I n the summer of 2003, the Minnesota Public Radio show the Savyy Traveler asked producers around the country to create portraits in sound of the cities they live in. My portrait of San Francisco, which I titled San Francisco Sauvignon, aired on July 4, 2003. As I wrote to the show's producer, the idea behind this portrait was not so much to take on the impossible task of capturing the essence of the city  but to sketch as fully as possible the San Francisco that I know, that my wife and I inhabit, during this part of our lives. Some of the sounds I use will be familiar to casual visitors (streetcar bells, the fat happy sealions of Fisherman's Wharf, perhaps an icecream cart patrolling the Mission); but others are elements of a more secretive San Francisco: the one that I love and the one that keeps me rooted here.