Watching City Hall #377 (6-13-05)

"ALIOTO-VERONESE BY A KNOCKOUT!!"

(Announcer at 1st 'Friday Nite Fights' - 3rd street gym)

Some things are just too weird to get your mind around. That includes most of my friends. Still, when I got the message from Angela saying that we had to stop and watch her son fight some guy on 3rd street (@ 22nd) ... I did a double take.

h.: "Your kid is boxing!?!"

Angela: "My baby!! He's the sophisticated one! All of a sudden he comes to me and says that he's going to a boxing boot camp that starts at 4am and lasts 6 weeks. Now he's got a fight and the guy says he's gonna break Gianpaolo's nose! My heart is in my throat."

I love spending time with Angela Alioto. (No, there's no romantic angle but please gossip anyway.) ... She doesn't drink and she took me to a party that had a waterfall of vodka and a mountain of choclate (thanks to Bob Pritikin). She worships peace and here she is taking me to a fight. Everyone told me she holds grudges but I've taken her to outings that were filled with people angry with her and sometimes she with them but she's always engaging, friendly, genuine and never ever flinched. She's always a pleasant surprise but this was a new one. Let me backtrack for a second.

We'd had this date to go to my son-in-law's show of Shona sculpture for over a month. Kudzai is a Shona from Zimbabwe and he and my daughter support the Zim artists by transporting their work to the U.S. and selling it. The last show was at the Peace Corps offices and they are always looking for space. Enough plugs. View the work online @ www.zuvha.com. Buy a piece for your office or home. Dramatic beauty. All sizes. Hell of a good cause. And, my kids know who to invite to add entertainment and impact to a scene.

They arrived in town just about the time I started covering the local political scene seriously some 6 years ago and they've met most of the major players on the scene. Thus, they didn't hesitate to invite Matt Gonzalez and Angela Alioto into the same town house. And, they both came. And, hung out and talked amicably. Ross Mirkarimi showed too!

That was later. Katz and his fellow provocateurs too. (verrry interesting) I was hanging out with my friends, Deby and Frank who run my Bulldog web site. They drive a BMW and Angela has a Mercedes. My neighbors at the SRO hotel drive wheelchairs and walkers and canes and crutches. There's a bus stop directly in front of the building and that's the way most folks here travel. No one even get's picked up or dropped off by cabs. Then, I have all of these friends who wheel this high end machinery. It's really funny as hell. People are always saying: "How'd you meet all these people?" I just tell them: "Just go online and google 'the good life'."

Angela brought her friend and legal colleague, Jodi and I introduced them to my friends. Nothing boosts your street credibility like being seen with the powerful and famous. It helps if they're beautiful too. My friends are all of the above. Deby and Frank had been publishing columns starring Angela for the past several years and now they got to meet her. The 2 cops in the patrol car who cruised her were impressed too. But we were late, so I leaped in and we headed from my crib in the Civic Center toward Third street on our way to a fight.

Angela alternated between descriptions of what happened to a person's brain when they were struck in a boxing match and pointing out the progress on the Third Street Light Rail: "I said that this would end up being for the rich people who force the poor out of here!". I agreed and noted that I'd written it when she said it during the last mayor's race.

The fight scene

It was more like a Hollywood set than anything else. Ruggedly handsome young men and women with bodies sculpted by the various exercise equipment that filled the plate glass windows along Third and a huge pro boxing ring in the back. No chairs. A crowd of around 200 largely in their 20's and in many cases just as scantily clad and in just as good a shape as the combatants. Up and down the long line on the sidewalk fans shielded their beer bottles and cans with brown paper bags. The posters blared the event about to commence: 'First edition of Friday Night Fights'. I could almost hear the theme from the 'Gillette Calvelcade of Sports' playing in the backround. We entered the building.

One of the contestants warming up in the corner stopped and motioned for Angela to come over and talk. He was a big guy and she was leery. I told her that he probably wanted an autograph or something. Hesitantly, she made her way over.

It was her son. Didn't even recognize him! It was the headgear, of course. The taped hands and all of that. She shook her head as we worked our way up to ringside.

Angela: "I didn't even recognize him. Look at those muscles!"

h.: "That's a beautiful new tattoo he has too."

Angela: "He has a tattoo!!"

He didn't, of course. That's the kind of thing I'm always saying to get a rise out of people. Then, they get all excited and almost have a heart attack and I laugh and stuff. It's no fun for my friends but I have a hell of a good time.

Police Commissioner, Joe Veronese arrives

"Your mom is over in front of the ring by the left turnbuckle!" I called that out to Angela's eldest son who arrived a few minutes later with the statuesque Judy Gilman. Even in this sea of cleavage and hip huggers, tall and blonde Judy turned heads. Without even trying, the Aliotos make an entry. The whole scene was like a rave without X. I felt naked without my high school letter jacket.

It wasn't close

At 5'11" and 160 lbs, Gianpaolo is working on a Sugar Ray Leonard build and ain't got far to go. It's the classic middleweight frame made popular by one Ray Robinson. While Joe's little brother gave away 10 lbs to his opponent, he immediately had him in trouble. I remember thinking how much Joefire would have enjoyed the night.

It was the opening match and the crowd had barely gotten pressed bosoms to elbows when the referee called the first pause. A long, looping (gotta cut that arc if you're gonna keep it up kid) ... a long, looping right from Veronese caught his opponent flush between the eyes and staggered him backward.

