Podcasts about Mabuhay Gardens

On his mom's side, Woody LaBounty's San Francisco roots go back to 1850. In Part 1, get to know Woody, who, today, is the president and CEO of SF Heritage. But he's so, so much more than that. He begins by tracing his lineage back to the early days of the Gold Rush. His maternal great-great-great-grandfather arrived here mid-Nineteenth Century. Woody even knows what ship he was on and the exact day that it arrived in the recently christened city of San Francisco. On Woody's dad's side, the roots are about 100 years younger than that. His father grew up in Fort Worth, Texas (like I did). His dad's mom was single and fell on hard times in Texas. She came to San Francisco, where she had a step-brother. Woody's parents met at the Donut Bowl at 10th Avenue and Geary Boulevard (where Boudin Bakery is today). Donut Bowl was a combination donut shop/hot dog joint. At the time the two met, his dad worked as a cook there and his mom was in high school. His mom and her friends went to nearby Washington High and would hang out at the donut shop after school. The next year or so, his parents had their first kid—Woody. They came from different sides of the track, as it were. Woody's mom's family wasn't crazy about her dating his working-class dad, who didn't finish high school. But once his mom became pregnant with Woody, everything changed. The couple had two more sons after Woody. One of his brothers played for the 49ers in the Nineties and lives in Oregon today. His other brother works with underserved high school kids in New Jersey, helping them get into college. Woody shares some impressions of his first 10 years or so of life by describing The City in the mid-Seventies. Yes, kids played in the streets and rode Muni to Candlestick Park and The Tenderloin to go bowling. It was also the era of Patty Hearst and the SLA, Jonestown, and the Moscone/Milk murders. But for 10-year-old Woody, it was home. It felt safe, like a village. Because I'm a dork, I ask Woody to share his memories of when Star Wars came out. Obliging me, he goes on a sidebar about how the cinematic phenomenon came into his world in San Francisco. He did, in fact, see Star Wars in its first run at the Coronet. He attended Sacred Heart on Cathedral Hill when it was an all-boys high school. He grew up Catholic, although you didn't have to be to go to one of SF's three Catholic boys' high schools. Woody describes, in broad terms, the types of families that sent their boys to the three schools. Sacred Heart was generally for kids of working-class folks. After school, if they didn't take Muni back home to the Richmond District, Woody and his friends might head over to Fisherman's Wharf to play early era video games. Or, most likely, they'd head over to any number of high schools to talk to girls. Because parental supervision was lacking, let's say, Woody and his buddies also frequently went to several 18+ and 21+ spots. The I-Beam in the Haight, The Triangle in the Marina, The Pierce Street Annex, Enrico's in North Beach, Mabuhay Gardens. There, he saw bands like The Tubes and The Dead Kennedy's, although punk wasn't really his thing. Woody was more into jazz, RnB, and late-disco. We chat a little about café culture in San Francisco, something that didn't really exist until the Eighties. To this day, Woody still spends his Friday mornings at Simple Pleasures Cafe. And we end Part 1 with Woody's brief time at UC Berkeley (one year) and the real reason he even bothered to try college. Check back next week for Part 2 with Woody LaBounty. And this Thursday, look for a bonus episode all about We Players and their upcoming production of Macbeth at Fort Point. We recorded this episode in Mountain Lake Park in March 2025. Photography by Jeff Hunt

