Mission Mission

Brittney Gilbert over at Eye on Blogs stumbled across a pretty cool Emotion Map of San Francisco.

Christian Nold, the designer of the project, briefly detailed what went into making the map:

The San Francisco Emotion Map is the culmination of Christian Nold’s five-week residency and participatory art project that involved a total of 98 participants exploring San Francisco’s Mission District neighborhood using the Bio Mapping device he invented. During his residency at Southern Exposure, Christian Nold worked in the organization’s Mission Street storefront gallery encouraging visitors to stop by and use the devices during the weekdays and on Saturdays when he conducted intensive workshops. The project invited the public to go for a walk using the device, which records the wearer’s physiological response to their surroundings. The results of these walks are represented on this map using colored dots and participant’s personal annotations. The San Francisco Emotion Map is a collective attempt at creating an emotional portrait of a neighborhood and envisions new tools that allow people to share and interpret their own bio data. (link)

(Credit Eye on Blogs)

As you might have heard, there is a new food cart, Sexy Soup Cart, serving up cheap eats in the Mission.  I was initially a little taken aback at the boldness required to call, presumably, oneself sexy in such a public way.  Is this required to market soup these days in the Mission?  Am I completely missing something?  I decided to go straight to the source to find out.

Kevin Montgomery: What brings you out to the neighborhood?

Sexy Soup Lady: I’m constantly inspired and moved by the adventurous and enterprising nature of San Franciscans and in particular the uniqueness and spirit of folks in the Mission. As a local nutritionist and chef dedicated to nourishing the body, and thereby the soul, of Bay Area residents, I was particularly inspired by the community building I saw when I participated in my first experience with MagicCurryCart, CremeBruleeCart, and AmuseBouchSF at the Friday night suppers. It was such a fun and playful atmosphere and I just couldn’t resist being a part of this movement. I wanted to contribute through my dedication to the use of local and seasonal foods. Each of my soups will be based on the locally available, seasonal foods offered to us through our many farmer’s markets – that’s why the last soup was an asparagus soup, which is delicious and in season right now!

KM: Why “sexy?”  Do you think it is a little peculiar to self-ordain yourself as the “sexy” soup vendor of the Mission? Do you feel you need to use sex to sell your soup?

SSL: The reason I joined the cart movement wasn’t necessarily for entrepreneurial reasons, it was simply because I loved the fun and playful atmosphere it provided for me to meet others in the community I love and to nourish my neighbors with healthy food. When it came down to naming my cart, I wanted to emphasize the fun and playful aspect that so endeared me to the experience. What’s more playful than a Sexy Soup? The adjective sexy is not being used in the erotic sense, but in the alternate definition meaning “interesting, exciting, appealing.” Just as the Curry is Magic, so is the Soup Sexy!

You can follow the adventures of the Sexy Soup Lady on Twitter or feast on a cup in various Mission alleys with other popular street carts.

An anonymous tipster has informed us that David Ireland, famous for his conceptual art and turning his former residence at 500 Capp St. into a showplace for his work, has passed away: “Yesterday, I was on my way to vote, when I noticed a bouquet of flowers outside the house, with a note that read ‘D.I. 1930-2009.’”

For the record, there are no news sources corroborating the tip; however, his wikipedia entry has been updated with the news.

Brittney of Eye on Blogs is the subject of i live here SF today, and in her shoot she’s posed in front of no less than three epic Mission walls, including the late, great Suriya Thai’s garage door elephant (above), the mustachioed Ben Davis sign at Arik’s, and Charlie Callahan’s Orange Alley sea urchin.

See the whole shoot, and Brittney’s SF story here.

Previously:

Suriya Thai No More

Ben Davis No More

Orange Alley Here To Stay

I know, I know, all this self promotion is getting exhausting. But, Broke-Ass Stuart made me his “Broke-Ass of the Week” this week, and I thought you should know. Also, it comes with a picture I thought only my Facebook friends would see. And sorry about all the swearing. There was something in the air that night. Link.

Note to self: Unfriend Stuart on Facebook.

Chris Colin just got in touch to tell us about a piece of his just published at SF Gate:

Randy Robinson was an intelligent, wonderfully demented man I came to know when I rented him my office space in the Mission. Randy’s oddness toed the line of inappropriateness, and soon many of the other folks in the shared office wanted him gone. The strange, sad events that followed struck me as a micro version of the friction that’s flared up in the Mission and million other communities in recent years — the productive and uptight versus the marginal and odd. Both sides were sympathetic here, as is often the case in Mission disputes, but the end result was unambiguously heartbreaking.

