Any art student can tell you San Francisco is and has been a haven for visual and performing artists. The city has museums for everything from cartoon art to statue gardens. There are LED light displays on the Bay Bridge, and on the windows of the top 6 floors of the City’s tallest building. The music scene is as lively as it ever was, from string quartets playing in the subway stations to local groups who become major headliners, like Train. The local secret is the art you find in passing. Maybe it’s not so much a secret as something people take for granted. Doesn’t everyone walk past a bronze statue of a man with multiple heads, arms and legs on their walk to the office? Or come up from a Muni station to a stage hosting a hip hop dance group for one random night on Market street? I really like these little gems tucked in not-so-obvious places. I like them so much, I put at least one in each of my books.