Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Breakfast at home: leftover egg noodles with string beans. Rode Muni to UCSF Parnassus. UCSF shuttle from Parnassus to Laurel Heights. Along the way I continued studying Spanish on Duolingo. Sprint standup. Helped Mary Anne with a question about possible spam. (It was.) Microsites work: ACDRS build most of the day. Lunch at the JCC: chicken sandwich (not spicy) and fries. Again tried resolving my problems with Apple Calendar and failed. Followup with Robin about artwork sent. Rode Lyft downtown. Dinner at ANZU in Hotel Nikko with Phil, Paul, and Danny. We ate: Local Motion roll (salmon, hamachi, shiromi, seared albacore, shiso leaf); The Rock (thinly sliced Wagyu beef coulotte cooked tableside on a sizzling Japanese river stone with trio of sauces: spicy korean, kizami carrot sauce, and cilantro puree); scallop yaki (grilled sweet corn, Hokkaido scallops, blistered shishito pepper mayo, baby arugula); misoyaki black cod (purple yam dumplings, edamame, baby shitake mushrooms, ginger dashi broth); crispy skin 38 north duck breast (red rice, grilled artichokes, pickled celery, barigoule vinaigrette). They were out of the first choice of wine Paul had selected, then the second as well, and we ended up having a 2012 Napa Valley Girard sauvignon blanc. Service was excellent. Paul had been before but neither Phil nor Danny had. Afterwards we walked to the Warfield for Culture Club presented by Goldenvoice with opening by GROVES. Phil had found tickets on Goldstar. Doors opened at 7:00 pm for this all-ages show. We arrived at about 8:00 pm after waiting in a 10-minute line for will call tickets. We sat in reserved lower balcony 5, row D, seats 21, 23, 25, and 27. We heard GROVES play three songs. For the last one, the band introduced guest guitarist Jerry Harrison from the Talking Heads. Boy George sang lead while they played "Psycho Killer." Culture Club's performance started around 9 pm and had lots of lights—including strobes—that pointed into the audience, sometimes for long minutes, which I found kind of annoying. But hearing them play many old favorites more or less as we remembered them put a smile on everyone's faces. Setlist: Church of the Poison Mind, It's a Miracle, I'll Tumble 4 Ya, Move Away, Everything I Own, Black Money, Time (Clock of the Heart), Like I Used To, Different Man, Miss Me Blind, The Crying Game, (a short and informal riff of Billie Jean between songs), Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?, Victims, More Than Silence, The War Song. Encore: The Truth is a Runaway Train, Karma Chameleon, Bang a Gong (Get It On). Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? was the song that got everyone on their feet. Boy George wore three outfits, all variations on coat, hat, and baggyish pants. A fun evening.