City Streets, City Lights

San Francisco

Spent the day walking around the town. Unlike most American cities it's actually possible to do that here, although the hills are a bitch. Went down to the Haight area this morning and sat in Golden Gate Park. The 1967 Summer Of Love had its genesis here and you can still detect a glimmer of the old hippie dream in the right-on organic cafes and studenty shops. Indeed, I half expected to see Scott McKenzie, or maybe some former members of the Grateful Dead going by in a drug-induced haze.

The best reason to visit these days is to check out Ameoba Records. There are three of these shops on the West Coast (I also spent ages in the one in Hollywood) and they are easily the best music stores I've ever been to. I was strong enough to resist burning money on frivolous CD purchases and instead spent a very long time on the remarkable listening posts. You can take in thousands of different albums on them although I doubt too many locals will follow my example of calling up JJ72 and Roddy Frame from the vast database.

This afternoon I went to a great San Francisco institution, the City Lights bookstore. Back in the 50s it was where Kerouac and his beat friends held court and although they're all long gone it's still a great place to find a quiet corner and read some books you have no intention of buying. I'm sure it's what Jack would have wanted.