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bruce bellingham

About Me

Bruce Bellingham is a San Francisco author and columnist. His work can be found in the San Francisco Northside & Marina Times newspapers. Bellingham wrote a widely-acclaimed daily column in the San Francisco Examiner. He was a frequent contributor to the Herb Caen column in the San Francisco Chronicle for over 17 years. Bellingham was once described by the Chronicle's Gerald Nachman as "the Boswell of the Marina," a neighborhood Bellingham has written about for over 18 years, in the Marina Times. His work has also appeared in the Irish Times, the Nob Hill Gazette, the Marin Independent Journal, FRISKO and SOMA magazines. Nachman also called him, "the columnist's friend," but that sounds too much like a plumbing utensil. He is the author of "Bellingham by the Bay" (Council Oak Books) which includes anecdotes about the famous, the infamous of San Francisco and beyond. He says his career "is as checkered as a cab" -- working as a chef, musician, broadcaster and writer. He was an editor, writer and reporter for KCBS and KQED-FM all through the 1980s. Bellingham is also a trained operatic tenor -- house-trained anyway -- and graduated from Music and Arts Institute of San Francisco. Bellingham sang at the world-famous music competition, the Festival of the Rose of Tralee in County Kerry, Ireland. He's had two featured movie roles in films directed by Oscar-winning Steven Okazaki; also appears in "Father's Day" with Billy Crystal. He narrates the documentary, "The USA vs. Tokyo Rose," which was aired on PBS. Bellingham is the voice of Herb Caen columns past of KRON-TV's 1996 film about the famed Pulitzer Prize winning columnist. Bellingham's new book-in-progress is a spindrift memoir called "The Angina Dialogues." A resident of San Francisco for over three decades -- long before any man first set foot on Britney Spears -- Bellingham grew up in New Jersey where, he's happy to say, "ravioli is still considered a vegetable."

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Let's see, who I'd like to meet. Is Uma Thurman still out there in the esplanade? Oh, I'd like to meet sparkling, interesting people who show compassion, sweetness and don't mind laughing out loud, or perhaps those, while showing wit, who might not be all the demonstrative, just chuckling like mad on the inside.

My Blog

Daisies On Cotton

This column is called "Daisies on Cotton." Why? Because my girlfriend, Sharon, told me that she bought a spring dress from Betsey Johnson. It's called "Daisies on Cotton."She sent me a pic on the Inte...
Posted by on Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:32:00 GMT

I Should Have Such Problems

Tennessee Williams used to call it the "terrah of the blank page in the typewriter." Yes, terrah. That's "terror" south of the Mason-Dixon line.It's an odd thing to imagine Tennessee Williams sufferin...
Posted by on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:32:00 GMT

a note across the universe from the dear planet (ex-planet) pluto

I was telling my good friend, Sharon (who was named for the Plutonian moon Charon) that it still chuffs me to get a word from Pluto -- it really thrills me. Who knows how many years, yes, real & absol...
Posted by on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:32:00 GMT

In San Francisco, It's All a Question of Character

There is a fine line between being a vagrant, and being what they used to call "a real character."San Francisco is the place where the line has been historically blurred. It's one place where you can ...
Posted by on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:36:00 GMT

Bellingham by the Bay, San Francisco Northside, July 2007

San Francisco's Nob Hill writer Dorothy Hearst (not related to the newspaper dynasty) just sealed an agreement with Simon & Schuster to publish Dorothy's first novel, "The Wolf Chronicles, Book I: Pro...
Posted by on Sat, 14 Jul 2007 21:17:00 GMT

Codes of Conduct, San Francisco Marina Times, July 2007

I am sure that I was not the only person in San Francisco who snickered at Sup. Chris Daly's calling for a standard of behavior on the part of officials on the job at City Hall. This level of decorum ...
Posted by on Sat, 14 Jul 2007 21:08:00 GMT

Just Give Me Some Truth, But Carefully, Please

Mark Twain once said that "a lie has more lives than a cat." Maybe he said it, but he likely wrote it down, too. There's an old newspaper saying, "Don't say it, write it." But that's off the topic. Tw...
Posted by on Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:58:00 GMT

Summertime and the Livin' Seemed to Be Easier

Love, Janis Tugs at Joplin Fans' Hearts at San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatreby Bruce Bellingham(originally published August, 2006 in San Francisco Northside)You can't help but have affection fo...
Posted by on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:54:00 GMT

Summertime and the Midnight Sun

It has occurred to me that I might be in some cardiovascular peril due to a childhood fueled by French fries and doughnuts, but I must say it isn't likely I will suffer the wicked effects of ultraviol...
Posted by on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:28:00 GMT

Being a Writer Requires a Good Pair of Shoes

I learned to read liquor bottles lined up in saloons even before I even saw the Weekly Reader. I do know my first introduction to civics and the democratic process began when my mother encouraged me, ...
Posted by on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:58:00 GMT