Mission Mission

Sure, we’ve sung praises for the yodelin’ Japanese cowboy Toshio Hirano before, but I just found this video profile of him done by PRI that deserves some attention:

Toshio has a charisma and passion for music that is really sobering to all the cynical young musicians like myself. Here’s a guy who loved classic country music so much that he literally up and moved straight to the source. (Ok, so my love of burritos may have moved me from the east bay to San Francisco, but that’s not exactly the same thing.)

He’s no fool either, he’s well aware that there’s quite a bit of the novelty/freak show draw to his act. But hey, if that’s what it takes to get people to come out and see him doing what he loves, then he’s ok with that. Oh, and his between-song banter is hilarious… that’s no act. This man is funny.

Toshio will be playing tonight as part of his monthly residency at the Rite Spot Cafe on 17th and Folsom from about 9pm-12. Go get your two-step on.

Okay, so this is clearly no BART boner, but I DID happen to see the most intense wedgie I’ve ever witnessed, today on BART.  I tried to get a good angle on it, but the above photo is the best I could do without giving myself away.

You could see every butt dimple on the babe!  She was standing in the exact line of sight for at least 6 passengers, who could do nothing to avert their gaze but stare at their hands like they’d just miscarried.  Me, I wanted so desperately to help a sister out and pick her butt for her, but social convention wouldn’t allow it.

I hope her buttcheeks are at home, breathing easy, as we speak.

Well, I’m not sure what you expected to see:

Members of the Mission High School ROTC, San Francisco, Calif., demonstrate .50 cal water cooled machine gun for Jackie Walling, 340 Valencia, a member of the ROTC Band. (L-R) Larry Fifield, 72 Fair Oaks; Melvin Cook, 62 Santa Ynez Ave.; Neil Cook, 3517 16th St. These students are shown in their new issue uniforms which consist of ETO jackets in place of the old time blouses.

I love how it lists their addresses. You know, just in case you want to send any of them a letter.

The online SF Historical Photo Collection (AKA one the sources of Johnny0‘s power) has loads of sweet images like this.

I started following Doctor Popular on a whim from a comment he left a few days ago. Little did I know he also happens to be a goddamned Yo-Yo wizard. Check out this bitchin’ yo executed in Clarion Alley:

I sincerely hope this starts a Mission Yo-Yo craze the likes of which has not been seen since the Duncan Yo-Yo Team toured elementary schools around the US in the ’80s.

The good doctor also happens to be a game designer, illustrator, tailor, and rapper (he produced the song in the vid too). Save some talents for the rest of us, would ya Doc?

Spotted at the Rite Spot Cafe on 17th and Folsom.

Two theories:

1. This tagger has no imagination and/or some serious guts. “Yeah that’s right, I’m Peter Crawford! Come get me you pigs!!”
2. Someone is trying to frame this guy. Or maybe this guy: British award-winning, freelance film-maker, author, photographer and lecturer Peter Crawford. Moral: Don’t mess with taggers! Just because they are mostly pasty self-righteous wimps doesn’t mean they can’t fight back!

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Paul F. Tompkins is the funniest comedian in the world right now. You already know that. Since VH1′s cancellation of the (sadly misunderstood) Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins, P.F.T. is back on the West Coast and totally killing it. His new album rules, his mastery of Twitter is beyond compare, his use of Facebook to source shows is unprecedented.

This Friday, he’s performing his variety show, the aptly titled Paul F. Tompkins show, at Eureka Theater. Tickets and details here. Joining him will be Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall), Illeana Douglas (Cape Fear, Ghost World), and singer-songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips. We talk about performing in SF, internet schemes, future plans, and the stress of organizing a variety show.

Oh, and you should join the SF Tompkins 300 group and get him back here on his own accord.

…

Mission Mission: I’ve seen you perform here in San Francisco with both good and horrible crowds. How is San Francisco as an audience?

Paul F. Tompkins: *Laughs* When did you see a horrible crowd?

MM: You performed at Cobb’s and there were at least 2 or 3 people yelling at you through the whole show…

PFT: Oh, yeah. In general I find San Francisco to be good. When I would play the Punchline, it would be me spread out over four nights and there would be probably 10 people who come to see me specifically and they were enjoying it. The rest of the people got free tickets, the room had been papered, so they were just not into it. I saw some of the rudest crowds ever at the Punchline, people with their backs to the stage just talking, as if they were at a night club. You have to work so hard to win them over because they don’t value the experience.

Doing Sketchfest where it’s a bunch of comedy fans, it’s great. People show up really pumped up for the show. They know they’re going to see something that they’re going to enjoy. They’re in a much better frame of mind.

MM: So because of that, lately you’ve been doing a lot of interesting things around how you bring in audiences. The kinds of places you play, the Tompkins 300 Facebook campaign… are you getting the results you want?

PFT: Well, so far. It’s only been the one show in Toronto, the one that started the Tompkins 300… thing… I don’t want to call it a movement, I feel like that’s very grand. Let’s call it a notion, the Tompkins 300 Notion.

That started from me being in Atlanta, trying to get people out to a show. This comedian Bob Kerr in Toronto asked, “Why don’t you come to Toronto?” I said, “Get 300 people together that say they’ll see me” because that was the size of the room I was trying to fill in Atlanta. And he did it, this Facebook group started, he got 300 people, I booked a show, and it was great!

