Procrastinated on your holiday shopping again? Don’t worry, we did too. Lucky for you, the Secret Alley’s brand new Galallery is hosting a ~ Holiday Art Party ~ tomorrow night for all you slackers, featuring goodies by local artists and designers. Here’s a sneak peek:

Limited-edition lapel pins, from the folks behind Gruen Day!

Treats and provisions for all you boozy rats, from hello, cheetle!

A popular sentiment on a shirt, plus other cute tees and bags from assorted local artists! Plus, so much more!

RSVP and invite your friends, and consider dropping by the BFF.fm Holiday Party right up the alley that same night.

Finally, a miniaturized version of our favorite local landmark for your household! And it doubles as a shelf and coat rack, just in time for scarf weather. It’s called the Sutro Tower Rack, it’s currently raising funds via Kickstarter, and designer Timothy Seward wrote in to tell us all about it:

While living in the edge of the mission (20th+Potrero) I looked up and saw Sutro Tower everyday. I decided to take my street art skills and put them to the design test. I wanted to blend the beautiful mid-century designs of the past and incorporate my street art flavor. It may be hard to identify the street in this furniture piece, but the playfulness of the soft lines and pop colors are definitely inspired by my murals and my good friend Ian Ross‘ murals around SF.

Here’s a gif of the Sutro Tower Rack in action:

And here’s one of all of the delightful colors it’ll come in:

Enticed? Head on over to the Sutro Tower Rack Kickstarter page and pledge. Want to see it in person first? Timothy will be showing the rack at the Urban Epicurean Festival at Fort Mason this weekend, where you can also snag yourself an on-trend Sutro Tower lapel pin.

P.S. Here are a bunch of our posts on Sutro Tower over the years…

Are you an architecture nerd, scuzzy ex-mall rat, or a person who loves cool and interesting things? Then you’ll love the first annual Gruen Day, taking place tomorrow, July 18, at the Bayfair Center in the Eastern Bay!

Back in May, 99% Invisible‘s Avery Trufelman wrote and produced an excellent episode on Victor Gruen, inventor of the shopping mall. Avery then joined forces with Tim Hwang (founder of the Bay Area Infrastructure Observatory) and SPUR to produce Gruen Day: a celebration of our favorite suburban merchandising complexes and its creator.

Festivities include talks, tours, nerding out, and hanging out in the food court at Bayfair Center (which, FYI, opened in 1957 as one of the first Gruen-designed shopping centers in the country). There may or may not be Minions present.

Gruen Day tickets are still available here! Plus, every ticket scores you a limited-edition poster designed by Justin Carder and two shiny limited-edition pins designed by yours truly:

(Fun fact: One of these pins may or may not have been inspired by my misreading of “Gruen Day” in an email subject line…)

RSVP and invite your friends here!

And grab yourself a ticket here before they sell out!

1. Their coffee is great!
2. Their food is delicious! (I think about their sardine + fava bean crostini at least once a week)
3. They have excellent taste in men! (see stickers above)
4. Andrea, Cafe St. Jorge’s owner, is the sweetest person!
5. They’re right around the corner from your house (if you happen to be me or my neighbor)
6. They’re giving away FREE COFFEE all day today, to celebrate their 2-year anniversary!

Happy birthday, Cafe St. Jorge. I love you so.

One recent morning, as I was waking up by thumbing mindlessly through my phone, I noticed an unread email. A new veterinary service called VetPronto had found my adorable cat Arya’s blog and wanted to offer her a complimentary house call appointment. “The robots know everything,” I mumbled, dragging myself out of bed. If you need someone to take care of your pet while you’re away, you may contact a dog boarding Melbourne facility.

Later, while sorting through a mountainous pile of receipts (in case you didn’t know, freelance tax prep is one of the seven circles of hell), I came across the file I keep of my cat’s health records. Here were the facts: my cat was due for her next round of vaccines, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t cover feline children, and I couldn’t afford not to take VetPronto up on their offer. Not to mention that being stuffed into a crate and being literally cat-called on the 14L are among Arya’s least favorite activities.

I made an appointment with VetPronto through their website. The day of the appointment, a friendly vet named Dr. Hoppe arrived promptly. Arya was instantly at ease and barely noticed that needles were entering her body moments later. Dr. Hoppe was very patient and addressed all of my questions and concerns, leaving me feeling like a great cat mom. The whole thing was over in under 30 minutes.

Thank you, VetPronto, for making pet healthcare so painless and convenient. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Artist, transit activist, and Mission Mission reader Ilyse, whose projects we’ve posted about before, has been leading a series of pub crawls on public transit routes (aka PUBlic Transit Crawls) to raise money for the SF Transit Riders Union. The next crawl takes place this Thursday in the Mission, and in honor of Valentine’s Day, it’s along the 14 bus route.

