Mission Mission

Yesterday I managed to snag a seat on a crowded BART train, getting on at the 24th street station, delighted to have a few minutes to read.  My current book is West of Kabul, East of New York, the 2008 “San Francisco Reads” pick which may as well be called “Lael Reads” because I have yet to see another person doing their mandatory civic duty.  Surely if we all at least skimmed this book our BART and bus rides would be filled with scintillating conversations and good-natured ribbing of the main characters. However, my dreams of constantly striking up heated debates with mysterious and articulate literary strangers hasn’t quite panned out, no matter how visible I make the cover of the book.

So anyway, I sat down and began to read.  It is at this point that my seatmate, a girl in her twenties, begins to complain to her friend sitting in front of her.

“So, I’ve begun noticing that the same kinds of people ALWAYS sit next to me! I mean what is it about me that attracts them?”

She then proceeded to turn and look at me. Then she turned back to her friend.

“It’s always these old Asian women, with lots of shopping bags.”

I am neither old nor Asian, and I carried exactly zero shopping bags.

Girl: “I just wish that once, some really hot guy would sit next to me and start talking to me.”

She then looked over at me again, this time in disgust.

I looked back.  I sensed in her a kindred spirit, someone else who wanted to connect with a stranger. I thought about sharing my book approach with her, but there are only so many hot guys in our city, and even fewer who read, and I deemed this secret strategy too precious to be shared. So I kept silent, knowing she would never know just how alike we were, and that old Asian ladies sit next to me on BART all the time too.

Ashleigh is live on the scene:

Dude! fire @ Bartlett & 25th

There were a bunch of trucks & the fire fighters had on air tanks. Smells like gas in the air. Can’t tell for sure what’s happening now

Update: Picture here. Also, haha.

Schlomo just wrote in with the sad news that Alhambra Halal Meat Co. just up and closed. Link.

Previously:

New Neighborhood Butcher: Alhambra Halal Meat Co.

Mark Roquet writes:

Lessons in Adventureneering is a monthly variety show at Dog Eared Books that features music, comedy, educational lectures (sometimes real and sometimes fake) and live science demonstrations.

Past events have included live World War I reenactments, championship yo-yo-ing, fake food products, and a volcano. It is always free and always on the first Wednesday of the month.

The upcoming show on Wednesday March 4 at 7:30 features two bands, the twangy Fancy Dan Band and the Mission’s own The Yellow Dress, and a lecture on advanced robotics detection. Should be a good time.

Thanks, Mark!

Related:

Championship Yo-yo-ing in Clarion Alley

Now THATS walking around money just published some evidence that a new edition of Vampire Wizard Zeus Magazine is out, or forthcoming.

My new favorite blog is Mission and Highland, a whole blog devoted to life at the intersection of Mission Street and Highland Avenue, at the absolute southernmost tip of what you might still call the Outer Mission.

The most recent post features this photo of a phone pole being chainsawed down. Badass.

Previously:

Shooting at Mission and Highland

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

Family Styles went to Pizzeria Delfina and took lots of pictures. Link.

Update: Also, PD’s “This Place Sucks” shirts on 7×7 (via shawnbot).

Kris writes:

Five shots got me out of bed last night around 11pm.  Saw a car speed away once I got a chance to look out the window.  Looked like someone was hit because an ambulance came and went.

Thanks, Kris.

Neo Displacer says: “Now if only I could drive my fucking house through a fucking bank I’d feel much better…”

Photo by wirednerd.

Previously:

Car vs. Bank (Bank Loses)