Mission Mission

“And like that, poof, he’s gone.”  I am inclined to think that Otter was not in fact behind it this time.  It’s a good thing that everybody and their brother already photographed this to death, because now it’s really dead.  Alas, no one had the foresight to put up a sign in Cantonese warning that this art is “very hard to get it.”

Anyone know the story behind this Banksy whitewashing?  Any of the other Bansky pieces throughout the city suffer a similar fate?

UPDATE!!!  An anonymous commenter seems to have the scoop:

The building owner lives in Texas and received a notice from the city. Not knowing the significance of the piece, or what it was, he had it painted over. The owners of The Curiosity Shoppe live in the building and were obviously unable to convince him to keep it.

Yikes!  However, this is the kind of thing that happens when you have an out of state absentee property owner who doesn’t seem to know or care about the culture of the area in which his property resides.

Also, I was able to get a free Chinese language lesson out of this too.  Apparently, Cantonese and Mandarin refer only to spoken language, whereas written language is always known vaguely as Chinese.  So, even though most of the residents of Chinatown happen to be Cantonese speakers, that sign was nonetheless written in Chinese.  Case closed! 

Previously:

San Francisco Has Banksy Fever!

Banksy Fever Continues!

Enough Banksy for Chu?

Discovered by MrEricSir on Valencia near 16th.

But MrEricSir suspects Ivan Reitman’s involvement, and I concur — note the proximity to the Slimer Tree that Ariel discovered on 15th St.

If only the meters were a series of pastel colors, then we could blame Warhol’s ghost.

UPDATE: Perhaps someone is protesting, as Chicago saw last year?

Maybe it’s the shut-down-Valencia-to-cars movement embodying Burnham’s ghost — his 1905 plan for SF had two long, giant parks, one down Capp and the other along 23rd:

Recursion!

Hmm, what’s this?  The flag of some breakaway Soviet republic?  Fabricstan?

Nope — just a Levi’s ad…

…tacked up to the windows of Groger’s Western Store on Valencia & 26th.

Guess that explains the burnt orange bicycles and lavender sawhorse (which is now gone). For a minute I though Levi’s was opening up a store on Valencia. La Lengua would welcome you with open arms.

But you have to admit it’s rather appropriate for Groger’s.  Though I really don’t know which of those colors would go best with a brushpopper shirt.

I can’t quite tell if this epic Sirron Norris painting is a paean to Muni past or a biting critique into present Muni woes.

(Is that a 26 Valencia floating off into the sunset? All I know is I’m loving that pickup truck.)

More Sirronographs on Telstar Logistics’ Flickr feed. Or visit the new Sirron Norris gallery on 26th and Valencia.

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.

Burrito Justice, the Mission’s top historian, has done it again, this time with a full-scale expose on the storied history of business at the corner of 26th and Valencia.  He also comes up with the line of the decade so far:

“24th is certainly a hipster semipermeable membrane.”

Perhaps Capp Street is the voltage-gated ion channel in this scenario.

Though I do enjoy how clean everything looks after a few good rain showers, pleeeeaaaaaase, can it stop raining?  The streets have been scrubbed senseless!

Photo from sirgious.

Taylor (a.k.a. Sweet T) sent us a pic of this crab-bot the other night:

I saw this tonight at 18th and Valencia. It was fresh – both literally and figuratively.

Ha!  Those claws and lifeless eyes remind me of Rosie from The Jetsons, except way more terrifying.

Side note: I’ve always wanted to stencil something into undried cement, but always stop myself because I know it’d probably be pretty shellfish of me (OH YES I DID!).

Valencia sidewalks being put in!  Now’s the time to trace your initials into the cement.

Photo from Spots Unknown.