Mission Mission

“Two students speaking to a group of visitors at Mission High School” Dec. 1970

(Source: SF Public Library Historical Photo Archive)

As part of their neighborhoods issue, Good Magazine hired Volume Inc. to design some neighborhood flags. Here’s what they came up with for the Mission:

Bikes and tacos! Clearly these guys are thinking OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!

Personally, I think they should have consulted us for a flag design consisting of scenes from the Mission Mission top posts of all time. Who wouldn’t want a flag of a lady shitting on her house while a scantly clad woman struts down the street drinking moderately-priced Kombucha and a BART train speeds by in the background (passenger with a visible boner in window)?

Oh, and this flag would never fly from a pole, it would always be presented draped over a life-size marble rendering of Sasha Grey.

See the rest of the series (mostly not-SF) neighborhood flags here.

Thanks Elizabeth S.!

Here’s the rather obscure Vertigo snippet that Roger Ebert alluded to yesterday. So there you have it, in 1958 the Mission was considered “Skid Row”. Either that, or Hitchcock was a total wuss. In any case, we’re renaming the blog to “Skid Row Skid Row”.

Mock Duck posted a higher quality .mov of it in the original thread.

Previously:

Ebert Thinks the Mission is SF’s ‘Skid Row’

Flickr photographer petespix75‘s photostream is a treasure trove of Muni trolleys through the ages. My favorite are these early ’80s J’s in Dolores Park (doye, the ’80s and Dolores Park are my two favorite things), but you might prefer the even older stuff after the jump: (more…)

If you’re like me, you love Moorish architecture and you’re really interested in the historical significance of the Armory. Imagine finally being able to  see inside the same walls that housed the weapons of the U.S. National Guard from 1912-1914! I wonder there’s still evidence of it’s role as a rallying point for the 1934 San Francisco General Strike (an event known as “Bloody Thursday”).

Well Friday is our lucky day because according to flavorpill, there’s a free tour of the Armory! It starts at 4:30pm and it’s an hour long.

(They film people fucking in there too)

Update: Ok, brownpapertickets says it’s sold out. But then again, it’s said that for as long as I can remember and I’ve tried to get the tour several times in the past year. Anyone get a ticket? In the meantime, I’m checking with them to make sure. Stay tuned.

Update 2: NO ARMORY TOUR FOR YOU:

Ever since being written up in the Bay Guardian as the best free tour of an adult entertainment company, we have been inundated wiuth tour requests. We are in fact sold out till Sept of this year. Thank you for your interest.

Well would you look at that. For as long as I can remember, it’s been “Bomb y Ice Creamery“. I guess they they got sick of Spanish-speaking folks asking for explosive ordnance with a side of ice cream.

Anyone get pictures of it being installed?

Previously:

All-You-Can-Eat Indian Buffet Now at Bombay Ice Creamery

Imagine an elevated train down 17th, and another down the center of Capp Street with half a block on either side torn down to make way for a six lane boulevard. This is what your great-grandparents were considering in 1930.

More details on 80 year old Mission retro-future rapid transit options over at Burrito Justice.

Previously:

My Parents’ Dovre Club

Norma Miller speaking at Savannah Jazz Club 2/10/10

This is pretty rad. 90-year-old Norma Miller (aka “the Queen of Swing”) is a pioneer and creator of the Lindy Hop, by far the most popular form of swing dance today. She was featured in movies such as 1941′s “Hellzapoppin” (proving that “hella” was used, in a more primitive form, 70 years ago), and also worked with a lot of the big names back in the day. You know, like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson… no big deal.

She used to hang at the Savoy in Harlem during it’s prime, the site of some of the first integrated music/dance events in American history.

Last night local dance promoter Chris Lee showed her around the mission, starting at Amnesia, where traditional jazz outfit Gaucho plays every week, then to Savannah Jazz Club on Mission and 25th, where she did a guest lecture.

My buddy Nathan A. had the scoop:

When they introduced her, she bounced up on the stage with more spring in her step than a woman less than half her age. I couldn’t get over how sharp she was – how animated. She had mind like a steel trap! She had us all on the edge of our seats while recalling the “good old days”. She told us how moved she was to see all these young people carrying on the the original American dance form – and a tradition she helped establish. She was hilarious, crude, and sentimental. She worked with Red Fox, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby doing a bit of comedy after her legs started to give out eventually.

Check out this clip of her with Frankie Manning (RIP) tearing it up… WILD!

Telstar Logistics. Laughing Squid. Burrito Justice. Mission Mission. What happens when they join forces? Mission Blog Force 2010! A veritable historical mapgasm ensues.

Laughing Squid and Telstar Logistics recently exposed us to the historical imagery feature in Google Earth.  San Francisco’s 1946 layer proved irresistible, especially concerning the old SF Seals baseball stadium, now home to the Potrero Safeway and Office Depot.

As is inevitable amongst map wonks, the Telstar Logistics and Burrito Justice mapping teams started to wonder exactly where in the stores the bases were located. The alignment of the 1947 photomap is a little wobbly in Google Earth (it’s off by 30-100 feet) so we turned to another favored source for greater precision, Sanborn maps overlaid in GE. Behold the diamond of history.

In the world’s first blogging simulcast, you can see the raw base photos of the Telstar Logistics Surveying Unit along with painfully detailed overlay maps by the Burrito Justice Research Department. Telstar Logistics historical analysis will be available on Laughing Squid posthaste.

For some perspective (because that’s how we roll) here’s opening day for the Giants in 1959, their first game against LA. That’s 16th on the top and Bryant on the right.

Note that history was made recording history: a blogger ACTUALLY LEFT HIS HOME and went on-site to determine that home plate and 1st are located in Office Depot, while 2nd and 3rd base in Safeway.

Below, blue tape marks third base, looking towards home plate.  (Torillas in front of you, and frozen pizzas behind you, as is so often the case when you’re trying to steal home.)

To make this post even more relevant to the Mission — Seals Stadium was also home to the Mission Reds (aka the Missions) before they moved down to Hollywood in 1938.

And prior to Seal Stadium’s construction in 1930, both teams played at 14th and Valencia at Recreation Park. Think of that next time you’re at Four Barrel.

More photos and maps at TL, LS, and BJ.