Tonight the Super Bears and I had dinner at the Pacific Cafe, in the Richmond. I’ve been going there since 1985, the last time I think in ’88, and absolutely nothing has changed, from the predominance of the colors orange and brown to the two choices of starch. As usual, there was a line out front, and as usual we were each handed a glass of chablis as we waited for a table to open. It took two full glasses each for a table to be available, so dinner was a delightful blur of crustaceans and conversation and a pretty yummy cheesecake for dessert. We made our way back to BC’s and watched The Conversation, continuing my reacquaintance with the films of the 60’s and 70’s, which I’m convinced was truly the Golden Age of film. It’s all about Before and After the New Wave for me. It’s filmed on location in San Francisco and, narrative aside, you get to see the Embarcadero Center being built, the City of Paris building before it was demolished and replaced by Philip Johnson’s Neiman-Marcus, the harmonious Union Square before it too was destroyed to make way for the abomination that sits on the site today, and a really really young Harrison Ford, before all the muscle! And Cindy Williams doing serious acting!
Earlier I took in a few of the new Mission gallery spaces with Emily, including hot shows at Mission 17 and Queen’s Nails Annex. The neighborhood is finally buzzing with some exciting artist-run spaces. I’m not lucid enough to recount the shows that I saw, so check them out before the next dot com bubble forces everybody out of town again.