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RUNNING INTO JANIS AND THE STRIPED PANTS FROM THE HAIGHT ASHBURY

It was one of those San Francisco evenings where the fog not only cloaked all that was seen but that sea mist could chill you in seconds and the fog seems to both soften the sounds and yet at times louden them too.
 
For one of our excursions before going to the Avalon Ballroom and doing the puppet show upstairs with Tony we had decided to go to North Beach, find an outdoor cafe and have a cup of strong coffee (admittedly i doused my cup with cream and sugar) We went to park -my road dog Bart was my best friend and like a brother-polar opposites in attire and many likes but in unison in being anti-establishment-Bart drove, somehow his dad had gotten him a drivers permit when he was 15 and a half (his dad was the book reviewer for the S.F. Chronicle and that another story) we both knew better that to look for a non-existent parking place as there were cool book stores, such as City Lights where there were poets and old beat (BEATNIK) poets who'd recite their works while you watched or perused the artists works inn the store. The beat generation that in ways morphed into the Peace & love generation and worked in tandem.
 
We found a space and it was just a car behind a colorful Porsche and recognized it as Janis Joplin's psychedelic painted car done by Stanley Mouse who did both concert posters and comic books.  So a Bart and I were babbling banalities about something, we saw a woman approaching us, it was Janis , wearing a big hat by herself (before bodyguards became the fashion) as she came up to us we said hi, Janis said" How are ya, Lord its chilly!!!"  We replied-"yeah! gonna get some coffee, before we head out to the Avalon", Janis "Stay warm, we'll; be doing a gig at Avalon next week-Off to rehearsal" and she went to her psychedelic Porsche as we made our way to the coffee cafe....Janis waved back as we waved to her.
 
Not favoring any coffee cafe or shop other than for outside seating. There ware bars that we couldn't go into but were consider cool like Vesuvios been a beatnik bar and had been Jack Kerouac and other artistes making that a   watering hole.
 
The Trieste coffee shop had many writers use that as their writing place, don't think we went there much as it seemed too crowded when we went and we favored outside sitting.

Eartha Kitt at the Trieste

 



 we found a cafe and sat outside and looked at the cars and people passing and the array of signage lights...the area was considered somewhat cosmopolitan- European flavor and the beat generation intertwined.
We hit our target heart rate and ventured off....the Purple Onion we know had cool comics there as we walked past...





 Now, not mentions Enrico's would be a horrendous over site not to mention Enrico's,now it was a bar inside, but there were seats outside and we would get coffee there at least one a month as their espresso would wake the dead and because Bullit had a film scene there too, but mainly the espresso.
Now many artistes and budding stars went to Enricos, but we didn't care or know at the time. But what we did know was there was a world famous drag queen show above Enricos called Finocchios and you'd every so often see decked out drag queen, of course if you went to the Tenderloin or below Market street in certain areas seeing a drag queen was commonplace and at times as decked out as those at Finocchios.

For whatever reason, we would always go across and up the street by the topless clubs as the huckters would try to entice anyone in the club, they would try to get us until they realized we were not 21,  but it was fun and I imagined they practiced their spew upon us anyway,
Once in a while we'd see a guy or surprisingly a couple come out...once or twice a dancer leaving you could tell by the make-up and they'd always smile, either out of habit or just because they thought we were interested in coming in the club and they could see we were under age.






Seems there were always people going in loving to see women either naturally or not over-endowed. The sometimes lines of varied people from single men, to couples seemed to be looking forward to the show, either curiosity from publicity or the feeling of being naughty.
We made it back to the car and off we went to the Avalon Ballroom on Sutter and Van Ness to help Tony with the puppet show, we didn't really have any set hours but we enjoyed doing it and it got us in for free and tony would always buy us any smokes (of either nature) food, drinks or about anything, We met girls thru him and likewise thru us but he liked "older"women, which by our standards was someone in their twenties. One cool thing tony would do for us was take us on journeys in his limo, as he owned and drove a limo for hire in the daytime. We could bring girls, he usually have his girlfriend too and then take us on a cool tour of the bay area and give us a history of where we were driving past and really cool when we went on a journey out of San Francisco and he would not lets us give him any money for gas or even meals. We would met his girlfriend and many times their friends would come along so it was always adventure where you just didn't know how itn would unfold.
 

