Mission Mission

Over the past couple of months I’ve noticed and collected pictures of these delightful maintenance badges inside of BART cars. Each with their own personality:

Richmond: “Hey don’t let all that gang rape stuff that happens in Richmond put you off–don’t you want your BART car to enjoy a lovely bay view while its being serviced? Richmond Maintenance Facility: home of the best view of San Rafael in the bay area.”

Hayward: “Look, if you want some guy to bullshit with you about sports and the weather while he does sub-par work, go to Concord. If you want solid, no-nonsense maintenance done on your BART car, come to Hayward. We take quality seriously and have 15+ years of industry experience to prove it. Our 10-point inspection includes door re-greasing, upholstery steaming, and complete removal of graffiti cocks scrawled on the on windows.”

Concord: “Think we’re just a bunch of bummer straight-ahead mechanics from a failed city? Think again. We actually have kick-ass senses of humor as indicated by this badge’s allusion to classic WB cartoons. Free coffee, donuts, and ESPN while you wait. Say me and the boys are going out for a drink at the Time Out afterwards. Why don’t you join us? And… fuck it, here are the keys to my house.”

It seems like these are all at the terminal stations. That might mean I’m missing Daly City Maintenance Facility. First one who gets me a snap of it’s badge gets a high five.

Update: Heyo!

This guy was selling poems at 16th Street BART last night:

The sign inside his typewriter case said “Pick a subject and price then get a poem.”

I’m pretty sure I tried this one as a young lass, with no luck (newsflash: my poems were shitty).  Judging by the crowd surrounding this young poet, he’s doing much better than I ever did.

What do you suppose the most popular poem topic was?  Probably healthcare.

Reader Chris sends us this note:

Did anyone else encounter the BART station ticket agents enforcing the no bikes on the East Bay bound lines this morning?  The ticket agent at 16th and Mission was posted up at the bike gate asking everyone with a bike which direction they were headed.  I understand the rules regarding bikes on BART, but this is the first time I actually saw a station agent in the Mission enforcing them.

Annoying, at best.  I’m sure there is a legitimate reason as to why they have not done this, but why don’t they dedicate one car during peak hours to be a bike car?

This thing was staring at me the whole BART ride today. I thought it was going to jump out and bite me!

[I did this feature for the Bay Area print edition of The Onion. They ran a trimmed version in their summer double issue last month, but since they don't put anything online, here it is. --Allan]

If your best friends live in Oakland, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time in the East Bay this summer. Today, the A.V. Club presents a guide to making the best of it.

First, try to think of every trip to Oaktown as a mini-vacay to a bustling mini-metropolis. Stroll Lake Merritt’s shoreline and you’ll swear you’ve landed in some tiny little bastard version of Chicago or something. Enjoy the view for a bit, then walk a couple blocks down East 18th Street and finally see a movie at the Parkway Speakeasy (1834 Park Blvd., 510-814-2400, www.picturepubpizza.com). As you’ve surely been hearing for years, it’s an historic movie house full of couches and beer and pizza, and it is every bit as fun as it sounds.

For slices and pints sans cinema, head over to Lanesplitter (4799 Telegraph Ave., 510-527-8375, www.lanesplitterpizza.com). It’s somewhat less polished than your beloved Little Star, but it has a longer draught list and equally mouth-watering pies.

Speaking of long lists of beer, on August 11th you can all take a mini-road trip down to Hayward for the Bistro’s 10th Annual IPA Festival (1001 B St., 510-886-8525, www.the-bistro.com). India Pale Ales will be ferried in from microbreweries all over the world, so designate a driver and drink up.

On your way back north, go to an A’s game. A’s games are great because you can enjoy the Great American Pastime without all the Bonds-related drama and T-Third-related transit confusion. Plus, the Coliseum is doing that cool thing where instead of sending you tickets, they just text you an image of a barcode.

Now that you’re back in Oakland, if you’re not familiar with the Oaklandish organization (www.oaklandish.org), read up. They sponsor subcultural events throughout the year, including this week’s shadow-puppet production of Sinbad the Sailor by Teatro Penumbra at the Parkway.

Suppose one of your friends just graduated from Mills and is in need of a place to host a celebratory barbecue. Redwood Bowl in Redwood Regional Park (10570 Skyline Blvd., 888-EB-PARKS) is an ideal place to grill up some bockwurst and toss around the ol’ Frisbee. The meadow’s uneven terrain means barefoot Ultimate can be hazardous, so be careful.

In the evening, check out one of those fabled warehouse shows, perhaps at a place like Ghost Town Gallery (2519 San Pablo Ave., 510-393-1876, www.myspace.com/ghosttowngallery). They’re cheap and laid back and charmingly sketchy – welcome respite from the too-familiar routines at the city’s proper rock clubs. You might meet local superstars like Brian Glaze and they might regale you with advice about how to get rid of clingy groupies (tell them you have AIDS) and how to pick up girls you actually like (tell them you’re friends with the Time Flys).

If local superstars aren’t enough, plenty of international ones play in the East Bay too. Canada’s Fucked Up will grace the stage at Gilman (924 Gilman St. in Berkeley, 510-525-9926, www.924gilman.org) on June 30th, and Daft Punk and the Rapture will rock UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre on July 30th. Either of these would be a great sendoff for your friend that’s moving to Germany or somewhere the following week.

Lastly, if one of your friends tries to drag you to Ikea, there might be a sick view of the melted 580 connector from the parking structure, but other than that, leave your wallet at home and resist, resist, resist.

Whatever you end up doing, the looming question all damn night will of course be how the hell to get back to the city. Inevitably, we all end up sprinting toward a BART station at 12:26. That sucks, because you find yourselves sweaty and winded, and half the time you don’t even make the train. Alternatively, you can search the cryptic maze of schedules on 511.org for info on the All Nighter bus, but you’re drunk for goodness’ sake.

Instead, just opt for a sleepover. This way, you can drink ’til the bars close, stumble over to Taqueria Sinaloa (2138 International Blvd., 510-535-1206) for some carnitas, and then go home, watch Moonwalker again and pass out. In the morning, maybe you can all go to the city together…

East Bay kids are perfectly adept at coming to the city an Amoeba run and a show at the Fillmore, so be sure to turn your friends on to something new this summer! Show them Thrillhouse (3422 Mission St.) and Force of Habit (3565 20th St., 415-255-PUNK, www.forceofhabit.com) in lieu of Amoeba, and then drop into Rite Spot Cafe (2099 Folsom St., 415-552-6066, www.myspace.com/ritespotcafe) for a much more intimate concert experience (The A.V. Club recommends Ash Reiter‘s girl-with-a-big-electric-guitar crooning on June 25th or Toshio Hirano‘s little-Japanese-man country twang on June 30th).

By the way: Since your friends have nothing but a tape deck in their ’92 Acura Legend, be sure to have a few choice cassettes (think NPG-era Prince or the Ghostbusters soundtrack) ready to go for their ride back to Oakland. They’ll appreciate it.

 Browse more Mission Mission coverage of music, travel, food and drink, Muni, and The Onion.