Mission Mission

Our pal Teddy recently embarked on a completely scientific exploration of the typical dispositions felt by San Franciscans versus New Yorkers, and if you’ve ever lived in both places, you’ll probably share a few of these sentiments.  Check out the whole thing here.

There’s never a dull moment at DJ Purple’s Dance Karaoke parties, but some scenes really get imprinted on your brain. Like when Rapper John takes the stage and totally nails fast-paced club hits like “Party Rock Anthem” and “Gangnam Style.” He’s a somewhat older gentleman, so there’s always a sea of Mission youngsters double-taking in unison as he launches into one of his signature jams.

I asked DJ Purple to tell me what he knows about the guy:

I saw Rapper John singing Rapper’s Delight at Roger Niner’s show a few years ago, and realized what a perfect match he would be for my show. I was really happy when he finally showed up a few weeks later to check out my show. It was fabulous, and he’s been a regular ever since.

I only know a little of Rapper John’s history, mostly stories from other KJ’s. They say he’s been a legend in the Bay Area and Las Vegas karaoke scenes for years, always picking the perfect crowd-pleasing songs and wowing everyone with his lyrical prowess.

Last year, I laid down a special challenge for him to learn a new song. When Gangnam Style came out, I knew immediately that he was the perfect man for that song, but was afraid rapping in Korean might be too much for even Rapper John. He took it on, and that song was indeed almost too much for him, but Rapper John triumphed in the end – he found a hilarious English phonetic translation parody of Gangnam Style by Chad Wild Clay and used that to conquer the Korean pronunciation. Since then, “Condom Style” with Rapper John has been a regular feature at my shows, to the delight of the dancing audiences…

Delight is right. People go NUTS. Lucky for us, DJ Purple put us in touch with the man himself. After the jump, the official Mission Mission Rapper John interview, followed by a video of Rapper John doing “Party Rock” at Singin’ & Pingin’ 2 last December.

And do try to catch Rapper John and DJ Purple in action this Friday night at Singin’ & Pingin’ 3 at the Verdi Club!

[Photo by Jess Kelso / American Tripps]

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So reports the acclaimed Mills Baker, who’s currently out and about, taking in the sunshine. Watch your step, y’all!

UPDATE: Mills highlights that these are “perfectly normal” people, walking around barefoot, in the Mission.

I mean, my house’s backyard has a pretty sick reclaimed no-parking sign that I’m pretty into, but this takes the cake:

Good news if you’re already tired of ping pong and bowling! Eater SF reports:

[T]he neighborhood is now scheduled to get a mini-golf course, Urban Putt. Spearheaded by former CNET and PC World editor Steve Fox, the 18-hole course will be housed in the long-vacant former mortuary at 22nd and South Van Ness, and is scheduled to feature a 70-seat restaurant with upscale comfort-food fare from a “well-known restaurant group” and a cocktail program by the Bon Vivants.

Look for it in 2014. Read on for further details.

[Image by Google Street View]

Storytelling radio show and podcast, The Moth, has been bringing its live show to cities across the country and now has a monthly series at The Rickshaw Stop. They invited us to check out the first one, which we gladly did.

The theme of the night was SECRETS, which seemed a little broad and obvious for this kind of storytelling series, but the participants came up with some great things to share and host Dan Kennedy held it all together with playful banter in between. Everyone who came in had the option to put their name into a bag at the beginning, and then were selected at random to come up and tell their stories. So the night was a literal grab bag of performances. The range happened to work out really well. Some stories were just okay, worthy of a polite clap for being willing to get up there and do it, and some pretty much knocked me on my ass. The thing they all had in common for me was a real feel of sincerity, no matter how earnest or sarcastic the tone was, which made them relatable and hard to dismiss.

The stories are given number ratings by teams of audience judges which are then added up at the end to pronounce a winner. After ten of these live shows, called the SLAMS, the winner from each will compete in the GrandSLAM Championship. In my opinion, Cory Rosen told the overall best story that night, and the judges agreed with me.

I got to interview the Producer of The Moth, Jennifer Hixson, and the Host, Dan Kennedy (author of Rock On: An Office Power Ballad), backstage just following the show, which was really an adrenaline-fueled fun and fast paced candid conversation:

Mission Mission: I’m not a journalist, just a blogger, I have no ethics or scruples.

Jennifer Hixson (Moth Producer): Oh, even more frightening! (keeps riffing for a while)

MM: I wish I didn’t have questions, this is great!

Dan Kennedy (Moth Host): Now you know what I’ve been dealing with for ten years. I have the funniest stories . . .

JH: This Orangina’s getting to me!

MM: Okay, well, is there anything different for The Moth in San Francisco?

JH: Well, in some ways across the country the stories are the same: heartbreak, job loss, family stuff . . . But of course San Francisco’s gonna have an amazing different flavor, this is a wild city, this is a place where a lot of stuff meets.

DK: Well, the first story [tonight] was about a woman being led up to heaven by an angel after she was hit on her bicycle, and it wasn’t too long after that that we went into a story of a boy learning to masturbate. I think that’s a pretty awesome range, and we heard everything in between. I don’t think that happens in a lot of cities.

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Except for that one straight-edge guy down there.

(via Dirty Dave)

Head for Shotwell Street and let the SFFD hose you down:

Just in case.

[via Nattles]