Mission Mission

inflables

For sale online now or on the corner of 23rd and Valencia this weekend!

[via Amos Goldbaum on Twitter]

Turning 80 has never felt so good! Join us as we celebrate Pops Bar legacy in San Francisco from 1937-2017! Pops scandalous history in San Francisco begins with Carl Joseph Saxsenmeier AKA: POPS who is rumored to have been a bootlegger operating a comprar castillo hinchable baratos “clubhouse” during prohibition. The clubhouse would later become the basis for the bar when the 21st Amendment was repealed. While the bar has changed hands and locations over the years, its legacy as “Pops” in San Francisco for the past 80 years is solid. This Wednesday, Pops resident DJs celebrate all night from 6pm-2am with drink specials, bbq, Pops T-Shirts and a raffle to benefit Napa Valley Community Disaster Relief Fund. Join us, we’re looking damn fine at 80!

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

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And there’s a cool drawing of comprar castillos inflables baratos the Golden Gate Bridge on the front pocket. Get yours here.

[via Porous Walker on Tumblr]

Sometimes when things are feeling bleak, and it smells like the world is burning down around you, it’s nice to escape into something light, fun, and maybe a little mindless. While cat videos are always an option, you can feel more sophisticated (and support the local arts scene) by going out and comprar hinchables juegos baratos seeing a musical. That’s what we did last weekend when went out for drama talk and drinks and the opening of Ain’t Misbehavin’ the latest production of 42nd Street Moon.

The Cast of AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ (L to R): Arís-Allen Roberson, Katrina Lauren McGraw, Erica Richardson, Ashley D. Gallo, and Branden ‘Noel’ Thomas. Photo by Ben Krantz Studios

Brittany: What a fun classic American musical.

Katie: Those actors were incredible! They all had amazing voices and such stage presence. I just wish they used microphones. The band was great, but there were moments I couldn’t hear the singers, and that was distracting.

B: 42nd Street Moon is trying to do things the old-school way, so they aren’t using microphones on purpose, but that was probably my biggest complaint too. I like what the company is trying to do though, honest rivals of these classic shows. I think it was very successful in that.

K: I totally agree, the costumes, the staging, and the choreography all felt very authentic. I feel like this show would be more fun in a different space though. This is a much more traditional theater atmosphere, but this felt like more of a cabaret show. It was a little long to just sit and watch with no plot or story. I think more of a cabaret atmosphere would have suited the show better. I still enjoyed it though, especially some of the songs in the second act.

B: This show is hard for a modern audience, because you are just sitting and watching a series of song and dance numbers. Really well done song and dance numbers, but that’s it. I guess we’re just spoiled with shows like Speakeasy, where there’s a cabaret going on, but you can also walk around, have drinks, play casino games, and then come back to hear more song and dance.

K: Overall, I think it was a well done production. I liked the set, the lighting, and costumes. I felt like I was watching a show  in the 1930’s. It felt very lively, moody and cool.

The Verdict: If you love jazzy music from the 1920s and 30s, this is the perfect show for you.

The Drama Talk: They don’t really make shows like Ain’t Misbehavin’ any more. This musical revue was created as a tribute to the black musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. If you like jazzy, swing music, you’ll probably really enjoy this show. The second act had some of our favorite moments of the show, including a dope song and dance about a five foot joint “The Viper’s Drag” and a beautiful rendition of “Black and Blue”. Like many things that were written a while ago, there were some cringe-worthy moments of sexism, as well as some awkward-to-watch bits of pandering to racist stereotypes. However, overall, 42nd Street Moon creates an engaging, enjoyable and authentic revival of this classic show.

The Drinks: Saturday shows are at 6pm so we ended up getting dinner and drinks after the show a couple blocks away on Columbus Avenue at Doc Ricketts. If you want to see a show after the show, check out Doc’s Lab, which is the venue underneath Doc Ricketts.

Ain’t Misbehavin’ runs through October 29th at the Gateway Theatre. Tickets range from $30-$75 and are available on their website. Right now there are tickets available on Goldstar for $22.50-$25.

The event is called Transitioning from Street to Home: A Night with St. Francis Homelessness Challenge, and it’s tomorrow right after work, with food and drink and live entertainment. Here’s the deal:

Come hear experiences from former/current encampment residents, neighborhood volunteers, and Saint Francis Homelessness Challenge (SFHC) about life in street encampments, humane strategies to support transition and community well-being, and our transitional village micro-pilot at Impact Hub.

