San Francisco, California — Activities
San Francisco Culture
The cultural life of San Francisco is as diverse as the different cultures that reside here. In the Mission, the art is on the walls with colorful murals covering historical moments and major personalities in Latin history. In the Civic Center, it streams melodically from purpose-built buildings dedicated to the pursuit of music. SoMa (the district south of Market Street) is home to important museums and some of the most exciting visual art in the world, while Union Square is theaterland.
Acid rock was born in the LSD days of the 1960s and played to the hippie generation, by bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, while, in 1967, the Summer of Love crystallised this new cultural consciousness. Today, the city continues to provide a home to artists of all description, reflecting the breadth of cultural diversity. Its status as a pioneer has settled down, as many of the ideas that earlier generations fought for (such as gay rights in the 1970s) are now more accepted. But there remains a rich tradition of alternative theater, as well as successful mainstream offerings.
Tix Bay Area, on Powell Street in Union Square (tel: (415) 430 1140; website: www.theaterbayarea.org), provides full-price advance tickets as well as half-price day-of-performance tickets (in person and online) for a range of events.
SF Bay Guardian (website: www.sfbg.com), the SF Weekly (website: www.sfweekly.com) and the biweekly Bay Area Reporter (website: www.ebar.com) all provide listings and information on the city’s cultural activities. (The first two are free papers widely available in newspaper boxes throughout the city.)
Music: San Franciscans love music. Concerts of the Grammy-Award winning San Francisco Symphony, led by acclaimed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, are often sold out. Performances are held at the ultra-modern Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 6000; website: www.sfsymphony.org). The full-length glass windows overlook the restored City Hall, like Washington DC’s Capitol Building, only with a gilt dome 12m (40ft) taller.
The San Francisco Opera (tel: (415) 864 3330; website: www.sfopera.com) has established itself as one of the world’s great opera companies, re-invigorated by director David Gockley. Its home is the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, a gorgeous building dating from 1932. The season is September to January and June to July. Same-day tickets, mostly for standing room only, are usually available.
Theater: Shows range from Broadway productions on Geary Street to smaller, more alternative shows throughout the city. The Geary Theater, 415 Geary Street (tel: (415) 749 2228; website: www.act-sf.org), opened in 1996 and is home to the American Conservatory Theater (ACT), one of the nation’s largest resident companies and a Tony Award winner. The Curran Theater, 445 Geary Street (tel: (415) 551 2000; website: www.shnsf.com), hosts touring Broadway musicals, while Teatro Zinzanni, Pier 27-29, The Embarcadero (tel: (415) 438 2668; website: www.teatrozinzanni.org), blends cabaret, spectacle, music and dinner. 42nd Street Moon, 601 Van Ness Street, (tel: (415) 255 8207; website: www.42ndstmoon.org), prides itself on offbeat musicals.
Dance: Ballet has been part of San Franciscan life longer than in any other city in America. San Francisco Ballet (tel: (415) 865 2000; website: www.sfballet.org) is not only the oldest company (it started life in 1933), but also reputedly among the best. Performances take place at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, between February and May. There are a number of innovative dance troupes dotted around town. The Ethnic Dance Festival (tel: (415) 392 4400; website: www.worldartswest.org) takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, Lyon Street, over four weekends in June.
Film: San Francisco has been the backdrop for innumerable well-known movies. Including Star Wars, Shrek and Indiana Jones. Its steep hills are favored for car chases and the Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the distance, provides an unrivalled backdrop. Most famously, Steve McQueen starred in the 1960s classic Bullitt (1968). Chris Columbus filmed local resident Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire (1993) and Sean Connery appeared in The Rock (1996). Jennifer Lopez filmed The Wedding Planner (2001) here, and Elizabeth Hurley came to the city to film Bedazzled (2001). Ang Lee’s remake of Hulk (2003) was shot in San Francisco. The quirky Being John Malkovich was filmed here in 1999, and Under the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane, was partially filmed in San Francisco in 2003. The 2004 wine-drenched comedy Sideways has stimulated tours following in the footsteps of this zany road trip in the Napa Valley.
The San Francisco International Film Festival (website: www.sffs.org) is held in April and May. Venues include Landmark’s Clay Theater, 2261 Fillmore Street (at Clay) (tel: (415) 267 4893; website: www.landmarktheaters.com), and Castro Theater, Castro Street and Market Street (tel: (415) 621 6120; website: www.thecastrotheater.com), which shows independent, art and foreign film, and has a Wurlitzer organ that plays before each showing.
Literary Notes: San Francisco has inspired literary comment almost since its inception. However, until the 1950s, it was mostly the odd epigram from wits like Mark Twain, who reckoned his coldest winter was a summer here, or Rudyard Kipling, who once called San Francisco ’a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people’, or John Steinbeck, who described the city as a ’golden handcuff’ without a key. Although William Saroyan did have this to say during the Great Depression: ’If you’re alive, you can’t be bored in San Francisco. If you’re not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.’
San Francisco has been at the vanguard of American consciousness ever since, peaking in the 1950s, thanks to Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder. Ferlinghetti, poet and publisher, was declared innocent of obscenity for publishing Ginsberg’s Howl (1956), paving the way for an open and liberal cultural life in the city. Snyder, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was inspired by the cultural diversity and natural beauty of the place. But for many, it was the city’s drug culture and political climate. Most famous of them all is Jack Kerouac, whose On The Road (1957) spoke for a generation. The only survivor of the Beat Generation is Ferlinghetti, whose City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, holds a reputation as one of the best places for buying cutting-edge and classical literature.
Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), continued the outraging of American society, a decade later, fuelled by LSD. For Dylan Thomas, it was a city out of this world. ’You wouldn’t think such a place as San Francisco could exist,’ he proclaimed. Gay writer Armistead Maupin’s success was founded on that of his newspaper column, which started in the San Francisco Chronicle on 24 May 1976, and his understanding of his city’s gay population. He went on to become a major modern storyteller, quirkily reflecting city life in a series of novels that began with Tales of the City (1978). Bay Area author Amy Tan wrote the popular Joy Luck Club (1994), which chronicles four generations of women in San Francisco. ’Sister Spit’ success-story Michelle Tea won accolades for Valencia (2000), a story about young punk-rock lesbians in the Mission District.
Mystery writer James Calder has published three novels in the Bill Damon mystery series set in Silicon Valley while San Francisco’s author Nadia Gordon writes a murder mystery series set in Sonoma and Napa Valley wine country. Local author Kirk Russell’s crime mysteries are set in California. To coincide with the centenary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, local author and screenwriter James Dalessandro wrote an epic novel entitled 1906, set in San Francisco on the eve of the great earthquake and fire of 1906.
In more modern times, SoMa (2007), the debut novel of author Kemble Scott, is a social satire centerd on the characters of San Francisco’s edgy South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood in the year’s following the 2001 dot-com bust. Although fiction, the novel features real San Francisco locations - and hints at a true tale or two.
San Francisco Tours
WalkingTours
A good public transport system has made walking more a pleasure than a necessity and yet there is a walking tour for every taste. For those interested in discovering the gay community and environs, Cruisin’TheCastro (tel: (415) 255 1821; website: www.cruisinthecastro.com) is a two-hour tour that includes lunch. Tours depart from the Rainbow Flag, corner of Castro Street and Market Street, Saturdays at 1000.
The Foot! (tel: (415) 793 5378; website: www.foottours.com) tours explore some of the city’s most famous areas (including Nob Hill, Union Square, Chinatown and North Beach) and are led by professional comedians. The two-hour ‘Haight Ashbury Flashback Tour’ takes the nostalgic visitor not only back to the 1960s and the famed Summer of Love but also further back to the Haight that was a Victorian resort destination. Tours depart from Peace Cafe, Red Vic B&B, 1665 Haight Street (near Belvedere), Tuesdays at 1100. Reservations are recommended for all walking tours.
Local Tastes of the City Tours (tel: (415) 665 0480 or 1 888 358 8687; website: www.localtastesofthecitytours.com) savours the best of San Francisco’s culinary traditions. Three-hour walking tours experience a behind-the-scenes look at local bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and the places where locals shop. Sample fresh bread, pastries, chocolates, truffles, coffees, dim sum, seafood and olive oils, or watch artisans at work. Tours explore North Beach and Chinatown. Two-hour night tours are also available.
Bus Tours
Gray Line (tel: (415) 434 8687; website: www.graylinesanfrancisco.com) offers a ‘Deluxe City Highlights’ tour, which takes in many key sites, including the Golden Gate Park and the bridge. Tours take three-and-a-half or four-and-a-half hours. Reservations are required. There is a free shuttle pick-up service. Tower Tours (tel: 1 866 345 8687 or (415) 345 8687; website: www.towertours.net) offers a similar three- to four-hour tour, which includes a hotel pick-up shuttle service, with three daily departures. Both companies also have trips to Alcatraz, Marin Country and the Wine Country.
Other Tours
Bike the Bridge with Blazing Saddles Bike Rental & Tours (tel: (415) 202 8888; website: www.blazingsaddles.com). The most popular ride passes the Presidio, crosses the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, takes the Bay Trail through magnificent Redwoods to Tiburon, then takes the ferry back to San Francisco. Allow two and a half hours for the 16-mile (23km) ride. No reservations necessary.
A boat tour of the Bay is a must, providing perhaps the best panorama of the city and a unique view of the Golden Gate Bridge. A number of tour operators offer departures from Fisherman’s Wharf. Blue and Gold Fleet (tel: (415) 705 8200; website: www.blueandgoldfleet.com) runs a daily narrated cruise, with regular departures from Pier 39. Tours last around one hour.
Electric Time Car Rentals (tel: (415) 674 8800; website: www.etcars.com) is the most novel way to drive the streets of San Francisco, in GPS self-guided tours. Colorful two- and four-seater bubble-like electric cars, with street speeds of up to 40kph (25mph), quietly cruise the hilly streets of the city on a choice of three different routes. An audio GPS narrates facts about historic sites while guiding the driver where to turn. Rentals depart from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Fire Engine Tours & Adventures (tel: (415) 333 7077; website: www.fireenginetours.com) take you across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and Fort Baker. The beautifully restored 1955 Big Red Shiny Mack Fire Engine is owned by Robert and Marilyn Katzman, who reside in the old firehouse at Fisherman’s Wharf. The 75-minute tours leave from The Cannery at Fisherman’s Wharf. Charters are available for private groups.
San Francisco Seaplane Tours (tel: (415) 332 4843; website: www.seaplane.com) depart daily from Sausalito for flights over the Golden Gate Bridge. A complimentary shuttle service is available from Pier 39. There is also a sunset tour with champagne, which lasts 40 minutes and a charter flight to Lake County, home of Ceago Vinegarden winery on the shores of Clear Lake. The trip includes an educational tour of the winery, private tasting and cheese plate.
The Urban Safari (tel: (415) 282 5555 or 1 866 697 2327; website: www.theurbansafari.com) is not just another city tour. Travel off the beaten track in Daniel Oppenheim’s zebra-striped Land Rover, complete with safari jackets and pith helmets, for four hours of adventure and fun with this avant-garde explorer. Trek through the urban jungle to famous movie sites, crooked streets, farmers’ markets and world-renowned chocolatiers. Learn secrets of this beautiful City by the Bay, embark on a spiritual safari, or custom-design your own.
