Blanton, Keith Condition Pristine

One of the few that remembers you before the Cockettes at the PSW in Austin. Miss brief chats in Castro during the 70s.

I met Keith, “Pristine”, through my good college friend, Carole Bond, of Dallas Texas, when she came for a visit after I moved to San Francisco to attend the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972, after we both had lived in Paris. She insisted on meeting up with her Texas friend “Keith” an underground local “performance art” celebrity, of sorts, that was now in San Francisco, too. We met for brunch, at the iconic Hamburger Mary’s, then at 11th and Folsom Street. It was decorated in shabby chic, part thrift store collectibles and the other part roughsawn wooden booths that one might find at an old steakhouse. The bartenders all knew Keith. As we sat in a booth and dished over our meals, supplemented by Bloddy Mary’s, Keith entertained us with his stories of his San Francisco escapades, as one of the Cockettes. I regret not keeping in touch, as l remember that day fondly. Folsom Street has changed, Hamburger Mary’s has Moved to the Castro and Pristine is sadly, long gone. Ciddy Young 3-10-2019