Nothing too exciting going on in these parts. Two bits of news that I've heard. One thing is about the new GM at the Tower theater. This is a real surprise but I don't want to spill the beans unless he's going to step forward himself and tell because I'm not sure if it's supposed to be general knowledge. The other is that the Loft is closing for band practice for good. As Davey said, "no more loft smell". Sad. I hope the four eyes can still continue their christmas show tradition. If not, please don't tell Scott because I worry that he will hurt himself. What are the bands going to do? I'm not sure who still practices there besides Rock the Light and the Four Eyes.
I'm eating at Spataro tonight, which I'm pretty excited about. I'm getting a discount from taking care of my roomates boyfriend's cat if that makes any sense. I was walking by Hukilau last night and it was somewhat crowded. What is the deal with that place? I don't get why there are any hawaiian restaurants in town (there are two downtown if you count L and L). They're not exactly known for their cuisine. Poi is like the only thing they made up. Other than that there's roast pig (OK, that one's pretty good but hardly unique) and a love of spam. How can you base a restaurant on that? I'm curious about Hukilau, though. I want to try it just so I can write a review.
I have never been impressed with that place. It is kinda fun to go there for Happy Hour with friends and get lots of sweet icey-drinks... Daquiris, etc.
ReplyDeleteTheir salmon sandwich isnt bad. Kinda salty though.
I mean, its not bad or good. Its just food. That was my impression.
Anonymous-as-I-know-ppl-who-work-there
The pork sandwich is ok. Never liked the burgers there.
ReplyDeleteThe daquiris are good- if you are into that kind of thing. Stronger than you might think....
You know it is owned by the Virgas, right?
I recommend the flip-flops in pineapple sauce. Delicious!
ReplyDeletemiller
I went there a long time ago and it just kinda reminded me of Lyon's with a Hawaiian theme. Maybe it's gotten better. Those Slurpee machines are a cool way to be greeted when you first walk in, though. Known as Slur'pee'ono'a'i to the Hawaiians.
ReplyDelete-Dave
hey dave-
ReplyDeleteemail me at beckler@buzzle.com
Hey, no one was more surprised than me about Tower. I expect that some people will be pissed off about it and I'm wide open for suggestions.
ReplyDeleteMandatory black socks!
Hey congratulations. I’m glad you got it, and I doubt anybody will be pissed. And now I’d like to talk to you about the smell in the men’s room.
ReplyDelete-biz
hukilau is not good. actually, i should not put hukilau and good in the same sentence. hukilau is bad.
ReplyDeleteand it is not hawaiian, not that i know what hawaiian food is...but burgers and fries? i'm gonna say that's not hawaiian.
buuuuut, if anyone is ever down in stockton, i have a great recommendation. manny's california fresh cafe. it is right on the stockton miracle mile. it is all grass fed and free range meat. my lovely gf got a chicken sandwich. the chicken is rotisserie style and you can buy it by the piece, but she got the sandwich bc that's how she rolls. it was on a long roll that was pressed. it was really good. i got a ribeye sandwich that was on the same type of long roll that was also pressed. free range, grass fed ribeye! so good. we also got fried oysters that were fresh and delicious and it came with really good french fries. two iced teas too and the total was 20 bucks for a lot lot of food. super friendly people too. if this place was in sacto, it would go into the weekly rotation. if this place was anywhere, it would go into the weekly rotation.
-greg
Smitty said...
ReplyDelete> Hey, no one was more surprised than me
> about Tower. I expect that some people
> will be pissed off about it and I'm
>
> wide open for suggestions.
>
> Mandatory black socks!
hey, congrats! you're now Mr. Man! who was the previous GM?
you gonna have some of those mattias bombal type parties during after hours?
President,
Sacramento Appreciation Society of San Francisco
I second that on Manny's in Stockton. Ella clued me in to that place. It's fucking delicious!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Dave! I wasn't sure if it was a secret. And now I'd like to talk to you about the cigar smell in the ladies restroom.
Manny's!
ReplyDeleteThey have two locations in stockton to serve you better. I am wishing I had a fish sandwich and a whole steamed artichoke and a fried oysters from there right now!
Hey Greg, do you ever go to Angelina's in Stockton?
