Storied: San Francisco

After an on-again/off-again stint in New York City, Chris Ohnesorge came to San Francisco in 2003. Through people he knew via music boards, he quickly found friends and fellow musicians. In this podcast, Chris talks about his first band in SF: The Ex-Boyfriends. The band was excited when local label Absolutely Kosher Records signed them to release two albums. The first one,  Dear John , was a hit....

Musician and hair stylist ChrisO moved to San Francisco in 2003. Among the odd jobs he had before he learned to style hair, he took a job at mayoral candidate, ex-supervisor, and ex-state senator Mark Leno's sign shop in the Castro. In this episode, Chris will talk about working in that shop. Then he'll share observations on San Franciscans' odd relationship with their appearances. We recorded thi...

SF State Associate Professor of Journalism Venise Wagner loves ice skating. When she's not writing books like  Love in the Time of Pinochet  and  Reporting Inequality: Tools and Methods for Covering Race and Ethnicity , teaching journalism to a new generation, or spending time with her friends, family, and her dog, Cici, Venise likes to relieve all the pressures of life at the rink. In this episod...

In Part 1 of this podcast, San Francisco Giants VP of Business Operations Mario Alioto shared stories from his days with the team when their home was Candlestick Park. In this episode, Mario talks about being part of the effort that moved the team north to the South of Market area. That new ballpark, which began its life at PacBell Park and is now known as AT&T Park, has already seen four World Se...

In 1973, Mario Alioto got lucky. After his older brother moved on from being a bat boy for the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, it was Mario's turn. In this episode, Mario, now VP of Business Operations for the Giants, shares stories from his days with the team before they moved north to their current home. He talks about being a bat boy for visiting teams, managing the visiting clubhouse...

Photojournalist Jessica Christian got her start in the newsroom while she was still in journalism school at SF State. After graduation, she got a job at the SF Examiner, where she covered the separate stories of two homeless men. In this podcast, Jessica shares those stories, stories that have two very different endings. We recorded this podcast at the Java Trading Company cafe in the Chronicle Bu...

In  Part 1 , SF Chronicle photographer Jessica Christian shared stories of two homeless men that had two very different endings. In this episode, Jessica takes us through the early days of her career as a photojournalist, through protests, riots, and eventually the funeral of Stephon Clark. By her count, since 2013, she has had seven full days when she didn't have a job or internship. We recorded...

In this episode, Misisipi Mike Wolf talks about old music venues as a set up to some stories about  Jonathan Richman . He ends the podcast with a string of celebrity sightings he's had with a legendary San Francisco band. The voice you hear in the background is Episode 22 storyteller John Binder. We recorded this podcast as part of Tighten Up Your Wig, John's show on  Radio Valencia . Film photogr...

Misisipi Mike Wolf  has been making music and poster art in San Francisco for decades. In this episode, Mike talks about the Mission and tells the story of a gigantic statue he saw being built on Bartlett Street. We recorded this podcast on Ep. 22 storyteller John Binder's show, Tighten Up Your Wig in March 2018 Check back Thursday for Part 2. Film photography by  Michelle Kilfeather

In Part 1, Josh talked about being there to shoot Barry Bonds's record-setting 73rd home of the 2001 baseball season. The baseball landed in the stands mere feet from where Josh was with his camera. And so he inadvertently captured what turned out to be a contentious event. Two fans argued over which one of them owned the home-run ball; they ended up going to court over the matter. In this episode...

Ed. note: This podcast is the first of a series of podcasts we'll do all throughout the Major League Baseball season to celebrate the Giants' 60th year in the San Francisco. In this episode, cameraman Josh Keppel talks about the last game of the regular season for the San Francisco Giants in 2001. It was roughly a month after Sept. 11, and he and a reporter were sent to PacBell Park (now AT&T Park...

In this podcast, Brian will play the first song he ever heard Mike Coykendall, with whom Brian collaborates on several musical projects, play. It was a show at Bottom of the Hill. Brian found the show in the Guardian, a now-defunct weekly here in San Francisco. Mike played that night with his band The Old Joe Clarks. The song is called "Built Right on the Ground." To wrap up Brian's three-part Sto...

