In 15 seconds, 200 white people in banana suits dancing like they're at a Limp Bizkit concert will suddenly appear.

After all the hoorah about Carnaval's troubles a couple months back, I decided to poke around their website to see how the festival was holding up.  This is what I found:

This year’s theme is Carnaval Harlem Shake, with 8 city blocks in San Francisco’s Mission District bursting with music, dance, and exotic food from the many countries that celebrate Carnaval.

I was really pulling for a Grumpy Cat theme.  What a let down.

[Photo by Der Dunn]

It looks like the storied and troubled venue space at 2565 Mission Street is about to start a new chapter.  What was 12 Galaxies (a most noble attempt at becoming a thing that, sadly, never managed to pack a room) and later The Blue Macaw is now a French/Cajun/Creole-inspired restaurant/bar/nightclub with a name I'll assuredly never learn to pronounce correctly.  Oy.

From their website:

Balançoire is a full service restaurant, bar and nightclub featuring French, Cajun/Creole inspired food, two dancefloors and bars and a performance stage perfect for a variety of events.

We'll be hosting:

• Happy Hour Burlesque
• B3- Balançoire's Brunch Bar (bottomless food and bottomless mimosas) and over 21 Tea Dance upstairs
• Clam Jam (a new girl party)
• House Deejays from all over the bay area
• Comedy Night

JUST TO NAME A FEW!

Does this mean the club is returning to its weird roots?  Who knows.  But as the former 12 Galaxies event promoter who tipped us off to the change put it, “Maybe it won't be as high-brow as Foreign Cinema, especially with the comedy and burlesque stuff, so maybe there's hope.”

Debatable! Uptown Almanac's office at 19th & Valencia have been receiving mailers from District 5 candidate London Breed every single day for the last two weeks. Listen, we care about the kids of D5 as much as any other District 9 resident, but the quantity and frequency of these mailings is a litte excessive.

Some possible explanations:

• London Breed doesn't know where District 5 is.
• London Breed has lots of excess campaign funds with which to spread her message about the entire city.
• Some intern is about to get suuuper fired for improper mail merging.

I was walking down Valencia Street Friday afternoon when I happened to find the owners of the forthcoming Preservation Hall West, which is bringing New Orleans jazz and grub to the giant green building across from Mission Bicycle and Paxton Gate, about to take a tour of the new venue.  So I rudely invited myself inside and got the scoop on what's the status of the place, which is supposedly opening Oct. 4th and hosting Elvis Costello on the 6th.

First of all, the place is massive.  It's like a miniature chaterdral in there.  I guess they call those churches?  Anyway, it's big, and the ceilings are nice and tall to keep the heat from dancing and what not in check.

Second, it's going to take some sort of mircle to get this place open in two weeks, and the people talking to me about the place regrettingly acknowledged that as well.  The bar and walls are still in the plywood/drywall phase, the floor is all torn up… hell, the stage isn't even built yet.  But whatever—whenever they do get it open, it stands to be one of the city's finer venues, and it's right in our backyard.

UPDATE: The Bay Bridged was also in the building and has additional shots and a longer interview with the parties involved:

The Mission getting a top flight concert venue is inarguably an amazing addition to an already red hot neighborhood. What makes the whole venture even easier to root for is Knowles’ child-like excitement surrounding the venue’s accessibility not only for the fans, but also the musicians. “I see this as a place where musicians can come play, walk outside and immediately have all this,” he says pointing up and down Valencia. “I want them to experience the Mission. Right now, if they play one night in San Francisco, they might not have time to come down here and explore.” Knowles also likes the idea of keeping musicians here for an extended period of time. “We want to have residencies here. Musicians can play multiple nights, they can stay in the Mission…we want them to be proud of this place.” Further exemplifying this stance, as he treated those in attendance to a champagne toast, Knowles raised his glass and, doing that same pause he did in the main room, said “Thanks for coming, and now we’ll toast to the San Francisco music scene.”