San Francisco - Alison Bing [97]
CHINATOWN KITE SHOP Map Gifts
415-989-5182; www.chinatownkite.com; 717 Grant Ave; 10am-6pm; 1, 9, 30, 41, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde
Be the star of Crissy Field and wow any kids in your life with a fierce 6ft-long flying shark, a flying panda bear that looks understandably stunned, or ‘Pink Floyd,’ the goofy pink flamingo (shouldn’t that be a pig, really?). Pick up a papier-mâché two-person lion dance costume, and invite a date to bust some ferocious moves with you next lunar new year.
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top picks
NON-TOURISTY SF SOUVENIRS
City Lights Bookstore (right) Beat poetry.
Electric Works Limited-edition local art.
Bi-Rite Locally made chocolates.
Loyal Army Clothing Happy fog T-shirt.
Doe Golden State necklace.
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FAR EAST FLEA MARKET Map Gifts
415-989-8588; 729 Grant Ave; 10am-10pm; 1, 9, 30, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde;
The shopping equivalent of crack, this bottomless store is dangerously cheap and certain to make you giddy and delusional. Of course you can get that sale samurai sword through airport security! There’s no such thing as too many bath toys, paper lanterns and bobble-headed Edgar Allen Poe action figures! Step away from the dollar Golden Gate snow globes while there’s still time…
CLARION MUSIC CENTER Map Music
415-391-1317; www.clarionmusic.com; 816 Sacramento St; 11am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Sat; 1, 9, 30, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde
The minor chords of the erhu (Chinese string instrument) will pluck at your heartstrings as you walk through Chinatown’s alleyways, and here you can try your hand at the bow yourself with a superior student model. With the impressive range of African congas and Central American marimbas and gongs, you could become your own multi-culti one-man band. Check the website for concerts, workshops and demonstrations by masters.
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NORTH BEACH
ARIA Map Antiques & Collectibles
415-433-0219; 1522 Grant Ave; 11am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun; 15, 30, 41, 45
This shop has all the makings of a Tom Waits song: wartime French love letters returned to senders, anatomical drawings of the heart, castle keys lost in gutters a century ago, a wax mannequin arm raised in ghostly salute. Hours are erratic whenever owner/chief scavenger Bill is out treasure-hunting.
SF ROCK POSTERS & COLLECTIBLES Map Antiques & Collectibles
415-956-6749; www.rockposters.com; 1851 Powell St; 10am-6pm Tue-Sat; 15, 30; Powell-Mason
Anyone who hazily remembers the ’60s may recall long-lost bands (and brain cells) in this trippy temple to the rock gods. Nostalgia isn’t cheap, so expect to pay hundreds or even thousands for first-run psychedelic Fillmore concert posters featuring Big Brother and the Holding Company or the Grateful Dead, but you can still find deals on handbills for the Dead Kennedys, Talking Heads and Black Sabbath.
CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE Map Books
415-362-8193; http://citylights.com; 261 Columbus Ave; 10am-midnight; 15, 30, 41, 45
‘Abandon all despair, all ye who enter,’ orders the sign by the door to City Lights written by founder and San Francisco poet laureate Lawrence Ferlinghetti. This commandment is easy to follow upstairs in the sunny Poetry Room, with its piles of freshly published verse, a designated Poet’s Chair, and literary views of laundry strung across Jack Kerouac Alley. Poetic justice has been served here since 1957, when City Lights won a landmark ruling against book banning, and went on to publish Lenny Bruce, William S Burroughs, Angela Davis and Tahar Ben Jelloun, among others. When you abandon despair, you make more room for books.
CUSTOM ORIGINALS (AL’S ATTIRE) Map Clothing & Accessories, Local Designer
415-693-9900; www.alsattire.com; 1314 Grant Ave; 11am-7pm Mon-Sat, noon-6pm Sun; 15, 30, 41, 45
Hepcats and slick chicks get their duds at Al’s, where vintage styles are reinvented in rocker gabardine,