Mission Mission

The first thing this blog ever did that got citywide attention (meaning the big corporate blogs linked to us and begat a rise in readership that’s continued every day since) was post some videos of an anti-war march downtown in March of 2008.

One of them needed some music, so I slapped some LCD Soundsystem on there (a rarity called “Big Ideas”) and the rest is history. Please enjoy this blast from the past:

Sorry for the horrendous video quality; it was 2008! (I think it was shot using a landline telephone?)

Most importantly, the LCD Soundsystem concert film Shut Up and Play the Hits is playing this weekend at the Roxie and THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES — and we’re giving away free tickets!

[via Idiot Tempers]

Tomorrow is 4B4B! (That is, Four Barrel‘s 4th B-day!) There will be free coffee and free food, skee ball just like last year, a photobooth, some animals to touch, and more.

Here’s more about tomorrow’s anniversary festivities from Four Barrel’s manager Nicky Koch:

To celebrate four years of serving the coffee-drinking denizens of San Francisco, Four Barrel will be throwing our annual birthday bash on Wednesday, August 22nd, from 7am to 4pm. As we do every year, we will be giving away free coffee and espresso drinks all day long. And yes: the drinks are 100% free, no joke. We’ve also arranged for a few friends to help us add to the fun: Glass Coat Photo Booth will be setting up one of their free photo booths from 12pm-4pm, and, as always, any photo strips that people leave with us hung on our bathroom photo wall all year. Also, there will be two Skee Ball units in the back for people to square off against one another, courtesy of local Skee Ball champ, Joey the Cat. And at noon, we will be serving free slices of delicious Tartine cake and free scoops of Humphry Slocombe ice cream. For the kids, we’ll have a small petting zoo set up in one of our parklet corrals, courtesy of Little Explorers Mobile Petting Zoo, and, for the lunchtime crowd, Del Popolo, an incredibly beautiful mobile pizza cart, will be posted up outside if people want some food to go along with their lattes. It’s going to be a hoot.

I don’t know about you, but I love hoots — it’s the sound that owls make.

This just in: the Rite Spot Cafe, one of my favorite spots to grab a burger and watch a Japanese cowboy belt out Jimmy Rodgers tunes, is wrapping up its renovations and opens on September 5th. They are actively booking music acts for the month, so it looks like their nightly live show format will remain the same.

It has been closed for about a year for “serious or repeated violations pertaining to vermin infestation.” Translation: roaches. Well, let’s hope all that was taken care of.

I just feel like the world needs to know.

[via Lindsey]

THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES.

I saw this thing at the Embarcadero screening in July, but it was a 7pm show on a weekday so everybody was kind of sedate. These are 11pm shows on a Friday and Saturday night in the Mission, so THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES (even if it’s just me). Mike from the Roxie is onboard I think. Says he, “We’re going to play it SO LOUD!”

Furthermore, you can win a PARTY PACK OF FOUR so you can three pals can DANCE IN THE AISLES TOGETHER. All’s you have to do is tell us about your happiest LCD Soundsystem-related memory in the comments section below. Contest ends at noon on Thursday. Winner will be picked based on merit.

Seriously, if you loved LCD Soundsystem you will love this movie. And if you’ve never heard LCD Soundsystem, you will love them after watching this movie. (Seriously, this happened with a friend of mine last month.) I’m really excited about this, so I’m probably gonna post about it every day this week, so be prepared. Buy tickets and/or read all about the movie here.

And for goodness’ sake, RSVP and invite your friends!

Now let’s rock out:

THERE WILL BE DANCING IN THE AISLES.

Also, where shall we pre-game? Any bars on that block definitely have some LCD on the juke?

A young man (who wishes to remain anonymous for now) wrote in with a romantic conundrum. He encountered a very special babe a couple weeks back and failed to make a move. Rather than go to usual Missed Connections route, he drew us this haunting portrait and asked that we publish it with the following message:

Who goes to the movies alone on a Tuesday afternoon? Especially, to the Opera Plaza, exclusive destination of retirees. Apparently though, this knockout goes too, and pays in exact change. If you’re out there, I really wish I’d had the guts to introduce myself. This drawing bears almost no resemblance, but the red cardigan is accurate.

Best of luck, lovebirds! (Feel free to contact us if you’re the babe.)

It’s called the Peacemaker and it’s just as nuts as it looks — and you can get it with a side of gravy-smothered fries. Full menu here (though it erroneously states that they serve breakfast and brunch, which apparently they no longer do).

Even one of the neighborhood’s premiere sandwich experts was impressed:

The only advice I would offer these budding entrepreneurs is to raise their prices! As you can clearly see, they were completely sold out of lemonade by the time I got there, but I still managed to snag a delicious cookie for a reasonable (and apparently market-balanced) 75 cents.

They were also offering advice in the form of “oblique strategies” for just a quarter, and not being one to turn down insight from some genuine hood tweens, I received this little scrap of zen:

A depiction of how you’ll end up.

A friend from South America, just hanging out, thinking about how great Ronaldinho is.

Finally, a classic cool kid, delightfully/annoyingly mismatched.