Mission Mission

Today it’s condos and valet parking. A few years back, the big controversy on Valencia Street was American Apparel trying to move in. There were protests and death threats and Sarah Palin-style hyperbole and official corporate statements and a hearing downtown and Sasha Grey’s pussy and we all had a lot of laughs.

Amidst all this, I became acquainted with Kiya Babzani, one of the owners of Self Edge. He told me about some of the bellyaching and violence he’d faced when he first opened his denim shop on Valencia near 18th, and I ended up publishing a big feature about him and the store — which I think still stands as probably the longest thing I’ve ever written for this blog. Here’s how it starts:

When Self Edge took over the old Leather Tongue Video space a few years back, I thought to myself, “Oh great, some high-end Marina douche boutique has displaced a beloved Mission landmark.” Over beers the other night, Kiya Babzani, owner-operator of the place, informed me that apparently this was a pretty common misconception in the early days, as Self Edge was repeatedly vandalized and he and his employees were shouted at, muttered at and spat at.

Mind you I’d never patronized Leather Tongue, because who the fuck has even seen a VCR in the last 12 years? But it looked pretty punk rock and I guess I liked knowing it was there.

We go on to talk about his denim obsession and a then-forthcoming jean collaboration he was really excited about. (That jean ended up being the first thing I ever bought from Self Edge, and in the above image you can see how awesomely they age.)

Anyway, American Apparel never made it in, but Valencia has changed a lot nonetheless. Self Edge is still there, still going strong, and they just completed a big remodel to coincide with their sixth year in business, and this Saturday night there’s a big party (and sale) to celebrate. Here’s what to expect:

We are once again open for business in San Francisco and have updated our store with two dressing rooms, fancy lighting downstairs, a new paint color scheme, more natural light coming in from the front, a new online shipping fulfillment room behind the store, a wild looking new rack system downstairs, and more.

To celebrate all these improvements and the fact that we just signed another six year lease on our original space we’re having a “6 Year Itch” Anniversary Party on September 1st at Self Edge San Francisco along with a 12% off sale at all three Self Edge stores and our online store.

The Self Edge San Francisco Anniversary Party will be from 6pm to 10pm on Saturday night, September 1st.  Come enjoy some beers, music, and general rowdiness courtesy of our unruly clientele and local retailer friends.

Read on for more info on the party and the sale (including online options).

UPDATE: Bonus pics of my jeans here.

“There was a woman heckling the poor painter about destroying art,” says our pal Jess who walked by just now.

Yeah, that’s a shame. But…. RHEA’S!!!!

From the invite:

Kick your Labor Day weekend off right! AMERICAN TRIPPS returns to RICKSHAW STOP for a night of Berlin-style ping pong, foosball, skeeball, dancing, drinking, romancing, and general merriment!

TRISTES TROPIQUES (of Haçeteria fame) will be on the decks, spinning a vinyl-only selection of hits by DAVID BOWIE and DAVID BYRNE (whose band TALKING HEADS will figure prominently into the proceedings) and a number of related acts.

RSVP and invite your friends! Oh and RSVP here for free beer!

King of Oakland Ryan Christopher Parks and his rock band B. Hamilton make another rare appearance in the Mission tonight. Have a listen:

RSVP and invite your friends!

You already knew that the housing situation in SF and the Mission in particular was so bad that people have resorted to paying for Facebook ads in order to find a place to live, but this utterly amazing Craigslist room vacancy post is sure to depress even the most optimistic apartment seeker:

