I walk by this little loading area all the time, but didn't notice the name change until yesterday. In days gone by it was Rowland Alley, loading dock for the Mab and The On Broadway. (Mab, door to the left, On Broadway, a set of hinged stairs with a fairly steep angle leading up, also on the left) The new name is Dirk Dirksen Place. A sidewalk plaque reads:
Shut up, you animals: Dirk Dirksen (1937 - 2006), ringmaster of the circus of the creatively inspired, and the willfully deranged, presided as Pope of Punk over nightly excursions into living theater on the premises 1974 - 1984 at Ness Aquino's Mabuhay Gardens, previously a Filipino supper club. He opened the lid on society's garbage can of new talent to look for truth and beauty that gave rise to San Francisco's counter-culture music scene.
I don't remember Dirksen being referred to as Pope of anything, and the fab part of Fab Mab was a newspaper invention. Later, the club became the Red Velvet Lounge ( bridge and tunnel ), The Stone ( across the street ) became a strip joint, Morty's closed and sits waiting, and the Chi-Chi club is now private. As I mentioned: in days gone by.
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