Ella
President of the Stockton Boosters Association
Yea, Manny's on the Miracle Mile is great! As Ella mentioned, Angelina's is another good 'un! And then there's Pollard's Chicken Kitchen on Hwy 99--it's an old 50s roadside attraction /restaurant complete with it's own ghost town in back (buildings are from old western movie sets!). The main restaurant is actually the old Islander (a Tiki/Polynesion joint that was Ben Holt & Pacific Ave) building that was moved there after they went belly up.
ReplyDeleteMay I join your Stockton Boosters Association--I'm an armchair Stockton/Delta historian. If anyone's interested in San Joaquin valley history go to the Haggin Museum (http://www.hagginmuseum.org/) on Pershing Avenue. It's an old stylee museum everyone should visit after eating at Manny's...
To see *great* shots of 1970s skidrow Stockton, track down a copy of "Fat City" starring Jeff Bridges and Stacy Keach.
President,
Sacramento Appreciation Society of San Francisco
I wanted to have a birthday party at Pollard's Chicken Kitchen, but I can't help feeling that their idea of a birthday party and my idea of a birthday party are different animals.
ReplyDeletegbomb
I might attempt my dirty thirty there. Or perhaps somewhere else. Though who else can provide me with a haunted mine? Hopefully Pollardville will still be open in 8 months.
ReplyDelete-Liv
I'll get the ladies to smoke their cigars in the men's room. That'll take care of both smells. It's that kind of sharp thinking that got me asked to manage.
ReplyDeleteI'm now trapped into getting a cell phone. I avoided it as long as possible. Anyone have any ideas? You can email 'em to me.
I have a great 40 dollar a month cellphone plan that always costs 53 dollars, so no, I don't have any advice. Maybe you should just have an intercom system with tin cans and string inside tower, and one long string to your house.
ReplyDeleteI've been going to Pollardville a long time. Seen a lot of changes out there. Imagine if you will that Pollardville was junkier, like with even more piles and piles of neat old junk lying around rotting, that the "riverboat" was still regularly putting on Melodramas (can anyone believe this? someone should make a film on those Pollards!) and most of the "town" was rented out as apartments to a rural stockton tweaker contingent. Oh, I forgot, the entire town was overrun by a huge huge bunch of semi feral cats. I remember one day showing up, and there was an antique church altar piece sitting behind the restaurant, and on every level of this altar, packed in side to side were cats, just sitting there. Must have been three levels of them. I half expected them to burst into song.
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to have a party/filming of a spagetti western out there. Mike R. Mike is invariably the leader of the good guys. Smitty should probably be the leader of the bad guys. They would be great.
Remember the Pollardville slogan?
"The Chicken That Won The West"
Amen
Ella
BTW Mr. Mars, I'm stoked that the islander (lost in a poker game I understand?) is Pollardville! I've got tiki mugs from the islander and even asked a couple old stocktoners I know about it. I heard it was knocked down!
Opa Opa! soft opening today!
ReplyDeleteopen til 9pm.
so far, sooooo good.
There's nothing I like more than a soft opening.
ReplyDeleteI skipped class 19 years ago to see a matinee of "Betty Blue" at Tower and someone stole my car battery. Belatedly, I'd like to complain to the management.
ReplyDeleteI skipped class 19 years ago to see a matinee of "Betty Blue" at Tower and someone stole my car battery. Belatedly, I'd like to complain to the management.
ReplyDeleteIf any current Loft Bands need to find a place to practice, the Knock Knock practice space has a few openings available.
ReplyDeleteIf interested, contact me at the secret blog or allenmaxwell4000@yahoo.com
-heckamax
...and had I gone to class that day, I might have learned not to post things twice. My apologies.
ReplyDelete>I'm stoked that the islander (lost in
ReplyDelete>a poker game I understand?) is
>Pollardville! I've got tiki mugs from
>the islander and even asked a couple
>old stocktoners I know about it. I
>heard it was knocked down!
Yes, the Islander survives! I've got tiki mugs from there too (I'd like to find more The Happy Steak ware though). A childhood neighbor of mine actually cooked at the Islander in the 70s...
Speaking of tiki themed establishments, back in the 60s the late Earle Stanley Gardner (writer/creator of the Perry Mason books + teevee show) kept his houseboat at Tiki Lagun marina in Stockton as his base of operations for exploring the Delta. He considered the area his second home and his Delta books have great pics from that period. Tiki Lagun still exists...