Interview with Kevin Shields Of Detention. Detention was one of the first and best bands of the ‘80s New Jersey hardcore punk explosion. Their wonderfully tasteless “Dead Rock 'n Rollers” single became the college radio cult classic of 1983. The song's 97 seconds of primal Ramones-style speed-punk mocked the demise of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Keith Moon, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious, John Belushi, and John Bonham — who “played the drug game and couldn't maintain.” They even foretold the drug-related heart attack of Jim Carroll, famous for “All The People Who Died,” screaming, “What are you waiting for? Do it!” Saving the best for last, “Dead Rock 'n Rollers” raised the obvious question: “Why couldn't it be Barry Manilow?” The Detention story goes back to Central Jersey, to the Shields family home in Hillsborough Township, about 20 minutes from the “culture capital” of New Brunswick. Kevin Shields, the fourth of five sons, grew up listening to his older brothers' sophisticated record collection of hippie music that ranged from Blue Cheer to King Crimson. Kevin recalls: “Early on, I knew that rock ‘n roll was something special. I was fascinated.”  “I enlisted in the Coast Guard when I was 17. I was out on my own. I was always a music guy and realized music was getting stale with Genesis and whatnot. I read all the magazines, and the ads in the back, so I sent money to these labels, and came home with albums like Never Mind the Bollocks and Rocket to Russia, and singles by the Slickee Boys and MX-80 Sound. But the coup d'grace was when we stationed in Alameda and I went wild in San Francisco. I went to the Mabuhay Gardens like three nights a week, seeing all the legendary West Coast bands: DKs, DOA, Black Flag. I got thrashed on the education of seeing live bands.”   When Kevin returned home in 1981, he was inspired to make music. “Detention came about because I decided to be a player not a spectator,” he explains. “The easiest way was to recruit my family, so I turned to my brothers. I bought a bass, but I didn't know how to play it. My brother Paul suggested I get in touch with this guitarist Rodney Matejek. He showed me how to play simply, and within months we started coming up with riffs, and what would become songs came very quickly.”  The band — Kevin, Rodney, frontman Paul Shields, and drummer Daniel Shields — played their first show at Raritan Manor on the Somerville Circle, hosted by a young Matt Pinfield in his first radio DJ gig at WRSU (Rutgers). It was a noisy and chaotic affair, with people rolling on the floor — until police arrived and stopped the mayhem. “We were given 100 bucks, and we promised never to play there again,” Kevin says with a grin.  Kevin offers some backstory: “Rob Roth, god bless his pointed head, he had a vision. He got us into the studio in Roselle Park, and he paid for it. All we had to do was get good recordings of the two songs, including the B-side “El Salvador.” It came out great. My brother Paul certainly had the lungs for the job! Those 500 copies got us gigs and got us a lot of notice.” In 1985, Detention released a self-produced self-titled album before disbanding. Kevin's Info https://www.leftfordeadrecords.com dead-rock-n-rollers    

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 46! Punk Rock was most popular in the mid- to late-1970s through the middle of the 1980s. Although it hit its peak for only about a decade, it captured the public's imagination in that time with it's anti-establishment, in-your-face, DIY style. The bands didn't achieve success on their own though. Asian American clubs on the West Coast were a huge reason for the growth of the Punk Rock scene.  In this episode, we talk about three of the most influential clubs in California to give punk rock bands a chance: Madame Wong's and Cathay de Grande in Los Angeles as well as Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. These clubs and their owners… Esther Wong, Ruby Chou, and Ness Aquino… all transformed their restaurants into clubs that served up culture-rich food and hardcore punk. We open the episode by talking about the LA Dodgers win and our memories of punk rock music. In our recurring segment we bring back the API Guide to the NHL where we talk about the National Hockey League players of Asian Pacific descent so listeners who to root for. If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or social media links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com. Segments 00:25 Dodgers Win the World Series and Talking Punk Rock 05:51 The History of Asian American Clubs and the Punk Rock and New Wave Scenes 25:54 The API Guide to the NHL 24-25 Edition

Aaron Peskin is incredibly easy to talk with. And his life story is one you have to hear to believe. In this podcast, Episode 1 of Season 7 of Storied: San Francisco, the multi-term D3 supervisor-slash-president of the Board of Supervisors-slash-current candidate for mayor of San Francisco shares his story, beginning with the tales of his parents and their families' migration to the United States. On Aaron's mom's side, the story goes back to Russia. His maternal grandfather was one of five boys born to a Jewish family in Saint Petersburg. Two of the boys stayed in Russia, one came to San Francisco, and the other two migrated across Russia amid revolutionary upheaval there to the Mediterranean and later, to Haifa in Palestine. Aaron's grandfather ended up in Tel Aviv. His mom was born there in 1940, when it was still Palestine. She migrated to the US in 1963 to visit her sister, who taught at a temple in Oakland. Aaron's mom ended up meeting his dad on that fateful trip, and the two were married five weeks later. On his dad's side, his grandparents came to the US from Poland before the Nazi invasion in 1939, arriving in New York City where they ran a candy store. Aaron's dad went to City College of New York, where he graduated and got into UC Berkeley grad school for psychology. On his bus ride west, though, the elder Peskin got drafted to serve the US Army in its war in Korea. After service, he finished his doctorate at Berkeley and got a job teaching at SF State, where he stayed for 40 years until he retired. Aaron goes on a sidebar about running into many of his dad's students from over the years, something that happens to him up to this day. His parents settled in Berkeley shortly after they got married, in 1963. They had Aaron in 1964. As a kid, in the 1970s, he remembers some of the goings on at SF State, when student-led protests and sit-ins were happening and the Ethnic Studies was founded. Back in the East Bay, Aaron attended the first fully integrated public school class in Berkeley. One of his classmates, from kindergarten through third, was none other than Kamala Harris. (See photos in the episode post on our website!) Aaron's younger brother is a professor at Arizona State University. Both his parents ended up in higher education. He calls himself the "black sheep" of his family in this regard, as he "only" ended up with a bachelor's degree. Both parents were also therapists, something they carried on amid their academic careers. Growing up in the 1970s, the family spent significant time in The City, coming over as often as possible from their home in Berkeley. Aaron rattles off a litany of activities his parents engaged him and his brother in when they were young. He says that his time in high school in the East Bay was idyllic. He went to Berkeley High, still the only high school in that city. He fell in with a group of four other boys who took weekend hiking and backpacking trips as much as possible. Also around this time, in his later teen/high school years, Aaron popped over to San Francisco to do things like see kung-fu movies in Chinatown or go to The Keystone to see The Cure and punk bands. He saw The Greg Kihn Band, Talking Heads, and other legendary groups at places like the Greek Theater and Mabuhay Gardens. He graduated Berkeley High in 1982, though he and a handful of friends got out a semester earlier than everyone else. They packed up a van, the five of them, and drove around the Western United States and Canada for 100 days. They ended their trip spending the night in the van in the Berkeley High parking lot. The friend group then scattered, predictably, with Aaron and a couple others heading down to UC Santa Cruz. In his freshman year, he and a friend took the spring semester off and rode their bikes from California to North Carolina and up to Washington, DC, as you do. Santa Cruz was different enough from home, but not too far away. The school provided a challenging academic environment for him, also. He ended up studying animal behavior, specifically the northern elephant seal. Through that program, he lived with a team in experimental housing on Año Nuevo Island off the San Mateo coast doing research. But physical chemistry precluded Aaron from going for a marine biology degree. He instead got into a liberal arts program called "Modern Society and Social Thought." While he was going to school in Santa Cruz, he experienced his first political awakening. Aaron was involved in the effort to make the banana slug become the school's official mascot. The student government wanted the slug, but the chancellor wanted the elephant seal. Aaron had the idea of putting the decision to a vote of the student body. They put ballot boxes all over campus, and the slug won overwhelmingly. But the chancellor rejected the results. News articles helped the students' cause, and they won in the end. During his college years, he travelled to Asia on money he'd saved from a job at a photo store. Neighbors in Berkeley had climbed the Himalayas several times, and it had an effect on Aaron. He and some friends went and travelled over parts of South Asia to do some climbing themselves. He was gone for a year and four months. Upon his return to the US, still working toward getting his bachelor's, Aaron ran into trouble getting student housing. And so he set up a tent in the woods above campus, slept there, went to class during the day, and then did it all again the next day. Check back next week for Part 2 and Aaron's life after college. Photography by Jeff Hunt We recorded this podcast at Aaron Peskin for Mayor HQ on Market Street in July 2024.

