Mission Mission

I know everyone else has already done all kinds of stuff about Banksy’s apparent PR trip to SF. (Kevmo is the go to guy for all my Bansky needs!) We couldn’t really sit around the Mission Mission offices sipping maté in our sweatpants all day and not join in the action a little.

So, let me ask you this, are these pieces still Banksy pieces if he didn’t put them up himself? If he designed them and maybe even chose the location and then e-mailed a PDF to his assistants who then cut the stencil and put them up, does that still make it a Banksy original? If it’s a unique design, which he doesn’t use anywhere else? This conversation took up most of my night last night and my voice is a little hoarse from all the loud talking, so I wanted to know what all of you thought.

UPDATE: Banksy loves pants!

Filmmaker Joshua Grannell (sometimes known as Peaches Christ) sat down with me to talk a little about one of his favorite Mission haunts, The Victoria Theatre.

Joshua’s feature film, a dark comedy shot in our very neighborhood, All About Evil, premieres as part of the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival on May 1st at the Castro Theater. It will be a wild, live extravaganza that sounds basically like the mother of all Midnight Masses. Get tickets here and get them fast! This thing is hot!

Watch a clip of the movie here.

Part one of two.

UPDATE: Jason says that advance tickets have been gone for a minute. I may have old info. In any case, look for other live shows at The Victoria in the near future, and in the meantime you can go to the pre-party on April 30th at The Stud Bar.

Just kidding. Harrison and 14th.

Check out this blast from the recent past. Calling All Monsters are sadly no longer with us, but their music video for “We Are Special Forces” is.

Lead singer Matthew Troy (formerly of local band Track Star and current co-owner of local shop Faye’s Video) and I lived in an apartment on Guerrero near 18th and the basement (which had some interesting history that I’ll save for a later post) served as the location for this video about the real band breaking up a party with an imposter band.

Who knows, you may recognize some of your friends at this party.  Plus, watch me get shot in the head while shredding on guitar.

Directed by Akira Boch and Francisco Hernandez.

Yesterday (known for the next few days or so as “on Sunday”) I was walking through the hot and sunny neighborhood enjoying the whole thing and I strolled up to the park hoping to run into some friends. When I found them I got excited and I jumped around a bit and did some old fashion tackling-type activity. At some point during this play my iPod fell out of my pocket and into the grass.

That’s a bummer, I thought later, finding an empty pocket, since it’s kind of new and I use it a lot. But maybe I’ll just have to find more creative ways to do things. I was even about to finally give in and buy a cellular phone.

But then, when I got home, I found an e-mail from a stranger who said that she had found my iPod and I should send her my number so I could come pick it up! And I did and I did! I stopped by the home of some dude who was maybe her partner or friend or who cares, but he was so nice and when I handed him some cookies as a thank you he almost didn’t take them. “Well, anyone would have done it,” he said.

But I’m not sure that’s true. Would you?

(illustrative photo by the awesome Potential Past)

P.S. When I was in college I was pick pocketed on the subway at Times Square and got the wallet in the mail a week or two later with my ID still in it. So, maybe I’m too lucky for my own good or maybe people are generally pretty considerate.

Making Tadpoles

Originally uploaded by bats…

More from Bob this week. Do these frogs remind you of something?

Frjtz is exploring the possibilities of the new Valencia Street and all its extra space. I’ve never eaten there, and the menu, prices and ambiance don’t entice me. But actually sitting down outside without the fear of Gavin Newsom popping out from behind a safety cone and forcing me onto a one way bus trip to Santa Cruz, that sounds pretty nice. What do you think?

Construction. That’s what’s up.

First it was just a blindfolded Barbie™ top on the roof of a car. Then it got complicated.

I was walking down 17th Street and stopped when I recognized a familiar landmark. I noticed a pigeon standing on the roof, eyeing the torso with sideways glances. I was thinking about what the next level of this situation could look like when a man came out of Maverick and started speaking to me.

“Are you the owner of this car?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well, we’ve been trying to figure out how to get this pigeon to skull fuck the Barbie™ for a while.”

Then he put a piece of bread on her head and we both watched and waited.

I suggested a trail, which he was already on top of. As he made the little bread path the bird got embarrassed and uncomfortable and flew away.

End of situation.

Lydia Chávez at Mission Loc@l reports that a brick was hurled through the window of the Sirron Norris Studio on Valencia Street.

Lame for sure.

Source of the photo and the rest of the story here.

Also from Mission Loc@l, a new Reyes piece in the making on the Walgreens at 23rd and Mission.

Sirron Norris was previously covered on Mission Mission here.

Shark Toof has been spotted around these parts a bit. This weekend brought a sighting in L.A.

Cameo by our old frenemy, NeckFace.