The woman in the photo did acknowledge that this is only a temporary setup and that when the lot gets sold the garden will have to dismantle, still, the tub and wooden pyramid seem pretty settled to me. Awesome that the landowner is encouraging of this idea, awesome that someone is taking the initiative, and we can only hope that maybe this economy never turns around and it never gets sold! Who needs a job anyway? I’d rather sit in a fragrant park.

There is a grand opening to be held tomorrow (Saturday), with live music, muraling, demonstrations (surely there is a vacant lot you might like to see turned into a park), and community bonding from 11am to 4pm, and any volunteers to get the park ready beforehand are welcome.

Previously:

Mission Greenbelt Project

How About a Peace Garden in This Bleak IGA Parking Lot?

No beating about the bush here, the “Froyo & Crepe Cafe” delivers what it promises.  I had an almond, banana, coconut, nutella and whipped cream crepe and it was a carefully folded slice of happiness.  Despite less than enthusiastic yelps, my tastebuds purred.  I liked my taste of the froyo too.

And with an atmosphere like this (dibs on the couch):

And a strangely small number of people allowed inside:

I do believe there is yet another reason to leave the Valencia teen streets and maturely mosey to the Mission mid-twenties.

Pros: Crepes, Froyo, Elbow Room
Cons: Fried Mini Octopus
Maybes: Avocado Smoothies?

Previously:

Cookie Shop Coming Soon
No Farmers, No Pie

After a homeless man saunters out of the store, an alarm is immediately sounded via telephone. Two security guards and a bagger book it out the door, and with an apology, my cashier runs out mid-transaction to watch the scene unfold.

Two minutes later, one of the security guards returns, triumphantly brandishing….soap.

So anyway, I sat down and began to read.  It is at this point that my seatmate, a girl in her twenties, begins to complain to her friend sitting in front of her.

“So, I’ve begun noticing that the same kinds of people ALWAYS sit next to me! I mean what is it about me that attracts them?”

She then proceeded to turn and look at me. Then she turned back to her friend.

“It’s always these old Asian women, with lots of shopping bags.”

I am neither old nor Asian, and I carried exactly zero shopping bags.

Girl: “I just wish that once, some really hot guy would sit next to me and start talking to me.”

She then looked over at me again, this time in disgust.

I looked back.  I sensed in her a kindred spirit, someone else who wanted to connect with a stranger. I thought about sharing my book approach with her, but there are only so many hot guys in our city, and even fewer who read, and I deemed this secret strategy too precious to be shared. So I kept silent, knowing she would never know just how alike we were, and that old Asian ladies sit next to me on BART all the time too.

Video Fest 08 is focused on people’s existence and their surroundings, the relationships that develop between the human being and nature, community, family and their social surroundings.

Although I have not often ventured into the Mission Cultural Center, the couple of times that I did, I was extremely impressed.  Once I heard some really good jazz that had people stopping in their tracks and turning the sidewalk into an impromptu theater.  Another time I saw an absorbing exhibition featuring photos snapped by kids and young adults.  If past experience is any clue, this should be good.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has ended it is true, but your unquenchable thirst for bluegrass doesn’t have to go unwatered.  Atlas Cafe hosts Belle Monroe and her Bluegrass Boys tonight from 8-10pm.  It just might get your knee thumpin’ (to the beat), heart pumpin’ (blood), fingers twitchin’ (to play) and feet itchin’ (to dance).

Person B: No I’m not.  I’m going to buy liquor and that aint never the wrong way! Ahahahahahahaaa!

Person A: Ahahahahahaaaa!

Fall is in the air, and Tree over at Free Farm Stand has proof, one of the largest banana squashes this side of Thanksgiving!  No mere knife could tame this unruly beast, it requires a “sawzall.” Sounds like Tree is going to have a lot of squash in the coming weeks.

