San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
DJ excited to hear live music again
Name: Rob “DJ Rotten Robbie” Doughty
City of residence: Napa
Occupation: Event DJ
What was the last event you attended before shelterinplace?
There are two that stand out. The last actual thing I did before lockdown was see John
looks kind of familiar.’ They’re talking about an upcoming battle. I liked the show, so I tried to figure out what the scene is from,” he says.
After weeks of searching, he realized it was inspired by the campfire scene in “Henry V.”
When Kenneth Branagh’s film version of “Henry V” premiered months later, he started attending screenings over and over again. “Most people have trouble with the language, and I discovered that it was just kind of a weird dialect,” Yamada says. If you live among immigrant communities in New York, as he did growing up, “you get used to dialects.”
Eventually, Yamada began exploring live Shakespeare in the Bay Area, which led to Cal Shakes. In his first season attending, in 1999, he estimates he went 15 to 20 times. A caterer, starting to recognize him, invited him to the endofseason party that year. He later started volunteering, which led to board membership. Yamada would replace equipment whose disrepair others hadn’t noticed and troubleshot IT issues, recalls former Managing Director Susie Falk, who worked with Yamada for 13 years.
“He always makes sure there’s a supply of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish in the green room,” Falk says. “There’s just these little things that you don’t know he’s the one behind.”
Yearning to return to South Bay scene
Name: Danny Thien Le
City of residence: San Jose
Occupation: Librarian
What was the last event you attended before shelterinplace?
I went to a weekly party called the Changing Same at the Continental Bar & Lounge in San Jose. It happens every Thursday night and is run by Universal Grammar, a local boutique agency that presents an eclectic mix of events in
This past summer, without Cal Shakes, he returned to “Star Trek,” coming to have a new appreciation for “Deep Space Nine.” Even if it has less battle action than some other “Star Trek” series, “You get a lot more character development, particularly if you watch it in sequence,” he says.
He has also created a Cal Shakes app, available only on Apple products, drawing on his former career in software. In addition to cataloging the theater’s history by season, actors, play title and more, it features a selection of his many photos of the theater’s work.
Yamada started taking photos at the theater just for fun, when he wasn’t really supposed to, before he realized that “no flash photography” meant no photography at all. Former Artistic Director Joseph Vincent, who was performing in his last show with the theater at the time, “first read me the riot act about taking pictures in the theater. He then told me how to do it right, which is to ask the stage manager first. Then, since this was his last performance on our stage, he said, ‘Can I get some copies?’ ”
Yamada started coming back during dress rehearsals to take pictures alongside the theater’s official press photographer. Unlike that person, he wasn’t looking for the shot that would sell the show; he tried to take pictures of every single performer, especially the bit players who might cluding musical performances and futureforward art shows
At the Changing Same, you can hear the soul and funk of James Brown and Stevie Wonder mix in with the sultry, bassheavy sounds of FKA Twigs and Snoh Aalegra, all within the span of an hour — open format, all night long. Getting to see my friends DJ Chale Brown, the C.M.E., Mark PLSTK and DJ Shea Butter get down on the turntables brought an extra spark of joy.
On this auspicious evening, a week before Valentine’s Day, I ran into a couple of friends from out of town who were scoping out the scene. Also, be excited to be performing on Cal Shakes’ stage for the first time. He then started giving those shots to the actors as gifts.
For him, taking photos is another way to connect to a show and its actors. It’s a way to feel a part of the production, even though he doesn’t act or do technical theater work.
As he improved as a photographer, he started taking the official press photos for other theaters, especially Custom Made Theatre Company in San Francisco.
He might be most at home at the Bruns, though. On the theater’s idyltwo of my crushes just happened to be there at the same time. It’s these chance occurrences that get me out of my laziness to change clothes, grab a Lyft and allow the night to unfold before me. I did not realize that it would be one of my last visits to downtown San Jose’s nightlife.
It was my weekly ritual breaking bread with the bartenders, dancing with friends and finding commonality with a stranger, whether it be a techie or someone who was new to the city. I miss that camaraderie the most, and it’s been so long since I heard a solid sound system play some tunes. lic grounds on a recent afternoon, he sported a Cal Shakes baseball cap and board badge. It was just his sixth time outside of Alameda County since the pandemic hit, his second at the Bruns. Sitting alone at the theater’s famed picnic tables, sorting through photos on his laptop for the Cal Shakes app, he made it seem as if the eucalyptus grove was his regular cafe.
What’s the first thing you want to do postpandemic?
Once this pandemic is truly behind us, I will be booking some trips to Asia and Europe and hitting the music festivals and clubs overseas. Being able to be outside of the United States and connect with our global community through music just opens up a world of understanding and empathy.
But I also won’t take my local scene for granted. If the nightlife and the entertainment industry are to make a comeback in San Jose, the promoters, venue owners and patrons will all have to work together to revitalize and sustain it.
“It’s not the same watching on my little phone,” Lee says. “I don’t have WiFi — I use my phone to watch old shows my friends post, but my eyes get tired.”
Lee still vividly remembers the last performance she attended before the shelterinplace order last year: a drag version of the sitcom “Friends” staged at the Oasis on March 14. It’s fitting that her final prepandemic night out was at the South of Market drag club and cabaret; out of all the venues on her usual circuit (the Castro Theatre, Martuni’s piano bar, Herbst Theatre, the El Rio bar) Oasis is the one that has become a second home. Lee even had cameos in past productions of “Friends” and in Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger’s 2020 film, “S— & Champagne.”
Living in Hayward, away from her friends in San Francisco, has also been difficult, and not having the creative outlet of photographing events and creating Facebook posts is a loss she is still grappling with. In the past, she has used those Facebook photos as a way of keeping track of new friends and making sure performers get copies of her work.
Facebook’s memory feature has become invaluable. The autogenerator of old photos has become a way not only of looking back on past shows but also reconnecting with
Clubhopping fun is fondly recalled
Name: Molly Kish
City of residence: San Francisco
Occupation: Marketing and event professional
What was the last event you attended before shelterinplace?
I spent my last weekend before SIP showhopping around the Bay with friends and grabbing food and drinks at some of our favorite venues and bars. More specifically, those she hasn’t seen.
“I’ve never really paid much attention to those memories on Facebook,” Lee says. “Before, I was too busy going out and editing my photos, but now I love seeing them. People comment on them too, even though one or two people ask, ‘Where’s your mask?’ and I tell them, ‘Look at the date. It’s from two years ago.’ ”
“I’ve been following her posts very closely,” says Michael Phillis, who also performs as drag character Patty From HR. “It reminds me of all those nights we shared in the audience together or when I was onstage. Seeing the people close together sitting at shows feels like a lifetime ago. It’s made me realize how important those things are.”
Ever the dedicated former postal worker, Lee also keeps a steady stream of cards going out to her friends in the mail. She also wants people to know she hasn’t been entirely isolated the past 12 months: Lee has neighbors she is friendly with and has made the journey into San Francisco a few times by car (she is not ready to get on BART again) to have lunch at the Cove restaurant on Castro Street and to see the occasional sidewalk drag show by friends like Vanessa Bousay. When Oasis reopened on the roof last summer, she was sitting front row on opening weekend, camera in hand.
“She’s part of our landscape,” Phillis says. “She’s the maiden aunt of we spent a Saturday afternoon (March 7) at Faction Brewing in Alameda before catching Lars Frederiksen (of Rancid) at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland. Then on Sunday (March 8), I grabbed dinner and drinks at Tommy’s Joynt on Geary ahead of seeing my last show preSIP, Neal Francis at Brick and Mortar Music Hall in the Mission.
Both shows were at full capacity and no one there, myself included, would have ever imagined that they would be the last times that we would be seeing live music in a venue for the rest of this scene, except she likes me more than any of my aunts. She’s really invested in the whole evening: You know from her posts where she sat, who she saw, who she talked to. I checked in on events through Linda Lee because she chronicles what the full experience of the show is. She has a way of opening you up to a photo. Her charm makes anyone comfortable.”
At the time of reporting, Lee was feeling hopeful after getting her first vaccine shot but was worried about the fate of the Oasis, which has been facing possible closure due to financial problems wrought by the 2020. The mood was light — mask mandates and social distancing weren’t even a concept yet. We were in the “wash your hands excessively” phase and joked about which songs on the set lists we’d be using that night as time markers, to ensure that we thoroughly did so.
What’s the first thing you want to do postpandemic?
First thing on my agenda postpandemic is to aggressively hug, dance and celebrate with all of my friends in close quarters, ideally while listening to live music. pandemic. She plans to tune into the club’s fundraising telethon on March 6 and, even though she’s on a fixed income, will give what she can so she has a club to return to.
“Maybe this is silly, but when this all this is over, I think Oasis should have a big potluck when they reopen,” says Lee. “I would just like to be able to wander around the club and say hi to everybody . ... I love the shows, but I miss the people more.”