On this date in 1963, the most influential comedy theater to ever emerge out of the Bay Area -
The Committee - opened its doors at 622 Broadway in North Beach. Thus began a full decade of widespread cultural influence, with multiple studio albums, appearances on The Tonight Show and The Dick Cavett Show, and a feature film. The Committee's provocative and confrontational style, influenced equally by Chicago's Second City and the radical politics of the era, set the stage for much of the comedy to follow. The Groundlings was a direct descendents (Gary Austin came from Committee workshops) and the improv structure known as Harold, basic arithmetic in the halls of IO and the Upright Citizens Brigage, was birthed at The Committee under the direction of Del Close.
To celebrate this anniversary, I'd like to present a
recently unearthed recording of their Satirathon from 1968, from the archives of the late Peter Bergman. Featuring, among others, Garry Goodrow, Carl Gottlieb, and Chris "The Egg" Ross, an improv genius who succumbed to an overdose, in 1970, at the age of 25.
posted by mcgordonliddy
on Apr 10, 2013 -
4 comments
Meanwhile, 6th and Mission St
is in the center of city. If you've ever walked it, it's like stepping into the another world, not a pleasant one either. On a rainy night, wandering into
Tu Lan, it's famed Vietnamese restaurant, is the closest experience I can recommend to feeling like you're in Blade Runner in America. I work between 5th and 6th on Mission and have wondered and despised how such a place like this came to be. Here's an answer from someone that lives there, which really has me thinking.
posted by straight_razor
on Nov 4, 2011 -
106 comments
Next weekend, thousands of runners will take to the streets of San Francisco to run the
SF Marathon, on a course with hills that skate a 300 ft. elevation about
six times over 26.2 miles. However, the non-corporately sponsored marathon attracts few than a third of the runners who tackle New York City and Chicago. While the organizers are trying to
re-brand the race, offering
two different half marathon courses, they have shied away from making the course any easier.
posted by roomthreeseventeen
on Jul 15, 2010 -
26 comments
Great groove. The first track from Airs' Moon Safari
album, accompanied by scenes from a video
shot from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco in 1905. (SLYT)
posted by shockingbluamp
on May 25, 2010 -
30 comments
In 1974 - or 1976, depending who you ask -
Armistead Maupin began writing "an extended love letter to a magical San Francisco” in the form of a serialized, fictional drama published originally in the Pacific Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, originally called
"The Serial" which then became collectively known as
Tales of The City.
It is a suprisingly beautiful, deep, emotional, cosmopolitan and
lasting tale about life in San Francisco in the turbulent, heady days of the 1970s and 1980s.
Widely credited with and cherished for helping spread a little of the openess, tolerance and acceptance that San Francisco is now famous for. It then became a series of books -
Tales of the City,
More Tales of the City,
Further Tales of the City,
Babycakes,
Significant Others,
Sure of You - and lastly, the spin-off tale of
Michael Tolliver Lives. Almost exactly twenty years after first publishing, it then became
an excellent miniseries from the United Kingdom's Channel 4, which
aired in the United States on PBS, but not without
protest or limitations.
[more inside]
posted by loquacious
on May 4, 2008 -
39 comments
Ima Gangsta -- the motivation and the regret. "San Francisco has an out of control gang violence problem, but what motivates young people to join gangs? Ruben City Palomares -- in his first film -- explores the reasons young homies choose to get jumped into a gang and reveals the lifetime of regret older gang members carry as a result of their fateful decision to be a gangsta. Palomares, 16, is a filmmaker with
Conscious Youth Media Crew."
posted by derangedlarid
on Oct 4, 2006 -
23 comments
San Francisco on Tuesday became the first major U.S. city to pass a resolution acknowledging the
threats posed by peak oil. The resolution cites an influential study commissioned by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, known as the
Hirsch Report, and proponents delivered copies of the
The Oil Age Poster to elected officials in the run up to the vote.
posted by stbalbach
on Apr 14, 2006 -
27 comments
