Mission Mission

The eternal question:  What to do when your uncle left you in charge of his car and you’ve got a few hours to kill before you the Weezer cover band goes on later that evening?  The answer, as always:  EXPLORATION ADVENTURE!

This particular expedition led us to what we believe to be the highest taqueria in San Francisco.  Not quite in the sense that they also function as a green medicinal clinic, but rather according to pure altitude.  Nestled up against Twin Peaks on 755 Portola Drive, the Miraloma Market appears at first to be just another neighborhood grocery store until you realize that it also houses a full-fledged and surprisingly tasty taco shop of its own inside.

The menu includes all the regular stuff you’d expect, such as juicy al pastor and delectable carnitas in burritos and quesadillas and such, but the highlight is the unique EL VEGGIE burrito, which consists of an assortment of steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and other vegetables in addition to the normal beans, rice, cheese, salsa, and guacamole.  Yes, that’s a right:  a Broccoli Burrito.  Delicious enough to get any Papalote-loving vegetarian up the hill once in a while.

Adventure wins once again (and that Weezer cover band was pretty good too).

[Photo by Allan Hough]

Before you go and call that irresponsible parenting, note that she kept both brakes. See you on Potrero Hill, Xenia!

[via Mission Bicycle]

Maybe there’s something to this whole intelligent design thing because Darwin is clearly wrong about these guys, who filmed themselves bombing Portrero hill and blowing stop signs on fixed-gear bikes.

BikeSnobNYC had these bits of commentary gold to offer:

I’m not sure why you’d make a video like this and put it on the Internet unless your goal is to figuratively urinate on the graves of every cyclist who has ever been killed by a motor vehicle through no fault of his or her own.

Ouch! And:

You’d also think that, in a city like San Francisco, climbing hills quickly would be the true measure of cycling prowess, but I guess water and stupidity always find their own level.

Great idea. Anyone want to start making some impressive “reverse hill bombing” videos? Let us know. We’ll meet you with the cameras (these may be cell phone cameras) at 22nd and Church.

[SFWeekly via BikeSnobNYC]

Tomorrow night (12/8) at El Rio from 6:30-8pm Mike Speigler and company challenge you to drunken yourself up and try to spell a bunch of words. Why is this happening? They explain:

Have a consonant craving to avenge a childhood loss suffered during a duel with words? Do you use the English language daily, but rarely find yourself with the freedom to spell when imbibing booze?? Do you even know what a shot of Extenze male enhancement drink tastes like??? If any of these queries needs an answer then come to El Rio on Wednesday December 8th to take part in the first ever Drunken Spelling Bee!!

What is Extenze? Check out this site if you care, but a warning, while you’re trying to figure out how to click on the links, someone will come up behind you and start making a bunch of stale jokes about your supposed shortcomings. Then you’ll whip around and pretend to throw hot coffee in their face but the lid will “accidentally” come off and actually drench them. Now whose performance is in question??

The Facebook event page is here.

El Rio is at 3158 Mission near Cesar Chavez.

I get it. Sometimes it’s tough to trudge that extra couple blocks. Sometimes you just need a burrito in your face NOW.

[Cartoon by Tika Hall]

In case you missed soon-to-be Orange County punk legends Cat Party a few weeks ago at Bender’s, Andy Miller (who last brought us the supremely metaphysical “Women on the Women’s Building“) has you covered here with a quick and dirty interview interwoven with some of their best tunes.  Singer and guitarist Ryan Nichols has a lot to say about everything from San Francisco vs. Orange County to fast vs. slow songs.

If you like what you see, they’re playing again on New Year’s Eve Eve (December 30th) at the Hemlock along with the frenetic Face the Rail and (once again) my band, La Corde.  Stick that in your planner!

In case you wanted to know, Maxfield’s House of Caffeine at 17th/Dolores is now your go-to place for all “analog text message” cheesecake conventions. Commenter A should have done their homework, but we’ll forgive them because the analog message boards of yesteryear regrettably don’t come with Google built-in.

So how do you feel about digital cheesecake?

Mission Local just made its first foray into comedy. It’s a little overlong, but I give them props for trying to find humor in some pretty dark subject matter. Watch it now.

Girls and wild animals are just two facets of photographer Ryan McGinley’s many-faceted new show, on now at Ratio 3. Also addressed are boys, forests, fireworks, train tracks, domesticated animals, and other stuff too probably. The show closes this coming Saturday, so get it while you can.

SF native and hip hop artist Dregs One just started a series of videos called “The Wake Up Report“. The first subject? Mission and Fillmore gentrification. Oh boy, here we go again.

Nothing too new here: he drops the H-Bomb a couple of times, there is a cameo by the Bay Area Derailleurs, and some extremely awkward interviews with inarticulate folks in Dolores Park. He doesn’t get too nasty towards transplants, but it seems like his big beef is that the new folks don’t really make an effort to integrate into the community or learn it’s history. I assume opening your fancy restaurant on Valencia street doesn’t count as integrating and debating which Taqueria invented the Mission burrito doesn’t count as history.