Mission Mission

San Franciscans ask the right questions I guess. Somebody at some San Francisco fundraiser (likely not in the Mission) asked the question that gave rise to this fiery Obama response to unfounded attacks by Hillary and McCain. They say he’s an asshole for asserting that Americans might be bitter about the way their government treats them. Obama says, “Sheeeeeeeeit – o’ course they bitter! They bitter as fuck and I’m here to help!”

More Media & Politics on Mission Mission.

Pressed for time, I only made it to the two Outer Mission stops on the 24th and Mission Art Walk. Neither was as fun as Cardburg.

First, Soap Gallery:

This was opening night for Pull Here To Get Everything You Want, an exhibition of new collages by Green Party vice presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez. The modest little arrangements of scraps appeal to the OCD in all of us, and as far as repurposing found junk into art, a lot of these were a lot better than a lot of the junk at Unmonumental, the ballyhooed found-junk-themed inaugural exhibition at New York’s new New Museum location (which, incidentally, closes in a couple days).

The central element of the opening was Gonzalez. Photographers swarmed, taking lots and lots of low-angle shots of him mingling with attendees. My parents noted that he’s going gray.

Soap Gallery provided goldfish crackers, pretzels, peanuts, M&Ms, wine, three kinds of imported beer, and live music.

Next, Queen’s Nails Annex:

Queen’s Nails Annex has a cool name, this cool picture of chairs, a cool logo on its website, and it’s like right next to Argus Lounge, which is cool.

Previously on Mission Mission: 24th and Mission Art Walk Snakes around All the Best Parts of the Mission.

Zeitgeist and Bender’s have gotten a lot of ink this week, and in the wake of that ink, discussion has reached a fever pitch. Over at Bay Area Riders Forum, post after post laments the impending closure of Zeitgeist and the impending yuppie takeover of Bender’s. But before things get too heated, user V4 cuts to the quick:

so when did people in the Mission learn how to read…..?

Link to BARF thread.

Link to Mission Mission Zeitgeist coverage.

Link to Mission Mission Bender’s coverage.

As you can see here, this afternoon Mission Mission received 25 views referred from a Current URL called “http://current.com/items/88884204_zeitgeist _dive_bar_in_the_mission_to_be_replaced_by_borders”, which we assume pointed to yesterday’s Zeitgeist story.

We clicked over to Current the moment we learned of this referral, only to find the following 404 page:

The question is, who pressured Current into putting the brakes on such a great story?

Link to Current 404 page.

Browse Mission Mission’s “Food & Drink” category for more on Mission District dive bars.

We got a lot of heartwarming feedback regarding today’s post about the fate of Zeitgeist…

1. Malcolm M. recommends a classic Leisure Town installment, “A Grand Day Out”, which may or may not take place in and around the vicinity of the bar in question:

Link to complete slideshow.

2. Outraged Charles B. says:

We should go when Ali is here maybe… although it really calls for a big big group of people. Maybe Mills people and everyone I know in town will want to go out.

We should also burn the Borders to the ground one it’s done.

3. Curbed SF picked up the story. Sarah conjectures as to what might transpire:

Heads exploding, fists flying, inner children dying, Tom Ammiano on the ground, gasping for breath … Madness, just pure, delicious madness.

Link.

4. In seeking out art for this follow up, I myself came upon a wealth of good stuff on Flickr, including:

Dick jokes:

Link to larger.

and pink elephant graffiti:

Link to larger.

Also, we’ve gotten a bunch of hits via the SGSF Bay Area group on Suicide Girls, but we don’t know what they’re saying because none of us are members. Anyway, to one and all, thanks for reading.

(Zeitgeist photo by diavolerie, dick joke photo by DrScaryBeard, pink elephants photo by fiveinchpixie)

Like, a couple months ago, Didier at Encore une page had this to say about the Mission:

Je voulais poster un cliché San Franciscain, le Golden Gate Bridge ou le Cable Car qui descend une rue en pente raide comme le prix d’une bouteille de vin de Napa Valley. Finalement, j’ai opté pour cette voiture blanche hinchables garée devant un mur blanc sous un arbre noir dans une rue pas trop en pente, dans le quartier mexicain.

Link. Via FriendFeed.

All will be compiled into a better longer movie later this evening.

Here is the color guard twirling their flags in unison, marching in choreographed step with the big beats provided by the bouncy castle for sale brass band:

Next up is a short short shot of Frank Chu leading the snake march past a cable car on California Street:

Finally, War Mongers’ Diner perform “We Can Stop It”, to the tune of Jimmy Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want”:

Link to Bay Area Direct Action.
Link to War Mongers’ Diner.

Update: Here’s a cop with a big orange shotgun:

El Rio, everyone’s second favorite Mission District bar with a patio, is included on this morning’s Gridskipper feature titled Find That Special Someone For Your Threesome. They note that the crowd is “a little horny” as well as “sexually flexible”.

universal language 001, originally uploaded by calmenda.

I wanted to get in on the blogging-about-The Wire bandwagon (my favorite so far is Stuff White People Like #85), and then I saw this fabulous t-shirt by Mule Design Studio.

So I’m thinkin, we all know somebody should make a gritty urban crime drama about SF, prominently featuring the Mission District. Sucker Free City took a glorious stab at it (and captured the Mission in all its cinematic wonder), but Spike Lee kiboshed the whole thing. Now The Wire‘s done and Gavin Newsom’s definitely maybe running for governor. He’s Tommy Carcetti incarnate and then some. This is a show waiting to happen: somebody please resurrect SFC or start anew or something.

Visit Mule Design’s blog.

Buy Sucker Free City on Amazon, because it’s really good.

In researching last week’s Shannon Wheeler story, I came across an interview at The Wright Opinion in which this strip was featured. It’s funny because it’s true. Blogging is like Tetris. Now, when I’m out and about in the world, instead of seeing falling Tetris blocks everywhere I look, I see blog categories, blog headlines, blog tags, etc. Does this mean that, like with Tetris, I’ll be tired of this in a few months?

Link to interview.