San Francisco Bizarro: A Guide to Notorious Sites, Lusty Pursuits, and Downright Freakiness in the City by the Bay [Paperback]

Jack Boulware (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2000

San Francisco. The very name may bring to mind anything from Sam Spade dodging bullets to drug experimentation at Fillmore West to the first openly gay community in the Castro district. Ever since the gold rush, the city has been a haven for the unusual and the well-before-their-time, but there's no better time than now to see the downright bizarre.

If you want to see the Golden Gate Bridge and eat Ghirardelli chocolates, there are many fine books that will hold your hand through the process. But if you'd rather:

-Visit the birthplace of LSD
-Take home a toilet guitar
-Worship at the church of John Coltrane
-Have a pint and a nosh at O'Greenberg's
-Photograph the attractive Manson family home
-Ride with the Hell's Angels
-Take a Black Panther legacy tour, or
-Visit the nation's only fully restored nuclear missile site,

then San Francisco Bizarro is the book for you. With addresses, hours, and phone numbers, you'll be fully equipped for the most bizarre visit ever. Because America doesn't get any freakier than this.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jack Boulware came to San Francisco in the eighties as a wide-eyed innocent and lived to tell the tale, writing about the city for San Francisco Weekly, The New York Times Magazine, and the Washington Post, among others. He is also the author of Sex, American Style and on the organizing committee of Litstock, a free festival of readings by San Francisco writers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (May 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312206712
• ISBN-13: 978-0312206710
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #383,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Am I just being touchy, or what?, June 21, 2000

By 

Patrick Burnett "penngos" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: San Francisco Bizarro: A Guide to Notorious Sites, Lusty Pursuits, and Downright Freakiness in the City by the Bay (Paperback)

I'll start by saying I like this book. I bought it yesterday and did not sleep last night for reading it, even though I had a very important meeting this morning. Boulware's look at San Francisco is entertaining. But it's not exactly fresh. This book tries to take over where Eldritch Weirde's "A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco" left off several years ago, but falls severely short of the mark.

Perhaps what annoys me, or irritates me or alienates me about this book is the fact that it is written from an outsider's point of view. Boulware writes many of his articles from an "us vs. them" point of view, the "Us" in question being intelligent, right-minded people and the "Them" being the freaks from San Francisco. The tone is not reverent, but mocking. Boulware belittles us at every turn, whether making fun of the way we dress while dining late-night at Sparky's, or swimming the Bay with the Dolphin Club. Boulware treats San Franciscan's like his own private freak show. It's obvious that he's not from around here.

That said, the book is still entertaining and chock full of interesting facts. It will take you to places you wouldn't find in an ordinary guide book and you may or may not be the better for it.

For a real treat, a reverent, loving guide to SF strangeness, pick up the aforementioned book by Dr. Weirde. It's out of print, so it will take some hunting, but it's well worth it.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bring this with you..., April 26, 2000

By 

Katharine Gates (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: San Francisco Bizarro: A Guide to Notorious Sites, Lusty Pursuits, and Downright Freakiness in the City by the Bay (Paperback)

I had a few extra days in San Francisco on a recent trip, so I got this hilarious and irreverent guide to the "unknown" San Francisco. Boulware gives us the insider's tour of weird Chinatown bars, the Coltrane Museum, the scary Musee Mechanique, wife-swapping motels for swingers and much much more. With hours, phone numbers and directions for the very intrepid explorer. A must for even the most jaded Bay Area lifers.

3.0 out of 5 stars true to its name, April 11, 2010

By 

S. welch "Tony W" (Bay Area, Ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: San Francisco Bizarro: A Guide to Notorious Sites, Lusty Pursuits, and Downright Freakiness in the City by the Bay (Paperback)

It lives up to its name. But it must be an old book. Didn't feel current.