La Cocina and the BodyArt Expo

So this week-end I'd made plans to meet up with a couple of friends I'd met at the international students orientation, Carlos and Manuela, for lunch. Carlos has been to San francisco a few times before and seems to know everyone that's worth knowing and everything that's worth doing, so I thought he was taking me to some nice cafe or something... Little did I know... Instead I turned up at 24th & Folsom in the Mission District, where he told me to meet him, only to find myself swallowed up in a throng of people in what looked like a crazy street party!



Anyone want me to bring them back a mexican wrestling mask?



It turned out I'd been invited to La Cocina, San Francisco's yearly food street festival, http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/about.php. It's a great festival in support of women entrepeneurs and independent food vendors, covering 3 or 4 blocks of street which get closed down for the occasion. They have over a hundred food stands with food from all over the world. Each stand offers small portions of their most representative food that they sell for between $3 and $8, so you could go from one stand to another and taste a bit of everything. I got to try some columbian, vietnamese, peruvian and ethiopian food as well as a Seoul spicy sausage and lemon cookie ice cream made with rice milk. Yummy!



Seoul spicy sausage



Columbian food vendors

 This was my first visit to the Mission district and what really stood out for me, once again, were the beautiful murals everywhere. I still can't get over how many there are and how beautiful! Maybe I should switch from sculpture to murals... (Note to self, must work on my drawing skills...)

  After lunch, we headed out to Cow Palace to see the BodyArt Expo http://www.bodyartexpo.com/MAIN.PHP, a tattoo convention in town for 1 week-end only. I only found out about it by pure chance cos they had a big advert up just where I get my morning bus, so lucky! It was only $20 to get in, so totally worth it and with my ticket I get 20% off the entrance fee to next month's weed convention... What more could you ask for? :-p

It was really amazing to see so many talented artists all gathered in one place and I thought the people getting tattooed there in front of everyone were so brave! I saw some really beautiful tattoos and would have been quite tempted if I'd had the money. One of the stands was actually giving away free piercings! I was very tempted by a free lip piercing, but I hesitated for one moment and someone else got it instead... Oh well... I've only just got my eyebrow pierced, so i guess the lip can wait...  

This guy just looked like the typical tattooed, burly biker you see in the movies, I had to take a photo...

As a bonus, we got to see a show by The Enigma, renowned freak show artist, who used to tour with the Jim Rose Circus. It was the first time my friend Manuela had ever seen a freak show and it was hilarious to watch gradually going very red and starting to sweat! I told her she didn't have to watch the show, but she said she just couldn't stop watching! :-)


The Enigma



His assistant Serena Rose




Kiss of death...



Serena Rose contorting herself through a stringed tennis racket



Popping a sword through her tongue...





Swallowing a sword...




Swallowing a lightsaber... Oh yeah! (I don't think there were too many Star Wars fans in the crowd though, cos it definitely didn't get the desired reaction...)



And the final party trick... The tube goes through one nostril...



Round the neck, through the other nostril and down into the stomach...

He has a drink...



Then brings it back up through the tube, ready for Serena to drink... Yuck!

After the tattoo convention, we went to a gallery closing party where a bunch of artists who'd graduated from SFAI were exhibiting their work. They were handing out root beers at the party, which I'd figured were non-alcoholic... I was wrong! After just one, my head was spinning and i was feeling really drunk. Turns out the beer was home-made by one of the artists and was really strong. Goes to show, art students can turn their hand at anything over here... But that's the last free drink I'm accepting at an exhibition... It was lethal!