I have a shitty room available that no other people in the house want, hence the ad on CL.
I figure I can charge you more so the existing roommates can all pay less. I’ve actually been here for 8 years, so I’ll be making money off your rent.
It’s about 8×6, has a window facing a brick wall, and has no closet. The closet is down the hall, down a flight of stairs, … ah hell it’s in the garage.
Also, the room is not really a room, it’s half of a double parlour and your door is a sliding one that doesn’t close all the way. You can hear your roommate on the other side think.
We’re having an open house, so if you really like talking about yourself and giving us your life story while other strangers are present, you’ll be in your element.
One of our roommates is out of town, we would like you to skype with him a few days from now when we’ve picked some people out. Then after that we will narrow it down again to a select few (10) and meet next week for round two. We don’t have a life so we welcome the chance to have people over that show interest in us and praise our wonderful abode and everything about us, whether it’s sincere or not. Hey, a couple of us guys are single, so this could be a chance for us to score some dates. I don’t think that’s creepy at all.
We’d like your facebook and linkedin info. We feel that we can tell what kind of person you are and what you’ll be like, just from looking at how many friends you have online. There’s never been a better way to get to know someone.
Send us an email or go buy a lottery ticket – chances of getting the room are roughly the same.

Obviously it’s not real (I hope), but having gone through the soul-crushing Mission housing search on Craigslist myself a while back, I can tell you with complete confidence that it is extremely close to the truth.

(Thanks Jason!)

Panorama by Joe Bunny. Thanks, Joe.

It was actually local photographer and blogger Shawn Clover, and there’s lots more where this came from. Here’s how it’s done:

To put these photos together, I first create a catalog of historical photos that look like they have potential to be blended. Unfortunately most of these photos end up on the digital cutting room floor because there’s simply no way to get the same photo today because either a building or a tree is in the way. Once I get a good location, I get everything lined up just right. My goal is to stand in the exact spot where the original photographer stood. Doing this needs to take into account equivalent focal length, how the lens was shifted, light conditions, etc. I take plenty of shots, each nudged around a bit at each location. Just moving one foot to the left changes everything.

Read on for more story and lots more photographic mashups.

[via Burrito Justice]

My buddy Jim is visiting the Mission from NYC this week to record some drums on an album our pal is producing, and it only took one night for him to get personally acquainted with our unique denizens.  What follows is a paraphrased account of what went down early Wednesday morning:

After leaving your place we [meaning Jim and our other friend Morgan] were walking back to where we were staying on 15th and Mission, keeping an eye out for a liquor store that might still be open.  As we were approaching the 16th and Mission intersection, some guy just kind of appears and starts yelling really loudly at the top of his lungs, just saying basic crazy shit.  We tried to give him a wide berth, but he sort of approached us as we were passing.

In the blink of an eye, the guy reached out and seemed to sucker punch me on the shoulder as he yelled, “Get the fuck out of my way!”  It felt kind of weird and as I looked at my shoulder, I realized my shirt was torn and there was some blood.  That’s when I noticed that the guy was holding a huge switch-blade.  He then started swinging wildly at us, but we were able to dodge the blade and get some distance.  The crazy guy, still yelling at the top of his lungs, then went to some of the other people chilling by the BART stop and started swinging his knife at them.

These guys didn’t seem to appreciate that, and one of them started swinging his cane at the knife-wielder.  Another guy threw a trashcan at him, and pretty soon they had him on the ground and were kicking him.  We were afraid they might kill the lunatic, so Morgan called the police who arrived swiftly and approached with weapons drawn.  Luckily they were able to take control of the situation without shooting anyone, although one of the officer’s hands was slashed by the guy with the knife and was bleeding profusely.

Me?  I consider myself highly lucky to have gotten away with just a scratch, and will probably be extra cautious about keeping my distance from crazy yelling dudes in the future.  If that guy had been just a few inches taller, his initial hit would have been at my jugular instead of my shoulder.  But seriously, motherfuckers in SF are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay crazier than folks in NYC!

Wow, we’re glad you’re okay, Jim!  For future reference, that 16th and Mission corner is probably the last place you want to be at 2am.  Be careful out there everyone!

Allegedly.

From our anonymous source, who’s at work in a department store in the mall downtown:

an officer in uniform was shopping with her mom and they watched her pocket some costume jewelry and last i heard they stopped her and called the police, aka her coworkers.

And regarding whether our source was sure it was SFPD:

100% positive. badge, gun, the works.

Crummy.

UPDATE: This post has been edited to protect the anonymity of our source.

[via Dear Mom]