Mission Mission

Ping Pong Gallery is one of my favorite places in the world, and, wow, they’re hosting a special Halloween Happy Hour:

On the evening of Friday, October 31st, from 5:30 – 8:30pm we invite you to come play, drink beer, make friends, and give shape to the act/art of playing ping pong.

Ping Pong gear and Halloween costumes highly encouraged.

And then of course you can head back to the Mission for your big proper parties.

Carlos Reyes just put up a post titled Skateboarding’s Not a Competition. Ostensibly, it’s about skateboarding, but it contains good advice for all of us creative types in the neighborhood. Here, he talks a bit about himself and his homies:

We don’t care about skills. If something sick happens, we’re stoked, we don’t get bummed that we can’t or can do the same trick. It’s just a shared experience we all have. But anyways, it doesn’t really matter to me who’s better than me or who I’m better than. That has never crossed my mind. If I skate with rippers, that’s rad and it’s fun, but it’s also the same fun as I’ll have if I skate with beginners or whatever. I don’t pay attention to who’s doing what because when you start to, the fun starts to go away.

Solid advice, Carlos! Lots more to the argument here.

Over at Static Fix, Alex has a word-for-word reenactment of the performance delivered by the play-by-play announcers at Saturday’s Red Bull Soapbox Race in Dolores Park. It begins thus:

Stu, is this great or what? This is great Jay! It fuckin’ rocks to be here right now in San FRAN-CISCO!!! Give it up for these fans. Let’s hear the fans. Whoooooooooo! Hahaha. That’s right. We’re here in Dolores Park. Red Bull bringing it to us so hard right now with the Soapbox Derby in DOLOR-ES! Whooo! Let’s throw it down to my boy Shiboya. Shiboya! Wassuuuuuuuup?!

The whole rest of the show is “transcribed” here, and paired with some nice photos (like the one above).

We also like Carlos Reyes’ coverage.

Been wondering about a few things, like that poster on Guerrero Street for the past few months, featuring a cow and advertising a free soapbox race in Dolores Park. The Red Bull Soapbox Race, specifically, which answers the next question: What was up with that fleet of can-shaped Red Bull cars I passed on the way home from work yesterday?

Now I’m pretty excited to see what these soap boxers will do, besides make my weekly date with Dolores (Saturday) a little claustro. Good news: it’ll be completely free, unless you decide to make a purchase from the food stands, bev stands, craft stands, nearby shops, or strolling vendors.

clever

Looks like Bender’s had a nice fifth birthday party. All photos by gretchen robinette. Click each to enlarge, or see full set here.

The centerpiece of Bender’s fifth birthday party tonight is a Jell-O wrestling tournament. The party’s already underway. The ribs are great.

Photo by gretchen robinette (click it to see the whole thing)

Flickr user keightdee saw some dudes playing bike polo in one of Dolores Park’s tennis courts recently. Lots more photos in her photostream. Click thumbnails to enlarge.

I don’t think the Fugees are playing or anything, but like the poster says, there’s entertainment, beer, food, demos, and it’s all for a good cause. Franklin Field is part of that park at 16th and Bryant that you never really see because it’s up above sidewalk level. Lael checked it out recently and said it seemed cool. Full disclosure: I went to this Sports Basement a few weeks ago to buy a soccer ball, and the staff was very helpful.

[via funcheapSF]

And it benefits Rwandan coffee farmers! Metblogs has the details here.

(via Eater SF)

Photo by ozone567.

Travis at SFist reports that Potrero del Sol/La Raza Skatepark at 25th and Utah (seen here in an unfinished state) opens for real this weekend. Mission Skateboards will bring barbecue and freebies. Pop’s hosts the afterparty. Link.

Photo by unaesthetic.