Mission Mission

Capp Street Crap reports:

Fans of Dante’s Weird Fish may have been surprised to see it open past its anticipated closing date at the end of 2014. Turns out, the pescetarian restaurant could stick around until early summer, and some of its dishes will live on at the bistro that’s replacing it.

Irfan Yalçin bought Weird Fish near 18th and Mission streets and the restaurant space two doors down in October. He said he was struck by patrons’ reaction to news of Weird Fish’s closure so he got permission from former owner Peter Hood to incorporate some of its vegan dishes into his new venture.

AND, Hood says he’ll try to resurrect WF for real some day! Read on for the details on that, as well as more info on the menu at the new place.

If you have grandparents who loved Murder, She Wrote marathons, or if you grew up with an affinity for singing teapots, you can’t help but have a special place in your heart for Angela Lansbury. Who else can make murdering people and cooking them into pies sound so sweet? So, when we heard that at age 89 she was doing a super-limited North American tour of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, we knew we had to see it. So, off we went to SHN’s Golden Gate Theater for a night of laughs, drama talk and drinks.

Katie: Go fucking see this show!

Brittany: IT WAS SO GOOD!

K: If you’re going to throw down some money on a really fun, twists and turns, old-school, straight-play comedy, THIS is where you should put your money, people.

B: It was amazing, and Angela Lansbury is the most adorable, wonderfulest person. I wish she was my grandma. I mean I love my grandmas, but I’d take her as my third grandma any day.

K: Be prepared though, because every time she walks on stage people love her so much they can’t stop clapping. Which was annoying, but I get it.

B: She walks on stage and all you want to do is give her a hug. You can’t take your eyes off her, she’s that talented. Everyone in this show is really talented, but she is exceptionally talented.

K: This is one of the few shows I’d say don’t have a drink before, because you don’t want to miss a thing. It starts off with a lot of British fast wit, and you want to be able to follow it, because it’s hilarious. What I really loved about his play is it wasn’t predictable.

B: There’s a reason some plays survive the test of time. This was written in the 1940s, and it’s still so funny.

The Verdict: If you have the money, or if you don’t have the money go find some money and then see this show. When you aren’t mesmerized by what’s happening on stage, you’re hoping that the scene change doesn’t mean the play is over, because you want it to keep going for another hour. One of the best shows we’ve ever reviewed.

The Drama Talk: The best actors are the ones who you can tell absolutely love performing, and you can tell Angela Lansbury loves being on stage. It’s no wonder she won a Tony for this role. She is phenomenal; you can’t help but watch her and love her. This is a quick, smart, witty play, but with enough darkness and occult elements (it’s a comedy about ghosts) that it doesn’t get saccharine. All the actors are great. With a play this fast you need a tight cast, and they are tight. It’s a national tour, so of course the set and design are top notch. As delightful as this show was, perhaps the most endearing part is watching Angela beam at her curtain call. She really is one of the greats. Don’t miss this chance to see her perform.

The Drinks: We had rock-star parking near the Golden Gate, so we decided to stay nearby and go to The Showdown across the street for drinks. It’s an “Urban DJ Saloon” so, as promised, there was a DJ spinning and an open-mic hip-hop show happening. It was hard to hear yourself over the music, but the drinks were strong and good. Brittany got a martini (since those are the drinks they open the show drinking) and Katie got a gin and tonic, and we yelled excitedly over the DJ about what an awesome show we had just seen.

Blithe Spirit runs through February 1st at SHN’s Golden Gate Theater. At the time of writing, SHN’s website was showing the error “We are currently experiencing high demand for tickets. Please check again shortly.” Since price is variable based on demand, these aren’t going to be cheap tickets. If any are still available you can get yours on SHN’s website. As of right now there are also tickets available on Goldstar.

Our pal Isaac Fitzgerald (former Mission denizen, now an editor at Buzzfeed in NYC)  recently took on the challenge of wearing makeup every day for a full workweek:

“Are you wearing makeup?” My regular bartender, Hugh, looks at me incredulously as he hands over a beer and a shot.

“Yeah, what do you think?” I throw back the whiskey.

“I think the whole world is more and more upside-down every damn day,” Hugh says. We shake hands, and Hugh turns away.

“Your eyelashes look flawless,” a waitress says as she drops her glassware on the bar mat.

Hugh turns back to me. “That’s what I meant to say,” he says. “Your eyelashes look flawless.” He smiles. Nobody at the bar mentions my makeup again, but people do look.

Read on for the full blow-by-blow.

The most excellent Outside Lands just published a few hundred very awesome SF Assessors photos from 1951, complete with a handy map. “A local historian… saved them from being discarded in the early 1980s.” (Let’s hear it for local historians.)

Here’s the southwest corner of Mission and 24th, now the BART plaza.

Pat’s is a pretty sweet looking coffee shop.

Hey let’s grab a drink at the Green Lantern on 24th!

Oh wait they tore it down for a hair salon, dammit. New rule: don’t tear down a bar called the Green Lantern.

IMPORTANT HISTORIBARUPDATE:

@kevinmonty posted a Green Lantern matchbook cover over at Uptown:

Many many more photos over at Outside Lands.

My pal Nick Pal is a great rock ‘n’ roll scholar, and he’s killer at spinning records while you sit at the bar and drink, and he’s also killer at writing short blurbs for DJ gigs:

Nick Pal spins short songs because life is short. Hard rock, power pop, punk and pop vinyl.

Plus, the poster art is pretty good. RSVP and invite your pals!

Toshio Hirano, as legit a Mission legend as ever there was, is hanging up his cowboy hat. Here’s the announcement, from his Facebook page:

Hello, everyone. I have an announcement. I am going to take a long break from singing Jimmie Rodgers so I won’t be preforming at any places including Amnesia and Rite Spot for a while. Thank you so much for having supported me all these years. I hope I can see you again someday.

Bummer. Dude.

His final show is Tuesday, January 27, 2015, at the Rite Spot Cafe, 8:30ish. Be there or be… the person who didn’t go to Toshio Hirano’s final show.

[via Capp Street Crap]

[via CORNTARD]

A few weeks back I was at Rock Bar and this song came on, this subtle, weird, trippy, really long song. It went really well with my drink, so after a while I shazammed it. “Atomic Bomb” by William Onyeabor it was. I looked it up on Spotify the next day and listened to it over and over for many days in a row.

About 2 weeks later, I was planning a trip to Australia, looking up stuff to do in Sydney, and lo and behold on the weekend I’m meant to be there, there’s an event on as part of the annual Sydney Festival called “Atomic Bomb: The Music of William Onyeabor,” and it’s billed as starring members of LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip and the Rapture, as well as Money Mark, jazz legend Pharoah Sanders and contemporary Aussie legend (and Tenderloin legend and Mission legend) Gotye. So I booked tickets.

It happened this past Saturday night and it blew my mind. A huge all-star band playing the songs of this near-forgotten dude from the past that from the sounds of it made most all his music on early synthesizers. And it ruled. It was the best concert I’ve seen all year. (Even better than Tonstartssbandht!)

So:

1. Listen to the music of William Onyeabor.
2. Try to see this group if they come around. They’re being billed as “Atomic Bomb Band” or “Atomic Bomb: Who Is William Onyeabor?” or maybe other variations. I hear they’re playing Bonnaroo.
3. As we’ve said again and again, pay attention to the music at Rock Bar.

Cool new look for winter! (Also a cool idea for next Halloween?)

[via Ariel Dovas on Twitter]

[via Porous Walker]