Category: San Francisco
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Underground Music
The streets can be a fierce world for buskers who are exposed to the mercy of city police. However, musicians in San Francisco can perform at train stations for free as long as they stay outside the paid zones such as the platforms and trains. You don’t need to pay any rent to use this…
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“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Location is absolutely crucial for businesses that rely on walk-in customers, and you have probably met many vendors and musicians making use of city streets around the world. Rodney Byrd plays his saxophone on the street next to Ghirardelli Chocolate in San Francisco. “I’ve been playing for 20 years! The sun’s not out today, but it’s beautiful over…
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Bucket Man
Larry Hunt – the “Bucket Man” – has risen as a cultural icon of San Francisco by playing his plastic drums for more than 20 years on the city streets, yet he gets regularly harassed by the police for being a public nuisance because of the ‘noise’ he creates. The police have confiscated his drums,…
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Windows of Opportunity
Rich Trager travels around the world to take photographs for his business. Travelling to disrupt an established sense of order I really like Southeast Asia. On my last trip, I travelled to Bali, India, Nepal, Cambodia. I was also in Singapore for a day. I like the region– it’s chaotic, yet it moves at a slower…
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Mandala Maker
Zb.Doros grew up in Poland and currently lives in San Francisco where he devotes himself to the art of making mandalas. How did you end up in the USA? Times were tough in Poland for intellectual dissidents. I came to this country to get political asylum. My family had to stay behind in Poland, and I migrated…
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A Twist on Vintage
How do you start a business selling jewelry? We chat with Linda La Touche in California who describes her journey. In the whirl of life changes, the jewelry was constant. My parents always encouraged me in the arts, from dance to music to art. When I decided to start a family and quit school, I started making…
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Shop-key-per
Katy started her locksmith business in San Francisco in 1969, and describes how she took a long-distance course… without the Internet! “It was called a correspondence course. They sent me the lessons in the mail, so I would do the lessons and send it back. For example, they would send me a lock to pick, so…
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Come along for the journey!
Shopkeeper Stories is all about people who bring their creative energy to our cities with their small businesses! Join us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (@ShopkeeperStory) – wherever you might be – so that you can see the latest photoshoots as they happen, and we’ll let you know when we’re in your city! Be dazzled, learn something new, and…
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Eggs-posure
How to store eggs You don’t have to refrigerate eggs that you get from the farmer’s market, they keep well outside like this. But, if you buy eggs from the supermarket that have already been refrigerated, then you need to keep refrigerating them. However, since we haven’t refrigerated these, you can leave them out. You’ll…
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Sea Jewels
“When I was young, my grandfather used to take me to the California coast, and whenever we were there, he’d pick up garbage along the shore to throw away – he was the first conservationist that I knew. While he was busy picking up other people’s trash, I would collect the sea glass. Of course,…
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If you’re going to San Francisco…
“…. be sure to wear some flowers in your hair!” We communicated using fragments of Mandarin that I know consisting mostly of 3 introductory sentences: “How are you?” (Ni hao!) “I speak a little!” (We hui shuo yidian dian) “I am a Singapore person.” (Wo shi xinjiapo ren) And then, in response to…
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