Mission Mission

A not very subtle follow up to the last post.

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One of the things I love about Valencia is how it accidentally became the best street in the city.  It was a 4 lane highway with narrow sidewalks until 1999, yet commerce and culture still happened.  15 ft sidewalks with trees were not required.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not down on trees or outdoor seating, but I wonder if ditching the the grungy newspaper boxes and shitty sidewalks covered in stencil art will lead to more blight like this building.  Valencia was always the little street that could.  I cannot help but feel that city planners are over-engineering a great thing.

(photo sfhaps)

If you didn’t already know, the kind of useless Muni line is shutting down tonight.  Personally, I’ve never ridden the Muni so I don’t give a shit, but presumably some of you do.  Honestly, I like biking and I don’t like buses.  Getting stabbed does sound like fun though.  Once I was taking the MBTA-70 into Boston and  watched what I assumed to be a homeless man stand up  and piss right there on the bus.  From that day on I swore to never ride the bus again and live on Capp St so I could watch people piss right in front of my house on an hourly basis instead.

But seriously, you can get anywhere in the city faster on a bicycle.  I don’t really see the point of taking it unless you are physically unable to get around without a motor (you could probably get around faster on a rascal scooter though).

Anyways, I felt it would be inappropriate to not honor the line in some way, so I asked a bunch of people who ride the line to write up obituaries for it.  Most people were like “who gives a shit?”  Figures.

From the smart and stylish Laura Beck:

I used to take the 26 from glen park to the mission on the regular(ish). what to say?

cons: this bus NEVER, and I mean NEVER, came.
pros: more time to play flight control on my phone and avoid Real Work.

cons: one of the regular drivers told me some awkward sexual jokes…is he hitting on me??
pros: i feel pretty!

pros: cleaner than your average city bus.
cons: no stabbings! BO-RING! perhaps this is why they are canceling service?

pros: drops you off in front of zeitgeist. entire days spent in lovely backyard garden, surrounded by awesome folks!
cons: drops you off in front of zeitgeist. entire days wasted in shitbox backyard garden, surrounded by assholes!

I had never been down to Clooney’s before but commenters constantly mentioned this as potentially one of the diviest shitholes in the Mission.  Turns out it isn’t that shitty but a pretty badass spot.  There are no $2 cans of PBR but $2.25 Busch pints seem like a worthy replacement.  Bonus points for n’sync on the jukebox, free hot dog night (Vegans: call Clooney’s and demand Soy Pups!), an uncrowded pool table, a mini library (complete with legendary titles such as Star Trek: Possession and Gone with the Nerd), and the “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that you come to expect.  Best of all, the weekend warriors that bring down the quality of other Mission bars won’t come within striking distance of the place, so it can easily become the Mission’s cool kid refuge camp.

Clooney's Tavern: 1936

Found above the urinal

Honestly, I didn’t even read this poster or click on a link to find out what it is all about because it is a cat drinking Hamm’s.

Check this: reader Mission Mistaken was just in Paris and stumbled across this museum featuring an installation of graffiti as pop art.  Nothing really shocking here, but it is another check in the column of legitimizing graffiti as an art form.

I was just in Paris and the Cartier Foundation Museum (yes, as in tank watches & diamonds) featured a comprehensive show on the history of graffiti as pop art.  But being French they couldn’t just settle for a tame treatment.  Rather, everything was game for a coating of spray paint.  The building exterior, even the basement corridors and the bathrooms.

I really couldn’t figure out what was going on here.  I keep hearing that the “wind tunnel effect” is just a fictitious excuse for the filth of the Mission made by white, yuppie apologists.  But I swear I saw these balloons blowing around Folsom.  Couldn’t have been the wind… must have been the DMT.

Outside the MacD’s on 24th and Mission.

I’m really enjoying these free Christmas cards that you can get at Bender’s.  I already send one to my parents with a little note inside to show them how much I love them:

More designs after the jump:

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Reader Alexis sends us a note about an article in Concierge, a magazine I’ve never heard of before, titled “Ten Things Not to Do in San Francisco.”  The gist of the article is this: if you want to gawk at the youth and their “counter-culture,” you should avoid the Haight and go straight the Mission, home of “the real San Francisco-now experience.”

“Today weekend hipsters with day jobs in biotech have moved in, but the vibe remains decidedly experimental.”

Are “weekend hipsters” the new “weekend warriors?”  I think I just retched in the back of my mouth.