"The Arts are not a decoration. They are not to follow the understanding of political curves. The Arts are hear to inform the body politic—-to inform as well as entertain—and to resist authority if it doesn’t stand inspection."

Van Dyke Parks: Make The World More Beautiful

Van Dyke Parks established a recording career as artist,…

"The Beats and music are connected through poetry, purity, ingenuity, experimentation, all with a childlike sense of abandon and absorption in whatever milieu they find themselves."

Nancy Calef: The Way of Peoplescapes…

"They are all linked, but music is superior to literature and politics. You can listen to a great song 5000 times and grow each time. You can't read a novel or a poem or hear a political speech too often...its unmoving - sometimes it's rhetoric. Toilet paper."

Tom Russell: The Rose of…

"Jazz had a liberating momentum for the Beat writers, with its long-winded improvisation."

Steven Gray: The Barrio of Pagan Socialist

Steven Gray has been living in San…

"Living life one ‘in the moment at a time; death is just a breath away."

Hammond Guthrie: Classic of Changes 

Hammond Guthrie is a well traveled painter and author currently living in Portland,…

“The universe is all around us, but when they look up at the sky, all they see is the sun, the moon, and stars.”

A.D. Winans: The Golden Gate Poet

A.D. Winans is a native San Francisco poet and writer. He is the author of…

"His philosophy was to live his life that way he wanted to live it, and nothing was allowed to get in the way of that." 

Shig Murao: The Soul of the Rising Sun

Shigeyoshi…