Mission Mission

Our buddy Joshua got majorly bummed the last time he saw Critical Mass clogging up the intersection of Van Ness and Market. Oops… we did it again! But we were a pretty small group this time (probably due to the “snow”), so we didn’t do as much damage to peoples’ schedules as usual.

Being a small group meant we were nimble enough to traverse that little bike bridge through the Hairball. And our motorized escort went right along with us:

What fun!

Noise Pop 2011 has been going strong for a few days now, but today marks the beginning of what they’re calling their flagship event. It takes place at Public Works right here in the Mission, and it’s an all-day affair featuring workshops and readings and a four-hour interactive drawing session. Here are details on a couple highlights:

REBAR is the organization behind Park(ing) Day, and my favorite parklet. Today, they host a brainstorming session:

All cities contain voids, loopholes, and niche spaces: pockets of unscripted wilderness that can be explored for their creative potential. Join Matthew Passmore, cofounder and principal of Rebar, for a brief overview of Rebar’s work followed by a workshop that invites participants to bring a photograph or description of a niche space from their own environment, whether urban, suburban, or rural. We will collectively brainstorm ways to occupy these niches in ways that fulfil unmet social needs and improve the quality of our shared habitat.

This will be a hands-on workshop of drawing, thinking, and discussion.

I mentioned this next item before, but just to recap, Nick Zinner (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs) is performing with some friends:

Please Take Me Off the Guest List is a multi-media presentation of the new book by Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Zachary Lipez, and Stacy Wakefield. A slideshow of Nick’s photos from the book is accompanied by ambient music played by Nick and Stacy while Zachary reads stories.

Culture Club continues into Sunday as well. See here for the complete schedule and descriptions of every event.

Everyone thinks that the secret to our excellent burritos is the ingredients. New theories indicate that it’s all in the upper body strength of the maker.

The recently NYC transplanted sexpigeon has more to say on the matter.

P.S. Pret-ty sure that’s Dos Toros. A place I visited last summer and of which I posted a very similar evaluation concerning proper rolling technique:

…the pierced and tatt’ed young lady who wrapped my burrito really didn’t know what she was doing. Her end folds were way too big pushing all the contents to the middle. She tried to cover things up with an exaggerated triangle fold to bring the edges in, but this just resulted in burrito contents shooting out of the tip at a higher velocity after the second roll. The whole structural integrity of the burrito was therefore compromised, as you can see from the cracking of the overloaded bottom half…

[via sexpigeon]

San Francisco’s oldest surviving building is Mission San Francisco de Asís. You know, that Mission on Dolores street that the Mission is named after? Yeah, that one.

In 2004, a hidden mural was uncovered by Ben Wood and Eric Blind  behind the building’s church altar. It was painted by Ohlone Indians under the enslavement supervision of Spanish missionaries in 1791. Ben Wood documented these findings and digitally captured the entire mural in this fascinating article at Found SF.

Now a kickstarter project has been created to resurrect the mural on the wall of Mission Market on 22nd and Bartlett. If funded, it will be painted by local artists Jet Martinez, Ezra Eismont, and Bunnie Reiss.

So if you want to see this piece of history recreated on a wall that looks pretty damn crappy right now, now’s your chance to pitch in! Here is a mock up of proposed recreation:

Check out the kickstarter page for more details a great video on the subject.

[via Jeremy Shaw of Mission Community Market]

I caught two nights of Noise Pop at Bottom of the Hill. Those are a lot of Bottom of the Hill hours. So it was pretty cool when Typhoon, a band I knew nothing about, was the most memorable. They had 11 people on stage — two full drum kits! The Tens noticed some other details as well:

The keyboardist dressed up as the internet. One drummer had a ponytail.

Read on.

Remember, there are still three days of Noise Pop so don’t miss out. I hear there are like, ten people in Battlehooch so maybe you can see a bunch of musicians crammed onto the Bottom of the Hill stage, too.

From reader E.T. Avey, via our Facebook wall:

Sometimes people in the Mission put live birds in a Safeway Bag and hang them from a rope over the fire escape. That’s pretty fucking twisted.

Indeed.

Woah! My iPhone says that there’s going to be a Cataclysmic Pole Shift this Saturday! Who’s excited?

Come and check out one of the best game shows of the 70s as it makes its way back to the present-day Mission!  I’ll be one of the panelists on Match Game SF this Saturday, so come watch me and the rest of the panelists struggle to come up with safe-for-TV words to refer to racy anatomical features.  I’m sure Sister Roma will set everyone straight and have the last laugh.  As a special bonus, use the discount code ‘MatchGamePanel’ to get $2 off advance on BrownPaper Tickets!

In case you’re wondering what Match Game SF is all about:

Some fetishists next to me in line for food at last night’s SFMOMA/Noise Pop event were real excited:

“Dude, check out the way she’s stirring the fondue.”

“I know. Dude, check out her ergonomic elbow sleeve.”

“Dude, I know.”

“Oh man.”

Wild stuff, right? Maybe it was all part of the art.

Check it out! Public Works in a couple weeks is throwing a party devoted to the Mission. Several of your favorite DJs will be there (Yo, Primo!), along with good food and drink, and a fashion show. And it’s eight hours long!

Mission United
“A party celebrating all things Mission”..

For $5 admission, FREE FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS (between 8pm and 10pm) click attending on this page!

Public Works presents an 8 hour event celebrating our melting-pot neighborhood, San Francisco’s Mission district. Cherry-picking some of the best in music, performance, art, fashion and food. Mission United brings the sights and sounds of our favorite hood under one roof.

Proceeds of the event to benefit:
SF General Hospital // SF General’s Dr. Rick
Psychiatric Department Volunteer & Rehab Services
Root Division — http://www.rootdivision.org/
SFSmiles — http://sfsmiles.org/

What’s more, we’re giving away free tickets. They say they’re celebrating “all things Mission,” so peruse the lineup and leave a comment below letting them know if they’ve forgotten anything key. The two best suggestions (as judged by us based on merit) will win a pair of tickets each. Contest ends Monday at 5pm.

See the full lineup, RSVP and invite your friends via the event’s official Facebook page.