Mission Mission

Here’s some more info, courtesy of The Eagle on Facebook:

Enter Torche, the four-pronged Floridian Riff Colossus that has steamrolled its way across the international underground. Led by vocalist/guitarist Steve Brooks (formerly of doom dropouts Floor) and featuring the myriad talents of drummer Rick Smith, bassist Jonathan Nuñez and guitarist Juan Montoya, Torche unfurled their self-titled debut in 2005 via Richmond, Virginia’s Robotic Empire. The glorious half-hour of blissed-out power-grooves, triumphant vocal harmonies and cosmic resonance within was variously hailed as “stoner pop,” “thunder rock,” and “doom pop,” but a consensus was quickly reached within the Fourth Estate: Both the underground and mainstream press had their hands halfway down their pants just thinking about listening to Torche. The band was immediately lauded as giants among men, leaders among sheep, and powerbrokers of a deadly new sonic idiom founded upon Brooks’ signature “bomb-string” detonation-detune.

RSVP and invite your friends!

Here’s something you might not know: the cartoon biz as of late is no stranger to Mission/Bay Area talent.

Take Bob’s Burgers, for example. Do those Mission-style Victorian buildings in the background art look familiar? That’s because they were designed by local artist Sirron Norris. The character design in the show was done by none other than Jay Howell.

Regular Show, a hilarious Cartoon Network show about a couple of 23-year-old dudes who are also animals, features the writing/storyboarding talent of local indie comics darlings Hellen Jo, Calvin Wong (my bro!), and Minty Lewis (additional voice talent)! I have it on relatively shaky authority that pages of Mission Mission may have been source material for the cutting-edge fashions in this episode:

More recently, Jay Howell has announced his own show on Nickelodeon called Sanjay and Craig… with and additional Mission bonus: music by thee Oh Sees!! Check out the awesome promo for it:

Granted most of these jerks have moved to LA to, you know, actually make a career out of art. Zinefest doesn’t pay the bills. Still, let’s take every opportunity to claim all the credit for their talent just like Modesto tries to do with George Lucas.

C’mon Pony is responsible for a lot of wonderful things. But there’s just something about this map.

More great stuff by C’mon Pony…..

Agreed. Let’s rock:

[via anadromy]

Our pal Aaron noticed this happening across the street from his house, and it reminded me that damn, it’s been a while since I had a Bloody Mary at Pop’s Sports Bar. Perhaps it’s Bloody Marython season again!

[via @kmodes]

The Secret Alley (where I am a co-founder) is an art space here in the neighborhood. A Kickstarter has just been launched to remake the dull lobby into a sweet space to show of the work of local talent, The Galallery, also to be known as The Typoe Gallery.

The Secret Alley is a strange and maybe magical place where people build things, make movies, paint, screen things, make presentations, play and generally have a good time making and doing weird stuff. It’s hard to describe and I do it no justice by trying.

For the past few years there have been Halloween installations in the lobby downstairs, maybe you saw the Death Ray, where you could use the interface to blow up local hot spots (the subwoofer under the seat really made you feel like you might just poop):

Or the hallway monster the year before, which was just part of a larger dungeon theme:

There have also been some other art shows in the lobby, but the space does nothing to showcase the work. It’s not inspiring. It’s not amazing. It’s lame. Just as we brought our talented friends together to build the 360º old alleyway set, now it’s time to build out the lobby. When we started building The Alley seven years ago we did it on our own dimes, but it’s still costing us, and we kind of don’t have the dimes to expand. Plus we want to pay our friends fairly for their time. They’re really good at what they do. That’s where you come in.

If you’ve ever enjoyed spending some time there, or if you want to, or even if it’s not your cup of tea, please consider helping the talented crew create an amazing space to showcase local work. There are some really cool perks you can get for your contribution, including having the place to yourself for a night for you and your friends (pitch in together and have a grand time!). We don’t have the money of Jack Spade NYC, but we want to keep cool places in our hood!

Check out the Kickstarter here!

Please share with your friends, followers, readers, likers and hangers-on!

Local artists Dennis Kernohan and Steve MacDonald have been collaborating on some new works (among them these Mr. T-themed pieces), and they’ve got an opening tomorrow at FAZE on 21st Street (not Faye’s on 18th Street). Says Dennis:

This will be Steve MacDonald’s first show in 3 years. My third show in 5 months. There will be plenty of new work by both of us. Some PBR cases, thanks to Bryan Whalen. A raffle for a collaboration piece by Steve & I. Tickets for the raffle are 2$ for 1 ticket and 5$ for 3 tickets. Raffle proceeds will be donated to the local YMCA and/or Columbia Park Boys & Girls Club. So come early and stay late.

Show runs until April 25th.

It looks like one or all of the Mr. T pieces will be part of the raffle, so you might wanna try your luck. RSVP and invite your friends!

Ryan works mostly with paper, making stuff like the above. But he’s also famous for his clothing line Cool Try, and he’s opening a shop in the neighborhood (483 14th Street) on May 11th.

Here’s a peek inside his process:

I mean, my house’s backyard has a pretty sick reclaimed no-parking sign that I’m pretty into, but this takes the cake: