Mission Mission

I haven’t actually seen this show yet, but I know Chris Libby personally and he always cracks me up. Plus it’s at StageWerx, a fun little theater on Valencia near 16th that you’ve probably never been to. Here’s the deal:

HUGE is Chris Libby and Anthony Veneziale – two improvisers, two guitars, infinite possibilities. Join us for our signautre long-form comedy improv show with music! The audience throws out suggestions and we turn those into songs, scenes and laughter. No two shows are ever the same.

Get tickets here.

One of the greatest annual events in San Francisco! Coming up September 12th!

Read all about it and sign up (it’s very loose though, don’t worry) here!

Happy birthday, Four Barrel! Here’s the official word:

• $1 drinks. Yep: All drinks are $1. In the past we’ve given them away for free, but this year we decided to do some good, and so we’ll be donating the money from the $1 drink “sales” to our friends at the Robot Mata coffee cooperative in Ethiopia. The money raised will go toward school supplies, chairs, facility expansion and renovation, etc. Think of it as a forced donation to a rad cause.
• Free Photo Booth. Glass Coat Photo Booth will be setting up their annual free photo booth from 12pm-4pm so that people can remember this day always and forever.
• We’re serving free Tartine cake promptly at 12pm. (It doesn’t last long)
• For the smaller kids, we’ll have a mobile petting zoo set up in one of our parklet corrals from 12pm–3pm, courtesy of Little Explorers Mobile Petting Zoo.
• Skylite Snowballs (fancy Baltimore sno-cones with hot marshmallow topping) will set up out front from 12pm-4pm.
• Free ice cream scoops while they last, courtesy of our buddies at Humphry Slocombe.
• For the bigger kids: free Street Fighter II and Big Buck Hunter arcade games all day.

[File photo of Primo outside Four Barrel via an old post about Primo's art]

Join us every Tuesday of the month and test your wits at Pops trivia night “POP’s Quiz” where your brain may get stump on categories such as Pop’s culture, Sports, Movies, Music and more, with little snippets of audio and visual effects too! It starts at 7:00pm ends at 10:00pm. So come on in for some good ole fashion competition and a night of drinking with the crew! It is a 2 dollar cover and winner gets the pot!! So tell friends and family because the more peeps, the steeper the cash prize is!!

Here’s a taste:

What is SF’s steepest street?

*Scroll to the bottom to see if you are right*

Check out the rest of this week’s entertainment line up at Pops Bar:

8/17/15 MONDAY

MOM at POPS:

Motown on Mondays

It’s only Monday if you treat it like one.

M.O.M

9PM START, 1:30AM end

Hey!

Check out my

M.O.M.

Mondays at Pops

DJ BLUZ, ALARM & GUESTS

PLAYS ORIGINALS, EXCLUSIVE REMIXES

AND CLOSE RELATIVES OF YOUR FAVORITE

MOTOWN SONGS…

8/18/15 TUESDAY

Trivia Tuesdays

Pops Quiz

$2 to play

7-10PM

Join us every Tuesday of the month and test your wits at Pops trivia night “POP’s Quiz” where your brain may get stump on categories such as Pop’s culture, Sports, Movies, Music and more, with little snippets of audio and visual effects too! It starts at 7:00pm ends at 10:00pm. So come on in for some good ole fashion competition and a night of drinking with the crew! It is a 2 dollar cover and winner gets the pot!! so tell friends and family because the more peeps the steeper the cash prize is!!

MUSIC THERAPY

Electro-Cumbia Breaks, Hip Hop, Nu Latin Beats

10PM-1:30am

No Cover

21 UP

8/19/15 WEDNESDAY

Spike’s Live Piano Karaoke

Every 3rd Wednesday 7-10pm with Karl on the Keys

Whatever Wednesdays

Whatever Wednesday is YOUR PARTY, literally. You got DJ skills? Have you been itching to show ALL your friends? Its your turn to take over the night and mix it up. Send us your request, your best mix and we’ll see what we can do to get you your turn.

Email: tom@popssf.com

No Cover

21 UP

8/20/15 THURSDAY

BFF.FM Night

9PM-1:30AM

Rotating DJs from local BFF.fm radio! This week: Cult of Riffs

Come support local community radio.