President,
Sacramento Appreciation Society of San Francisco
PS I rememember a junkier Pollardville too, but didn't know about the tweaker town!
Hukilau
ReplyDeleteThe good stuff = Happy hour
The bad stuff = Everything else
I have avoided going to Hukilau. They are trying to capture the tiki experience without being too deliberately polynesian. They are mere shadows of classic Sacramento tiki dives like the Zombie Hut.
ReplyDeleteFor the real fake Hawaiian eatery experience, go for the Big Kahuna on Eighth and L, around the corner from the Berry Hotel. The "Big Kahuna Burger" is roughly the size of the sun. Have them with a side of "Big Kahuna's Balls."
Does the Hukilau do a "Loco Moko" or whatever that crazy beef/egg/rice/Spam thing is?
June's cafe has Loco Moko, or some version of it. She's never been to Hawaii but a customer described Loco Moko to her & she has a version that I'm sure is all her own. Shamefully, I haven't tried it yet. It's post-me trying-everything-on-the-menu but damn, it's so insane looking that I don't want to eat it & go back to work!
ReplyDeletemiller
Iv'e had the loco moKo at junes and L&L.
ReplyDeleteJunes is way better, id say.
L&L is good but the hamburger patty used for the Loco Moko and (probably the burgers) is about as bad as it gets, complete with foreign white hard chunks.
> Does the Hukilau do a "Loco Moko" or
ReplyDelete> whatever that crazy beef/egg/rice/Spam
> thing is?
Mmmmmmmmm. Most places just call it "Spam over rice and egg." Be sure to ask for the Lee Kum Kee brand oyster sauce with it though--that's the gooood brand. We used to cook that for lunch at my last job at the fish'n tackle shop (on a portable butane stove in the stock room)...
Is there any decent Spam musubi (ie, Spam sushi) to be had in this town?
President,
Sacramento Appreciation Society of San Francisco
to ella:
ReplyDeletei picture smitty and mike wearing matching outfits except in black or white accordingly. wide lapels and a scarf tied jauntly around their throats like the lone ranger. ooh, and dave would need a skinny cigar of some sort. the high noon scene will be brilliant.
to miller:
does the loco moko contain June's trademark hotdog?
Hukilau has a surprisingly good breakfast and it's not that crowded on the weekends. There's a white trash version of eggs benedict with biscuit instead of english muffin, gravy instead of hollandaise and scrambled instead of over easy eggs. Okay, maybe it's nothing like eggs benedict but it's pretty delicious.
ReplyDeleteMiss B
I gotta say that when OMF told me the news about Tower last night, I was pretty puzzled, but in that sort of way where you're watching a really weird mystery movie and when you find out who-done-it and why, you're totally blown away. Sorta like what M Night Shyamalan thinks his movies are all supposed to be like. But I mean, Dave went to the Oscars, so he's automatically qualified. In all seriousness, I like to think that it'll be good for Tower. Plus, for some reason it's just kind of funny.
ReplyDeleteI have the house salad dressing recipe from the old Coral Reef restaurant, it's yummers!
ReplyDeleteAbout Hukilow: It is so unremarkable that I ain't even gon' try'n spell it right. I was convinced to go there by Dave Seapig who is something of an indoor helmet wearer, if you know what I mean. Not impressive. Decor is a X between Lyons/Eppies/Applebees and Ernestos. To create "mood" they rock that dimmer switch. Someone (Shawn?) mentioned happy hour. I have to say, "ditto, Rush" on that. On one of those 100-plus degree days, getting super stoned and having a bunch of those sweet drinks is a very pleasant way to get through the hot n dry sacto thing.
ReplyDeleteAbout Spaghetti westerns: I want to play the slow-witted deputy to Mike R Mike's who would never let him down, or play the same Barney Fife type who ends up trying the double cross because Smitty the evil sheep herder who use to herd sheep through the Cartwright spread gave me thirty pieces of silver. My last scene could be dying in MrM's arms and telling him where the outlaw is holed up.
Speaking of holes, if there is gonna be some sort of Welcome Aboard soiree for Smitty and a lame Matthias imitator is needed, I am available.
