Showing results for "san francisco" in Biographies & Memoirs

Imagine a pied piper singing in a dazzling falsetto, wearing glittering sequins, and leading the young people of the nation to San Francisco and on to liberation where nothing was straight-laced or old-fashioned. And everyone, finally, was welcome—to come as themselves. This is not a fairy tale. This was real, mighty real, and disco sensation Sylvester was the piper. Joshua Gamson—a Yale-trained pop culture expert—uses him, a boy who would be fabulous, to lead us through the story of the '70s when a new era of change liberated us from conformity and boredom.

Peggy Caserta, founder of the famous Haight-Ashbury hippie boutique Mnasidika and lover and girlfriend of Janis Joplin, was a Louisiana homecoming queen turned airsick stewardess who eventually landed in 1960s San Francisco and set up shop. Her store was a hang-out for The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company; it was where Wes Wilson’s posters hung, where Bill Graham sold concert tickets, and where Owsley’s LSD was enjoyed.

Charles St. Anthony dreamed of living in San Francisco his whole life, and after a sudden return to the USA from Japan, he makes his way to the Bay. In this novella-sized mini-memoir, Charles finds the humor in every situation - whether it be a series of dating fiascoes in the Castro or beating a path down to Silicon Valley. He takes you on a tour of the New Age Babylon by the Bay, and Charles describes his notable adventures in political canvassing, polyamory, getting fired from a Jamba Juice knock-off and driving a sketchy San Francisco taxi cab (in the age of Uber).