Here are the details:

Starting Point: 16th/Mission BART
Date/Time: Thursday, February 12, 6-10pm

Schedule:
6PM: Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, 2323 Mission St (btw 19th St and 20th St)
7PM: El Rio, 3158 Mission St (at Precita Ave)
8PM: St. Mary’s Pub, 3845 Mission St (at College St and Crescent St)
9PM: Pissed Off Pete’s, 4528 Mission St (btw Santa Rosa St and Ocean Ave)

Read more about the crawl at the SF Transit Union’s website.

RSVP and invite your friends!

[via Jenny]

After doing the farmer’s market pop-up thing for years, Richie Nakano is finally opening his long-awaited ramen shop tomorrow. To open such a ramen shop, a professional like that michigan registered agent service can be of assistance by managing legal paperwork and ensuring compliance with state regulations. This allows the shop owner to focus on menu development and customer experience while avoiding potential legal pitfalls.

The Hapa Ramen restaurant is located at 2293 Mission Street, in the former 99¢ Depot. As a long-time noodle advocate, I headed over to report from the front lines, armed with a fellow noodle-loving lady.

The opening menu features snacky small plates (ribs, a raw fish tartare, a Korean seafood pancake), steamed buns a la David Chang, and with three types of ramen. The restaurant’s namesake bowl, pictured above, is generously topped with pork slabs, nugs of fried chicken, a poached egg, and seasonal vegetables.

There’s also a full bar and cocktail menu, which includes a gin drink involving Hi-Chew tincture and Hawaiian Punch syrup (above, right) that tastes exactly like a Pixy Stix. The bourbon drink on the left contained banana, black sea salt, and cacao.

Above, two of my favorite things I ate: a savory pile of roasted baby carrots and radishes, and an adorable fried chicken-and-pickle steamed bun that, in the most flattering way possible, reminded me of the classic sandwich from my childhood favorite now-shunned fast food establishment.

Oh, and those in-progress booths we reported on awhile back cleaned up real nice:

[Booth photo by Erin Conger]

P.S. Visit Girls Love Noodles!

[via Namita, dude named Kale, Sports Guy, Mission Local, Allison]

[via Melissa]

As we mentioned last month, our favorite spaghetti shack will be taking over the former El Zocalo space (RIP) very soon. And according to Emmy’s Instagram, the (meat)ball is rolling along steadily!

According to their Twitter, SPCA’s cat shelter is positively overflowing with felines, so they’re waiving all cat and kitten adoption fees through Sunday! If you didn’t already know, cats are the best! Here are some reasons why:

• They’re cute!
• They’re warm! (Winter is coming.)
• They’re really soft!
• They have those funny pointy ears!
• They do the darndest things!
• They eat bugs and stuff!
• They reduce anxiety!
• They’re good at computers and technology!
• They’re easier to take care of than plants!

Also, adopting a kitten was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made — I mean, just look at her! Don’t you want one too?

Do you have complaints about the housing crisis and public transit in San Francisco? (Let’s face it, we all do.) If so, join the SF Bay Guardian and SF Transit Riders Union tomorrow for a joint community forum on funding for transit and housing affordability.

Here’s what SFBG and SFTRU have to say about this event:

San Francisco needs more affordable housing, a robust public transit system, and fully funded social services if it is to remain an efficient, diverse, compassionate city. Unfortunately, some political leaders have pitted transportation and housing activists against one another in recent years, particularly so in the upcoming election on Propositions A, B, G, K, and L.

We’ll provide some background for you on how public transportation service and facilities are paid for, and then we’ll examine how the conflict happened, the political tactics that are being employed, and what can be done to bridge the gap along with a panel of activists and experts.

Bridging the Gaps in Transit and Housing Funding
A joint Bay Guardian and SF Transit Riders community forum
Thursday, October 9th, 6-8PM
LGBT Center, Rainbow Room
1800 Market St, SF

Moderators:
Steve Jones and Rebecca Bowe, San Francisco Bay Guardian

Speakers:
Thea Selby, San Francisco Transit Riders Union
Jonathan Rewers, SFMTA
Supervisor Scott Wiener, San Francisco District 8
Chema Hernandez Gil, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Amandeep Jawa, San Francisco League of Conservation Voters
Peter Cohen and Fernando Marti, SF Council of Community Housing Organizations

RSVP on Facebook or non-Facebook and invite your friends and other concerned citizens!

[Thanks, Ilyse!]

