In Keeping With The Theme

Our cranky email writer (see below) inspired several of us to go out for a cocktail and then to see Milk last night. Both were excellent — Brian Steffen gave us a sneak sip of the fabulous Oscartinis he'll be whipping up on Sunday, and the movie was incredible. I've always considered San Francisco to be an open, accepting and tolerant city — but that wasn't the case until folks like Harvey Milk fought so hard to make it that way. Milk moved from New York to San Francisco in 1972 and spent the next several years rallying the troops and running for city supervisor three times before he was finally elected in 1977. In the last year of his life, he'd made great progress in laying the foundation for gay rights — but certainly had much left to do before he was shot by rival supervisor Dan White a year later. The movie is a reminder of how hard people have had to work just to get basic human rights — a struggle that should have been won by now, but still goes on today. Anyway, Sean Penn is amazing in it, and it's fun to see footage of San Francisco during that time period. Tonight's the last showing, so plan to see it at Maiden Alley Cinema. It starts at 7 p.m. Penn, Josh Brolin (he played Dan White) and the movie, itself, are up for Oscars. Please join us Sunday for the Maiden Alley Oscar party! Doors open at 5:30 p.m. And vote for your favorites here! Come up with the most winners and you'll get a statue of your own!

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