The end is near for the Plush Room. After a brief stay of execution, the owners of the York Hotel, where the venerable, stately, red velvety night club is located, now say the club will close for good on Feb. 2. Rising star Shawn Ryan, described by some as "the gay Bublé, plays the Plush Jan 11-13. Varla Jean Morrison aka Jeffery Roberson, known as a risqué drag artist (is that not redundant?), will swish onto the Plush stage, Jan 24-26 & Jan.31-Feb. 2. So the Plush ends with a bang, not a whisper. Word of the Plush's demise sent shock waves through cabaret community all over the world. Meanwhile, construction continues on a new downtown club, The Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko. The two Jersey Boys who run Rrazz have booked the inimitable Nancy Wilson into the Herbst Theatre on Jan. 19. Wow. Nancy Wilson rarely performs here, and we need all the class we can get. ...
... Catbox populi: Kitten on the Keys aka Suzanne Ramsey, the SF burlesque star, is back in town after tearing up the U.K. with her uke, her voice, her piano playing and her outrageously naughty shtick. ... Speaking of outrage, Sharon McKnight has been getting much praise for her show from the irreverent crowd -- our kind of people. It's aptly called Songs to Offend Almost Everyone. La Sharon, a first amendment rabble-rouser, as she says, boasts her program is designed to agitate "minorities and majorities of every persuasion." ... I think it's about time we stand up for drunks. After all, they can't stand up for themselves.
On the topic of matters offensive, Dominic DiGrande hosted 13 offensive linemen from the San Francisco City College Rams for an all-they-can-eat lunch last month at Dominic's Gold Mirror Restaurant on Taraval. It was to celebrate the Rams' Norcal championship victory. Dom is a former Rams running back, and the boys kept running back to fill their plates. This reminds me of Bozo Miller, the famed Bay Area trencherman, who would appear in the Guinness Book of Records from time to time for the enormous amounts of food he could eat. One day, in 1963, he consumed 27 two-pound chickens at the old Trader Vic's. .... Mark Klaiman & Virginia Donohue, the husband & wife team who own the very successful Pet Camp are also celebrating. Pet Camp got the first-ever Small Business Award from the SF Chamber of Commerce. Mark & Virginia are happy campers. "It's an amazing honor," she purrs, "it's a privilege to take care of people's dogs and cats." ...
Will Original Joe's, the jewel of the Tenderloin, ever reopen after that devastating fire in the kitchen? That's still unclear. Owner Marie Duggan is still dealing with the insurance company about the costs of the extensive water damage. John Harris, the legendary barman at O.J.s, says Marie is determined to reopen. John says the 2nd annual
gathering of the Choirboys of St. Joseph's in the Tenderloin started out at Lefty O'Doul's. Choirboys? Like Joseph Wambaugh's Choirboys. "This is a group that only O.J.'s could spawn," John intones. "The extended membership consists of bookies, bartenders, cops, lawyers & degenerate gamblers." Are all gamblers degenerates? "They tend to misbehave when confronted with what Mark Twain used to call 'insect authority.' Collectively, they are very much like Boston Blackie whose motto was 'Friend of those who have no friends, and enemy of those who make him an enemy.' John Harris certainly has plenty of friends. ...
I admire John for his unrepentant love for San Francisco. He lives easily in the old times as well as in the disorderly New World Order, which is not what most of us ordered. John uses his hiatus well -- lunch at Red's Java House, and dinner at Sam Wo's, but he really wants to go back to work. I hope some old-time solid establishment hires him for a few shifts at lunchtime. I like talking to him. ... Yes, that was James Dallesandro, the author of 1906, on the picket line outside The Disney Store at Union Square, drawing attention to the writer's strike. Other writers with Jim were Band of Brothers Emmy-winner Erik Jendresen, Dave Peoples, who wrote the screenplays for Unforgiven & Blade Runner, and North Beach's Philip Kaufman, who directed The Right Stuff and The Incredible Lightness of Being. Why Disney? Because it's notorious for its mistreatment of writers. Joan Didion despises Disney, and calls it "Mouseschwitz." ...
Peter Laufer who got drummed out of the culture corps at Berkeley’s KPFA for being too reasonable, began his new Sunday morning radio show on Green 960 last month. It turned out to be his last show on that station. Clear Channel announced 70 layoffs nationwide. Someone, give this man a show. ... Veteran broadcasters Don Mozely, Ronn Owens, Carter B. Smith, Mike Cleary and Belva Davis are among those inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. KCBS traffic reporter par excellence, Ron Lyons, was honored posthumously. Frank Knight, longtime announcer at KCBS, also died last year. I'm pleased to say that I worked with Frank and with Ron. They both loved radio passionately. Frank had a huge collection of old-time radio shows. The aforementioned Boston Blackie was only one of them. And you remember The Shadow: “Who knows what evil lurks in the heart’s of men?”
Sharon Anderson, the painter with the barbed wit, still laments the loss of Norman Mailer, who died last year. Infuriating the feminists, Sharon quipped, “Gee, I was available to beat up his wife while he was in the hospital.” Sharon’s got lines guaranteed to offend everyone. Passing through Whittier, Nixon’s home town, she observed that all the clocks there are eighteen and a half minutes slow, and no one can figure out what happened to that time. Nixon knew, we don’t, we never will. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? …
Bruce Bellingham , author of Bellingham by the Bay, is often seen lurking about the tawdrier spots of San Francisco, nestling in the soft underbelly of menace and crime. You may e-mail him at bruce@northsidesf.com
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