This event is a sliding scale of donations ($5-$5,000) to our HandUp Campaign (handup.org/campaigns/sfhctransitionalshelters): No one turned away for lack of funds.

Bring cash donations for food/drinks.

Event Line-up:
6:30-7PM – Live music from Sonny Smith (of Sonny & the Sunsets) SOS Sign-making table, videos, Food/drinks (by donation)

7-7:40PM – Panel presentations with current/former encampment residents, SFHC’s Transitional Sleep and Storage Impact Hub Pilot participants

7:40-7:50 – Maowunyo de Asis presentation on The Village in Oakland

7:50-8PM – Tony Sparks (SF State) presentation on Seattle’s successful permitted encampment/village model

8-8:15PM – SOS (Safe Organized Spaces) Campaign Launch

8:15-9:30 – Join us in Impact Hub’s back lot to view SFHC’s Transitional Sleep and Storage Shelters, meet Pilot participants, and learn how to get involved!

Read on for more details.

And then we wait some more. We wait for ice cream, for bbq, for coffee, for any decent restaurant, for any decent experience at all really, it’s almost become a social experiment: the lines of San Francisco. One of the longest running San Francisco waiting experiences is maybe the harshest, the wait for BRUNCH! You’re starving and you’re so close to your favorite hang over meal you can taste it but you put your name in for an excruciating hour long wait. Well mission dwellers, if your wait happens to be at the classic St. Francis Fountain, the struggle is over. Enter The Brunch Mob at Pops Bar! Every Saturday from 10am to 3pm, leave your name at the Fountain and hop over to Pops Bar. There you’ll find our amazing Bartender Deb ready to serve you up a delicious Bacon Bloody Mary while DJs Milton Badley and Snelly Davis Jr. spin soothing classics to ease you into your morning. So grab a little hair of the dog or a nice morning buzz to amuse you on the way to your great San Francisco wait. At Pops Bar, we’re waiting for YOU!

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

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We have never seen a show from the company FoolsFURY so we were excited to learn about their new show Role Call, which is comprised of two new one-woman shows by local theater artists. The first piece Sheryl, Hamlet and Me, written and performed by Michelle Haner “explores the costs of ambition in the digital era.” The second piece (dis)Place[d], written and performed by Debórah Eliezer, “tells her story as the child of a first-generation immigrant to America ‘caught between cultures.’” We have also never been NOH Space where the pieces were being performed. So we headed to Potrero Hill for for some new experiences and drama talk and drinks.

Debórah Eliezer, left, and Michelle Haner, right. Photo by Wendy Yalom

Brittany: I wish I could say something positive, because I really want to support female voices, local playwrights and small scale theater. Both of these shows were  just so out of touch with what most people would want to watch, I just don’t think I can recommend it.

Katie: Yeah, I completely agree…I don’t know what else to say right now. I didn’t connect with either piece… at times they almost felt like parodies of one-woman shows. Both scripts were all over the place, they never let me fully connect to the stories they were trying to tell. And a big personal pet peeve, both of the actors did characters that had accents which were inconsistent.

B: Yeah, there were tons of little messy things like that which took me out of both pieces, but I think the biggest challenges with both of these plays is they tried to do too much. The second play (dis)Place[d] had some good moments, and I liked the concept of telling this very personal story about her father’s life to explore her complicated Jewish-Arab identity. However, she tried to play too many characters, and wasn’t able to do them all well, which detracted from the story. Also that bizarre, poetic desert-goddess character really took me out of it.

K: Yeah, I could have definitely done without that, and the weird recorded voice with the echo effect with the over the top movement.  I did love when she (Debórah Eliezer) sang though, she has a beautiful voice. A simpler telling of the same story would have been so much better.

B: Then the first piece, Sheryl, Hamlet, and Me, I didn’t enjoy at all. Sometimes actors take themselves way too seriously, and this play is a perfect example of how out of touch theater can feel when that happens. I studied acting, so I get where the breathing and stylized movement come from, but when taken to this extreme it just feels self indulgent. Am I supposed to be impressed with how actorly you can be? She made a few good points about how is Facebook creepy, but it wasn’t that insightful. It almost felt like she realized she had to make a point that people could connect with, and so she decided to pander to tech hating in the Bay Area since that’s an easy target.

K: Yeah, I don’t really know what she was going for, but I didn’t connect to this piece at all. If you could come for just one of the shows (dis)Place[d] felt like it had potential, but Sheryl, Hamlet and Me I’d definitely skip.