Just like Tom said (the guy who brought the tomatoes and squash to me from the country), I cut the squash easily with a “sawzall”, and I wrapped 1 lb. pieces in cling plastic wrap. I still have more to cut up and he wants to bring me more.

Link.

Recipes: Honey Glazed Banana Squash, Roasted Banana Squash Soup, Raw Banana Squash Donuts

EACH TIME AMERICA SEALS ME IN A laminate of deadlines and Dow Jones averages, bills due and bills payable, I journey to a place where urgencies fade, colors brighten and all claims on reality begin to look relative. Just a stroll down the hill – though, like a good Californian, I usually drive – leads me out of my silent, wind-scoured, chillingly pretty neighborhood into a raucous, mouldering, charmingly unscrubbed caldron. Suddenly, the sidewalks are bordered with azure tiles and doused with the perfume of rotting mangoes; the streets are serenaded by thumping basso laments broadcast from souped-up Chevys; the advertisements appeal to a dozen loyalties and languages. Black-shawled Guatemalan women ply the restaurants, peddling red carnations, followed by packs of Vietnamese urchins toting bags of fresh-picked garlics; each available clapboard wall bursts with murals of naked Aztec deities and painted jungles; every sight conspires to defeat grayness and to sabotage the straight-and-narrow. Where thousands have sought asylum before me, I am a refugee in reverse – fleeing the benefits of the Promised Land for the immigrant hothouse and global miscellany that is San Francisco’s Mission District.

Full article here.

Maybe its the fact the $40 does not sound like a bargain for me, but I have sadly not yet been to any of these places.  Until then, I will console myself knowing that Range gets 4 stars on Yelp and El Tonayense Taco Truck gets 4.5.

Alternative Design Studio‘s store front was a little racier than usual when I saw this last week.  Nice rack too.

I experienced it all at Litquake:

The Good: hearing the phrase “earnestly pimpled.”

The Bad: heat so intense upstairs at the Elbo Room I had to leave, thus allowing me to hear the phrase “earnestly pimpled” downstairs.

The Ugly: I like cats but damn cat (Yelp informs me his her name may be Ripley), you need some hair!

Any writers that blew your socks off? Strange characters? Anyone else notice and/or find refreshing that the average age on Valencia rose about 20 years last night?

I have a deck that overlooks Clarion Alley. This morning, at 4:40 a.m., we were woken up by 21 gunshots. Does anyone know what happened??

Can anyone enlighten us on what went down in one of our favorite muraled alleys?

Although I see washing machines and laundry carts on the inside, I’m still hoping it is a publishing house for all things tissue and handkerchief related.

But this driver was tenacious. He kicked a middle aged man off the bus for using a senior pass. When someone got in through the back door, the driver refused to budge the bus until this man showed him his transfer. Because this man pretended he didn’t know the bus driver was talking to him for a full minute (sitting down), flashed his transfer (and sat back down), went to the front of the bus to show his expired transfer (and sat back down), and then finally came up with the necessary $1.50 (and sat back down!), we sat on the street for a good 3 minutes not moving. My ride from 26th street to 16th street took 15 minutes.

On one hand, I had places to go and things to see.

On the other hand, I was secretly happy.

But then I think about how incredibly long it would take to get the bus moving if everyone went in through the front door: stops at 24^th and 16^th street would probably take at least an extra minute or two. And then I get angry at the people who go out the front door who have clear access to the back doors and who are in no way physically challenged. I am even occasionally upset with the old people who insist on pulling carts everywhere – if you have enough gumption to pull a wheeled basket up onto the bus, you are strong enough to exit through the back door.

Bus rides are often long and angry for me.

And then I read how poor MUNI is, and how they are thinking of raising the monthly fare. Couldn’t I just send 10 people to the front of the bus to pay their fare and add my extra $15 dollars that way? Maybe by making people follow the few simple rules about entering, exiting, and paying fares, not only would we have a better funded system, but is possible it would no longer be one of the slowest public transport systems in the nation.

I need a bike.