I have been listening to Sondre Lerche’s music for over ten years, which is a very long time for me. Since 2001, Sondre has released eight diverse, genre-spanning albums, including the jazz-inspired Duper Sessions, and two film soundtracks, including a haunting score for The Sleepwalker, a 2014 film directed by his recent ex-wife Mona Fastvold and starring Christopher Abbott (Charlie on Girls). I have seen him perform at The Fillmore, Swedish American Hall (RIP), Great American Music Hall, Bimbo’s, and a handful of places in Austin, Texas. I have seen him perform solo, with a full band, and everything in between; whatever the configuration, he always impresses with his distinct voice and shredding guitar.

Sondre’s latest album, Please, dropped a few weeks ago. Please was written in the aftermath of his divorce with Fastvold, and with it, he reinvents himself again. The album’s first single, “Bad Law,” was one of my top summer jams, combining a super charismatic dance riff with chunks of distorted guitar.

This Thursday, Sondre Lerche is playing at The Independent. I had the pleasure of chatting with Sondre about his record, upcoming tour, the color of his music, the idea of guilty pleasures, and why San Francisco is his favorite city in America.

MM: Tell us a little bit about your newest record, Please. I read that it was heavily inspired by your recent divorce. What was your process like? How was it conceived?

SL: I started out wanting to free myself from the regular recording cycle. I just wanted to do one song at a time, to be able to record instantaneously and enter into collaborations without having to carry the weight of the whole record. I just wanted to open up a bit. I usually write really thorough songs that limit what you can do in the studio, so I tried to open myself up to surprise, to surprising myself. There was a lot of music I was listening to that I realized comes out of a completely different process, and I was curious about what that is. So that’s how it started, and as I wrote more and more songs, I thought I knew what the record was about. And then all this stuff happened in my private life, that just forced me to reevaluate a lot of things. One of them was what this record was about; all of these other songs just started coming. I realized that certain things were more urgent than others, and the album just changed. I think it came out of the necessity of ventilating and trying to find reason in what is happening to you. And the studio is just the perfect place to figure out stuff, to get it out. I guess it’s a cliché, but it turns out it’s real.

MM: The first song on the record, “Bad Law,” is such a great dance song, despite being quite dark lyrically. What is that song about?

SL: It’s a song that took a lot of time to write. It started with that riff, and then I recorded the bass and drums, which was new – I usually start out with guitar. I had this idea of the sort of paranoia you feel when you pass through customs. As a Norwegian flying into the States, even though I now have a green card and have nothing to hide, I always feel a certain paranoia. So I wanted to play around with that ritual, where you feel so watched and pressured, that in the end you started doubting yourself, and maybe you do have something to hide. Maybe that’s how the police get people to confess things that they didn’t do. In the end, you’re just so worn down. It felt like a reasonable metaphor in the context of the record and everything else.

MM: And what happened to the protagonist in that song? I couldn’t tell if he had murdered his lover or if it was an accident.

SL: That’s a good question! I’m not sure how that guy is doing. In the first verse, it’s like he’s passing through a checkpoint, but in the second verse, I feel we’ve entered into a courtroom-type situation, and I’m not sure what’s happened in between. I think he ends up confessing to these things, and maybe he did do some of them, but for some of them, it was just easier to confess. It’s like in an argument, where you can’t really win, and it’s so bad and dark and the subtext is so heavy, and you end up saying, okay, you’re right, I guess I am that way. In the end, it’s easier to give up. But maybe it was all a bad dream.

MM: Do you think there’s a fundamental difference in the sound of this record, in contrast to your past work?

SL: It’s more stylistically and rhythmically concise. Instead of starting with chords or melodies, I started with rhythms and built the songs from there. There’s more collaboration, a wider spectrum of sound. And I didn’t want subtlety, I wanted things to be clear. The songs have a distinctive, important color.

MM: If this album was a color, what do you think it would be?

SL: To me it feels multicolored, like all of the colors of the rainbow. My last album felt more like earth tones, dark greens and browns, and Two Way Monologue is sort of beige.

MM: Yeah, “Bad Law” especially sounds like an explosion of colors to me! You’ve experimented with so many musical genres throughout your career. Duper Sessions comes to mind with its jazz influence, and Phantom Punch was a heavier rock album, and the score you composed for The Sleepwalker was something else entirely. Do you usually have a concept in mind for how you want something to sound? How does that usually come about?

SL: It’s usually informed by what I’m into or curious about at the time. It feels more compelling to explore things that are new to me. This album represents a curiosity with a more physical, rhythmic pattern that you can dance to. It ended up being half that you should dance to, half that you should cry yourself to sleep with. It was very inspiring to do The Sleepwalker soundtrack, because it was so freeing to come up with music for the kind of atmosphere that the film demanded. It was something I had done before [Sondre also composed the score to Dan in Real Life], but something that really compelled me. I learned a lot of from that, and a lot of that stuff is parallel to the recording of this album.