But this isn't about doing the puppet show at the Avalon, rather our decision to buy striped 'cool" pants by our standards on Haight street. We had been working at a Cinema * and had been paid and were going make the rounds and eat then look for the pants. So we went down Haight to golden gate park and went by the swings, which we also used to used strainer under the swings, monkey cages and merry go round deal to find change and usually went to get chips to eat. Onward towards hippy hill area and yes there were bongo players with groups of people sitting around them clapping along, once in while a person with a guitar.
 Always some smoking going on,and it wasn't considered rude to just sit down and toke some too. always offered, it was a different there were alot of little group sprinkled all over that area,unless, if there was a free concert, say in the panhandle -like the dead even jimi hendrix once or speedway meadows.
But we did have a goal and were bold and determined to get our striped pants.
Now we had seen the stripped pants and wanted some, it was a departure from our usual attire, Bart and I were polar opposites when it came to attire, i favored velvet , or dark pants never cared for jeans until years later. Bart was Pea coats, jeans and Fry boots.
We went to eat some chips (English french fries)and filled you up like the carbo load it was-tasty but incredibly greasy and your soiled hands were short of deadly weapons or an ecological disaster.
We now need something to drink and the Organic commune run juice shop was several blocks away. When we got there we headed right to their bathroom to wash our hands, the bathroom was spotless and incense was burning . Went to the counter, all there were from a commune and their hair was wrapped up in a turban. They grew most of what they juiced or brought it from organic farms and used a shiny champion jucier right in front of you. The cost was barely anything you could get a 2 and half gallon jar for about a dollar. Man that juice was tasty, I favored watermelon but all of their juices were good, i didn't try too many of their veggie drinks but there was one with apple juice add that was really good.We headed down the road halfway down the block drinking healthy juices that put a tad of balance in or lackig diets. There were three people coming up the block, we figured going to the Juice shop. The guy on the end we knew as he had come to the cinema we worked at and had talked to us about the films at intermission, we had coffee, croissants some of the juice from the juice shop and usually ran a short while al got anything they wanted. The other was a woman and the guy on the end was Jerry Garcia.
 A different mindset then, you could run into virtually anyone in the haight part of the fun. Usually never felt awkward.
Went to about three clothes stores until we found the one with the striped pants, there were several designs most way too loud for me, but there was a grey with lighter burgandy stripes, they aeemed to be like cords, the grey didn't seem to be screaming stripes, but i still thought stripes? I went and put on a pair and came out of the changing booth bart went in and came out in the blue with red stripes, he liked them, i told him we can used him as a road marker and he said about the same to me.
Now push the clock ahead till the evening ...we were heading up to the fillmore concert area and we were attired in our striped pants...

to give you an idea......

*1      http://musicsaladdaysinsf60sandla70s.blogspot.com/2016/10/how-i-learned-to-love-indie-films-back.html

affirmation toy show

A NIGHT A THE WHISKEY AND BLONDIE-DEBBIE GRABS A FRENCH FRIES OR TWO

A NIGHT A THE WHISKEY AND BLONDIE-DEBBIE GRABS A FRENCH FRIES OR TWO

Los Angeles in the years -the midish 70's  about 1977-was a mecca for up and coming rock bands from every corner of the world. And L.A. was showcase city, in terms of people who could get you a record contract with the managers and lawyers that were always part of the deal.
There was the Starwood,  The Troubadour (The Roxy was to come around in a year or two) there were underground showcases for punk and heavy metal bands in around Hollywood, not in the most savory of conditions but you were there for the music the energy the scene, the people so the setting was almost irrelevant, as  long as the bands could plug in and had a stage-like area to play from.
As an aside- a few friends, a couple musicians and another a roadie went to see a punk bands in the Hollywood hideaways just off Hollywood Boulevard where the Heart of Hollywood was truly located.
We arrived, and we were more of the rock scene look compared to the punk scene and various attire which consisted of safety pins and leather but was evolving to tattoos and more outrageous garb, we went for the music and we we outcasts most of our lives, so we may have cracked a few jokes but realized it was another form of music. It was loud and there were some mosh pit activity which we steered clear of, part of the punk scene was being rude, that being said, it is a observation not a judgement, just more obvious than hidden hostiles, and to a degree all in fun. We got some weird look due to our attire, our haircuts and styling and too-being maybe several years older than most, but that being a two-way street we took it in stride.

