Mission Mission

Chris Brennan says:

hmmm, yeah – pretty sure i wouldn’t let you do any of these things for me…

i may be interested in your sign making services though.

(photo by Chris Brennan)

It seems that over the weekend the Metro PCS store on Mission near 20th reverted back to its previous name. One wonders if “Joseph’s” will be able to provide me with a nice flat rate on one of those mobile phones everyone seems to have these days.

When asked for comment, the giant inflated cell phone out front just shrugged and shifted nervously from side to side.

Here’s the sign as it was:
[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/sv?cbp=12,248.3,,0,4.62&cbll=37.759024,-122.419086&panoid=&v=1&hl=en&gl=us&w=425&h=240]

And thus, the Mission Bicycle Company storefront, former bastion of nothing but custom-made track bikes, began selling clothing and accessories too. Buyer/Curator Jefferson explains:

“A lot of our customers are cyclists. They come in and they don’t need a brand-new single-speed bicycle. But they wanna buy something. People wanna buy stuff.”

Fresh off spending sprees at Paxton’s and 826, folks roaming the Valencia corridor happen in and find nothing to impulse buy. So Mission Bikes decided to start stocking an array of locally made and/or responsibly sourced products. A placard with Google Map and fact sheet accompanies each item.

“People wanna buy stuff.”

We asked the obvious: “Even in this economy?” We got a shrug. People wanna buy stuff.

More pretty pictures by Mollie C after the jump. And a full set (complete with hi-res versions) here.

(more…)

Laura brings us news that a new comic book store is opening soon on 20th and San Carlos:

“New store at 3520 20th.  Mission Comics and Art.  Talked to owner Leef.  Super nice. Opens in less than a month! Real comic shop in the Mission! Dorks rule!”

Dorks do rule.  (Mission Comics and Art)

Their window sign was hard to photograph with my shitty cameraphone.

Kaleidoscope Free Speech Zone, a new art gallery / small concert venue / place to overthrow the government, has opened a few doors down from Philz at 24th and Folsom.  They are doing some great things, like allowing local artists to show their works, offering up numerous language classes (including sign language.  Haven’t you always wanted to be able to order a tallboy of Tecate with your hands?!?!), pilates classes, and hosting lectures. They even come equipped with a cute dog that naps on the couches. While they don’t seem to have a website, you can holler at them via facebook.

Seat taken.

Whiteboard art for the win.

I’ve actually never been to Gravel & Gold the store, but I’ve long been a fan of their blog. They recently relocated from ActivSpace to the old Minnie Wilde spot on the corner of 21st and Lexington, and tomorrow they open to the public for the first time.

(link)

Amit Gupta reports that The Marsh, the venue and cafe at Valencia and 22nd that looks like an abandoned warehouse, has become the first place in San Francisco to start giving out free drinks to frequent users of the social network, Foursquare.  Apparently anybody will get $2 off at the box-office just for using it once.

Hey Bender’s, when will you start a similar promotion?

(link)

Previously on Mission Mission:

• Foursquare Conveniently Lists Dolores Park Stereotypes

Google Maps has recently began a new advertising campaign, Favorite Places, which aims to tell you where local experts “like to go, and why, from their own perspectives.”  Of course, most of the San Franciscian local experts failed to look beyond Valencia St.  Some even looked over the Mission entirely, including our esteemed Mayor Gavin Newsom, who couldn’t even find one place he liked in the hood.

Besides Newsom, other notables on the list include Digg’s Kevin Rose, who is a fan on Monk’s Kettle and St. Francis, and Nate Query of The Decemberists, who hangs out at Revolution Cafe, The Make-Out Room, Bi-Rite Creamery, and Dolores Park.

Most of the other experts named the usual New York Times-endorsed haunts, like Foreign Cinema (named by 3 people), Tartine (2 people), Range, and Delfina (2 people).

(Photo Credit “Notorious S.I.G”)

Obviously, we here at Mission Mission only believe there is a slight chance the owners of Coffee Bar are aiding the Iranian government with their struggles to censor and oppress the populace.  That said, if they are aiding them, they are not trying very hard to conceal it.

Update: Luigi, co-owner of Coffee Bar, gives us this update:

“I spoke with our network administrator earlier and he mentioned that he had caught some people a few months back using our wi-fi (from outside of the cafe) to download porn, which was also jamming up the network for our customers big time. I guess he overshot the security settings a tad and said he would scale back on the settings to allow a larger amount of browsing freedom.”

(Link – Photo and report by le):

“At Coffee Bar in San Francisco, where I often go to work and study, I am blocked from visiting my own website! This is new – it wasn’t this way last week, even. I am honored that someone feels that my site is too much for these laptop zombies in designer denim to take.”

Reader Marcomaniac revives the discussion:

It’s mid July and the place is still empty. In fact there have been several stores shutter in the past few months in this area. Hey Chicken, maybe you can do some good for our neighborhood and open up a store? Bring some vibrancy back to our area? We love your creativity. Are you ready to take on something new, or are you going to keep sitting on your ass?