Mission Mission

SF DocFest, SF Indie’s 12th annual documentary festival, starts today and runs through the 23rd. The festival kicks off tonight with the west coast premiere of Spark: A Burning Man Story at the Roxie Theater.

Notable and relevant film screenings include:

• Petey and Ginger, featuring Petey Dammit of Thee Oh Sees and a local band-filled soundtrack
• Gut Renovation, about Williamsburg and all of our readers’ favorite topic ever, gentrification!
• These documentary shorts by local filmmakers
• Edible City, about the Bay Area Good Food movement
• This one about Pussy Riot
• This one about Bettie Page
• This one about The Pirate Bay

And there’s plenty more, so be sure to check out the full schedule (or just The Roxie’s schedule, if you don’t want to leave the neighborhood).

Looking up at from inside the looking down on. Otherwise known as the reverse.

As much as I admire Portuguese soccer teams, I can’t recall if I’ve ever actually sampled any of the cuisine from the colorful coastal nation. Apparently, I’m not alone in this, which is something that Andrea de Francisco wants to change by bringing Cafe St. Jorge to the Mission:

Named after my favorite Açorean Island and birthplace of the majority of my family, Cafe St. Jorge is a Portuguese-inspired cafe and bakery located in San Francisco providing organic locally-sourced fare, delicious freshly baked breads and pastries, and exceptional coffee that is real and unpretentious in a place where people can gather, relax, and enjoy some wonderful and friendly service.

There’s some neat rewards on the Kickstarter as well, like free Stumptown coffee for a year! Check it all out here.

[sic] [Also, siiick!]

[via Lindsey Lyons]

Hey guys, here’s the latest installment of our feature where two local theater lovers, Katie Cruz & Brittany Janis, go see a live performance and discuss it over drinks:

Serial killers, family drama, and demon sex, oh my! Last Thursday we climbed the stairs to The Magic Theatre to see their latest and last show of the season, Terminus by Mark O’Rowe, directed by Jon Tracy. Entering into the haze filled theatre, little did we know we were going to be taken on a lyrical journey from heaven to hell and back again (although Magic’s description should have clued us in). This play has so much drama, we sure needed the drinks.

Katie: I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but I struggled a bit. I don’t know if it’s just that I wasn’t in the mindset for this sort of a play, or maybe I was just too tired. That much time without much physical interaction between the characters, who are just reciting monologues, isn’t my favorite sort of play. It felt like I was watching a book being read out loud at me.

Brittany: See, I enjoyed it, but I can see where you’re coming from. I really loved the script and the language of the play, but about an hour in I was hoping for an intermission too. Also, the accents got to me.

K: Yes! I am always a big believer that if you can’t do the accent really well, and can’t keep it throughout the play, please don’t do it at all!

B: Despite the accents though, I really loved the actress who played the mother (Stacy Ross). She was so engaging, every one of her monologues drew me in, she made me care about her story. The guy (Carl Lumby) was great too, although towards the end he got a little yelly for me, which is also when his accent disappeared. Overall, I thought it was well done.

K: The sound design was great. That rumble at the beginning . . . really the best way to start a show I think I’ve ever experienced. It totally set the tone for the dark things that were to come. The set was impressive too, that gravel void with the stark lighting made for some really dramatic stage pictures. Something that Jon Tracy has always been really amazing at creating.

B: This is a great show for someone who is into theatre and poetry. There’s a lot of beautiful language, the play has great theatricality, and has an interesting form. I don’t think I would take one of my friends who isn’t into theater to see this, though. An hour-forty-five of monologues without an intermission can be rough.

The Verdict: Take your artsy friends! Don’t take your kids (the content is mature, to say the least) or your friends who prefer kids movies. This play is a dark, but beautiful, piece of theatre.

The Drama Talk: Put on your artsy pants, wear black, don’t go tired, and be prepared to hear some pretty disturbing things described beautifully. This play is not for the faint of heart, but just get in the mood for something dark and different and you’ll have a great time. There are $20 tickets for those under 30 available on the Magic Theatre website. Also at the moment, there are some tickets for sale on Goldstar, but don’t be surprised if they sell out fast, this play is going to generate some serious buzz.