From the Bay Area to the Central Valley to the Redwood Forest, this punk rock was made for you and me. Since the late '70s, Northern California has been a hotbed of punk rock activity. San Francisco sat at the epicentre of the first wave, with bands like Crime, Dead Kennedys, Avengers, Chrome, The Mutants, and The Nuns bringing the house down at the legendary Mabuhay Gardens. East Bay bands like Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid, and The Mr. T Experience ruled the punk revival of the late '80s and beyond. But, all over the northern part of California, great bands sprouted up in cities like Stockton, Santa Cruz, Davis, and Fulton. This week, we'll cover some of the great punk singles from the area, from familiar favorites to obscure treasures. What better Third Lad for this assignment than Northern California alternative music legend Jeffrey Clark?!? Jeffrey got his start as the singer/songwriter in early '80s Stockton garage/psych/synth combo The Torn Boys, whose recordings were recently released by Independent Project Records as 1983. Following the demise of the band, Jeffrey departed for LA with Torn Boys bandmade Grant-Lee Phillips (later of Grant Lee Buffalo fame) and formed the moody, mystical, marvelous Shiva Burlesque, who released two LPs - their eponymous debut in 1987 and Mercury Blues in 1990. Jeffrey subsequently released two cinematic, gorgeous solo records - Sheer Golden Hooks in 1996 and If Is in 2009. But wait, there's more: This renaissance man also founded one of the most acclaimed film festivals in North America, the Nevada City Film Festival; he revitalized the legendary Independent Project Records with label founder/Savage Republic guitarist Bruce Licher; and, he co-produced the documentary Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement. Oh, and did we mention that he's practically a member of the Wu-Tang Clan?? Speaking of Louder Than You Think, you may recall our recent episode where we chatted with director Jed I. Rosenberg and co-producer Brian Thalken. We made sure to chat with Jeffrey about the film as well, so stay tuned for a separate mini-episode on Thursday for more of our discussion! Special thanks to Paul Richison for the amazing guest suggestion, and to Josh Mills from It's Alive! Media for the incredible coordination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1980 I started hitting the San Francisco Bay Area rock clubs nightly. The Stone , Old Waldorf , Mabuhay Gardens, Uncle Charlie's, The Phoenix Theater , Keystone Berkeley, Cotati Cabaret. I had a huge thirst for Rock n Roll.    Of course the big bands like Van Halen ,AC/DC , Judas Priest and Ted Nugent would come through town but that was like once a year so you had to find something more out there and that something was a blossoming local rock scene and the early kings of that scene was a band called Roadrunner.  This band absolutely crushed it live and it seemed like over night they were selling out every club in the Bay. By 1985 the band was done.  I will Never forget those days and especially my guest today lead singer of Roadrunner James Hume.  I learned all of my early rock n roll lessons from this band.  I don't think I've talked to James since 1985 so it was an honor to catch up with him and really hear his story.  You may not of heard of Roadrunner but I guarantee you will love the stories. From Metallica opening up for them, Dio trying to get them a record deal and the infamous band house "The Cave" Dig in my friends and hear some San Francisco Rock History.    Check out some art by James Hume in this link https://rebelunicorn.shop/collections/jh-canvas  Roadrunner's music can be heard here https://music.apple.com/us/album/teenage-warcry-ep/270227528    Join my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/DeanDelray Enjoy tons of Bonus episodes.   My tour dates can be found here https://www.deandelray.com/tourdates    TO get tickets to see me shoot my special click here https://www.tixr.com/groups/thecaverns/events/bill-burr-with-dean-delray-112459    Thank you DDR