Welcome to Episode 24, Part 2. In Part 1, Brian talked about arriving in San Francisco in the 1980s, playing music and sleeping on the streets, and some of the people he met back then. In this podcast, he'll talk about playing some open-mics, forming bands, and the importance of independent radio stations. The song he'll play in this episode is called "Makes Me Think of You." If you missed Part 1:...

In the 1980s, Brian Belknap landed in San Francisco after traveling around the Northeast. His first stop was Fisherman's Wharf, which wasn't as "Disneyfied" back in those days. Brian's hustle was playing music for tourists, then packing up and finding a place to sleep. Often, his bed was also on the street. In this podcast, Brian will share stories about his early days in San Francisco. He'll talk...

Allison Biddinger is a disaster program specialist for the Red Cross. In this episode, Allison shares stories of her work in response to some of the more recent and notable residential fires in San Francisco. If you missed Part 1, please listen here: Allison Biddinger's Early San Francisco (Mis)Adventures Film photography by  Michelle Kilfeather

Allison Biddinger moved to San Francisco from a small town in Idaho about 15 years ago. Back when everything in the city was shiny and new to her, she learned first-hand that things like "street fairs" often come with their own SF definition. In this podcast, Allison, a disaster program specialist with the Red Cross, will share this and other tales of her early days living in San Francisco. Check...

Though he works part-time at a hospital, music is a big part of John's life. Whether it's the venue calendars he constantly checks out, the hundreds of live shows he's gone to over the years, or his show on Radio Valencia , Tighten Up Your Wig, music is, as he puts it, a good friend for John Binder. Also, and this comes up about halfway through this episode, but if anyone listening does know when...

John Binder is an internet radio DJ at  Radio Valencia . It's one of those oh-so-San Francisco gigs, one that springs from his love of music. But John also loves San Francisco, the city he's called home since the 1990s. In this episode, John will share observations and stories about life in the city. His is a fresh take, because despite more than two decades here, he's not skeptical or curmudgeon-...

In Episode 21, Part 1, Myla Ablog shared stories of moving to San Francisco and learning to navigate the dating scene here. That eventually lead her to try online dating. In this podcast, she will talk about a relationship that started on the internet. Everything was roses with this guy who turned out to be quite a bit different from Myla, until dark aspects of his personality starting coming to l...

Born and raised in Stockton, wetlands biologist Myla Ablog went to college in Humboldt. She enjoyed her experience, but the pull of the Bay Area was too much to resist. She moved here after graduation and soon after that, she joined the dating pool. In Part 1 of Myla's episode, we'll hear some of those early adventures she had in the San Francisco dating scene of the 1990s and 2000s. ​Check back T...

Sunny Haire moved to San Francisco in the 1990s. He quickly made friends, and they found plenty of places to drink, especially in the Mission. But something was missing. In 1997, Sunny and Lila Thirkield opened the Lexington Club at the corner of 19th Street and Lexington. With its renovated original bar sign, the Lexington would go on to serve as a drinking spot for lesbians and queer women until...

In the last episode, we left off with Randy Burns talking about how the AIDS crisis affected his group, Gay American Indians. In Part 2, Randy will tell us about trips he took to DC and New York in the '80s and '90s to raise awareness to LGBT issues. He'll end with the story of his trip from the East Coast back to San Francisco.

Randy Burns arrived in San Francisco from Nevada in 1974. He was here to go to SF State, but he soon connected with out gay and lesbian American Indians, with whom he would go on to found the organization Gay American Indians. In this episode, Randy will talk about founding the group and how the AIDS epidemic affected them in the mid-1980s. We recorded this episode in February 2018 at Emperor Nort...

You could say that John Scott has done it all. He's certainly done and seen a lot over the years, starting out as a radio DJ back in Iowa. His career has largely been in broadcasts of some sort, but he's also had quite a ride playing guitar in several rock bands. In this episode, John will talk about the media scene and its history in San Francisco. He'll walk us through some of the highlights of...

Falling in love with San Francisco is like a snowflake. Whether you're born here or become a transplant, we all find our own way to the heart of the city. For BFF.fm founder Amanda Guest, it was no different. In this podcast, Amanda will tell the story of a 2009 all-nighter in the Mission with her friend, Mission Mission 's Allan Hough. Along the way, she discovered enough surprises and felt so at...