Day 175 – It’s my last day in San Francisco for this work trip. I have to wake up around 5 am to catch an early flight back home. I just got back from another exploration and boy am I happy I feel better than I did yesterday.

Anthony Bourdain said that The Mission’s Zeitgeist bar was a hidden San Francisco gym. He was exactly right. I love this bar as much as I love Comstock, but for completely different reasons. If there was ever a bar the complete opposite of Comstock, its Zeitgeist.

Part German, part biker, part dive, this hole-in-the-wall offers cheap beer and a great atmosphere. Characters from all walks of life hang out on the outdoor picnic tables while taking in a great draft beer selection and the greasiest of nasty food. I love this place. Love. LOVE!

After two Great White wheat beers, I continued my exploration in search of the bacon-wrapped hotdogs Anthony Bourdain ingested on the corner of 19th and Mission Streets.

Found them:

WOW!

After receiving a text from a few of the Rally staffers, I headed two blocks over to Range, where I enjoyed two Burning Oak Black Lagars from the Liden Street Brewery in Oakland. These Guinness style dark beers where amazing.

Before heading back to the BART, we hit up a tacqueria where I enjoyed two REAL tacos. This is what we are missing in South Carolina. Mexican food that isn’t completely bastardized.

Time for bed. Gotta wake up early tomorrow.

- Wesley

Day 174 – Last night I predicted that today I would feel like butt. I underestimated just how bad I would feel. It’s 5 pm and I still feel like hell. This is not good.

This morning my buddy Tom texted me “Tonga! Tonga! Tonga!” Exactly! Take my advice here – visit The Tonga Room. And then leave after two drinks.

I will be heading home after a couple more hours of work here at the office. No exploring today. Just bed. It will be a very early night.

Despite the worst hangover I’ve had in years, I was somehow able to make it through a Fox News Live taping today.

See that part where I couldn’t find the word I was search for? Yeah, hungover.

Have a great day!

- Wesley Donehue

Day 173 – My fascination with San Francisco didn’t start with my first Apple product. It started in the mid-eighties when my grandfather introduced me to Star Trek at the Walterboro Drive-In Theatre. My introduction to the final frontier was with Star Trek: The Voyage Home. While most Trek fans rate it as the worst, or one of the worst, Trek flicks, I fell in love. As a young child, the time travel, Spock riding a city bus and of course, the humpback whales, immediately grabbed my obsession. I became an eight-year-old Trekkie. I watched The Voyage Home at every opportunity. I still do. And I still get giddy watching that Bird of Prey crashing into the Bay, just barely missing the Golden Gate Bridge.

As I dove deeper into my Trek obsession, I found glimpses into Star Fleet Academy fascinating and I wondered “Why San Francisco?”

Now I know. San Francisco leads the entire world in technological innovation. Do you really expect warp drive, transporters and holodecks to come from anywhere other than San Francisco? We are already seeing more sophisticated communicators and display panels than Captains Kirk or Picard had. Tricorders and hyposprays are becoming reality. It only makes sense that Starfleet Academy will be based in San Francisco.

Ok, I know that I’m losing you with the idea that fiction will become reality, but I do believe that Star Trek has generated ideas for today’s technology and you never know, it could rekindle our desire for more space travel. After all, Newt just today promised a moon colony in the next eight years if he becomes President.

I started today’s San Francisco exploration with breakfast at Swan Oyster Depot, Anthony Bourdain’s top The Layover – San Francisco suggestion. With the freshest seafood in San Francisco, this is a must-visit spot for any tourist or resident alike. There are no tables. Just a bar where you can dive into crab, oyster, clams, sea urchin or a wide variety of other sea creatures. Because it was breakfast, I went simple with the clam chowder. I can’t say that I ever had soup for breakfast, but I can say that this was the best clam chowder I ever had in my life.

After a 30 minute walk to the office, I pumped out about 9 hours of work before hitting The Tonga Room for happy hour. Located in the basement of The Fairmont Hotel, The Tonga Room was Anthony Bourdain’s next favorite spot. This bar used to be the hotel’s indoor pool, but they converted the entire area to a tiki bar. A music stage floats in the middle of the pool, a “rain storm” comes every thirty minutes and tables are located under straw umbrellas or tents. The Tonga Room is a rum bar, so I had to take in one of their specialties, a Mai Tai.

