Mission Mission

Overheard at Metreon, right after the movie ended: “What the fuck was that?!” Then dude threw his water bottle toward the screen (and missed). If it’d been my film, I’d be psyched. That said, the movie was pretty good, but not nearly as *totally mind blowing* as the above trailer was when we first saw it. Stanley Kubrick come back to life? Nopes.

What this has to do with the Mission District, I don’t fucking know. Metreon is on Mission Street? We talked about Michael Pitt Before? It’s late, I dunno.

Previously on Mission Mission: Michael Pitt Stifled By Airport Security

I have come to realize that I’m really good at party-planning, and hope to get into the Event Planning Industry very soon. One of my specialties is a great ear for what sets the mood of a party. My motto is just because you like a song/album does not necessarily mean it should be played at this particular moment. So when I was loosely invited to DJ at an early slot at the Beauty Bar by a friend (since the normally scheduled “northern soul” DJ moved his set to Kimo’s), I jumped feet first into coming up with a three-hour set of my favorite genres: soul, oldies, oldie-reggae, disco.

My expectations of being a good DJ were exceeded. Dancing started happening around 8:30pm and lasted non-stop until 10:30-11ish. People I knew, people I didn’t know, shrieks of happiness, a look of parco gonfiabili amazement on my husband’s face, sweating, pushing through the crowd, laughter, happened right before my eyes – and all because of me, my music, and booze. It’s the best feeling that I’ve felt in a long time. When I told people I was DJing on Thursday, they all gave me the sarcastic response, “Oh – with iTunes?”. But I used a combination of, yes, iTunes and CDs. When the “real” DJ came in and started setting up his equipment, it included a direct line from his iPod to the stereo system. Oh, and a large Abe Lincoln hat.

I was invited back to DJ again, so next time I might tackle punk, electronic, funk?

Now, event design companies – REPLY TO MY RESUME! Or someone give me some money so I can have my own business. And then I’ll be your competition.

Last month, after the Black Lips‘ set at GAMH, singer/bassist Jared was chauffeured over to Beauty Bar for a DJ set sponsored by Vice and Dewar’s. It was pretty good, and it had me thinking my preconceived notions about the bar might be unfair. I was going to write about it, but I was waiting on photos from Misha Vladimirskiy. Photos were never published, and I never finished my post.

Last night, an even better DJ changed my mind once again. And I took my own photo so I wouldn’t have to wait. Bravo, DJ.

My cousin Jojo fronts this great band from Berkeley called Please Quiet Ourselves. Their label, Mushpot Records, sent them to SXSW this week, and I got the following tour diary from my aunt:

It is craz-z-z-z-y here in Austin @ sxsw – nonstop music. JoJo’s first gig was at Sonny’s Vintage – that’s sonny in the gray suit and hat on the right. It was a good start for their first show in Austin. JoJo wore his green KDVS t-shirt! Tomorrow they play at Lovejoy’s which is right smack dab in the middle of all the clubs – so they’re pretty excited. Tonight I saw Jens Lekmann – what a treat!!! I was right up front listening to him play – his mannerisms are just like Jonathan Richman‘s. then went to go see Yo Lo Tengo – a little too loud and dissonant/distorted for my ears – but it was in the Austin Music Hall which houses 4000. Great food here – had delicious bbq beef rifbs for $11 on our anniversary. Having a great time…you guys would love it here! See you soon, love, Jane

Link to bigger pic.

El Rio, everyone’s second favorite Mission District bar with a patio, is included on this morning’s Gridskipper feature titled Find That Special Someone For Your Threesome. They note that the crowd is “a little horny” as well as “sexually flexible”.

universal language 001, originally uploaded by calmenda.

Mission Mission’s very own Katie will spin disco, soul and maybe some punk and reggae at Beauty Bar tonight from 7-10pm. Admission is free. As the above video makes abundantly clear, Katie is full of spunk and verve, so bring your dancin’ shoes.

I wanted to get in on the blogging-about-The Wire bandwagon (my favorite so far is Stuff White People Like #85), and then I saw this fabulous t-shirt by Mule Design Studio.

So I’m thinkin, we all know somebody should make a gritty urban crime drama about SF, prominently featuring the Mission District. Sucker Free City took a glorious stab at it (and captured the Mission in all its cinematic wonder), but Spike Lee kiboshed the whole thing. Now The Wire‘s done and Gavin Newsom’s definitely maybe running for governor. He’s Tommy Carcetti incarnate and then some. This is a show waiting to happen: somebody please resurrect SFC or start anew or something.

Visit Mule Design’s blog.

Buy Sucker Free City on Amazon, because it’s really good.

I’m on the Great American Music Hall/Slim’s email list, and every week there’s some show they can’t sell enough tickets to, so they give away a block of free tickets to mailing list members that can answer a trivia question. Last week’s was, “The actor Michael Pitt is also a musician. In which Gus Van Sant movie did he play a brilliant but troubled musician?” I love Michael Pitt the actor, I think mainly because of Hedwig, and since I knew the answer (Last Days), I sent it in. I won, and went to the show. Michael Pitt is in a band called Pagoda, but Friday he played a solo set consisting of brooding, acoustic, one-man grunge peppered with lots of yelps and groans.

Halfway into the opening number: technical difficulties, feedback. An effects pedal is on the fritz. Pitt says, “I just came from New York. They’re doing this thing at the airport now where they take apart your pedals.” Bummer! He fiddled with it a bit, and we got a sampling of some kind of eerie sound collage that presumably would’ve accompanied one or more of his songs. But the pedal proved unfixable, so it was tossed aside and the show went on, sans accompaniment.

As mentioned in the post just prior to this one, I can’t do anything without thinking about how to blog it, so when Pitt finished up I asked him if I could ask him a few questions about the airport experience. He said, “Oh yeah sure,” and then disappeared backstage never to be seen again. As an actor trying to make a go of being a musician too, he’s apparently shy about interviews when on tour, so I was sure to emphasize that I just want to talk about the airport security thing.

In any case, I never got him to elaborate, but I wonder if other working musicians have had similar experiences. Particularly with the whole industry headed down to SXSW, I hope the TSA isn’t fucking up everyone’s gear.

Link to Beautifully Scarred, a helpful Michael Pitt fan site.

In researching last week’s Shannon Wheeler story, I came across an interview at The Wright Opinion in which this strip was featured. It’s funny because it’s true. Blogging is like Tetris. Now, when I’m out and about in the world, instead of seeing falling Tetris blocks everywhere I look, I see blog categories, blog headlines, blog tags, etc. Does this mean that, like with Tetris, I’ll be tired of this in a few months?

Link to interview.