The swan song of the 22-year-old Irish bar, The Phoenix, arrives on Super Bowl Sunday, and the owner has permits to demolish the single-story building and construct an 18-unit apartment building in its place. This means the city will have one less Irish pub in which to ring in St. Paddy's this year.

It's been almost a year since Hoodline reported on the demolition permit issued for The Phoenix Irish Pub building at 811 Valencia Street. And it's been five years since the rumors of the bar's impending demise began — around the time that owner Eugene Power abruptly fired seven employees in 2018, right before St. Patrick's Day. BrokeAss Stuart reported at the time that Power "has a history of erratic behavior, firing and rehiring staff at random," and that seemed to be the case then — the bar didn't close, and it was soon being run by new staff. That same year, Power filed his first permits for the residential building.

As Power tells Eater this week, despite being open on weekends the last couple of years, The Phoenix "never fully reopened." And now the time has come for construction to get underway on 18 “European-style” one-bedroom apartments, one of which will be a retirement pad for Power himself.

"I’m putting something back in that’s a value to me and the neighborhood," Power tells Eater, adding that he's been working in the hospitality industry for 40 years now. "I think it’s a perfect fit for the neighborhood, it is filling a need and it drives me on to the next chapter in my life."

The bar's last day will be Super Bowl Sunday, and Power says he'll be there to greet and say goodbye to regulars and neighbors.

The plan for the new residential building has shifted somewhat, it seems, since Mission Local reported on it becoming 19 "SRO-style" units with shared bathrooms.

The new plan also includes a retail space on the ground floor that is likely to become a new restaurant or bar, perhaps opening by mid-2024. But Power says he won't be involved in whatever the business turns out to be. There is also reportedly a parklet permit being filed for the new business.

The Phoenix opened in 2001, and has been a popular spot especially at St. Patrick's time and during football season in the two decades since. The building, which has likely been a bar/restaurant for all of its 63 years, was previously known as The Circle Club, The Greek Center, and Villa Madrid in the 80s and 90s. The original circle base of the neon sign for the Circle Club now has bares the Phoenix's name.

Photo via Facebook

The crowds returned to Golden Gate Park for day two of the Outside Lands Festival on Saturday and the presence of those 10,000 extra music fans was definitely noticeable.

Fists pumped along to Young the Giant's sunny pop music at the Lands End Stage while Youth Lagoon -- a highlight from last year's Treasure Island Festival -- played a dreamier set on the far end of the festival grounds.

The typically subdued blankets-and-folk music crowd at the Sutro Stage bopped their heads to hometown heroine Thao Nguyen as she rapped along with her always peppy band, the Get Down Stay Down. That was before Jurassic 5, their full lineup together for the first time in 7 years, took the main Lands End Stage to actually rap through their set of jazz-inflected hip hop.

Back at the Sutro Stage, the Tallest Man on Earth (who is actually somewhat diminutive in person) soothed the crowd back into a comfortable place with his snappy folk music and comfortable sweater. Meanwhile, in the Polo Fields, the crowd piled in deep as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs blasted through short-but-heavy moments like "Maps" and "Heads Will Roll" as well as new tracks off of Mosquito. The Head and the Heart brought in an energetic young crowd of enthusiastic youths in the front row who were happy to sing along at the top of their lungs.

As things got dark, so did the music: Phoenix lit up the Twin Peaks Stage with their chartbusting electro-pop that was inescapable from 2009-2010. On the main stage, Trent Reznor came out all shrouded in chiaroscuro for a tense set of industrial metal that has somehow remained ageless since the mid-90s. Flashes of bright white bounced off set pieces and Reznor was looking more ripped and angry than ever in a sleeveless pocket hoodie, ready to devour the microphone whole. But unlike McCartney's set on Friday night, from which we were unable to pull ourselves away, the smart kids knew to hit the buses early and make a breezy exit back towards downtown or BART or Divisadero bars.

Now that we have that out of the way, gaming has become a huge part of culture and has even affected the music industry. Video Games Live 2008 merges the music and gaming industry together to create an entire evening of gaming music performed by a full orchestra with projected video footage, synchronized lighting, and on-stage interactive segments with the audience. The performance will be on Friday, February 22, 2008.

It will feature songs from:
Halo 3
BioShock
Starcraft II (exclusive preview!)
World of Warcraft
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
Conan
Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy
Castlevania

For a full press release, go here. Tickets for Video Games Live 2008 go on sale on Saturday, December 8th at 10am at www.livenation.com, ticketmaster outlets or charge by phone at 415-421-TIXS or 408-998-TIXS. Tickets are $65.00, $47.50 and $38.50 for reserved seating plus applicable charges (whatever that means).

