RIP Franchises of our youths

[Drunk Monk]

Damn.  Well, I recant.

On verge of closing, City Lights receives over $365,000 in donations in single night
By Mike Moffitt, SFGATE
 Updated 10:25 pm PDT, Friday, April 10, 2020

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Photo: Robert Alexander, Getty Images

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A woman walks past City Lights Bookstore in Chinatown at the border with North Beach in San Francisco. The bookstore has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and is dire financial straits, its CEO says.

City Lights, the San Francisco bookstore that has been a beacon for writers, literary intellectuals and book lovers of all kinds for almost 70 years, is nearly broke and on the verge of closing permanently.
The store closed its doors March 16 because of the coronavirus pandemic and fears that it may not be able to reopen.
Elaine Katzenberger, publisher and CEO of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, explained in a message posted for a GoFundMe campaign that the store is unable even to process online orders because it wants its booksellers to stay safe at home.
“With no way to generate income, our cash reserves are quickly dwindling, with bills coming due and with a primary commitment to our staff, who we sent home with full pay and healthcare, and who we hope to keep as healthy and financially secure as possible,” Katzenberger wrote.
People were responding to the appeal. The fund drive had surpassed its $300,000 goal. As of Friday evening, more than $365,000 had been donated.
City Lights was founded in 1953 by Peter D. Martin and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in a small storefront of the Artigues Building at 261 Columbus Ave.  by the border of Chinatown and North Beach. It became famous after the 1956 obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s controversial “Howl and Other Poems.” Over the years it has served as a meeting place for poets, authors, artists and counterculture figures.

Michael Ian Black

✔@michaelianblack





City Lights Books is one of America's great treasures. They need some help right now. https://www.gofundme.com/f/aeany-keep-city-lights-books-alive …

KEEP CITY LIGHTS BOOKS ALIVE organized by City Lights Books
A Message from Elaine Katzenberger, Publisher and CEO of City Lights Booksellers & … City Lights Books needs your support for KEEP CITY LIGHTS BOOKS ALIVE
gofundme.com


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7:44 AM - Apr 10, 2020
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In 2001, the city Board of Supervisors made the bookstore an official city landmark.
Here’s how the actor Peter Coyote described City Lights in a YouTube video:

“Its heart’s still in the right place, championing the right things, standing up for the underdog, standing up for big heartedness, for generosity, for culture, for the belief in excellence, for craftsmanship. And it’s just there, it could make me weep.”

[Drunk Monk]

MARCH 20, 2020 10:45PM PT
San Francisco Music Venue Slim’s to Close After 30 Years
Co-owned by Boz Scaggs, the popular club hosted shows by Radiohead and David Bowie over the decades.

I honestly can not remember the last time I was in Slim's.  I searched my memory (this here DOOM forum) and nothing popped. It was never a venue that I could work because it was outside my sphere but I know I've been in there with tickets for some show.  I can't remember what though.  Burning Spear maybe?  I should search my ticket stubs.  I remember never being that impressed by the venue.

ARTS & CULTURE


The Club Replacing Slim's is Named YOLO and Won't Have Live Music—Only DJs

Gabe Meline[/url]
Aug 12

Slim's, the long-running nightclub on 11th Street in San Francisco, closed in March 2020. Owner Boz Scaggs said that the closure was planned before the COVID-19 pandemic.  (Slim's/Facebook)