No Cover

8/21/15 FRIDAY

MUSIC THERAPY

Electro-Cumbia Breaks, Hip Hop, Nu Latin Beats

6PM-9PM

Cult of Choice

9PM-2AM

A night dedicated to those of us who turn the music up unreasonably loud in our own living rooms just to feel the vibration, who stand feet from the stage attempting to understand how the guitar player gets that sound, who travel to places around the world because of the music that was born there, who connect with music as their own unique form of worship.

We have many a musical cult to choose from, and every 3rd Friday, we do our best to honor them all. From T.Rex to Tinariwen, John Holt to Howlin’ Wolf, Baris Manco to Merle Haggard, Ann Peebles to Arthur Russell, Rza to Ranking Dread, Fania to Fela.

Cult of Choice is hosted by a ragtag group of record collectors and music appreciators with the sole intention of sharing music with you. So come listen, dance, and even talk to us! We’d love to tell you all about who you’re listening to.

This Week

Record Selections by LP, Lord Cromwell, & casias

Live hiphop performance by Brothers Amor & Karen Less

No Cover

21 UP

8/22/15 SATURDAY

Patch & Rita

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9PM

Who could resist this dynamic duo, with their sonorous adventures into the deserts of early 20th century songwriting? If you’ve got a hankerin’ for some rootsy boot-stompin’ tunes about whiskey and cheatin’ women, then this is your place. Patch & Rita throw down some tunes like this coast has never seen, and you’ll leave stomping your feet, we promise.

Candy Rain

The Gawds of mediocre rap MP3s played too loudly out of a subpar house party sound system are back! Throwback 90s, early 2000s hip hop and R&B.

9PM-1:30AM

No Cover

8/23/15 SUNDAY

DOUBLE FEATURE SUNDAYS

Watch your favorite movies and series at Pops!

9PM

No Cover

Email movie suggestions to tom@popssf.com

POPS BAR

2800 24th Street @ York

San Francisco, CA 94110

www.popssf.com

*Lombard Street gets all the love, but Filbert St. between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets is the steepest—31.5 degrees!*

Capp Street Crap has the scoop:

Missing their old haunt, two devotees of the shuttered Lexington Club are putting on the first of what they hope will be a monthly queer night at the Uptown bar. Uptown Homos, “a dyke, lesbian, unicorn, trans queer night of flirtation,” takes place tonight, from 6 to 11 p.m.

Kelly Robbie Hansen and partner Tanya Wischerath worked with Uptown to put together the event which will feature $5 Jameson and tequila drink specials. Wischerath, a former Lexington Club bartender also known as “Hot Tanya,” will be helping out behind the bar.

Read on for more quotes and origin story.

Beyonce tells us “Who run the world? Girls!”, but she forgets about the theater world…and the film world…and the business world when she prematurely asserts feminism’s victory. Only roughly 20% of plays produced nationally are written by women, which is technically more then the number of female written screenplays, but still a pretty paltry representation for half the human population. So when we found out about 3 Girls Theatre (3GT) new works festival that is dedicated to presenting works by female playwrights, we wanted to find out more. We got to sit down with 3GT’s Founder, Artistic Director and Resident Playwright, AJ Baker to learn more about the company and their festival which opens this week at Thick House.

Katie: Why did you originally start Three Girls Theater?

AJ: Only 20% of mainstream theater that is produced is written by women, and that’s across the board, that’s not just Broadway. It’s very hard for women to get work produced. My partners and I thought, we need to stop complaining about this and do something. You can’t just sit around and wait for the culture to change, you have to be a change agent.

Brittany: Be the change, as they say.

A: We are facing such a gigantic cultural bias against the voice of women. If it’s written by a women or has issues that are considered “women’s issues” (which in reality are issues that concern everybody) for some reason it’s not viewed as important as male-written works. The perspective of a women telling a story is a human perspective, in the same way as a man telling a story is a human perspective. That’s why our tag line is “Putting women’s work onstage where it belongs”.

K: What challenges has your company faced over the past 4 years?

A: There are so many small companies in the Bay Area. This is probably one of the most vibrant cities for independent theater in the country. It’s New York, Chicago, and the Bay Area. There are just so many people competing for the same arts dollars, cannibalizing the same audience, and that I think is the real challenge. The same audience just can’t go to everything. I just want more energy, more young people to learn about this amazingly rich and wonderful cultural resource we have. So often you sit in a theater and look around you and there is just old white people. In Marin if you’re not there with your oxygen tank you feel left out. But these are the people who buy tickets, they are people who care about theater, and support it. There’s no reason theater needs to be for old people, it’s fun, it tells compelling stories, at its best it brings people together in community for a shared emotional and cultural experience. This is why I think we need to focus on expanding the audience. That’s why our festival is free.

