Sherilyn Connelly > The Haight

Pole It's technically illegal to put flyers on poles in San Francisco. Some parts of town are less patrolled than others.
 
Corner The famous intersection of Haight and Ashbury. This is angle conveniently doesn't show The Gap.
 
Theater My favorite movie theater, The Red Vic.
 
Wasteland A large vintage clothing store with a beautiful front. I hate shopping there, though, both because they're overpriced, and what the owner did after 9/11. Feh. I don't want to talk about it. Forget I even brought it up.
 
Amoeba The largest record store in San Francisco, possibly in California. There's another location in Los Angeles. This one used to be a bowling alley. (It's a secret, so don't tell anyone.)
 
Anubis Anubis Warpis, where Madeline got three of her tattoos and a couple piercings. Note the extensive magazine rack, filled with all manner of alt publications, and the old-school pr0n towards the back.
 
Shoe Haight Shoe Repair, where I get my boots resoled. They've been around forever, since long before the rest of the world had even heard of Haight Street. I suspect Birkenstocks have not always been welcome, however.
 
Head Inside an anonymous head shop.
 
Pile A group of teenagers. A pile of clothes. Think about it, won't you?
 
Daljeet's Daljeet's, a store with all sorts of punk and fetishy clothing. I bought my first fishnet shirt there, and whenever I want to feel bad about how huge my feet are, I go and look at all the neat boots not available in my size. Problem is, even though this picture was taken from across the street, the music was still so loud I could barely hear myself think. I swear, the volume level makes Hot Topic seem like a monastery.
 
Hippie A gen-u-ine, All-American, accept-no-imitations hippie, complete with guitar. Most Haight denizens don't like having their picture taken (a few people got uppity when they saw the camera pointing in their direction), but I gave him some money so he was more than happy to pose. I normally don't give panhandlers or street musicians money, especially in the Haight, but he was playing "Southern Cross" by Crosby, Stills & Nash. I associate the song with the first time I did mushrooms, a very pleasant memory, so I would have given him money anyway. Other requirements for me to pay street musicans: performing any song by Neil Young or Bob Dylan (except for "Blowin' in the Wind"), playing a banjo, or a girl in straw hat. You'd be surprised how many of them there are in this town. One time in Embarcadero Station there was this cute girl with a hardcore Lucinda Williams thing going on, and—well, I digress...
 
Positively I don't think I've ever gone into this store, but I love the name, a reference to one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. There's also a store in Santa Cruz called Positively Front Street.
 
Books Forever After Books, the last of a dying breed: the truly independent bookstore, used or otherwise. (Used, in this case.) The owner once asked me if he'd seen me at a certain goth club the week before.
 
Up The ceiling of another anonymous head shop. Reminds me of my bedroom ceiling when I was seventeen.
 
Legs Piedmont Boutique, the big drag queen store in town. Extremely expensive, the kind of place where the double the price, then take a third off and make it sound like a great deal.
 
Polka Lastly, whatever you do while in the Haight, please don't sit on the dinosaur.