Seeing as how it’s Oscars day, we’ve got a little cinematic treat for you. It’s a classic afternoon at the movies, San Francisco style.

First, “Bushy Hare,” a Bugs Bunny cartoon circa 1950. Bugs is just minding his own business in Golden Gate Park when an unexpected balloon ride takes him over the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond.

Next, a newsreel from 1934, detailing a general strike which effectively shut down business activity in San Francisco and led to riots and clashes with the police.

Finally, the main feature. With silent films back in the spotlight, check out this 1915 short, “In the Park,” featuring Charlie Chaplin getting harassed by hobos and pushing a cop into a lake in Golden Gate Park. Enjoy!

“Where were you at 6pm on February 24th?”

That’s the question we’ll all certainly be asking ourselves decades from now, as we reflect on yesterday’s moment of shared significance.

Yes, life on Haight Street was brought to a standstill on Friday, as a tree outside of Katz Bagels (663 Haight) suddenly, inexplicably, split into two.

Half of the tree fell onto an overhead Muni line. The peril was palpable.

Within minutes fire engines arrived, shutting the 600 block off to traffic.

Muni was thrown into chaos. The 71L was rerouted along Page Street, while the lowly 6, helpless without its overhead source of power, was thoroughly immobilized and abandoned.

Meanwhile, back at the tree, a crew of buzzsaw-wielding heroes trimmed the fallen limb, branch by branch, until finally the Muni line was freed from its oppressive intruder. A round of applause rang out from nearby passersby and looky-loos.

The scene was cleared by just after 6:30, and soon our neighborhood’s main artery was flowing with the pulse of traffic once again. But things will never truly return to normal, friends. We are forever changed by February 24th – the day a tree split on Haight Street.

We’ve got real estate, rock music, a red carpet and more — all in this week’s leftovers.

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Reminder: the N Judah will be shut down from 8pm tonight until 5am Monday, as work on the Church and Duboce Track Improvement Project continues. Shuttle buses will take its place. Also, Duboce Avenue will be closed from Noe to Sanchez. So, fun weekend ahead.

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Tonight at Vinyl, it’s the return of the Soup Junkie, who will be back making his signature crab/tomato Bun Rieu, plus a small number of orders of Beef Pho. The event has proven so popular, it’s becoming a regular Friday night event at the bar. That’s 6-10pm at Vinyl, 359 Divisadero.

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Tomorrow (Saturday) night, local band Inferno of Joy performs live at the Peacock Lounge. “Delivering a slice of punk rock with a driving edge and sexy glam,” as the Chronicle recently put it,
they’ll have support from a band called Turbine and a special hula hoop burlesque performance by Szandora Lavey. That’s 552 Haight Street, with doors opening at 8pm, and $5 cover.

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Looking for somewhere to watch the Oscars on Sunday? Look no further than Mad Dog in the Fog (530 Haight). Starting around 4pm, the bar will be offering some fun drink specials while broadcasting the awards show on all of their eight TVs. They’re even rolling out an actual red carpet for the event. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details.

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The guy who drove his SUV into the Muni tunnel at Duboce and Church on January 19th struck a plea deal with prosecutors yesterday. He’ll avoid jail time, but will have to serve three years’ probation, attend nine months of DUI classes, serve ten days of community service and pay various fees and fines.

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Reader Evelyn R. shares this photo showing a unique view of the progress being made on the building at Haight and Fillmore.

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Meanwhile, the Examiner reported this week that construction on the fire-damaged building will take 12 to 14 months, once all the necessary permits are obtained.

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In other real estate news, Curbed SF has released a list of the five least expensive properties for sale in the Lower Haight. Coming in at number 1: an 877-sq-ft 1-bedroom unit on Hermann Street, listed for $499,000.

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Would somebody buy Clay Oven already? $195,000 and it’s yours.

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Hey Hayes Valley! On Wednesday night, the Hayeswire boys will be throwing a launch party/mixer at Place Pigalle (520 Hayes) from 6-10pm, and you’re invited. You can RSVP and find out more details over on the event’s Facebook page.

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Finally, a motor mystery from this week’s mailbag. Reader David M. writes:

“Over the past four years or so, I have noticed that someone has been leaving auto parts on the sidewalks around the neighborhood. Some large, some not so large. It’s strange. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this.”

Well? Anyone?

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That’s it for this week. Anything we missed? Do tell. tips [at] haighteration {{dot}} com.

What with February being Black History Month, we thought this was the perfect time to profile one of the Lower Haight’s oldest black-owned businesses, the Aquarius Barber Shop.

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William “Mac” McElroy isn’t the easiest man to interview. He asked not to be photographed for this article, and initially wasn’t overly forthcoming with information. But at 80 years old, and having been in business in the neighborhood for more than four decades, he has more than his fair share of stories to tell.

“I’ve seen the beatniks, the hippies, the skinheads, the yuppies, the gays,” Mac says about the city’s changing population over the decades. “The thing about San Francisco is, it always evolves. It never remains the same.”

Mac attended barber college in the 1950s. Back then, this area of the city was inhabited primarily by white residents. But with the post-war boom, things began to change.

“A transition took place in the 1950s,” he recalls. “Whites moved out to the suburbs, and blacks moved in.”

By the late 1960s, the demographics of the area known as the Haight-Fillmore had changed. “It was predominantly black by that time,” Mac recalls. It seemed as good an area as any for Mac to embark on a transition of his own.

With several years of barbershop experience under his belt, Mac decided to start his own shop. He found a suitable space — a former delicatessen at 505 Haight Street — and in 1969 he opened Aquarius, named after his wife’s zodiac sign.

His customer base in those early days was largely African American, something that has moderated over the years as whites returned to the neighborhood, although many of his regulars are residents who have been coming to the shop since it opened.

