Mission Mission

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.

(more…)

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!

Drinkin’ Surge in 2014! We’re gonna need some 3D Doritos and crispy M&Ms with that.

[via yung honey toast]

ARTCRANK is putting on yet another annual show of handmade, bike-themed posters designed by Bay Area artists, and the opening is this Friday, September 12, 5-10pm, at SOMArts (934 Brannan Street)!

The signed, limited edition prints are available that night for one night only, and proceeds will benefit the San Francisco Bike Coalition. And there will be beer of the craft variety! Go support and party with your local artists, and score a gorgeous poster (or several) for your walls!

(Full disclosure: I have a print in ARTCRANK this year. It’s a dedication to awesome women who ride bikes, it involves wolves (of course), and I would be super stoked if you came by to see it!)

RSVP and invite your friends!

[Photo via ARTCRANK on Instagram]

BFF.fm, the Mission’s own and city’s best underground radio station, just turned one! To celebrate, they’re throwing a big free birthday party at the Chapel tomorrow night, complete with music, DJ sets, tote bags full of party favors, and lots of cake — apparently of both slice and cup varieties! Musical guests include Happy Fangs, Nanosaur, Night Genes, and BFF.fm founder DJ Cosmic Amanda herself. And did I mention that it’s FREE?

Here are some cool facts about BFF.fm and Mission Mission:

• BFF.fm was named by Allan, our very own editor!
• BFF.fm is located in the Secret Alley, the most magical space in the city, partially built by Ariel!
• Many of our multi-talented contributors, past and present, have shows on BFF.fm! They include Roll Over Easy, Tall Trees, Astral Projection Radio Hour, Pop Music, Tuff Signals, Radioculars, Burrito Justice Radio, and more! Listen to them all!

So, see you at the party tomorrow? RSVP and invite your friends!

According to Capp Street Crap, the iconic porn shop is revamping for a less seedy look, apparently taking design cues from Good Vibrations:

The decades-old shop near 17th and Mission streets is also being renamed Mission Secrets, all part of an effort, according to manager James Aragon, to attract more female clientele. This week, the store’s previously blue exterior was being painted beige, the interior had been lightened up, and a worker had taken down its trademark “Adult Superstore” sign. Those giant, suggestive and utterly ridiculous pictures of a man and woman that used to flank the front door, had also been covered up.

Aragon said the remodel is not to draw in more of the Mission’s moneyed residents, just to make the store more inviting to passersby.

“You have your good and bad,” he said, adding that more police presence seems to have brought more weekend foot traffic to his stretch of Mission Street. “During the weekends you have a lot of people, a lot of women walking around.”

According to Aragon, the store has begun carrying hosiery, more sex toys geared to women, and will soon have a display in the front window with a mannequin modeling the lingerie it has begun selling. On Friday, the area behind the cashier had been wallpapered and two fake orchids hung on shelves on either side of an ornate mirror. With upgrades, however, comes higher costs. Aragon said the store’s viewing booths will go from $5 to $10 and there will be a $15 all-day pass.

Boy, I’m gonna miss seeing that iconic storefront and signage from the Secret Alley. Read on for more photos and a quote about the “riff raff” in the neighborhood.

[First photo via Yelp]