Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
The Spirit of OB
For a long time Ocean Beach has been notorious for the independent and rebellious spirit of its people. The countercultural mix includes hippies, bikers, surfers, skaters and artists among many others. There are political activists and environmentalists. There is an air of libertarianism that is less than subtle; I've always gotten a laugh out of seeing a 60's VW bus with a bumper sticker that reads "U.S. out of Ocean Beach" or "Die Yuppie Scum".
Also in the mix are fairly mainstream folks, even conservative folks who have been in the military and keep their lawns neat. I always found it touching how people seem to get along just fine in spite of the cultural gap. As a volunteer poll clerk for many elections, I always felt a sense of pride in my neighborhood when everyone would show up to vote whether they were wearing skate shoes or Armani loafers.
One of the interesting products of the Spirit of OB is the OB Rag, a community newspaper founded by countercultural members of the community. I'm glad to see the OB Rag has been reincarnated in electronic form as the OBrag.org blog. The people behind the OB Rag are former members of the OB Grassroots Organization, a community-based group that was politically active in the defense of the environment and social justice issues.
As OB becomes increasingly "gentrified", I worry that the Spirit of OB is being diluted by a changing demographic brought on by an economic environment that is literally pricing OB out of the range of its stalwart bohemians. Many have already been forced to move out of what was the last affordable beach community by sharp increases in rental costs. For the mostly working-class OBohemians, buying property has become virtually impossible in the hot-air bubble market of the oh-oh's.
The VW buses driven by long-haired hippies are being replaced by Hummers driven by Starbucks-binging yuppies. The charming craftsman-style single-family homes are getting torn down by the legion to each be replaced by 2-4 cookie-cutter-style condo conversions. The mom-and-pop coffee houses and eateries are being threatened by the corporate kitsch that defines the cultural vacuum of the United States of Generica.
Yet the OBohemians are not dead yet. They may smell funny, but they are still around, alive and kicking, and one place you can still find them from the comfort of your home, wherever that may be, is OBRag.org.
Check them out at http://obrag.org. If you like what they do, give them a couple of bucks. For the price of a mocha java from Starbucks you can keep the Spirit of OB alive for another day.
Here's something you might be interested in.
The Spirit of OB
For a long time Ocean Beach has been notorious for the independent and rebellious spirit of its people. The countercultural mix includes hippies, bikers, surfers, skaters and artists among many others. There are political activists and environmentalists. There is an air of libertarianism that is less than subtle; I've always gotten a laugh out of seeing a 60's VW bus with a bumper sticker that reads "U.S. out of Ocean Beach" or "Die Yuppie Scum".
Also in the mix are fairly mainstream folks, even conservative folks who have been in the military and keep their lawns neat. I always found it touching how people seem to get along just fine in spite of the cultural gap. As a volunteer poll clerk for many elections, I always felt a sense of pride in my neighborhood when everyone would show up to vote whether they were wearing skate shoes or Armani loafers.
One of the interesting products of the Spirit of OB is the OB Rag, a community newspaper founded by countercultural members of the community. I'm glad to see the OB Rag has been reincarnated in electronic form as the OBrag.org blog. The people behind the OB Rag are former members of the OB Grassroots Organization, a community-based group that was politically active in the defense of the environment and social justice issues.
As OB becomes increasingly "gentrified", I worry that the Spirit of OB is being diluted by a changing demographic brought on by an economic environment that is literally pricing OB out of the range of its stalwart bohemians. Many have already been forced to move out of what was the last affordable beach community by sharp increases in rental costs. For the mostly working-class OBohemians, buying property has become virtually impossible in the hot-air bubble market of the oh-oh's.
The VW buses driven by long-haired hippies are being replaced by Hummers driven by Starbucks-binging yuppies. The charming craftsman-style single-family homes are getting torn down by the legion to each be replaced by 2-4 cookie-cutter-style condo conversions. The mom-and-pop coffee houses and eateries are being threatened by the corporate kitsch that defines the cultural vacuum of the United States of Generica.
Yet the OBohemians are not dead yet. They may smell funny, but they are still around, alive and kicking, and one place you can still find them from the comfort of your home, wherever that may be, is OBRag.org.
Check them out at http://obrag.org. If you like what they do, give them a couple of bucks. For the price of a mocha java from Starbucks you can keep the Spirit of OB alive for another day.
Sponsored
Previous article
Coffee's king rankles in Ocean Beach
“A customer told me about [the sign] and I said, ‘No, it’s not okay.’”
Next Article
Voltaire Street property sale raises ruckus
Ocean Beach publication doesn't resist rumors in climate of rental market unrest