Mission Mission

Thanks to the tireless work of the blog Man Lines — and also just living in SF and being aware of one’s surroundings — we all know where all the men are: they’re waiting in line for lunch or Four Barrel or whatever.

But where are all the women? Maybe they stayed in? Maybe there aren’t any? Maybe they moved to Portland?

It’s been the eternal question for a while now. Nobody knew the answer — until… I was walking down 19th Street over the weekend and I found all the women:

They’re in line for Radish.

Here’s a closer look:

[Excellent photo and excellent headline by Megan Z]

Local hop-head David Enos hipped us to this new brew:

There is a new dog in town, hailing from Sonoma County – this is not a lap dog we have here. He is the dog that bites you in a hateful way and does not let go until you say “Uncle”.

Read on for more.

Unexpected moment of zen this morning

A video posted by @vicwomg on Mar 2, 2016 at 11:35am PST

He’s a dad, he’s a lawyer, he has his own radio show, he was in Readyville, he was born and raised in San Francisco, and he has his own monthly DJ night at one of my favorite bars of all time. Here’s what happens at Eighty-Five Song Happy Hour, which is tonight (and every first Wednesday, 6-9) at Pop’s:

Nick Pal spins short songs because life is short. Punk, pop, rock and power pop vinyl.

And he does a great job of it. Plus he lets me make all his poster art, which is nice. RSVP and invite your pals.

UPDATE (3:04pm): Nick adds, “[N]ationally ranked Hearthstone player, former Mission Mission staff writer, sober Sally.” Oh and I just remembered he’s also one of the few people with a 2-character Twitter handle.

I went on a whim last night and saw Urgh! A Music War, a cult-fave compilation of concert footage featuring the Police, Wall of Voodoo, the Go-Gos, Gang of Four, Gary Numan, Devo, Klaus Nomi, and lots more. It was very ’80s and very awesome. Check out this rippin’ performance by the Cramps:

Can’t believe I’d never seen that before!

Anyway, Music Mondays are every Monday at 10pm in the main (awesome) auditorium, tickets are only $5, you can eat and drink, and the movies are expertly chosen by our pal Mike Keegan.

Next week is Velvet Goldmine, and the week after that is Christiane F. Check out the full Alamo calendar and have yourself a blast!

It’s not quite open yet, but any day now it should be. It’s REAL warm and friendly inside.

Stay tuned for a special report on the jukebox, more info on the “More” thing, and hopefully we’ll get to announce the official opening date any day now.

Capp Street Crap reports:

Owner Marco Senghor said barring any hiccups, Little Baobab will reopen for business at 5 p.m. Friday. The restaurant, at 3376 19th St., between Mission and Capp streets, is adopting more of a fast food concept, serving crepes and African wraps made with some of the dishes and sauces served at its sister restaurant Bissap Baobab next door.

Sounds like these Afro Wraps could be a new late-night Mission go-to. Read on for more info.

Katie & Brittany sat this one out, (they reviewed another DD production a few years back) and I took over for the week, to bring a Dirty Dancing superfan (my wife) to see SHN’s latest musical.

Ariel: I had a good time.
Sharon: Me too.
A: But the biggest issue is that it felt to me that instead of a set and set design, the whole thing took place in a pinball game.
S: Yeah, the fact that they projected 90% of the backgrounds made it feel like it was trying to be a film production with live actors.
A: They were in front of video screens almost the whole time. It was really distracting. And it didn’t fit the style.
S: And they changed the set more often than they needed to, which made it feel like beat, beat, beat instead of a flowing story. And all the sets were so literal.
A:  And the story takes place all in one basic setting, they didn’t need to change the backgrounds that much.
S: I did really appreciate the set pieces that were there, I thought they were cool. The orchestra up top and the rotating centerpiece added great dimension to it.
A: Every time they revealed the orchestra it had an impact.
S: Yeah. I was unsure that live music was going to work, but it totally worked. The vocalists were great, and I was glad they were background dancers and not Johnny and Baby, which I had feared. The use of songs was good. The variation between prerecorded and live was solid. The singing and dancing were great. The acting was not as good. I don’t know if that was because of the acting or because of the direction. The movie is so sincere. And in the staged version they were hyper-caricatured versions of those characters. Baby’s sincerity is gone, it’s just her awkwardness, Lisa is just loud and you don’t care for her at all, etc.
A: Right, if you have a movie that has that archetypal feel, then you bring it on stage and lose a lot of the nuance, you reduce them down to the essence and it feels forced.
S: The combination of that with the constantly changing backgrounds/screens, plus, the audience has seen the movie and they clearly felt a responsibility to give everyone the part of the movie they’re looking forward to, and that’s hard.
A: If they left anything out they would have been criticized for leaving that out.
S: And what they ended up leaving out was the flow of it. But I did look forward to every number and scene because I too knew what was coming. But there was some really bad acting by people who are really talented at singing and dancing.
A: They weren’t allowed time to really act. Somewhere along the way pacing was sacrificed for getting every treasured moment in there.
S: It’s a tough one, to please everyone. But they included a lot of scenes that didn’t matter. I wish they had tested this before an audience of super-fans, we could have told them what didn’t matter.
A: On film you can get up in a character’s space, but in theater you’re held at a distance, so if you add more time, it has to be used really skillfully, or else it just feels like dead space. So every moment was filled.
S: Baby was a little too goofy. But they had good chemistry. I warmed up to Johnny. I liked Penny a lot.
A: The dad was more J. Peterman than Jerry Orbach.
S: Yeah, I didn’t like the dad. The mom is pretty much a throwaway character in the movie, unfortunately, and even more so here. Considering the subject matter and how strong Baby is in the movie, the mom and the sister are underused. There was also more humor than there was in the movie, which I had to get used to. I think they were trying to make it entertaining for the whole family, hence humor.
A: The beginning was a little tough to get into, the second act got a little better, but the finale was great.
S: The finale was the best dance.
A: The whole room was lit up by it.
S: And it was finally not relying on the screens. It was just the people dancing, their energy. It’s a tough one, bringing this to the stage. I think they did a pretty good job. I was entertained and wanted to keep watching. It’s worth it if you love seeing live dancing. Now I want to watch the movie again. On the big screen.

The Verdict: If you like to sit at home on your couch and watch Dancing With The Stars, the music and dancing here is well worth getting out of your house. If you’re a huge fan of the movie, you will enjoy seeing it on stage, but maybe you’ll just end up wanting to watch the movie again. And you’ll be excited to go home with a “Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner” shirt.

The Drama Talk: We felt like the producers weren’t able to make this their own, since so many different parts of the movie are iconic to the fans who will come out for this. It’s a difficult challenge, and the storytelling suffered. If the singing and dancing weren’t great, it would be a bomb, but those two aspects helped it still feel worth the experience.

The Drinks: We went out before the show (had to get back for the babysitter) to Farmer Brown. We split a bunch of appetizers, and they were all really good. Especially the ribs and the shrimp hush puppies. Ariel had an Old-Soul Fashioned, which was all kinds of tasty flavors, and nicely strong. Sharon had the Front Porch Ice Tea, which was good, but tasted pretty watery.

Dirty Dancing plays through March 2oth at the Golden Gate Theater, you can buy tickets here.

Just walked past a guy (not pictured) writing a tag (not pictured) on a compost bin (not pictured) in the Mission.

And then a man in a nice suit threw open the door of his house and exclaimed, “Why are you tagging our shit???”

The tagger said, “Graf lyfe, bro,” and left.