Bogart and Bacall fans can see the Dark Passage house just below Coit Tower at 1360 Montgomery Street between Filbert and Alta. This is Delmer Daves’ black and white film about Bogart escaping from Alcatraz after being falsly convicted of killing his wife. Bitter scorned woman Agnes Moorehead put him there and Bacall helps hide him when he gets out, arranging plastic surgery to change his identity. Wrapped like a mummy in bandages, he recovers at her place. Slideshow below.
It’s a white apartment building called the Malloch Apartment Building with murals on the front and a lifesize cutout of Bogart in the top left window, pictured above. I have to thank Andy for that, a local expert on film and a super at San Francisco Opera.
We ladies on a mission also passed Teatro ZinZanni on the waterfront with it’s new show, Hearts on Fire. We peeked into the old-fashioned picture viewer out front. I'll be interviewing the only female chef to grace the spiegeltent, Christine Deaver, who stars in Hearts on Fire.
Teatro ZinZanni's "Hearts on Fire" stars disco diva Thelma Houston and the Mexican Elvis "El Vez"
The conversation had been getting light hearted, with one of us asking about each of our non-present former dates, do you remember the farting. Ah farting, the great equalizer. No matter who you are or what your age, you fart. Somehow each of us four had ex-farts. Moving on now.
The fond memories began outside Pier 23 with the fishcycle.
Parrots, a tiger and a frog prince
So for Valentine's Day we four of we ladies, as Beyonce sings, all the single ladies, strolled the Embarcadero past Teatro ZinZanni and hiked the wooden staircase to Coit Tower. We hiked past the parrots of Telegraph Hill that were squaking like squeaky toys in the tree tops, blending in so only their red beaks showed against the green. We came upon the mosaic tiger and the frog prince on a little deck with a parking meter.
Some young visitors from Seattle had gathered on the deck. One was from Ballard, the Norwegian sailor part of Seattle where the entire area is awash in blue eyes. There’s a Norwegian troll under the Ballard Bridge.
We passed Scotty’s Castle, the cliff's edge former-restaurant building for rent.
Once at Coit Tower on a spectacular sunny afternoon we looked up to see a tiny plane circling Coit Tower. Around and around it circled, the plane pulling a streaming banner which read, Bridget will you marry me? So where was Bridget? Call me.
We hiked into North Beach after we took pictures at the Dark Passage House. Heather and I had checked out Vesuvio's after seeing Beach Blanket Babylon on Friday night and planned to return.
Beach Blanket Babylon skewers the deserving from Tiger Woods to presidents
Vesuvio’s offered a cool and comfortable interior and five dollar glasses of draft beer. Anchor Steam included. I took a picture of the picture of Herb Caen’s office and the young man underneath the photo said the actual display is at Fourth and Mission at the SF Chronicle building. Cheers!
More info: http://www.beachblanketbabylon.com/
My friend Heather likes the Amante bar on Green nearby, where Carol Doda performs as a singer once in awhile. http://www.amantesf.com/
Anna Nicole and why her opera may still sound bafflin' on some remote island
Anna Nicole fights back from the grave and how opera takes on the bourgeoisie
Tone deaf diva touches and eviscerates
Tales of Hoffman sells out in a good not bourgeois way
Anna Nicole and subject of celebrity a worthy one
Anna Nicole Smith weapon of mass distraction
The bourgeoisie and thwarting love
Vagina Monologues benefits womens' shelters: ACT Feb 9 and 10, 2010
Music therapy for children in the hospital: AIDAAN gives iPods
ACT's Phedre a class act but sexuality corseted
For more information on JDV Hotels, http://www.jdvhotels.com/
For more information on A.C.T. and Phedre: ACT
Salome a tribute to women artists who go against traditional expectations
Breaking news in opera: Diva Frederica von Stade's heirlooms stolen from Alameda and auctioned
Carmen at the Met: Why does loving a gypsy heart bring all to their knees?
Berkeley Opera presents quintessential libertine in February with Mozart's Don Giovanni
SF Opera's HD series at the Kabuki with Don Giovanni
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