About this Site

San Francisco Offbeat is a personal, idiosyncratic compendium of places that I believe give the city its unique flavor. Rather than overwhelm you with too many choices, I've been highly selective in the listings, focusing on a few neighborhoods that reflect urban diversity and interest for tourist and local alike. Please feel free to submit a listing for consideration.

Contact e-mail: Jon O'Bergh

About the Designer

Jon O'Bergh is a San Francisco musician whose multi-ethnic style mixes elements of cyberjazz, world fusion, New Age and Space Age.

New music by Jon O'Bergh



Songs from Other Planets

A cyberjazz blend of alien voices, ambient textures and extraterrestrial grooves that will take you out of this world

Other CDs by O'Bergh
Meditations from a Lost World — Ten meditations for piano that take the listener deep into a realm beyond time.
Sacred Spaces — An exploration of sites around the world and interior regions of the mind imbued with divine spirit.
Carta — A tribute to maps, journeys and life's yearning for motion, weaving together evocative melodies with rhythms and sounds that draw from both the traditional and the futuristic. #1 on the NAV chart nationwide.
Millennial Landscapes — A portrait of the world on the verge of the new millennium, capturing the range of moods from anxiety to jubilation.

Check out this music at obergh.net

Recommended Resources

City Guides — These guided walking tours cover various parts of the city and offer fascinating historical, architectural and contemporary information. Of particular note are Victorian San Francisco, Mission Dolores neighborhood, Mission Murals and Gold Rush San Francisco. Reservations are not required except for parties over 8. A small donation to help support City Guides is requested (but never required). For a full schedule of tours and times, pick up a brochure at anyof the city's libraries, call (415) 557-4266, or check the website: www.sfcityguides.org.

San Francisco Bizarro, by Jack Boulware. A guide to notorious sights, lusty pursuits, and downright freakiness in the city by the bay. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2000. Available at Amazon.com.

San Francisco Underground Travel — San Francisco's brutally honest, independent guide to what's worth seeing and how to avoid the lamest tourist traps in the City's foggy maze. Readers scour and review San Francisco's hotels, restaurants, and attractions so you can have an awesome vacation or business trip in America's favorite city.

Planet SOMA
Planet SOMA is a non-mainstream site commenting on San Francisco's neighborhoods (particularly the South of Market area), queerdom, and life in general. Decidedly down-market, it's not about trendy fashion, circuit parties, or brain-dead generic "gay culture," but offers instead intriguing and unique info about the city's urban culture.

Dr. Weirde's Guide to Mysterious San Francisco
Dr. Weirde tells you what the other guides leave out.

FogWatch
This humorous, eccentric San Francisco website is noteworthy for its focus on that quintessential San Francisco element, fog. Check out the fog webcam so you'll never have to guess what the weather is like at the beach.

local-i Restaurant Search
local-i is an excellent resource for selecting places to dine in the city. Search by neighborhood, cuisine, price, rating, ambience and more. Includes reviews. One caveat: given the high turnover of dining places in the city, call the restaurant before going.

updated 12/29/04