Mission Mission

It seems that if one heads North on 5 (or “The 5″ for you SoCal people) for about 474 miles one can run into a little town called Oakland.

The population on record is just under the three digit mark, and, like many small towns along the way, much of the business in this 123 year old town seems to come from the sale of antiques. In other words, the property of the former population.

Pretty much every building has an old faded painted advertisement on the side, and the Oddfellows maintain their presence. Kind of a classic historic Western town. The athletics in this Oakland play for the Oakers, the championship winning high school teams. The school newspaper is the Oaker Chronicle.

There is no place for a traveller to sleep in Oakland, but you can stroll through in the daytime and witness a tiny town out of time. Check out this informative website and learn about the finest wineries in the area and the origin of the broad breasted bronze turkey!

If you like art or music or food or short films or rad people or just kickin’ it on Capp Street you should head to these fine institutions this Saturday. Three art spaces mere steps away from one another are joining forces to simultaneously rock your world.

The Sub will have art and photography on display for your viewing delight as well as live music and DJ skills. 199 Capp Street.

Kitsch Gallery will host a silent auction to benefit Homeless Children’s Network and have some pleasing music to lull you into giving. 3265 17th Street.

The Secret Alley (of which I am a member) will take you through paintings and installations downstairs, then upstairs to show you super sweet short films presented by Wholphin in the afternoon and then rock your body with live jammy jams in the evening. 180 Capp Street.

Lighting up at Valencia near 15th.

Although this looks old, so the information may no longer be accurate.

Seriously, what is going on here?

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a new bag company in the neighborhood, Mission Workshop. Tasked with doing some kind of a review of their backpack, I decided to . . . well, I did my best. Take a look.

In summary, the bag is expensive, at $200+ it’s more than I would think to spend on a bag. Then again it’s made and, apparently, sourced in the US. Plus, as was pointed out on the previous thread, if you only have to buy it once and it lasts, maybe it’s a solid investment.

In any case, this does seem like a great bag to take camping or on an urban hike or whatever. It’s huge and fits a ton of crap. It’s also obviously made with care and attention to detail. So if this is the kind of thing that’s important to you, this is a good buy.

I’m still uneasy with all these hip new things being named after the neighborhood . . . but I’m writing this on a blog that did it twice, so what can I really say.

Mission: Comics and Art‘s own Leef Smith was recently immortalized in comic form, along with two other local comic shop guys and a few old school ones. The amazing drafstman Jon Adams illustrates and writes the piece for The Bold Italic.

As drawn by Jon Adams.

As photographed by AD.

This Saturday Leef invites you into his awesome shop on 20th Street for a performance by Marian Call. Her music is rad and when you hear it you know why she’s playing at a comic book store.

Info is found here.

Found at The Secret Alley.

Found on 18th near Dolores.

Jason Rosete captured some sweet pics of other Jasons jumping around in Dolores Park.

Jason Maggied cruising for a(nother) bruising.

Jason Clary getting air(y).