Mission Mission

Mission Local reports:

San Francisco police released a statement today seeking the public’s help in finding 32-year-old Matthew Wastrodowski, who was often seen in the Mission.

Wastrodowski was last seen, according to police, at 1 p.m. on December 7 at Clay and Walnut streets, and has not been seen since. He was a frequent visitor to Dolores Park and would go to the Phone Booth bar at 25th Street and South Van Ness Avenue.

He was described as approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing around 140 pounds, with blue eyes, blond hair, and a beard. Wastrodowski was last seen wearing black framed glasses, a red and black plaid shirt, a blue jacket, blue pants and blue shoes.

SFGate adds:

At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing black glasses, blue pants, blue shoes, a plaid shirt and blue jacket — but his jacket, shirt, wallet and keys were found later in the Presidio.

About a year ago, Wastrodowski was treated for depression-related illness and put on medication, according to his mother, Patricia Wastrodowski.

“In July, he got it into his head that he was feeling better and wasn’t going to take it anymore,” Patricia Wastrodowski said Wednesday. “The last two or three weeks, apparently he had become delusional.”

Call SFPD if you can help.

Our old pal Jeff Seal (who is really good at Vine btw) lives in Brooklyn and tonight posted this reaction to a piece of news about some serious hipster bullshit:

Piss on, Jeff! (Also, piss on Jeff!)

Our old pal Marc Caswell, formerly of the SF Bike Coalition, I think relocated to LA a while back and just now shared an LAist (like SFist but in LA) post about a beloved cafe on Sunset Boulevard that after 20 years in business is shutting down because of landlords and Corporate America and everything.

Here’s an excerpt of the Casbah Cafe’s response to LAist’s reporter’s inquiry:

A bitter ending is always better than an endless bitterness. Casbah is a good example of a turning point in a neighborhood where reality switches from everyday common sense to the corporate world reason.

We stayed longer than reason permitted. We tried our best for the friends of Casbah, but what is impossible is impossible…so we were forced to go with no notice for ourselves either. We had to pack up 20 years of a business over night. Silver Lake as it was when we started the neighborhood is gone for good and we could not be the sole supporter for keeping Silver Lake as it started any longer. Casbah never meant to be in such an aggressive and abusive environment with closely surrounding corporate businesses just down the street wanting to be celebrities, just simply a beautiful and real place to be with interesting people.

And then there’s this:

Where was the media when a small business like Casbah was in need of their support when corporate America was jumping up at every Sunset building? Is it because Casbah didn’t pay for their ads? And after almost a decade of no writeups, it shuts down and now it’s the time to take the article glory on a home run.

So, I write a lot of posts that are like “_______ is closing,” and often it’s a place I’ve never patronized or maybe I patronized it once, and I guess probably pretty often it’s a place I’ve never written about. But I write about lots and lots of businesses that don’t pay for ads here (pretty much only Pop’s and American Tripps and pay for ads) — but I’m kinda lazy these days, so I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot of good stuff.

The point is, hit me up. (And if anybody else wants to pay for ads, hit me up too. We can get creative about it.)

Read on for more of the letter, which includes a quotation of some heavy French poetry.

This first one involves Frosted Flakes and green tea:

If you’re not following MCF on Instagram, you should be; it’s where they tend to announce trippy stuff like this these days.

Here’s Mini Wheats with cashew butter and roasted persimmon jam:

And finally, good ol’ Kellogg’s Corn Flakes with something called “sweet and salty corn powder” plus yogurt and berries:

NYC only though, this weekend only, I think. Sorry, Cali chumps.

Now please enjoy this modern classic post about the last trippy thing MCF did here in SF…

Not sure if it’s exactly the same this time or not, but this was the menu last weekend:

These next few days are your absolute LAST CHANCE to dine inside the old Slow Club before it’s taken over and destroyed forever. Here’s Pink Zebra explaining the details:

Come hang out with us! Have some sick cocktails at the bar, Danny Louie (former Chino, Alembic) will be mixing drinks off of our selected list, wine by Trumpet Wine, and Sutton Cellars, maybe some beer, and daily n/a offerings.

Menu will be a la carte. Maybe you wanna sit at the Chef’s Counter? No reservations, first come first served, just fun, great food and drinks to take the edge off the holidays!!

Every thing on the bev and dinner menu will cost $10, and is CASH ONLY. I repeat CASH ONLY, come prepared, so you don’t have to walk up to the gas station:)

And here’s the drink menu:

Procrastinated on your holiday shopping again? Don’t worry, we did too. Lucky for you, the Secret Alley’s brand new Galallery is hosting a ~ Holiday Art Party ~ tomorrow night for all you slackers, featuring goodies by local artists and designers. Here’s a sneak peek:

Limited-edition lapel pins, from the folks behind Gruen Day!

Treats and provisions for all you boozy rats, from hello, cheetle!

A popular sentiment on a shirt, plus other cute tees and bags from assorted local artists! Plus, so much more!

RSVP and invite your friends, and consider dropping by the BFF.fm Holiday Party right up the alley that same night.

I just got out of a screening of the new movie. I won’t bother reviewing it or anything, but I’ll say this: I can’t think of a reason not to see it at the new Alamo, in the Mission, if you can. (How cool is that??? We can see big major movies at a big major theater right here in the neighborhood now!!! Can’t get over it.)

Anyways, it got me thinking about all the times Star Wars and the Mission have crossed paths. I’m sure I’m missing some stuff, but here’s what I was able to find just now…

There was the time we saw an Ewok at 24th Street BART:

There was the time we encountered an Ewok on Alcatraz:

There was the time Star Wars met Dia de los Muertos:

There was the time C-3PO and R2-D2 were advertising some food or something in the Mission way back in the 1970s:

There was the time we saw Darth Vader in a Mission sidewalk:

There was the time Darth Vader celebrated the Giants championship in ’10:

And finally, can’t ever unsee Girl Parts Vader:

10. The time we watched Christopher Walken attack the Golden Gate Bridge with a blimp.

9. The poem I wrote about Hayes Valley.

8. The time we determined what the best song to listen to while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge is.

7. My list of SF-related memories about Jay Reatard (RIP).

6. The #tbt post about the Sofia Coppola movie Somewhere and how I’d seen it at the Roxie back in the day and the scene with the Strokes song is really good and some other stuff.

5. The time I eavesdropped on some techbros in the park and they said a bunch of offensive shit.

4. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Knockout with a list of Knockout memories.

3. The time I ran into a bunch of cool people on a big Friday night out in the Mission.

2. The post we did THE DAY DOLORES PARK OPENED BACK UP!

1. The time I ate the new Mission Chinese Food CHINESE BURRITO for three (3) meals in a row, baby.

Thanks for reading, everybody!

Back when longtime owner Shawn left town suddenly over the summer everybody was like what’s gonna happen is it gonna stay the same. And the answer was that yes it was gonna stay mostly the same but maybe with some minor changes.

Well, they closed up shop for a couple weeks and reopened over the weekend. Capp Street Crap checked it out yesterday:

 A visit there Monday night found the bar feeling bigger and looking sleeker and brighter. The interior was also sparser, with its ceilings opened up to reveal wood beams. A new soundboard and booth is now set up near where couches used to be, the bar has been redone with a new bar menu posted above it, and the stage is slightly larger.

Read on for the full report and more photography.