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Tag: Mission

A Change in Energy

Castro Street Fair 2008

Old friends brought back old memories.  My friend Dennis who lives in London is here for a visit.  He reminds me that twenty years ago I was afraid of walking in the Mission and Castro.  The charged energy in those areas was something that scared me.  I worried about his safety; drove him to Castro but would not let him out of the car until he pleaded with me.  Of course I don’t remember any of this.  Since moving to San Francisco, Mission and Castro are two neighborhoods that I love, especially because of the energy.  Aliveness is what they have:  the colors, the wackiness, the tension, the surprises, the sensuality, the mix of people from all walks of life.

Vitality can be  intimidating.  Was I not alive then?

 

Photo from curvemag.com

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Ensouled

Ensouled—a beautiful word—to endow with a soul.  If there is such a voice that is ensouled, it is Carlos Ramirez’s.  We partnered again tonight for a tribute to Langston Hughes at the Red Poppy Art House.  Carlos was hyped up before the show and had trouble containing his excitement.  Soon as the spotlights turned on he was afire.  His white mane, his smiling eyes, his dancing feet tapped and stomped and bounced and took him within inches of the audience.  He sang songs set to the words of Hughes in his baritone voice that could easily drop down to the bass and race up to the tenor register.

“I felt an immediate affinity to Langston Hughes’ poetry when I first read them.”  Carlos told me with his wide child-like smile.  “They are so singable.”

April Rain, Sun Song, Mother to Child, Daybreak in Alabama, Red Clay Blues…the audience and I were in turn ensouled by Carlos in this December MAPP* night.

*Mission Arts & Performance Project

 

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Radio Habana Social Club

This funky place doesn’t open until 7p and it is one of the joints in the Mission where you can have late night snack or dinner.  I like to bring friends to the “club” because it is so unlike other eateries.  The entire interior, including the ceiling, is filled with bygone toys, strange photographs, mutilated torsos, thorny busts, Van Gough’s self portrait with a bloody bandage and his ear in a plastic bag,  Frank Zapper taking a crap on the toilet and so on.  They always play good, upbeat music.  The place is jammed with people spilling over onto the sidewalk.  One time I watched Dore play chess with an old man at the counter.  That’s right.  Social interaction.

We went there after a concert last night.  At 9:30 the place was quite empty.  Two kids playing some dice games and only one table of customers.  Is it because of the economic downturn?  (The concert also was not full).   They have raised the prices on the menu and the food was less than satisfactory.  We left loving the place more than what it did to our stomachs.

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The 3300 Club

Nancy Keane at SF Poetry TV Show. Click to watch.

The 3300 club is at the junction of Mission and Valencia.  It has a big old neon sign and coins itself the “garden spot of the Mission”.  I can’t imagine anything growing in there but drinks.  On poetry nights they give out free snacks.

I have been to the bar twice to hear friends read.  The club’s owner, Nancy Keane, eluded me both times.  We finally met when she came to the TV studio to tape her reading for the SF TV show.

Nancy has been running the club since 1956.  As we sat down to chat, she handed me a small flyer.  Surrounding the texts was a garden window hand painted in pastel with flowers decorated inside and out.  It was her latest project, Nancy explained.  She was participating in the 100 Thousand Poets for Change and raising money for the 826 Valencia Project that provides free after school tutoring to students.

I came to realize the glow on her face was the garden that I had missed at the club.

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