Mission Mission

This dynamic duo can be found pasted to a wall somewhere between Dolores Park and Bender’s Bar.

Less than a week. This pic was sent in by reader zinzin, with the subject line, “Another reason why we can’t have nice things.” Guitar Man used to look more like this.

Previous reasons why we can’t have nice things:

Graffiti on Muni

Dynamo Donuts Signage Stolen

Plumpy (who is down in Austin for the good part of SXSW) found this specimen “[o]n a pole in the back patio of some tiny random bar.” Link.

Previously:

Forlorn Candy Corn Porn

I found these miniature items attached to the wall of the building across the street from my apartment on Albion. The building is the one housing Kilowatt.

Tons more after the jump, and they just get better and better:

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Doctor Popular spotted this wildman on 19th Street. Click here for Doc’s commentary and a closeup of the piece’s gnarly texture.

Last summer I was walking by Lost Weekend Video and saw a sign in the window that read “Herzog/Kinski T-shirts!!!” I ran right in only to find that there was nothing left but women’s small. Epic bummer.

Luckily, they did a second run a couple months ago, and I’m now a proud owner of the above Maria Forde masterpiece.

Raised on a farm in Iowa, Maria made her way to San Francisco and sampled several other neighborhoods before settling in the Mission. Among other things, she likes the warmth, the sun, Lost Weekend, Aquarius and the library.

The drawing-portraits-of-movie-directors-for-video-stores thing started back in Iowa City, but has blossomed right here, thanks initially to a friend who worked at Lost Weekend. Maria produced a series of pins for the store, and found that her cinematic tastes meshed well with those of proprietor Adam Pfahler, who then asked her to do an official shirt.

She’s now done a Polanski, a Peckinpah, and the Herzog.

“I liked the idea of connecting to people who shared my love of movies, in a neutral unpretentious place,” Maria says, “And also making something that I care about art wise but turning it into something that someone can afford to have.” And that’s the thing. I rarely go to art galleries and I never go to video stores. But this special piece of art compelled me in.

I bought one for me, I bought one for a friend, and we’re both enjoying them thoroughly. Then I looked Maria up on the internet, and got in touch. “Those folks at Lost Weekend are so genuine and thoughtful and just… good people,” she told me, “Everyone should go there and get movies.” And now I’m seriously considering eschewing Netflix and Hulu the next time I feel like a little cinema.

Tonight, Maria debuts new work at another neighborhood institution, Needles & Pens. Maria asked 10 of her friends to give her some advice and then she drew them. The result is an exhibition called Advice Portraits. Also, as part of her effort to better understand life, she spent some time last month with her grandmother and her neighbors at their retirement home. She found that they knew a little something about life. Longview, the resulting zine will be for sale.

Shirt photo courtesy of awww damn.

We asked if anyone had seen Matthew Briar Bonifacio Rodriguez‘s tree people, and Rhiannon responded with a hearty “seen it!” and a link.

The artist behind Forlorn Candy Corn has come forward! His name is Matthew Briar Bonifacio Rodriguez, he calls San Francisco “San Franny,” and he’s spread Forlorn Candy Corns all over the world, from New York to Baghdad. Of particular note is the iteration in which Forlorn Candy Corn has a companion:

The artist seems to like rainbows quite a bit as well:

Some of his most lo-fi stuff can be the most compelling (though one supposes one could make just about anything compelling by juxtaposing it with a caravan of circus elephants):

In any case, Rodriguez got in touch via email to share the link to his Flickr stream (in which there are TONS more pictures), and we took the opportunity to ask him a bunch of questions. He replied:

hi! just was in town for 3 days.  first time to go exploring.I really liked walking around the neighborhoods, had so much fun ill be  coming back in about a month or two with some more supplies.. thanks for the midnight bark on your page!. i didnt get pictures of anything. nailed abunch of eyes nose and mouths to trees too but havent found any of those yet.

Has anybody seen any tree stuff yet?

Apparently, the artist likes to work in costume, so in two months time be on the lookout for something like this:

As predicted, the Lou Reed posters on the Valencia Street Art Wall did not last long. But, as Burrito Justice points out, Lou’s arms still look pretty good. Link.

Or:

See the posters undefaced.

Clarion Alley Week continues at subSF, today’s post featuring everybody’s favorite mashup of retro videogaming and fairytale animal art. Link.