Mission Mission

Phonographic Memory is the event where neighbors get together and play records and share stories about them. Here, the Phono Mem team makes a case for skipping the first half of the Warriors game tonight:

Warriors fans, we know you are a little tense. You’ve been giving your team your full attention the past couple weeks, but granting them a little breathing room will actually help both you, and the team. By giving us an hour of your time tomorrow you can ease the pressure on the players, and order can be restored. The stress and tension will leave your body as you relax to stories and songs, and by the end of our session you will be enriched and ready to fully enjoy the last half of the game. Let’s be honest, that’s all you really need to watch anyway.

Debatable! But anyway, tonight’s program is specifically about 1996 and one of tonight’s special guests is Penelope Houston from the Avengers! RSVP and invite your friends!

Local comix artist David Enos got a book deal! And the book is out now, and there’s a big release party at Make-Out Room this Thursday night with a bunch of musicians and other good stuff:

California Clap presents “Bat-Man Is Lost In A Woods”, the new book from David Enos. Get your copy before anyone else does and have it signed by the artist himself.

With musical performances by:

DAVID & JOANNA
ANNA HILLBURG
JOEL ROBINOW
CHRIS MCVICKER

Also pick up other record and book releases from the bay area’s last honest label/publisher, California Clap.

RSVP and invite your friends!

Now please enjoy this long list of other David Enos-related news…

DT&D has reviewed a We Players show before. Last summer we loved their site-specific Ondine at Sutro Baths. So when we heard about their season kick-off party, The Capulet Ball, we were intrigued. Katie was busy, so Brittany and Sam donned their best Shakespearean-Masked-Ball garb and headed out for a night of Drama Talk and Drinks.

Brittany: So did you have fun?

Sam: Yeah, I had a blast.

B: I think that the show (the full production of Romeo and Juliet) is going to be good. The girl who was Juliet was great.

S: She had great energy. She really got the physicality of a teenager. She had no inhibitions, and couldn’t filter when Romeo was nearby. The balcony scene felt really genuine and fresh, and I don’t normally like Shakespeare since it so often feels stale.

B: Even though this was just a sneak-preview of the show that’s opening this summer, you really got a good sense of the characters. Even if you never saw the actors saying their lines, by just interacting with them- in dancing or making small talk- you could tell who they were.

S: The characters were really intimate with the audience. It reminded me of Sleep No More, where you don a mask and become part of the scene. I wish that it went longer.

B: Yeah, it was really short. It was supposed to go until 10 but it only went until maybe 8:45 before the action ended and people started to leave. Even the band wrapped up early.  I guess it’s good to leave the audience wanting more, but I thought it would be a longer production.

S: For the brief production it was, the costumes were phenomenal. The animal masks were haunting, they added something whimsical to the production.

B: It’s also fun that so many audience members got dressed up. There were some elaborate costumes and impressive masks. The show only worked because the audience bought-in. If you had come into that space with the audience wearing normal street clothes it would have been a very different experience. People dressed up, danced and interacted. That’s what made it fun, getting to be in character yourself.

S: I wonder if we could have convinced the band to keep playing, it ended so early and I wanted it to continue. There was still a boy to kill!

B: And a girl. And a few other people too.

S: Not enough death for an evening out.

The Verdict: The Capulet Ball is a fun way to support an innovative Bay-Area theater company. It’s not even the whole first act of Romeo and Juliet, so if you want to see the full play, hold out until R&J opens this summer. But if you want to have a very cool interactive theater experience, that lets you dress up and be part of the show, go to this. It’s pricey, but it supports a good cause, and drinks and light food are included.

The Drama Talk: We Players is great at site-specific work, and The Capulet Ball is no exception. The space for this production was perfect, and looking at the future venues, there are some neat places on the list. Production values are super high. Once you walk through the door and put on your mask you’re transported to the Capulet’s home and the party where Romeo and Juliet’s star-crossed paths first cross. It helps if you get dressed up, drink some mead, and go in with no inhibitions.

The Drinks: The party has an open bar, so we drank there. Wine, beer and mead only, but the pours are generous and flow all night.

There are only three more performances of The Capulet Ball, all in different parts of the Bay Area. They run through June 18th, and range from $75 for the show in Oakland, to $150 to the show in Calistoga (which includes dinner). Tickets are available through the We Players website: http://www.weplayers.org

Sam & Brittany in Masked-Ball Finery

Tonight: I’m Losing My Edge: “LCD Soundsystem” vs. Everything They Mention in “Losing My Edge” (with Berlin-style ping pong) at Verdi Club in the Mission

Saturday afternoon: Warriors vs. Blazers Game 3, starts at 5:30pm!!! Watch it at a great neighborhood bar such as Pop’s Bar

Saturday night early: The Last Days of Disco AND Boogie Nights 35mm double feature at the Roxie in the Mission

Saturday night late: The Acid Test featuring Chocolate Watch Band, a night of psychedelic music and mayhem at Rickshaw Stop

Don’t be one of those San Franciscans who just stays in and watches Netflix!

