In news that will certainly make some cinephiles glum while live performance lovers grin, the 100-year-old Castro Theatre will be under new management, get a facelift, and diversify its programming to accommodate more live concerts including “music, comedy and community events”. The new management team is Berkeley-based Another Planet Entertainment,

In 1942, San Francisco City Hall employees began to fear their place of work.  Every day, shortly after noon, employees heard five rapping sounds, seemingly emanating from within the walls. This was followed by a brief pause, then another three raps. Nobody could explain the source of these eerie sounds. 

For those who don’t participate, SantaCon is an annual spectacle, mildly disorienting and mostly foul. If you’ve ever seen a cluster of self-saboteurs in Santa costumes collectively heaving over a gutter or stumbling about in a daze, you’ve likely been privy to the awe-inspiring merriment of SantaCon.  As a writer

The Westin St. Francis Hotel looms on the edge of Union Square, bearing silent witness to flocks of tourists and shoppers who likely know nothing of its history. Built in 1904, the St. Francis Hotel is now known to be one of the most haunted hotels in California. Many notable

Last Gasp has been bending minds since 1970, and is known to be one of the world’s oldest and largest publishers of underground books and comics. The publisher’s motto is “Mind Candy for the Masses,” so consider it your counterculture dealer. Last Gasp is saluted for its ‘lowbrow’ comics and

“I think people come to Chinatown because they expect a Disneyland atmosphere,” Cynthia Yee says. “When they see it’s just a neighborhood, a community with restaurants and daily life, they wonder.” Yee is a tour guide with the award-winning Chinatown Magic Tours, but she was once herself at the center of

I recently read Stuart’s article “On the Joys of Perambulation” in the SFWeekly.  He wrote on the pleasure of an immersion in the city’s moments and details, taken in on long walks as a response to the 2020 shelter-in-place order.  In my reading, I was reminded of San Francisco’s prior

San Francisco’s newest beach can be found in the Dogpatch District, in one of our cities oldest industrial coves.  It’s dotted with memorabilia of long past industrial blood, sweat and pollution.  It’s San Francisco’s hottest, newest and totally-not-toxic-anymore, beach! Sandwiched between SF’s beloved brunch spot The Ramp, World War II