The protagonist of the eponymous novella Flashbacks and Premonitions is positively Kerouacesque in his romanticized flight West, away from the drudgery and depression of the Northeast. There's also a beatnicky flavor to his enchantment with the sordid side of San Francisco. People move through the hallways around me like ants in a sick hive. Beyond my plaster ceiling, in that darkness of mortar and wood around me are the lighted cubes of kitchens and living rooms where people sit smoking silently at tables. Higher up they drink beer and remember old stories.
Laughter ripples near the roof.
The connection between Longhi and the beats may be simply that each had the same subject, this incredible city. Basically I've met so many fascinating people and had so many interesting experiences here that there's a never-ending well of things to write from. There was some article I wrote years ago where I called San Francisco a hallucinogenic artists colony, and I still feel that way. It's a creatively vibrant city filled with eccentric people experimenting with the boundaries of experience and personality. Unlike many creative people in San Francisco, spoken word artists don't exhibit a pathological envy of New York.