Bag of Tricks

BAG OF TRICKS is a compilation of short stories about San Francisco punks in the early 80's.

These vignettes stand alone yet bleed into one another. Meet the band The Shits, their groupies The Clits, and an array of colourful characters who populate these streets, squats and punk shows. With them, we cop drugs, shoot up, dumpster dive, trip around The City, go to punk shows and slip between the cracks of society.

Most of the stories are true, although some of the details may or may not have happened...

Bag of Tricks: Mixed Stories of Life as a San Francisco Punk in the early 80's by Ruby Dee Philippa is BOOK ONE OF A PUNK TRILOGY.

Ruby grew up in the foothills of Northern CA and the West Texas flatlands, riding horses in the back woods near Folsom Prison, and singing with family on the back porch. She attended SDSU at fifteen- studying electrical engineering and drama- then stumbled into life on the streets of San Francisco, enchanted by all the grime and glitz, the drugs and wild nights, even the discordance and insanity of life as a punk in those early days. Moving on, Ruby co-founded the North Coast California Earth First! in Arcata, CA while attending Humboldt State, and fished across Alaskan waters. Eventually, she moved to Seattle, WA where she opened a series of restaurants, then transitioned from restaurateur to singer/songwriter when she started the roots-rockabilly band Ruby Dee and the Snakehandlers in 2002. Thrice Grammy-considered, they tour the world and produce award-winning records. In 2023, Ruby wrote Bag of Tricks after reconnecting with old punk friends and reminiscing about those lost years. Most of what she wrote came from events that really occurred, though Ruby took liberties and changed some details because she could.