Mission Mission

There won’t be another one in the Mission until a couple weeks from now, but until then, you get to choose from the two next-best SF neighborhoods: the Lower Haight and the East Bay. First up, ’80s Nite, tonight:

RSVP and invite your friends!

Next up, a party in the East Bay on Saturday night, featuring $1 beers and $1 slices of pizza — and fried olives and fancy cocktails, apparently:

RSVP and invite your friends!

This is gonna be big. Ashleyanne was on the decks for last fall’s epic American Tripps Halloween party (pretty party pics here) and she brought the house down. This time, the party’s at Rickshaw Stop, which means dancing on the main stage, two ping pong tables, foosball and skeeball on the upstairs mezzanine, and lots of Rickshaws to lounge in. Plus, it’s just rare that we get to play ping pong along to some classic soul music. All 45s, all night long! RSVP and invite your friends!

(Also, it’s basically gonna a nonstop dance marathon this weekend. Tonight, Ashleyanne guests at Oldies Night. Tomorrow afternoon, it’s Hard French at El Rio from 3-8. Then it’s SOUL AND PING PONG from 8-1. Then it’s full-on rave time at Haçeteria until 3!)

When it comes to your usual array of Dolores Park activity enthusiasts, you’ve got your hula-hoopers, your tightrope walkers, and the occasional acrobatic troupe which may or may not feature people walking on stilts.  And then you’ve got our pal Chris Kalani, who has a request for our readers:

Find me more people who can do this with me in the park.

As much as I would love to join him, there’s just no way I’d ever be able to attempt that unless a soccer ball was involved (and then I’d probably blow it anyway).  But there must be some of you out there!  I mean, we don’t want Portland to outdo the Mission!  C’mon, who’s up for some tricks in the park?

[Link]

Have you guys tried this thing? It’s basically a tiny, one-person, off-kilter merry-go-round that looks like a tulip, and it goes real fast — and if you’re like me, it will fuck you up.

What’s worse, it’s located in the playground right next to Pop’s, so please don’t go getting any ideas. Don’t get faded at Pop’s off Hamm’s and Jaegers and then sneak over and try this thing. You will make a mess. Don’t do it. (I dare you not to do it.)

[via Meesha]

This party was supposed to happen last month, but was sadly postponed. Sadly, that is, until now — because it’s happening this Friday! I cannot wait! From the official invite:

AMERICAN TRIPPS history will be made when DJs Laser Tad (aka Tad Teste) and King Friday bring a dose of hip hop to our party for the very first time. It’s gonna be chill ’90s hip hop, upbeat, feel-good jams sure to go hand-in-hand with BERLIN-STYLE PING PONG ACTION. (Think De La Soul or “Feel Me Flow,” nahmean?) Don’t miss this.

Furthermore, we’re at Rickshaw Stop this time, so there’s FOOSBALL and SKEEBALL also, plus a full bar and lots of sofas and RICKSHAWS to sit on. Dance party on the main stage!

Dance party on the main stage! RSVP and invite your friends!

SFist reports:

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Mayor Ed Lee and the Golden State Warriors front office are scheduled to make good on months of rumors by officially announcing a deal to bring the NBA franchise back to San Francisco proper. According to the Chronicle, the deal will bring a $500 million, privately financed 17,000 – 19,000-seat arena to Pier 30 along the southern Embarcadero. The new arena is expected to be completed in time for the team to start hosting home games on the waterfront during the 2017 – 2018 season.

This is so exciting! (But hopefully we can all still afford to live here by then. It would suck to have to commute from Oakland to SF to see the Warriors, am I right?)

Read on for lots more details and a pic of Gavin Newsom thanking everybody for not tearing down Red’s Java House.

[via Last Renaissance]

The Bold Italic just published a big feature on El Rio’s monthly lube wrestling party, with gorgeous photos and astute reportage by our boy Joshua Cobos:

I’ve found myself there on a handful of occasions, slack-jawed and bewildered at sights that made my insides squirm with conflicting emotions. Watching women romp around in red latex, splashing it up in an inflatable pool, is my inner sailor’s dream come true. Add liquor and lube, and that fantasy becomes exhilarating – until, of course, the substances splash toward me, at which time that dream turns into a nightmare.

Read on for lots more pics and analysis.

[via KevMo]

We were all pretty bummed to find out a while back that Valencia Playground and Pool was closing for renovation that would take over a year.  While we welcomed the idea of modern improvements like a new turf soccer field and futuristic playground equipment, there were also a number of concerns voiced by the community regarding access to these improvements, since the other recently created soccer fields in the Mission (Garfield and Franklin) have replaced the free-form pickup nature of the sport with rigid scheduled blocks restricting use that are a massive pain in the ass to reserve.

While efforts were made to reach out to the primarily-Latino footballers who played in this park and agree to a compromise on when the area would be available for free use, there was some skepticism as to whether the new allotments and enforcement would be fair.  Well, starting next week we finally get a chance to see how it will all work out, according to Patrick Hannan from the City Fields Foundation:

The full park will open later this summer but the new soccer field will “officially” re-open with a small ribbon-cutting ceremony at 930am on Tuesday, May 22 followed by some soccer play with the students from Everett Middle School. The soccer field and Valencia Street play area will remain open through the rest of construction.

Please join us! Should be a nice event and you can be among the first to try out the new soccer field.

Of course, not everyone seems happy about the news:

What’s the deal with every new playground not having shade? I can’t wait for this place to open, but it will probably take 5 years for whatever stupid little tree they put in to grow enough to provide shade. I’ll just have to take an umbrella.

and

I guess Im the complainer here. I hate this park. First they “accidentally had to cut down all of the beautiful huge mature trees. Then they removed all grass with cement (I mean side to side, front to back). Then they put in a bunch of kids shit even though there is a full great kids area just a few feet away. I hate it.

And those both seem to be reasonable points.  What’s your take on the situation?

Previously:

• They’re closing the park
• Valencia soccer sucker punch melee
• Mission Playground adds new concrete rubble pile play area
• New wave Valencia playground sprouting
• The sun sets on the playground of the future