Mission Mission

First Coda, now SoCha.

SoCha Cafe on Mission and Valencia is switching ownership and starting Jan 1st will not continue to host free nightly live music. The spot was owned by the same guy who owns Revolution Cafe, and for a long time they shared calendars and performers. I don’t blame them, the music part never quite took off and it always seemed like more of a sleepy study cafe rather than a live music venue. Most people didn’t even seem aware that this place even had live music.

If you haven’t been to a show there, tonight Classical Revolution is having their last weekly residency there. They have been holding down the gig for about 3 years. It’s an open classical chamber music jam. That’s right, classical music folks “jam” too!

The New York Times has a feature up today on a practice that would send us Missionites into a blind NO SAVESIES rage:

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, the epicenter of the parking wars that erupt here after a snowstorm, the narrow streets were lined with bar stools and coolers, end tables and shopping carts, all meant as warnings: This shoveled-out space is mine until the snow melts. Occupy it at your own risk.

Read on.

[Submitted via our Facebook page; thanks, Rebekah! ]

Previously:

No Savesies Fight

The Tens has the scoop.

500 Club has apparently done right by its customers. Anyplace else in the neighborhood currently in dire need of an ASAP removal job?

This week, Mission Mission brings you a recap of the top 5 posts of 2010. Can you guess the number one post of the year?

If you guessed BART Boner, then you’re wrong! That was posted in 2008 so it doesn’t count. Although, admittedly it’s still up there. Probably because we make way too many off-hand jokes re-linking it. We really should stop doing that. After this post, I mean.

5. FDA to ban Four Loko Nationwide

It used to be at every corner store, now you can only find it in the stockpile under Andrew Sarkarati’s coffee table. Four Loko became national sensation among party people in 2010. Why? It was cheap, first of all. In this economy we all need to cut corners wherever we can. It was also ironic, which is apparently an excellent reason to do anything this year. Perhaps most importantly, it’s loaded with alcohol. This malt beverage contains about twice the alcohol as your typical brew-dog and had a flavor that can only be described as carbonated liquified jello shots.

So why is the government and media being such a drag, man? The stuff is a allegedly marketed to kids. Check out all those fruity flavors and colorful packaging! They might as well serve that swill out of foil-lined bags like Capri Sun. Our own Ariel Dovas even saw the a youngster going loco over Loko on MUNI. The idea of kid-friendly alcoholic beverages isn’t exactly anything new. When I was a young pup trying to fit in, I thought beer was totally gross. The solution? Zima. Dizgusting.

So farewell to Four Loko, we hardly knew you. Say hi to Sparks for us in drinky heaven.

4. Spurned Scenester Sullies Sightly Street Art

Local tagger KKKatie is no stranger to controversy, what with the whole scribbling quasi-racist stuff on public and private property. She also apparently doesn’t care much for our 25th president William McKinley. That is, like, so anti-American.

This year she drew the most ire in the Mission when she enhanced a Chris Lux mural with her own artistic vision inspired by what you might see scrawled on the door of a high school bathroom stall. Apparently there was some kind of beef between the two. The mural was restored in one day, but still, this marked the beginning of the end for KKKatie. She was condemned by the street art community and her friends. Finally, at Bay to Breakers, she was caught allegedly spray painting on a dude and threatening to accuse him of rape if he did anything about it. In the end, she was acquitted of any actual hate crime charges, but got slapped with 11 counts of vandalism.

Of course, as with anyone you put in the spotlight for a bit, KKKatie has her fans, crediting her as some kind of disutopian, punk-rock folk hero. But most of us think she’s more likely a chemically imbalanced young lady off her meds. I suppose only she (and perhaps her lawyer) knows for sure.

Ever wonder what the Mission looked like before “all those CCA taggers and fixie kooks” arrived?  Well, MM reader Eric Shea was kind enough to pass along this video, which he got from his buddy Joe Bay, who presumably got it from creator Patrick Gleason.

Check it out for some neat High8 footage of skating through the Mission in 1994 (around the same time that Fugazi would routinely play shows in Dolores Park).

Link:  http://vimeo.com/14287360

It happens every year, all over. Reader Ross S. sends us this video he shot of some folks burning a tree in the street. (Thanks Ross!)

He also suggests that:

[A] public service announcement regarding when it is ok to burn things in the street (world series win) and when it isn’t (any other time) is in order.

That does sound helpful. When is it okay to burn things in the street? Though this seems a lot safer than burning a mattress in a crowd of hundreds of drunkenly excited fans. It’s probably never “okay”, if you’re really talking about a PSA, but you’ll do it anyway, so it’s always good to be safe while performing illegal acts of anarchy. Anyway, I always thought the beach was the spot to take all of the old Christmas trees. Stack ‘em up and build a super tree. Or just join Danger Ranger. (whoever that is)

One thing we should definitely avoid is leaving a burning tree on someone’s doorstep.

I’d like to also take this opportunity to wonder aloud about shooting video portrait-style, instead of landscape. I know we watch this stuff on our computers, and not the TV, but media still tends to be oriented wider rather than taller. I don’t think anyone prefers the pillarboxed look (seen above), yet people do tend to shoot this way with their phones. Do we need to make room for the long and narrow format? Or should we make people feel stupid so they conform to the old standards?

Usually I’m wholeheartedly against pets wearing outfits, but this was just too ridiculous.  Fantastic retro color scheme for the vest (with strikingly strategic peace patch placement), augmented by a similarly-pigmented bone shirt worn underneath?  And his fur matches too?

Probably the only time I’ve ever been jealous of a dog’s ensemble.  If anyone can recreate this outfit in human clothes, I will gladly wear it out to Mission Mission’s office hours (usually Wednesdays at Bender’s) for all to see.  I don’t even care that there aren’t any pants.

Previously:

Pupgate

Puppy Loves Playing Soccer

Best Puppy Ever

Since Ping Pong Gallery hung up their paddles and changed their name to something more mature, I can’t think of any good places in town to play ping pong. What gives?

Curbed last week mentioned a movement to install some tables in local parks. That’d be nice.

That McSweeney’s event (pictured) was fun, but a one-off.

There’s that janky table in the yard at Finnegan’s, but that’s a haul.

Somebody with a table in their art space or office or something want to start hosting a regular ping pong happy hour or something? Please?

Local cyclist and shutterbug Leah was on a bike ride up north and stopped in a little town called Comptche, where they sell a product called ARAB GOLD. Nice find, Leah. Gotta get me some of that.