A little story about Gin.
More stories to come.

Songs:
Tom Waits. 'Gin Soaked Boy'.
Bessie Smith. 'Me and My Gin'.

Art:
William Hogarth ~ Gin Lane and Beer lane
A great Article about the history of GIn. 

 

Welcome to Behind the Bar where host Ginger Murray delves into the best and the worst stories of being on the job told by those people who serve the drinks and the celebration, the lessened loneliness and the moments in between.
The world comes to us and we want to share a little bit of our world with you.

In this episode: The Don of San Pedro, North Beach Dish, ( as in Gossip), a 1970's almost 'Me Too' moment that I had to ask some questions about, Anthony Bourdain, Finding an important presidential file on a chair, some elves and an honoring of the Flaneur.

John Graham is a great artist of many talents. Who has incidentally been a bartender and waiter over decades.  He has many astounding stories to tell and it was an honor to interview him.  One of  my favorite stories about John is during an art week honoring the absurdists, he gifted me a small rock when I was behind the bar at an art gallery opening. I still have that rock.

~He also created the fictional town of El Fornio to tell stories and create art.
http://elfornio.org/jgraham-home.htm?fbclid=IwAR1wDqkk1Say0dIy9JJmkjw9hVVDm8gF5Rbza2ICj6Yy7T7mJOUDEl5g4gA

You can buy his work here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JohnGrahamArtStore?fbclid=IwAR3-UUy5vm5uU9y6w0Y1qpSHukGbIDBqYIWOgHHGQmDw_2ZLYd4mYLUWrYo

~He has just published a new book: Looking for Elves at Wood Creek.
It's great. https://app.thebookpatch.com/BookStore/looking-for-elves-at-wood-creek-hunting-and-other-stories/a1167407-8951-4503-89c6-0ba7728d2a17

And he plays piano...............The songs: By John Graham.
Gory Knob
The Story of Women and Water.

Ginger Murray has been a bartender since 1994, working in New York, London, Glasgow, Spain and San Francisco. She lives in Oakland tending lemon trees and enjoying the streets. Eventually - she will be back at the Rite Spot. 

Welcome to Behind the Bar where host Ginger Murray delves into the best and the worst stories of being on the job told by those people who serve the drinks and the celebration, the lessened loneliness and the moments in between.
The world comes to us and we want to share a little bit of our world with you.

In this episode: The Egg Wars, Occupy, Oceanic Upwelling, Common Murres, the Rite Spot, Goddamn Great Science and Ghosts.

Taylor is a fighter. A fighter of a particular kind. She fights for the caring of people and marine animals. She also unusually, for a bartender, wakes up early to do conservation work but still enjoys the delights of being a bartender. From night to day she brings what is important.
Also, the reason she left us for awhile was because she had breast cancer which is what Annie Southworth - our great Rite Spot reason why we are all there - died of.
Taylor thankfully recovered but has many stories to tell about the difficulties of what all that means. 
And she is happy to talk about it.
In the meantime, we are all so delighted that she survived and is thriving. And fighting.
A song that she loves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogypBUCb7DA

The Farallon Islands and the Egg Wars.
Taylor's co-researcher wrote a really great book about it.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/15/487644637/the-gold-hungry-forty-niners-also-plundered-something-else-eggs

The Great Annie Southworth: https://www.kqed.org/arts/13826724/remembering-annie-southworth-booster-for-san-franciscos-rock-scene


Closing Song is by the  wonderful Lee Vilenski Trio ~ Destination Love.
https://www.leevilensky.com/


Ginger Murray has been a bartender since 1994, working in New York, London, Glasgow, Spain and San Francisco. She lives in Oakland tending lemon trees and enjoying the streets. Eventually - she will be back at the Rite Spot. 

Welcome to Behind the Bar where host Ginger Murray delves into the best and the worst stories of being on the job told by those people who serve the drinks and the celebration, the lessened loneliness and the moments in between.
The world comes to us and we want to share a little bit of our world with you.

In this episode: Being a Woman in a Dublin Bar, John the poet, Amusing Proposals, Fucking with Dodger fans, The beauty of feisty Old Women and the importance of a Finger of scotch.

Joanna is a bartender extraordinaire and is a rare entity, in that, she has always wanted to be a bartender.  And she has all the work the prove it. She has run Vesuvio with grace and an honoring that can only come from being a very great person who love these spaces and also knows how to fuck with people when needed.

She has also written a book based on her quips, experiences and moments of delightful strangeness of being behind the bar. It will be published soon - Stay Tuned

Vesuvio ~ first established in 1948 by an art-lover named Henri Lenoir who was looking to create a bohemian gathering spot. Housed in a 1913 Italian Renaissance Revival building, it became a popular hangout for members of the Beat Generation, including Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who opened the famous City Lights Bookstore next door in 1953.
It has been told that Kerouac was supposed to meet Henry Miller up in Big Sur but he was too happy being at Vesuvio that he never made it. 

