Will Smith as the President

Will Smith as the President of the United States? He thinks he could do it within the next 15 years.

Christine and I went into the city yesterday. Christine drove, which I was grateful for, seeing as I hate driving through the city of San Francisco and doing the most torturous of San Francisco driving activities -- finding street parking.

Driving in San Francisco is one of those activities that I absolutely despise, not just because of the crazy way the streets are laid out, or the tremendously steep hills, but because of the people factor. People are stupid and horrible drivers in San Francisco. People are stupid and horrible pedestrians in San Francisco. Add stupid drivers, horrible pedestrians, and an impossible parking situation together and you have a city unpleasant to drive around in.

After circling the immediate area for what seemed like hours (we spent 8 miles circling), we managed to find a spot not too far from our first stop, Grace Cathedral, with its cast replica of "The Gates of Paradise". Christine needed to take some notes on it in order to write a paper on the art piece. I took some pictures of the bronze reliefs on the door and of the Cathedral.

There was an airshow going on over the city while we were at Grace Cathedral, so every few minutes would be punctuated by the roar of either the Blue Angels or the Snowbirds flying overhead. It was a little disconcerting seeing those fighters fly so close by.

"Dopamine" is part of the Sundance Film Series and is a movie about love, exploring the question of whether love is this special, magical thing, or just a result of chemical interactions. The movies in this film series have a limited 2-week run at 10 select Loews Cineplex theatres, and then afterwards they'll be shown on the Sundance Channel. I watched the movie yesterday, and afterwards, the director of the film spoke to the audience and answered questions we had about the movie, and the process of making the film. The movie was set in and filmed entirely in San Francisco, the director pointed out, unlike another film which used pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and then filmed everything in Vancouver.

We parked at a interesting garage, where each of the parking spaces was labeled with a fortune-cookie like proverb. We ate at a place called Figaro, where we had a some yummy bruschetta and gnocchi (mushroom with 4 cheese sauce and spinach with creamy pesto) . Christine had an Appletini and an Italian Flag to drink, and that in combination with the bottles of wine she had the night before, she was a bit too buzzed to drive, so I drove us out of the city and back home.