B: How did the pieces in the festival get chosen?

A: The first 2 plays are finalists in our salon series, which is a series of 6 new plays we put up in people’s living rooms and then we have an independent panel of judges that pick 2 of the 6 that go on to be done at the festival. We also have judges for the festival who pick one piece that we will produce in full.

K: Why should people come out?

A: It’s FREE, the theater is right on Potrero Hill, there’re great restaurants nearby, you can get a glass of wine and drink while you watch, and it’s not a gigantic time commitment, none of the showings are more than 90 minutes. They start at 7:30 so you will be out around 9pm and you can still go bar hopping.

VERDICT: This is a win win situation. Support local theater, the women’s movement, and independent artists all for free. We will be there. We hope you will too.

WHAT: 3Girls Theatre Company Presents…

The 4th Annual New Works Festival

3GT Honors Risky Women: Having Fun and Wreaking Havoc!

WHERE: Thick House

1695 18th St. (between Arkansas and DeHaro)

TICKETS: FREE

But reserving tickets is recommended:

www.tinyurl.com/3GirlsTickets

WHEN: Monday, August 3 to Sunday, August 9, 2015

August 3 @ 7:30pm: Entanglement by AJ Baker

August 4 @ 7:30pm: Kicking Facebook by Margery Kreitman

August 5 @ 7:30pm: The Effects of Ultraviolet Light

August 6 @ 7:30pm: ReproRights! Women @ Risk

August 7 @ 7:30pm: Best of Lezwrites!

August 8 @ 1–6pm: Women Playwrights Meet & Greet

1pm: Kicking Facebook by Margery Kreitman

2:30pm: Entanglement by AJ Baker

4pm: Talk Back

4:30-6pm: Champagne Reception

August 9 @ 12pm & 2pm: Girl Talk Teen Monologues

*Beginning 30 minutes before each performance:

Lobby Art Exhibit. Risky Women: Wreaking Havoc!

Wow, has it really been two years already?

The Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative has been an amazing adventure, thanks for joining us on the journey. We need your help to continue to stay open and to thrive. Join us on July 24th and raise a glass to a wondrous creature known as Adobe Books, and to learn more about how you can get involved by joining the co-op.

There’ll be art from the staff, music, and treats from Tartine!  Check out all the details here.

Previously:

• How to celebrate an anniversary

Are you an architecture nerd, scuzzy ex-mall rat, or a person who loves cool and interesting things? Then you’ll love the first annual Gruen Day, taking place tomorrow, July 18, at the Bayfair Center in the Eastern Bay!

Back in May, 99% Invisible‘s Avery Trufelman wrote and produced an excellent episode on Victor Gruen, inventor of the shopping mall. Avery then joined forces with Tim Hwang (founder of the Bay Area Infrastructure Observatory) and SPUR to produce Gruen Day: a celebration of our favorite suburban merchandising complexes and its creator.

Festivities include talks, tours, nerding out, and hanging out in the food court at Bayfair Center (which, FYI, opened in 1957 as one of the first Gruen-designed shopping centers in the country). There may or may not be Minions present.

Gruen Day tickets are still available here! Plus, every ticket scores you a limited-edition poster designed by Justin Carder and two shiny limited-edition pins designed by yours truly:

(Fun fact: One of these pins may or may not have been inspired by my misreading of “Gruen Day” in an email subject line…)

RSVP and invite your friends here!

And grab yourself a ticket here before they sell out!

Yep, that’s right, the Tenderloin Museum!  And things are starting off with a bang this Thursday!

The Tenderloin Museum kicks off its evening programming on Opening Night, July 16th at 6:30pm with transgender activists Tamara Ching, Veronika Fimbres, and filmmakers Susan Stryker & Victor Silverman. Moderated by Randy Shaw, the panel takes us back to the days of the Tenderloin’s 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riot when transgender women and queers were harassed by police and businesses alike.

