Mission Mission

Your favorite dimly lit music venue Amnesia (Valencia b/t 19th and 20th)  is hosting a great Mardi Gras themed party tonight! They start at 9pm and the cover is $7-10 sliding scale.

Headlining are the California Honeydrops, a smokin’ rhythm and blues band out of Oakland and one of my favorites in the bay area. Opening is Damon and the Heathens, a kick-ass punky soul band. Go for the awesome party; stay for the cheap plastic jewelry.

Vids of these fine bands after the jump.

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Hey, fuck you Bobby Flay. I thought it was jacked up how you jumped up on your cutting board and “raised the roof” after the iron chef competition against Morimoto. Then after you lost, you did it again in Japan on his home turf during the rematch! That time, you knew that knives and cutting boards are sacred to the Japanese. Way to shit on an entire culture, troll.

Flay has been known to strangle Target models while making bro-ey O-faces (dramatization)

Did you know this guy doesn’t even have a high school education? Seriously, he dropped out of HS when he was 17! And get this, he’s being sued by former employees for some shitty labor practices like unfair tip pooling, failure to pay overtime, and refusing to pay legitimate employee incurred expenses! Pretty uncool if you ask me.

This is why you should root for Miguel Escobido from Papalote (24th and Valencia) when he squares off in a burrito battle against Flay on Wednesday’s Throwdown With Bobby Flay. That, and no one makes a better burrito than the Mission (okay, maybe Mexico).

The throwdown airs at 10pm Wednesday 2/17. Set your VCRs. More details here.

(via reader James P.)

16th and Mission BART

What ever happens to these pigeons that get stranded on the lowest level of BART? I can’t imagine that they all are able to find their way out. Do they enter the tunnels only to get smacked by a train? Do they fly into a train and get unwillingly deported to Concord?

Anyone want to set up a benefit for these little guys? We’ll guest bartend!

Oh boy, Mission Minis little cupcake kiosk will have it’s grand opening today at 2pm on 22nd b/t Mission and Capp. Pizza Hacker will be there, because if anything goes great with little cupcakes, it’s pizza.

Oh, and there’s gonna be a bunch of free stuff. Creme Brûlée Cart is giving away 100 free mini creme brûlées (fuck, that word has way too many accent characters). Try not to get trampled.

Reader and artiste Donald Tetto says:

I’m involved in a big group art show of tiny works in a tiny space, The Good Shop at 22nd and Folsom…

Almost all the artists are from the Mission, and I’ll be selling a chapbook of my poems about the Mission at the opening. Great Valentine’s Day gift?! But other artists will be showing small photos, sketches, collages, and so on that are really fantastic.

Details at the facebook event page, and in the flyer:

True to V-day form, Donald adds:

Once you linked to one of my tweets: http://missionmission.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/biker-down/ which was pretty helpful as a cute girl later said to me, “Hey, I saw your tweet on Mission Mission!”

He left out the part where she said, “God that site sucks now, when’s Allan coming back?”

(snapped at Ms. Teriosa’s on 24th and Shotwell)

Norma Miller speaking at Savannah Jazz Club 2/10/10

This is pretty rad. 90-year-old Norma Miller (aka “the Queen of Swing”) is a pioneer and creator of the Lindy Hop, by far the most popular form of swing dance today. She was featured in movies such as 1941′s “Hellzapoppin” (proving that “hella” was used, in a more primitive form, 70 years ago), and also worked with a lot of the big names back in the day. You know, like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson… no big deal.

She used to hang at the Savoy in Harlem during it’s prime, the site of some of the first integrated music/dance events in American history.

Last night local dance promoter Chris Lee showed her around the mission, starting at Amnesia, where traditional jazz outfit Gaucho plays every week, then to Savannah Jazz Club on Mission and 25th, where she did a guest lecture.

My buddy Nathan A. had the scoop:

When they introduced her, she bounced up on the stage with more spring in her step than a woman less than half her age. I couldn’t get over how sharp she was – how animated. She had mind like a steel trap! She had us all on the edge of our seats while recalling the “good old days”. She told us how moved she was to see all these young people carrying on the the original American dance form – and a tradition she helped establish. She was hilarious, crude, and sentimental. She worked with Red Fox, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby doing a bit of comedy after her legs started to give out eventually.

Check out this clip of her with Frankie Manning (RIP) tearing it up… WILD!

Elizabeth Gilhooley (American, 1981-), Immovable Iconography, 2010, trash receptacle, washtub, bicycles, GAP bag, 4.5′ x 6′ x 5′, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.

Mark from death wish three and/or breadxbread sends us a tip that the artery bustin’ Ike’s Place experimental sandwich lab is holding an online survey. As if the buy-one-get-one-free coupon that you get in return wasn’t news enough, sections 11-14 seem to imply an interesting future business venture: offering morning-prepped Ike’s sandwiches in vending machines.

Click the following image for a closer look:

For serious? There’s no way a deep-fried mozzarella stick will maintain it’s consistency after 4 hours in a vending machine. And that Halal chicken sauce will eat through your fresh-baked roll leaving you with a soggy mess the likes of which you haven’t seen since your mom didn’t separate out the J in your PB&J lunch back in grade school.

Of course, nothing is certain and this all depends on the interest generated from the survey. Until then, take solace in the fact that Ike’s is still in TCB Courier‘s “Yes, Bro!” zone.