This past weekend, I took my second trip to San Francisco. As I wandered around the city I found I had great affinity for this place. San Fran is a melting pot of people with architecture and culture unmatched by most cities in the states. Now I am no expert, but did some research and dragged my lady-friend around as I explored. What a good sport she was! Here are some of the places I visited and recommend.
First off, if you are gay, and haven’t been, you’re simply missing out. This place is as gay as two dudes watching “Will & Grace” in the dark. It truly is your Mecca. Go there! Gay or Straight, if you love culture, San Francisco is wrought with it. Someone told me that in San Fran, you can go anywhere in the world and eat any kind of food imaginable, anytime you want.
If you are a reader: Do not miss visiting the “City Lights” bookstore. It’s more than a bookstore really. Arguably the Mecca of bookstores in the states (that’s two Meccas in one city!), this was the home of the Beats. Here you can browse around upstairs wherein lies City Lights’ exhaustive collection of Beat literature. We got caught up in this small yet, overflowing den of introspection for far longer than we planned. I accessed my inner elementary schooler and enjoyed picture books of the lives of the Beats while Janelle enjoyed some beat poetry (who’s I can’t remember) I wanted to buy up most of the Beat section, but due to my student-induced poverty, I opted for a poster of my boys Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady.
“City Lights” is in the North Beach district, adjacent to Chinatown, and a block from Little Italy. As I see it, the North Beach district is the culmination of culture in San Fran. This was the highlight of the trip. After we finished up in “City Lights” we cruised up Columbus St. and got ourselves a couple of Philly cheesesteak sandies at “Buster’s Cheesesteak” on the corner of Vallejo and Columbus. We sat and ate on a bench on the sidewalk, listening to the conversations of the passers by. It was at the turn of 2am when we were sitting here, so you can imagine the types of conversations we enjoyed. It was colorful to say the least. It felt like I was shoved into an episode of This American Life.
(And don’t miss Chinatown. It’s said to be the most authentic Chinatown in the states. You’ll see why…)
As the Beats led to the Hippy Movement, so “City Lights” led me to the Haight-Ashbury district. Contemporarily, it seems to not be the Haight-Ashbury that birthed the Hippies, but there are still remnants of the movement. The streets are now lined with head shops and vintage clothing stores. It seems to have taken up a Hippy tourist vibe that seems subversive to the Hippy sentiment, like “manufactured hippydom.” If I were a hippy, I’d be pissed at its disingenuousness, but fortunately, I’m not a hippy and loved it for its history. We found a bookstore called, “Anarchy Books” that truly had anarchist literature. As you walk in, there is a picture of John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. Atop their photos it read, “Fuck These People.” Then it proceeded to tell me why I shouldn’t vote at all. These people infringe on my freedoms and are simply puppets of the big bad government. I was thoroughly entertained!
As Janelle and I walked up (and I mean vertical!) Haight street, we conversed about the ethos of the Haight-Ashbury district. I commented that we had just seen the center of what was going on in the sixties. But then we tried to figure out what is going on today. In the nineties it was Seattle’s grunge-alternative Nirvana-led vibe. But what now? Is there anything? Where is it and what’s happening today? We were perplexed and pretty let down. If you know, please inform me! I wanna go!
I suggest you skip the Fisherman’s Wharf. Yeah it’s a tourist’s staple, but it is probably the most unoriginal place in San Francisco, full of outlanders and some San Franciscan entertainers. San Francisco is chock full of culture, expression, and I suggest you avoid the tourist hotspots. You have the chance to get cultured in San Fran and the best way to see it all is by walking. (Or, if you trust your brakes and navigability try renting a scooter. You can whip around quick from spot to spot and parking is less of a bitch with a scooter. Don’t drive! If you need to get into the city from a surrounding city or town, take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) similar to LA’s Metro, or Minneapolis’ light rail.)
Again, I’m no San Fran expert. I was led by a quick read of San Fran’s wikipedia article to all these places. So I’m sure I missed a bunch. Please, if you’ve been there, share your San Fran experience and where you suggest I go next time!
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3 comments:
Chock full of Culture eh?
City Lights was opened by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a powerhouse of a beat poet on par with Ginsberg, in my mind. (He more or less introduced Ginsberg to the world. In 1956 Ferlinghetti published Ginsberg's "Howl and Other Poems," for which he was arrested on obsenity charges). Check out "I Am Waiting." I haven't been to the store, but it truly is a mecca.
I had a pretty decent debate with one M. Bumann concerning what it is that our generation is "doing," culturally speaking. I came to the bleak conclusion that we aren't doing a damn thing. We're the unhappy remnants of the 80s that we were born into, our inheritance greed and mass consumerism. The grunge scene (the last cultural movement that could fairly be called rebellion) was made possible because its enactors could still faintly recall the social turmoil and activism of the 70s.
But we are complacent in the comfort provided by our parents, our minds are straddled by monetary concerns and societal restraints. Status is everything, so we become investment bankers and middle managers. We want cabins and boats and 2.5 children.
We'll never experience the unpredictability or raw energy of the 60s and 70s because we are disjointed and our identities are tied up in things.
We don't have a unifying voice like Bob Dylan or John Lennon, and I seriously doubt we could. They wouldn't be marketable. The masses would never listen (we're too busy with Soulja Boy). The closest we have is Bono and Oprah, and while they do some great things on a philanthropic level, they'll never be cultural revolutionaries. They're too aware of image, they're too old to be in touch with our generation.
And we can forget about a writer coming along and lending his voice to a movement. I suspect most Americans are illiterate.
It's a sad day.
Check out this blog. It's all about stuff to do in the LA area: http://franklinavenue.blogspot.com/
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