Mission Mission

Apparently the advertising department at Apple enjoys Tartine Bakery & Cafe.  I just hope they never get hip to Bender’s.

(link – Thanks Karen!)

Free admission if you wear a monkey suit.  ’nuff said.

Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present an evening of vintage films on bicycle safety, history and more.  Highlights include: the early 60’s cult favorite “One Got Fat”; the kooky “Just Like A Car”; “Bicycles Are Beautiful” with Bill Cosby; “Riding On Air”, a 1959 short focused on the bike craze in Britain; “How To Protect Your Bike”, a hilarious 1970’s look at foiling bike thieves; “Bicycle Safely”, bike history and safety; plus early TV segments, “The Bicycle Clown”, vintage commercials and more!  Free admission for anyone in a full monkey suit.

(link)

It appears the heated debate over Mission street food being “trendy” or not is settled.  SFoodie brings us news that Fox Searchlight is promoting a new movie by giving out free street food.  I can only hope Fox pays Crème Brûlée’s fine when the cops shut this down.

(link)

Burnstein! over at Laughing Squid brings us news of the Tamale Lady’s birthday party at Zeitgeist this Monday at 6pm.  Cecil D. Feeder is going to be screening his “rockumentary” on the Tamale Lady, “Our Lady of Tamale,” at the event.

If you can’t make it Monday, you can watch the film on YouTube.

(link)

An anonymous tipster pointed us towards ShazamSF’s Twitter Feed, who is currently livetweeting about HBO filming a segment for “Real Sex” in a Mission district building.

From Wikipedia:

Real Sex explores human sexuality, from the latest sexual fads to casual sex festivals and home production of pornographic movies. The show typically explores three to four topics each episode. Segments are separated by street interviews with random people, relating to the episode’s topics. (link)

With Kink at the Knockout and Box Dog Bikes recently being propositioned as a set, it sounds like the Mission might be turning into the porn hotbed of SF.

Sexpigeon spots this marquee for the Anti-Corporation Film Festival, which will be wrapping up tonight at the Victoria Theatre.

I spent yesterday morning with the fine folks at VidSF talking to people at Carnaval.  If you want to see how awkward I am in person, this would be a good place to do it. 

Unfortunately they cut my awesome interview with an aggro chihuahua.  Too bad, he had a lot of good things to say.

(link)

Free free free!

Previously:

Disposable Film Festival

A while back I saw Jonathan Richman perform a live score for some old Swedish movie. Jonathan was great, it was fun to see him experiment with a bunch of unusual instruments and conduct a bigger band than usual, but the movie was pretty dull. Some kind of domestic melodrama or something. So I emerged feeling so-so about the experience.

Which is why I entered last night’s SFIFF Lost World/Dengue Fever/Esurance event with great caution. I even told myself I’d leave early if I got bored. But I’m happy to report that that didn’t happen. Because the movie was as action packed as the music. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if you haven’t seen it, it might be worth seeing even without Dengue Fever’s accompaniment. It’s got laughs, adventure, action, and some epic twists. And that’s the key, the movie’s got to be up to challenge of competing with a band everybody loves.

So I’m also happy to report that prior to the show it was announced that the San Francisco Film Society in December will present a screening of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with live score performed by Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. I imagine that movie is probably sufficiently gripping so as to be able to stand up to a musician so rabidly beloved.

Photo by Steve Rhodes.

Last night I went to the SFIFF premiere of Duncan Jones’ Moon starring Sam Rockwell. I went in pretty cold, not knowing anything other than it’s in space Sam Rockwell is in it. It’s good that way, so I won’t say much more, and I’ll say watch the above trailer only if you really like watching trailers.

Really, all I’ll add is that Sam Rockwell gives a MONSTER performance.

Also, new candidate for best ping pong scene in all of cinema.

Previously:

Sam Rockwell Loves the Mission