montanasanfran's profile

San Francisco is now my home and has been for many years. My work takes me to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas, Minneapolis, Seattle - all over the United States. I've traveled to England, Sweden, Italy, Mexico, Canada. My two favorite places in the world are Montana and San Francisco, in that order.

I am looking out at my sweet flower-filled and bee-attracting garden - which is also full of butterflies - and I'm musing over how quickly life goes by.  I am amazed to be 55;  I still feel 30 inside, but the mirror confirms I am older than that.  I was raised in Montana, which I fled;  now I have been longing to complete the circle and to go back Home.  I never fully left - still have wonderful friends and family there - but I have lived away for nearly thirty years.  Most of that time I have spent in San Francisco, an amazing city which is bursting with creativity and colorful life, and I have been mostly happy here.  A teacher first and a journalist by education, I came here to write and ended up in the business side of publishing on a fascinating road that has led me ultimately to the internet.  My staff keeps me young and makes me laugh.  In my spare time, I buy and sell antiques in a little San Francisco neighborhood shop.  Flea markets and estate sales ... I rescue the "stuff " of history and dreams. 

So I grew up on rock and roll - and never grew out of a love for it. But I have always gravitated towards music and musicians - of all types - and that has resulted in my developing a very eclectic view. One shelf of CDs holds the following odd collection: My very favorite hard to find in CD "Music from Big Pink" (The Band). I searched high and low for it. Also Niel Diamond, The Rolling Stones, Music from Alice (SF radio station), Secret Garden, Sinead O'Connor, The Best of Van Morrison, Kate Melua, Roy Orbison, The O'Neill Brothers (Favorite Irish Melodies), Fleetwood Mac, Macy Gray, Dido, James Blunt and Rod Stewart.

I loved the little I saw of Mad Men last season. Grey's Anatomy. Entourage. Law and Order (is there anyone who doesn't like Law and Order?). The Office, although it isn't as funny as it used to be.

The Humane Society, The Food Bank, Glide, Project Open Hand

I own a small neighborhood antiques shop in Noe Valley in San Francisco. I started by being interested in Victorian furniture but I have been more recently moved by Art Deco, folk art and even interesting mid-century modern things. I frequent flea markets and estate sales, and I have found "pickers" who find the most amazing things.

The Color Purple, The Sting, Transamerica, 84 Charing Cross Road, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Capote, The Motorcycle Diaries, A Beautiful Mind, Walk the Line, Children of Heaven, Benny & Joon. So many movies, so little time.