In those days, the Tenderloin was the geographic center of the city’s emerging gay and lesbian civil rights movement. It was in the Tenderloin where the movement’s more confrontational spirit was demonstrated, and brought success. Stryker, Ching and Fimbres will describe the decades of struggle following the Compton’s riot, as that legendary act of resistance—three years before Stonewall–was only the beginning.

Check it all out here.

And that’s not all!  Stop by the following week for the first showing in 50 years of Drugs in the Tenderloin!

A stark and often harrowing look into the life of the street denizens of the notorious San Francisco district which was a haven for junkies, prostitutes, and pushers during the Sixties… it takes a real gutter-level look at its subject, the grainy night photography capturing beehive-haired hookers and turtle-necked dope dealers plying their trade against a smoky backdrop of seedy neon, while meth users pontificate about their high, and a youth worker takes a couple of shocked city officials on a walking tour of the area, pointing out such lurid landmarks as Market Street, known in the area as the “Meat Rack” thanks to the male hustlers who ply their trade there.”Join us for some incredible footage of the Tenderloin’s past.

Can’t believe it’s been 10 years already! Seems like only yesterday everybody was like, “What’s the deal with this brand-new bar having ALL THE BEST BANDS AND DJs ALL THE TIME and isn’t their ‘NOPE’ sign funny???”

Seems like only yesterday Jay Reatard (RIP) was playing a 10-minute (amazing) set there. Back when the stage was next to the bar.

Seems like only yesterday we were there for an Oldies Night, laying eyes on Primo for the first time, all that energy behind the decks, and we were like, “ALL DJs SHOULD BE LIKE THIS.”

Seems like only yesterday we were there for a Debaser around Christmastime seeing their Weezer cover band and we were like, “THIS IS WAAAY BETTER THAN ACTUALLY SEEING WEEZER!”

Seems like only yesterday we finally got to see the Dukes of Hamburg for the first time, at a Teenage Dance Craze party on New Year’s Eve.

Seems like only yesterday we saw Stokemonster’s big smile for the first time, greeting us crazy-warmly on our way in.

Seems like only yesterday we were singing “I got soul but I’m not a soldier!!!!!!!!” at karaoke there on a Monday night.

Seems like only yesterday we got ejected from a Debaser for stage diving (when Jamie Jams put on “Holland, 1945″ of course).

Seems like only yesterday Beth was on the door that night.

…………We could go on and on but instead let’s just watch some of one of Jay Reatard’s performances there, and then we’ll talk some more:

Oh and let’s quick enjoy this photo of Primo straight phase-shifting into another dimension that our pal Lizzy took back in ’11:

Here’s what’s happening this weekend:

COME CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF THE KNOCKOUT! BRINGING YOU LIVE MUSIC, CHEAP DRINKS, KILLER DANCE PARTIES AND MAKING MEMORIES SINCE 2005! AS A SHOW OF THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE YEARS WE’VE PLANNED A KILLER WEEKEND OF DJs AND LIVE SHOWS TO KICK OFF THE NEXT 10 YEARS!!!

Friday, July 10 9pm

TEENAGE DANCE CRAZE PRESENTS…
THE GEARS
LOST RITUAL
THE COPPERTONES
Plus The World Famous TDC DJS…
OREN, RUSSELL QUAN & dX THE FUNKY GRANPAW

Saturday July 11, 2:30pm

ALCOHOLOCAUST PRESENTS…
VKTMS
HIGHTOWER
CELLAR DOORS
BUFFALO TOOTH
BREAKARTS
CRYPTO

Sat July 11, 10pm

THE KO SUPER STAR DJ SATURDAY NIGHT PARTY
W/ DJs PRIMO, JAMIE JAMS, SPECIAL LORD B (AKA PAUL PAUL) & JOSH YULE

Sun July 12, 2pm

THE POPE OF YES PRESENTS…
CCR HEADCLEANER
TERRY MALTS
MALE GAZE
THE STRANGELAND
EMOTIONAL
JESUS TAPE

+ PBRn’B DJs

Sun July 12, 10pm
SWEATER FUNK MODERN FUNK AND BOOGIE PARTY
W/Live Sets by KMAXX & PLAZA 

Full-weekend passes come with limited edition KO Anniversary t-shirts. Limited tickets.

Rest up, everybody.

Here is a little more poster art:

And here’s a heap of Knockout-related posts from over the years: