Mission Mission

It’s the one on the far left.

[via @formbasedshawty]

There’s been a buzz in the SF theater world about Now For Now the “multimedia physical theater piece created and performed by Bay Area theater makers Mark Jackson and Megan Trout”. It’s only in SF for a short run before it goes on tour nationally, so we headed to Z Below for a night of Drama Talk & Drinks.

Photo by Gabby Battista

WATCH TRAILER

Brittany: Okay, let’s just get this out of the way, did she really pee?

Katie: I don’t think so. It had to have been some sort of water bag prop sort of thing.

B: That would have to be a health code violation, right? You can’t just pee on stage on purpose, even if you clean it up after.

K: Yeah, I don’t think she peed. You know what was really confusing for me though, is some of the things Mark (Jackson) was saying as his character, is stuff from his real life. I got too distracted trying to differentiate what was fiction vs. what was reality.

B: I enjoyed that they did that, especially in the opening. It was refreshing to have a prologue that that broke the third wall and drew the audience into the scene. They made some very cool staging choices too. It was neat having the live technology – live texting –  live video from the phone – real-time IM conversations – incorporated into the scenes. Screens are such a big element of how we interact with people, so I appreciate that they worked that into the evolution of these relationships.

K: They were definitely being innovative, which I appreciate, but I just wasn’t that interested in the characters.

B: There was a bit of navel gazing that I got a little fed up with too. Actors complaining about the kinds of problems actors face, that actors love to muse about. It made it hard for me to sympathize with their ennui. I didn’t really care what happened to either of the characters at the end.

K: There were moments that were fascinating to watch from a theatrical standpoint. The movement work was beautiful.

B: You just have to like theater for the art-of-theater’s sake, you’ll be disappointed if you go for the story.

K: I’m just disappointed because Mark Jackson was one of my favorite professors, and I felt like this play was very self indulgent which I wouldn’t have thought would be his style.

B: Maybe the play is a critique of itself. It comes across as narcissistic because it’s saying everyone is narcissistic. That’s why they took a selfie at curtain call.

K: I hope so. I’d rather think the whole show is meta, instead of just self indulgent.

The Verdict: It you enjoy arty theater, you may like this. If you go to theater to hear a compelling, moving story, we think this play falls short.

The Drama Talk: While the show makes some very innovative choices with the way it incorporates technology, and the movement in the transitions can be spellbinding, the show falls short when it comes to the stories it tells. Perhaps it’s because the show tells the same story three times over, just with the roles the actors play in each version slightly altered; in story one they’re father/daughter, story two lovers, story three teacher/student, with the same salient details re-conceived across the three relationship types. By the end we were both tired of the characters and their disillusioned lives.

The Drinks: After the show we rolled down the hill to Rite Spot Cafe to grab a laid back drink and dissect what we just saw. Brittany got a Bitter Bullet, because all the characters seemed so bitter, and Katie got a Moscow Mule, to go along with all the stories of being driven to drink by “hardcore” Russian actors. We wondered why we didn’t get drinks there after every show, and thanked our lucky stars that there are still bars in the Mission where you can get a good strong simple drink and talk the night away.

Now for Now runs through July 26th at the Z-Below theater at Z Space, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm. Tickets are available on the Z Space website $20 for adults, or $15 for Students and Seniors.

Fav quote from the wknd: "Cookie! I'm moving 2 Hawaii. Gonna kick back, sell water/beer on the beach. R U coming w/me?"-Cold Beer Cold Water

— Hey, Cookie! (@HeyCookieSF) July 20, 2015

A fresh new take on a classic:

It’s sounds like if Haçeteria was still at Deco Lounge (and thus Deco Lounge still existed) and there was a psycho on the loose, dragging unsuspecting dancers from the dance floor down to the dungeon — for more fun.

I’d never seen a can with a different color top before. Pretty trippy.

Imagine yourself in an indie dance & electro pop paradise filled with the best dance jams, cool people, an awesome bar and oh yeah, it’s free! Now snap out of it, dust off your favorite dance shoes and head over to Pops Bar to experience it for yourself this weekend! Your weekend music in the mission plans: Friday with SWEETHEARTS & Saturday with Get Lucky!

Get all the Pops Bar music in the mission happenings below:

7/20/15 MONDAY

MOM at POPS:

Motown on Mondays

It’s only Monday if you treat it like one.

M.O.M

9PM START, 1:30AM end

Hey!

Check out my

M.O.M.

Mondays at Pops

DJ BLUZ, ALARM & GUESTS

PLAYS ORIGINALS, EXCLUSIVE REMIXES

AND CLOSE RELATIVES OF YOUR FAVORITE

MOTOWN SONGS…

7/21/15 TUESDAY

Tropicana Tuesdays

“Quality Latin BASS”

Every Tuesday at POPS BAR

Music: FREE

Time: 9pm – 2am

Tropicana Tuesday with DJ Baysik, playing a mixture of islander & latin grooves all night, from Celia Cruz to Vybz Kartel. Experience the only Tuesday night Latin themed party in the mission.

7/22/15 WEDNESDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9PM with Benezra Tergis and friends. Live Latin Sounds.

MUSIC THERAPY

Electro-Cumbia Breaks, Hip Hop, Nu Latin Beats

9PM-1:30am

No Cover

21 UP

7/23/15 THURSDAY

BFF.FM Night

9PM-1:30AM

Rotating DJs from local BFF.fm radio! This week: Baystrife

Come support local community radio.

No Cover

7/24/15 FRIDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9PM swing dancing with the Purple House Good Time Band.

SWEETHEARTS
9PM-2AM

A very fun time dancing with buddies to MUSIC. Sweethearts love electro pop dance music and want everyone who comes out to have a great time dancing to loud music.

No Cover

21 UP

7/25/15 SATURDAY

Happy Hour Entertainment 6-9PM with Patch & Rita. Who could resist this dynamic duo, with their sonorous adventures into the deserts of early 20th century songwriting? If you’ve got a hankerin’ for some rootsy boot-stompin’ tunes about whiskey and cheatin’ women, then this is your place. Patch & Rita throw down some tunes like this coast has never seen, and you’ll leave stomping your feet, we promise.

Get Lucky!

with DJs Six & Candy

Spinning indie dance & electro music videos. Expect to get your dance jam on to:

The Presets CSS Cut Copy LCD Soundsystem Beth Ditto Hot Chip Empire of the Sun Dragonette The Ting Tings Monarchy METRONOMY Chromeo Yeah Yeah Yeahs Tiga Kylie Minogue Kimbra Digitalism Martin Solvieg Calvin Harris Robyn CLASSIXX Icona Pop La Roux Daft Punk Miami Horror RAC Friendly Fires Gigamesh Holy Ghost! The Wombats Bloc Party Foster The People Two Door Cinema Club GROUPLOVE Lykke Li and anything else to make you sweat on the dance floor!

9pm-2am

No Cover

21 UP

7/26/15 SUNDAY

DOUBLE FEATURE SUNDAYS

Let’s face it, we have all become addicted to binge watching lately. We invite you to cozy up at Pops Bar for our new Double Feature Sundays where you can enjoy your favorite movies and series with your friends. Without a bad seat in the house, your feature will be enjoyed on 5 screens and broadcast through our state of the art sound system. To get the ball rolling we’ve picked some classics for the month of July:

Week 3: Cult Classic Biker Flicks

Sunday July 26 @ 9PM

Devil’s Angels &

Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway

Want to host your own double feature Sunday with your friends? Just send us your suggestions to tom@popssf.com

No Cover

21 UP

POPS BAR

2800 24th Street @ York

San Francisco, CA 94110

www.popssf.com

Are you an architecture nerd, scuzzy ex-mall rat, or a person who loves cool and interesting things? Then you’ll love the first annual Gruen Day, taking place tomorrow, July 18, at the Bayfair Center in the Eastern Bay!

Back in May, 99% Invisible‘s Avery Trufelman wrote and produced an excellent episode on Victor Gruen, inventor of the shopping mall. Avery then joined forces with Tim Hwang (founder of the Bay Area Infrastructure Observatory) and SPUR to produce Gruen Day: a celebration of our favorite suburban merchandising complexes and its creator.

Festivities include talks, tours, nerding out, and hanging out in the food court at Bayfair Center (which, FYI, opened in 1957 as one of the first Gruen-designed shopping centers in the country). There may or may not be Minions present.

Gruen Day tickets are still available here! Plus, every ticket scores you a limited-edition poster designed by Justin Carder and two shiny limited-edition pins designed by yours truly:

(Fun fact: One of these pins may or may not have been inspired by my misreading of “Gruen Day” in an email subject line…)

RSVP and invite your friends here!

And grab yourself a ticket here before they sell out!

[via Mission Local]

Our pal Inna saw her life flash before her eyes this morning:

Ok not even funny anymore – I just had a terrifying moment with a Google bus turning from 24th onto valencia that nearly killed me and one other person. We had the green light still – it was very clearly green, and he just plowed into the intersection. Cars stopped and honked, people screamed, and even google’s minions waiting in line to board the thing looked up from their phones.

I don’t even know what to do – who do I complain to? Who will listen or care? It’s simply not safe for these gigantic buses to have complete reign of the streets. It’s a terrible feeling to not feel welcome in your own city- this is the icing on the cake.

I also experienced a harrowing moment last week while biking north on Valencia approaching 25th Street.  One of the behemoth buses pulled up alongside me and then tried to beat me to the stop on the NE corner, almost pinning me to the sidewalk.  Luckily I was able to maintain control of my bike and sprint past it, but damn!

I don’t drive, but if I did I would be livid with these buses.  I routinely see a tech bus chilling at a green light waiting for another tech bus in front of it to finish its business at the stop located across the intersection.  So imagine you’re stopped behind a bus at a green light and it just sits there for a couple minutes while the lights cycle through, and finally when the first bus is finsished unloading or dropping off or whatever does that green-light-chilling bus cross the intersection and awkwardly pull over in just enough of a diagonal to continue blocking the street.

Did we really kill the 26 Valencia Muni just so these giant out of-control buses could run wild?  I know it’s a broken record at this point, but just remember that these buses are another example of something that incoveniences (and sometimes endangers) the public and whose only benefit is increasing profit for private companies (by enhancing their recruiting efforts and employee productivity).

Essentially, all the buses really do is transfer the extra minutes that their employees would have to wait if they took regular public transportation along to everybody else.

Previously:

• The Google Bus: “If you want an iPhone, a Facebook profile, and Google Maps, this is part of the price you’ve gotta pay”