The most famous local eccentric from San Francisco in the late 20th century was probably Jim Jones—a little before my time, but back in the day, he founded a cult-like church, moved the congregation to Guyana, and convinced the entire flock to commit mass suicide by poisoning. Another notable personage was Anton LaVey from the Church of Satan. When I moved to San Francisco, his house in Pacific Heights was still painted all black, although I’m not sure he was still living there.
During punk rock’s heyday in the 1980s, the most well-known local weirdo was Frank Chu, who would devise bizarre, surrealistic protest signs and hold them up in public for hours on end. He was sometimes known as “the 12 Galaxies guy,” because his messages often contained cryptic references to 12 Galaxies. Frank would often post up in the financial district, which was particularly amusing given the absurd, paranoid-schizophrenic nature of his messages.
And speaking of cryptic, experimental rock pioneers The Residents used to live at 666 Grove Street. (Coincidentally, I also had a friend who lived at 666 O’Farrell.) Unrelated to The Residents, there was a woman who used to wear all white, cover herself in blinking LED light strands, and set up her cheap synthesizer next to ATMs and play strange original tunes. I don’t know if she was busking; I don’t remember seeing anyone give her money.
Thinking about Frank Chu reminds me that when I was a teenager in Washington, DC, a lot of us were terrified of a notorious, rarely-seen specter known as The Cabbage Head Lady. A few people I knew had claimed to have seen her. But I never did, so for a while I thought maybe it was a hoax. Then one day I got on a bus and there she was, standing right in the aisle. A fully-stuffed dark green trash bag was balanced on top of her head, obscuring her entire face except for her downturned mouth. Around her neck, hanging on a string necklace, was a framed photo of diseased bodies. My blood ran cold. In her hands she had a stack of xeroxed flyers with some kind of conspiratorial information. Much later I did some research and believe with about 55% confidence that the woman was named Concepcion Picciotto. No idea if she’s related to Guy Picciotto from Fugazi. The images of Concepcion still on the internet always show her with a large head covering, although none of them were as disturbing as the full “cabbage head” trash bag which I saw in person.