MM: What’s the plan for your tour? Are you playing solo or with a band? Will you be playing with the Faces Down?

SL: I have a new band. I’m going to tour with my drummer Dave, who is on most of the record, and a bass player who plays on a lot of the record; they’re both incredible musicians. The Faces Down don’t tour anymore. Kato, the guitar player in the Faces Down, produced a bunch of the songs on this record, and we’ve worked a lot together. But the Faces Down are ten years older than me, so they’ve reached a time in their lives where they don’t want to travel so much, but they’re in the studio a lot. But it feels good to have a new band. I’ve lived in New York for awhile, so I have a crew here too.

MM: Do you have any guilty pleasure listens this year?

SL: I guess I don’t like that term, guilty pleasure. I feel that in music, above all, if something gives you pleasure, you should not feel bad about it. But of course I understand the association, but it implies that you should feel bad for your taste and it classifies something as less worthy. I like to think that any music that gives you pleasure is good for you and that you should be proud of it. Just the last week, I had a friend visit, and he was really into techno. And that’s something I hadn’t really explored before, so I went with him to a lot of techno clubs. And it was so much fun, I was just completely hypnotized. But I wouldn’t call it a guilty pleasure, a lot of people are very serious about their techno.

MM: I was just thinking in terms of, you’ve covered Beyonce before, and while I don’t personally think of her as a guilty pleasure…

SL: Yeah, and I guess a guilty pleasure is also associated with… obviously I’m a music snob, I’m so particular about things I care about, so I know my taste can be pretty judgmental, although I try to remain open. I guess the term guilty pleasure is also often associated with extremely popular, commercial, accessible music, and I think there’s nothing better than the times when mainstream music intersects with my own taste. It happens rarely, but when it does, in the case of Beyonce and Rihanna, people who are really brilliant pop stars who have really wonderful songs, when that intersects with even a snob like me, I am really gracious. It makes me feel part of the musical common space of the world.

MM: Is there anything you’re looking forward to seeing or doing while you’re in San Francisco?

SL: San Francisco is my favorite city in America, I gotta say. It’s a place that I’d like to live. But it’s so far away from Europe, and it’s pretty expensive, so I don’t know, but I hope someday to live there for awhile. I’m forever fascinated with San Francisco because of the association with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and also The Birds; one time I went to Bodega Bay just to see where The Birds was filmed. So I have a fascination with San Francisco that’s very physical and magical. I look forward to being in San Francisco again, I hope I have some time to walk around and enjoy myself. And I hope people will want to come out to the show. I think we’re gonna make people dance this time. And then we’re gonna break them down and make them cry, and then we’re gonna make them dance again.

See him live this Thursday:

Sondre Lerche, TEEN
The Independent
October 9, 2014
8pm, $15 (21+)

Ilyse Iris Magy wants you to take a closer look at your city. The local artist is working on a rad new project, Lines Made By Walking, which launches this Friday at StoreFrontLab (337 Shotwell Street). If you’re a map enthusiast, owner of any guidebooks on secret stairway walks, and/or just someone who wants to rekindle your love for this majestic-but-conflicted city, this experiment is for you.

Here’s what Ilyse has to say about Lines:

For five weekends, I will be leading walks from StoreFrontLab to locations around the perimeter of the city, going counterclockwise from North to Northeast. On each walk, we will collectively track points and moments of interest, marking them on the sidewalk with chalk and recording field notes. Throughout the month, we will transcribe these encounters in the same chalk by marking their precise locations on a map projected directly on the wall in the gallery. When the projector is off, this installation will be a scaled representation of the 7×7 mile drawing our marks make throughout the city.

Here’s what the schedule looks like:

Friday 9/19, 6-8:30PM: Opening Reception
Saturday 9/20: Walk 1: North
Saturday 9/27: Walk 2: Northwest
Sunday 10/5: Walk 3: Southwest
Wednesday 10/8, 6:30PM: Maptime SF (Open hand-drawn mapmaking night)
Sunday 10/12: Walk 4: Southeast
Saturday 10/18: Walk 5: Northeast
Sunday 10/19, 6-8PM: Completion Closing Celebration

(All walks depart from StoreFrontLab at 12PM.)

Lines Made By Walking kicks off StoreFrontLab’s 2014/15 season, City Making, a nine-month series of installations, wanderings, happenings, and conversations that look critically and optimistically at San Francisco’s future.

Register for a spot on Eventbrite, and invite your friends!