This actually happened to us-- we were walking down 16th street wearing our trusty baggy Giants sweatshirt (we like our sweatshirts baggy) when we walked past a homeless guy who actually said, "I like your sweatshirt. It looks good on someone as big as you."

Yes, some homeless guy called us fat. Needless to say, we did not give him any spare change.

Warriors 129 Suns 114- So the Phoenix Suns, a team that many pick to win the title this year and a team that was possibly one horrendous David Stern judgment from winning the title last year, came into the Oracle riding an eight game winning streak. So what happened? The Warriors whumped 'em. Monta Ellis had 31 points, including 15 consecutive points in the fourth quarter, and Stephen Jackson had 32 to beat PHX. The Warriors have now won six out of seven, leading to the inevitable joke about how they've totaled the amount of victories of both football teams, but as everyone's in a good mood about football, we'll leave it better off alone.

-It looks like the Raiders victory over the Chiefs is going to delay the Coming of JaMarcus at least a week as "Long Balls" Lane Kiffin has already announced Duante as the starting QB next week against the Broncos. We're not sure what the point of all this is either, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Raiders are technically only three games behind division leading San Diego.

-Is Sabean going to trade Tim the Enchanter for Miguel Cabrera? Were the A's really interested in Barry before the whole indictment thing? Read it for yourself.

Image by Jose Carlos Fajardo of the Contra Costa Times.

This November is a big month for all the teams in the Pacific division, as they spend the entire month playing their division opponents. The Sharks have shaken off their lackluster play to go 6-3-1 in their last ten games, three of which were against the Phoenix Coyotes. That includes Thursday night's 6-0 shutout, a game that they absolutely dominated. All told, in the three games against the Coyotes, they had two shutouts and only allowed one goal.

Douglas Murray, hero to college students everywhere and a Cornell grad himself, is now second in the league in plus/minus at +15. Woof.

Jeremy Roenick, of all people, is leading the league in game winning goals. 5 of his 6 goals on the year have been difference makers, including his 500th career goal. His signing, for minimal money, is looking like a genius move right now, as is the signing of Sandis Ozolinsh, who has put in quality minutes on defense, and has helped spark the Sharks power play with some good point play.

Captain Patrick Marleau is finally producing some points, and it's frankly about time. He, Milan Michalek, and Jonathan Cheechoo have been MIA for much of the year, and it's thanks to improved play by Joe Pavelski and Stever Bernier, some nice sniping by the Gooch (rookie Devin Setoguchi) and Torrey Mitchel that Sharks haven't been left behind by the rest of the division.

Image courtesy of Jon Swenson at Sharkspage.

We have to say that this certainly puts Phineas Nigellus's quote about Dumbledore in "Order of the Phoenix"-- "you know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts... but you cannot deny he's got style"-- in a whole new light.

Oh my. According to the Snitch:

Two executives of Village Voice Media, the parent company of the SF Weekly, were arrested in Arizona last night in connection with a story they wrote for Phoenix New Times this week. According to the Arizona Republic, Jim Larkin and Mike Lacey were charged with revealing secret grand jury information, a misdemeanor.

Larkin (VVM CEO) and Lacey (VVM executive editor) got nabbed due to an article that they wrote together (together?), "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution" -- a story about exposing "egregious misconduct on the part of [Maricopa County] prosecutors." Huh. OK then.

Find out more about the arrests here and here.

Hey, don't forget to play our "Rename Dodger Stadium" contest-- there's only three days left to play! And don't forget to sign in under a name so we know who to give the prize too. Right now, some of our favorite entries are by "guest" and we don’t know who "guest" is.

Padres 5 Giants 4- Other than Barry's Big Bomb, it was a pretty bad weekend for the Black & Orange: they got swept, Matt Cain's horrible luck continued, Noah Lowry went out with an injury, and the bullpen blew more things than Paris Hilton. Actually, our highlight of the weekend was going to our favorite pop culture site, Oh No They Didn't on Live Journal to see that in between discussions of Britney's latest breakdown and all things Harry Potter, somebody posted a story about Bonds' tying the record. Even better, we got to see the occasional Giants icon, including this great one of Barry Zito. And in case anyone's wondering, our favorite Harry Potter movie is Order of the Phoenix.

