Here’s an opinion I espouse now that wasn’t even on my radar 20 years ago this week when I wrote this column: Drinking is a stupid waste of time, especially in lowlife bars. My 20-years-younger self would be shocked to read that, but my skin, hair, liver, and general health thank me now. Ladies, it’s not cute after a certain age, that’s all.
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Dilettante 22: Outer Mission bars
Dilettante 21: Spice Girls concert tour ’98
This was the first article that caused my online editor to advertise “Dilettante” on our Bay Guardian website and in the physical paper too. He had a dark sense of humor so he loved this one disproportionately. I could never please him the same way again.
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Dilettante 20: Nouveau vaudeville
In the late ’90s before dot-com rich kids blew out the underside of the city’s culture, San Francisco used to be full of fashionistas who danced well and could hold their liquor.
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Dilettante 19: Backstage at the Zoo
Twenty years ago this week was the first and last time we went to the San Francisco Zoo. True to form, we only went because they gave us backstage passes.
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Dilettante 18: Riding a Mechanical Bull
Luckily in 1998, shortly after viewing Urban Cowboy for the first time, I was invited as part of my job at the paper to learn how to ride a mechanical bull. Needless to say I jumped on it and, with the guidance of the bull’s two tenders, rode it like fire.
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Dilettante 13-17: Normal, healthy spectacles of yore
Summer, 2018: I know that fascism is here because everything is less fun now.
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Dilettante 12: Beach Blanket Babylon
Spectacle. It can be a need. Sometimes, the cheesier the better. Just bring on the ridiculosity.
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Dilettante 11: Chicken John’s Whore Church starring Dr. Ducky DooLittle
These nightlife columns I wrote 20 years ago happened in tandem with my introduction into a subculture beyond measure: The Cacophony Society.
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Dilettante 10: Björk at the Warfield ’98
Some concert halls feel like chapels. Hallowed walls vibrate a warm room tone; the masterful lights transport the listener to another realm where music has color and pulse.
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