San Francisco, to me, is like a house of cards: postcards in glowing colors stacked against the hills that march from the Bay on one side to the Pacific Ocean on the other. The real…
Posts published in “Essays”
What does Barbie sound like? The original doll’s blonde hair, pointed toes and pointed breasts define her look, but her voice was, until the sing-song-then-sadistic vocals of Jodi Benson in Toy Story 3 of 2010…
In 1960 daily journalism was still a competitive enterprise in San Francisco. The Chronicle and the Examiner were slugging it out for the city’s breakfast table readership and a good time was being had by…
For a while it looked as though the Sixties had been captured by the enemy, its history decorously re-edited by people like Todd Gitlin. Anyone who wants to get a sense of the real thing…
In 1971, I made my fifth journey through Israel; purpose of journey, a book that never jelled. Tired of being serious and taking notes, I went to Eilath to swim. Outside Eilath, on the bare…
One of my first memories is of a huge Victorian on McAllister Street near Fillmore in San Francisco where my family lived in 1944. The rambling old structure, which I believe had survived the Great…
In response to our item about Major League Baseball’s hypocritical “homage” to the Negro Leagues, John Woodford – an AVA reader whose resume includes Times correspondent and editor of Muhammad Speaks – sent along an…
After Beethoven, few have been the composers named Ludwig. Number two on the list was Ludwig Spohr, reasonably big in his day, though only fourteen years younger than his illustrious predecessor. Spohr’s posthumous reputation makes…
In 1969 we watched Michael Parks in his TV series “Then Came Bronson” riding his Harley Sportster wearing a watch cap, with apparently everything he owned strapped on the bike, a sleeping roll, and a…