The Four Right Chords: It's official. It's love. Part 2.

I think I love taking the bus. It's not always very clean and sure, occasionally you'll run across the Asian woman with a nasty swine flu-esque cough who doesn't seem to grasp the idea of covering her mouth while hacking. Or the drunk old man who awkwardly shouts "San Francisco! The city of all kinds of races!" each time a black person enters the bus as if it's 1950 and he expects them to sit in the back. Or maybe even the child who decides it's completely socially acceptable to try and pee in the corner...(I have experienced all of these)...but overall, the bus can be a pretty clutch spot for people watching. With my ipod on it can even be relatively relaxing and distracting and calming. Plus, I never get tired of the tiny old ladies whose feet don't touch the bus floor:

I also love clutch interactions with the quirky folks that call SF home. Just last week I rode the bus and encountered Calvin O. Davis, an adorable, super skinny, elderly black man with either teeth so small I couldn't see them or just a total lack of toogles in his mouth and wearing pinstripe pants. He was holding on to the grip above where I was seated when our conversation began;

Calvin, in a perfectly smokey voice: Hello there. Do you like poetry?

Me: Hi! Yep, sure do.

Calvin: Oh well I'm Calvin and I'm a poet...(pulls out 6 sheets of slightly crumpled computer paper stapled together from his little filing kit)...here is some of my work.

Me, taking the papers: Cool. Let me read.

Calvin, pointing to the second page: That one is a loooove poem...(*sigh*, shakes his head slowly)....loooove...

Me: Ok I'll read that first...Calvin, are you selling these poems?

C: Yes m'am I am. $5. But I'd take anything you can offer. It all helps. That's my email at the bottom there...codpoetry@gmail.com...

Me: Hm, well I need $2 to take the bus again later...but can I have the poems for this other $2?

C: Oh yes, yes...thank you lovey. You can email me anytime. I enjoy sharing my work. Words are powerful and beautiful...yea...gotta share your thoughts...gotta spread the truth.

Me: Agreed.

The last page of Calvin's 'poem packet' contains a bit of a bio which includes the facts that he works to help end homelessness in the city, is a self employed "Tourist Information Guide", used to train and manage a number of IHOP's, and uses the computer lab at the St. Anthony's Foundation Learning Center to do work on his fifth career as an artist. So cute. My favorite stanza from his poem "One Day At A Time";

So now we see our own individuality has been responsible
for the uncertainty of our peace of minds. So let me
suggest that we neutralize our indifferences and realize that
we are all one.

I love that San Francisco does a lot to bring awareness to the homeless population. Regardless of how they got to that point in their lives, they're still people. It's sad to see them struggle while having so little. Makes me feel grateful for what I do have. I mean...they're still people. My friend Lindsey's good buddy Sean is the photographer/videographer for this Tenderloin project, which is pretty fascinating and also strangely beautiful; http://thetenderloinproject.com/

If you have time, watch at least this video. The part where Flash compares people to his orange is simple and great:

The Tenderloin Project x Black Scale from Sean Desmond on Vimeo.

I also love that so many people don't care much what others think about them, including what they wear. If they like it, they wear it. If it makes them happy, they wear it. So many quirky fashion freak flags flown high as the sky. I really love it: