BELLINGHAM BY THE BAY
Tim Russert in the Marina
by Bruce Bellingham

Tim Russert was one of the few good guys in the reporting business. I ran into him in a Marina saloon years ago when he’d just taken over Meet the Press. That must have been 1991. Aside from the bartender, Marty Lindstrom, a pal of Tim’s from John Carroll University, I was the only one in the pub, the now-vanished Triangle Lounge. Russert walked in, looked at me, and said, “Say, it’s the next Herb Caen.”

I was gobsmacked.

“Why do you say that?” I asked incredulously.

“My mother-in-law lives in this neighborhood, in Cow Hollow,” explained Russert. She sends me your column from the Marina Times.”

Imagine that.

I told him I was grateful he was there because I’d been waiting in the bar for someone with whom I could make Lawrence Spivak jokes. Russert guffawed. Spivak, a long-time moderator of Meet the Press, was apparently generous with his encouragement to Tim when he took over as host of the venerable NBC Sunday morning show.

It’s true that Tim Russert was also generous and encouraging to so many in so many ways. …

Word comes that Gretchen Belli, the former daughter-in-law of the late Melvin Belli, the King of Torts, and ex-wife of Caesar Belli, who still practices law in S.F., died in Palm Springs on April 7 of cancer. She was only 54 years old. Gretchen was a fiery, red-haired Mississippi belle with southern charm who could mix a wicked stinger and sting you wickedly if so inclined. Gretchen was a bundle of energy, holding positions with the Jeffrey Ballet, the S.F. Opera Guild, the American Trial Lawyers Association, and the S.F.’s Film Commission. She was a consultant to the intriguingly murky movie, Zodiac. Gretchen got into some legal hassles with the Kern County city of Taft. I hear that at the time of her death, she was working on a deal with an Indian casino near Barstow. Resourceful she was. I like to remember the three Thanksgivings I spent with her and her family during those famous trips to Mel’s hometown of Sonora in the Gold Country. Gretchen had the spirit and determination of a 49er: tough, tenacious, always in pursuit of some sort of elusive treasure. …

Sex and the City: Gary Meyer, the owner of the great repertory house, the Balboa Theatre, had an inspired idea last month. Before the screening of the instantly iconic Sex and the City, he brought the lovely chanteuse Sony Holland on stage to sing a few songs first. She can kick it. And, yes, she had great shoes. … As thousands of people pour into San Francisco from all over the country to take advantage of the same-sex marriage phenomenon, Mayor Gavin Newsom slips out of state to marry his charming gal friend, Jennifer Siebel, at her family’s ranch in the Bitterroot River Valley of Montana, July 26. … The organizers of Perry Mann’s Exotic Erotic Ball & Expo say they will move out of the Cow Palace after seven years and have the party on Treasure Island in October. Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch was part of the 1939 World’s Fair on T.I. and that seems to be some sort of precedent, stripped of pretense, I’m sure. …

The Caffeinated Cabaret is the latest thing to hit Polk Street, at It’s A Grind Coffee House, 1800 Polk at Washington. On the first and third Tuesdays of the month, the magician, Ash K. the Pretty Good will host an array of singers, jugglers, comics, necromancers, newspaperpeople, strippers, hustlers, roadies, shock jocks, forgotten rockers, fashionistas, mendicants, low-level gangsters, ragtag street urchins, residents of fixed incomes, residents who need fixes, merchant marines, undercover cops, sidewalk poets proffering verses, disaffected office workers, smarmy socialites, secretive Rosicrucians, taciturn Russians, hunchbacks, bohunks and hod carriers. Yeah, I’m just having my fun. Ash K. says performers simply have to be “charming, amusing and compelling.” There are auditions. Send your name, phone number and link to your Web site (your site, MySpace, YouTube) so the judges can assess your shtick. Send to: iagsf@yahoo.com. …

Down Memory Lane, if we remember: Boy George and his band at the Grand Ballroom at The Regency Center, Van Ness and Sutter, July 18, 9 p.m. $45. … Get this: Jefferson Starship and The Zombies at the same venue, July 20 at 7 p.m. $39. … I was thrilled to see the Delta Wires perform at the North Beach Fair. That takes me back a few decades. Cathy Richardson, who plays Janis Joplin in the hit show Love, Janis, belted out some splendid tunes. Of course there was the inimitable Lavay Smith and the Red-Hot Skillet Lickers – and they tore it up. …

The Mid-Polk Merchants Association is doing its level best to keep the neighborhood tidy, even ambitiously and relentlessly removing graffiti. Sascha Stolz is one of the locals who is tending a little garden at the foot of a sycamore on Hyde near California, an area that is often cluttered with rubbish. We must cultivate our own garden. …

Speaking of cultivated, artist Sharon Anderson was meandering through The Bargain Bank on Polk and came across some cheap vodka called Absolut Squalor. So she claims. Ever notice that squalor is always “absolute” and poverty is invariably “abject”? As if squalor and poverty aren’t bad enough all by themselves without the adjectives. Most of us can’t even afford the adjectives anymore. … I see bank robberies in the Bay Area are up nearly 60 percent. How else can you pay for the gas for the getaway car? That reminds me of the time when convicted bank robber Patty Hearst was in federal prison and kept getting applications from credit card companies in the mail. She was good for it. Say what you will about Patty, she has an amusing moxie and can sure stick to her guns.

Bruce Bellingham is a columnist for the Marina Times and is the author of a book, Bellingham by the Bay, which is now available for early shoplifting for Christmas.