BFF.fm radio aka Best Frequencies Forever is your local non-profit, bad-ass, volunteer run radio station, operating right out of the mission district. Every Thursday night, BFF.fm rotates their best DJs to take over the decks at Pops Bar. This week our BFFs are cozying up at Pops Bar on Monday, Thursday & Saturday Night!

On Monday, DJ JUSTSTELLA from the show “Radio Shoe” provides tunes for American Tripps, the Berlin-Style Ping Pong Night. Thursday DJ ZeroOne from the show “Hang the DJ” brings you a night of post-punk, power pop, new wave, and other time and genre-adjacent tunes. Finishing out our besties forever week, DJ Melly G goes old school for your Saturday Night party jams. So grab your BFF and hop on Pops!

Check out the full line up this week at Pops:

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To mark the occasion, SF Weekly did a nice little Q&A with DJ Goonie Walsh:

You celebrate one-year of Make Me a Mixtape, an all-vinyl ‘90s/’00s emo night this Saturday. Describe to us the craziest night thus far.
It’s hard picking just one! I think I’d probably go with that one time where people were crowd surfing, singing “Hands Down” by Dashboard Confessional. That night we also ended up throwing an impromptu emo after party at my place and kept going all night with a bunch of friends and some of the people who were at the Knockout for emo night. Good times.

Since you guys play all vinyl all night, what’s the most surprising track/album you’ve ever found on vinyl? 
I’ve been collecting records for years. Ever since I was young, I was one of those kids who would go to shows and always buy vinyl. It’s interesting too because it was right around that time where vinyl was dying and CDs started to become popular, so some of the stuff from that era is either out of print or labels didn’t even bother to press. I think my most valuable and proudest possession is this Saves The Day 7-inch they pressed for I’m Sorry I’m Leaving. 

Read on for lots more info, and then RSVP and invite your friends!

I just love this shot from last time they were here. (Full photo album here.)

Anyway there are already 1000+ people “interested” or “attending” on Facebook, so I’m sure I don’t have to explain. But it’s happening this Sunday at Rickshaw Stop.

RSVP and invite your friends here. And peruse the (completely unbelievable) songbook here.

(And if you do need more explanation, read my very gushy post from the first time they came to SF, back in 2015, here.)

never get in a fight with a guy doing karaoke, (1) he has a mic for a weapon and (2) every blow he lands will sound much more devastating

— chuuch (@ch000ch) April 7, 2016

Keep that in mind tonight at Pop’s, where Roger Niner runs karaoke every third Friday, 9pm-close:

Roger Niner is back in The Mission… at Pops! And he’s bringing his big ole’ book of rare and unheard karaoke tunes! Find and sing a new favorite or a long forgotten oddity! Karaoke like you never left the basement of your parents house! We go until they tell us to shut the hell up! Check out the songbook at book.rogerniner.com, and PREPARE!

(Thanks, An dad!)

The party is 6-9pm, so you have time to pop in real quick before the big Spurs game. Here’s what’s up:

We are excited to announce the next Scott Ellsworth Gallery show at the Alite Outpost. “A Nite at Alite” will feature new works from Fur Ball Collective – a driving force behind San Francisco’s local art scene. They have been establishing non-traditional creative spaces in their homes and apartments as a means of showcasing group shows of local artists.

Fur Ball founders Christy Osorio, Alicia Griffiths, and Melissa Sáenz Gordon will be showing new works of photography, mixed media, and print publication that explore the journey urban dwellers take when seeking natural inspiration. If you have been to one of our guerilla shows in the past, then you know you don’t want to miss this!!

RSVP and invite your friends.

(Also of note, there’s now a vegan bakery inside the camping store too.)

[Editor's note: This is actually my event, so the Pop's folks let me write the blurb. Please enjoy...]

Sooo, what’s “Berlin-style ping pong night” mean anyway? Well it’s three things…

1. It happens in the evening, in a dark, friendly neighborhood bar, where the booze is flowing and the party vibes are strong
2. There are DJs spinning upbeat danceable jams, both familiar and unfamiliar
3. The ping pong is a little different, played in a social and casual and kinda trippy way that allows 20+ people to take part

Here’s an animated GIF of that last one:

Tonight will be just like that except there’s a lot less room at Pop’s, so the circle is much tighter — and thus it’s much easier to make new friends

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

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