The view from El Techo de Lolinda, the Mission’s brand-new (and one-and-only) rooftop bar

Pretty much the same as it always was, but now there’s a wraparound glass windscreen, really fancy Australian heat lamps, and solid menus of Latin street food and serious cocktails. New era!

El Techo de Lolinda opens to the public May 13th!

Here’s a man in a tuxedo wowing the crowd with an epic take on Queen at DJ Purple’s Dance Karaoke party last night

Naked yoga is apparently not allowed in Dolores Park

Bummer dude!

SFist published this censored version, as well as the original.

This car is on fire!

(Thanks, Todd.)

Little Baobab is on fire!

(Thanks, Gabriela.)

UPDATE: Damage appears to be minimal.

What if Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls lived in the Mission today?

Would you still spot lots of dots and all types of stripes? Well, you’ll have to find out for yourself tomorrow night!

It’s a runway show envisioning Andy Warhol’s girls living in 2013 mission district. DJ and drinks. Clothing by Stone Pony, hair and makeup by the staff of Ginger Rubio.

Drama Talk & Drinks: Dirty Dancing Live

Hello folks, here’s the newest installment of our feature where two local theater lovers go see some live performance and discuss it over drinks. Here they review Dirty Dancing Live at The Dark Room:

Last Saturday night we donned our leg warmers and beige iridescent lipstick, and headed to one of our favorite Mission live performance venues, The Dark Room, for their newest show, Dirty Dancing Live! Neither of us had been to one of The Dark Room’s live performances of “classic” films, but we were intrigued by the concept, and had the perfect bar to match the 80s chick flick set in the 60s vibe, Beauty Bar. One of us was pumped, the other skeptical, but both of us were ready for Drama Talk and Drinks . . .

Brittany: When we decided to go see Dirty Dancing Live, I was soo excited. To the point I nearly texted my college roommate to brag. We were the kind of dorks that watched the movie literally over 50 times, in the two years we lived together, so I was expecting to love the show because I LOOOOVE the movie.

Katie: I don’t have any real connection to the film, but was really hoping to be pleasantly entertained, but I don’t even know what to say about what we just saw . . . There were some people laughing, the kids in front of us were having a ball . . . (struggles to find words)

B: Just say it . . . it was awful.

K: It’s just that they didn’t make a clear choice of what it was. Was it a movie reenactment . . . was it an interpretation?

B: Was it a spoof?

K: One moment it would be straight up word for word, moment by moment reenactment. Then they would skip over tons of shit and suddenly be a spoof. It just seemed they didn’t know exactly what they wanted it to be. It had potential to be good if they just made a clearer choice.

B: I love Dirty Dancing the movie – it’s cheesy and corny. If they had taken it far enough, and made it really spoofy, it could have been funny. But you’re right, they didn’t take anything far enough. It felt to me like, if I was trying to study for a test on Dirty Dancing, this was the not as good cliff notes version.

Also, Dirty Dancing is a summer coming of age movie. The actress who played Baby was super adult the whole time, and played the whole being naive thing as just an act, which totally killed the plot.

K: One thing we gotta give her, is that she’s a dead ringer for the actress in the movie (Jennifer Grey). I mean body shape, hair, face I was shocked – looks wise she was amazing. You could tell she’s capable, but maybe just needed better direction? Also, doing a show like this in that space seemed kinda awkward.

B: The Dark room is a hard space – I get that – it is super small. Doing any big dance number is really hard – but that’s what people love about Dirty Dancing! The first time that Baby goes to the staff living area, and sees them dancing, that’s supposed to be a big game changing scene.

K: They didn’t make a moment out of that at all.

B: However, I did think they did the scene where Baby and Johnny lip sync and dance really well. That was spot on and cute. Besides that moment, I just wasn’t with them.

K: I really do love the Dark Room though – it’s such a cool performance venue.

B: Me too, I’ve seen such great stuff there. I’ve enjoyed The Business, other comedy shows, sketch comedy. It’s just this staged movie piece didn’t really know what it wanted to be, so unfortunately it wasn’t much of anything.

 
The Verdict: Unless you’re friends with one of the actors don’t waste your money. Even if you are friends with the actors, get them to give you comps. Tickets are $15 advance and $20 at the door, even $5 would be a stretch for this mediocre performance.

The Drama Talk: We didn’t know when to laugh and the awkwardness of some of the acting made us want to cry. Although the two leads seemed like they may have had talent, nothing about this performance let them show it. But don’t give up on going to shows at the Dark Room, they always have cool stuff going on!

The Drinks: Unnamed Summer-y deliciousness from the creative mind of the awesome Beauty Bar bartender. Brittany had an Absolute Hibiscus cocktail, and Katie had an Absolute Citrus cocktail. Both were a high point of the evening.

Dirty Dancing Live runs through the end of May, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm.

CONTEST: Win tickets to Mwahaha and more at the LAB

All you have to do is come up with your favorite New Order song in the comments.  Winners will be judged on merit.

Full details for the show here.

Skull-and-crossbats Giants shirt

Gnarly!

Studio Nico is responsible. Get one here!

UPDATE: And a ladies tank.

Beastie Boys Night at American Tripps starring DJ Jamie Jams and special guest bartender Jay Beaman!

Almost exactly two years ago, a Beastie Boys cover band from Texas or something came through SF and played a set at the Knockout. They were okay, but the real star of the show was DJ Jamie Jams of Debaser, who opened and closed the proceedings with selections from his exhaustive collection of songs famously sampled by the Beasties. This Friday, he does it again.

Plus, the American Tripps crew has some other reasons for a Beastie Boys party:

We’re doing our first party in NYC later this month (May 31st) at PIPS in Williamsburg, so we thought what better way to get in gear than with a BEASTIE BOYS NIGHT right here in SF? No sleep ’til Brooklyn!!!!!

So we booked the award-winning DJ JAMIE JAMS of Debaser (’90s night) and Last Nite (’00s night) fame, and he’s spent the last few days putting together the perfect Beasties-themed set, full of hits by the boys themselves as well as lots of the songs whose *samples* provide the backbone for many of the most beloved Beastie jams.

And then we booked special guest bartender JAY BEAMAN (of Dear Mom and Thieves Tavern), and he’ll be slinging Beasties-themed drink specials!!!!!!! (Including BRASS MONKEYS and A BOTTLE OF CHATEAU NEUF DE PAPE!)

Into it! Click here to RSVP and invite your friends, and listen to some tracks Jamie’s thrown up on the wall as a preview!