Mission Mission

[via the discussion on our Facebook page about another Sutro Tower tattoo]

Here at DT&D we feel like every season is a good season to see theater. But the holiday season, with the relative cold, rain and staycation days, is perfect for getting into some cozy theaters. Katie & Brittany suggest some local shows that you might want to check out. Here’s their report:

[file photo by me]

From gin & tonicah Hanukkah fetes, to ugly sweater parties, to awkward office eggnog-a-thons, your calendar may already be booked through 2015. But for those of you who are looking for a theater fix, or to find a family friendly outing while people are in town, we didn’t want to leave you hanging. Although we normally don’t recommend shows without prior viewing, with holiday parties and cold and flu season upon us, we just didn’t have time to see everything. But that’s no reason for you to miss out. So without further ado, here’s our round-up of what caught our eye this holiday season that we didn’t get to see.

Looking for laughs?

A Merry Forking Christmas
PianoFight’s brand-spanking-new-Kickstarter-funded venue is opening this week! The first show to pop the champagne on its main stage is A Merry Forking Christmas, their reliably funny choose-your-own-adventure holiday sketch show. Go check out PianoFight’s new digs, try their new bar, and forget about your holiday stress. From the mouths of marketers:

The Holidays are the most magical time of the year, unless you’re stuck in the mall on Christmas Eve. PianoFight’s A Merry FORKING! Christmas chronicles the final hours of the Christmas shopping frenzy through the eyes of a pot-dealing Santa and his cookie-stand partner in crime, a mall security guard on his last legs, a bride-to-be deserted by her would-be fiancé, and a bored mortician who’s got nothing to do until people get back to the business of dying once the holidays have ended. The fates of these five characters and whether Christmas can be saved for each is left up to the audience who will vote at crucial forks in the plot to determine the final outcome. This December, with 362,880 possible paths through the show, saving Christmas is up to you. Get your tickets here.

(more…)

I’m thinking maybe this party at Virgil’s:

Virgil’s Soul Room
w/ records hand-selected for your dancing pleasure by
DJ PAUL PAUL (Soul Party)
DJ CARNITA (Hard French)
DJ WAM BAM ASHLEYANNE

Free Entry!
Free Fernet-Branca Toast at Midnight!

That’s a lot of good reasons. RSVP and invite your friends if you want!

In a couple pieces for SF Weekly over the last few months, our pal Omar has put together a list of La Taqueria’s secret menu items:

• Dorado-style (grilled) burritos
• Combining multiple meats into one burrito
• Red sauce
• Side of blistered Serrano chiles
• Nachos
• Dorado-style (grilled-til-crispy) meat
• Sirloin ends (pictured)
• Quesarrito

Read on for all the details and lots more pics: Part 1 and Part 2.

[via Omar on Instagram]

Holy cow, Susie Cagle‘s new piece on the gentrification situation in Oakland is a barnburner. Here’s how it starts:

Gentrification: We think we know it when we see it. Pour-over organic coffee, double-wide designer strollers, gluten-free options. Millennials and their unrelenting desire to live and work in cities that pushes out longtime residents. A tide rising, cresting and washing over. An act of nature.

These demographic and economic shifts in cities aren’t the result of organic social and cultural trends; the changes are wrought by decades of investment and public policy choices, and inextricably bound to histories of racism, exclusionary land use policies and exploitative banking processes that left certain communities vulnerable to a steamroller of new investment.

“If you don’t know what the problem is you definitely can’t stop being a part of it, and I think a lot of people don’t know what the problem is,” says DeeDee Serendipity, a native of Oakland who now owns a salon in the city.

Read on for an exhaustive examination of how exactly gentrification works and what exactly is happening in Oakland.

This is but one of a whole mess of lovely photos from a recent trip to the top of the hill by hotgranola.

[via Mid West Coast]

(Just kidding, this is not a real product but rather a glorious work of art by local genius Porous Walker.)

It’s been regular open for a while now, and it rules, so whether you’ve been or you haven’t, attend this party (for festiveness and for a heap of killer last-minute gift ideas.) (They’ve got all manner of local and imported booze and beer, plus local and imported corner-store fare like soap and jam and candy.)

It’s been an intense year for this beloved local bar, so what better way to cap it than with 3 days of nonstop party??? Happy birthday, Uptown!

Everything is free and open to all:

Friday, December 26 – 6pm to 10pm
Birthday Reunion Party
Celebrating Uptown Founder Scott Ellsworth, current and former staff, regulars and all community members. Wear an Uptown T-Shirt and pay 1984 prices!

Saturday, December 27 – 6pm
Musical Review & BBQ Feast
Featuring musicians who have called Uptown home over the years, including Mindi Hadan, Douglas Katelus and Ivy & Devon.

Sunday, December 28 – 6pm
Uptown Salon
An evening of poetry & prose by local writers, hosted by Uptown Bartender & Poet Tym Butler.

Don’t go leavin’ town!

[Photo by Ariel Dovas]