Fight club...

Last night, our friends Brad and Brian invited us over to their neighborhood for dinner and a movie. At Cha Cha Cha on Haight Street, we barely beat the throngs of locals, who line up early for creative tapas and famous sangria. The colorful wall decor was a bonus.

For our movie, we walked a block to the Red Vic Movie House...a worker-owned city favorite. The theatre had that quirky Haight charm, although the popcorn (served from a traditional theatre popper) was surprisingly cold and stale. They asked if I wanted yeast on my popcorn...maybe that would have helped?

We watched the Oscar-nominated flick There Will Be Blood. We all left the theatre scratching our heads, but somehow we just felt wiser...or at least happy not to be in the oil drilling business.

But the real show was on Haight Street itself. We had about 30-minutes to kill between dinner and the movie, so we walked several always-colorful blocks. Lots of people offering items for cash...or just outright begging.

Our favorite? Two young men who offered to do "extreme ultimate fighting" right there on the street for cash. Awesome!