San Francisco—April 12 to May 26, 2007 It is Saturday night and there is not much to do so I drop by Aunt Charlie's down in the Tenderloin for the Saturday night show. It starts about 10 but I usually wait until 11 or so when things have warmed up. It is a drag show that attracts a lot of people, some gay, others, like myself, straight. Everyone is welcome. You can't go to Aunt Charlie's and watch the show without shedding a tear or so for Fennochio's in North Beach, which closed in 1999 after 53 years....

Paris—May 16, 2007 Sarkozy est dedans, Chirac est dehors. Sarkozy is in, Chirac is out. I did not ask the politicos what they thought; I asked musicians. They, after all, are the ones who count. From Christine Flowers, a New York singer living in Paris: "Eeeks ...Sarko!!!! Hmmmm, I wouldn't have voted for him, and as an artist I'm terrified at our prospects, culturally; but like the song goes, 'I Will Survive!'"

San Francisco—May 5, 2007 A week ago I passed it by and did not think to shoot a photo. It was a little wilted now but I shot anyway. "It" was a shrine for "Skateboard," the black guy without legs who got hit by a mail truck down in the Tenderloin. I didn't know him but I used to see him occasionally. Now that he was dead, the full story came out. He lost his legs at age 6 in an accident in Oakland. He adapted to a life without legs via the skateboard....