Saturday, October 9, 2010
Laundry. Drupal updates for Patrick's website. Breakfast at home: cream of wheat with fresh diced honeycrisp apple, cinnamon, nonfat milk. House chores: cleaned the dish rack, ironed a shirt. Muni to Safeway at Church and Market, bought veggie burgers and macaroni salad. Left Safeway, then received a response to my earlier request if the party needed anything they had missed. Returned to Safeway for lemons, bbq sauce, ketchup. Muni and walk to Temery's for a Fleet Week Blue Angels Rooftop Viewing Party. Met Cameron, Basil, Kenneth. James K recommended that I shop for clothes at Sisley—will have to try that sometime. An Evening With Sandra Bernhard at Castro Theatre (part of Rooftop Comedy's Out Loud Comedy & Arts Festival). Sandra shared her music, poetry, observations. Nico Santos hosted and opened. His set rocked and was very well received. I had heard nearly all his jokes before, but they still make me laugh. The featured comic was Guy Branum (Chelsea Lately). He was a crowdpleaser as well, but many of his jokes and political calls-to-action and rationalizations for being overweight rubbed me the wrong way. Some of his jokes were excellent, though. He had mentioned spending time in Los Angeles and was immediately met with hissing from the audience. He countered by commiserating: "Do you know how hard it is to find artisanal cheeses in L.A.?!" Smart, fast-thinking, and funny, even if it might be more of an exaggeration than a truth. Here's what Sandra talked about, not in any particular order: San Francisco, the Blue Angels, texting while walking, technology, Grindr, Obama not being liberal enough, John McCain, meeting Barbara Boxer, Joan Rivers' looks, Angelina Jolie in Salt (and, briefly, Brad Pitt), home decorating, paying rent, Iman (model), Sara, losing faith in Kabbalah. Perhaps the most positive reaction she got from the crowd was when she derided the government for having Fleet Week instead of spending the money on more important things such as education or addressing homelessness. An Austin musician rocker chick whose name I didn't catch accompanied her on electric guitar and with voice for one number at the beginning and one number at the end. A keyboard had been set up but it seems we missed a piano number along the way. Sandra must have talked more than she had planned. Manager Kenneth made a brief appearance. I had thought the sound was perfect until one speaker was cutting in and out during the tail end number. Lighting was great. I don't think the theatre had sold out, but I sat in the 2nd row and couldn't tell for certain after the lights dropped. Afterwards I ran into Nico again, chatted briefly, then tried to meet others at Trigger but they didn't show. DJ Claksaarb was spinning high energy dance to a light, mixed crowd and I stayed for a bit because the music was good but it didn't quite get me to dancing. Tried to meet Nate at Badlands but the line was super long. Stepped in to Toad Hall for the first time. There was a small dance floor and good music, but no one was dancing. Listened outside at QBar for a bit. Muni home. Ran into Alex C at Muni Castro station, said hello goodbye. Pad thai with shrimp to go from King of Thai Noodle. Home.