Ed
On a totally unrelated note:
ReplyDeleteI went out to the newish skate park in Natomas last night and the kids said Hecka every other word. Unfortunately it was mostly hecka gay, hecka retarded and my favorite hecka gaytarded.
Wouldn't it be really fun to make that movie?
ReplyDeleteWe could you know!
Ed, you'd make a superb deputy.
Guph? Liv? Postmistress? Saloon Keeper? School Marm? Dancehall Girl? What's it gonna be?
They have a real gypsy wagon too.
Oh, speaking of birthdays out there, I think Larry R. dj'ed one out there?? Am I making that up? I think if you rent out that outdoor picnic area, you can kinda do whatever you want.
Ella
Oh my lord...
ReplyDeletewww.pollardville.com
wow.
EC.
I can't believe that it's on a place called Mosher Slough.
ReplyDeleteEC.
I'm confused...are we talking about the same Dave Smith here? I didn't even know he worked at Tower! I can't think of any good, insulting puns, so I'll just say, "Seize the day, Smitty!"
ReplyDelete- Patrone
Casting: Patrone as himself + stereotypical Mexican Bandito.
ReplyDeleteDavid Paul as Stereotypical Mexican Bandito (We will not have Mexicans playing Mexicans or Injuns playing Injuns.)
A natural would be Olsen as the whorehouse piano player who doesn't play much piano, but looks nervous/drunk most of the time.
Ken Doose as the Madam.
Ed
i would totally sign up for school marm, or postmistress. any kinda role where i could stand around and make jaded comments about how f'd everything has become since the evil sheepherder roled into town.
ReplyDeleteluckily dave is naturally squinty eyed. evil bad guys must always be squinty eyed it will look good with the tiny cigar.
lastly i think patrone should be a devil may care gambler who doesn't take anything too seriously.
Ed:
ReplyDeleteYeah, but the props department will have to get me a new bowler hat. I sold mine for crack.
not that i'd get cast in this film, but i'd make a mean widow gone crazy with grief cuz the evil sheepherder ran the family business into the ground upon which my husband committed suicide leaving me to raise our 6 kids all by myself. it could also be the case that i have turned to begging in the saloons and janitorial work in the county jail to keep the little rascals properly fed. and, i'd gladly look as ugly as you wanted to make me appear (like rub my teeth with dirt and wear a horrible wig).
ReplyDeleteAlice- you are in!
ReplyDeletewho will your six kids be? Can we dress up Matt as a six year old with a big lollipop and a little lord fauntleroy suit? Please Matt?
EC.
will this be a horse whipping kind of western or a shoot out kind of western? or both?
ReplyDeleteOMF as the undertaker, who also doubles as some other perveyor in the town, and I can't think of what it would be, but it'd have to be something that is slightly sickly ironic to be done by an undertaker, but still kosher for 50's hollywood.
ReplyDeleteThere also needs to be a two-food wide shotgun house chinese laundromat with the owner/operator played by somebody who could not pass as asian even if they were standing perfectly still and not talking during an overcast midnight blackout on a new moon.
Darin, of course, should be the justice of the peace.
Also Ed? I like to be challenged in an acting role, even if I get a little typecast, but cann't you find a part for me to play that I'd actually have to act for?
Simply because I think we are all too poor to come up with horses, I think it's going to be a shoot out kind. If we rented one horse, we could shoot like 15 different people on it, and cut it in, like we had 15 horses. Cause that would be good for the "train robbery" part which we can shoot in the front of the complex, on the junky old rusted train they've got. But no horse = no horse whipping.
ReplyDeleteEC
...featuring Matt as Buster Brown.
ReplyDeletewe could just get a fake cowhide blanket from Denaio's and put somebody underneath it to flinch when the blanket gets wipped, and make it a low, wide-angle shot from the perspective where the bottom foreground is a close-up of the "horse" and the person wipping it is standing in the middleground in forced perspective with a horizonal termination of the background. That way, thew viewer beleives it's really a horse that's already been beaten to the ground, and they don't even have to see the head, mane, hooves, legs or tail.
ReplyDeleteA little Peter Jackson, a little Orson Welles, and a lot of Ed Wood. Ba da bing; almost zero budget, Hollywood-calibur wink-and-a-smile effects!
