Mission Mission

We’re all bummed that both Joey Ramone and KUSF are gone — but it might still be possible to resuscitate the latter. Start by attending this afternoon’s rally prior to the Board of Supervisors’ meeting.

From the official call to action:

The University of San Francisco acted in bad faith last week in the gross mishandling and sale of its student and community-run radio station of 33 years, KUSF.  Last Tuesday the station was abruptly taken off the air with no forewarning to the community, station volunteers, students, or faculty.

City Hall, 1pm. Be there!

[Photo by Bobby Castro via All Of Them Witches]

Full press release after the jump:

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Our pal Tracy Clark-Flory over at Salon is trying to deduce whether or not friends-with-benefits arrangements can really work:

My friend Adam, in his late 20s and married, told me about a “friend with benefits” in college who “constantly smelled like cigarettes and had really weird looking thumbs.” He wrote to me, “We’d watch ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘Seinfeld’ together each night. First time we slept together it was after the one where Jerry and Elaine decided to do so. Of course it’d work out — look at them! Sigh. We were 19.” Despite the casual pretense, it turns out she wanted it to turn into something more.

Read on.

[Photo by Chelsea Green]

We Built This City just discovered yet another entrant in this age-old contest: The Golden Beet Loaf Sandwich at Atlas Cafe. They even go so far as to say it’s better than the widely beloved Plant Cafe Plant Burger, which also leans heavily beet. Do you believe it?

If you liked Go Climb a Rock and Hippy Kitchens, you’re going to love Gigs, a never-ending stream of newly discovered vintage photographs of buds rocking out. Be sure to let me know if you see your dad in there anywhere.

These guys are apparently called “The Revengers.” The Revengers!

[Photo and post title by Jason Schlachet]

Our buddy Joshua remembers it, because up until a couple days ago, he was a DJ on beloved local terrestrial radio station KUSF. Presumably he will someday be a DJ on beloved internet radio station KUSF.org, but c’mon, that’s nowhere near as romantic. Below, Joshua shares his thoughts on this week’s troubling events:

I woke up the day KUSF was pulled off the air to a frantic phone call
from a fellow KUSF DJ named Michelle. First thing I hear her say is
they knocked off Howard (DJ Schmeejay) while he was on the air & then
changed the locks on the doors to the station. I ask Michelle where
she was, to take a breath & go a little slower. She says that
transmitter is gone, sold by the school & none of the DJ’s are being
let back inside the building.

Looking back now it seems like a parody of itself, the last bastion of
rock n roll radio being turned into some nightmare dentist’s wet
dream, the fruition of our labors given way to a classical music
station. The phone call launched me out of bed into a mad rush in
search of answers. My e-mail had overflowed, emotions bursting through
each sentence, letters of anguish, disgust, confusion, condolence.
Sifting through the electronic ashes I discover that the deal had been
made behind closed doors, non-disclosure acts were signed to prevent a
public backlash, yet press releases were sent out ahead of time.
Before anyone I worked with even knew our radio station was being shut
down, the media was finalizing stories about it.

So what then? What could I do, there was still more e-mail to read
through, more calls to make & return. Already two of my fellow DJ’s
were on the case, stampeding through the campus, demanding
explanations and some sort of justification for abandoning the
community. Their questions were rebuffed and I can only speculate as
to what the true cause of any of this is. Money gets talked about a
lot and I don’t know where the truth ends and opinions begin. I do
know that the people who were the heart of the station will remain
active throughout the city’s social scene & that there will always be
room in this town for the dedicated and passionate.

I listened to DJ Schmeejay’s show on the KUSF archives, the last show
to be broadcast on 90.3 FM. A more than fitting though somber way to
put an end to the beast, taken by surprise at its finest hour. The
very moment when the music turns to static resonates oddly in my mind,
I ask myself if I had seen this coming. I don’t mean to say I question
why this happened, this is the story I’ve seen happen so many times
throughout music’s history, be assured those that must will continue
on.

There is one thing that the other DJ’s keep saying to each other that
I’m intrigued by, that we’re all going to have to stick together.
Knowing how much time and effort goes into keeping strong one of the
pillars of the bay area’s music & cultural scene, I don’t know exactly
what the effects of the loss could be. It could be considered a shame
the way they pulled KUSF off the air but I think it could also maybe
get people’s attention about the current state of music in general.
There’s enough people out there that’d like to see something done –
figuring out how to do it in a way that best suits the needs of the
community will be the next step.

My attention’s got. What’s next?

SFist has all the details of the sale of KUSF right here.

Join Save KUSF if you like.

[Photo by Joshua too]

You guys! Kite Hill is awesome! As this photo by Victoria Smith makes abundantly clear! It’s kind of a haul, but it’s worth it!

Here’s the question! Are the views better when it’s foggy and etheral, or when it’s clear and you can see the entire San Francisco Bay Area!?

Longtime readers might remember Lael as the first person other than me to have “editor” status here on Mission Mission. Nowadays she writes about environmental concerns on a blog called Clamorous Fall (it’s what comes a little while after the Silent Spring), where yesterday she took issue with all the fumes we breathe as cyclists:

I don’t mean to be unreasonable, I even like the smell of exhaust.  I love the smell of gasoline and breathe extra deeply at gas stations.  But when I’m out on the road, all I can think about is benzene, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter that is flowing into my lungs.  Some may choose to buy a “supercool hightech anti-pollution mask” and others may choose to only cycle in rural areas, but these are not really good options for most of us.

Read on for more science and advocacy and pictures of the “supercool hightech anti-pollution mask.”

For some reason I had a car for a few weeks like six or seven years ago, and I was driving back to the Mission after some kind of late-night study session at SF State. KUSF was on the radio. I heard this song “I Am Naked” and I loved it. I Googled it when I got home and promptly downloaded it and a bunch more Stereo Total. Thanks, KUSF, for teaching me about Stereo Total.

SFist has all the details of the sale of KUSF right here.

Join Save KUSF if you like.

I walked over to 24th Street to get some lunch, and every single business was gated off or boarded up, and crews were removing all signage and painting every single building uniform shades of red, yellow and blue. It looked like Lego. Freaky!

(I imagine this had something to do with this week’s Discolandia drama. Also, I had a dream Bob Odenkirk from Mr. Show was yelling at me about something.)

[Photo by tweetsweet]