Mission Mission

Amnesia is unveiling a new mural by Andre Karpov tonight. You may recognize his other works at places like Pizzaria Delfina, and that alley by Range. He also happens to be a great songwriter and musician.

While this mural doesn’t quite have the excitement of the bear, it does feature a bunch of local mission personalities. That accordionist in the mural is none other than Rob Reich. In fact, Rob is playing during the unveiling with ragtime guitar genius Craig Ventresco (you may have heard Craig’s music in the movie Crumb) and Meredith Axelrod. They play there every Friday, by the way. I wonder if Rob knows he’s been muralized? If not, awk-WAARD!

Say, maybe you’ve been muralized too. You’re just gonna have to go and see for yourself; that’s why I posted an ultra low-res of the mural. Unveiling starts at 7pm. Amnesia is on Valencia between 19th and 20th. Stick around for the happy hour drinks!

This post is completely unrelated to the Underground Railroad; however, you can click the above image to learn about these unique 19th-century slave escape routes.

Broke-Ass Stuart points us to ForageSF‘s Underground Farmers Market, tonight from 5-11 p.m. at 2755 Bryant Street.  Local vendors will be gathering to hawk their delicious wares.  Who’ll be there, per the site:

forageSF: Acorn flour, fresh wild mushrooms, wild fennel seeds, huckleberry jam, wild Blackberry jam, and CSF gift certificates
HeartBaker: Makes some amazing baked goods
Slow Jams: Great homemade jam
Will Schrom: Homemade sarsparilla (maybe the best soda you’ve ever tasted)
Captain Blankenship: Soaps and salves
Kelsey: Gingerbread houses
Garden Fare: Edible garden gift boxes
The Golden Crust: Pies, pies, pies
The Girl From Empanada:  Homemade empanadas
Lauren & Jon Bowne: Homemade Jewish deli fare (think corned beef, not gefilte fish)
Five Flavors Herbs: Wild foraged tinctures

Yum!  There’ll be homebrew, too, and some live music.  Sounds pretty decent.

miss burritos.  (via meixellient.)

In other news, I’m still hella jetlagged.

Zarah sent us this slice of life from 16th and Rondel:

Thought I would share my sighting of a man shamelessly walking down 16th Street with bong in hand. He was getting a lot of hoot and hollers from the locals on the block. Good to know that bongs attract cat calls too.

Heh.  Sounds like a job for @missioncatcalls.

How would you cat call a bong?  I would say “HEY MAMA COME OVER HERE AND LET ME HIT THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and then make kissy kissy noises.

Great show at the Hemlock Tavern tonight! In case you didn’t know they have shows in that weird walk-in ‘fridge area in the back.

Top Critters is a bizarre and wonderful 5-piece acoustic instrumental group that puts slide whistle and accordion to great use.  La Corde is a new group out of the mission that likes it’s punk of the post variety. Drummer Andrew can beat Metroid in under 2 hours and get the bikini ending; ask him how.

Oh yeah in case you missed it, last night at the ‘lock was awesome too. Dreamdate was cute as hell and played my fav song (that one that goes “uh-uh-oh uh-uh-oh”). Brian Glaze and the Nightshift rocked so hard I had to grab people and demand that they air guitar with me. The second thing might have had to do with drinking too many PBRs. Allan’s back, I had to! Successful evening all around.

Hey, now! Tablehopper tells me Front Porch is doing lunch now, Wednesday through Friday.  Delightful!

According to their website, the menu includes fried oysters, slow roasted meat po’ boy of the day, catfish, and seasonal veggie po’boys.

No more waiting for a table at Brenda’s for two hours for some gumbo, dudes.  Well, at least not Wednesday through Friday.

[Image from San Francisco Days]

Here’s the gchat Allan and I just had regarding tonight’s Mission Street Food menu.  We type in all caps like your Internet-savvy granny:

Kat: ALLAN HERE IS THE MENU FOR TONIGHT’S SHOW

http://blog.missionstreetfood.com/2009/12/vegan-night-for-western-addition-senior.html

PEAR SALAD IS OPENING

I DONT THINK CACAO AND BANANA HANDPIE WILL GO ON UNTIL 10 OR SO

Allan: I WAS REALLY INTO VEGAN BURGER FLATBREAD BACK WHEN I LIVED AT CLOYNE

Kat: I LIKE THEIR EARLY WORK BUT THEY SORT OF LOST ME LATER ON

GUESS YOU COULD SAY THEY FELL FLAT

Allan: BUT SERIOUSLY ANTHONY’S SESAME AVOCADO BROWN RICE IS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING ON EARTH

Kat: YOU HAD ME AT MUSHROOM DUMPLINGS IN MISO

P.S. We have no idea whether MSF is still cool, so please let us know.  Will tonight be a shit show?

Us good Christians are definitely losing the war on Christmas to “progressive” “Americans” but, luckily, in China, “Mery Christma” is here to stay.  (Also digging the ribity homage)

Squeal!  Eye on Blogs posted a video report about Muni street name mispronounciations.

The highlight?  Seeing the face of Ms. Muni Voice herself.  Feast your eyes on MS. DONNA REED:

Photo stolen from SF Chronicle

Swoon!  She’s just as friendly, authoritative, and subtly seductive as her voice implies.

Donna works for DRI, the company responsible for Muni’s digital announcements, in Houston, Texas.  Her thick Texan drawl is the reason you keep missing your bus stop.

I really love the way she says “Cabrillo.”  Kah-BRILL-ohhhh.  What’s your fave?

Hurry, get your historically-accurate Santas at that One $ Only store* between 23rd and 24th!

*Item may not actually be $1. It’s one of those misleading “one dollar and up” stores. WTF? All they are doing is setting a minimum price.