The City That Was

The City That Was: Insider Jokes at the Aub Zam Zam
In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time. Every so often, to avoid sinking into annoying nostalgia, it’s great to

The City That Was: The Criminal Act of Feeding the Hungry
In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time. Thanksgiving season, the time when America prepares to gorge itself on variations

Eat, Game, & Sing in San Francisco This Spring!
It’s Springtime in San Francisco, which means it’s time to put your phone on silent for a while and step out into our fair city to sing, eat, and play with the wonderful people and programming on offer. Whether in the flesh or on a live stream, the journalists and

The City That Was: Kill Your TV
Last week I had dinner with my old friend and roommate, “Chad Mulligan.” Unlike a lot of my Cacophony friends, “Chad” likes staying out of the limelight, but then, he doesn’t write, either—a task for which you’d better get some limelight, or a day job. Hanging with him reminded me

The City That Was: When North Beach Was Italian
In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time. Tourist brochures tell visitors that North beach is the Italian district of

When The Savoy Tivoli was the Heart of North Beach Bohemia
In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time. The Savoy. If you’ve ever wandered up Grant Avenue in North Beach,

The City That Was: Before the Nanny State, There was Playland
In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time. In recent news, a mother got in trouble for letting her kid

The City That Was: The Literary Obsession That Ate My Life
In The City That Was, Bohemian Archivist P Segal tells a weekly story of what you all missed: the days when artists, writers, musicians, and unemployed visionaries were playing hard in the city’s streets and paying the rent working part time. In the days before social media and online entertainment, people had a

Spectacles of Burning Man, Year One
You’ve already heard about how Burning Man made it to the Black Rock Desert, but I left off when the Cacophony Zone Trippers had crossed the line into the zone. The only spectacle we brought with us was the Man in the Ryder truck. We, and the vicissitudes of nature, were the spectacle. So you might wonder how we spent the long weekend with only one major entertainment on the agenda and our universally compromised budgets.