From the Bay Area to the Central Valley to the Redwood Forest, this punk rock was made for you and me. Since the late '70s, Northern California has been a hotbed of punk rock activity. San Francisco sat at the epicentre of the first wave, with bands like Crime, Dead Kennedys, Avengers, Chrome, The Mutants, and The Nuns bringing the house down at the legendary Mabuhay Gardens. East Bay bands like Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid, and The Mr. T Experience ruled the punk revival of the late '80s and beyond. But, all over the northern part of California, great bands sprouted up in cities like Stockton, Santa Cruz, Davis, and Fulton. This week, we'll cover some of the great punk singles from the area, from familiar favorites to obscure treasures. What better Third Lad for this assignment than Northern California alternative music legend Jeffrey Clark?!? Jeffrey got his start as the singer/songwriter in early '80s Stockton garage/psych/synth combo The Torn Boys, whose recordings were recently released by Independent Project Records as 1983. Following the demise of the band, Jeffrey departed for LA with Torn Boys bandmade Grant-Lee Phillips (later of Grant Lee Buffalo fame) and formed the moody, mystical, marvelous Shiva Burlesque, who released two LPs - their eponymous debut in 1987 and Mercury Blues in 1990. Jeffrey subsequently released two cinematic, gorgeous solo records - Sheer Golden Hooks in 1996 and If Is in 2009. But wait, there's more: This renaissance man also founded one of the most acclaimed film festivals in North America, the Nevada City Film Festival; he revitalized the legendary Independent Project Records with label founder/Savage Republic guitarist Bruce Licher; and, he co-produced the documentary Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement. Oh, and did we mention that he's practically a member of the Wu-Tang Clan?? Speaking of Louder Than You Think, you may recall our recent episode where we chatted with director Jed I. Rosenberg and co-producer Brian Thalken. We made sure to chat with Jeffrey about the film as well, so stay tuned for a separate mini-episode on Thursday for more of our discussion! Special thanks to Paul Richison for the amazing guest suggestion, and to Josh Mills from It's Alive! Media for the incredible coordination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Romeo Void were a sneaky important band. First, they were the most successful band to come out of the San Francisco scene of the early 80s and showed that interesting things were happening in that city. They also had a couple of the most provocative hits of the era, "Never Say Never" and "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)" that remain potent today. And frontwoman Debora Iyall represented proudly large women everywhere with her style, intellect, talent and grace. Debora joins us to talk about the band's history, how she coped with being unique, and the new album Romeo Void has coming out on Record Store Day which is a concert from 1980 at the Mabuhay Gardens. She's a icon and we're lucky to hear from her.  www.romeovoid.com www.patreon.com/thehustlepod

Thanks for checking out the Neanderthal Society Podcast. After an extended hiatus, we're finally back and today we're talking to a true Bay Area Hardcore OG… Joey Vela is probably best known as the former frontman of Bay Area Hardcore legends Second Coming as well as Rabid Lassie and Breakaway (in addition to being an extremely talented artist and skater). Over the course of the conversation, we discuss growing up and getting into skateboarding in the 1970's, finding Punk and eventually Hardcore, seeing shows in SF at the Mabuhay Gardens in the 1980's, the early days of Gilman Street, forming Rabid Lassie, playing shows with Operation Ivy, the San Ramon Mosh Crew, Rabid Lassie evolving into Breakaway, Bay Area Hardcore in the early 90's, the origins of Second Coming, meeting the Powerhouse guys, the evolution and eventual breakup of Second Coming, making art, writing graffiti, fatherhood, skating with his son, some exciting upcoming news about Second Coming and much more… Thanks for listening, enjoy the episode and please remember to follow us on Instagram. Hardcore lives.-Nathan neanderthal-society.cominstagram.com/neanderthalsocietyinstagram.com/neanderthalsocietypresents depop.com/neanderthalsociety 