Slim's, the San Francisco nightclub that presented an eclectic array of live rock, blues, jazz, folk, R&B and rap artists for over 30 years, has been sold to new owners promising to book "mostly EDM, Top 40 DJs" and "no live band[s] like what Slim's had."
The new club in the former Slim's location at 333 11th Street will be called YOLO, according to a permit application to the City of San Francisco. The application also promises a dress code, ropes or barricades for lines at the front entrance, and security staff in suits and ties. The new owners, Michael Hu and Peter Lin, have been co-owners for the past eight years of [url=https://www.purenightclub408.com/]Pure Nightclub in downtown Sunnyvale, a lounge concept club with VIP sections and bottle service.
In other words, it's not at all like Slim's, whose closure in March marked the beginning of the pandemic and the end of a Bay Area institution. In its three-decade run, Slim's hosted a constant stream of live bands, including intimate shows by Radiohead, Prince, Coldplay, Bruno Mars and thousands of others inside its brick walls.
The type of booking that cemented Slim's as an "iconic space, and historic space," as entertainment commissioner Steven Lee put it in an Aug. 4 permit approval meeting, does not extend to the club's new format. YOLO's booking will tag-team with Pure Nightclub, Wu announced in the permit meeting, with the same acts playing alternating weekend nights at both clubs.
While Top 40 and EDM DJs are a staple at Pure, the club has also held afterparties "hosted" by well-known rappers and R&B stars (past afterparties have included DaBaby, YG, Blueface and Nipsey Hussle)—not so much a full concert but an appearance, during which a small handful of songs might be performed.
Central to YOLO's permit application is the questionable assertion that "the music output from a DJ performance will be much less than a live band," presumably referring to the greater control a club has over the volume of a DJ, versus a band's amplifiers and drums.
However, as commissioner Laura Thomas pointed out in the meeting, the commission has for years received no sound complaints about Slim's due to the installation of extensive soundproofing in the building, which YOLO aims to keep in place. The issue causing "a long series of complaints," and which other commissioners echoed, has been people congregating around and leaving clubs and bars along the street loudly at late hours.
Wu said he had not yet spoken with any residential neighbors, and was strongly advised by the commission to do so. (Wu also added that, due to the pandemic, “I don’t see us opening anytime soon.") YOLO is asking to retain the Extended Hours Premises permit granted to Slim's, which would allow the club to stay open until 4am—an option the owners say they'd like to have but would not exercise often, as most events would end by 2am.
Not discussed during the meeting was the section in the permit application about YOLO's dress code, which openly states that "our dress code is merely a tool to use to deny unwanted guests," and bans sports apparel and baggy or oversized clothes. The application also provides that YOLO's dress code could change based on "the type of events we'll have."
Just before Wu and Lin received conditional approval for their permits, a lone comment from the public was read: “Would you still have live music like Slim’s did? There aren't enough rock venues in the city.”

The question went unanswered, and the meeting moved to the next item on the agenda.

Way to twist that dagger, 2020.

[Drunk Monk]

