The Tenderloin National Forest
A part of the Tenderloin National Forest, as seen during Sunday Streets in August 2011.
The Tenderloin National Forest
A part of the Tenderloin National Forest, as seen during Sunday Streets in August 2011.
Tony and his Low Rider
I met Tony at Sunday Streets in the Tenderloin, where he was by one of the custom lowrider bikes he builds as a hobby.
“That’s a sweet ride dude - love the metalwork. Where do you get the parts?”
“There’s a guy in Oakland who used to sell this stuff but he was closing up shop and I got a bunch of parts real cheap.”
“Awesome - love the twisted metal. How does that work?”
“Some of it is ready-made but I use a machine to make some of the pieces. The chrome plating is tough to keep though - I spend more time cleaning this bike than riding it. I got caught out in the rain once - I forgot to wipe down the bike after I got home and all the finish tarnished real fast.”
“How often do you ride it?”
“Only at family events with my kids now. I was riding one evening near here and some dudes started shooting at me.”
“What? Seriously?”
“Yeah when I got home I was checking myself for bullet holes!”
“Not cool.”
“Yeah.”
California Red
I met California Red (it says so right on the end of his Stratocaster, where he scratched out ‘fender’ and inked in ‘CA RED’) at Sunday Streets in the Tenderloin, where he was pounding along the pavement asking what the hell was going on.
“Why are all these people here in the middle of the road?”, he says.
“It’s Sunday Streets dude. A bunch of streets get shut down to traffic so that people can come and see a neighborhood on foot and by bike instead of driving through in a car.”
“Why would they do that?”
“So that people can see something they normally…. wouldn’t?”, I said, lamely.
“I see around here all the time dude - today’s like any other day, just without cars.”
I abandoned this doomed line of conversation.
“How long have you been here in San Francisco?”
“20 years man.”
“Cool, so you’re practically a local! Love the guitar.”
“Yeah man, Stratocaster. I’m not the guitar badass, I’m a guitar badass.”
*plays a few bars*
“Wicked. Mind if I get a photo?”
—-
If you like my daily stream of SF pics, please vote for my stream in a local competition :) All you have to do is to click here: polls.sfweekly.com/polls/san/webawards11/index.php
…and add flickr.com/photos/captin_nod to entry ‘best flickr pool’ (entry 22). Thanks in advance :)