Originally a Filipino restaurant and music club, The Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco's North Beach transformed into a mecca for Bay Area punk and New Wave bands in the 1970s and 80s. The Avengers, the Nuns, The Dead Kennedys, Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, The Tubes, and so many others performed regularly at the club on Broadway. As the original Mabuhay Gardens, which featured Filipino celebrities and musical acts, fell on hard times, promoter Dirk Dirksen convinced club owner Ness Aquino to let him book bands on Monday and Tuesday nights. Soon the nights expanded and the club was packing in a growing young punk rock audience. Dirkson, the “Pope of Punk“ was the abrasive MC, whose insults baited the audience to heighten the energy of the club. He lured in big names like Nico, The Dead Boys, Patti Smith, the Runaways and connected the Mabuhay Gardens with the English punk scene helping to spread punk rock globally. “To play, you need a place – be it where you live, the street, a venue.  For unrestricted play, you need an unrestricted playground.  Dirk Dirksen envisioned The Fab Mab just as such a playground.  Without him and The Mab, there might not have been the great punk scene in the late 1970s in San Francisco.  The San Francisco punk scene was fun.  I miss it.  But as Iggy Pop said, ‘Let's Sing.'”                                                                                                     — Mindy Bagdon Special thanks to Denise Demise Dunne, Liz Keim, Penelope Houston, Ron Greco, John Seabury, V Vale, Janet Clyde, and Kathy Peck. The archival interview with Dirk Dirksen is from Vale's RE/Search Conversations 13. We would like to dedicate this story to Mindy Bagdon (1934-2022), who brought warmth and kindness to every community he touched throughout his many years in San Francisco.   Produced by Brandi Howell with production support from Mary Franklin Harvin.

In the mid-90s, comedian Margaret Cho had a sitcom deal with ABC. She wanted to call it "The Margaret Cho Show" and to have Skankin' Pickle to write its theme song. But, the network wanted it to be called "All-American Girl," and they weren't keen on having a ska-punk band write its theme song. Skankin' Pickle singer/saxophonist Mike Park had already written the delightfully catchy song, "It's Margaret Cho." Since it wouldn't be playing on TV, he included it on Skankin' Pickle's third studio album, Sing Along With Skankin' Pickle. Margaret was friends with Mike and other members of the band. She showed up at Pickle shows and danced on the side of the stage whenever she could. But her love for ska and punk goes back to the 80s. These shows were a big part of her development as a person. She saw several amazing bands like Operation Ivy and Fishbone, who she says are her all time favorite band. She even wore a Fishbone shirt for the interview!On this episode, Margaret tells us about her friendship with the Skankin' Pickle. She also discusses the iconic bay area venues that meant a lot to her growing up, like Gilman, The Farm, and Mabuhay Gardens. She even tells us about the wildest show she ever attended.  But it turns out, it was a comedy show where a comedian casually drink his own piss and told corny jokes.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/indefenseofska)

The story of a small Filipino nightclub that transformed into one of San Francisco's most influential punk venues.   "To play, you need a place – be it where you live, the street, a venue.  For unrestricted play, you need an unrestricted playground.  Dirk Dirksen envisioned The Fab Mab just as such a playground.  Without him and The Mab, there might not have been the great punk scene in the late 1970s in San Francisco.  The San Francisco punk scene was fun.  I miss it.  But as Iggy Pop said, 'Let's Sing.'"                                                                                                     -- Mindy Bagdon Special thanks to Denise Demise Dunne, Liz Keim, Penelope Houston, Ron Greco, John Seabury, V Vale, Janet Clyde, and Kathy Peck.   The archival interview with Dirk Dirksen is from Vale's RE/Search Conversations 13.   Production support from Mary Franklin Harvin.  From Pinoy to Punk: The Rise of The Mabuhay Gardens An Oral History of San Francisco's Early Punk Scene Penelope Houston (PH):  The Mabuhay was not your average rock club. Denise Demise Dunne (DDD):  Here was this little club all of a sudden attracting the energy. Ron Greco (RG):  The Dills, Negative Trend, The Avengers... DDD:  So of course you are going to say, Oh, what is going on over there. PH:  More and more people started coming to town.  The Ramones played there.  Blondie played there.  It just became the punk mecca. RG: When I was real young, I would go by and see this place.  It was there for years. The music itself was nothing really developed yet in the very beginning.  It was just a supper club.  People would do the Mabuhay dance and stuff like that.    DDD:  Dirk was helping Ness with the Amapola show.  Amapola was this Filipino night club singer and she was popular within the Filipino community and had a TV show on Channel 26 and a number of characters from The Mab had performed there.  My name is Denise Demise Dunne.  I was Dirk’s assistant at the very beginning of The Mab. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxkCuncwU0  V Vale (VV):  Hi, welcome to The Counter Culture Hour.  I’m your host V Vale and I published starting in ‘77 Search and Destroy, the punk publication chronicling the rise of the punk rock cultural revolution.   My guest tonight is Dirk Dirksen, the impresario of The Mabuhay Gardens. LINK:  RE/Search Publications Dirk Dirksen:  We were open for ten years, did 3,600 plus concerts.   VV:  The thing was at the time things were so conservative that no club wanted anything to do with punk rock until Dirk Dirksen showed up and made The Mabuhay Gardens available. DD:  Ness downstairs at The Mabuhay was having a tough go of it, so I came in and said, Look – how about if you give us Monday nights because that is your dark night.  Let me try that and I will guarantee you $175 a night at the bar.  I didn't have $175 at the time, but I figured there are enough people I know that if I say hey, c'mon down and if they each drink two beers, we'll meet the guarantee.  And within a very short time we were grossing more on the Monday than he was grossing on the weekend with name Filipino acts.   Mindy Bagdon (MB):  My name is Mindy Bagdon.  My film's name is "Louder Faster Shorter".  At one point on Mondays, which was a dead period on the Broadway strip, Dirk convinced Ness Aquino who owned the club to let him put on different acts.  Little by little, it went from sort of vaudevillian variety acts to where The Nuns, who were one of the first groups to play there, apparently they went up to Dirk and they found out this venue was available and they said, Well can we put on a show?  And I remember I was walking up Grant Avenue and Vale's then girlfriend was coming down and proceeding me was the drummer for The Nuns and he was handing out flyers.   VV:  My girlfriend who looked like a rocker – I guess I looked like one too, you know with platform shoes and spiked hair and all that junk,

San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock, and a Third-Place Baseball Team with Lincoln Mitchell Special Roundtable Guests: Jennifer Blowdryer and Kenneth Sherrill A wide-ranging conversation touching on San Francisco in the 1970s, George Moscone, Harvey Milk, Dan White, urban America, political campaigns, city government, the San Francisco Giants leaving the city, segregation, diversity, bubbles, Dianne Feinstein, Jello Biafra, the Dead Kennedys, the punk rock scene, Joe Dirt, East Bay Ray, David Peel, the 1978 Giants, being a gay elected official in the 1970s, and Reggie Jackson’s role in reforming the judiciary.   Lincoln Mitchell is an adjunct associate professor of Political Science at Columbia University, where he also serves as an associate scholar in the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.  He has authored many books on the former Soviet states, democracy, and baseball, including Baseball Goes West: How the Giants and Dodgers Shaped the Major Leagues and Will Big League Baseball Survive.  He has also written extensively about San Francisco’s history in Instant City, Roads and Kingdoms, Parts Unknown and the New York Observer. Jennifer Blowdryer got her name from singing in The Blowdryer in 1978.  They played in San Francisco at the Mabuhay Gardens and The Deaf Club.  She published her first book, Modern English, a photo-illustrated trendy slang dictionary with Last Gasp in 1984, and moved to New York City the same year on a fellowship to the Columbia Writing Division.  She just finished a new album called She’s Got The Weirdness, and her next book is slated for Spring 2020, with Pedestrian Press, working title of The 86ed Project. Kenneth Sherrill is Professor Emeritus at Hunter College and the City University of New York graduate school.  In 1977, he became the first openly gay elected official in New York.  He is the author of Power, Policy and Participation, as well as Gays and the Military.  His current book in progress, Identity and Consciousness in LGBT Political Behavior, is expected to be completed next year.  Ken is also the author of articles, papers and reviews in various scholarly journals.   Thanks to our delectable sponsors: Sauce Pizzeria and St. Marks Wine & Liquor   San Francisco Year Zero.  Listen in...  

Todd Barry, The Devil & Daniel Johnston, Crime, Beatlemania, New College, Mabuhay Gardens, original SF punk scene, Wild Strawberries, J.T. LeRoy, and much more...

Oliva and Fred Competente share stories of the Mabuhay Gardens, the legendary San Francisco nightclub that helped usher in the Punk scene in the west coast. The Mabuhay Gardens hosted legendary punk bands including the Ramones, Blondie, the Dead Kennedys at the height of that scene. We also discuss the life and times of Ness Aquino, who co promoted those punk shows at the famed Mabuhay Gardens. 

This is the second part of our discussion with Prof. Dan Gonzales. We discuss the various music genres that influence the Filipino American community including the Fillmore jazz scene, the rise of punk music in the Mabuhay Gardens and the resurgence of hip hop.

"No risk, no reward". that's what, stunt man, Evel Kneivel, was fond of repeating while consuming his meals through a straw. In April of 2017 the Lousy Podcast followed in the footsteps of Evel by embarking on a five week stint at the Fame venue on Broadway in SF...Drink up! In lieu of excitement, there was a scent of never-properly-mopped up beer in the air as SK and Pete made preparations for this, the 1st of 5, live recordings at the former Mabuhay Gardens - a popular punk venue in the 70's, 80's and one weekend in 2012 when hipsters' favorite cupcake bar, Shipwright & Cheese, underwent renovations to convert into a dub step falafel disco. Not unlike any number of Geraldo's news specials, the show was poised to be a great success. After an inadvisable attempt at an opening monologue, SK introduced Pete and the rest of his guests: Architect and Telegraph Hill expert, Joe Butler and returning friend of the show, and SF comic, Andrew Holmgren...all seems fine so far. But during the updates portion of the show, somehow things went South (or perhaps more accurately, North). Pete discovered a Throng member from the great state of Alaska and things began to unravel. Were it not for the crowd's (The term crowd here is being used with an expired poetic license) collective disdain for Ruby Sky we might have ended things right then and there. Enter Joe Butler. A virtual dusty encyclopedia of San Francisco knowledge. If SK and Pete hadn't interrupted the man at every third sentence he might have been able to save things but such are the dreams of Parrots and Men. To Joe's credit he did manage to get in some interesting stories about the early adopted Telegraph Hill semaphore, Layman's Castle for the people, how the ground was pulled out from under the Gray Brothers, Bill Bailey's cottage and how he didn't come home, Pasquale's blue ball,  the beat generation and the, not-to-be-outdone, CIA trip. Babette in Squidges role as producer and sound engineer as well as a very funny set by Andrew Holmgren made it look, for a second, that we'd clear the last bus but here we are...back in traction.

Mabuhay impresario Dirk Dirksen goes deeper into the types of performance art, including comedic acts, that were "allowed" to play at the Mabuhay. Part 2 of 2. (Interview from 2004, two years before Dirk died, Nov 20, 2006.)

Dirk Dirksen was the entrepreneur and impresario of Mabuhay Gardens Punk Club in San Francisco. Here he talks about booking the club, the range of performances, and counterculture movements, punk and otherwise. Part 1 of 2.

We speak to author Patrick O’Neil – Gun Needle Spoon. This memoir follows a punk rock pioneer on his slide into drug abuse and life as an armed robber, all the way through life in recovery and what it’s like to look back on those times, knowing all the while that he is still under the threat of three strikes, a twenty-five-to-life prison sentence waiting. He has no choice but to deal with it all drug free. During punk rock’s heyday, Patrick O’Neil worked at the San Francisco’s legendary Mabuhay Gardens. He went on to become the road manager for Dead Kennedys and Flipper, as well as T.S.O.L. and the Subhumans. He holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles. http://patrick-oneil.com/gun-needle-spoon/

Steve Ricablana is well known as the bass player for the seminal San Francisco punk band VKTMS. The band formed in 1978, and no other band played the fabulous Mabuhay Gardens more than the VKTMS, but after a stalled attempt to get on a record label in the early 80’s, the VKTMS split up and […]

MLR talks with John Binkov, best known as the guitarist for the seminal punk rock band, VKTMS. John reminisces about the early days of the San Francisco punk rock scene, recalls life at the legendary rock club Mabuhay Gardens, discusses his band’s resurgence in the mid 90’s, and talks about his current bands the D’Jelly […]