San Francisco City Guide - Culture

The cultural life of San Francisco is as diverse as the different cultures that reside here. In the Mission, the art is on the walls with colourful murals covering historical moments and major personalities in Latin history. In the Civic Centre, it streams melodically from purpose-built buildings dedicated to the pursuit of music. SoMa (the district south of Market Street) is home to important museums and some of the most exciting visual art in the world, while Union Square is theatreland. Acid rock was born in the LSD days of the 1960s and played to the hippie generation, by bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, while, in 1967, the Summer of Love crystallised this new cultural consciousness. Today, the city continues to provide a home to artists of all description, reflecting the breadth of cultural diversity. Its status as a pioneer has settled down, as many of the ideas that earlier generations fought for (such as gay rights in the 1970s) are now more accepted. But there remains a rich tradition of alternative theatre, as well as successful mainstream offerings. There is always something to stimulate the mind and the senses - from street performers, who are licensed by the Arts Commission, to the city's symphony orchestra.

Tix Bay Area, on Powell Street in Union Square (tel: (415) 433 7827; website: www.theatrebayarea.org), provides full-price advance tickets (by phone and in person), as well as half-price day-of-performance tickets (in person only and cash only) for a range of events. There is a website that provides good theatre information.

SF Bay Guardian (website: www.sfbg.com), the SF Weekly (website: www.sfweekly.com) and the biweekly Bay Area Reporter (website: www.ebar.com) all provide listings and information on the city's cultural activities. (The first two are free papers widely available in newspaper boxes throughout the city).

Music: San Francisco is a city that loves music. Concerts of the Grammy-Award winning San Francisco Symphony, led by acclaimed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, are often sold out. Performances are held at the ultra-modern Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 6000; website: www.sfsymphony.org), one of the city's most exciting buildings. The full-length glass windows overlook the recently restored City Hall, which looks remarkably like Washington DC's Capitol Building, only with a gilt dome 40ft taller.

The San Francisco Opera (tel: (415) 864 3330; website: www.sfopera.com) has established itself as one of the world's great opera companies. Its new director, David Gockley, had plans to bring many internationally acclaimed opera stars to feature in future performances. Its home is the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue, a gorgeous building dating from 1932. The season is September to January and June to July. Same-day tickets, mostly for standing room only, are usually available.

Theatre: Shows range from Broadway productions on Geary Street to smaller, more alternative shows throughout the city. The Geary Theatre, 415 Geary Street (tel: (415) 749 2228; website: www.act-sfbay.org), opened in 1996 and is home to the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), one of the nation's largest resident companies and a Tony Award winner. Between September and July, the cast revisits classics and explores modern masterpieces. The Curran Theatre, 445 Geary Street (tel: (415) 551 2000; website: www.bestofbroadway-sf.com), hosts touring Broadway musicals, while Teatro Zinzanni, Pier 27-29, The Embarcadero (tel: (415) 438 2668; website: www.teatrozinzanni.org), blends cabaret, spectacle, music and dinner to conjure up a night to remember.

Dance: Ballet has been part of San Franciscan life longer than in any other city in America. San Francisco Ballet (tel: (415) 865 2000; website: www.sfballet.org) is not only the oldest company (it started life in 1933), but also reputedly among the best, performing an eclectic repertoire of classical and contemporary works. Performances take place at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue (tel: (415) 864 3330), between February and May. There are a number of innovative dance troupes dotted around town. The Ethnic Dance Festival takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, Lyon Street (tel: (415) 392 4400), over three weekends in June. (See website: www.cityboxoffice.com).

Film: A choice location for filmmakers, San Francisco has been the backdrop for innumerable well-known movies over the years. 16 of the top 100 grossing films of all time in the USA were produced in the Bay area, including Star Wars, Shrek and Indiana Jones. Its steep hills are favoured for car chases and the Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in the distance, provides an unrivalled backdrop. Most famously, Steve McQueen starred in the 1960s classic Bullitt (1968). Chris Columbus filmed local resident Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire (1993) and Sean Connery appeared in The Rock (1996). Ang Lee's remake of the Hulk (2003), starring Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott, was shot in San Francisco. Jennifer Lopez filmed The Wedding Planner (2001) here, and, in 2001, Elizabeth Hurley came to the city to film Bedazzled. The quirky Being John Malkovich was filmed here in 1999, and Under the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane, was partially filmed in San Francisco in 2003. The 2004 wine-drenched comedy Sideways, set in the Napa wine region, has stimulated tours following in the footsteps of the two friends who made this zany road trip.

The San Francisco International Film Festival is held in April and shows a wide range of cinema. Two of the best new film venues are the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, Third Street (tel: (415) 978 2787; website: www.ybca.org) and the adjacent Metreon Centre, 101 Fourth Street (tel: (415) 369 6000; website: www.metreon.com), a Sony IMAX theatre, with 15 screens. The landmark Castro Theatre, Castro Street and Market Street (tel: (415) 621 6120; website: www.thecastrotheatre.com), shows independent, art, and foreign film and has a Wurlitzer organ that plays before each showing.

Literary Notes: San Francisco has inspired literary comment almost since its inception. However, until the 1950s, it was mostly the odd epigram from wits like Mark Twain, who reckoned his coldest winter was a summer here, or Rudyard Kipling, who once called San Francisco 'a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people', or John Steinbeck, who described the city as a 'golden handcuff' without a key. Although William Saroyan did have this to say during the Great Depression: 'If you're alive, you can't be bored in San Francisco. If you're not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.'

San Francisco has been at the vanguard of American consciousness ever since, peaking in the 1950s, thanks to Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and publisher, was declared innocent of obscenity for publishing Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956), paving the way for an open and liberal cultural life in the city. Snyder, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was inspired by the cultural diversity and natural beauty of the place. But for many, it was the city's drug culture and the political climate. Most famous of them all is Jack Kerouac, whose On The Road (1957) spoke for a generation and challenged the status quo. The only survivor of the Beat Generation is Lawrence Ferlinghetti, whose City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, holds a reputation as one of the best places for buying cutting-edge and classical literature in the USA.

Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1962), continued the outraging of American society, a decade later, fuelled by LSD. For Dylan Thomas, it was a city out of this world: 'You wouldn't think such a place as San Francisco could exist,' he proclaimed. Gay writer Armistead Maupin's success was founded on that of his newspaper column, which started in the San Francisco Chronicle on 24 May 1976, and his understanding of his city's gay population. He went on to become a major modern storyteller, quirkily reflecting city life in a series of novels that began with Tales of the City (1978) and continues to enjoy popular appeal. Bay Area author Amy Tan wrote the popular Joy Luck Club (1994), which chronicles four generations of women in San Francisco. 'Sister Spit' success-story Michelle Tea, won accolades for Valencia (2000), a story about young punk-rock lesbians in the Mission District.

More recently, mystery writer James Calder has published three novels in the Bill Damon mystery series set in Silicon Valley: Knockout Mouse (2002), About Face (2003), and In a Family Way (2005). San Francisco author Nadia Gordon writes a murder mystery series set in Sonoma and Napa Valley wine country: Sharpshooter (2002), Death by Glass (2003), and Murder Alfresco (2005). Local author Kirk Russell's crime mysteries are set in California: Shell Games (2003), Night Game (2004), and Deadgame (2005).

And to coincide with the centenary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, local author and screenwriter James Dalessandro has written an epic novel entitled 1906, set in San Francisco on the eve of the great earthquake and fire of 1906, when the city was bathed in wealth and rife with corruption.