Mission Mission

It’s always fun to visit the Castro once a year or so, right? And this year, it’s for a good cause! RSVP and invite your friends via the event’s Facebook page.

Oooh, and Brock will be there! Brock is tons of fun at parties.

While this event may not be directly related to the Kung-Fu Master/Colonial Sanders lookalike/Afro-puff bearded NY mayorial candidate, I think we can all agree that the rent in San Francisco is, in fact, “too damn high”. Why should we have to settle for living in Concord or worse yet: moving in with lame-o chore wheeling rent controlled roomies?

The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco helps you enjoy some of the most tenant-favorable laws in the country, and they are having a benefit at the Makeout Room next Thursday from 6-8:30. The event will feature free 4 Barrel coffee, live music, silent auction, happy hour drinks, and special guests (including Supervisor David Campos).

Details in the flyer below:

It all goes down tomorrow night. The forces of local celebrity ping pong enthusiasts converge, on Capp Street of all places, to take on a ping pong grandmaster. Authors Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz will present a slideshow for their new book Everything You Know is Pong.

From the far side of the table author Dave Eggers, musician Jerry Harrison and restaurant innovator Anthony Myint will stare down a champion who will attempt to embarrass the pretty boys by defeating them not just with a paddle, but maybe also a dead fish, a copy of the book or a piece of ice. You too can step up if you’re in the mood for some wicked humiliation, or death.

Tuesday, 12/14 at 7:30 pm – 190 Capp Street, at 17th – $10-$20 suggested donation, all proceeds go to 826 National.

First: one of the baddest (in a good way) guitarists around Michael Abraham is leading a tribute to legendary jazz bassist/pianist Charles Mingus tonight at Amnesia as part of the SF Jazz Hotplate Series. The band features a sick (again, in good way) lineup of local musicians: Dayna Stephens, Erik Jekabson, Sylvain Carton, George Ban-Weiss, and Eric Garland. 8-11pm. Mike also leads the Wednesday night Jazz Jam Session at Amnesia.

Secondly, on another side of the musical spectrum: STRING METAL band Judgement Day will be performing an intimate little show at the Porto Franco Art Parlor tonight at 7:30pm. Anton Patzner is basically this sicko genius who runs his violin through a Marshall stack. His bro shreds out power chords on the cello and they are joined by a drummer. You will head bang. Hard. The Art Parlor is at 953 Valencia the show costs $15.

In case you’ve heard, the 3rd annual Mission Holiday Block Party is this Friday, from 5-10pm.

Not only is this a good night to score some deals from some of your favorite stores on Valencia, it’s also a great cheap night out if you manage to hit up all the locations with free drinks. SF Fun Cheap has a good run-down of the specific offers.

Tomorrow night (12/8) at El Rio from 6:30-8pm Mike Speigler and company challenge you to drunken yourself up and try to spell a bunch of words. Why is this happening? They explain:

Have a consonant craving to avenge a childhood loss suffered during a duel with words? Do you use the English language daily, but rarely find yourself with the freedom to spell when imbibing booze?? Do you even know what a shot of Extenze male enhancement drink tastes like??? If any of these queries needs an answer then come to El Rio on Wednesday December 8th to take part in the first ever Drunken Spelling Bee!!

What is Extenze? Check out this site if you care, but a warning, while you’re trying to figure out how to click on the links, someone will come up behind you and start making a bunch of stale jokes about your supposed shortcomings. Then you’ll whip around and pretend to throw hot coffee in their face but the lid will “accidentally” come off and actually drench them. Now whose performance is in question??

The Facebook event page is here.

El Rio is at 3158 Mission near Cesar Chavez.

My pal Katie Cruz is directing a one woman show written and performed by Veronica Mannion called Booze, Boys and Brownies: A Musical Journey. She plays 13 characters!

Showing December 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th & 11th at 8pm at the Exit Theatre. Tickets are $12 at the door and $9 online. (cheap!)

Check out the teaser and have a connection.

Broke-Ass Stuart is back again with one of his now infamous Still Broke As Fuck nights at Doc’s Clock.  If you somehow haven’t yet heard, these are awesome because honestly where else can you get a free PB&J sandwich to go along with PBR’s for a buck all night long?  Toss in some soul music and giant Connect Four and you’ve got the best cheap date (dinner, drinks, entertainment) in town!

The fun starts at 9:30pm.  See you there!

If you’ve made it out to Julie Michelle’s I Live Here: SF show you have probably noticed that there is a Muni bus shelter in the room. The show’s still up, and the amazing pics are accompanied by Chris Rusak‘s really cool interpretations of the writing from the project, as well as some gems from SF archivist Rick Prelinger‘s massive film archive.

This Wednesday, 11/17, from 5 to 8pm, Muni Diaries is having a three hour happy hour where they’ll be recording your Muni tales for something called the Muni Time Capsule.

Rare opportunity. Go vent for the ages. SOMArts is at 934 Brannan Street.

Julie Michelle’s awesome project I Live Here: SF gets put where it belongs tonight, in a gallery*. As you probably know, she’s been photographing various people around San Francisco, telling their stories visually, and then letting them tell their own stories in words.

It sounds like she’s been working her tuchus off at nearby Dickerman Prints to make sure all the prints are just right. Come by SOMArts (934 Brannan St.) tonight between 6 and 9pm to see Julie in person. Artist’s talk is at 6:15, so you may want to go straight from work.

Our fearless leader, Allan, by Julie.

Our previous coverage includes Allan, Armand, Brittney, Beth, Plug 1 (Troy) and me.

*That’s right. Torn off the internet and put up on gallery walls, where important stuff goes. Oh, you think your little tweets belong on the walls of the Louvre? Nope. They belong in the garbage. Sorry, but it had to be said. Tweet that.