Lee Lady: North Beach Adventures

Adventures in North Beach

(Articles and stories by me.)

North Beach in the early Sixties

A Conversation in Specs

The Famous Brenda ("Life Begins at Midnight")

The Chekhovian Smile

North Beach Links Elsewhere on the Web

When I first lived in San Francisco, in my twenties, and used to come to City Lights frequently (especially stopping part way down the stairway to read the bulletin board), I was especially struck by the door in the basement with the painted slogan saying, "I am the door." It seemed to me like an ultimate dada-esque statement. But recently I learned that this actually predates the bookstore. In the days before City Lights, there was some kind of Christian group that used to hold meetings in this basement, and the slogan is some sort of biblical reference.

Hotel Bohème

Check out the tour of historical North Beach places.

Beat Generation Links

According to Specs (owner of Specs), "Bohemians were more political in nature. Beatniks were about getting stoned, getting laid and living in some squalid place together. Although, there were a lot of weekend, middle-class beatniks in the day. You'd get a lot of kids from the suburbs who would buy a beret and dark glasses and try to act nutty. The old bohemians who lived in the neighborhood would make fun of these weekend beatniks."

--- Julian Guthrie, SFGate.com

Unspeakable Visions

The Beat Generation. By Michael Hayward.

Beat Generation Resources

(by Marcus Williamson)

Colin Pringle's Beat Generation Archives

The Dharma Beats

The Beat Generation

"How Beat Happened" (Steve Silberman)

Hary Redl's Portraits of the Beat Generation

Hotel Boheme List of Beat Links
This is a very comprehensive list. When I have the time, I'll steal more from it.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, burn, like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"

--Jack Kerouac, On the Road

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