And you are...?

This is the Sentinel Building, located at the corner of Columbus and Kearny streets in San Francisco. It's just a few blocks walk from my work. To get there, I walk down Montgomery Street, through the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid, past the Original Clown Alley Restaurant, past the old Transamerica building (now the Church of Scientology,) and there it is, in the crotch between Larry Flynt's Hustler Club and the City Lights Bookstore (who first published Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in the Fall of 1956).

Why am I telling you this? Stick around.

The Sentinal Building has a really interesting history. It was being contructed when the 1906 earthquake and fire devastated San Francisco, and the steel frame survived. Here's a picture. It looks a little bent, but apparently they straightened it out. After Googling around, I learned that it's one of the last flat-iron constructed buildings left, and its unusual green color is from the aged copper skin around the outside.



It was built by Abe Ruef, a big time political boss, who later spent several years in San Quentin for graft. After getting out of jail, Ruef had his office on the top floor. It was the home of "Caesars Grill" a restaurant which was credited for inventing the Caesar salad, and which was shut down during prohibition for violating the 18th Amendment. In the 1950's the basement was the home of Enrico Banducci's "hungry i" nightclub, but the building was deteriorating and threatened with demolition. It was purchased by Holland businessman Rob Moor, who restored it, and sold it to the folk singing group "The Kingston Trio," who used the building for their offices. The building's name was changed to the Columbus Tower Building, and was painted white, as seen in the publicity photo below. The Kingston Trio recorded several albums in the basement studio. Also, The Greatful Dead recorded "Anthem of the Sun" there.



In the 1970's it was purchased by Francis Ford Coppola, who again restored the building back to it's copper clad beauty, rechristened it The Sentinel Building, and made it the home of American Zoetrope. The basement recording studio was used for several films, including the "Godfather" trilogy and Martin Sheen's voiceovers for "Apocalypse Now." It also contains a 12-seat screening room. In 1999, the ground floor became Cafe Niebaum-Coppola, a bistro and wine shop satellite of the Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery in the Napa Valley. The third floor is the home of Zoetrope All-Story, a literary fiction magazine.

Cool, huh? When I first got back to San Francisco, I had lunch at the Cafe, and tried to drop off a resume (ahem), but of course you can't even get in to see Reception, because you must be "buzzed" through the security doors.

Recently, while in a hallway outside class at SFSU, I overheard a girl asking her friend if he was going to do the "Zoetrope thing" this year, and my ears perked up. I rushed over to the Creative Writing office, and "Lydia the Tattooed Secretary" gave me a printout regarding the Zoetrope internship program. I contacted them, and after a volley of emails with my resume and doing two critiques of stories on spec, they invited me to be a reader for the magazine.

No, I'm not getting paid. I do, however, receive the honor of being "buzzed" into this building for four hours a week. I get to sharpen my skills by helping the magazine slog through the slush pile of submitted stories, $1 espresso in the cafe, and my name in the magazine.

Yesterday was my first day, and it was great. No one gave a rip that I was there, but it was great anyway. I'll tell you more about it later.

In the mean time, check out their website, and take a trip through their Virtual Studio.