Entertainment For Lively Minds
Holiday Report 1: San Francisco
I've been staying with a friend just off Haight St, around the corner from Janis Joplins's old house. The summer of love may be long-gone, but the area still clings onto its hippy past, albeit with a decidedly modern, crusty-chic edge. Peace symbols and panhandlers are everywhere, bookstores are of the left wing variety, tie-dye still appears to be fashionable, and the shops are filled with vast bongs that double up as gas masks. 2400 Fulton St is still there, and Amoeba Records is as staggering as it was on my last visit, although a lot more expensive. I meet a well-dressed young man eating a burrito he proudly claims to have rescued from a bin, and a one-eyed drunk celebrating his 21st birthday alone. Ejected from several bars and barely capable of speech, he plans to walk the 25 miles home.
Elsewhere, I can recommend the clam chowder at Horizons in Sausalito, the cocoa-pepper steak at the Foreign Cinema, and the wild boar headcheese at Magnolia.
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Now just be sure...
...to wear some flowers in your hair.
I've never really been so
I don't really know ... but you're not really selling it to me Fraser.
I always suspected that it could just never live up to my imagination. But as Grace Slick and a candle lit room at 2400 Fulton Street in 1967 featured large in my imagining that's maybe not surprising.
All a bunch
Of tree hugging hippy crap!
I'm sorry
You're going to have to explain what "wild boar headcheese at Magnolia" is.
I suspect you REALLY...
...don't want to know what headcheese is
Welcome to 'Wish You Were here'
or am I just jealous?
One eyed drunks and
men picking out food from dustbins!? Why should I pay to travel to see that when I can just go out in Slough on a Friday night?
Because
those are the only two things in the known universe that San Francisco and Slough have in common, and in every other respect, Slough is a shithole while SF is vibrant, exciting and visually stunning.
Is that reason enough?
San Francisco Art Gallery Tip...
Fraser, here's a nice little art gallery that I visited when I was last over there.
http://www.sfae.com/
Think you'll like it.
I've been...
twice, and I loved the place. The post just made me envious! If the weather is good it'll just make me worse!
What's City Lights bookshop like these days?
Hope it hasn't got a creche and a Starbucks inside.
Best bookshop I'd ever been to when I was there 20 years ago...
Don't knock creches
There may well come the day when you'll recognise them as the most significant social development since the discovery of alcohol.
Perhaps...
but as I am currently senza sprog I wouldn't know.
Sausalito days
Check out the Spinnaker, amazing view of the Bay-and allow the ghosts of Rumours and the Last Whole Earth Catalog to haunt you ...
there's hippy rubbish and there's hippy rubbish ...
Go to Johnny Rockets
for that proper burger experience.
http://maps.yahoo.com/map?q1=2201%20Chestnut%20Street%2094123&mag=5&ard=...
http://maps.yahoo.com/map?q1=1946%20Fillmore%20Street%2094115&mag=5&ard=...
The People's Republic of Berkeley
And if you go over to the other side again please check out the other Amoeba, Rasputin for records, Moe's Books, Black Oak books (saw Erica Jong read from her Henry Miller memoir there a few years ago so events programme worth a look imo ...), the ever entertaining Telegraph Ave which had the best buskers I ever saw (Samora and Elena Pinderhughes-clip of her at end), and a world-class "classical+" record shop called The Musical Offering that does good coffee to boot. There's also the birthplace of the Caffe Latte somewhere on Telegraph ...
Yes, I'm (very) biased ...
And for some non-hippy counterpoint with very strong Boomer nostalgia power, check out the USS Hornet in dock at the former Alameida Naval Air Station. If you are old enough to remember it fishing Armstrong et al from the sea after the first moonwalk, no explanation is necessary. On top of the nearby Berkeley I found it to nicely encapsulate the twin-track 60s that Mailer tried to capture in "Of a Fire on the Moon" - his own and that of the "squares". This dichotomy is, of course, the theme of "Moondust".
I Love Amoeba
And have somehow managed four trips over the last decade to the glorious warehouse of records, but I did think it had gone downhill last time - a lot less interesting stuff in the bargain bins to the left as you go in. :(
It's been almost 5 years...
... since I visited the SF Amoeba and it was an amazing afternoon, clearing about half of my "wants" list at the time in one go at stupid prices, though I'll take the posse's word that it's gone downhill recently... bargain of the day was the UK/European Nuggets box-set with disk 4 missing for $10 (if anyone has a spare disk 4, let me know!)
D'you mean...
CD4 of the Nuggets box or the Nuggets 2 (The British Empire And Beyond) box?
Nuggets 2
Since you ask!
I don't have that box set
but looking at the track listing I could probably knock up most of the tracks on Disc 4 from my collection if you wanted.
I'll have a look when I get home tonight and I might be able to compile a DIY Disc 4!
You're a gent!
There's definitely a better class of person here... any help appreciated, but don't go to too much trouble - Cheers!
I'm a Word subscriber...
you should expect nothing less!
Anyway, you've thrown down the gauntlet, it's a musical challenge - a chance to trawl the archive and knock up a compilation, what could be better?
Sorry, I failed miserably...
I only have the following exact matches:
Pretty Things: "Rosalyn"
The Creation: "How Does It Feel" US 7" version
The Mops: "I'm Just A Mops" (great Japanese psych)
Downliners Sect: "Why Don't You Smile Now"
Tintern Abbey: "Vacuum Cleaner"
The Birds: "No Good Without You" (Ronnie Wood's old band)
The Majority: "One Third"
Small Faces: "Here Comes The Nice"
Then I've got two or three tracks each from these ones, but not the actual songs featured on the CD I'm afraid.
The Outsiders, Blossom Toes, The Ugly Ducklings, Kaleidoscope
Most of my collection of bits and pieces are old American stuff not so much British or European - although I have accumulated a lot of Japanese and Swedish psych for some reason!
Oh well, hopefully someone will sort you out but if you want any of the above send me a message with your email.
Happy hunting!
Thanks - now sorted!
Cheers Retro, managed to sort myself out, thanks anyway!
No problem, glad you got it sorted.
I noticed that one of the CD's in that box features Fire's "Father's Name Is Dad" - my favourite ever garage-psych one hit wonder, guitar riff of the century!
Pet Shop Boys agree!
They used a big sample of "Father's Name Is Dad" (yes, a great track!) as the basis for "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today", the B-side of "Flamboyant", so there you go...
Who'd have thought it!
Something for me to hunt down then.
Whoops... didn't mean to post this...
so I've deleted it.
As an aside, there doesn't seem to be a way of deleting erroneous posts.
Nope
That's actually a fix that Fraser could look into. If we can edit comments down to full stops (see example below), provided nobody has yet continued the thread immediately below us, could we be allowed to delete them completely?
.
.
I've been!
Stayed at the Red Victorian B&B in Haight Street - absolutely loved it. SF is a great town to visit - also very sunny but not hot. Perfect!
One of my favourite cities in the world
Fantastic place.