Mission Mission

A reason to visit the Elbo Room tonight (unlike other nights when it’s a Marina weekend or transplanted tourist destination) featuring CLAWS and TITS, as well as MissionMission favorite Eats Tapes, among others.

Come out and do a little bit more for Haiti, because honestly, it’s been kinda pathetic lately.  And like we’ve said before, texting 90999 doesn’t count when your mom pays your celly bill.

Rolling Stone‘s Rock and Roll Daily reports that She & Him, Fiona Apple and Jon Brion, Tim and Eric and others will perform songs written by 826LA students for an upcoming record called Chickens in Love. Read the story here. Preorder the disc here.

Sooo, how long ’til we get Girls and Deerhoof to perform on an album of songs by 826 Valencia kids?

Photo of She & Him at Oysterfest 2008 by artolog.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=18th+and+valencia&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.307813,77.871094&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=18th+St+%26+Valencia+St,+San+Francisco,+California+94110&ll=37.771732,-122.417393&spn=0.010602,0.019011&z=14&layer=c&cbll=37.76243,-122.421648&panoid=e1f8RU8de3dIqZ0gC97RwA&cbp=12,132.85,,1,5.24&output=svembed&w=425&h=350]

The best thing to come of all this Pizza by Farina news? The knowledge that a living, breathing person has not only set foot inside of — but actually, physically DINED at — the perpetually empty Pizzeria, that weird pizzeria on the ground floor of the Tropicana Hotel on Valencia.

TJ’s review begins:

Honestly- Pizzeria is one of my favorite spots around the Mission. They won’t sell you beer, which is part of why it’s empty. But they’ll let you bring your own in and drink for free, which is even better.

Read on.

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.

The world-renowned Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is performing at Coda Lounge (you know, that place Stevie Wonder sometimes hangs out) on Mission and Duboce this Friday 2/12. They are a super-fresh modern jazz group out of Oklahoma that now features an instrument you don’t usually see in this genre: lap steel guitar. Check out the video below for a sample.

These guys don’t just pound out standards, they write a lot of original music and their sound is really unique, blending rock, middle-eastern, hip-hop, country, and experimental influences. It’s modern, yet still rockin’ and accessible. No diss to lots of other modern/experimental jazz stuff, but I don’t always like to hear squeaking saxophones and see dudes hunched over effects pedals.

That and any band who uses a Spinal Tap reference in their name is fine by me.

They start at 10pm and the show is $15.

Had the pleasure of sitting down to a peaceful brunch at Boogaloos today.  I never go on the weekends because it’s a veritable shitshow, but on an unassuming Wednesday it can be quite a pleasant experience.  Oh, and look!  The menus are new and shiny instead of those flimsy paper things!

Wait a minute, something isn’t right here.  All the menu items seem to be a dollar or two more expensive than last I remember.  Uh oh.  I hope they didn’t mess with the . . .

Curses!  They did!  What are they thinking?  $4 for a mimosa?  Not quite Foreign Cinema or Beretta prices, but also not a direction in which I am comfortable proceeding.  Am I ridiculously late in discovering this?

Well, at least maybe now it won’t be such a shitshow on weekends anymore.

Quesadilla = Tortilla + Cheese, right?

“Nuh-uh!” says El Salvador:

Sarkarati busted this Quesadilla Salvadorena out at Taco Summit ’10 last weekend. It’s a sweet, pound cake-ish food item, that somehow manages to taste cheesy using grated queso fresco. Try one for yourself for about $3 at La Palma on 24th and Bryant.

Between their service cutbacks, perpetual lateness, shameless venting on twitter, colliding with pedestrians, and providing free showers to residents on Fillmore St., it’s clear that MUNI is in the middle of an epic downward spiral of fail. Why? State budget cuts, they say.

But waitaminute… I can think of this other city that also happens to be in this state: Oakland. You know, that place you never go to in the “Eastern Bay”?

Ooh, shiny! This picture is from my phone, not an AC Transit informative brochure.

I work in Downtown Oakland every day and I sometimes use AC Transit. During a recent ride, it occurred to me that there are some really amazing things about it:

1. I’ve never had to wait longer than 10 minutes for a bus. The “walk or ride” calculation never becomes a factor.
2. Buses are modern and clean. Seriously, look at the picture. It looks like interior of an airport shuttle.
3. The realtime Nextbus predictions are actually accurate and seem to be able to distinguish between buses going in the opposite direction.
4. No one sneaks in the back door of the bus or flashes a dubious expired transfer. Everyone walks in through the front and pays their fare.
5. There’s this awesome concept of “Rapid” lines. Example: the 72 stops wherever you want, but the 72R will only stop at major intersections, often shaving off 10-20 minutes of travel time. Does the 49 really need to stop every block on Mission St? A 49R that stops at Van Ness, 16th, 24th, then Valencia would change my life.
6. As far as I know, no one has ever had to defend her seat with karate on AC Transit (less tempers, less crazies).

So why doesn’t AC Transit suck? I’m sure there are a lot more factors here, but their annual operating budget is $320 million, while the SFMTA is a whopping $808 million.

Damn, maybe I just need to get my bike fixed already and stop thinking about MUNI.

Emalie found this abandoned sea shell at 22nd and Folsom, obviously left behind as cataclysmic flood waters receded back to the ocean from whence they came, leaving the ark ready to repopulate the world.

Emalie take lots of nice pictures, but they’re all locked up in her Facebook (is that grammatically correct these days?).  Free your pics, Emalie!  That goes for all the rest of you, too.

Previously: Catholicism Strikes Again

Telstar Logistics. Laughing Squid. Burrito Justice. Mission Mission. What happens when they join forces? Mission Blog Force 2010! A veritable historical mapgasm ensues.

Laughing Squid and Telstar Logistics recently exposed us to the historical imagery feature in Google Earth.  San Francisco’s 1946 layer proved irresistible, especially concerning the old SF Seals baseball stadium, now home to the Potrero Safeway and Office Depot.

As is inevitable amongst map wonks, the Telstar Logistics and Burrito Justice mapping teams started to wonder exactly where in the stores the bases were located. The alignment of the 1947 photomap is a little wobbly in Google Earth (it’s off by 30-100 feet) so we turned to another favored source for greater precision, Sanborn maps overlaid in GE. Behold the diamond of history.

In the world’s first blogging simulcast, you can see the raw base photos of the Telstar Logistics Surveying Unit along with painfully detailed overlay maps by the Burrito Justice Research Department. Telstar Logistics historical analysis will be available on Laughing Squid posthaste.

For some perspective (because that’s how we roll) here’s opening day for the Giants in 1959, their first game against LA. That’s 16th on the top and Bryant on the right.

Note that history was made recording history: a blogger ACTUALLY LEFT HIS HOME and went on-site to determine that home plate and 1st are located in Office Depot, while 2nd and 3rd base in Safeway.

Below, blue tape marks third base, looking towards home plate.  (Torillas in front of you, and frozen pizzas behind you, as is so often the case when you’re trying to steal home.)

To make this post even more relevant to the Mission — Seals Stadium was also home to the Mission Reds (aka the Missions) before they moved down to Hollywood in 1938.

And prior to Seal Stadium’s construction in 1930, both teams played at 14th and Valencia at Recreation Park. Think of that next time you’re at Four Barrel.

More photos and maps at TL, LS, and BJ.