 I had to go to the can and one of the other guys came with me. Glen, we wandered a bit thru the torn apart building, as this was in the basement of a building and had the look of being war-torn, probably from several other punk affairs. The bathrooms were separate from the women, which was a relief (we both could envision a fight ensuing somehow)

The bathroom was made for public use as there were stalls and several urinals, none of which had been the object of any cleaning session, but usable and didn't appear to have the plague oozing about.
We were at the sinks washing our hands, someone had actually put paper towels in the dispenser so as we were drying our hands-a couple of younger punk-rockers came in....
 we assumed to show their massive angst, they kicked one of the urinals for awhile and then broke off a tiny piece and felt their young angst mission was accomplished. Well, needless to say, glenn looked at me and said, they wanna see some damage so without any further ado he, with his own angst pull out the 3 toilets with the water flowing freely from different broken and gnarled water pipes....the water was starting to flood and we headed out....we got to the other two and said time to exit stage left before the water started to reach us......and we went out for some coffee and then to another club but more in west hollywood rock club direction.
Back to to the story...so the main showcase and classic was the Whiskey (a-go go)  a smaller venue, with a balcony and tables and booths downstairs and you could eat or drink or do both while the bands played. Most down time "intermission" was alot of talking to old friends, meeting new friends, for musicians people in the record business too as well as musicians. And time for the lads to meet the ladies and in the age of stereotypes being broken, ladies meeting guys (some were groupies but that was a large percentage), Get a drink or some food, have a smoke (when you could smoke in clubs) and you could get your hand stamped so you could leave and come back that evening at anytime, so you could go between clubs or do whatever came up at the time

Well I had gotten a call from Michael and he asked if i wanted to go to the Whiskey to see Blondie another Michael we knew knew Debbie and the band and would take us with him, he just want to get
our names on the guest list. Sounded like a plan and I was free that evening and thought it would be cool to see Blondie.
The Whiskey as I said was a showcase of many and just going to see the bands that night, you'd see or run into tom petty, Van Halen, the Motels, Missing Persons, ELO, the Babys-Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, Aerosmith, War to name a few, so in a way-it was so ordinary as to be barely noticed as anything earthshaking at all. And it was a fashion revue of the height of rock, a mixture of both English rock and American rock attire -generally for guys with a hint of punk-which was nothing compared to what the ladies put together created-the damaged fishnets or stocking became (one of the many things the fashion world took to make it's own) unique makeup take to cool avenues and hair done to even stun hairdressers. Glitter, satin, chiffon, unique meshes, gauze's, cool dresses seam-stressed by themselves into a unique art form
not to mention the own rock style of catwalk walk, too casual and so choreographed or just so natural and feminine and feline......
We picked up the other Michael and being early enough had a bite to eat and talked about some rehearsal sessions and when the recording was to happen for the first album and who was in town and the usual banter.
We then headed off for the Whiskey which was about 20 minutes away, barring the Sunset Stripe traffic and then the feat of finding a parking space. People were in line already

and we just went ahead, we all knew the bouncers and told them we were on the guest list, Blondies and sure enough,

we were let in then. There was the one booth that was in the center that looked straight at the stage, and we got that one, not sure if it had been reserved, but it did seem odd not one was sitting there.

a booth for four or pushing it six (although you may have to propose to someone in those tight quarters)  so we sat comfortably...at first we ordered something to drink when the waitress came by who was the wife of a  mutual friend of ours (someone in the motels i think) and i think i got an anisette in a snifter, as i didn't like beer or hard booze, and could sip on the sweet concoction without getting cross-eyed not sure what the others got. As we sat different people came by some i knew some new,one guy i think was from the Ramones- some guys in a band from England, whom i ran into at a later date, while taking a walk and we ended up having coffee together and were curious about America and Americans and we had a good chat, turns out they were in a group called the Babys, the singer was sleeping or he would have been on the walk too.
The lights started to dim and people either took or shambled to their seats or those who wanted to be seen being casually a minute or two standing around their table as the lights dimmed. It varied sometimes there would be several bands and the headliner. I believe Blondie was there alone and in New York-CBGBS had helped establish Blondie was was to play soon with another new York band-the Ramones.

Deborah Harry on stage for the Whisky crowd in 1977
The set was great and some tunes became standards to a degree in both the rock world and world in general. Stunning stage presence and Debbie knew how to work it well, the band was tight and had a great presence too.
Their set ended to a landslide of applause and another waitress came by and we ordered some french fries to snack upon. We were talking and this girl sat at our table out of nowhere and as we looked up it was Debbie, Micheal introduced us and she grabbed some fries to much on....she asked how was the set....and we all gave our answers....these were the days just before bodyguards seems to be everywhere....some band came over the whiskey's  break music and she said she loved the band...who it was escaped me...said she had to get upstairs to the band room and thanked us for the fries...as she left we saw some guys just gawking at  her, with no doubt in our mind what was probably floating thru them.  A friend came over and sat with us and we ordered more to drink talked about the bands that played and on to other banter

and so goes another evening in the musical salad day of the 70's in L.A.