Mission Mission

URGENT! Mission SRO Collaborative is collecting toys for about 100 kids in need because Toys for Tots came up short this year.

These kids are seriously gonna have a shitty Christmas if you don’t help out. And I’m not talking about like when you were 8 and your mom fucked up and got you a Go-Bot instead of a Transformer. We’re talking no toys AT ALL for these little tykes. At this rate, these kids might prematurely stop believing in Santa (or black Santa) which will have some serious social ramifications (decreased cheer/goodwill towards man, disbelief in the easter bunny and muppets, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria).

Help stop the downfall of society now. Here are the details:

We need Toys (nothing fancy, just simple things like action figures, dolls, games, puzzles…you know the real stuff) by (This is the URGENT part) Monday 12/21 at 3pm.

How to get them to us: We are at 938 Valencia St. between 20^th and 21^st and we will take donations of Toys at any time between 9 and 6pm.

If you can’t stop by or need to make special arrangements, call me Jorge Portillo at 415-671-5089 or someone here at the Collaborative 415-282-6209 ext 16, 12, or 19 or email me at jorge@dscs.org or facebook or portillomail@gmail.com and I will personally see to it that they get here!

More at Dolores Street Community Services. Thanks Laurie @ Mission Locatl for the tip.

Amnesia is unveiling a new mural by Andre Karpov tonight. You may recognize his other works at places like Pizzaria Delfina, and that alley by Range. He also happens to be a great songwriter and musician.

While this mural doesn’t quite have the excitement of the bear, it does feature a bunch of local mission personalities. That accordionist in the mural is none other than Rob Reich. In fact, Rob is playing during the unveiling with ragtime guitar genius Craig Ventresco (you may have heard Craig’s music in the movie Crumb) and Meredith Axelrod. They play there every Friday, by the way. I wonder if Rob knows he’s been muralized? If not, awk-WAARD!

Say, maybe you’ve been muralized too. You’re just gonna have to go and see for yourself; that’s why I posted an ultra low-res of the mural. Unveiling starts at 7pm. Amnesia is on Valencia between 19th and 20th. Stick around for the happy hour drinks!

Great show at the Hemlock Tavern tonight! In case you didn’t know they have shows in that weird walk-in ‘fridge area in the back.

Top Critters is a bizarre and wonderful 5-piece acoustic instrumental group that puts slide whistle and accordion to great use.  La Corde is a new group out of the mission that likes it’s punk of the post variety. Drummer Andrew can beat Metroid in under 2 hours and get the bikini ending; ask him how.

Oh yeah in case you missed it, last night at the ‘lock was awesome too. Dreamdate was cute as hell and played my fav song (that one that goes “uh-uh-oh uh-uh-oh”). Brian Glaze and the Nightshift rocked so hard I had to grab people and demand that they air guitar with me. The second thing might have had to do with drinking too many PBRs. Allan’s back, I had to! Successful evening all around.

Hurry, get your historically-accurate Santas at that One $ Only store* between 23rd and 24th!

*Item may not actually be $1. It’s one of those misleading “one dollar and up” stores. WTF? All they are doing is setting a minimum price.

Gaucho bandleader, Tom Cruise impersonator, and my upstairs neighbor Dave Ricketts (hey have you seen his guitar?) will be teaching an 8-week Gypsy Jazz guitar course at the new mission music school Zambaleta in January. You’ve probably seen Gaucho rockin’ those Django Reinhardt hits every Wednesday 8-10pm for the past 6 years (!) at Amnesia.

This class begins January 5, 2010 and meets every Wednesday at 1pm for 8 weeks for $150. Join this gypsy jazz guitar class to learn this distinct style. Learn the ‘la pompe’ strumming style and percussive playing techniques for rhythm guitar. Then switch gears to develop lead guitar skills. For this function, you will work on soloing using chromaticism, arpeggios, and glissandos. A guitar is required for this class.

After this class, you will play circles around that weird rocker dude in the mission. I occasionally play this stuff and I can confirm that it gets the ladies attention. Granted they are mostly senior citizens who want to feel how firm my arms are.

Django did all this with two fingers, by the way:

If that’s not your style, there are a ton of other classes being offered at Zambaleta, including Arab Oud. Not as cool as the Ultra Oud-Harptar, but halfway there!

There’s a metric fuckton of bands playing today at ATA celebrating their 25th anniversary. BBQ starting now and music at 1pm. Get your ass down there! Hopefully the sun comes out and doesn’t fake us out like it did yesterday. WTF sun? It was like “hey it’s a nice day”… sike! HAIL TIME. 992 Valencia St.

Saw this guy doing his thing last night at the Lab (16th and Capp). WTF dude, why don’t you play an instrument that actually exists?

But seriously, Jozef Van Wissem is the best one-of-those-players I have ever seen. According to Jozef’s wikipedia, the instrument is a Renaissance lute and his current approach is to write out traditional Baroque pieces backwards and add his own themes and variations. If I had to describe the sound, it’s like God barfing a golden slip-n-slide into James Hetfield’s brain while he’s vacationing at his summer home south of Tajikistan. Check out this vid of him that I recorded on my fashion/social accessory informationPhone:

Oh shit, son! It’s getting hella steamy inside Cha-Ya tonight. If the vegetarian Japanese restaurant is a-rockin’ don’t come knockin’!

Btw as a representative of the Asian culture I should inform you that in fuedal Japan serving a neighboring family vegetarian sushi was an act of war.

I was checking out the Cartoon Art Museum and saw this sweet original page from Spain Rodriguez‘ “Mission Nites” comic. The first panel is sorta surreal, huh? That dollar store used to be an 89-cent store! Those run-down theaters actually were open at some point!

They also have a small but undeniably awesome exhibit of some sets and puppets from the recent Wes Anderson movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. These sexxy puppets should tide you over until Furcon 2010. It’s running until Jan. 10 so get down there and cough up $6 ($4 if you have a student ID or passable forgery).

Speaking of fur suits, you probably walked right by 826 Valencia and didn’t realize that Max’s real (and apparently filthy) “Where The Wild Things Are” wolf suit is chillin’ in their window. Ewww, betcha it’s covered in boogers and cookie crumbs.

(via emblem30‘s flickr)

P.S. Go ahead, tell me all about how pretentious you think Wes Anderson movies are.

P.P.S. Should I buy a home in Concord?

Impending cilantro disaster at El Farolito.

Somebody should do something. Like you, chick in front of the line over-pronouncing her order en Espanol. Give it a rest, would ya?  You don’t get a discount for successfully utilizing the vosotros tense.