U2 Stops the Traffic

(Admin note: this is the follow-up post to the trivia question I asked in this post about a certain landmark in San Francisco. The story itself has nothing to do with running, but if you’ve hung around here for any length of time, you know that's never stopped me before.)

*
In November of 1987, U2 hadn’t comfortably settled into their newfound status as the Biggest Band in the World.

Earlier in the year, they released The Joshua Tree, the album that launched them straight into the rock music stratosphere, and were drawing tens of thousands of fans at every sold-out tour stop of the summer. They couldn’t walk down the street anymore without a flash mob and hundreds of photographers stalking their every move. Yet they still loved the youthful spontaneity of their early years, and felt like they were losing touch with fans who couldn’t afford concert tickets.

The documentary film Rattle and Hum was conceived as an effort to share the tour experience with that base, and one day on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, the band gave its fans the ultimate gift of spontaneity: a free lunchtime concert in Justin Herman Plaza.

Photo from U2tour.de

The concert was announced on short notice (less than 24 hours by most reports), but still drew 20,000 people to the foot of Vaillancourt Fountain to hear a nine-song playlist. The crowd spilled into the surrounding streets and brought traffic to a standstill in all directions.

Near the end of the show, Bono (a future Time Magazine Person of the Year, mind you) climbed the lower portion of Armand Vaillancourt’s Quebec Libre! sculpture and spray painted the phrase Rock & Roll Stops The Traffic above the impromptu stage.

Photo from U2tour.de

Afterward, San Francisco’s mayor was outraged, threatening fines and jail time as punishment for such a public display of vandalism. The argument escalated until Vaillancourt himself was contacted to learn if he supported the act.

The sculptor defended Bono's gesture, declaring that from a societal standpoint, graffiti is sometimes a necessary evil for young people who lack the same access to mainstream media that people of higher power and influence enjoy. San Francisco’s mayor knew better than to pick a battle with one of the city’s most popular artists – to say nothing of the Biggest Band in the World – and let the issue rest without further consequence.

Vaillancourt then supported the band in the coolest way possible: the following night, he personally attended U2's Oakland concert, and climbed on stage to write "Stop the madness" in front of 70 000 people.

The scene at Herman Plaza is forever captured in their 1989 movie Rattle and Hum (click to play):


Which is why the song "All Along the Watchtower" was playing in my head throughout last weekend's run.

(So I guess the story is a LITTLE bit about running ... )

Read more...

Barefoot Embarcadero

Last weekend our family took one of those “Let’s cram as much educational and enriching stuff as possible into 24 hours!” trips to San Francisco – so in between seeing King Tut and the science museum, doing some geocaching, enjoying the SF Symphony, and absolutely loving a trip (seriously - you have to do it someday) to Alcatraz, I snuck out of the hotel for an early-morning run through the city.

Without shoes, of course. Because if there’s anyplace on Earth where you're free to look like an absolute weirdo, it has to be San Francisco. And with that, I was on my way.

I always love seeing buildings in this town with early morning sunlight spilling through them. During the other 22 or so hours of the day, maybe not so much – but sunrise in the big city always carries the feeling of promise for the day ahead.


I made a beeline for Market Street, where it was a straight shot to the Ferry Building in the distance, where I’d pick up the Embarcadero.


This is part of Justin Herman Plaza across the street from the Ferry Building. The large sculpture is called Quebec Libre!, and sits in what’s known as Vaillancourt Fountain, because it’s 1) named after the scupltor, and 2) usually filled with water. On this morning, however, it was completely emptied …


… which made for a cool little picture spot.

(*Random musical trivia tangent of the day: the sculpture in Vaillancort Fountain holds a special place in history for hardcore U2 fans. I’ll tell the story in a weekend post, but feel free to chime in the comments box if you know its significance.)


As I reached my first dock, the morning fog was stubbornly clinging to the low-lying hills, like this one on Yerba Buena Island under the Bay Bridge …


… and to the tops of the buildings, like this thin veil atop the Coit Tower.


The Embarcadero is the main drag for recreational joggers in this part of the city, so I got plenty of astonished looks for not wearing shoes.

Most people were friendly about it – several even ran alongside me for a bit to ask the usual “Doesn’t it hurt? What about broken glass?” type of questions. One younger girl even took off her iPod earbuds to talk with me – that’s something of a compliment among twenty-something females, right?


It had rained earlier in the week, so there were lingering puddles scattered along the waterway – and of course, I ran through every one of them. No matter how many times I do it, I always get a charge out of looking back over my shoulder and seeing this image on the ground behind me.


Sunlight bouncing off the building, tree foliage just beginning to turn, and a wispy layer of fog … have I mentioned that San Francisco is beautiful in the morning?


My turnaround point was at Pier 39, where I moseyed up and down the docks a bit …


… and took a little picture break before heading back toward the hotel.



By my return trip, the sun had finally triumphed over the fog, providing some killer views of the nearby skyline.


Another cool thing I love about San Francisco: the older historic buildings that are dwarfed by skyscrapers on either side, but still stand proudly as a reminder of the early days. They give the city its character, and more than a little bit of class.



A farmer’s market was going on back at the Ferry Building. I got almost zero strange looks here: you have to do a lot better than jogging around barefoot to grab the attention of this hemp-growing, organic-farming, incense-burning, vegan hippie peacenik crowd. Not that I tried.


Given that I was in a farmer’s market in San Francisco, I was surprised that I didn’t see more signs like this. There were only about a dozen; I thought the number would be closer to fifty. Kind of disappointing, really.



From there, I just had a long trip up Market Street to get back to the hotel. The sidewalks on Market are made of red brick, which was almost the perfect texture for urban barefoot running: more traction than concrete, but smoother and less hazardous than the asphalt street. If I’m ever elected the barefoot mayor of a small town somewhere, I’ll lobby to have all the streets made out of brick.


After about six miles of barefoot running, I was back in the plushly-carpeted hotel lobby from which I started. It was a good spot to sit for a minute …


… and take one more foot photo. You’d think I would have got some strange looks for taking pictures of my feet in a hotel lobby, but, you know -

It’s San Francisco.

Read more...