The "Castro Erection"

Friday night I decided to go to the other side of the bay to see a free movie. The show I wanted to see was "Grizzly Man" , a new documentary by the German Director Werner Herzog depicting the life and death of outdoorsman and author Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly People). The movie was being shown as part of the "Green Screen Film Festival", which is how I got the free tickets. Us "eco" types are usually not good profiteers - a fact which I appreciate! To be truthful, I am only "eco" so long as it's cheap. Which is why I ride my bike to work.

So there I was, late as usual, on my way to the theater on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). I got off at Embarcadero station and switched to the "Muni" train and proceeded via the "M" line below and up Market Street toward Castro. I was feeling comfortable, riding the public trains again, like I had for years in Europe. Along the way up Market, passengers kept getting on - mostly men, between 20 and 40. Having snagged a comfortable seat at the first station along the line, I could just sit and people-watch. Which is a reason I like to ride metro trains in the evenings (watching commuters is much more boring). Anyways, the men kept getting on, till the conductor had to yell through the speakers to "make room in back". I don't think this was a problem for many of the passengers! It then dawned on me, this must be some sort of gay festival that I was approaching. In fact, it was just another Friday night on upper Market St. in San Francisco...

Anyways, when the train finally stopped at Castro and Market, about half the passengers, including myself, got off. The Castro Theater is apparently a kind of landmark in San Francisco's gay community. I don't know where "Christopher Street" exactly is, but I assume it's somewhere in that neighborhood. Or, if it wasn't in S.F. then there is a street nearby that carries the name. There are those "rainbow" flags, which I always associated with the peace movement, flying from streetlights up and down Market Street. It's a very interesting and colorful area at about 10 p.m. on a Friday night. Being curious by nature, I would have liked to reconnoiter and check it out ... but alas, I was alone. Bummer! Next time, I'll ask a female companion to come along with me.

The Castro, where the movie was showing, has its own history and story. Apparently, this place, which resembles the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee (it's got a more fancy Spanish facade than the "Oriental"), was ready to be razed by retail developers when a local S.F. businessman got the bright idea to have it declared a historic landmark and keep it preserved. Since then, it's been kind of a local institution of sorts, apparently. The kind of place you'd go to to see the "Rocky Horror Picture Show"...

The movie I saw, about the aforementioned grizzly activist Tim Treadwell, was pretty good. Tim not only went up to Alaska to "protect the bears" - he also filmed himself , and "his" bears, the whole while. There are some really gripping scenes. The most memorable is the "fight" scene, when 2 male bears - he names them "Sgt. Jack" and "Micky", I think - have a big brawl, mauling each other for minutes on end, their jaws clamped around each others' throats. I couldn't believe it was just another of those primitive male fights for breeding rights. This one looked like it was going to be to the death. I won't ruin the suspense and tell you what happens next...

To sum it up, even if you couldn't give a hoot about environmental protection, and think global warming is just the latest scare tactic invented by us lefties to keep you under Big Brother's watchful eye, you should check this movie out. To me, Treadwell represents something typically American : an adventurer, self-promoter, and activist all rolled into one.

p.s. if you're wondering about my choice of words for the title of this post, it comes from Gary Morris' historical description of the Castro. See you next time at the theater!