Mission Mission

On Tuesday evening Steve Fox opened up the doors to the space at 1096 South Van Ness, future home of his mini golf restaurant bar, Urban Putt, and let people wander inside and look around. The former mortuary was most recently renovated to be a bar and club, but retains a lot of the original flair and regality of a classy/cheesy 20th Century mortuary, including some creepy little brick chambers and a stairway to nowhere in the basement. I spoke with Steve and his designer Christopher Myers about their plans.

The plans for the holes are pretty ambitious and sound like they’re going to be a lot of fun to make. As someone who has also built an indoor park with building exteriors in this neighborhood, it’s right up my alley. Many of the holes are going to be locally themed, recreating monuments and places from San Francisco that go beyond the typical postcard locals, such as the spot where the 1906 Earthquake survivors meet every year. There will also be a private room to rent out, bars around the space and dining upstairs. We wrote about Urban Putt previously here.

Anyway, back to the holes, most of them will be on the main floor, but some will also lead the golfers into side rooms where they will step into a submarine environment. The fabrication will happen on site and Steve is looking to include local artists/designers to help create one or two of the holes. You can contact him if you’re interested.

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It’s Sunday morning and I don’t know about you, but I often need the right song to get my Sunday started. I’ve done my best to provide you with some options for what song best fits your Sunday morning experience, which can vary greatly. Please choose one or add better selections in the comments.

I woke up with this song in my head, it’s good if you’re keeping it sleepy, maybe staying in bed and looking out the window a bit before getting up.

Dear Nora – “Here We Come Around”

But what if you really need to get pumped up, get the blood flowing for a rollicking Sunday. Maybe this will help.

Kanye West & Jay Z – “No Church in the Wild”

Okay, so those might not do it for you today. What if you’re really hungover and can’t really think or read or see anything and you kind of feel really emotional right now guys and just want to wallow a little and feel nostalgic?

Radiohead – “Creep”

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It’s still untitled, so we have time to submit some more here . . .

[another stock Mission photo by me]

Production starts in the fall for a premiere in 2014, story here.

Previous coverage here.

Just another day on Muni.

Reader Charles sends us this pic outside of El Metate/La Tiendita on 22nd at Bryant.

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.

[fake real estate billboard featuring 17 Reasons that I painted in 2007]

This came in to us today from Rick Holman, who says that he is concerned about misinformation spreading about what he intends to do with his property on the southeast corner of 17th and Mission:

Open letter to the Mission and San Francisco from the owner of 2102 Mission Street Neighbors:

I’m Rick Holman. I am a fifth-generation San Franciscan and I have recently purchased the Redlick Building at 2101-2125 Mission Street (you may know it as the 17 Reasons Building.). We’re pleased to own this well-known San Francisco building. We plan to maintain it as it is: bustling with unique, San Francisco and Mission-oriented businesses. However, I’ve been distressed by some rumors that are being spread. I’d like to set the record straight.

We have no intention to tear down the building, convert the building to lofts or condos, or otherwise change its fundamental character or use. Some have pointed to the soils testing currently underway as evidence that we’re about to convert the building to condos. The soil is being tested to better understand the Building’s significant seismic issues. We intend to address the issues once we fully understand them. We want the tenants and visitors to be safe when they’re in the Building. Also, there is no intention to build an underground parking structure. The Building sits on Mission Creek, making the construction of an underground parking garage at the site nearly impossible.

Let’s be clear: we didn’t buy the Redlick Building to leave it completely alone – that would be a disservice to our tenants. We are making positive changes. The Building was porous; there were many ways for unwelcome visitors to get inside. Locks and doors didn’t close correctly, and the parking lot gate was broken and would not close. So the faulty door has been fixed. The numerous broken locks have been replaced with locks that are the same as the ones on the Mission Street doors. We have distributed more than 70 new keys to our tenants, free of charge. The Building now has security personnel in the Building to discourage the unwelcome visitors. We’ve replaced over 100 burned-out lights in stairwells and hallways, cleaned the storefront windows and cleaned out drains. We have started the process of investing a significant amount of money in improving the Building elevators and HVAC system – money we want to spend to make this Building better.

We have heard we replaced the management of the Building. T and Aldo are still here, and Julio has joined the management crew. I am also here almost every day. There are now twice as many people in the Building to assist the tenants combining the old with new energy.

There are rumors that we are planning to evict all of our tenants. This is completely untrue. Let’s be clear: I have indeed initiated one eviction, for a group of people illegally occupying one of the units. (This is the first eviction process I have ever engaged in, by the way.) But we are already in conversation or negotiation with many of the other tenants regarding the extension of their leases and tenancies. The ground floor retail tenants, Thrift Town, Fabric Outlet and A&A Bargains, are important Mission District businesses. We hope that they remain tenants here for many years to come.

I regret that some have chosen to spread unfounded rumors about the future of the Redlick Building. However, we’re confident that the changes we’re making will provide a better, safer, and more positive experience for our tenants and visitors.

Thank you for taking the time to read this note.

Rick Holman Mission Street SF LLC

This seems like as good a time and place as any to ask Holman any legitimate questions or pose any concerns you have about the future of this building and the businesses it houses. As a longtime resident of the neighborhood I know that I am hopeful that he will indeed keep the current thriving businesses intact and agree with him that they are important to the fabric (pun unfortunately intended) of our neighborhood.