Link.

Reader J.C. (actual initials) just wrote in with this harrowing tale:

I know, that you know, that I know, that you know about this, but just wanna point out that my favorite Mission event is happening in Dolores Park on Sunday: [Link]

Of course, it only gets interesting after the Easter Egg hunt and the kids go home and the Hunky Jesus Competition starts.

Incidentally, the photo on that page is me, from 2 years ago! I’m still fuming that I lost that competition. I was one of the Final Five Jesuses, and those bitchy Sisters gave the award to some dude who called himself “Old-School Jesus”!

Those fucking Republicans! I shaved my chest hair into a cross (some real, some fake), and called myself “Guido Jesus from the Jersey Shore”. How the hell did I lose?! Even now, 2 years later, who do they post a photo of to promote it on Fun/Cheap? Old School Jesus? -Fuck that false prophet! ME! -That’s who they use! I think it’s like one of those Pulp Fiction things, where everyone knew it was the best picture and would live on in our consciousnesses for decades, yet Forrest fucking Gump wins the Oscar. That year’s result was the biggest social injustice since Christ was actually crucified 2000 years ago.

Anyway… I’m not competing this year (too many emotional scars), but I will be there, imparting all my sagely wisdom onto a close friend who is competing (kinda like when Apollo Creed started to manage Rocky in Rocky 3). My buddy assures me he’s a shoo-in for the top prize, but I tell him I once was that confident myself, and he should be prepared for disappointment.

Thanks for sharing, J.C., and God bless.

Photo by SanFranAnnie.

Tracie Broom had the scoop:

Anthony Bourdain is eating a torta (filming) at That’s It The Center Of The Mile corner store @ 23rd + Mission. Like, right now.

Well, three hours ago actually. Link.

And apparently he got his maple bacon latte too.

Previously:

Tony Bourdain to Shoot Show in the Mission

Rick Abruzzo got in touch to tell me about some upcoming free pancake thing at El Rio, and then he’s all oh and by the way, “ANTHONY BOURDAIN WILL BE AT PCR STUDIO EITHER 21ST OR 22ND END OF MARCH* TO START A SHOOT FOR AN SF NO RESERVATIONS” (double emphasis added).

Oh my god, right? Who doesn’t watch Tony’s show the whole time wishing he’d come do an episode about super burritos and chicharrones and bacon-wrapped hotdogs and perhaps certain other local street-food outlets?

Rick continues, “I know the story arc is his on-going war with vegans. Wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to torch Herbivore, slander Millennium or bitch about the price of Greens.”

Uhh, what about Cafe Platitude? I’d love to see Tony try to order an I Am Jack’s Raging Bile Duct.

And for that matter, I’d love to see Tony have a picnic in Dolores Park with Meave.

In any case, he’ll for sure drop by Pirate Cat for an “early morning appearance to try [their] Bacon Maple Latte and bitch about vegans on the air.”

Rick, thanks for the tip, and PLEASE steer Tony toward everything great (and great to vilify) about the Mission.

Tony’s Travel Channel blog is here.

Photo of Melanie Dunea‘s photo by Dulamae.

*UPDATE: Source says date range may have been too specific.

The People’s History of the United States, written by Howard Zinn, came out in 1980 and has sold over a million copies. Partially because it is filled with primary source material from underdog activists, writers, and other overlooked people, its words are still relevant today.

Last night, Mission High School’s auditorium was filled to capacity and beyond for a reading of this primary source material by actors like Kerry Washington, Benjamin Bratt, Josh Brolin, and Diane Lane. Among the material read was Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ain’t I a Woman” given in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, Susan B. Anthony’s address to the judge in the case in which she was convicted of casting a ballot, and both Martin Luther King’s and Muhammed Ali’s speeches against the Vietnam War.

The works read were both incredibly poignant and still relevant to our world today. As Frederick Douglass said in 1857, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Zinn, his source materials, and the actors who superbly brought the works to life, have reminded us that it is the underdog who has always changed history, not the powerful.

A film with even more material and even more actors will be coming out shortly, and the website is here.