-- is that they can be overwhelming in the same way walking into guitar center and trying to understand what's going on can be. it's hard to know where to start and it's a battle to decide where smoking a cigarette will be deemed acceptable.

and once i gathered myself and inhaled some nicotine, it all made more sense. as it turns out, there was quite a bit more than local artwork and cooking-- half the place was filled with exactly the kind of flea markety goodness i had hoped to see: tribal masks, persian rugs, pewter candle-holders, jade opium pipes, and a whole lot of other stuff that i would never buy but love looking at anyway. that, to me, is the best part of flea markets-- just being there gets my mind working creatively.

the major upside to alamo square's happening-- besides that i found techboy an inexpensive birthday present-- was that there were no overweight women with mullets, or wheelchair-riding grosslings. the audience was mostly in their twenties and i'd say the entire crowd was an overall attractive bunch.

from there, i rode the 1 (which i have more or less blocked from my memory) and met up with travis before heading to techboy's birthday drinking-barbecuing-bonanza.

PWOWOWOWPWOWPPWOWOPWPWOPOW!!@!!@#4

and now i am ridiculously hungover and going back to bed.