Mission Mission

Woah, didn’t this just happen less than a month ago? Well it looks like Sunday Streets in the Mission back for a second round this weekend. Not that anyone’s complaining.

Lots of cool free events will be scattered along the route including:

Circus Performance: Harrison Street at 20th (O’Connell H.S. lot)
Presented by Circus Bella
• 11:30-12:00 Parade down Harrison
• 12:00-1:00 Live circus performance

I caught Circus Bella last weekend at Yerba Buena and it was awesome. They set up their own circus ring and are accompanied with live music composed by local accordion hero Rob Reich. It’s going to be outdoors so you can bet that the trapeze will be hanging much higher than it was at their last performance at Amnesia.

Other than that, you can probably expect the usuals: purple robed guy on the tricycle with ginormo speakers, meligrosa snapping photos of her shoes, and a bunch of folks saying, “they should do this every week”.

More at Sunday Streets SF.

Reader subframe poses something of a moral quandary:

What do you do when there’s a cool bike locked up around the corner from your house for like 6 months?

It is pretty clear it’s been abandoned/forgotten. I’m certainly not about to steal a bike, although if I knew who’s it was I’d offer em money for it. Somebody WILL steal it eventually though, I’m sure.

I’d put up a post on CL, but that might simply alert thieves to a bike that’s ripe for stealing.

What do you do?

Photo by pdxdiver.

Every Friday morning, 24th/Mission BART commuters are serenaded with the lyrical stylings of this wandering shade of Johnny Cash.  Too bad I wasn’t able to capture “Walk the Line” in this particular instance.

Apologies for the shaky video, as I was walking with a slow, dragging limp.

Ever wonder what SF would look like rendered as an 8-bit video game map? No? Well, clearly some other nerd has. Check it out in it’s 24-color glory at 8-Bit Cities.

I hear that forest patch on the SE corner is a good place to level up.

Has anyone better capitalized on the “so drunk that everything I eat right now is the best thing I’ve ever had” market better than Virginia? She’s definitely saved me from more than one night where it seemed like sucking on old ketchup packets in my empty fridge at 2am would have been “dinner”.

The Tamale Lady celebrated her 57th at Zeitgeist two weeks ago and SFGate brings up this enlightening interview full of such gems as:

Is it still a surprise when you show up in a bar, or can people follow you on Twitter now?

I am all kind of places on the Internet. Face … Face … what’s that Face thing? I don’t know it, but my son put me on there, yeah. He does the Twitter, too.

Read on at SFGate.

I’ve had some exceptional luck lately, running into two different local bluesmen, each willing to share a couple songs and some knowledge about the proper way to tame a harmonica.

The Blues Man of 16th Street offered to teach me how to bend a note. Usually I carry my own harmonica around, but on this night it was sitting in my desk drawer. When he told him that I’m trying to learn, but won’t ever be able to play like him he quickly replied “Yes you can. Yes you can. You just gotta keep at it.” And then, “always have your harmonica with you, you never know when inspiration will strike you. I always play my own stuff [even though he's demonstrating something different here, just for instructional purposes]. Your music is yours,” he said, patting me on the chest, “it comes from you.”

(Sorry the videos are dark. Unfortunately that’s my dopey voice you hear in the background)

Next, Drake Dillen, who lived on Valencia near 22nd a few decades ago while doing construction work, played me a few of his old favorites. He had a falling out with his brother and had to leave the city, fell on some hard times, got into some trouble, and finally made his way back to the city to, possibly, sing out the blues into the cool foggy nights.

From the desk of photographer Cranky Old Mission Guy:

Always keep a puke-bucket handy when you’re on a bender.

More.

I wonder if it worked. I bet they’re a cute couple.

Photo by Penelope Popsicle.

Well, I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend.  Slo-mo is back!

Thanks Nico!

[Link! for those of you on Reader]

If you don’t, a good Samaritan like reader Margo might write you a friendly note and leave it in your bottle cage.

When she left Casanova a while after, Margo noticed the bike was gone. She hopes, as do we, that it left with its rightful owner.

Previously:

Public Service Announcement: Read Sylvia Plath