Mission Mission

Right? Anyone catch them hanging out across the street in Dolores Park?

I got an idea for a new musical about the rapidly changing neighborhood that surrounds us.

A couple in their late twenties move to San Francisco’s Mission District from Iowa. Stacy and Sam had been running Stacy’s family’s restaurant, but when they read an article in the New York Times (online) about Valencia Street’s fabulous new foodie explosion they decide to risk is all to start a new life out West. They get an apartment in a little alley off of Dolores Park (Dorland), purchase a struggling appliance store on Valencia Street and 21st with the help of a loan from Stacy’s parents. Here they set about to create their dream of bringing more artisan cocktails and delicate nibbles to the hot, young Bay Area entrepreneurs in a storefront setting with the comfort of small town Iowa.

Then I guess some kind of conflict would have to enter in, like they realize that a homeless person that they’re trying to get arrested for sleeping on their doorstep is actually a long lost uncle? Maybe then the narrative can shift off of them for the second act and onto the homeless uncle, as Sam and Stacy realize that they’re not the center of the universe. We dive backwards into the history of the uncle, Steven, and how he came here from Iowa in the eighties, a Vietnam vet looking to start a new chapter in his life, lived on Haight Street, abandoned by the government that sent him off to war, got burned by a girl and/or best friend and watched his life collapse.

Maybe we end with some hint at the fact that the cycles continue endlessly, some kind of twist either in the future or further in the past.

Anyone else getting some good song ideas? I am.

UPDATE: In the comments, “Whataperv” makes a great addition to the story (did I mention Do The Right Thing is one of my favorite movies?). Now let’s get some songs written.

. . . a Latina couple (two women) the same age as Sam and Stacy apply for essentially the same thing – they want to open a healthy taqueria to provide affordable, nutritious food to those who cannot afford a $13 hamburger. Born in the Mission, they scrimp and save working several jobs trying to realize their dreams. Despite having a good business plan and start up capital, they have trouble getting loans because of their lack of credit history (as juxtaposed to Sam and Stacy, who have no problem relying on their family and their good credit to get the money they need). Stymied by their lack of financial privilege, the two decide to start with a street cart, which they dutifully push up and down Mission street every day and night, trying to raise the cash, while also trying to provide relatively healthy soft tacos to the neighborhood. Act three ends when two angry Google employees with Stanford MBAs stumble drunkenly out of Sam and Stacy’s establishment and into the food cart, one of them burning themselves on the grill in the scuffle. This leads the drunken, white men to tell the two women to “Go back to their own countries.” The very end of the act shows Stacy and Sam down at City Hall trying to get “disruptive” food carts banned from the sidewalks in front of their business because they’re driving away paying customers and creating issues.

In Act 4, we see that the homeless veteran witnessed the whole exchange. For whatever reason (maybe because a new non-profit has opened down the street and he’s started receiving help from an NYU educated, Brooklyn born African American man), he decides to try to turn his life around and begins organizing a coalition of homeless and working class individuals to respond to the rampant gentrification of his neighborhood. The play climaxes when a protest in front of Sam and Stacy’s store is met with violence from a contingent of drunk partiers from Walnut Creek. The police are called and, as they’re about to arrest the lesbian Latinas, the homeless guy and everyone else assembled, Sam and Stacy emerge from their under-siege business and set the record straight – resulting in the arrest of the Walnut Creek partiers. This act of reconciliation paves the way for a partnership between Sam and Stacy and the latinas in a new restaurant on Valencia, newfound respect for the homeless man, who goes on to run for the Board of Supervisors, etc. etc.

Basically “Crash II: Mission Stories.”

Or is it?

[graphic via The Cornicopia Institute]

We don’t do that much politicking here (there’s plenty of that on the internet already), but it is a big election year, so expect some issues to pop up as we find them relevant or particularly pressing.

Local grocery cooperative, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, is officially endorsing California’s Proposition 37, the Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food Initiative. This endorsement is not shocking, since 2000 Rainbow has officially opposed the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs):

“We will ban these foods from any private label product we carry, and support efforts to label and/or ban such foods until a time when they can be proved safe for consumption and the environment.”

