Mission Mission

San Franciscans ask the right questions I guess. Somebody at some San Francisco fundraiser (likely not in the Mission) asked the question that gave rise to this fiery Obama response to unfounded attacks by Hillary and McCain. They say he’s an asshole for asserting that Americans might be bitter about the way their government treats them. Obama says, “Sheeeeeeeeit – o’ course they bitter! They bitter as fuck and I’m here to help!”

More Media & Politics on Mission Mission.

Yeah I was at AT&T Park when the torch was supposed to run by, and it was a bummer that it didn’t, but whatever. It was fun watching the chaos and playing frisbee on a cordoned-off street amid protesters and riot police. I took some video and put it together last night. It’s short and sweet, features a standout song from Back From The Grave Vol. 2, and a surprise ending.

Browse Mission Mission coverage of previous protests in San Francisco here.

Browse Mission Mission’s video category here.

Dolores Park Movie Night is back in action, starting tomorrow night at 8pm. Link. (Thanks, Michelle)

Photo courtesy Lesley Speed’s “A World Ruled by Hilarity: Gender and Low Comedy in the Films of Amy Heckerling” at Senses of Cinema.

This is a picture I took of Jamie Stewart’s guitar, battered to death during one of Xiu Xiu‘s last performances at Bottom of the Hill. It was a great show, as I’m sure Saturday’s will be (even though Katie Eastburn isn’t in tow this time). This is Mission-relevant because I always love the walk home from Bottom of the Hill: deserted streets, crisp night air, fog pouring over Twin Peaks, etc.

Link to that “Boy Soprano” video in which Xiu Xiu are characters in a knockoff of Nintendo 64-style video games like Super Mario World and Gradius III.

Link to Xiu Xiu on MySpace.

Plug1 was talking about the “vertical earthquake” problem recently, and while it’s most apparent closer to downtown, the Mission gets its share of little tremors. The latest is a 50-foot luxury condo complex planned for the corner of 18th and Valencia. When the thing goes up, views of the above mural will be obstructed forever. Tomorrow is the final appeal. If you’d care to voice your opposition, aLittleDisplay’sBlog has all the deets. Link. (Via Curbed SF)

Photo by Kari Orvik (part of a series commemorating the threatened view).

Pressed for time, I only made it to the two Outer Mission stops on the 24th and Mission Art Walk. Neither was as fun as Cardburg.

First, Soap Gallery:

This was opening night for Pull Here To Get Everything You Want, an exhibition of new collages by Green Party vice presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez. The modest little arrangements of scraps appeal to the OCD in all of us, and as far as repurposing found junk into art, a lot of these were a lot better than a lot of the junk at Unmonumental, the ballyhooed found-junk-themed inaugural exhibition at New York’s new New Museum location (which, incidentally, closes in a couple days).

The central element of the opening was Gonzalez. Photographers swarmed, taking lots and lots of low-angle shots of him mingling with attendees. My parents noted that he’s going gray.

Soap Gallery provided goldfish crackers, pretzels, peanuts, M&Ms, wine, three kinds of imported beer, and live music.

Next, Queen’s Nails Annex:

Queen’s Nails Annex has a cool name, this cool picture of chairs, a cool logo on its website, and it’s like right next to Argus Lounge, which is cool.

Previously on Mission Mission: 24th and Mission Art Walk Snakes around All the Best Parts of the Mission.

Cardburg is a miniature cardboard city, temporarily installed at CELLspace. Visitors are invited to walk amongst the skyscrapers and highways, and even tunnel into a hulking cardboard mountain. Note the back-lit residential windows, cargo cranes straight out of the Port of Oakland, and the way corrugated cardboard stands in for corrugated metal on the rooftops of a small hillside favela. Opening night was fun, but closing night will be funner, as attendees get to participate in Cardburg’s destruction. See website for calendar of events, costume inspiration and more.

Link to Cardboard Institute of Technology.

Link to my Flickr photostream.

Zeitgeist and Bender’s have gotten a lot of ink this week, and in the wake of that ink, discussion has reached a fever pitch. Over at Bay Area Riders Forum, post after post laments the impending closure of Zeitgeist and the impending yuppie takeover of Bender’s. But before things get too heated, user V4 cuts to the quick:

so when did people in the Mission learn how to read…..?

Link to BARF thread.

Link to Mission Mission Zeitgeist coverage.

Link to Mission Mission Bender’s coverage.

Link to map.

Takes place Saturday, April 5th, from 6-9pm. Looks like a nice stroll with plenty of interesting stops:

Now with so much to see in such a small area, it just hüpfburg mit rutsche made sense to combine forces. This means commercial art galleries, non-profits, artist-run spaces, shops, eateries and coffee joints have come together to give the people a chance to see it all in one night.

Link. (Via funcheapSF.com)

I missed last night’s surprise Jay Reatard performance at 12 Galaxies because I had Digitalism tickets (no regrets). I figured someone would have some good shots on Flickr. No luck. Best I could do is this shot of their set opening for the Black Keys at the Warfield. Boooring.

I also figured someone would fill me in on the details of the show. No dice. Best I could do is this transcript of a gchat between me and some aufblasbarer hindernisparcours hater I know:

melena: the black keys bleeeew my mind last night
allan: omg, what about jay reatard?
melena: if that was the shitty band that opened i was not impressed
allan: oooo no way, i’ve seen jay reatard like 7 times
melena: it was like pseudo punk
sheer cacophony and not in a cool way
allan: snap

[beat]

melena: god the black keys are so insanely talented

Boooring.

Photo by erictoledo.