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Street Musicians and Powell Cable Cars Turnaround in San Francisco, California
Street Musicians at Powell and Market
So what's so special about the Market and Powell cable car turnaround?
Well, as Herbie Hatman puts it...
Powell Cable Car Turnaround is a charming locale. Tourists. Local working class. Shoppers. Business people going home for the weekend. Folks coming in from BART for the evening. The unending stream of people give the sense of a busy city which San Francisco has to provide.
- Scheduled Pie fights occur here, every so often. Come one, come all, bring shaving cream.
- Lots of shopping
- Powell Hotel
- Part of LoveFest parade and celebration
- Global events parades
- The cable car turnaround, of course
- Powell Street station
- Blondie's Pizza
- Three districts meet at this juncture
- 5 way traffic
- Street performers and musicians, bien sur!
and much much more.
Jennifer Phillips singing at Market and Powell
Street Musicians of San Francisco of the 1970's
Street performers, alive and living it up.
Street performers come in all shapes and sizes sounds and spectaculars. One of the best places to find them? San Francisco, of course! The people of San Francisco enjoy free concerts every day.
San Francisco is know for it's vast array of sidewalk and street corner musicians. They come and go. They linger. They float from spot to spot. Some are expected. Others are unexpected. They play alone. They play in groups. They line the sidewalks.
Drums may greet you on your way to work. You may come across an entising Salsa band on your way back home. A walk down a San Francisco mainstreet can feel like taking a walk through the radio waves.
Spectators stand and watch, converse, meet, dance, sing along, eat, pass by, toss some change. Some have even been known to join in.
What we sometimes look for in San Francisco
We look for something new, different, exciting, and something that will change us, bring us "home" again.
We look for variety, culture, sights, sounds, entertainment, the usual and the unusual. Meltingpots of people, outdoor extraviganzas. Life. Love
And, of course, we look for the cable cars. We expect to see them, hear them, watch them go by. One of the best places to catch the cable car action, is at the Market Street at Powell cable car turnaround. Take a look:
You can hear a street band in the background of this one.
Ryan Hupfer on his way to work one day...
Ryan Hupfer of HubPages is one of the lucky ones. He gets to live in San Francisco AND walk to work. Envious? Heck yeah I am.
Just the other morning, his ears were greeted by opera.
Schubert's "Ave Maria" none the less!
Lucky us, he caught it on his cell via video record (TGFC - thank goodness for cell phones!). Okay, so it's not the same as if we were really there, face to face with this the incredible surprise of loveliness, but for some of us, like me, it will have to do. (Not taken at the Market and Powell cable car turnaround, but had to share; you never know, she might just show up there when one least expects it.)
Check related links for his HubBlog post on this experience, and the juggler video.
Video courtesy of Ryan Hupfer
Remembering Market Street and Powell ~ By Frieda Babbley
"Darlin', if you want ta dance, you betta do it today!" - overheard (This poem is based on a true story heard via an interview on 88.1 KDHX St. Louis, some 18 years ago. Stuck with me all these years.)
You remember me
Market Street and Powell
You know, where the streetcar turns around
There was a San Francisco street band
playing Jazz there.
You stood in the crowd
feet plastered to the ground
when the rhythm walked me up
swayed my hips
the way you wanted yours to sway.
That's right
I'm that old black woman
that come up and started dancin'
in front of the band
the one they aaall laughed at
the one who kept dancin' even then
who looked deep into their eyes
and pointed a slow... serious finger
that hushed them all
and when I got to you
I knew you understood
'cause your feet let go
and your hips began to sway.
Books on San Francisco Parades
Jazz Saxaphone at Market Street and Powell
turntable at night, a lovely sight
Video taken by a woman Riding on the Cable Car on Powell
Related Links
- HubPages Blog
Search Archives for "Just another day working at HubPages in San Francisco" by Ryan Hupfer April 2, 2009 - 88.1 kdhx St. Louis radio station
An interview on this radio station inspired the poem featured in this article. For all things old, new, different, local, and far away, this is the place to stop in. Listen online or browse around. Great site. - Today\'s San Francisco Cable Car System
Modern Cable Cars of San Francisco - San Francisco Cable Car Museum
Presenting cable car history, technology, information, and gift shop. Located in San Francisco's Washington-Mason powerhouse and carbarn, the museum provides a historical perspective and insight into today's system. - Market Street (San Francisco, California) - encyclopedia article about Market Street (San Francisco,
encyclopedia article about Market Street (San Francisco, California). Wikipedia (TheFreeDictionary.com mirror) - BART - Powell St.
Map and other info related to Powell Street BART station, the entrance of which can be viewed on the second photo of this article. - San Francisco Cable Car History
Historic timeline of the San Francisco Cable Car. - Powell Street Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
About Powell Street Station (also see link to BART) - San Francisco Street musician*** on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
San Francisco Street Musician Bass Player Photo found here.