6 ms·

Reminiscing about the byegone days of San Francisco's cultural relevance on HN is the height of irony.

by readymade 12y ago

Scuds 12y ago
I hear the castro has become gentrified and isn't anywhere near as radical as it was.
- tensafefrogs 12y ago
  Burning Man was better last year, too.
  - nl 12y ago
    Yeah. Also, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders too.
raldi 12y ago
What makes you say bygone? San Francisco seems as culturally-relevant today as it's ever been. If anyone's holding back new ideas, its not the people who are coming here from all over the world to start companies.
- georgeecollins 12y ago
  It is really relevent in terms of tech, but in terms of the arts it has gotten less relevant. In the same way that starving artists moved out of Manhatten. I know there are still free spirits in San Franciso, but as someone who was born in San Francisco I can tell you the city is completely changed.
  - raldi 12y ago
    People have been saying things ain't what they used to be since forever. I'm sure during your youth people were saying the local arts scene's best days were behind it too. In fact, no less an authority than former Suicide Club member and Burning Man cofounder John Law had this to say on the matter: "When I moved to Frisco (g’head – take that one on!) in 1976 [...] the hippies I met back then [...] all told me the same thing: “Party’s over kid, ya missed it.” Well, they were full of crap on that one. The story of this town as with all towns is one of constant change." At least in terms of anything measurable I can find, SF's music scene seems to be holding its own, relative to other cities: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=San+Francisco+music+scene%2CLos+Angeles+music+scene%2CNew+York+music+scene%2CLondon+music+scene&year_start=1950&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CSan%20Francisco%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CLos%20Angeles%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CNew%20York%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CLondon%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=San+Francisco+...
  - copsarebastards 12y ago
    > I know there are still free spirits in San Franciso, but as someone who was born in San Francisco I can tell you the city is completely changed. I hear this all the time from people who have nothing to do with the movements that are happening right now. San Francisco has changed, Burning Man has sold out, activist art is dead, blah blah blah. Meanwhile insiders don't give a shit, because they're making the culture you're waxing nostalgic about. It's a culture of doing and claiming nobody is doing something is just another excuse not to do something yourself. You don't know what art is happening in San Francisco because you've made yourself an outsider by not participating. People aren't going to go out of their way to include you: why would they? You're not one of the doers.
    - WillNotDownvote 12y ago
      You seem like someone tuned in. So what art is happening in San Francisco right now?
      - shouldbeworking 12y ago
        function parseJson(str) { try { return JSON.parse(str); } catch (err) { if (err instanceof SyntaxError) { return undefined; } else { throw err; } } }
      - raldi 12y ago
        http://sfarts.org http://sfarts.org http://www.sfstation.com/arts/ http://www.sfstation.com/arts/ http://www.sfgate.com/art/ http://www.sfgate.com/art/
      - djcapelis 12y ago
        Legal art? Soma from FLG is on pier 14 for the next two years. Fallen Cosmos is on Pier 70 this weekend. The bay lights folks just finished funding what they need to make that installation permanent. That's three things that came to mind, a bunch of other stuff is on the horizon. Illegal stuff? I am not going to talk about that on HN. That would be a pretty rude thing to do to folks involved with them. Oakland's great though too, and the center of gravity is definitely not just hanging around in the west bay. Many of the people doing things live in Oakland and are doing them in Oakland. FIGMENT totally burst into reality in Oakland and the art murmurs over there are holding down real regular community art gatherings. The mayor just had her inaguration at AmSteel! I'm thrilled to see art being a thing that happens in the Bay Area beyond some parts of SF. We should all be happy about that. If you want more, do more. Make your own show. And yes, I know too many artists who are fleeing the city. It seems every day I hear another friend is giving up trying to stay in SF. It's past time for this bubble to burst, it needs to happen soon.

Reminiscing about the byegone days of San Francisco's cultural relevance on HN is the height of irony.

Scuds 12y ago

I hear the castro has become gentrified and isn't anywhere near as radical as it was.

tensafefrogs 12y ago
Burning Man was better last year, too.
- nl 12y ago
  Yeah. Also, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders too.

raldi 12y ago

What makes you say bygone? San Francisco seems as culturally-relevant today as it's ever been. If anyone's holding back new ideas, its not the people who are coming here from all over the world to start companies.

georgeecollins 12y ago
It is really relevent in terms of tech, but in terms of the arts it has gotten less relevant. In the same way that starving artists moved out of Manhatten. I know there are still free spirits in San Franciso, but as someone who was born in San Francisco I can tell you the city is completely changed.
- raldi 12y ago
  People have been saying things ain't what they used to be since forever. I'm sure during your youth people were saying the local arts scene's best days were behind it too. In fact, no less an authority than former Suicide Club member and Burning Man cofounder John Law had this to say on the matter: "When I moved to Frisco (g’head – take that one on!) in 1976 [...] the hippies I met back then [...] all told me the same thing: “Party’s over kid, ya missed it.” Well, they were full of crap on that one. The story of this town as with all towns is one of constant change." At least in terms of anything measurable I can find, SF's music scene seems to be holding its own, relative to other cities: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=San+Francisco+music+scene%2CLos+Angeles+music+scene%2CNew+York+music+scene%2CLondon+music+scene&year_start=1950&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CSan%20Francisco%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CLos%20Angeles%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CNew%20York%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CLondon%20music%20scene%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=San+Francisco+...
- copsarebastards 12y ago
  > I know there are still free spirits in San Franciso, but as someone who was born in San Francisco I can tell you the city is completely changed. I hear this all the time from people who have nothing to do with the movements that are happening right now. San Francisco has changed, Burning Man has sold out, activist art is dead, blah blah blah. Meanwhile insiders don't give a shit, because they're making the culture you're waxing nostalgic about. It's a culture of doing and claiming nobody is doing something is just another excuse not to do something yourself. You don't know what art is happening in San Francisco because you've made yourself an outsider by not participating. People aren't going to go out of their way to include you: why would they? You're not one of the doers.
  - WillNotDownvote 12y ago
    You seem like someone tuned in. So what art is happening in San Francisco right now?
    - shouldbeworking 12y ago
      function parseJson(str) { try { return JSON.parse(str); } catch (err) { if (err instanceof SyntaxError) { return undefined; } else { throw err; } } }
    - raldi 12y ago
      http://sfarts.org http://sfarts.org http://www.sfstation.com/arts/ http://www.sfstation.com/arts/ http://www.sfgate.com/art/ http://www.sfgate.com/art/
    - djcapelis 12y ago
      Legal art? Soma from FLG is on pier 14 for the next two years. Fallen Cosmos is on Pier 70 this weekend. The bay lights folks just finished funding what they need to make that installation permanent. That's three things that came to mind, a bunch of other stuff is on the horizon. Illegal stuff? I am not going to talk about that on HN. That would be a pretty rude thing to do to folks involved with them. Oakland's great though too, and the center of gravity is definitely not just hanging around in the west bay. Many of the people doing things live in Oakland and are doing them in Oakland. FIGMENT totally burst into reality in Oakland and the art murmurs over there are holding down real regular community art gatherings. The mayor just had her inaguration at AmSteel! I'm thrilled to see art being a thing that happens in the Bay Area beyond some parts of SF. We should all be happy about that. If you want more, do more. Make your own show. And yes, I know too many artists who are fleeing the city. It seems every day I hear another friend is giving up trying to stay in SF. It's past time for this bubble to burst, it needs to happen soon.