Video

Politicians Gone Wild

The Wild Tale of a Political Consultant's Blood and Piss-Soaked 50th Birthday Party

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

There’s been much ado about Jack Davis lately.  The political consultant with ties to big developers and mayors Gavin Newsom, Willie Brown, and Frank Jordan is being linked to the incredibly shady “Clean Up the Plaza” astroturf campaign, all while “working as a paid political consultant for the condo project at 16th and Mission.”

So the timing couldn’t have been better for Last Gasp, the Mission District publisher that recently released a colorful account of Jack Davis’s notorious 1997 50th birthday party.  The details of which include everything that makes San Francisco the best fucked city in the United States: heavy metal satanist musicians, drinking blood and piss, politicians eating blood-soaked cake, someone getting fucked by a bottle of Jack Daniels, and pigs running amok.  A prized party so brilliant and offensive, the Chronicle described it as “like the Folsom Street Fair with free booze.”

And for some bonus fun, the NY Times interviewed our disgraced gun-running state senator Leland Yee about the party, then just a lowly city supervisor who spent evenings cruising Capp Street for prostitutes and stuffing stolen suntan lotion in his underoos:

“When I walked in, everyone had their clothes on,” said a city Supervisor, Leland Y. Yee, one of many public officials who have been protesting their innocence.

Mr. Yee, a new member of the board, said he had concluded that there were indeed limits, even to the tolerance of this famously tolerant city. “Bloodletting and public urination are lines you just don’t cross,” he said.

Words to live by.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 
A Reason to Visit the Wharf

Filmmaker Offers Fresh Perspective on Local Landmark

— By Jackson West (@jacksonwest) |

When just a teenager visiting San Francisco for the first time, a highlight of the family trip was the Musée Mechanique. This was back when video arcades were still a thing, but the clunk and whir of the old-timey automatons hadn’t lost their charm and even felt fresh next to the CRT-and-joystick sameness of that era’s Atari, Midway and Nintendo cabinet games. It’s since been moved from the old location out by Ocean Beach to its current home at Fisherman’s Wharf, but like Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1, little of the magic has been lost to time or more modern distractions. If you haven’t been, or haven’t been in a while, hopefully this meditative short will remind you what it’s like to look through childish eyes in wonder again for just a moment.

Sigh.

[h/t Broke Ass Stuart]

Taking 'Shot and a Beer' to a Whole New Level

Pop's Bar Used to Have a Gun Range

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

This month’s episode of Dirty Old Bar took a look at Pop’s, the 24th Street stalwart that was recently purchased by the owner of Madrone. And oh the things we learned.

“This bar has been around since God was a baby,” patron “John” told the folks behind DOB. “I’m talking the ’80s and ’90s.”

Sarcasm aside, he went on to detail how Pop’s used to be a Folsom Prison bar where cops and ex-cons used to hang out—and how they setup bales of hay in the back to practice their shot.

Give the whole episode a watch: it’s a great look back at one of the neighborhood’s most choice holes before renovations hit.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

And Now, the Video for POW!'s "High-Tech Boom"

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

After the fledging garage rock group POW! was unfortunately (fortunately?) dragged into John Dywer's gentrification temper tantrum, we were left anxious to see what their first video would look like—and get a taste of the tunes that spurred Dywer to pound out such a visceral press release in the band's favor.

Now we have that video. While it lacks molotovs being chucked at Twitter's office and guitars smashing a Google bus piñata, it does feature plenty of CGI-polished shots of kids gambling and being in a band.  Helluva tune, too.

(And should you want to see this live, POW! is having a record release show tonight at The Make-Out Room.)

[via The Bay Bridged]

Dirty Old Bar Tackles the Morning Shift at Clooney's

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

2013 was an ugly year for the city's leftover crop of crummy bars, with dives like Jack's, Pop's, The Attic, and Nitecap either closing or poised for makeovers.  But there are still plenty of solid spots left in the city to score $2 bottles and cheap bags of chips hanging from the wall, and the new video series, Dirty Old Bar, is here to celebrate those working-class stalwarts holding on.

Yesterday they released their morning look at Clooney's, interviewing everyone from the bartender, Isaac Fitzgerald, and even the bar's owner on the family history of the joint (although the owner didn't bring up how the entire bar was once moved across the Mission).  Turns out Clooney's is one of the last multi-generational family bars left in the city.  Who knew?

(And if you want more from Dirty Old Bar, their trip to The Brown Jug Saloon is worth a watch:)

The Kink Armory Takes a Stab at Comedy Shorts [NSFW-ish]

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Kink.com recently let their employee's creative juice start flowing, as opposed to their other juices, by having them film a series of short films that promote their Armory tour program.  It's a weird lot of non-pornographic films; shorts that mostly appeal to my adolescent sense of humor.  But there are some gems in there.

Armory employees themselves decided “Creepy Bedroom” was the choice cut of meat:

Also maybe worth a watch is “Enema Bathroom” and their furry Saw remake.

[via SFist]

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

G̶o̶o̶g̶l̶e̶ ̶E̶m̶p̶l̶o̶y̶e̶e̶ Actor: "This is a City For the Right People Who Can Afford It"

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

At this morning's anti-Google Bus protest at 24th and Valencia, the SF Bay Guardian captured this exchange between a protester and Google Employee actor wishing to be this season's Peter Shih. Oy.

UPDATE: In a completely self-defeating move, this “Google employee” was apparently a staged union organizer.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

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