Angels 4 A's 3- Milton Bradley went after Billy Beane this weekend for, well, being the Man who had him down. Bradley's main complaint, other than hinting that the A's have problems with black players, was that he was nothing more than a cog in the Moneyball machine. We've always wondered if that was a common complaint with the A's, that it often comes off like players are told what to do mainly because some computer spit out some stat that was interpreted by some math major from M.I.T. Apparently, there's also some grumbling about manager Bob Geren, mainly that he is too friendly with everyone and not being all manager-like, more Michael Scott than Tony LaRussa. You know, the A's do tend to hire extremely bland, non-descript guys (Howe, Macha, Geren) who's main attribute seems to be getting out of the way and patting everyone on the butt. Of course, all the griping could be because of all the losing and losing tends to make everyone pretty grumpy. Who knows?

OK, we didn't actually attend the premier last night. But we were at the Metreon to check out the travesty of The Transformers, and we were right next to the line for the midnight showing of the 3-D IMAX Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As you can see above, it was a mob scene.

After the jump: more photos, including our only-in-San-Francisco guy!

Above poster by Trudy L. Cole

If the purple Impeach banner at Sunday's Giant's game got you all giddy with subversive glee, then tomorrow's opening of the Propaganda III World Tour at the Phoenix Hotel is sure to have you hyperventilating. Celebrate our country's {insert George W's voice here} "freedom" {end voice} by perusing hundreds of culture-jamming, political posters from around the globe, the act of which will make old Uncle Sam's hairy, gray ears burn with fury. We can't think of a better way to spend the holiday -- enjoying art, music, bbq, and cocktails poolside, all for no cover!

The event has been organized by John Doffing through the Start Soma gallery, and any and all artists are encouraged to participate, regardless of viewpoint. (Sorry, submissions for tomorrow's show were due on Sunday.) Posters and galleries will be continually added throughout the tour, which is slated for one-day stops all over North America, South America, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The event is purely non-commercial, and the artwork will only be available for sale through the participating artists' private Web sites. The tour comes full circle some time next year when it ends in San Francisco.

Check out Propaganda III's exhaustive Flickr gallery, which currently has over 500 posters that will be in tomorrow's show.

Propaganda III World Tour
Opens in San Francisco on July 4th, 2007 (one day only!)
Phoenix Hotel
601 Eddy St, San Francisco
2 pm-6 pm
No cover!

Best show you've ever played
MacDonald's at 7 in the morning in Rochester NY. I knew I had finally made it.

Favorite venue?
The Rickshaw Stop

Where are the best fans?
Spain

Dream musicians to perform with?
Gil Scott Heron, Dionne Warwick, Levon Helm, Prince, Leslie Feist, Farmer Dave, Steve Miller, Busy Bee, Melle Mel, Kelley Stoltz, Phoenix, Quincy Jones, Bert Jansch, Mike Love

Favorite collaborators?
Hervé Salters, Tony Sevener, Etienne DeRocher, The Moore Bros, Kings of Convenience, Michael Urbano

Lamest request from a crowd?
We've only had lame requests from single persons, not crowds. Crowds usually know what's up. They get together and ask for things that are utterly reasonable. But if the day should come when they demand that I "battle Jelly Donut!", well, I might have to decline.

Any advice for aspiring musicians in the Bay Area?
Quit your day jobs. Go into debt. Its only money. Who needs food and shelter, when you have the gift of music?

Far be it for us to be the voice of optimism, but, are you ready for this Warrior nation -- the playoffs are doable, this year. Just as others seem to be abandoning ship, we step in to illustrate how miracles can happen.

If not for some unkind scheduling that left the squad trying to keep up with Phoenix on the tail end of a home-and-road back-to-back, a surprisingly frequent scenario that has not been kind to them this year, the Warriors would most likely be sitting at 19-17 right now, two games over .500 this late in the season for the first time since 1993-1994 and in a virtual three-way tie for the seventh and eighth playoff spots. Unfortunately, it's hard to get respect when you haven't even sniffed the playoffs in 12 years.

It's hard to beat the Suns, period, let alone on the road with tired legs. So please overlook Sunday night's 128-105 sleepwalk through the Valley. It is just one minor setback, . . . on the way to the playoffs?

Yup. Check yourselves, but if the playoffs were to start today, the Warriors would be the first alternate (#9 seed). That's a moral victory right there. Yes, there are four more months of the season to play, but it's heartening to know they're still in the hunt. Many's the January of yore that Warrior fans wistfully pined for the lofty scent of .500 and just the faintest whisper of hope.

The number eight seed is so tantalizing close, we can almost feel it. And if you think that's hard to believe, we can even see a way for the Warriors to grab that spot in time for May. Standings grid from ESPN.com.

Let's crunch some numbers, because as weird as it feels to write this during the middle of a season, the Warriors' future is not unbright.