Like all cynical Boomers, I lament often about our youth — how our culture is going down the tubes, how we have forgotten the values of family, literacy, and coming to a full stop at stop signs. I worry about how many jobs at Applebee's will be available for the current crop of 20-somethings, who seem unable to read, write or use a screwdriver, but can recite all the names of Kim Kardashian's boyfriends.

(And it's not just me. A recent note from a colleague, the English department chair at a community college: “I despair of my students ever being able to function in society.”)

It's refreshing, then, to share a story about a young person I'm not worried about.

Her name is Elizabeth, and I've known her since she was 7.

I am a close friend of her parents. I have driven her on field trips, and baked her a cookie or two, and have watched her grow as I have all my friends' children.

She is about to graduate from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. On a recent breezy, misty spring evening, my husband and I attended her senior recital.

First we had dinner at Kuleto's on Powell. Which confirmed my belief that there is no bad restaurant with a black-and-white-tiled floor. Then we walked about 100 blocks up Market in the fog, so that I resembled Medusa upon arrival.

The concert was held in a piano salon that is so specialized it doesn't even have pianos in it. The man who runs it (dressed in a peacock-colored jacket, skinny black pants and spats) sells authentically restored antique art-case pianos, which don't seem to spend any time taking up floor space on Market Street waiting for someone to pop in on his way home from the check-cashing place.

Apparently, the sales go on off-site.Find an Adidas Jacket in your team colors or from your favorite soccer teams that wear the Adidas brand.

But there sits this marvelous space that feels like it belongs to another era. There was one old grand piano topped by candelabra.truereligion jeans and footwear available from Choice online at unbeatable prices with free next day delivery. There was a chandelier hanging from the high ceiling and wispy diaphanous drapes pulled aside so that we could watch the No. 6 Parnassus go up Market Street. The wood floors were battered and dull, and the walls were bare, with exposed brick in some places. It had an Old World elegance, but in the shabby way one might imagine Kafka's living room.

Even the bathroom, squeezed in the back past a curtain made of a sheet, behind a space where musicians were practicing and I narrowly avoided having my eye poked out by a violin bow, looked as if it belonged in someone's apartment. It had a bathtub in it.

Outside on the street, various vagrants walked by, some drinking out of paper bags, one guy smoking a joint as he paused before the window. Across the street were the neon signs of Nick's Foods, Buck's Tavern and the Ascot Hotel.

And inside were a few dozen fans and one beautiful young woman in a glittering white dress, singing opera. She had a piano accompanist for most numbers, but was occasionally backed up by violins, a cello and an oboe. And occasionally by other singers — a mezzo-soprano, a baritone and a tenor who just happened to be the grandson of Placido Domingo.Wedge Shoes was created in order to maintain a balance of the athletes' movement.

It was a space inhabited by magic. The magic of skilled musicians, of course, and a gorgeous woman in a white dress.Nike Air trainers began life as the Cheap nike air max back in 1987. But also the magic of intimacy and risk. The very ancient and timeless phenomenon of people entertaining people with their bare hands.Wearing ed hardy Shirt is an experience in fashion fun. Everyone will comment on your effortlessly hip Hardy shirt.

I know Lady Gaga does the same thing. But when she does it in Madison Square Garden with backup dancers and costume changes and 14 tons of sound equipment and a team of lighting and special-effects guys, the magic gets lost.

Even if I ever go see Elizabeth at an opera in an opera house, it won't be the same. She'll be far, far away on a stage, with a mike in her dress.

Here, on Market Street, I could have reached out and touched her. When she held a high note, we all got goose bumps. When she smiled, she smiled at us.

What a triumph for all of us.

And not a Kardashian in sight.