Look out! Here comes the news again

Sometimes I wonder where we would be without a crisis to manage. Nothing but trouble comes the easy way,” said the great Chicago poet, Oscar Brown Jr. Some people look for tr... Read More

North Beach Journal

The last of Capp’s Corner?

By Ernest Beyl

If you run across a restaurant where you often see priests eating with priests, or sporting girls with sporting girls, you may be confident that it is good.” I am indebted fo... Read More

Back Story

San Francisco then and now: Can the old San Francisco with its middle-class values coexist with the new San Francisco and the new San Franciscans?

By Ernest Beyl

Recently I had lunch with Carl Nolte, who writes the Native Son column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Carl is a young whippersnapper compared to me, but we find common ground whe... Read More

North Beach Journal

If the old neighborhood ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and several other year-end holiday suggestions

By Ernest Beyl

Here come the year-end holidays, and not a moment too soon. Winking lights have been strung up along Upper Grant Avenue in North Beach since early November. Shops like Schein &... Read More

Back Story

Hard times but good times: S.F. in the Great Depression

By Ernest Beyl

Boom and bust is not unknown to San Franciscans. The bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 was a shock to me. I suppose it shouldn’t have been. Remember those Super Bowl ads... Read More

North Beach Journal

Pasta and Puccini, Angela’s street party, Marcia’s neighborhood summertime

By Ernest Beyl

There’s a sign over the bar at Original Joe’s in North Beach: “It’s better to live rich than to die rich.” I concur with that sentiment, and here are ... Read More

Reynolds Rap

Another independent voice silenced as ‘The San Francisco Bay Guardian’ stops the presses

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

Print the news and raise hell. — Bruce Brugmann, founder, editor and publisher, The San Francisco Bay Guardian... Read More

North Beach Journal

Popcorn, pasta, Poets Plaza, Puccini, Joe DiMaggio Playground … and a kick in the ‘calzoni’

By Ernest Beyl

A POET’S DREAM REALIZED? Recently, I received an invitation from Angela Alioto, international director of the Knights of St. Francis (an unofficial Catholic lay organization ... Read More

Reynolds Rap

Under Roger Goodell, NFL has become National Felons League

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

“When Goodell allowed Michael Vick back into the NFL, he once again wimped out … Vick’s next victim will likely not be a dog. That won’t matter to Goodell, ... Read More

Back Story

The world’s best jazz festivals

By Ernest Beyl

In spite of pop, punk, rap, country, R&B, metal, new wave, new world, and other new sounds rattling around in our brains, jazz — still America’s unique gift to the worl... Read More

Back Story

Oscar-winning movie kid Claude Jarman Jr.

Nashville’s loss became San Francisco’s gain

By Ernest Beyl

Claude Jarman Jr. will be 80 on Sept. 27. He doesn’t look it. He doesn’t act it. He doesn’t live it. Many years ago I saw a movie with a youngster named Claude Ja... Read More

North Beach Journal

The Beats, Upper Grant, the martini, and Live Worms

By Ernest Beyl

Not long ago I heard from Ryan Russo, a young guy who operates Walk SF Tours. He liked something I wrote for my Sketches column and invited me to tag along on one of his tours, The... Read More

Reynolds Rap

Broadway corridor controversy: David Chiu’s perspective

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

Over the past several months, I’ve written extensively for the Marina Times about the efforts of Jordan Angle to open a high-end lounge called Tryst in his grandmother’... Read More

Back Story

The glory days of saloon piano players in North Beach

By Ernest Beyl

The other day I cleaned out a closet and found a March 1970 Holiday magazine, then a big glossy publication read by big, glossy, discerning travelers with lots of discretionary inc... Read More

North Beach Journal

Filthy McNasty, Freddie Freeloader, Magnolia Thunderpussy, Lavern Cummings … and a happy birthday to Tony Bennett

By Ernest Beyl

Tony Bennett’s birthday is Aug. 3. And where will he have his birthday party? Well, right where he left his heart last time he was in San Francisco — at Gigi’s Sotte ... Read More

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