From 2012:
Though no surprise to the 800,000 people who live in San Francisco, cities across the nation were humbled by the foggy metropolis when it was ranked number one inBloomberg Businessweek's annual America's 50 Best Cities list.
Utilizing Bloomberg Rankings, Businessweek.com evaluated 100 of the country's largest cities, considering recreational activities, economic health, air quality, safety, education and crime. And this year, San Francisco came out on top.
"It's certainly an honor for San Francisco to be named 'America's Best City,' and it's great to get recognition for the good work San Franciscans have done," wrote Mayor Ed Lee in a statement. "San Francisco is committed to being the best place to live, work and visit, and there is nowhere else on earth where you will find the economic opportunities and world-class events found in our great City."
Businessweek noted San Francisco's cultural centers, restaurants and nightlife, social and environmental causes and proximity to the prosperous Silicon Valley.
San Francisco neighbor, Oakland, also made this list, clocking in at 39--a far cry from number one, but still remarkably higher than Los Angeles.
Businessweek's list isn't the only recent mention of San Francisco and the Bay Area: earlier this month, Forbes listed San Francisco's Mission District as the second most hipster city in America (trailing LA's Silver Lake), and last week, San Jose was named the richest city in America. And in January, defying all odds, Oakland was named the number one city in America to visit by the New York Times.

San Francisco??
 
I am beginning to think that a better trip would be through Cemeteries along Route 66. (at night).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCYApJtsyd0
 
or perhaps a trip to Detroit.
Might work better for the music creativity of songs.
Really.

Yeah, but they don't have a Cirque show - which is the real reason we're flying to SF...

Oh, otherwise they have webcams of San Francisco.
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/california/sanfrancisco/?cam=rowingclub
 
I think they are doing a dis-service by not having webcams of Cemeteries across this Country though.
 
Well, have fun when you both go there.
 

craigb
We've got a lot of hippies in Portland.  Many moved there from SF a long time ago.  I've met people with lots of interesting names like Star or Happiness up here.

 
'Happiness Up Here' is an interesting name

The 60's weren't just about drugs, free love and rock and roll; There were horrible moments too.

I remember having to endure one of Jerry Garcia's infamous two hour guitar solos; He just went on and on and on. I thought it would never end.

Even with the drugs it was a painful ordeal.

I've always been curious when it came to the influences of musicians I dug, so it was a natural thing for me to start investigating what went on before Metallica and Maiden and all those bands...
 
More often than not, I discovered bands which I ended up preferring to current acts - Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, etc.
 
Eventually, I got into the 60s stuff - some of which I really liked. Some I tried very hard to like, because they supposedly embodied the spirit of the era, or were mythical - the Dead were one of those.
 
I could find things I like in just about everything from Iron Butterfly to Procol Harum to Mamas and Papas. But the Dead? Nope.
 
They're the first band I sampled though, back in the 90's, when I was still working with analog tape  - something off Infrared Roses, can't remember what...

I recommend anybody interested in fads of popular culture over the years read George Melly's great book 'Revolt into Style' although covering an early time-period and from a British perspective the commonaliity between all these movements whether it be 'Hippies', 'Punks' or anything in between is easy to spot.
 
Basically human nature is largely predictable it rebels against what is established and the resulting revolution then becomes the establishment itself, just rinse and repeat. Let the populist media define the name each movement should have along with a cartoon caricature of what it 'represented' then in 20 years that's what people will believe is what actually happened.
 
Yet if you asked a bunch of dudes and chicks that were holed up in some commune in Haight Ashbury in '67 and you'll get as many different perspectives as to what it was about equal to the amount of different people you ask.
 
All these movements are great to the extent they can effect a positive change, the one thing that blights them all though is the amount of pretentiousness that accompanies each one when it declares itself as being 'important'.  The kids of Kings Road toffs dressing up in Vivienne Westwood gear being championed by art school pseudo-intellectuals like Malcolm McClaren were probably bigger culprits for that type of garbage than any hippies IMO.

Man... like wow... reading this thread is like a flashback.

Guitarhacker
Man... like wow... reading this thread is like a flashback.

Steady man.
 
Booze cures those.