'Where all the lost souls came together': SF's O'Farrell Theatre strip club closes after 50 years
Staff members say goodbye to the storied strip club - and their 'extended family'
Ariana Bindman
Oct. 30, 2020Updated: Oct. 30, 2020 3:33 p.m.
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The exterior of the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, which has closed due to the coronavirus pandemic after 50 years in business.
Jean-Marc LOUBAT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Like most strip clubs, the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre is a plush, disorienting palace. Upon entry, the walls are smattered with headshots of dancers and pornographic memorabilia. The walls are mirrored; the curtains are velvet. For decades, beneath the scintillating glow of disco balls and red rotating lights, the carpeted kingdom has provided anything from nude lap dances to “flashlight shows” for San Francisco’s “weirdo” strip club clientele. And as part of its official closure, its walls have been stripped bare, and its lavish interior has been gutted.
Allegedly visited by Eric Wareheim, Trevor Noah and Justin Beiber, it was a popular destination for cult and mainstream celebrities alike. And despite just celebrating its 50th anniversary, the club’s amber-colored marquee — which advertised anything from “wild girls” to pornographic feature films — will finally dim its lights due to COVID-19. Now, the O’Farrell Theatre’s DJs and floor managers are unsure where they and their “sisters” will go next.
The Mitchell Brothers: Sinners, Saints, or Something In Between? 
Despite the fact that it was lauded as the “Carnegie Hall of sex in America” by Hunter S. Thompson, the O’Farrell Theatre has a complicated legacy. Since its inception in 1969, the former X-rated movie house has been mired in legal drama: According to author David McCumber, who wrote "X-rated: The Mitchell Brothers: A True Story of Sex, Money, and Death," its founding brothers, James and Artie Mitchell, were collectively involved in nearly 200 cases involving obscenity. They fought each one, and their victories in the courtroom set new legal precedents for pornography — subsequently protecting other forms of art from censorship.
Just three weeks after the club opened and started showing pornographic films, then-25-year-old James Mitchell was apprehended by undercover cops for “production and exhibition of obscene material.” Despite multiple arrests, the brothers brazenly continued showing pornographic movies and escaped conviction with the help of lawyer Michael John Kennedy, who successfully challenged the legal definition of obscenity. The brothers’ famous 1972 film, "Behind the Green Door" — which had a budget of $60,000 and raked in $50 million — became the second-highest grossing adult film of all time.
However, San Francisco cracked down on the adult acropolis when they shifted to live entertainment. In 1980, following the development of the “Kopenhagen” lounge, the “Ultra” room, the “Green Door” room and the “New York Live” main stage — which is where patrons could experience anything from nude lap dances to lesbian bondage acts — police conducted a raid that led to the arrest of 14 patrons and staff members. Under then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who was vehemently anti-porn, they were charged with “participating in a house of prostitution.” But when the Mitchell brothers successfully fought back in court, a win for them was a win for pornography everywhere.
"What became clear to the prosecutors — the smut smiters — was that as long as this sexually explicit material was not pandered to children or to people unwilling to see it, the public had no problem with it: To each his own. Let them have it," said their lawyer, Kennedy, in a 1999 SFGate article. "That became a very important precedent throughout the '70s and '80s for what ultimately became a national approach to pornography, which was to leave it alone."
Despite the club’s many victories against anti-porn administrations, the Mitchell family — and the business — began to unravel after the “Golden Age of Porn.” In 1991, one of the founding brothers, Jim Mitchell, shot and killed his brother, Artie Mitchell, who had been struggling with cocaine and alcohol addiction. And as recently as 2014, one daughter, Jasmine Mitchell, had been accused of facilitating a massive identity theft ring; meanwhile, their eldest son, James Mitchell, was sentenced 35 years to life in prison for murdering the mother of his child with a baseball bat in 2009.

Two scantily clad performers at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre wait in their dressing room before they go on stage, circa 1980.
nik wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images
An Extended Family, A Second Home
The dancers, DJs, and floor managers describe themselves as an extended family, and each of them are mourning the loss of the club. Kayleigh Pierce, who performed at Mitchell’s for nearly 12 years, says that it was “where all the lost souls came together: employees, dancers, and customers. We’re all f—ked up in our own little way.” Pierce, who describes herself as a tomboy, says that the theater’s fun, familial atmosphere was why she left Crazy Horse, the club she had been working at prior to Mitchell’s. “For like five years we were drinking champagne left and right. We could go upstairs and drink for hours, go downstairs, make $1,000 from someone, go back up, and then make more money.” And, unlike some other clubs, Mitchell’s empowered dancers by treating them with respect and allowing them to set their own price points.
Another dancer, who goes by “Juliana,” left Crazy Horse and the strip clubs on Broadway for those very reasons. After finding out she was pregnant, she started working at Mitchell’s on and off at the age of 18 and stayed up until the pandemic struck. Now 35, Juliana says it’s heartbreaking to reflect on her past at the club. “We all kind of grew up there in a sense. We went from being teenagers up to no good to women with purpose. It’s a sisterhood I’ve never experienced with any other job I've ever had.” To this day, she’s still best friends with one of the dancers she met there.
The O’Farrell Theatre was Ben “Dewey” Herndon’s saving grace. When he started working there pulling shifts until 4 a.m., he was living out of his car, but eventually became the full-time afternoon DJ for six and a half years, playing everything from trap to metal.  It was there that he developed a familial relationship with the dancers. “Being a male-bodied man in your 20s and being around naked women, it’s the s—t, but after a while you're desensitized, and they're your sisters,” he says.
About a decade ago, many of the employees first met at Nite Cap, a dim, carpeted dive bar on the corner of O’Farrell and Hyde. They quickly bonded over their love of punk shows and cheap alcohol, eventually working together at the club and getting matching platypus tattoos.
Hearing about the theater’s official closure was like “losing a home,” says Ryan French “Francais,” a DJ and manager. “It was like the sick man that we were all expecting to see go. We wished we all could have been there working rather than staying at home due to COVID.” Galen Rivers, a manager who made all the set designs for their theatrical “cine-stage” shows — or themed sex shows — agrees. “It’s been such a roller coaster,” he says. “Now, it’s not a surprise.”
Nothing Amber Can Stay
Ultimately, employees knew that the club was due to eventually close — they just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. “We had known about the end for three years now,” Herndon says solemnly. “COVID was just insult to injury. We were hoping to at least get a couple more years in.” The 12,920-square-foot club made news in 2018 when it was put up for sale, asking for a purchase price of either $10 million or $39,000 per month.
Had the pandemic not occurred — and had the club’s finances maybe been better — employees would have transformed the space for Halloween with cobwebs, lasers and rotating LED lights. It was everyone’s favorite time of year, and according to Herndon, they “went all out,” but the difficulties of surviving 2020 made that celebration impossible. The club’s golden gates may be closed, but for some, O'Farrell is eternal. Its spirit lives on through the friendships of its staff members, and, like a stubborn, sordid gem, remains forever embedded in San Francisco history.
[i]Ariana Bindman is a freelance writer in the Bay Area, find her on Instagram at @ariana.bindman.[/i]