I like that! I could borrow a saddle & tack from my uncle's ranch. I think he'd say no to borrowing the horses though. We'll put a big fan blowing on the person in the saddle.
ReplyDeleteOlsen, I say you are in charge of special effects.
Can we really make this please?
EC
I'll be an advisor, but don't put me in charge. I nominate myself and MRM to write the score.
ReplyDeletei suspect that this will be one of those films where the behind the scenes stuff will be as worth capturing as the film itself. that way, after we've finished taking the indie film world by storm we can release the making of and blow everyone's minds.
ReplyDeletenow for a title......
I'm a being absolutely sincere when I second EC..WHY couldn't this happen for reals?
ReplyDelete- Patrone
Liv, blowing minds with the 'Making Of' sequel would be awesome in a very Structuralist kind of way.
ReplyDelete- Patrone
The chicken that won the west?
ReplyDeleteIt could be about how mike r mike is kinda chicken at first and then because dave is so bad, he ends up being a hero?
that way we could use all pollardville's cool promotional stuff for the credits.
Cheapy McCheaperton Cross
i don't see why this couldn't happen, pollardville willing of course....
ReplyDeleteDudes,
ReplyDeletedid you notice how they claim to have invented fast food on the pollardville website?
Love it.
Ok, so now let's form a brain trust and get to work on this film script!
Ella
ella,
ReplyDeleteafter looking at the pollardville website i believe there is some talent to be mined from their colorful cast of characters. everyone in their photos looks sloshed including the sheriff and the deputy.
-liv
Al Sobrante would probably shoot this.
ReplyDeleteCan we somehow work in the footage of Dave Smith piloting the German WWI tank? maybe as the surprise Epilogue?
Wingnut- you gotta be the veternarian... i'm already wearing the dirty black suit.
do we have a preacher yet? if not, pf, preacher? wingnut, preachers wife?
ReplyDeleteHow about this: Straight to Hell 2.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be the sequel to the really crappy mock-spaghetti western from the 80's that had the Pouges in it, but have nothing to do with that movie at all.
We could make the western take place in 1914. I mean, usually westerns take place in the latter 19th century, but 1914 is still fair game for gold old western stylin's. Consider if you will the Life ad Times of Judge Roy Bean that has action in it that continues well into the 1920's.
I'm with you Olsen. I even like the idea of taking it into the depression, simply because we could do such a better job of costuming that way. But the teens is good because the saloon girls could still be flouncy and feathery whereas in the depression I'd have to make them more languid and jazzy. It's just hard to come up with the right clothes for anything prior to the 20's but I've done it and I can do it again with enough forwarning.
ReplyDeleteEC.
i think heckasac and miller should write the script in consultation with olsen, omf and niki. i have a friend who has an m.a. in costume design from davis. she could get help us figure out how to make the costumes look authentic.
ReplyDeleteActually, one of the best westerns ever was set in the post-1914 era--Peckinpah's "Wild Bunch"
ReplyDeletePer OMF, I second that shot of Smif riding off into the sunset in a tank....
--panzer general
Basically Alice, if I don't get to do the costumes and set design, I'll cry.
ReplyDeleteWhaaah,
Ella
PS "The Wild Bunch" had an automobile in it so why not have a tank at Pollardville....
ReplyDelete--panzer general
whoa, whoa, whoa! Yall need to visit the Pollardville website. Goldrush town people. Goldrush......
ReplyDeleteI'm still working at the warehouse taking CDs out of a box to put the CD into a box at not much more than minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteMy first step at Tower will be hiring Patrone to give free pedicures.
OMF, I rode in a WWI tank (British Mk II) and fired a machine gun (Peter Jackson's tank and machine gun). I commanded a WWII tank (Tiger) which was my only training for managing a movie theater.
Takashi Miike had to do a sequel (he hates directing sequels), so the only thing from the first movie that was in it was a severed arm.
> Goldrush town people. Goldrush......
ReplyDeleteYes, Smif tranports himself back to the gold rush era with the aid of HG Wells' stolen time machine to steal gold. Using his papier mache WW1 tank, of course....
i take it back ella. the costumes are all yours. i don't want you to cry.
