Mission Mission

[via Ariel Dovas on Instagram]

[via Ariel Dovas on Instagram]

The only problem is, you’re gonna have to make them yourself. (Or befriend Ariel Dovas or his mom Barbara.) (I was out of town for their annual Hanukkah party this past year and it was a total bummer.)

This month Lucky Peach started a new series called We Love Mom, about great food our moms make. For each installment, they get a kid to write a little intro about one of their mom’s recipes, then they do a little Q&A with the mom and print the recipe.

Here’s part of Ariel’s intro to today’s piece about Barbara’s latkes:

I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA, and my mom and I moved to San Francisco’s Mission District in 1993, when I was thirteen. Despite the fact that she was a single mom who worked long hours, she made sure I always had a good meal. She is endlessly supportive, and a great model for being a caring, compassionate, nurturing yet powerful force in this world. And she’s just really fun.

No matter what we had in the kitchen—or didn’t—my mom saw an opportunity for a great meal. She was truly amazing at pulling together a balanced meal seemingly out of thin air. We ate eighties Santa Cruz hippie health food, and while other kids had things like cookies sweetened with things stronger than fruit juice, our food was our food, and I just kind of accepted that. For the most part, my mom’s food wasn’t flashy or showy; it wasn’t supposed to be. It was healthy, warm, comforting, and it was there when I was hungry. It’s still what I try to replicate when I cook for myself at home.

Read on for more more pics, Q&A with Barbara — and of course the recipe.

[via Mr. Ariel Dovas on Instagram]

Cool new look for winter! (Also a cool idea for next Halloween?)

[via Ariel Dovas on Twitter]

It’s been an intense year for this beloved local bar, so what better way to cap it than with 3 days of nonstop party??? Happy birthday, Uptown!

Everything is free and open to all:

Friday, December 26 – 6pm to 10pm
Birthday Reunion Party
Celebrating Uptown Founder Scott Ellsworth, current and former staff, regulars and all community members. Wear an Uptown T-Shirt and pay 1984 prices!

Saturday, December 27 – 6pm
Musical Review & BBQ Feast
Featuring musicians who have called Uptown home over the years, including Mindi Hadan, Douglas Katelus and Ivy & Devon.

Sunday, December 28 – 6pm
Uptown Salon
An evening of poetry & prose by local writers, hosted by Uptown Bartender & Poet Tym Butler.

Don’t go leavin’ town!

[Photo by Ariel Dovas]

[file photo by Ariel]

As a passionate theater and event-goer, Brittany went to a forum on the future of SF’s nightlife amid recent closings due to economic and cultural shifts in the city, as well as neighbor complaints. Here’s her report:

[file photo by Ariel]

People are moving into cities for a reason. We endure small apartments, high prices and the discomfort of living on top of each other to gain access to the inspiration and entertainment that comes with being surrounded by crazy creative people. Arts and culture are the lifeblood of what makes any city unique, particularly San Francisco.

I review theater here because I want to shine a light on one element of what makes our city so great (even if I don’t always love what I see). So when I heard CMAC (California Music and Culture Association) was hosting a “Supervisor Nightlife and Entertainment Forum” allowing Supervisor candidates to “discuss their visions for the future of nightlife and culture in San Francisco.” I wanted to hear what they had to say.

[file photo by Ariel]

With the SF Bay Guardian closing announcement happening earlier in the day, the conversation about what will happen to SF if our arts and culture can’t make the rent seemed more urgent than ever. Which is why it was disconcerting that only three candidates — Supervisor Scott Weiner, Supervisor Jane Kim, and Juan-Antonio Carballo — out of six who were invited to participate even made it to the event.

(more…)

Before we got a bunch of our friends together and built The Secret Alley, Noel Von Joo and I got a bunch of our friends together and spent a number of years making a strange post-zombie-apocalypse movie, When Gravity Changes. It’s about a loner who is stuck on his roof while zombies swarm beneath him, the sun has stopped rising and his only companion is a talking raccoon . . . until he finds a city of fetuses hidden in a tree. It was shot on a roof in Santa Cruz, an attic in Sacramento and a gutter on our very own Capp Street.

[Noel in the fetus city set]

The movie will be showing as part of Here & Far, curated by Sarah Flores, at The Roxie this Wednesday night. Our movie will follow a bunch of other local shorts, Vacation (2014) Written and Directed by Tracy Brown, As Long as There is Plenty (2013) Written and Directed by Kenneth Vaughn, Chaos Directed by Natalie Eakin, Bequeath the Heart By Zack Von Joo & Million Year Check-up By Davenzane Hayes.

The show starts at 7pm and The Roxie Theater is at 3117 16th St., near Valencia. You can purchase tickets in advance here.

It’s called CREAM, which is a Wu-Tang reference, and it’s originally from Berkeley I think. Eater SF has lots more info here.

(CREAM is a fine name, but I think they could’ve come up with something better had they gotten lost in the mystery of the Wu-Tang name generator.)

(Here now are the Wu-Tang names of every current Mission Mission contributor:

• Allan Hough = Eight-legged DJ
• Andrew Sarkarati = Inscrutable Drama Queen
• Ariel Dovas = My Cousin the Wife-Beatah
• Vic Wong = Cheeky Delinquent
• Helen Tseng = Superintendent God-Botherer
• Kat Malinowska = Lesbian Pimp
• Doc Pop = Dizzy Cow
• Andrew Dalton = Asthmatic Enemy of God
• Joshua Cobos = Tha Visible Choirboy

Cool, that was fun. I think Helen wins. Again.)

[via Rebecca Bowe]

Seen on 18th Street.