On Thursday, March 11, City Arts & Lecture of San Francisco is presenting author Dave Eggers on stage with Abdulrahman & Kathy Zeitoun in conversation with Wajahat Ali.

Eggers wrote the best selling nonfiction book about the Zeitouns, who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. While Kathy evacuated the city with the couple’s kids, Abdulrahman elected to stay in the city.

This seems like a really interesting event and you know what would be cool? If some Muslims showed up. We, as a people, have a hard time supporting people like the Zeitouns and Eggers (and a lot of other people and organizations) who actually give Islam a good name. Out of the 900 seats available, more than 600 have already been sold, so one should really get tickets soon. So let’s try to add some representation in there and get your tickets.

In New Muslim Cool, filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor presents a look at the life of Puerto Rican American Hamza Perez over a period of a few years in Pittsburgh as he and other members of the community work to establish a Muslim community.

Born Jason, Hamza used to be a drug dealer in Massachusetts before he found Islam and turned his life around at the age of 21. Although only 83 minutes, New Muslim Cool covers many aspects of Hamza’s life: how he fits in with his (mostly) non-Muslim relatives, his marriage, his work as an activist, his hip hop career, even how he and the rest of the Muslim community deal with an uncalled for FBI raid on their mosque.

Taylor and editor Kenji Yamamoto worked well to make the film as cohesive as possible. Despite the fact that one is watching scenes that have been filmed over a few years, the documentary has an underlying theme. It’s about Hamza maturing, becoming a better person, understanding who he is, and embracing the responsibilities he feels are incumbent on him.

The great thing about New Muslim Cool is that you don’t have to be a Muslim or a convert to appreciate this film. The message given is universal and Hamza is entirely relatable. Check it out if you can. There’s one more screening in San Francisco at the Sundance Kabuki Theater on May 4 and other screenings in other parts of the country. Also, New Muslim Cool has the distinction of airing on June 23 on PBS to start off the new season of POV.

I made my Monday trek to San Francisco last night to go to Arabic class with the usual last minute mad dash scramble to get the train I wanted before it left the Fremont station. A few stations later, I realized I forgot my umbrella in the car and hoped it wouldn’t be raining when I got to the city. Turned out a lack of umbrella was the least of my worries.

On the train, I had an internal struggle as to whether or not I should get coffee before class, a tradition that I’ve had. The “why not” won out and I found myself in a coffee shop in the minutes leading up to class. As the barista turned to me and asked what I wanted, I reached into my Timbuk2 messenger bag to grab my wallet but instead my hand didn’t close on anything. I looked in. I forgot my wallet.

I said “Never mind” and walked out, realizing I didn’t have as much as a quarter on me. I was very careful as I crossed the street to get to class since I was mindful of the fact that if, God forbid, I was hit by a car, I didn’t have any form of identification on me.

I chided myself on the elevator up to 7th floor of the building to get to class, wondering if the other two people in the elevator somehow knew I was sans wallet. I told one of my classmates, a lady that I’ve become friends with, what happened. She offered me money for coffee but I declined. If anything, I was worried about the drive home from the Fremont BART station. I was reminded of one Simpsons episode in which the Simpsons escape from the cops and as Homer is about to start the car, Lisa says: “But Dad! You don’t have your license.” He tries anyways and when the car started he said, “It still works!”

Anyways, after class I walked over to the BART station with my classmate and she asked if I needed any money. After checking my BART ticket to make sure I had enough on it to get me home (I did, with 2 bucks to spare) I declined again but then thought better of it. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll borrow some money from you,” I said. I took the $10 bill she handed me and added: “Just don’t tell my mom.” I’m in the BIG CITY by myself WITHOUT my WALLET. My mom wouldn’t like that.

“At least you will have something to give if you get mugged,” she said. True, true.

I worried through my BART ride home, even if I did try to get lost in the This American Life podcast I was listening to. I felt a brief surge of horror as I thought I caught the wrong train connection but relaxed back into my seat when I realized I was on the right train. I got to my car back in Fremont and drove home veeerrry carefully. Turns out that my keys still worked despite a lack of license. I hate being without my ID though. Made me feel exposed.

The End.

So last week, I had the pleasure of watching a movie at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco. The theater is currently home to a Film Noir festival titled Noir City. I watched Deadline: USA, starring Humphrey Bogart. The film was really good and instilled in the viewer the importance of the media.

But that’s another post for another time.

This post is about how I got to the Castro Theater.

I’m not one to drive in and around San Francisco. I BART it if I can, which works for 90% of situations like getting to Arabic class. I’ve driven to the Castro Theater once and I was barely able to parallel park on an uphill street.

On Friday, I had to meet up my friend near the Montgomery BART station and we were going to get to the Castro from there. But BART doesn’t go there. However, the MUNI Metro does.

I didn’t know the Muni Metro existed. I mean, I knew about (and have been on) MUNI buses that go all around San Francisco, but I had no idea there was an actual underground MUNI train system that took its riders to parts of the city that BART may not reach. I was in awe as we took the steps down to the Metro underground platform and waited for the train to come. It doesn’t compare to London’s Tube system or even New York’s subway system, but it’s there nonetheless.

My friend said it wasn’t very clean and I noticed the puddle of something on a seat on our way back (which reminded me of a similar substance that my cousin almost sat in once on the NY subway) but really, does it matter? It’s there and it goes places and now I know about it.

And, yes, I know I’m a dork for not knowing about this before but in my defense I found other people that did not know about it.

So I had my first Arabic class this week at the Pacific Arabic Institute in San Francisco. I found out about this place from a google search- I don’t know anyone who has taken a class from them. Even though it seemed like a respectable institution based off of the website, I half-expected an empty plot of land where the building was supposed to be with a note that said “Haha fooled you! And now we have your money!” [Please note: This note would have had to be read in a sing-song voice for it to have the proper impact.]

Anyways, turns out this place does exist and there actually was a class. The instructor seems cool and the fact that the Kimchi Ninja is taking the class with me makes it all the more fun.

The cool (hmm… I already used cool. Neat?) part about this particular class was that because PAR does not have any kind of political or religious affiliation, it was filled with a diverse group of people who wanted to learn Arabic for all sorts of reasons.

I’m really looking forward to future sessions. From the taste of Arabic I got from the first class, I can’t wait to learn more.