It went that way until 2:30 of round 3. The ref errored on the side of caution all night and that was the thing to do. Oh, the fighters weren't inept. I was surprised at how well conditioned they were and how they cut off the ring. There were virtually no clenches and not a beer belly in the lot (I had the only one in the crowd). Still, none had fought for longer than 6 months and despite the mandatory head gear and padded gloves, they repeatedly rung each other's bells. Friday night fights are back people and for those of you who share my blood lust, make the scene. 3rd Street Gym. 3rd and 22nd or thereabouts. If you stand close to the ring, wear something it's easy to rinse or that's already red.

And the night was young

We hung around at the fights til Gianpaolo was dressed then congratulated him, said our goodbyes and headed to what promised to be a quiet art exhibit. But, as they say, around here things are never as they seem.

"That looks like Mirkarimi's car." I noted that when I saw the forest green jeep 4-by with the tan rag top we'd somehow managed to park alongside. "It was Ross's." Thus spake Angela, pointing to the tall & muscular D5 Supervisor standing on the balcony above us. Hmmm. I wondered how that would play. I vaguely recalled that Ross had worked for Angela at one time before joining the Gonzalez for Mayor campaign in 2003. It played great. While they caught up on their thriving careers I noticed Matt Gonzalez at a far end of the family room talking to my daughter, Mona.

Wow! My kid scored on the societalmeter with these three. Two were nearly mayor and were also Board President. One wrote the first anti-smoking and pro-pot legislation in the country. Another birthed rank-choice voting and laid the basis for tidal power. Ross, the new kid on the block came into office this year as the guy who kicked PG&E's ass to win a Public Power initiative only to have the victory stolen by the Willie Brown machine (Bill Lee was Willie's point guy - now he's gonna be the Assessor?).

Gonzo and Angela and Ross talked lots but I barely listened. Would have been rude. I turned my attention to 3 suspicious characters who were very familiar to me but who certainly didn't belong at my son-in-law's private party.

Provocateurs & Progressives

It probably doesn't surprise you to hear that there are people who get paid to follow progressive leaders and disrupt their gatherings. They were all over the Gonzalez campaign. The cops were useless. Matt's people finally cobbled together a credible defensive unit headed by Ace Washington and Len Pettigrew (ex-Eagle linebacker, boxer & wrestler - and D2 supe candidate in 2002) that included some of the more muscular volunteers with backrounds ranging from martial arts to firefighting. We needed a couple of them last friday at the Shona exhibit.

"My name is KATZ!!!"

This guy looks like a 50'ish Frank Zappa. Same kind of hair and radar signature. Three weeks earlier he'd taken a place behind Mirkarimi's wine bar at his monthly office art opening. He was rude to everyone to the point of outrageous. He told my son-in-law (who is black) that he was running low on wine and that he should "recycle" some from discarded glasses left around the room. He then, opened a fresh bottle for the two white women behind Kudzai in line.

Kudzai told me. I confronted the guy and he lied and threatened to call security and said that Ross had put him there. I went to Ross who denied knowing the guy who promptly left. Now, here was this asshole at my son-in-law's party claiming that Matt Gonzalez invited him. Matt had already left. (I called him later and, like Ross, he didn't know the guy.)

I wanted to throw the shithead out in the street just based on his past performance but there was more trouble with another of the same crew.

They always try to serve the liquor cause you can fuck up more people's buzz if you control the flow of booze. It seems like they just don't want anyone to have a good time. ... Katz's running mates are two skinny, scraggly haired dishwater blonde pigs of about the same age as him. One of them had insulted enough people to be ejected and was suspected of rifling purses in the bed room. He did a lot of whining until I asked him if he was a police officer. He wouldn't explain how he found out about the party which was private and not advertised.

None of the three would answer the cop question. Like the punks who used to roam the Gonzalez headquarters frightening the women, they challenged us to call the cops cause they weren't worried about the cops. When I got back inside from the first ejection, Katz and the second scraggly haired dude had hooked up and were talking animatedly in a corner. My daughter said to ignore them and enjoy the party. Angela and Matt & Ross had already headed out and Rachel was coming up the stairs with a broad smile, so I took her advice. I just want to see if the pricks show up at Mirkarimi's monthly art opening tomorrow. ... One more thing. I am definitely the neighborhood paranoid but these guys are real. I saw Katz at Kaboom this year going through bags withe cops. He was wearing an orange vest and everyone else around him was in uniform. Like the guy at the party, he was going through pocketbooks and bags. ... Who the fuck are these guys?

Scoop to Alioto

As Angela and Jodi left, I walked them across the broad courtyard to the gates and Angela started talking. "How many grandkids do you have, h.?" ... Hmmm, puzzling, I thought. "Four. Some by blood and some by marriage." ...

Angela: "Make that FIVE!"

me: "How can you know that if I don't!?!"

Angela: (Smiling as she walks away) "I'm a lawyer, h.. I know how to ask questions."

(She was right, of course. Mona & Kudzai's second is scheduled for landing in mid-January as are ... I might add, Michelle & Rich Ruggles-Hillis's twins. The Earth had a fertile Spring.)

It was a great party. It was a great night. Definitely an 'only in Frisco' night. Where else can an over-the-hill senior on welfare hob nob with the City's absolutely, positively coolest people, be driven around in luxury cars, wined and dined and consulted? Weird shit.

Only thing that would make this better is if you went to www.zuvha.com and buy a piece of this sculpture. In that vein, I'm going to publish a piece here concerning the relationship of Art to society. It is by Krissy Keefer of Dance Mission who is on the Mayor's Arts Task Force which is chaired by Debra Walker. (see Contributing Writers section. ed.)