psychedelic sandwiches

A Selfie on Hippie Hill where Ginevra had head bands for all of us

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. I’m still in San Francisco and still enjoying a life of the idle and the indolent. There is a difference between ‘being’ and ‘doing.’ And in Paris, my life is filled with doing. It’s that Protestant work ethic thing, that justify your existence thing that is in full gear for me in Paris. How could it be otherwise when the Pompidou, Carnavalet, Maison Victor Hugo, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and Musées Cognac-Jay and Picasso are all a few minutes walk from each other and from my flat.

But in San Francisco, I immediately go into ‘being’ mode. Not only because there are not dozens of exhibitions clamoring to be seen or a new boulangerie or chocolaterie or pâtisserie on my list to try, but because I find that I am content to just hang out, to relax. I’m guessing that’s because it’s temporary! And of course, my kids.

Having two children who are creatives with no fixed schedules, means that sometimes I have company and sometimes, unexpectedly, I don’t.

When Ginevra isn’t making art, she is offering historic walking tours in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. I have been on a couple of them the past two weeks. The tour focuses on the bands and musicians who called San Francisco, and especially the Haight-Ashbury, home after the Summer of Love (1967) like the Grateful Dead and the members of the tragic 27 Club, aka musicians who died at age 27, among them Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison (who passed through San Francisco with the Doors and whose grave Ginevra and I visited last summer at Père Lachaise). (Figures 1, 2, 3)

Figure 1. This is why Ginevra chose deep rose for our headbands, She wanted us all to have Jimi Hendrix Woodstock look

Figure 2. Mural painting on Haight St. with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin & Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead (Update: structural work on the wall destroyed section with portraits of Joplin & Garcia)

Figure 3. Jim Morrison’s Grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Figure 4. The Anemic Boyfriends, ‘Guys are not Proud’

I enjoy joining people on the tour for whom San Francisco is a holiday and not an everyday. On one of the tours a woman was visiting from Anchorage, Alaska. She was exploring the places her mom and her aunt hung out in their younger, hippier days. She told us that her aunt had been in a girl band called The Anemic Boyfriends. They recorded an album, one song was called, ‘Guys are not Proud’. What else could I do but insist that Ginevra try to find it so we could all listen to it. Ginevra googled the song and we found a not too noisy, not too busy place (not too easy in the Haight), to listen to the song. (Figure 4) Here is a sample of the lyrics:

guys are not proud / they’ll do it anytime

guys do not care /they’ll stick it anywhere…

guys are obscene /vile and unclean

guys are such creeps/they’ll even do it with sheep

Not surprisingly, the women in the group found the lyrics more amusing than the men. One of whom was from Delhi, India, visiting from Pittsburgh, where he is a doctoral student at Carnegie-Mellon University. His knowledge of the 60s and 70s American and English music scene was encyclopedic.

Yesterday I joined another group. There was a young woman, an actor, from Finland who has just moved to San Francisco. It’s always interesting to talk with people who have lived in totally different cultures. And there was a guy whose mother was born in San Francisco and who grew up near Woodstock, N.Y. He shared stories about the bands that he particularly liked. He was also amazing at taking group selfies. (top image) Which definitely is a thing. Janice, another woman on the tour gave Ginevra a brilliant compliment. She said that although she doesn’t like some of the songs from the 60s, with all the information Ginevra shared, she will listen to them differently now. That is what I am always telling people about art, you may not like something on a visceral level, but if you know something about it, you will be able to appreciate it.

Since my husband was a ‘Deadhead’ (fan of the Grateful Dead) back in the day, I had my own Grateful Dead stories to share. Like the 1976 Bicentennial Concert in Philadelphia. There was a little American flag perched on the piano. And an outdoor concert at the Greek Theater on the UC Berkeley campus. (Figure 5) That was very a very casual concert. We all brought food for a picnic and we all ate a lot because, if I’m remembering correctly, we all were stoned. The concert began 15 minutes early (which still seems amazing) and lasted well into the night. Dead concerts were like that.

