Mission Mission

I hope everyone’s enjoying Pride Weekend out there in the sun. Don’t forget to drink water. Seriously. We’ve all got to do our part in this awful drought, but drink a lot of water.

The Matrix filmmakers, The Wachowski Siblings, were back in our neighborhood shooting for their upcoming Netflix series yesterday. The series includes a diverse cast from all over the world, including a transgender blogger, which may be the connection to Pride. Though from what we see here it looks like they’re highlighting two cisgender women, so maybe not? I’d hope and assume the Wachowski’s would give a trans role to a trans person. (Correction: Jamie Clayton is trans, thanks, Andy. Did some searching and somehow didn’t find that.) They certainly seem to be willing to work with the communities that in which they’re shooting, Mission Local has an article about production collaborating with CAMP to shoot in Clarion Alley.

Cristiano Valli caught some good shots of them at work during Dykes on Bikes.

Andy Wachowski on set.

Jamie Clayton getting direction from Lana Wachowski.

Jamie Clayton and Freema Agyeman taking a selfie in character.

Lana Wachowski in the zone.

Everyone’s making a big deal about Miley Cyrus’ performance at the VMAs last night, but they probably would have completely lost their shit had they been at the El Rio Pride party last month. Luckily, Courtney Trouble has managed to capture all of the excitement from the party in one amazing (NSFW) video, so do yourself a favor and check it out!

[via Marmotilla]

Last night, in the middle of Pride Weekend, a sizable crowd of proud partygoers danced to music thumping out the window of an 18th Street apartment, blocking the street for cars between Guerrero and Linda. Things seemed mostly joyful, but at one point an SFFD truck came rolling up with bright lights shining onto the street party. The music abruptly cut off, the crowd moaned a loud “Awww!” and with perfect timing the fireman leaned out of the window and exclaimed, “I’m not breaking it up! Just driving through!” The crowd parted in the middle. He rode through and called back “Game on!” The music kicked back in and the crowd cheered.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, everyone.

Congratulations to Cyd for this epic photo that pretty perfectly sums up the Hard French experience and serves as the winner of our free ticket photo contest!  We’re sure you and your friend will have a similarly magnificent time this Sunday, because Pride is finally upon us this weekend and Hard French is ready to celebrate like never before with a whole lineup of DJs and other fun stuff in additon to special guest Erase Errata!

And for the rest of you who might not remember all the details, check them out here!

I’ve expressed my love for Hard French in the past and have been exhorting you all to see what the fun is all about for some time, and now you have the perfect opportunity:  The Hard French 2011 Pride Party at Public Works on Sunday, June 26th!  They folks behind this weekly afternoon party are kicking it up a notch for Pride with DJs and live performances by some of the fiercest acts in the Bay Area.

The best part is that we’re giving away two free tickets to whichever MM readers post the raddest Hard French photo in the comments below!  Include a link to the photo (and a caption if you’re clever) and we will announce the winner at the beginning of next week!  If you have a Facebook photo, be sure that it’s set to “public” so everyone can see it, or just post it on Flickr or something.

Oh my.  I almost forgot to mention that the special guest will be Erase Errata!  Check out the full press release after the jump:

[Photo by Keep Drowning]

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Some of you may have noticed that the regular “Elbo Room” sign had recently been replaced with another older-looking one that reads “Amelia’s.”  Now, it’s back to the “Elbo Room” again.  So, what’s going on here?

Well, after talking to some key Elbo staff, it turns out that around 20 years ago the Elbo Room used to be a rocking dyke bar named Amelia’s that allegedly would have put the Lex to shame.  Every year when Pride rolls around, they dig the old sign out of storage and install it in front as an homage to the bar’s colorful history.  Then, when Pride weekend ends and all the brunches are over, bloody marys flowing in the gutter, they lock it up again and go back to the regular ol’ Elbo Room.  So there you go!

History lesson with Professor Sarkarati over!

Back to Normal

[Normal Elbo Photo by SF Bar Experiment]