Having Fun at Carnaval

Enjoying Carnaval

The band Mestiza playing at Carnaval

Another busy week. Last weekend went over to San Francisco for a little fun called Carnaval. It was fun, but not well attended this year for some reason. I asked a police officer and he told me that they did not advertise much for it. Well, even though the crowds were low I still had fun. I love the food, the music, the smells and the atmosphere.

What is Carnaval without food

DJ Cooyah

Mexican Wrestling Masks

Tia Ros Sugar Skull by Aunt Rosa

The Cuban Cowboys on the stage

Some of the artwork being sold

One big corn dog

The group Calendaria on stage

The lead singer of Calendaria

Nachos

The crowds listening to music

He has the right spirit

Carnaval in the Mission District. Can not wait for next year

Porky's Pizza Palace-the best pizza

The front of Porky's Pizza Palace in San Leandro

As you know I like my Burger Joints, but I also like my pizza places and Porky's Pizza Palace in San Leandro, Ca is some of the best pizza around. At Porky's it is not just the pizza but the atmosphere as well. To me it is an old time place, one that can not be re-created no matter how you try, it just oozes charm and it is a reason I have been going for most of my life.

This band is cool

The inside of Porky's at 4:00pm before the rush

They have an All-Star Banjo that comes in and plays on Thursday's (above) and they are good. They are mostly older gentleman and they all can play a mean banjo. Porky's is also a great place to watch sports. They have five hi-def giant TV's and a huge (has to be ten foot TV) in the back which is awesome to watch a game from. The layout is pretty simple and there is not a lot that is fancy about the layout of the place. Just a really cool place to hang with your friends, have a party or meet new friends (as you will on a busy Friday or Saturday night as people are asking to borrow a chair or bench). It is a very relaxing place.

Any place that has an Oakland Invaders and a California Golden Seals pennant up is ok

You can have the coolest stuff on the walls, the greatest layout and decor, the best TV's and everything and if the pizza sucks (I have had some really bad pizza) then all of that is nothing. A Porky's, the  pizza is excellent and for my money it can not be beat. It is hand tossed and you can watch tossing it which is pretty cool

A large Porky's all meat pizza

A Porky's mini pizza

Besides pizza, Porky's has a full menu that includes fried chicken, all types of pasta, salads, wings, garlic bread and jo-jo potatoes. Usually when a pizza joint branches out and does other types of food, the quality suffers-not at Porky's everything is good. They do everything right and sometimes you need to order different things off the menu to try. And another thing about Porky's food is that it travels well. So if you do not finish it all there, it still tastes great the next day.

Porky's fried chicken

Their famous Jo-Jo Potatoes

Love their garlic bread

Porky's menu

Porky's Pizza Palace is the best pizza joint around and no they did not pay me or give me free food to write this. I just love the place that much.

An Occupy Morning

It was Day 228 of the Occupy Movement

About ten days ago, I got off the BART train and decided to go to this great Vietnamese Bakery in Downtown San Francisco to get some pork buns for lunch later on in the day. I went up the stairs and ended up at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and saw some of the Occupy movement camped out in front of it. If you agree or not with these folks you need to admire being out there and sleeping out there every night and keeping their site somewhat tidy. These photos were taken about 6:00am in the morning:

The San Francisco Occupy camp

Keeping warm while sleeping

Signs of protest

Sleeping with cigarette 

Their kitchen and food stuff

Three people sleeping at the site

Oakland Greek Festival

The front of Ascension Cathedral-Site of the Oakland Greek Festival

The gorgeous view from Ascension Cathedral

Yesterday was a beauty of the day in the Bay. It was one of the happy accidents in the adventures of my life. Last Friday I went to the yard to see the A's play Detroit and on the scoreboard they flashed if you bring your ticket to Greek Festival admission is free. So, I went and glad I did. I do not know much about Greek culture and the Greek Orthodox Christian Church, yesterday I learned so much.

One of the first things I did was (even with the great food smells and music going on) is go inside the church and hear Fr. Nebojsa Pantic speak about the church. I found it quite interesting and found the inside of the church. Fr. Nebojsa was very kind to answer my questions about the Greek Orthodox Christian Church.

The inside of Ascension Cathedral

The beautiful ceiling of the Cathedral

Once outside I found a lot of great smells that led me around. But I decided to walk around and check out what else was going on. It was like a great bazaar with people selling all kinds of great stuff. Everything from pottery to clothes to handbags to artwork to jewelry being sold. Everything was high quality and hand crafted.

Pottery being sold.

Handcrafted jewelry by Shakeels Concepts

After getting into things, I checked out the music. I'm a big music fan, but never have listed to Greek music much. I guess I need to start as I really enjoyed it. I really got into the sound of the instrument called the bouzouki. It is a plucked string instrument that is a mainstay of Greek music which I found out at the festival. It was really cool sounding and guy I heard playing it -George Mylordes was really shredding it and I really enjoyed the band he was in Kymata, even though they sang in Greek I thought that they were great

Georges Mylordes on the bouzouki

The group Kymata preforming

What made the music really stand out was the people who were dancing. People got out and were doing traditional Greek dancing. They were mainly female and I would love to learn how to Greek dance.

People dancing to the music

Lamb on the spit

And the food was wonderful. I love lamb and rice. But seeing a whole lamb on the spit was just too cool (above). And I found a new food that I like and I bet it will like me. It is called Loukoumades which is a honey dipped pastry puff and it was so good.

A bowl of Loukoumades

On the way out, while waiting for the shuttle. I noticed a beautiful reflecting pond outside the Cathedral and took a look at it and I know that this sounds corny, but reflecting at the day-I had a great time and glad I went.

The pond outside Ascension Cathedral

More pics from A's-Tigers 5-11-12

It was blanket night on 5-11-12

 Here are more pictures of O.CO Coliseum and the A's -Tigers game on 5-11-12.

Some Tigers shagging balls before the game

Makes you want to recycle

Have you voted yet?

Tigers batting practice

The A's main man-Stomper

One of the main entrances to O.CO Coliseum

A's pitcher Tommy Milone doing long toss before his start

The A's broadcast booth honoring the best in the business

Detroit's Austin Jackson in center

A little game action

Behind home plate: Weeks fouls one off

Milone about to pitch

Barton and Weeks-the right side of the A's infield

The scoreboard down the third base line

Honoring a great manager

A true A's fan

O.CO Coliseum from the third deck-Home of the Oakland A's