Mission Mission

Make a donation to the Coalition on Homelessness already!

[via Brenna]

That’s right: IT’S CRAB SEASON, KID!

[via Emily]

Zara, a Portuguese contributor to a travel blog called Backpack Me, LOVES the Mission. Here’s what she has to say…

Comparing it to other SF neighborhoods:

I leave behind elegantly manicured neighborhoods, to enter what I’d already dare to call Latin America.

Comparing it to Noe Valley in particular:

Baby strollers rolling into bagel shops was the world up the hill. Down here, I see brunette ladies with overloaded bags full of groceries. Cafes have been replaced by fresh fruit and vegetable stores, that display heaps of aromatic cilantro, tomatoes, varieties of potatoes and, of course, corn products in all shapes and sizes.

She tries a little experiment:

Walking around Mission, I decide to do a little experiment and see if I’d go by the entire afternoon without speaking a word of English. Absolutely no problem!

She enjoys a little flirting:

I buy a bag of tomatoes and receive a “You’re welcome, Preciosa” as an answer. I like that! I got used to a little flirting while shopping at the market in Santiago de Chile… and now a simple self check-out at the bigger supermarkets doesn’t cut it for me anymore.

She does allow that there’ve been some changes in the neighborhood in recent years, but it’s no big deal:

If it wasn’t for the hipster influx that The Mission has been receiving in recent years (and who can blame them, really… this place rocks!) I could almost forget I am in the USA.

On Mission residents:

Residents exchange words in Spanglish. They tend to be loud and laugh a lot. Like just back home.

On Starbucks:

You don’t see Starbucks around here. But you do see a church in almost every street.

Phewf! Maybe the Mission’s still got it after all! Read on for lots more pics and commentary.

Jason from local band Maus Haus wrote in to tell us about a new solo project:

i just finished a “solo” album of sorts, called Rent Control, essentially documenting my life in the mission district circa 2013 (when i wrote all the songs), shortly before relocating to west oakland.

i lived on harrison and 24th from 2003 to 2013, from age 21 to 31, and saw the neighborhood change drastically.

the record goes on personal tangents, but there are definitely some subjects of interest that your readers can relate to:

track 2 “retro city” kind of takes a look at the reinvented garage rock bandwagoneer

track 5 “life on the other side” daydreams about moving to oakland, albeit with fear

track 6 “ice cream” is about how resentful my friends and i were that humphrey slocombe moved in, bringing all these lame-os, but then we ourselves can’t resist the treats either

track 7 “in jets” quite literally tells the story of the neighborhood changing overnight, millionaires moving in, without you even realizing it, and then it’s too late.

track 8 “reasons” is an ironic spoken word meets guitar noise tirade against the new neighbors

Let’s listen:

UPDATE: They’re playing a show this weekend in the Mission! Here’s the deal…

This Sunday November 23:
J. Kick & Rent Control
(plus 3 secret bands)
AMNESIA (Valencia @ 20th)
7pm doors
FREE
FREE
FREE

[Photo by Justin, via It's Always Sunny in San Francisco]

3D City is a year long stereoscopic photography project by Doctor Popular

Walk around photographing the city long enough and you’ll end up with plenty of photos of stairs. I was building up quite a collection and thought they deserved their own post.

“I like a escalator, man, ’cause an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs.” – Mitch Hedberg

(more…)

Former local blogger Ramona takes a look at lateness:

The thing about making someone wait for you is that it communicates to them that you don’t care if they hate you. This is fine if you’re a boss or a doctor or a host at any restaurant in New York. But you’re not a host at any restaurant in New York, and you’re definitely not the boss of me. You’re my friend, or you were until you sent me a text saying that you were running a little late when you had already pushed the meeting time back an hour. You can only stretch the meaning of “a little” so far before it becomes tomorrow. Or stretch the meaning of “meeting” so far before it becomes “cancelled meeting.” (Maybe one reason my friends balk at meeting me on time is that I refer to grabbing drinks as “a meeting,” and “a binding legal agreement.”)

Why do people make plans linked to times when they’re going to act like they don’t exist? Why do they wait until ten minutes before their plans start to finally get around to looking for that winter hat that they lost in their closet last year? Why not stop making plans altogether and just say “I’ll see you sometime” and then walk around Union Square until they run into someone they know or die of a broken heart?

Read on for Ramona’s startling conclusion.

[Photo by Honey Jets]

Remember when you could buy chocolate that was not sea salted?

— marta f. (@marmotilla) November 18, 2014

[via Omar]

This is available now at the airport in Brisbane, Australia. (Obama was there over the weekend for the G20 Summit.)

(If only it were available in Brisbane, California, we could head down there right now, and maybe stop in super-cool Daly City on the way.)

(Thanks, Jess!)