Mission Mission

This man’s insane hella-strings guitar was brought to you by MOViN 99.7. Don’t miss Fernando & Greg in the mornings and tune in tonight for your chance for free tickets to this year’s Triple Ho Show!

How do you say “Viral Marketing” in Spanish, anyway? The answer may shock and educate you:

I’m totally stoked that Robin Nolan is performing at Revolution Cafe tonight.

Robin is a certifable guitar god from Amsterdam that plays Django Reinhardt-style jazz, with his own unique spin. He can shred the Django stuff with the best of them, but isn’t afraid to let his rock and experimental influences make their way in the mix. For example, check out his bitchin’ AC/DC “For Those About To Rock” intro to his recent set in Seattle:

He also literally wrote the book(s) on this style of music that everyone, including myself, learned from.

The show goes from about 9pm-12am and there’s no cover, so be sure to tip these guys a lot. And who knows, I might be joining them for a couple of tunes. This place tends to be a shit show every night, so get there early if you want a seat.

[photo by gadjoboy]

Lisa Everydayphotos asks:

Hey! I’m about to make a big decision and upgrade from my shitty flip phone to a smart phone. My question is this:

Do I get an iphone or is at&t service in the Mission as bad as everyone says? I’m hoping to harness the wisdom of highly opinionated Missionites and hear whether at&t is really as absolutely awful as they say. Worth just staying with my current plan and just getting the Droid I keep hearing about.

Any chance I can spark some heated debate here?

First of all, don’t knock the flip phones. Ever hear of a little blog called honeyjets? Those photos are all RAZR, baby. Secondly, this will get ugly. The last time Kat mentioned buying an iPhone in passing, it got a shitstorm response that totally overshadowed her actual post.

Full disclosure: I am an obsessive iPhone user. I just got 3 stars on every level in the first world of Angry Birds. That takes at least 250 hours of use. But, I also happen work in a  job that lets me test every major smartphone that hits the market, so I definitely have somewhat informed opinions on this matter… none of which I will use here.

I think the iPhone is way more fun to use, and it’s operating system is just more smooth and polished. I don’t make too many voice calls, so I can’t honestly speak accurately to how reliable AT&T is in the Mission. I have never had any major problems, but 80% of my calls last five months in the Mission were, “Where are you sitting? Oh I see you.” I’ve noticed a few problems in other neighborhoods, the Haight mostly. Battery life stinks. It doesn’t bail on me mid-day, but I have to charge it every night. The apps, maps, and web browser are the best. The camera and video on the iPhone 4, to my eyes, are about as good as it gets.

Android phones can do pretty much everything you care about, but it’s a bit more clunky. If you’re not coming from an iPhone you probably wont notice at all. There’s not as many quality apps available. All of this is going nowhere but up and they will catch up in all those categories soon. One other problem is that updates to Android OS are carrier-specific, so if your phone doesn’t sell well from their perspective, it wont be kept up to date with all the cool new stuff from Google. That can be a bummer. Perks are you don’t need iTunes to use it, tight Gmail/Gcal/Geverything integration, way better customization, and of course, carrier options (VERIZON).

If you care a lot about voice calls and being able to bang out text messages on a hardware keyboard, get the Droid 2 on Verizon. You will be happier. If you want the best multimedia/internet experience and will settle for mediocre voice performance (AT&T), it’s still hard to beat the iPhone 4.

Wow, I just re-read the question and realized I didn’t really answer it at all. Good luck.

Readers: what do you think? Here, I’ll save you some time. Check one:

[  ] NERD RAAGE! I DISAGREE WITH EVERYTHING

[  ] YOU’RE ALL YUPPIES, I USE A ROTARY

[Photo by TerryJohnston]

Mission-based Pirate Cat Radio has been through some tough times. Last year, they were fined $10,000 by the FCC and forced to limit their streams to the internet exclusively.

Now they have an unique opportunity to take the “Pirate” out of “Pirate Cat” and get a legitimate FM license. Yup, they want to become a real, legal radio station. Does this mean we’ll be hearing more Red Hot Chili Peppers on their playlists? Because, let me tell you, I just don’t get enough of those guys on the radio.

The only obstacle is an astronomical fee of $60,000. In two weeks. If they had a soundboard, this is where they would cue the reverse slide whistle.

They’re going to have to sell a shit-ton of coffee to get there, but you can help them out on their kickstarter campaign. Pledging $25 gets you a T-shirt and a sticker. So if you like what they do, help them out and wish them luck.

[More info at Pirate Cat Radio]

Everyone’s doing it! Mission Bicycle posted this purdy HD video about their purdy bikes.

Things I did not know before watching this video:

• Bike shopping is a family event, like going to IKEA. Bring your children.
• If the shop is too busy, you can order their bikes from the wifi-friendly cafe down the street (requires your own laptop and knowledge of how to use the internet to visit web sites).
• You can cyber with Jefferson over gchat directly from their the order page.
• I’m not the only one who screws around customizing virtual bikes I never buy while I’m supposed to be working.

You also get to see parts of their manufacturing and shipping processes, from the painting of the frames with decidedly girly colors to the exhilarating un-boxing at one dude’s apartment. Is there anything better than un-boxing something you bought? It’s like Christmas without gift wrap and the element of surprise.

Contest* Guess when this was shot based purely on the placement of construction markers on Valencia St.

*Prize for this “contest” is self-satisfaction.

Achieve Satori and receive a complimentary chocolate cake.

[Taken inside Hua Zang Si Temple on 22nd St. during Mission Bicycle's "10 Mission Secrets Bike Tour"]

Looks like this lady is well aware of the perils of crossing at 19th and Dolores.

Those “sidewalk bulb outs” and “pedestrian refuges” can’t come soon enough.

[photo and title by Jeremy Brooks]

Carin sends us word of another stabbing that took place near the Dolores Park last night (2am):

I live on 20th and Church and there was a crazy stabbing on our block last night, at the steps on top that link to Sanchez. My roommate just told me, I somehow slept through out it…. around 2 AM they heard loud screams, a prostitute was stabbed by this guy, the john.

She was stabbed in the neck and managed to get herself to a neighbor’s house who helped give her first aid until an ambulance guy. A bunch of police showed up, and the guy fled. They brought the woman into the ambulance, she seemed alive. Don’t think they found the guy

Yikes. Stay safe, folks.

Can anyone help this guy out? If so, contact him at–oh. Well, I guess he’ll find you.

[Spotted by Miegan at 18th b/t Guerrero and Valencia]

¡Qué triste! The annual Mission Día de los Muertos march which hopes to take place Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 7pm at 24th & Bryant Streets, needs some help.

Due to budget cuts, the San Francisco Arts Commission eliminated the Neighborhood Festival Grant program this year. Without this source of crucial funding, Marigold Project is struggling to meet the impending costs of the San Francisco Recreation and Park permit. We feel strongly that Day of the Dead should remain a free community event, with no corporate sponsors. It is our hope, that together we can keep this grassroots tradition alive. If you have made an offering at the park in honor of a loved one or have received something of value from being part of this rich and unique community celebration and want to see it continue, please consider making a contribution to this year’s event. We cannot do it without your support.

Bummer, this event has been going on without a hitch for over 30 years. The organization is hoping to raise $6000 to keep the event afloat. Visit the official website and click the donate link in the upper right to help out.

And please, if you do decide to participate in the event this year, be sure to preemptively reflect on the cultural and personal significance of the event, otherwise other white folks folks get soo offended.

Previously:

• Death Becomes Her