DOOM had some connections to this club. ED used to program the jukebox there. And Stacy worked right nearby when she managed Sierra Club Books. She often regaled me with tales of life there. She often saw the women that worked there on her lunch breaks. They would do this thing where they would call down from a window at the club to male passersby, telling them that someone stole their clothes and asking them to come in. 

I hope they keep the mural.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

More SF history going away. First the immense “Coke” sign by the Bay Bridge, now the immense Coke source on O’Farrell. Sadness.

[Drunk Monk]

[Greg]

I was in there a year ago or more. It was a ghost town. Lots of empty shelves. Lots of "Seen on TV" merchandise. It didn't seem long for this world back then.

[King Bob]

Sunnyvale looks like it can't last. Drove by there today and there were only about ten cars in the parking lot.

[Drunk Monk]

I went by the Fremont one prior to the pandemic and it was the same. Ghost town. 

That was my go-to for all sorts of random crap - it was near to the office and close to REI and a local Mexican place that made killer fish burritos. I hope that restaurant survives. I'll have to hit it up if I'm in that hood again, but I don't know what might bring me out there now.

[Greg]

My father was asked to invest in the Fry's startup back in the early 1980s. He knew the owners. He was also trying to get them to carry Memron floppy disks.

[King Bob]

Christina did John(?) Fry's hair a few times. He was vain, and on his first visit was annoyed that she had no idea who he was, and didn't care.

I imagine vanity is part of what keeps the stores going. Or maybe long-term leases.

[Greg]

It amuses me that the Fry's grocery chain which spawned Fry's Electronics is still viable in Arizona. You can see their ads on the outfield walls at the Diamondback Baseball games.

[Drunk Monk]

The Fremont Frys had a killer Tesla coil in the middle. But they never turned it on very much after it opened. Which was lame. 

I used to go there a lot - maybe once every 3 weeks or so - on lunch breaks (really I just wanted to chow on those fish burritos nearby and check out REI). It was a fun store to kill time in because towards the end, when it got to be a big clearance center, you'd never know what you'd find there. It was also the final outlet in Fremont that carried Kung Fu Tai Chi, back when they had that fat newsstand, but that died years ago.

[thatguy]

There used to be a Fry's food store on Homestead and Stelling. My dad always used to buy crappy PC hardware that was on sale and then ask me for tech support. I've always had mixed feelings about the chain. I think they should re-open the Campbell space as a paint-ball arena.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

[King Bob]

I remember that RAW used to say that SETI monitoring of radio frequencies was a kind of chauvinism (can't remember his exact term), assuming aliens would use them because we do.

It is the end of an era though. But it's well memorialized (before the fact) in Contact.