Ok, first I think you need to watch this excellent documentary about every sound guy ever (except for ours, of course), from The Hard Times, whom you might remember as the folks who brought you "Henry Rollins Driving App Tells You How Hard It Would Have Been to Get There in the '80s":
Next, here's an unexpected headline:
San Francisco To Get First New Liquor Licenses Issued By State In 77 Years:
But it means a lot less once you read the details:
Thanks to a bill sponsored by state senator Mark Leno, San Francisco is about to get its first new liquor licenses in almost 80 years -- but only five of them. They're earmarked for new or existing restaurants on one of seven commercial corridors where there tend not to be any restaurants with general on-sale or "full" liquor licenses, with the idea being that businesses in these areas can't afford to buy licenses on the secondary market, as they're usually sold, these days averaging around $300,000 in SF.
The eligible neighborhoods are Third Street in the Bayview, outer Mission Street in the Excelsior, San Bruno Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Noriega Street, Taraval Street and Visitacion Valley. The licenses will be available directly from ABC for an application fee of $13,800 and will be non-transferable. [...]
The weirdness and seeming scarcity around liquor licenses here dates back to a state law passed in 1939 that declared that cities could only have one general on-sale license for every 2,000 residents. That would have limited SF to only 418 licenses at our current population, but at the time the law was passed there were already around 1,000 licenses issued here, which were all grandfathered in and transferrable. Those same licenses are the ones that continue to be bought and sold on the secondary market, and their value has risen greatly driven by our local restaurant economy in neighborhoods like the Mission, Hayes Valley and the Financial District. But $300,000 is a steep price for a mom-and-pop business in one of these more "outer" neighborhoods, a problem that the new licenses hope to solve.
Only five though? Van Houten says they asked for 28, but for now, we have to settle for five.
So yeah. Five, and they're in the Inner Farallons and Almost-Colma.
We had several truly excellent shows in the last few weeks, and hey, here are some photos of them:
They were also reasonably well attended. I mean, not great, but enough that the room didn't feel empty and we didn't take a bath on them. As you know, the rule of thumb is generally "if it's a show jwz is looking forward to, nobody's going to show." You don't want me as a fan, I'm apparently the kiss of death.
So yay, go team!
Some upcoming shows that I strongly recommend: This Friday, Hubba are bringing the Dungeons & Dragons sleaze. Then next Friday, Meat Beat Manifesto! It's been like a thousand years since I've seen them. And of course in two weeks, on Friday Oct 28, our fifteenth annual Halloween party. R. Black did another fantastic job on that poster, did he not? You're definitely going to want to buy advance tickets for Halloween. (Oh yeah, and then we also have a little Halloween party on Saturday, and a little Halloween party on Monday too, NBD.)
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If you're willing to travel to Chicago, Pigface is doing a 25th anniversary show the day after Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, it's just one show, not a tour. I can't wait!
I'm going to start telling people I live in "Inner Farallons". Classic.
Part of the charm is being able to hear foghorns from my couch.