Figure 5. Grateful Dead at Greek Theater, UC Berkeley, 1987

My son, Nicolas, the glass artist, works at a glass studio now, mostly teaching glass blowing to people with a wide range of interests and skills - from folks doing a team building activity to a glass caster who needs to learn glass blowing for a piece she is working on. The other day, on my way back from the DMV to renew my drivers license and on his way to the glass studio, we met up with Ginevra to eat in Golden Gate Park. Which meant that we had to buy something to eat. Nicolas suggested we get sandwiches at Gus’s Community Market, a grocery store he had been telling us about. That he assured us was as good as Bi-Rite, San Francisco's version of Bon Marché where the prices are astronomical and the fruit, which one woman described as having been picked by fairies, is perfect. Like Bi-Rite, which another person calls Whole Foods on steroids (Whole Foods before Jeff Bezos destroyed it), Gus’s makes designer sandwiches. Ginevra and I hesitated since Nicolas’ philosophy of food is simple, eat a lot. Which makes sense if, when you’re not blowing glass, you’re doing martial arts and taking body building classes at the gym.

Figure 6. Colette Coca Cola bottle

But we shouldn’t have doubted him. We should have remembered that years ago he introduced us to the legendary Colette, on rue St. Honoré in Paris. Which he discovered because that’s where the rappers whose music he listened to, shopped. Colette was a concept store that sold sophisticatedly curated high end and street fashions. They had frequent collaborations with artists and designers. And would often give over the second floor to art installations. One year, they had a wall on which everybody who walked in was invited to tag. Nicolas needed no encouragement, Ginevra got into it, too. If you tagged, you got a Coke, in a traditional bottle, with Colette on it. (Figure 6) It’s a collector’s item now. Alas, Colette closed in 2017, neither Colette nor her daughter wanted to keep going and neither thought their vision could be maintained with someone else in charge.

Gus’s is also a find. The sandwiches, on Dutch Crunch (is that a thing anywhere else, or just in San Francisco?) were thick and delicious. The portions of meat were generous, piled high with lots of shredded vegetables and spicy seasonings. (Figure 7) Do you know Dutch Crunch? According to Eater San Francisco, Dutch Crunch is a white roll with a mixture of rice flour and sugar brushed over it to create “that magical crackle or crinkle topping.” Apparently, it’s not a California thing at all, but probably comes from tijgerbolletjes (tiger bread) in the Netherlands. 

Figure 7. Sandwich on Dutch Crunch Bread, Gus’s Community Market, Haight St.

As Nicolas waited for our sandwiches, Ginevra and I browsed. The cheeses are all high-end, like imported Greek Sheep feta and aged French Mimolette (Figure 8) with a range Cowgirl Creamery’s soft-ripened cheeses with names like Mt Tam and Red Hawk. The fruits and vegetables (Figure 9) are unblemished, seasonal and ripe.

Figure 8. Aged  Mimolette Cheese, Gus’s Community Market

Figure 9. Fruit display, Gus’s Community Market.

Alas, Gus’s is no bargain, (Figure 10) the prices are the same as Bi-Rite. What attracted Nicolas and what attracted me and Ginevra was the relaxed vibe. As we paid for our sandwiches, the guy at the register gave us a loyalty card. Each time you buy a sandwich, they stamp the card, eight stamps and you get a free sandwich. Except on Tuesdays, which is the day we went. Tuesdays are double stamp days. Three sandwiches, six stamps, one Tuesday sandwich short of a freeby. We have agreed that Tuesdays will be our Gus’s sandwich day. Unless people book a tour with Ginevra or Nicolas gets a glass blowing gig. Sigh.

Figure 10. Gus’s Community Market, Haight St. San Francisco

The subject of this week’s review is Edvard Munch, iconic and iconoclastic. It’s good to learn more about images that are so familiar to us. Bisous, Dr, B.

Readers Comments, for which I am very grateful:

New comments on Joan Mitchell: A Life in the Abstract:

Beverley, thank you for this amazing review...every year at Christmas, as a family we try to visit as many exhibitions as we can and your article has pushed this one to the top of the list - so lively and as informative as ever. Any more ideas for Christmas visits - Barbara

Thanks so much for this rich review and description of Mitchell's work. I have previously not been drawn to her work but after reading your piece, and Mary Garbriel's Ninth Street Women, I am hungering for a long look. Sadly, I won't be in Paris before this exhibition ends. - Maribeth

New comment on The Unblinking Eye of Alice Neel:

Loved this. Better than the actual exhibition. Deedee, Baltimore