Christa Irwin, of Rainbow’s Ecology Committee says of Prop. 37:

“People want to know what they’re eating. Just because a product says ‘natural’ does not mean that it hasn’t come from a GMO crop or possibly processed with or contaminated by one. This fight is imperative and hopefully will change labeling on a national level.”

You have to wonder why the food companies would pay so much money to stop us from knowing how they’re making our food and what they put into it. Since the above graphic was made the numbers on the red side have continued to go up. Fog City Journal has an informative write up on the matter. I just don’t trust companies like Monsanto and Phillip Morris, excuse me, Altria, to hold our health as their top priority. Anyone remember StarLink? If it costs less to do recalls or payout lawsuits…

I think the consumers have a right to know. If the companies believe that GMOs are safe then don’t hide them, convince us. It’s a bummer though, I like a lot of the products in the left column. I think Prop 37 is just the first step in getting to a better place with the development and use of GMOs. Much more testing should to be done, especially focusing on long term effects. Unfortunately there seems to be very little push back on the chemical/food companies making them, and much of the changes they are making are likely irreversible. If Prop. 37 passes consumers will be able to weigh in on the matter with their wallets, which is what the Big Ag companies are afraid of.

International non-profit buildOn is throwing a party in the neighborhood this Saturday (9/29), Ashley shares the details with us:

BuildOn runs afterschool youth service programs that mobilize urban teens to lift up their communities and change the world through intensive local community service and by building schools in some of the poorest countries on the planet. It’s an incredible non-profit that works locally with youth and additionally connects them with service globally building schools across the world.

On September 29th, we are having our first buildOn Carnival in the Mission at Wix Lounge at 22nd and Mission! It will be a really great event to raise money to support all of our great programs. Purchase of a ticket (at only $40 pre-sale, $50 at the door) gets you:

1. Unlimited Beer and Wine
2. Tickets to your favorite carnival and casino games
3. Chance to win amazing prizes, several from local favorite places
4. Carnival Themed Snacks from Straw SF
5. Face painting/Clowns/Live Music by Los Trancolizers
AND MORE!!!

Additionally, to put it in perspective, each $40 ticket pays fully for education for TWO students in a developing country for a whole year! Can’t tell me that isn’t an awesome way to spend your money – a great evening of fun with proceeds going to a good cause.

Purchase tickets here.

Two big time local musical groups have new albums and accompanying music videos that caught my eye.

Two Gallants, who started out playing free shows in Dolores Park and at 16th and Mission, released a rad video for “My Love Won’t Wait”, from their new album The Bloom and the Blight, which came out earlier this month.

Weird and beautiful. I like this use of slow motion. So far it seems like this album is a little less dreamy than their recent stuff and a little rougher, like the early work.

Switching gears and crossing the Bay, The Coup have a new album, Sorry to Bother You, coming out at the end of October. Check out this fun song and video where Boots Riley escapes the feds and bikes around Oakland, “The Magic Clap”.

I love that guy’s flow. I bet you catch yourself dancing in your seat to that sometime today.

Congrats, Mr. Cruz. We wish you well.

We do wish you’d reconsider your decision to practice your new livelihood at a more suitable office location, however. Nevertheless, your plainly mounted degree, visible to all, helps us to appreciate what is surely a high degree of skill that you offer your clients.

Yeah, I know we still have Indian Summer, but let’s take a moment to acknowledge a great joy of the coming of Fall – leaf crunching.

Just look at that leaf. Lying there with its sides curled up like that, just waiting to be crushed. It almost looks soft, but I guarantee you it’s not: it’s crisp as hell. Lay down a heavy foot and feel the crunch, hear the crackle. From there you can hop to the next. In some side streets right now you can walk a block just crunching as you go. Regular walking, who needs it? Get out there and crunch some leaves before I get them all.

Caution: Some leaves hide undesirables beneath them, such as poop.

Had a schwell time at @missionbowling in SF last night. Some great Belgian beers, not enough strikes

— gotye (@gotye) September 12, 2012

I apologize equally for the horrible pun and for the song stuck in your head again.