Mission Mission

Snap! This person got served! I don’t even want to see the original post, this really says it all.

Previously on Mission Mission:

‘Hipster’ ‘Douchebag’ ‘Mission District’

I swear I didn’t write this

In the comments section of the original post, Carowner says the bees are back in action (and details a dramatic plan to bounce them once and for all)!

Update (Thursday evening): In the comments section of THIS post, Carowner gives us a full timeline of bee activity, and reveals that the aforementioned dramatic plan is underway. Cross your fingers!

Once upon a time, I was checking out at Modern Times and saw this Roll Up Road graphic on a sticker for sale behind the register. I got one, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since — though I’ve always wanted to know who the artist behind it was. Today, Yell over at Yell! (great header image, btw) posted an appreciation of Microcosm Publishing’s selection of zines and patches and other DIY goodies. I checked it out, and lo and behold, they’re selling Roll Up Road t-shirts! I bought two. AND I finally learned the artist’s name. It’s cartoonist Andy Singer. AND when checking out, I noticed you can save on shipping if you pick your order up at their storefront in Bloomington, Indiana — and lo and behold I’m gonna be in Bloomington in a couple weeks! (Don’t ask.) Hello, savings!

Link to Roll Up Road shirt. Note that they also sell a version with the addition of some text that reads “Fuck Cars.”

Real-life hero and Emergency Beekeeper Karen just wrote in to further explain the mystery of Saturday’s bee swarm:

This is the beekeeper, Karen, here. Wendy and Carowner were real troopers. As I explained many times to everyone who was crowded around and watched, when honey bees “swarm” it is a good thing for two reasons:

1. It means the colony from which it emerged is doing well and out grew its space. The queen leaves with approx 50% of the bees in the colony, and they find a place to land before figuring out where they will go to start a new nest. Why this group decided to land on the car is unknown. Meantime, back at the hive, a new queen (daughter of the queen who left) has emerged from her queen cell. She will head-up the other 50% of the colony and perpetuate it.

2. When honeybees swarm, they are very gentle and non-defensive. They have no honey stores or brood (baby bees before hatching) to protect, and they have gorged on honey before they left their hive, filling their special “honey stomachs” because they don’t know exactly when they will begin to set up housekeeping at their new location. They are like us after we’ve eaten a big meal (like T-day), full and kinda relaxed.

I took the bees back to my house and installed them into a hive. I will check on them in a few days to see if we got the queen or not. If we did not, she is likely still in the air vent of the car and will either leave or die.

I will post again once I know.

Fascinating animals, these bees. Thanks, Karen! Now if only we could finally solve that godforsaken cucumber mystery.

From the Contact Us page:

Those graffiti frogs on yopur homepage belong to a little tweaker punk, who lurks on haight st. . I won’t support this blog untill you remove those from the banner.

Fuck this blog.

The “little” part is kind of a bummer, because we’ve always thought of Ribity as totally bigger than life, but, like, what’s wrong with tweakers and punks and Haight Street? We like all of those things, for the most part. Most important, Ribity is awesome, so methinks Mission Mission will have to soldier on without your support, bro. Later, hater.

Photo by FajitaGate.

Amber Bouman has just informed us that the 16th & Mission Open Mic posse is throwing itself into some new endeavors. Firstly there’s The 16th & Mission Review, a monthly lit mag available at the open mic (and hopefully soon in area stores). Nextly there’s the official 16th & Mission website, where you’ll find news items, event listings, photos and other lovely oddities (We’re assured they’re working on getting an RSS feed up and running). And, to review, in case you didn’t know:

[E]very Thursday at 16th & Mission there is a free, and totally democratic, open mic (minus the mic, the sign-up sheet, and the time limit). It’s been happening for over five years, starting at about 9pm (depending on who shows when, some nights it’s definitely closer to 10pm), and features poets, MCs, musicians, comedians, dancers, etc. The kids who perform here have heart, and the event itself is something special that only the Mission has…

Anybody have any stories illustrating exactly how special and unique to the Mission this thing really is?

Photos by wordartsalon (click to enlarge).

Wow. We went to the first Debaser and it was OK. But the most recent edition featured a Cranberries cover band called Ocean Spray. Maybe it’s just because Girl Talk just mashed them up with M.I.A., but I feel like a Cranberries cover band playing in a punk club in the Deep Mission would’ve been a pretty good time. Plus, TK says it was a pretty good time.

A clerk in a neighborhood corner store told Beth Spotswood she wasn’t allowed to use her cellphone in the store. Beth was understandably vexed (“How can they have a cell phone policy? They don’t even have brie.”) and wrote about the experience here.

Previously on Mission Mission:

Chillaxin’ at the Nice Lady Store

This poster campaign’s got us thinking, and it’s true, we are all San Franciscans. So please excuse us while we spotlight the following project even though it’s based in a neighborhood other than ours. It’s called Graze the Roof and it involves bettering the lives of low-income and homeless children in the Tenderloin, via sustainable rooftop gardening:

Graze the Roof [...] will demonstrate soil-less and container gardening methods on the rooftop at Glide, a San Francisco church and nonprofit located in the Tenderloin District. The project eliminates the use of fossil fuel consuming production and distribution methods typical of modern agricultural practices while saving energy in the building and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Students from Glide’s Training and Employment Services Youth Build Program will construct and maintain the garden which will produce 1,440 lbs. of food in its first year. The rooftop will provide a natural sanctuary and a space to relax, inspire, educate and empower 200 homeless and low-income children between the ages of 5 and 18.

Graze the Roof on the Project Slingshot blog.

Update: Graze the Roof has nothing to do with the poster above. I just used the poster’s two messages as a segue into something not overtly related to the Mission.

Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics just turned us onto this: Craig Butz created an amazing site illustrating the route the Southern Pacific Railroad once took through the Mission District. Today the tracks are long gone of course, but there are some lasting remnants in the form of diagonally oriented buildings, parking lots and gardens. Did your backyard used to be a rail yard? Link.

And who knew there used to be a railroad bridge over Dolores Street!?

Thanks, Todd!

Previously on Mission Mission:

From the Mission to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (Thanks to Google Maps Walking Directions)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Remembering the Fell Street Off-Ramp