Then something bad happened. My buddy Tom texted to say that he and his girlfriend would be joining me. What was supposed to be a quick drink before a night of work turned into many Mai Tais and shots. I now sit here in my bed, my head spinning and trying desperately to finish this post before I pass out. I very much expect to feel like butt when I wake up in the morning.
Good night.

- Wesley Donehue

Day 172 – After a second great day working in San Francisco and pouring through email and donation statistics, I hit the road to continue my Anthony Bourdain inspired journey. Alone, walking down Market Street, I realize how much I enjoy getting out on my own. Its not very often that I get alone time. I love being with my wife and my Donehue Direct team, but very seldom do I get time to just explore. Explore my thoughts. Explore my creativity. Explore life. Every man needs time alone and this week I’m going out of my way to not invite people to join me on my exploration.

Today I ventured to the North Beach area of San Francisco where I found Comstock Saloon. Comstock immediately grabbed my attention on The Layover for its refined style. The decor makes you feel as if you stepped back to the turn-of-the-century. The bartenders and wait staff wear sophisticated attire, including vests and ties. Their signature drinks mostly consist of top-shelf whiskeys.

I went for the sazerac, a sweet mixture of rye, sugar, Peycaud’s and absinthe per the bartender’s suggestion.

And then it happened. I heard Old Crow Medicine Show come through the saloon’s speakers. It was followed by Mumford and Sons and the The Avett Brothers. Three of my favorite bands, the sound of banjos, a step back in time with a sazerac in hand. My exploration for the perfect bar was complete. It just doesn’t get any better than Comstock.

I would have stayed longer, but $12 cocktails have their limit. I stepped out the door, back to 2012 and Mr Bings hit me slap in the face.

Another Bourdain recommendation, Mr Bings is directly across the street from Comstock and with its Vegas style lighted sign, its impossible to miss after dark. It is a complete dive of the Chinatown style and the perfect opportunity to reminisce on my Beijing trip with a Tsing Tao.

With notebook in hand, I took a stool at Mr Bings’ bar and wrote next week’s online strategy for three clients. This is a great opportunity to give you a business tip. Dive bars = creative strategy. The divier the bar, the better the strategy. The more salacious the bumper stickers on the wall, the more creative you become. If you’re looking to pump out awesome work, find a bar in which its bathroom walls are covered in sharpie. It works. I promise.

- Wesley Donehue

Day 171 – If you haven’t watched No Reservations or The Layover starting Anthony Bourdain, you’re missing out big time. Bourdain is one of my favorites. He was just a New York City cook until he skyrocketed to popularity after publishing Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. After writing a couple more books he started a show on the Food Network and then blew up with his Travel Channel show No Reservations.

I have been a big fan of No Reservations for a number of years and I love his new show The Layover even more. Today I begin a new phase of my life. I’ll be spending one to two weeks a month in San Francisco, expanding the Donehue Direct operation and working with the Rally team to shakeup the way online political fundraising is done. Luckily last week’s The Layover was all about San Francisco, so I’m going to explore the city by hitting up as many of Bourdain’s suggestions as possible.

Today it started with Li Po, a Chinatown dive known for its famously strong Mai Tais.

Strong? Yeah right. There is no such thing as strong for a pro drinker like myself.

Or, at least I thought so. These cocktails are as strong as advertised. I didn’t know it was possible to get a buzz off just one drink until I took down one of these babies.

I should have stayed in Chinatown for dinner, seeing that tonight kicks off the Chinese New Year (It’s the Year of the Dragon. Believe that!) Feeling tired, I headed back to the condo and hit up wing joint next door. It was pretty disgusting and not settling well on top the 4 different liquors Li Po just put on me. Time for bed.

Peace!

- Wesley Donehue

Day 170 – If so, this picture is worth the thousands words I would have written today.

Wesley Donehue

PS – Dream big. Work bigger.

Day 169 – Whew…I’m tired, yet cannot sleep. I just got back from a drinking session with some reporter friends. I leave for San Francisco in just a few hours to lay out the first cornerstones for our new office there. I’m so excited. It is the heart of technology, a new side of politics, and generally it’s a world away from Columbia. I’m gonna bring the two together and make big things happen.
 
