Mission Mission

Our pal Mills captured this video last night, of a MUNI driver fearlessly steering around a neighborhood fireworks show. The video also features dogs barking, Mills screaming, and a healthy amount of pyrotechnics. Woo America!

Apparently, Mission signage is quite the font of inspiration these days (pun entirely intended). Previously, there were two typeface projects, and even before that, our lovely sidebar headers.

Artist Pablo Medina is working on a series of paintings that combines the hand-drawn aesthetic of Mission signage with very personal lines from his journal. I’m especially fond of the Whiz Burger one above, and I can’t help but agree with this one:

Here’s what Pablo had to say about our ‘hood:

I arrived in the Mission District from the airport on a Friday night, and the neighborhood had just the perfect balance of a lot happening and nothing happening. A couple of bars were buzzing, some kids were fixing their bikes, and some local Mexicanos were sitting on their stoops listening to reggaeton. My kind of place. Hand-painted signage was everywhere.

Read the full story over at Imprint.

What do a Bialetti moka pot, a pink airplane, a Polaroid camera, an acoustic guitar, a striped suit with an umbrella, an unidentified creepy face, and a cactus all have in common? Well, they’re all part of this collection of sidewalk stencils in front of Radio Habana Social Club.

For a second, I thought it was another jab at hipsters, but I couldn’t quite figure out that striped ensemble (or that face). If anyone can decode this esoteric collection of things, let me know. I sure am fond of that moka pot, though.

And here’s another shot of that pretty little Telegraph Hill parrot stencil, just a few sidewalk squares away.

This Saturday, the Believer and Tumblr are throwing a reading/party/meetup at the Make-Out Room. The reading includes a book launch by Sheila Heti and readings from several Tumblr writers, including our pals Melissa and Mills (and possibly Mills’ dogs). Party starts at 6pm!

By now, we’re all familiar with the complaints of how New York sucks at burritos. A graduate design student at NYU has taken the matter into his own hands, and has invented a robot that makes customizable burritos using 3D printing technology.

Unlike the TacoCopter, the BurritoBot does not appear to be a joke. Just check out this accompanying stop motion video, which hints at a future Kickstarter campaign:

Now, how long until I can train one to make me Taqueria Cancun veggie burritos, black beans/no dairy/extra salsa?

[via Fastco]

Lost Type is an amazing pay-what-you-want type foundry, also known as the place where that trendy new restaurant got those cool fonts for their menus. They’re also previously known for releasing a font inspired by Mission laundromats.

They’ve just completed Field Trip SF, a four-day reality TV-style trip to San Francisco, where “a handful of Lost Type’s designers [lived] under one roof with a common goal – to create a typeface inspired by San Francisco.”

As it turns out, the designers spent a lot of time in the Mission, developing type inspired by St. Francis Fountain, liquor store signage, that one optometrist/art gallery place on Valencia, and other notable Mission landmarks.

Lost Type plans to release three typefaces produced during Field Trip as a Mission-themed collection in the near future, so get excited, type nerds!

P.S. These guys aren’t the first to delve into Mission-themed typography. Just check out our sidebar headers, all referencing iconic Mission signage and all designed by our buddy Sexpigeon. Can you identify them all?

Reader Jason tipped us off to the new restaurant taking the place of Siam Saigon at 29th/Mission. And it’s another Thai restaurant! Just what this city needs, right?

The new place, slated to open on July 1st, is called Thai Idea and is vegetarian/vegan only, and I’m excited because I love me some fake meats (please, save your ammo for taggers). The menu includes exciting offerings such as “Wing Bomb” (crispy veggie chicken and homemade sauce topped with crispy basil) and “Firedcracker Balls” (sic) (veggie Ahi tuna roll, panko deep-fried, mayo mustard & spicy sauce). Sounds fun!

Southern Exposure’s annual Monster Drawing Rally, a live drawing event and fundraiser, returns to the Verdi Club tomorrow night, 6-11pm.

An anecdote: The first time I went to a Monster Drawing Rally, I walked into the Verdi Club with the kind of shit-eating grin of someone who’s about to go watch a room full of people draw monsters! What could be better? (Okay, a lot of things, but hey, I like monsters.) As I pushed through the crowd, I began noticing all of the in-progress drawings: trees, birds, geometric patterns, girls… but no monsters. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. I turned to my friend, who happens to be an artist; she replied, “Maybe it’s a very broad interpretation of monster?”

Then it hit us. It was a MONSTER(OUSLY-SIZED) DRAWING-RALLY, not a MONSTER-DRAWING RALLY. Oops.

That said, the Monster Drawing Rally is a pretty incredible event in its own right, monsters or none. Here’s a blurb from the website:

Demystifying a process that usually takes place in the privacy of the studio, the Monster Drawing Rally allows spectators to observe artists in the act of creation in the public domain. In keeping with Southern Exposure’s mission to provide an environment accessible to art and artists, the Monster Drawing Rally sets the stage for extraordinary interaction, providing a unique opportunity to watch a drawing come to life, and to purchase a work of art minutes after its completion.

Read on for more information and a massive list of participating artists.

I guess nothing compares to the warmth of a real robot husband! These boyfriend pillows come closer, though.

Since none of us can get enough of Danny Bowien, here’s yet another article about him, in NYMag. (Bonus #1: This one was written by Molly Young, a San Francisco native and one of my favorite young reporters today. Bonus #2: Unrelated, but NYMag also just happened to publish a piece featuring one of our very own writers’ feet.)

In this piece, Danny talks happiness, monosodium glutamate, duck blood extrusion, Martha Stewart and her seating requests, partying, puking, and his tradition of pounding Buds in honor of visiting dignitaries.