P spotted this great mural on the side of one of the buildings as we walked along the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. If you look closely, you’ll see each rainbow color is comprised of little detailed figures.
Synonymous with the hippie movement in the mid-1960s, Haight-Ashbury remains a special neighborhood in San Francisco’s history. Locals refer to it simply as “The Haight.” The beat movement of the 1950s, when writers and poets like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Gary Snyder, descended upon San Francisco’s North Beach district, sparked the San Francisco Renaissance. It also gave birth to the peace-and-love generation who found affordable apartments for rent readily available in The Haight. It was also during this time that the San Francisco Sound developed, giving us artists like Sly and the Family Stone, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Santana.
Today, The Haight is lined with many specialty shops and neighborhood dining favorites. Vinyl lovers will find Amoeba Music a treasure trove of over 100,000 records, CDs, and audio cassettes occupying over 2200 square meters of prime real estate in The Haight. You can still find plenty of 60s retro-inspired clothing and *ahem* smoking-related *ahem* accessories along The Haight, and the poetry tradition remains strong in its coffeeshops and bars.
Mon, Jul 13, 2009
California