I’m trying to make that the model, but I’ve yet to do the second show. I’m trying to nail down venues in five different cities right now. It’s proving to take longer than I had hoped. I do feel like this is something that can work and will work. Once I have the logistics down, I think it is going to be a successful thing. It makes a huge difference when everybody is there for the same reason.

MM: You’ve also announced that you’re starting a podcast.

PFT: I’m very excited about it, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and it’s a form that I really enjoy. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I like that it can be whatever you want it to be and that there are so many things that you can do with it. It’s going to be a mixture of produced stuff, excerpts from my Largo show, conversations with people…

MM: Your experiences hosting Best Week Ever, and your show at Largo, have those informed what you’d like to accomplish with your podcast?

PFT: You know, I think what’s informed me the most is listening to other podcasts. I like a lot of different kinds. I really enjoy something like Comedy and Everything Else, hosted by Jimmy Dore and Stefané Zamorano. I love what Scott Aukerman is doing with Comedy Death Ray. It’s one of my absolute favorites. I listen to it every week, I think he’s a good host and the show he puts together is fantastic.

MM: Your John C. Reilly impression on Comedy Death Ray is a particular favorite of mine.

PFT: *Laughs* I think you’re being generous by calling it an “impression”. There’s another podcast called Superego which is a monthly podcast that these guys Matt Gourley, Jeremy Carter, Mark McConville and Jeff Crocker put together that’s stream-of-consciousness sketch stuff that’s very produced. I sat in on an episode that’s going to come out next month. They have sketch ideas they want to do, they riff, they edit out all the dead spaces and layer in sound effects and music so it’s really an impressive thing, I really love it. That was an influence, realizing it doesn’t have to be a couple people sitting around talking.

Then, of course, Tom Scharpling’s Best Show on WFMU.

MM: Do you want to comment on the rumors that you’re collaborating with Tom Scharpling on something new?

PFT: Yeah we’ve been talking about something for a while. It’s very difficult because we’re on opposite sides of the country, we have our own things that we’re trying to do. Now that we’re both free, as it were, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to collaborate on something. So we’re in the very early stages of putting together an idea for a TV show.

MM: For your upcoming Sketchfest show, is there a theme to the guests?

PFT: No, it’s just people I know that have done my show before. Dave Foley and Illeana Douglas are doing sketches with me, and Grant-Lee Philips is an old friend, a musician that has done my show in Los Angeles many, many times. It’s nice to play with people that I have a relationship with. It just makes things a lot easier.

Doing a show like this is stressful enough at home; doing it on the road it becomes a whole other thing because there’s so much logistic stuff that has to be worked out. I learned a lot from doing it at Sketchfest in 2006 and the guys that run Sketchfest have been really helpful, Janet Varney and her whole team. I feel a lot less stressed out about it this time around. Now I’m actually looking forward to it! The first time I have to admit I was sort of dreading it. It was just so unknown doing it someplace else.

The biggest bitch of it was all the music stuff. All of a sudden I was putting on a rock concert, so much of it was about getting the musicians and their equipment there. Comedy is so easy because you just show up and there’s a microphone and that’s all you have to worry about. I feel like I made the right decision in not taking guitar lessons.

MM: But despite all the work it takes to get music on your show, it’s all worth it?

PFT: What it comes down to is: I hate everything that leads up to the show. Once the show is ready to start then it’s great. Once it starts, everything is just fine. It’s all the stuff that leads up to it that’s not fun. I hate being a producer, I love being a performer. It’s worth it, all the producing nightmares — *Laughs* I shouldn’t say nightmares. Headaches, maybe. Scale that back a little bit. The headaches are worth the performing dream, how do you like that?

MM: Anything else you want to mention about your show?

PFT: It’s going to be awesome.

I will say this! We have an early show and a late show and we’re going to be doing completely different material at each show. So if anybody felt like coming to both they would not be disappointed.

Tickets for the Paul F. Tompkins show can be purchased here. Two shows, one at 8pm and another at 10:30pm, $25, Eureka Theater. And totally sign up for the SF Tompkins 300 group.

Mission Local‘s own Armand Emamdjomeh joins the ranks of Julie Michelle’s official San Francisco residents, as the newest subject of I Live Here SF. Read about his journey and check out Julie’s great pictures featuring Armand and the sexy Mission District back alleys.

Speaking of Julie, you should also check out her efforts to gather diapers in support of HAMO (Help A Mother Out), explained here, on her blog.

Who should be the next I Live Here SF subject? I vote for Johnny0.

Behind the scenes.

Inspiration.

I saw this inside Escape from NY right next to less-interesting memorabilia from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Peggy Bundy.

So aside from “She sells tamales to drunks” and “everyone is hella chill with that” we also know that the Tamale Lady appreciates her fans and has poor penmanship. But I want to know more. Does she have kids? Does she pay taxes? Was “tamale lady” ever “tamale girl”?

I guess if you have 20 minutes to spare you can get the full scoop about Virginia (that’s her name, dude) from that documentary on youtube. Yeah, it’s a couple of years old and we sorta covered it before, but it could use some more views. Especially if crap like the Grape Lady falling down and apparently ripping out her trachea is almost up to 5 million.

Hey film school readers, can you please do a doc on Omer the guitar guy next? Thanks.

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(photo and post title by tkamenick)