Personally, I'm a bit tired of the adoration of those particular figures. Particularly, as there were also great women writers who also hung out there then. And more importantly, many great women writers who have been staff at Vesuvio. The recent years there under Joanna's care has been a great era of its own. Worthy, in fact, of history.

One more quote from Joanna's book because as she says, "Everything is so shitty, Donald Trump is president. Why not put out something that makes people laugh."   

"First customer of the day: a man in a suit jacket, a hot pink tie, and no shirt. Hooray." ~ Joanna Blanche Lioce
You can follow her here: https://www.instagram.com/jolioce/?hl=en

And you can enjoy a little bit of the 70th Anniversary here ~ Nora Toomey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpM4JLL2IA




Ginger Murray has been a bartender since 1994, working in New York, London, Glasgow, Spain and San Francisco. She lives in Oakland tending lemon trees and enjoying the streets. Eventually - she will be back at the Rite Spot. 

Welcome to Behind the Bar where host Ginger Murray delves into the best and the worst stories of being on the job told by those people who serve the drinks and the celebration, the lessened loneliness and the moments in between. 
The world comes to us and we want to share a little bit of our world with you. 

In this episode: Marlon the Man, Henry Rollins, quarantine, some bikers, a butterfly knife, Russ the Veteran of Vietnam and all the different ways that medicine can be. 

Will Stenberg is a poet, musician and bartender.
Hailing from Mendocino, California he currently lives in Portland, Oregon. A land of great dive bars and even groovier - bartenders.

I'm a sincere fan and you can be a fan too.
His writing can be found here: https://www.jimtrainer.net/nocomebacks
And here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/true-story-36516990

His song Fish in the River closes the podcast and you can find more songs here: https://willstenberg.bandcamp.com/album/resurrection-coast

~Though we've never actually met, I grew up in Oregon and it was in Portland that I first fell in love. Portland is a great river town with all the redolent sadness that entails and yet, the steady rolling on.
Though I long ago left that town, I love its old buildings and radical Hope.

Speaking of, here is the post that got Henry Rollins' all fired up.
Read it!
You'll be glad you did.


Ginger Murray has been a bartender since 1994, working in New York, London, Glasgow, Spain and San Francisco. She lives in Oakland tending lemon trees and enjoying the streets. Eventually - she will be back at the Rite Spot. 

Welcome to Behind the Bar where host Ginger Murray delves into the best and the worst stories of being on the job told by those people who serve the drinks and the celebration, the lessened loneliness and the moments in between. 

Philly Dan and the Drag Bar, Bad Boardwalk Behavior, Compromising cocktail making advice and more....

The world comes to us and we want to share a little bit of our world with you. 

James Hoback works Tuesday Happy Hour at Dogwood in downtown Oakland and Sunday evenings at the Lodge.

Ginger Murray has been a bartender since 1995, working in New York, London, Spain and San Francisco. She currently works at the Rite Spot. 

A brief tale from those early days: 

My first job was at a BBQ joint in New York City with floors covered in peanut shells and many pictures of pigs. It was the lunch shift and my customers were mostly all carpenters and electricians from Long Island who would come in before their union meeting, a few fire fighters and the old men who would fill out their OTB sheets at the bar. For those not in the know, OTB stands for Off Track Betting and yes, if one of their horses won I would get part of their winnings as a tip. It was a tradition, you see, far older than than I was. 

And then there were the Twins. Handsome and knowing it, cheeky and loud, they once stole the pig statue that held our specials board. But it was when they brought the statue back that I first noticed the confederate flag stickers in their wallets. Not yet old enough to drink myself and new to the city, I was unaware of a certain bizarre culture of parts of Long Island. A - never having lived in the South yet reenact Civil War battles in favor of the South, carry confederate flags and speak easily and atrociously about being ‘Proud of one’s heritage’ - culture. 

All of that is not so surprising Now, considering what has bubbled up from the sewers of our rotted National edifice since the last election but Then it floored me. My liberal, from Eugene, self was horrified. 

It was my first important lesson as a bartender. Anyone and everyone may sidle up to that expanse of slippery wood, even those who make your skin crawl. A wide and broad view of humanity it most certainly is. But unlike some other lines of work that interact with all manner of the human race, We as Bartenders can sometimes Do something about it. 

We can withhold the treats. 

I 86’d the Twins.

Songs: 
'Hey Bartender, Give that Man a drink' by Joe Williams with Red Saunders and his Orchestra. 

'Summer Wine' by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood