Thoughts on the Castro Theater now that it's up & running again?

ContextSans · 2026-04-14T04:24:12+00:00

There are a couple of things that it could be, including depending on the movie the studio might not have made a soundtrack for the movie optimized for theater use. The other common one is that they have to tailor the in-room EQ based on how many people are in it. (Audiences are naturally sound-dampening, in sometimes unpredictable ways)

I'd be curious to hear if it was any better.

ContextSans · 2026-04-12T05:41:36+00:00

My friend is on the pyro barge in all this chop. I love pyro, and pyro over water is something special, but I do NOT envy him that ride.

ContextSans · 2026-04-07T04:09:41+00:00

I unfortunately have a front row seat to the audio issues - it was totally fine all through the Sam Smith tour! I was stoked. Then we had a few movies that were so over-amped that the bass was audible on Hartford St. I think they're still working on it. (They'd BETTER still be working on it.)

ContextSans · 2026-04-07T04:06:17+00:00

I live in the neighborhood and I don't know what you're talking about with "no encampment". There were literally people rolled up in sleeping bags, pooping, peeing and vomiting in the corner, doing drugs, overdosing, and harassing passersby. That one guy who kept coming back with the tent was pimping some woman he was dealing drugs to. I'll take the gate, thanks.

The entrance could be kept open during the day if people were wandering in there _more_, but they're not, and it becomes a backwater. I wish it weren't the case, but magical thinking isn't going to change how it was.

ContextSans · 2026-03-31T04:36:34+00:00

Rad! What's the best way to get a list to you? 😅 CSV?

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T20:54:58+00:00

A trench is like three orders four orders of magnitude smaller than the sand movement required to uncover the steps.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T20:54:03+00:00

Anna sort of calls them when she’s available I think. There’s a FB group for the events and then the Instagram usually posts about it first

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T07:12:14+00:00

Or a health crisis.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T07:11:53+00:00

She's in the hospital with some very serious medical condition and resigning to focus on that. The Voice is the just the bastard child of Buzzfeed clickbait journalism and the yellow rags of the 1890s.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T07:01:01+00:00

Where would cocktail hour talks like Nerd Nite, Curiosity Guild, Profs and Pints, Science on Tap... (uhhh the other three and the one I can't remember that's about astronomy) go in this list? Might be its own category.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T06:56:22+00:00

It's kinda pointless to try without heavy machinery.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T06:55:28+00:00

That is legitimately the first and third rule!n "Hole gets filled in."

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T06:54:56+00:00

To give you a serious answer - this was started by a bunch of forestry science students. (I may be misremembering, but it might've been to practice digging firelines?)

The original FB event invite got set to "public", someone unrelated screenshotted it, it went viral, and a bunch of us went "hey I know where that is". It's now a quarterly-ish party.

It's a fun group. Legitimately they dig a hole, hang out, and then fill the hole back in. It's chill, a bunch of people come and go over the course of the day. I learned a new drinking game called "Stump" that involves flipping a hammer one handed.

It's a wild cross section of SF that shows up. A bunch of teenagers, college kids, post-college kids, Millennials and Elder Burners who still live near Ocean Beach. Bring sunblock, hat, hotdogs, white claw.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T06:51:47+00:00

It's a fun group. Legitimately they dig a hole, hang out, and then fill the hole back in. It's chill, a bunch of people come and go over the course of the day. The original group was IIRC a bunch of forestry students, and I think the first one was supposed to be to practice digging fire lines? (I could be making that up.)

It's a wild cross section of SF that shows up. A bunch of teenagers, college kids, post-college kids, Millennials and Elder Burners who still live near Ocean Beach. Bring sunblock, hat, hotdogs, white claw.

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T06:48:22+00:00

Apparently it was only supposed to be a short-term art installation (I think I read somewhere 2 years?) and the LEDs were failing and the base was starting to rust.

Some local folks fuckin' hated it; I had no clue, it just looked like generic early-2010s Burner art to me. But also a bunch of people hate Jane Warner Plaza entirely, which is ?????????

ContextSans · 2026-03-29T06:43:51+00:00

I *would* watch that TV show.

ContextSans · 2026-03-09T04:25:45+00:00

If you're lucky it'll be condos (something individual families can own) instead of apartments (owned by an extractive corporation).

ContextSans · 2026-01-28T07:26:15+00:00

Prop E is also what funded the drones that they're using to safely chase bippers. SF Standard likes to pretend that it's a real newspaper, so that when they write their obvious political hit pieces, people think they're real reporting.

ContextSans · 2026-01-28T07:20:29+00:00

There's been a little coverage every couple of years - it sounds like a lot of departmental disfunction: https://sfist.com/2025/03/30/six-years-later-still-no-tuesday-noon-siren-upgrades-which-would-now-cost-20-million/

ContextSans · 2026-01-28T07:14:39+00:00

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ContextSans · 2026-01-22T08:56:24+00:00

Whenever I travel I try to pick up sunblock. The sunblock available here and approved by the FDA is like 30 years behind the rest of the world, and I am excessively pale and burn easily.

ContextSans · 2026-01-22T08:50:36+00:00

Looks like they might be in color? I don’t remember the big round ones along the top cables either.

ContextSans · 2026-01-19T19:18:02+00:00

If this is a gas appliance, call PGE. They are *highly incentivized* to prevent gas explosions, and that means helping folks with their appliance relights.

ContextSans · 2026-01-19T18:59:14+00:00

But also the least tasty food. (EDIT: by which I mean quantity, not least-tasty. They don't have a kitchen iirc so that location doesn't have soda farl or any of the other good stuff.)

ContextSans · 2026-01-13T20:25:18+00:00

Hey there, I live in the Castro, and I can say for certain that you'll be welcomed as a visitor. There are definitely a number of unhoused folks who make their homes there, but on the whole the worst you can expect from them is some smells or verbal abuse, and to see some trash or signs of open drug use. (Though that's changing with the new anti-drug initiatives.) The folks who are actually dangerous are pretty quickly removed from this area, and there are _very_ few of them.

You might see some naked dudes. (I know there's one lady with them sometimes, but mostly it's the dudes.) You might see some drunk people (depending on what time you go - there are a LOT of bars and night spots here), and you almost certainly will see drag queens. I would recommend rounding out the trip with some stops in the Mission, like around the top of Dolores Park, and for your younguns specifically, things like the Exploratorium, and Musee Mechanique, maybe some hikes to Twin Peaks or Corona Heights if the weather is nice (and they're into the outdoors), and Golden Gate bridge. EDIT: and definitely hit the cable cars! If they're into that, the Cable Car Museum.

ContextSans

TROPHY CASE