“I got people who have been here ever since I started barbering.”

The barbershop itself has also remained markedly unchanged over the years. There are antique barber chairs, a few personal items and photographs, a couple of plants. On one wall is a decades-old illustration of men’s beard styles: “The Modern Abe Lincoln,” “The Short Mutton Chop,” “The Long Van Dyke.”

The shop’s consistency over the years was disrupted exactly once, Mac recalls. It was a day in early 2008, when Milk was being filmed at locations throughout the city. The movie’s scouts chose Aquarius for a scene in which Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn) visits a barber shop. Mac was recruited to play a barber in the scene, and even had some lines of dialogue, receiving a credit for his role in the film. Here’s a photo of Penn at the shop’s entrance, with director Gus Van Sant at his side:

Flickr/Veronica Belmont

That one day of excitement aside, things at the shop have remained remarkably steady. It’s a place that seems blissfully unaware of the modern-day minutiae of murals and parklets and Beer Weeks and Art Walks being discussed outside. And Mac admits as much. He doesn’t live in the neighborhood, but arrives around 7:30am to open the shop, and closes up around 3:30 or 4pm. He doesn’t interact much with the shop’s adjacent neighbors, and he prefers it that way.

“I mind my own business,” he says.

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When asked about plans for the future, Mac doesn’t concede to having any. He expects to keep operating the shop as long as he’s able. We asked if, after all these years and with all the neighborhood’s changes, he’s glad he established his shop where he did.

“Of course,” Mac replies. “It’s been good to me.”

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Thanks to Mac for spending some time with us. To learn more about Mac and the Aquarius Barber Shop, pop into 505 Haight and say hello. Just don’t bother him if he’s busy, and don’t be offended if he doesn’t have much to say. He’s a man of few words.

Disclaimer: this post may disturb you. It disturbed us, and we wrote it. But we feel you should know about this regardless.

Self-described as a “fre$, futuristik, flame-throw-flow-freeking, zef rap-rave crew from da dark dangerous depths of Afrika,” Die Antwoord will be making a brief appearance at Fifty24SF Gallery today.

The South African hip-hop trio is in town for a stop on their tour of North America and Australia in support of their new album, TEN$ION. Today at 4pm, they’ll be swinging by Fifty24SF (218 Fillmore) to present a one-night-only installation and release a special collector’s vinyl sculpture of Evil Boy, “a little mischievous man-boy thing with a giant demon penis.”

So.

Die Antwoord formed in 2008, and has since performed at Coachella, toured with M.I.A., and seemingly baffled David Letterman. They’ve also amassed a pretty rabid fan base, so their appearance at Fifty24SF could be a crowded one.

To get you in the mood for the event, check out this video for one of D.A.’s new tracks, “I Fink U Freeky.” It’s got rats and dirty children and what looks like a dead lion and lots of people with bad teeth dancing erratically. Apologies in advance for the nightmares.

The parklet craze that’s sweeping the city is finally reaching the Lower Haight — maybe.

Danny Coyle’s (668 Haight) is applying for permission to transform the parking space in front of the bar into a public area. As DPW describes parklets:

“In the place of car parking, a platform is built to bring the grade of the sidewalk out into the street. Once the platform is installed, benches, café tables and chairs, landscaping, and bike parking can all be placed on top in order to provide a welcoming public space along the street.”

While any local business or organization can apply for a parklet, only 25 applications citywide will be approved in the current round, which began in September. Applicants must meet some fairly strict criteria. For example, parklets must be located away from street corners, must be on streets with speed limits of 25mph or less, and can’t block fire hydrants or manholes.

Also, applicants should be able to demonstrate community support for their projects.

As such, tomorrow night at 7:30pm, Danny Coyle’s will host a meeting for neighbors on the 600 block, to discuss the parklet plans and address any concerns.

There’s already been a fairly lively discussion over on the Lower Haight Google group, with some members expressing concern about potential noise and the possibility that the parklet will effectively become the bar’s smoking section, rather than a space for the public to enjoy. So, tomorrow night’s meeting should be interesting.

We’ll update with any and all developments. In the meantime, if you can’t make the meeting, feel free to leave a comment and let us know how you feel about the proposed pub-side parklet plans.

Happy holiday from your locally-relevant presidents, clockwise from top left: Fillmore, Pierce, Hayes and Buchanan.

Muni is running on a Saturday schedule today, and banks and post offices are closed. The Bay Bridge, however, is open.

If you’re lucky enough to have the day off today (unlike us), we want to know how you’re going to spend it. Leave a comment and let us know, won’t you?

Our good friends at Noise Pop have a special treat for Haighteration readers. They’re giving away a pair of tickets to this Thursday night’s solo show by Mac McCaughan, the lead singer of Superchunk, at the Swedish American Hall.

To claim the tickets, all you have to do is find them.

Here’s what we can tell you. The tickets are hidden somewhere inside a shop on the north side of Haight Street. The shop has provided the following clue as to their whereabouts:

“To find the tickets, you need to stalk the asparagus!”

If and when someone finds them, we’ll update this post. And if nobody finds them in the next day or two, we’ll release another clue.

Happy hunting!

Update 2/20: Sorry everyone, but the tickets have just been found!

A shooting occurred on Potomac Street this afternoon around 3:10pm, leaving one victim with life-threatening injuries.

An SFPD spokesman tells Haighteration that the victim was sitting in a parked car on Potomac when someone ran up to the car and shot him, catching him off-guard. Witnesses reported several shots being fired. It’s unclear whether anyone else was inside or near the car at the time.

Shortly thereafter, SFPD units arrived, and the victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police do not have a suspect in custody, and no details about the victim or the suspect are available at this time.

That’s the extent of the information currently available. We’ll update with any additional details.