I’m leaving Columbia on an extremely sour note. Election day…well, it sucked. I was expected to be in 20 different places at 0 different times, and little aggravating factors just made it generally something I don’t care to repeat. All of this was done with a pool of water in my car, by the way. If you haven’t seen it, check out how I was scammed by some thieves for a faulty window job. It wasn’t pleasant to deal with, and I will be keeping updates on that issue. Those guys suck and I can’t say it enough.

Yeah, check out the ongoing damage being done to my car. Those…ah, not even gonna say it…with so much drama in the CAE…It’s kinda hard:

Oh, and Newt won South Carolina. My predictions were off and now we’ve propelled Newt to frontrunner status. Seriously…NEWT!?!
 
I like that I’m a free agent this cycle. I’m one of the few that can give my honest and straightforward opinion on the election. A lot of my phone calls are from people who can’t say it, but I can say it for them. I got to speak my mind and I did so too honestly. Oh well, once you have your methods, stick to them as I say.  No use beating around the bush if you don’t have to.

I’m off to bed where I know I’ll toss and turn all night thinking about making San Francisco our second home. My smoking hot wife won’t make the trip this time, but I’ll get here there soon.
 
Until next time….

- Wesley Donehue

Day Whatever – This will be the first post of this Man Project that I publish out of order. I have posts written for nearly every day over the past 10 days, but honestly, this has been the busiest two weeks of my career. The presidential circus came to town the same day the SC legislature reconvened. We had a debate in Myrtle Beach last weekend and another one in Charleston last night. I’ve had interview after interview and more lunches and drinks with reporters than I can count. I also made a quick trip up to DC yesterday. Today I’m running on fumes.

I’m posting out of order today because tomorrow is Election Day in South Carolina. Becoming a man is the whole point of this project. Part of it is stepping up, and understanding “duty.”

Duty can fall under many different banners. One part of that duty is voting.

Voting is important. Especially this cycle. Men around the country can either choose to be boys and go golfing on election day, or step it up and do their civic duty. Men today love taking the easy way out, and depending on which side you’re on, this election is most important.

If you want to be a man, get out there and vote.

- Wesley Donehue

Day 167 – Another short blog. We are in Charleston today for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference and presidential debate. The city is buzzing with reporters and political action. There ain’t a whole lot better than Charleston and politics. We are having a blast.

My buddy and chief competitor Vincent Harris is in town, and Jonathan and I are crashing with our new employee Patrick, who I will announce you to later next week.

I am about to go do a few interviews, including one with Al Jazeera. That’s interesting, huh? I should have named Donehue Direct, Wesley World Wide. Earlier this week I did hits with media outlets in the Netherlands, the UK, Australia and France. On Saturday I have a hit with a public Japanese TV station. Pretty wild.

Because I don’t have a lot of time to write today, I want to quickly give you a productivity tip – play The Email Game.

You know how much I hate email. Along with conference calls and meetings, emails are the biggest Time Vampires in business. I HATE HATE HATE email.

The Email Game is “email management made fun.” I don’t care about the whole fun part. What I love is that the game gives you tools to quickly run through your email. It scores you on how fast you can clear your inbox. While I don’t find the game fun, I find the extra time it gives me each day a lot of fun.

By 1:00 pm today, I checked my email twice and saved 56 minutes according to the app.

Here’s a quick video:

The Email Game – Conquer your Email from Baydin Inc. on Vimeo.

Pretty badass, huh?

Give it a try.

Wesley

Day 166 – This week’s conservation episode was really refreshing. Phil is a good friend of mine, and he’s pretty much the closest thing to a Republican you can find in a Democratic operative (sorry Phil).

He hunts, he fishes, he likes good beer and country. He’s a rather conservative fellow, as are many Democrats in this state. So having a discussion about true conservative values is always needed.

Those type of guys on both sides of the aisle make South Carolina a very conservation minded state. We don’t always show it, but go to NYC and tell me how the fishing is there. If you can breathe.

When I went to China, I got sick. Not from the food, or something in the water…but from breathing. Every breath I took made me gag. Why? Because they have no control over the air quality. Go to China once, and you’ll understand why government has to work with industry to create a better environment. Some Republicans just disregard the environment altogether. It’s not right. There is a balance between business and conservation.

If you’re a conservative, be a man and protect the world around you. Or else, you can leave a toxic swamp for your grandchildren. So much for family values.

- Wesley Donehue