The Drinks: We decided to hit up a place that we could sit in a chill, low lit, dramatic setting to discuss this intense play, so we chose the Noir Lounge in Hayes Valley. Brittany had a Deschutes Black Butte Porter (to match the darkness of the show) and Katie had a glass of Rose (the color of demon blood!).

Terminus runs through June 16th, at The Magic Theatre in Fort Mason.

It’s called Sangre del Toro, and it’s at West of Pecos. It’s what we were drinking that time we saw a million people we knew walk by out front.

I’m actually in Brooklyn right now, and last night I had a drink called the Beergarita at this place Daddy’s. They float some alright frozen margarita on top of a pint of some alright beer. And it’s really good! As I’m sure you can easily imagine. So imagine how good it must be to have some really excellent frozen margarita swirled into some really excellent sangria! It’s really excellent. Plus, the people watching at this place is great, obviously. Can’t wait to get back!

Drink of the week is brought to you by Poachedjobs.com.

Another restaurant burned last night, adding itself to the list of neighborhood eateries catching fire recently.

#Fire guts SF French restaurant Chez Spencer and forces neighbors from their homes temporarily @ktvu 5a Costly damage twitter.com/taramoriarty1/…

— taramoriarty (@taramoriarty1) May 31, 2013

You’ll recall that We Be Sushi and Thai House 530 on Valencia were both affected by a fire less than two weeks ago. Little Baobab burned just 9 days before that. We Be and Thai House are re-opening soon and Little Baobab moved their business next door. Earlier this year, across the Bay, Chez Panisse was damaged by fire, and has since re-opened. In the Bay, Forbes Island caught fire just three weeks ago.

There was a fire at Chez Spencer this morning and we will keep you posted on when we will be back open. Thanks for your support.

— laurent katgely (@chezspencergo) May 31, 2013

Be careful, restaurants!

Says bart.gov:

“Major delays through Transbay Tube for morning commute
Expect major delays of 20 to 60 minutes this morning through the Transbay Tube. We are single tracking due to damage on the third rail following a collision of rail maintenance vehicles at approximately 2 am this morning. We expect these delays to continue throught the morning commute and impact scheduled service on all lines. We are working as quickly as we can to safely restore service.”

For details on this morning’s major delay and links to transit alternatives visit bart.gov/news/articles/…

— SFBART (@SFBART) May 31, 2013

This is almost as rad as the time that guy tracked down the guy who stole his bike on Craigslist and traveled all the way from Portland to Seattle to set up a sting operation.  From Fossil Fool:

Stolen bike recovered in heroic fashion on Bartlett St. as members of the Rock The Bike crew pedal power their way through a U-Lock. If your bike is stolen in the Mission, mobilize your networks to get lots of eyeballs working for you, pattern matching your bike against all the ones they see. Bike thieves aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree…

Nice work SF cyclist community!

We’re always super excited by the prospect of closing street access to cars in favor of pedestrian thoroughfares to help promote community engagement, and the proposed Mercado Plaza on Bartlett between 22nd and 21st Streets is no exception.  On that note, the Mission Community Market is hosting a meeting tonight in the Women’s Building at 6pm for you to tell them what you think about it:

Thanks to YOUR support, we secured funds for the Mercado Plaza project. Now let’s see what the future could look like at an open house hosted by the San Francisco Planning Department, Department of Public Works, MTA.

Improvements could include new pavement, safer sidewalks, market stalls, better lighting, street graphics, a marquee, and more. But it all depends on your input! Please come and tell us what you think!

Mercado Plaza Open House
Wednesday, May 29 6:00-7:30 PM
The Women’s Building, ROOM A3543 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

Check out all the details here.

UPDATE!!! Apparently I was mistaken and the proposal actually isn’t to close the street to car traffic permanently, but rather to make it a better public space; safer, cleaner, and with a better street/sidewalk.  So, to reiterate, the plan is NOT to eliminate all parking and all car traffic, but it’s still gonna be rad!