Mission Mission

Reader Laurie V. wants to know:

“Cinema Latino” is what that old pillar-sign seems to say. There’s
some recent construction inside; they seem to have inserted a new
floor halfway up the structure; you can see it through those two big
holes they punched in the facade. There are some planning notices out
front but they don’t really tell me anything. Anybody know what’s
going on?

All I know is that place has really gone down hill ever since they eradicated that epic Ribity. Anybody else have the scoop?

Photo by bsii.

Building upon the deluge of nostalgic Dolores Park photos that surfaced earlier this week, MM reader friscolex clued us in to the gold mine that is the San Francisco Public Library History Center Blog.  And what a gold mine it is!  Here we have a photo of Mission High School students eating lunch in Dolores Park in 1958.  Myriad interesting things here. 

First of all, these “high school” students look a lot older than most high school students I see around these days.  In fact, they look older than most undergrads!  Perhaps they’re not really high school students at all but are merely playing the part a la James Van Der Beek.

Furthermore, I’m not quite sure, but all of these students look pretty white.  Although this may just mean that they weren’t on the city champion soccer team, I’ve got a feeling that most of their fellow classmates were white as well.  50 years later, it seems that things are a little different.

But that’s not all from the SFPL HC!  Check out these amazing early (1965) designs for BART trains!  Supposedly, BART promised “trains automatically timed to arrive at stations every 90 seconds during rush hours, [and] BART is guaranteeing everyone of its passengers a seat[!!!]“  I wonder how that worked out.

Nevertheless, the SFPL History Center is a gold mine.  Be sure to check it out and support it however you can!

Previously:

Dolores Park 20 Years Ago

More Photos of Dolores Park 20 Years Ago

Mission Soccer: A San Francisco Dynasty

SFist knows how to get in on the action.

Last fall, writer Jordan Conn spent some time with the Mission High soccer team. This week, his piece was finally published by a magazine called Good Men Project. Here’s how it starts:

The guy on the trophy looks white.

This much has been decided as the Mission High School soccer players pass around the statuette they’ve owned for four years running, the foot-tall piece of wood lined with bronze that represents their status as the best soccer team in the city.

The figure who sits atop the trophy, the one the players rub with reverence, the one whose company is coveted by all of the city’s coaches—well, he doesn’t look a damn thing like his current owners. His hair is parted perfectly to the side, too long to match Jose Guevara’s close-cropped spike and too neat to resemble Diego Tamayo’s faux-hawk. His jersey looks like it belongs on an Ivy League rugby player, with its plunging neckline and its collar folded down.

And the shorts?

“Those things are hella short,” says Jose Mendoza, laughing as he points. “You can’t be wearing those around here.”

Read on.

This is the point I’ve been trying to make lately with all my posts about Berlin and Salt Lake City. But Jim Rock really hammers it home right here:

Thanks, Jim! Hit the road, everybody!

Needles + Pens announced last night that they’ve got a new zine in stock called Evil Levi, and it’s about our neighborhood’s run-in with Levi’s over the summer. There’s a decent comment thread happening on their wall post too. Check it all out.

Image courtesy of T-Shirt Bordello.

Although the going price of PBR in Mission bars consistently maintains at a steady (and reasonable) $2 (unless that foolish drinking tax gets passed), anytime you have a chance to get wasted at half that price, you have to take it.  Throw in 4 foot tall Connect Four set up (current score–Sarkarati 1, Sexpigeon 0–although my next opponent Kanye West will be a tough one) and you’ve got your Wednesday all figured out!  Thanks Broke-Ass Stuart!

Now, this also brings up an interesting question of bar tipping etiquette.  When you order one PBR, you tip $1, but when you order, say, three PBRs, do you also tip $3?  Does it make any difference how much the drink costs?  Should you tip more for labor intensive ones since they take longer to make?  Does the mixology of a Bloody Mary warrant the same tip as the flick of a pop-top on a can or the addition of Jameson to a glass of ice cubes?

What say you?

Previously:

Doc’s Clock Really Does Have the Nicest Bathroom Ceilings

But They Don’t Have NO JUKE

Miscellaziness is a Mission-based photo blog you can always depend on for some choice shots of fun. Yesterday’s post starts with pills, crack and vacancy, and then takes a turn for the more pleasant. Sort of.

Previously:

Life in the Mission (2008)

I took the day off and found myself near ground zero of Whaletastrophe 2010. In case you haven’t heard, a gashed, likely endangered, whale washed up on the shore of Ocean Beach yesterday. The whale is located near Great Highway and Judah street, and it’s a must-see for anyone with a morbid curiosity for dead marine mammals. I was surprised to find that the smell wasn’t so bad after all. The tidepools at Sutro Baths smell much, much worse.

So what exactly do you do with a dead whale, you ask? No, you don’t blow it up with dynamite. Why does everyone think that, anyway?

Turns out you get a bunch of tractors out there, dig a huge hole, and give it a proper burial:

And I guess if you’re an aspiring street artist named “RATS”, you would tag it:

No word on how they are going to drag it into the hole without the thing falling apart and spilling guts everywhere, but I assume the guys on the job are used to this sort of thing.

Yesterday’s post featuring pictures taken in Dolores Park 20 years ago was so nostalgic it inspired MM reader and cheese connoisseur Gordon Edgar to post some his old snapshots from the same era.

A week or two after Bush Sr. started the first Gulf War San Francisco had a huge protest. We watched the crowd grow outside our window (and let people in to use the bathroom since no one rented honey buckets for protests back then) and I finally took a picture when the crowd got huge. Then we rushed downstairs and joined the march.

Oh yeah, all the people in the park were there for the protest, not sunbathing. The park was empty by the time we got to City Hall.

Read on for more photos of the Park and to find out the name of the vegetarian Chinese restaurant that used to be in the Dolores Park Cafe spot.