ReplyDeleteThe side story:
ReplyDeleteThe bumbling Colonel Crittendon, who somehow crossed through a wrinkle in the time-space continuum whilst escaping from Stalag 13, is deputized by lawman Mike R Mike and joins the Pollardville posse. Crittendon, bumbler that he is, constantly screws up attempts at capturing Smif and his menacing papier mache tank. Comedy ensues.
--panzer general
Okay, goldrush era is actually makes a lousy western. It could be taking place in a goldrush town after the urbanization and the early decline of the west. Pollardville on the brink of becoming a ghost town. I mean, come on. The goldrush era makes for a totally different kind of western. "Westerns" that take place before the civil war are kind of in a different genre that almost isn't a western.
ReplyDeleteThe 1850's? That's not a western...that's a goldrush movie, and there's a totally different sense of proriety in an established western hamlet than there was going to be during the expansion era (1869-1910) And the end of the expansion era, just before WWI, it's perfect, because it's a bunch of stagnant, leftover, out-of-touch yahoos still clinging to their old crummy town that began in the goldrush, boomed when the railroad came through, and then started to dry up when the fences covered the plains states. It's beautiful! It's despirate and dying enough to be tragic and pathetic, but still close enough to the boom that it's still a classic western.
Plus, in a western town in 1914, other than a few mod cons that would look out of place in the 1880's or 90's, anything old-timey westerny is still going to fly. These people are out of touch.
Okay, three words for ya..."The Three Amigos". That takes place in 1916, and it's a brilliant western.
> Okay, three words for ya..."The Three
ReplyDelete> Amigos". That takes place in 1916, and
> it's a brilliant western.
Okay, howsabout one word for ya..."Westworld" That takes place in 1973 and Yul Brynner starring in the role of the robot gunslinger makes it a brilliant western (if you remove the medieval and ancient Rome stuff).
--panzer general
Chris is right.... teens is good.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of what era this transpires in we need the angry hillbilly being washed in his longjohns a la Lee Marvin scene. It's just good filmmaking.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre takes place in 1925.
ReplyDeleteWait -- where the hell is Al Sobrante? I went to school with him and my roommate dated him and other than knowing that some years back he married Greta Mudflap, that was the last I ever heard of him.
ReplyDeleteAl, Greta and their kid Lolo live in SF.
ReplyDeleteSweet. Al doesn't long for Humboldt County, eh?
ReplyDeletecan i run the whore house/saloon?
ReplyDeletei probably shouldn't say that. but, i think it sounds like a fun job.
and involves lots of drinking and dancing and shooting.
OH MY GOSH, oh my gosh
ReplyDeletecan i be that guy who gets the news from a telegraph contraption?
"they're sendin us a new sheriff up from sacramento, and they say he's one spicey meatball!"
...-.. = homzee
that line is genius Homzee. Pure genius.
ReplyDeleteEC
STOP THE PRESSES!
ReplyDeleteDid Mike R. Mike use an actual keyboard, a processor and a internet connection to make that comment? Now my mind it blown!
I would like to be the Chinese Laundress.
Thank You
gbomb
Oh yes! The commentor got un-broked! My life has meaning again!
ReplyDeleteBeckasac, this is a movie. You can be in it, regardless of what your progenitors were doing back in the old days. It's movie magic! You could be ANYTHING! I mean, I'm playing a drunken barrel-house piano player, yet my forefathers at the time were probably selling bread in Denmark, or sewing suits marrying as many women as possible in Salt Lake City.
That reminds me...this movie needs to incorporate a bearded, shotgun-toting Polygamist Mormon Patriarch with 13 wives (has to be 13) in it. I'd play the part, but I like being the piano player better.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the name of that Charles Bronson movie where he fights the crazy polygamist mountain people?
When the Harlem Globetrotters show up at the end to resolve things, I'd like to play Meadowlark Lemon if that role isn't already filled.
ReplyDeleteLet me know.
Thanks
miller
That's perfect. As the German tank rides off into the sunset, the ending credits theme is somebody whistling "Sweet Georgia Brown".
ReplyDeleteok, I am fine with all of this as long as this is a "Talk About Charles Entertainment" project we are talking about here. I can set up the first fund raising show at the Distillery. The Feeling will be playing last.
ReplyDeleteCharles
If anyone has any ideas for the script, let me know. western@nokilli.com
ReplyDelete