Bellingham by the Bay, June 2007, from San Francisco Northside

The continuing saga of the John Barleycorn continues. The popular Nob Hill tavern's owner, Larry Ayres, had another look at his lease and found that he can hold onto the Barleycorn through the end of September. The new property owner, Luisa Hanson, was apparently going to evict the pub people at the end of this month. John Barleycorn devotees have not given up. They had a small street barbeque one Saturday last month, with a motorized cable car on hand to carry the patrons and the word to Save the Barleycorn.

"I met my husband here 32 years ago," recalled Martha Holtzman. Her 24-year old marriage is still going strong. Barleycorn booster Cynthia Fine chuckled, "I broke up with a lot of men in this saloon." No regrets. "We've collected about 3,000 signatures for the Save the Barleycorn petition," reported Thor Ivar Ekle. "We have another meeting with Sup. Aaron Peskin this month to see how we might convince Luisa to leave the place alone."

No word from Hanson. If what happened to The Front Room pizza restaurant next door is any indication, then Barleycorn is on the precipice. As The Front Room was about to celebrate forty years at 1500 Calif. St., Hanson told Front Room proprietor Lori Laghaci that she and her staff had two months to get out. The indefatigable Lori moved the restaurant down the street to 1500 Calif., between Larkin & Polk, and she's slowly getting her customers back.

"Our biggest problem is getting the word out where we are," Lori said. ...


The Lumiere Theater, which shows indies -- they used to be called "art films" -- is just down the block. The other night I shambled by and caught out of the corner of my eye, a summary of one of the movies, Zoo, which is a documentary about "one of the last biggest taboos -- people who have sex with animals," and revolves around the story of a 45-year old Seattle man, a Boeing exec, who died after "voluntarily being sodomized by a horse." Kid you not. It gives new meaning to "feeling one's oats." Sorry, but this is one taboo that should stay that way. Boeing, Boeing, gone.

I can't imagine what Walter Farley, the author of The Black Stallion series of books, would say about this -- but he'd certainly be proud of his niece, North Beach artist Blandina Farley, who brings her splashy, scintillating portraits, "Farley Girls," to Patricia's Casa del Arte y Fiore at 1101 Mason at Clay, Sun. June 17 from 3-7 p.m.

Herb Gold's a regular customer at It's A Grind & The Crepe House, both wi-fi hot spots. Herb wrote a terrific piece the other day in the Chron about Henry Miller, who's been discovered by yet another new generation. Herb described the difference between America and France in the 1930s. America struggled with the hopelessness of the Depression while French citizens drank and danced and had "accepted multiple simultaneous love affairs as part of the deal since the Garden of Eden had been closed down due to lease violations."

So that's what they mean by "insouciance." Nice, Herb ... Henry Miller loved women, as we know, and he loved Walt Whitman, albeit from a distance. "Whatever there is of value in America Whitman has expressed, and there is nothing more to be said," said Miller. "The future belongs to machines, to robots. He was the Poet of the body and the soul, Whitman. The first and the last poet. He is almost undecipherable today, a monument covered with rude hieroglyphs, for which there is no key."

Whitman is being demystified by John O'Keefe at his first-rate, one-man show, Song of Myself, at The Marsh, 1062 Valencia at 22nd St. through June 30.

Lifetime Books on Polk has breathed its last.

The 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love brings home thoughts from abroad for writer Mark Miller, who's now in L.A. One of his heroes, Rod McKuen, whose Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows brought him fame, is also there. When Mark comes back to S.F. he recalls his young years: "I cannot ever cross over McKuen's Stanyan Street without feeling a slight buzz about the enormous impact of that poetry collection. I remember when it appeared. I was still at Stanford, driving my old VW Beetle up to the Haight-Ashbury whenever possible, just to marvel at the life there, such as it was ..."


Christopher Caen has introduced a new magazine, Aware, which really is an extension of Generocity, his former magazine that extols philanthropy. Chris has enlisted some good writers for his venture, including the legendary author, filmmaker and radio raconteur Pete Laufer, who goes back to the days of free-form radio of the San Francisco of the storied 60s & 70s. Tim Gaskin, who, with Christopher, founded the other magazine about philanthropy, Benefit, is no longer at the helm there.

Pacific Heights is buzzing with word of another tell-all book from the social set. Linda Hale Bucklin, daughter of the late Prentis Cobb Hale and step-daughter of Denise Hale, has written Beyond His Control: Memories of a Disobedient Daughter, a damning account of fighting to free herself of an abusive, mercurial father, and the legal hassles with Denise, who wrestled the family fortune from Linda & her siblings. Linda's flipping mad with W Magazine which quoted Linda saying that "Denise is the worst role model since ... Dede Wilsey." Linda wants a retraction because she never said any such thing. It's true that everybody likes Dede.

If there's any proof to the notion that San Francisco residents get younger all the time, it was evident at Myles O'Reilly's Beer & Oyster Festival at Ft. Mason last month where 12,000 mostly under 30-somethings rocked out to Flogging Molly, one of Ireland's premier bands, and consumed 67,000 oysters, and beers too numerous to count. Meanwhile, the landscape at Polk & Bush is improving. Myles and others insist that Polk Gulch be called Polk Village now that things are looking up a bit. Myles' Holy Grail Pub & Restaurant there is the jewel of the neighborhood.

When Joe Bologna & Renée Taylor played The Plush Room last month, organizers of Trannyshack, the 13-year old drag show at The Stud at Harrison & 9th St., convinced the couple to be judges at the Renée Taylor as The Nanny Drag Show Look-Alike Contest, hosted by Heklina. "It was totally surreal," Renée reported. She did come away with high praise for Nicki Starr, whose big voice is garnering a lot of attention.

Michael Fedor, owner of the popular, aforementioned It's A Grind on Polk, has introduced live entertainment. Michael salutes Gay Pride Week by showcasing Miss Nix on June 10. The stix may nix hick pix but the urbane Miss Nix is never out-of-sync.

Andrea Marcovicci, that song seductress, returns to S.F on July 10 to play The Plush Room through July 29. "San Francisco feels like home to me," says Andrea, who lives in L.A. but is a living landmark in New York. She's too young to be a landmark but the legendary Algonquin Hotel recently named a hotel suite for her. So she joins an exclusive club with giants such as James Thurber and Dorothy Parker. Andrea -- whose looks are hardly laughable and anything but unphotographable -- is dedicating her show to Lorenz Hart, the "Poet of Broadway," and lyricist of My Funny Valentine, This Can't Be Love, It Never Entered My Mind, and other poignant masterpieces that he wrote to Richard Rodgers' music. Which brings us to Mr. Hart's nagging question: "Spring is here! Why doesn't my heart go dancing?"

Read Bruce Bellingham in the SF Northside .... www.northsidesf.com