Mission Mission

Today on Burrito Justice Radio, Mr. Justice welcomes special guest Todd Lappin, the man behind Bernalwood (the best neighborhood blog in town). These two have a long history of endlessly entertaining, usually neighborhood-related, online banter, so getting them in the same room is gonna be good.

Be sure to tune in right at noon: BFF.fm

[via Talent Is An Asset]

As you can see, it’s basically a special bike path that exists a little higher than street level and a little lower than the sidewalk. The SF Bike Coalition reports:

The showcase bikeway is part of the Mission/Valencia Gateway project and will stretch southbound on Valencia Street from Cesar Chavez Street to Duncan Street.

[...]

Work on the project is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2015 and continue until mid-2016. When completed, the Mission Valencia Green Gateway will create an improved link between the Valencia and San José corridors, making the North to South Connecting the City route even safer and more comfortable for everyone.

Read on for more info and graphics.

Local independent filmmaker David Enos just released a new short, and it is amaaaaaaaazing. Filmed on location at Ocean Beach:

3D City is a year long stereoscopic photography project by Doctor Popular

On foggier days, I love bringing my laptop down to the Embarcadero and working from one of the piers. Headphones on, watching the ships roll in while I’m working on soundtracks. I shot this roll a few weeks back on my Nimslo 3D camera with some Kodak Gold film.

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Yesterday I wrote about an inspiring scene at a real Strokes show I was at on Sunday night. And I have no doubt this Friday’s fake Strokes show will be just as good, seeing as how its being put on by the folks at Last Nite (spawn of ’90s indie dance party Debaser), on the occasion of their 1st birthday:

DJs Jamie Jams and Emdee celebrate one year of making you all dance to post punk, dance punk and freak folk records.

We’ll be returning to the Elbo Room for one night only. Special guests, Bang On, play the Strokes!

$10, $5 before 11 pm. Photos by Rob Williamson.

RSVP and invite your pals!

Another edition of this cutting-edge approach to comedy nights happens this Friday:

Comics will cut out most of their bullshit act and leave you with the joke/jokes they keep closest to their hearts- their closers. Jam packed with their own personal favorites, old faithfuls and maybe even some new tricks, I’ll Leave You With This will teach these comics their ABCs- ALWAYS. BE. CLOSING.

This month is super special, because Labor Day Weekend is upon us again, meaning two things- 1. We celebrate the Labor Movement with a day off to drink and 2. EVERYONE IN STEAMPUNK GOGGLES IS AT BURNING MAN! Come celebrate your freedom from dreadlocks and 80 hour work weeks with us!

Get tickets here. And follow Cynic Cave on Tumblr for more super local subterranean comedy.

[via Tegan]

Katie & Brittany checked out Motown the Musical, and it sounds pretty great. Here’s their report (with a couple notes from me at the end, I couldn’t help myself, sorry):

We were very excited but also very skeptical about seeing Motown The Musical. (We are always at least a little skeptical when it comes to musicals based on already written music) Of course we knew of Motown Records, but didn’t know much about the man who founded it, Berry Gordy, so we were very interested to see how Broadway was going to tell this story.

Katie: I want some more Motown!

Brittany: Me too! The set was insane! There were many times that I was just like how are they doing that??

K: I was really into all those moving screens with media on them. For a second I thought they were projections but realized that they were large TV’s.

B: Amazing production value and cast. Everyone was beautiful and talented. It was disgusting.

K: It was like being taken back in time and attending a Motown concert. When the Marvin Gaye character started singing “What’s Going On” I almost started crying. I was extremely entertained but the only time it got a little slow was at the end of the second act.

B: I loved that since it was opening night Berry Gordy and the director came up after the show. And it was cool to hear the director talk about how this is exactly what we need right now, music that brings people of all ages and colors together, dancing and being kind to each other. And at the end of the first act “What’s Going On” was being sung during video of protests of the day and all I could think was wow, so timely and so on point. Not that it wouldn’t have been amazing otherwise, but the resonance with what’s happening in the world right now and what this play is about was really in sync.

K: Right, and yet I loved hearing these songs in context of the time period and what was going on in history.

B: The girl who played Diana Ross was so good. She was basically her generation’s Beyonce, and that woman pulled it off flawlessly. People should definitely go see it. There was a real story to tell and they did a great job telling it.

K: I could not stop smiling when little Michael Jackson was singing! So freakin’ adorable!

The Verdict: If you love Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five and being “wow’ed” by talented singers, this is the event you will want to treat yourself to. This was everything you expect and hope for from a Broadway touring show. Amazing set, ridiculously talented actors and being thoroughly entertained for two hours.

The Drama Talk: We were afraid that this musical was just going to be hit song after hit song with a random plot shoehorned in. Instead it was more about what was happening at that time. That’s what really worked, it wasn’t just actors breaking into a song that everyone knows, just because. You really feel like you are at a Motown concert.

The Drinks: We were really excited after the show, so knew we wanted a good, strong cocktail. We decided on a place that was only a couple of blocks away from the theater that we had never heard of called Oddjob, which we found out opened 9 months ago. [They lost me at "bespoke mixologist mastery" - Ed.] Though pricey (our drinks were $14 each) they were really, really good. [Also, re: Oddjob, "working man's cocktail room" with $14 drinks . . . sorry, continue. - Ed.] We both ordered the “For Your Eyes Only”. Such a treat! Oh, and the “secret” entrance is to the left of the building, down the alleyway. Great way to end our entertaining evening. [Oh, secret alleys? Done it. - Ed.]

Motown the Musical runs through 9/28 at the Orpheum Theatre and tickets can be purchased through their website. Ticket prices vary from $45-$200 depending on where you sit. ALSO, another way to go is to grab some of the limited number of $40 rush tickets available two hours prior to curtain at the SHN Orpheum Theatre Box Office. It’s cash only and only 2 tickets per person, and are subject to availability. There are also tickets available on Goldstar for $69-$80.

San Francisco Magazine (part of the Modern Luxury publishing family) just put up a lengthy piece on the plight of the Mission-based “Local” business empire, which keeps getting picketed and vandalized and everything. The piece is called “Local, Cornered.” Here’s a good bit:

Looking back, Milgrom wonders if his troubles might have started as soon as he gave his businesses their names. “Maybe we should have made it clearer that our use of ‘local’ isn’t about being local,” he says of Local’s Corner, which he opened in 2012. “It’s about our sourcing. People really, really get riled up, particularly about the possessive s.”

I definitely pat myself on the back every day for not having named this blog “Mission’s Mission.” Read on for lots more quotes from Milgrom and the Flour and Water guy and some other restaurant guys.

[Photo by Less Jokes]