The Verdict: Not a show we would recommend for non-theatergoers. Maybe not even a show we would recommend for frequent theatergoers, although it is always interesting to see new plays by local female playwrights.

The Drama Talk: While it’s clear both of the women who created and performed these shows are talented, we didn’t particularly enjoy either of these plays. They try to do too much, they indulge in overly stylized techniques to the detriment of their stories, and they just weren’t that engaging. With some major edits (dis)Place[d] could be a really lovely piece. While Sheryl, Hamlet and Me tried some interesting techniques with video, the story just wasn’t there. We didn’t care about any of the characters (Sheryl Sandberg, Hamlet or the playwright as herself), and so we didn’t really care about the play.

The Drinks: We checked out Darger Bar, which was once Dear Mom. We liked the reboot. Still a lot of seating and relaxed atmosphere but a better drink and food menu.

Role call plays until October 22nd at NOH Space. Tickets are available on their website for $30. Right now there are tickets available on Goldstar for $15.

• Trevor the Dolores Park Truffle Man has gone legit. Read all about it.
• CellSpace is long gone, forever and ever. Remember it fondly via these photos.
• There were Nazis in the Mission last week. Ugh.
• Tablehopper is hosting a happy hour today to benefit victims of the earthquake in Mexico. Get details and/or tickets.

[Photo by Patricia Chang]

When the vinyl revival and the soul revival meet, magic happens. Down To Funk is a new party at Pop’s Bar this Wednesday from 9pm-2am featuring funky grooves and soulful rhythms. Resident DJ’s Mooselini the Soul Fascist (Mustapha Popal), Ohhellnoel (Noel Dunlap) and D.Hop (Dave Hopkins) will be providing the soundtrack for the night. Who doesn’t love a funky mid week party in the mission? Guaranteed to make your booty shake and your head nod.

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

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Fall theater season is upon us, which means lots of great new shows to see around the Bay Area. Cutting Ball Theater’s first show of their 17/18 season just opened at the Exit Theater on Taylor. The Mineola Twins, by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel, is a “razor sharp satire about domestic upheaval in times of political progress and in the rise of conservatism”. It sounded like a pretty timely topic, so we headed over the the TL for some drama talk and drinks.

Elissa Beth Stebbins as Myra (right), Steve Thomas (left) and Sango Tajima (center) Photo by Liz Olson

Katie: That was so interesting! What a cool story! I wish I went in knowing a little bit more about the script. Usually I like to be surprised, but this was such a smart show, I think may have gotten more out of the first few scenes if I had known more about the story.

Brittany: I really liked it. The woman who played the twins (Elissa Beth Stebbins) was amazing. She played each sister so well I honestly couldn’t tell at first if there were two different but nearly identical looking actors, or just one amazing actor playing both roles. Turns out it was just one incredibly talented person, but her physicality was so good each character was totally distinct.

K: Yes, she was remarkable. It was such an interesting show too. I was constantly curious about where the story was going to go next.  It is ridiculously relevant to what the country is going through now and it’s a play that was written in the 90s. I think it did such a great job at creatively exploring the left versus right, conservative versus liberal.

B:  Yes it’s super timely. It also makes you reflect on your own beliefs, and that feeling of superiority that comes with feeling you have the moral high-ground. It’s great to see a play that reveals so much about the division in our society without hitting the audience over the head with politics too. It was just a compelling story about twins, who while they couldn’t be more different, still are the same.

The Verdict: Go see it! Great actors and a super relevant script make it an enjoyable thought-provoking evening.

The Drama Talk: Even though this play was written in the 90s it couldn’t feel more contemporary and in-tune with the political turmoil happening today. Cutting Ball Theater always does really relevant work, but their artistic director did a great job picking this play for this season. Beyond a great script the lead actor Elissa Beth Stebbins was remarkable. It’s worth going just to see her performance. While there were some nitpicky things that we didn’t love, the show as a whole was so engaging nothing could really detract.

The Drinks: A block from the Exit on Theater, is a chill cocktail bar in the Tilden Hotel called The Douglas Room. It has great cocktails and delicious well priced snacks. We also love that they had plenty of seating the two times we have gone. It was a great place to debrief about this thought provoking show.

The Mineola Twins plays through October 29th the Exit on Taylor. Tickets range are $35 and can be purchased on their website. Right now there are tickets available on Goldstar for $15-$20.