Mission Mission

Welcome to the second installment of “Drama Talk & Drinks”, a new feature here on Mission Mission. Our friends Katie Cruz and Brittany Janis go see a local show, then they go to a bar, get drinks, and talk about it. Here’s their report:

[pic by Katie Cruz]

Rumor had it something funny was going on under Lost Weekend Video. Last year they opened The Cinecave in their basement, and now they’re hosting a variety of awesomeness, including some of SF’s funniest. Last Saturday we decided to check out their Cynic Cave Comedy Show featuring Bucky Sinister, Shanti Charan, Red Scott, Kelly Anneken and Miles K hosted by George Chen and Kevin O’Shea. Here’s our drama talk:

Brittany: The host (Kevin O’Shea) was awesome! I loved that he started with “This is the most fun you are going to have in a basement in 2013” because I think that is true. I haven’t had that much fun in a basement in a while.

Katie: I definitely didn’t feel lied to, which is always nice. Shockingly good for $10.

(more…)

The Secret Alley (where I am a co-founder) is an art space here in the neighborhood. A Kickstarter has just been launched to remake the dull lobby into a sweet space to show of the work of local talent, The Galallery, also to be known as The Typoe Gallery.

The Secret Alley is a strange and maybe magical place where people build things, make movies, paint, screen things, make presentations, play and generally have a good time making and doing weird stuff. It’s hard to describe and I do it no justice by trying.

For the past few years there have been Halloween installations in the lobby downstairs, maybe you saw the Death Ray, where you could use the interface to blow up local hot spots (the subwoofer under the seat really made you feel like you might just poop):

Or the hallway monster the year before, which was just part of a larger dungeon theme:

There have also been some other art shows in the lobby, but the space does nothing to showcase the work. It’s not inspiring. It’s not amazing. It’s lame. Just as we brought our talented friends together to build the 360º old alleyway set, now it’s time to build out the lobby. When we started building The Alley seven years ago we did it on our own dimes, but it’s still costing us, and we kind of don’t have the dimes to expand. Plus we want to pay our friends fairly for their time. They’re really good at what they do. That’s where you come in.

If you’ve ever enjoyed spending some time there, or if you want to, or even if it’s not your cup of tea, please consider helping the talented crew create an amazing space to showcase local work. There are some really cool perks you can get for your contribution, including having the place to yourself for a night for you and your friends (pitch in together and have a grand time!). We don’t have the money of Jack Spade NYC, but we want to keep cool places in our hood!

Check out the Kickstarter here!

Please share with your friends, followers, readers, likers and hangers-on!

Storytelling radio show and podcast, The Moth, has been bringing its live show to cities across the country and now has a monthly series at The Rickshaw Stop. They invited us to check out the first one, which we gladly did.

The theme of the night was SECRETS, which seemed a little broad and obvious for this kind of storytelling series, but the participants came up with some great things to share and host Dan Kennedy held it all together with playful banter in between. Everyone who came in had the option to put their name into a bag at the beginning, and then were selected at random to come up and tell their stories. So the night was a literal grab bag of performances. The range happened to work out really well. Some stories were just okay, worthy of a polite clap for being willing to get up there and do it, and some pretty much knocked me on my ass. The thing they all had in common for me was a real feel of sincerity, no matter how earnest or sarcastic the tone was, which made them relatable and hard to dismiss.

The stories are given number ratings by teams of audience judges which are then added up at the end to pronounce a winner. After ten of these live shows, called the SLAMS, the winner from each will compete in the GrandSLAM Championship. In my opinion, Cory Rosen told the overall best story that night, and the judges agreed with me.

I got to interview the Producer of The Moth, Jennifer Hixson, and the Host, Dan Kennedy (author of Rock On: An Office Power Ballad), backstage just following the show, which was really an adrenaline-fueled fun and fast paced candid conversation:

Mission Mission: I’m not a journalist, just a blogger, I have no ethics or scruples.

Jennifer Hixson (Moth Producer): Oh, even more frightening! (keeps riffing for a while)

MM: I wish I didn’t have questions, this is great!

Dan Kennedy (Moth Host): Now you know what I’ve been dealing with for ten years. I have the funniest stories . . .

JH: This Orangina’s getting to me!

MM: Okay, well, is there anything different for The Moth in San Francisco?

JH: Well, in some ways across the country the stories are the same: heartbreak, job loss, family stuff . . . But of course San Francisco’s gonna have an amazing different flavor, this is a wild city, this is a place where a lot of stuff meets.

DK: Well, the first story [tonight] was about a woman being led up to heaven by an angel after she was hit on her bicycle, and it wasn’t too long after that that we went into a story of a boy learning to masturbate. I think that’s a pretty awesome range, and we heard everything in between. I don’t think that happens in a lot of cities.

(more…)

Penis.

Welcome to “Drama Talk and Drinks”, a new feature here on Mission Mission. Our friends Katie Cruz and Brittany Janis go see a local show, then they go to a bar, get drinks, and talk about it. For the first installment they saw The Happy Ones at the Magic Theatre and then had drinks at Royal Cuckoo. Here’s their report:

We braved the wild coastal lands of Fort Mason to see opening night of The Happy Ones at Magic Theatre, directed by Jonathan Moscone. We made it back to the Mission and went to Royal Cuckoo to debrief. This is a transcript of our drama talk.

B: What should we get to drink? I feel like we should drink something that they drank during the show…They drink so many bloody mary’s and martinis and gin…

K: And sangria.
(orders gin and tonic)

B: What do you think the name of this review should be?
(orders a martini)

K: Oh sweet Jesus…How about “Slow start but ends with a bang”? At first I was like “Whaaat is this?” But their acting actually got better as it went on. Those first few scenes they were trying so hard to be happy 70’s Americans.

B: RIGHT! So, I would have called it “The Incredibly WAY too Happy Ones”. When they actually let themselves get serious the play had some really lovely moments.

(more…)

I mean, come on. That was goin’ off.

These are just two that I grabbed, not even counting the rainbows, I can’t keep up with all the others people are posting. Add yours in the comments!

The Untitled Michael Lannan Comedy, as it’s currently known, centers around “three thirty-something friends living in San Francisco who grapple with all the options in contemporary life and the complexities of the modern gay experience”, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show’s adapted from a comedic feature script by Lannan called Lorimer. It will star Jonothan Groff, from Glee, who also is apparently dating Zachary Quinto. So . . . there’s your Hollywood gossip.

[stock photo by me, just in case it helped to see an image of the Mission]

Anyway, it sounds like they’ll be shooting sometime soon around the neighborhood, possibly at bars like El Rio and Esta Noche. So far HBO has only greenlit the pilot, but just in case it gets picked up I’m thinking about taglines for them.

Going off of the little info I have:

Sex and the City by the Bay

A Story of the Modern Millennial Milieu

Out and About some Boys

Gay Bay Today, Bab-ay

Anyone else?

UPDATE: Casting info includes a “Dancing Bear” stripper and a good looking gay couple with a mixed-race child to hang out in “the park”, which could be Dolores, but I guess people still hang out in other parks . . . ?