Mission Mission

Last fall, writer Jordan Conn spent some time with the Mission High soccer team. This week, his piece was finally published by a magazine called Good Men Project. Here’s how it starts:

The guy on the trophy looks white.

This much has been decided as the Mission High School soccer players pass around the statuette they’ve owned for four years running, the foot-tall piece of wood lined with bronze that represents their status as the best soccer team in the city.

The figure who sits atop the trophy, the one the players rub with reverence, the one whose company is coveted by all of the city’s coaches—well, he doesn’t look a damn thing like his current owners. His hair is parted perfectly to the side, too long to match Jose Guevara’s close-cropped spike and too neat to resemble Diego Tamayo’s faux-hawk. His jersey looks like it belongs on an Ivy League rugby player, with its plunging neckline and its collar folded down.

And the shorts?

“Those things are hella short,” says Jose Mendoza, laughing as he points. “You can’t be wearing those around here.”

Read on.

This is the point I’ve been trying to make lately with all my posts about Berlin and Salt Lake City. But Jim Rock really hammers it home right here:

Thanks, Jim! Hit the road, everybody!

Needles + Pens announced last night that they’ve got a new zine in stock called Evil Levi, and it’s about our neighborhood’s run-in with Levi’s over the summer. There’s a decent comment thread happening on their wall post too. Check it all out.

Image courtesy of T-Shirt Bordello.

Although the going price of PBR in Mission bars consistently maintains at a steady (and reasonable) $2 (unless that foolish drinking tax gets passed), anytime you have a chance to get wasted at half that price, you have to take it.  Throw in 4 foot tall Connect Four set up (current score–Sarkarati 1, Sexpigeon 0–although my next opponent Kanye West will be a tough one) and you’ve got your Wednesday all figured out!  Thanks Broke-Ass Stuart!

Now, this also brings up an interesting question of bar tipping etiquette.  When you order one PBR, you tip $1, but when you order, say, three PBRs, do you also tip $3?  Does it make any difference how much the drink costs?  Should you tip more for labor intensive ones since they take longer to make?  Does the mixology of a Bloody Mary warrant the same tip as the flick of a pop-top on a can or the addition of Jameson to a glass of ice cubes?

What say you?

Previously:

Doc’s Clock Really Does Have the Nicest Bathroom Ceilings

But They Don’t Have NO JUKE

Miscellaziness is a Mission-based photo blog you can always depend on for some choice shots of fun. Yesterday’s post starts with pills, crack and vacancy, and then takes a turn for the more pleasant. Sort of.

Previously:

Life in the Mission (2008)

I took the day off and found myself near ground zero of Whaletastrophe 2010. In case you haven’t heard, a gashed, likely endangered, whale washed up on the shore of Ocean Beach yesterday. The whale is located near Great Highway and Judah street, and it’s a must-see for anyone with a morbid curiosity for dead marine mammals. I was surprised to find that the smell wasn’t so bad after all. The tidepools at Sutro Baths smell much, much worse.

So what exactly do you do with a dead whale, you ask? No, you don’t blow it up with dynamite. Why does everyone think that, anyway?

Turns out you get a bunch of tractors out there, dig a huge hole, and give it a proper burial:

And I guess if you’re an aspiring street artist named “RATS”, you would tag it:

No word on how they are going to drag it into the hole without the thing falling apart and spilling guts everywhere, but I assume the guys on the job are used to this sort of thing.

Yesterday’s post featuring pictures taken in Dolores Park 20 years ago was so nostalgic it inspired MM reader and cheese connoisseur Gordon Edgar to post some his old snapshots from the same era.

A week or two after Bush Sr. started the first Gulf War San Francisco had a huge protest. We watched the crowd grow outside our window (and let people in to use the bathroom since no one rented honey buckets for protests back then) and I finally took a picture when the crowd got huge. Then we rushed downstairs and joined the march.

Oh yeah, all the people in the park were there for the protest, not sunbathing. The park was empty by the time we got to City Hall.

Read on for more photos of the Park and to find out the name of the vegetarian Chinese restaurant that used to be in the Dolores Park Cafe spot.

Eater SF this afternoon published a roundup of early remarks from critics and Yelpers regarding Commonwealth, the still-fledgling “real” restaurant from the makers of Mission Street Food. Most of the talk sounds pretty good. I can’t wait to eat at this place. Read all about it.

Photo by Jennifer Yin.

Comedian Alex Koll just published a piece for Bold Italic examining the variety of crazy window displays around the neighborhood.

He covers the troll window, the owl window and the Dennis Richmond paintings window, but neglects our favorite window. No worries though, there’s some great M.U.S.C.L.E. news at the end.

On Saturday, we reported that some local businesses had voiced some opposition to the news that Blue Bottle had been approved to open a coffee cart in Dolores Park. Blue Bottle was compared to American Apparel. Since then, a flurry of comments has run the gamut from thought-provoking to nasty. Today, the owners of Fayes Video weighed in to clarify their position:

The actual point I was trying to make was not a comparison between Blue Bottle and AA, but rather comparing the situation. I was trying to point out that it seemed okay for other businesses and neighbors to speak out about the possibility of AA opening a store on Valencia Street, in fear that it would ruin the local aspect of the neighborhood. I am not trying to say that BB should not be allowed in Dolores Park. When Tartine opened 6 years ago we did not protest another coffee venue coming to the street, people should be allowed to set up shop and do business you are right. BUT those places are privately owned and have a lease and rent… the situation here is entirely different. We are talking about PUBLIC space.

The comment volley starts here. The Fayes folks start talking here.

Photo by nuzz.