Mission Mission

You remember zines, right?  They were the blogs before there were blogs.  If Allan was born 10 years earlier, Mission Mission might have been a zine!  I think we can all agree that zines are awesome.  After all, if I hadn’t been reading Cometbus back in high school, I probably would have chosen Cal Tech over Berkeley, and the world would now be in the grip of the tyrant who managed to abscond the Lambda Laser from my quantum physics lab.  So, luckily, you don’t have to worry about that.

Anyway, SF Zinefest is a rad event this weekend in the Hall of Flowers at GG Park where zine authors congregate so anyone can check out all their recent work.  In addition to the totally worthwhile experience of checking it out yourself, you can also support the scene by dancing to 90′s music at the Knockout, as DEBASER is hosting a benefit this Saturday night for the SF Zinefest.  So although you can get in free before 11pm by simply wearing a flannel, DON’T!!!  Wear a hoodie or something instead and help support the Zinefest!

Previously:

KevMo Starts a Flame War with DEBASER

Titty City’s blog announced today that some company in Seattle made them a line of high-quality Titty City t-shirts. They’re for sale here at the Hamburger Eyes store and maybe at the Photo Epicenter near 24th and Mission too.

Previously on Mission Mission:

KQED Visits Needles + Pens, Reviews Some Zines, Dismisses Blogs as Less Special

Mule Design’s Re-Elect Clay Davis Shirt

On Friday, the makers of StreetWorthy celebrate the release of their second issue. Following is an excerpt from A View from a Broad by Lexi De Rock, just one of a number of contributions to this handsome volume. We find the protagonist in a loud Parisian nightclub right as some loud German guy notices the thing around her neck:

“You are Jew?” thump thump thump

“What? Oh yeah, Star of David. Yes.” bow chicka bow chicka

“That’s cool, that’s cool. I like Jew.” thump thump thump

“Yeah, me too.” bow chick bow chicka

“It’s kind of satanic seeming, yes?” eeeer schreech

“Sorry what?” cricket cricket

“The star looks like satanic star, no?”

“Oh like, like that pentagram star sort of thing?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, I guess so. A little.” cricket cricket

“Oh, that’s cool.”

“Uh huh.”

“There are many Jews in America?” thump thump thump

“Yeah, I guess.” Bow chicka bow chicka

“How is that working out for you?” thump thump

“Sorry? What?” bow chicka

“Having so many Jews? How is that working out for you?” thump thump

“Uh, good?” bow chicka

“Good, good. That’s very cool.” bow chicka

“Yeah, it is.” thump thump thump…

Wanna read more? Pick up a commercial inflatable park copy of StreetWorthy #2 soon at Needles + Pens, Modern Times, Dog Eared, Aquarius, or possibly Little Otsu.

Possibly related posts:

• Theodor Herzl ‘If you will, it is no dream’ stencil graffiti
• KQED Reviews Some Zines, Dismisses Blogs As Less Special

KQED just published The Needles & Pens Twenty-Three Dollar Adventure, in which writer Suzanne Kleid asks the question, “If I wanted to get 4 or 5 great zines, and spend about twenty bucks, what should I get?” The helpful staff hooks her up with some good stuff, and she sets about picking it apart.

Now I love Needles + Pens, and I spend $20 there often, and I’m glad they’ve gotten this good press. But after reviewing her haul, Kleid concludes:

Blogs are a dime a dozen. They require very little financial investment on the part of the creator, and none at all on the part of the reader. It takes a bigger, more special burst of inspiration to make a physical object out of your life experience.

Ouch. I mean, maybe she sees it that way because she blogs for big corporate media entities like KQED and McSweeney’s. But you can’t tell me that some zine is better than WHATIMSEEING because somebody stapled some papers together and Plug1 didn’t.

Don’t want to end on a negative note though… What great titles have you guys come across at N+P? (I tend to love everything by that Please Let Me Help guy, Titty City for the articles, and I hear good things about StreetWorthy.)

Needles + Pens on Myspace (for bulletin updates like “Hey KQED wrote about us”).