Comments: Hanging San Francisco’s status on its supposed cultural heft, as so many try to do, is more problematic still.

I know when I'm in that City by the Bay, I go to the Buckeye Roadhouse in Mill Valley, fantastic.

Posted by Randyinsandiego at November 26, 2015 10:49 AM

When my wife and i go there we always visit The Musee Mecanique at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. It is a privately owned museum of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition. And i think they all still work, at least all of them i have tried.

Posted by Neither more nor less at November 26, 2015 1:16 PM

"Its culinary renown is...."

...is nothing more than "....a square plate with a squiggle of sauce."....as one of the Scotts said.

San Fran should be renamed to Analingus.

Posted by ghostsniper at November 26, 2015 2:32 PM

My, my, what a brilliant essay on the enigma of the Golden Gate. The source of most of what you hear in opposition to the appeal of San Francisco, you may notice, comes from folks who have bad experiences there as tourists. Very few have lived there, or probably wanted to, but everybody loves to bash it.

I admit my case is special. One of the few world-class cultural institutions to which the city (spelling it "The City" is bush, as any native would tell you) can lay claim is the Opera and its attendant classical music universe. And that's why I came, and why I'd probably love to live in the city again if ever I could afford it. The best is the best, and nothing else comes close.

So to artists the rewards are unanswerable, and hedonism merely a sidelight. I admit to whooping it up more than was strictly necessary, but that kinda stuff palls eventually, and music goes on forever. I can't imagine struggling to live in San Francisco if you didn't have a purpose, but it damn sure beats Topeka. Or - shudder - Chicago. So I think it's always been hard to pigeonhole, and David Anton does a far-better-than-usual job at defining it here.

Posted by Rob De Witt at November 26, 2015 5:49 PM

Post a comment




Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)