Free shows, Biggie and $1 Beers

How was your weekend?  Mine was great!  While what I did wasn’t necessarily super broke-ass, it was for me since I didn’t have to pay for much.  For my birthday (Dec. 16th) my lady got us some tix to see Smokey Robinson at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland.  For those of you who have never been there to see a show, let me just tell you it’s amazing!  Not only do you get to be in a gorgeously restored art deco theatre, you also get to see Oakland’s flyest dressers come out.  My personal favorite was the guy in the full length black mink coat with an all white three piece suit underneath.  His hat and shoes matched the suit of course.  Unfortunately, while I didn’t get a pic of him here’s one of the theater’s lobby:

Lobby of the Paramount Theatre

The first half of Smokey’s performance was also amazing.  About four or five songs into it he did “Ooo Baby Baby” and holy shit!  In all the hundreds of concerts I’ve been to, I’ve never seen a crowd get so lit up.  After the song, they literally gave him three minute standing ovation.  The second half of the show got a bit boring though and when Smokey started splitting the audience in half to help him sing “Cruisin'”, we split.

Smokey, his band, and his dancers

The next night I got to see another free show.  My friend Niki Selken writes and performs experimental theatre and she put us on the guest list for her most recent show Endless Frontier.  To be quite honest, I’m not sure I understood the whole thing, but I do know that the music, costumes and acting were great.  It’s definitely worth checking out.  

After the show got out, Krista and I didn’t feel like going home yet, so we ambled over to the Metreon and watched Notorious, the new movie about Biggie Smalls.  This part wasn’t cheap…when did movie tickets become $11?  Anyway, the movie was decent but what really annoyed me was that, since Sean “Diddy” Combs was the executive producer, he was portrayed as something bordering on a saint in the movie.  Come on Puffy!  We all know you ain’t no saint!  The most interesting thing about the flick is that they got Biggie’s son to play a young B.I.G. and they got Fat Albert to play him as an adult:

Tell me Jamal Woolard doesn’t look like Fat Albert!

Anyway, wanna know where to get some really cheap beer tonight?  Go to The Homestead in the Mission at 19th St. and Folsom.  Every Monday night they have $1 PBRs and a DJ who only plays rockabilly and old soul.  I’ll probably see you there.