Downtown

BREAKING: Sushi Shortage Hits San Francisco

Terrible news, guys! According to CBS, there was some earthquake in Japan and now San Francisco sushi chefs are worried about delays in shipping fish to Potrero Hill:

At Umi on Potrero Hil, owner and executive chef Stewart Chen has a large variety of fish from the Japanese markets. […] But he’s already starting to see the impact of the earthquake on overseas deliveries.

There are a lot of delays, especially the fish that might be a special request. They have been saying, we don’t have that,” he said.

Umi is one of several sushi restaurants in the Bay Area that is expecting long-lasting effects from the disaster in Japan.

Well, that just fucking sucks.

Today's Muni Fail was brought to you by Golden Gate Transit

While slumming it downtown to do perform some menial office work, I had the pleasure of watching a bus take out three cars on Folsom.  It slammed into a car idling at a red light, which caused said car to hit the car ahead of it and so on.  All drivers and passengers quickly exited their vehicles with no sign of pain or injury to shake their fists at the bus driver.

Look forward to multiple injury suits to be filed in court in the coming weeks.

Help San Francisco Get a Video Game Museum

Following on the heals of The Smithsonian announcing their upcoming “Art of Video Games” exhibit, some SF nerds are looking to build a video game museum along the BART corridor.  From MADE's Kickstarter page:

The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE) needs a space in the San Francisco Bay Area. All funds raised here will be used exclusively for the rent and utilities associated with a ~1000 sq ft space near BART for 6 months to a year, depending on the rent we find. Additional funds will keep the space open longer.

A space will enable us to showcase videogame artifacts and educate the public about the artistry, craftsmanship and inspiration that go into the creation of videogames and digital works
of art.

Best of all, they want to have a bunch of old, playable games in the museum, which means this will be like Alameda's Pacific Pinball Museum, only full of Atari games that you haven't played in 25 years.  The only drawback to MADE's proposal is that they are looking for the cheapest rent possible, be it somewhere on Market St. or somewhere in Oakland.  So, yeah, if there's any Supervisors reading this (ha!), maybe you guys should court MADE for mid-market instead of giving Twitter a financial reach around.

Anyway, enough mid-market politics.  If you'd like to see a full-on video game museum somewhere in the Bay Area, head over to Kickstarter and give 'em all your money.

Dying Breed: Jim Carrasco, Chronicle Deliveryman

Not Pictured: Jim Carrasco.

Postcards From SF gives us [ie: teh people of teh interwebz] this outstanding short look at SF Chronicle deliveryman and Tenderloin icon Jim Carrasco.  

Carrasco, a “character of the night” and self described “ghost dancer” (I think that means he's like 'Dances With Crackheads' or something, via Kevin Costner,) is one of the last remaining Union newspaper deliverymen in San Francisco. He's operated in the wee hours of SF for decades and knows the characters of the street well. He himself is a great character worthy of a much longer documentary. Kind of like a Geraldo meets Atari's Paperboy in a Tenderloin back alley, but with a sense of humor and more infected needles.

If a car crashed into a Virgin Megastore and no one liveblogged it, did it really happen?

Last week, you might have heard news that someone drove their car right up into the (vacant) Virgin Megastore on Market.  SFist originally speculated that it was too much egg nog at a holiday party, but then the SF Weekly saved the day and tracked down a witness.  The story wasn't nearly as exciting as drunk driving, rather a semi took a turn too wide, hit the car and sent it flying into the store.  However, what was interesting was the witness's recollection of what happened immediately after the crash:

[Eyewitness Benjamin Johnson] notes that he was “surprised how few people ran in there to see if [the driver] was hurt. There was a group of about 20 people and most of them took out their phones to take pictures.”

Snaps all around.

The only Christmas movie you need to see this year/ever

Things I learned from this trailer:  

  1. The national pass-time of Finland involves psychologically scarring the children of other nations.  
  2. Not all live action Christmas movies are lame.  

Rare Exports premieres in San Francisco tomorrow (Dec 17th) at the Landmark Opera Plaza on Van Ness (tickets here).  If you didn't watch the trailer, it's a Finnish film about an evil murderous Santa and some dudes who try to capture him, presumably for profit.  The film is actually based on a pair of short films from 2003, with a similar premise and starring many of the same Finnish actors.  The short films, Rare Exports Inc and Rare Exports Inc: The Official Safety Instructions are definitely worth a quick watch.  

Buffalos Can Have Lazer Eyes Too

I saw this Jared Kozel painting hanging up in BRIEF SPACE in The Metreon the other day and I couldn't help but be reminded of the Lazer Cat mural on Divis.  Cats shooting a lazer at a dragonfly.  A buffalo blasting crows.  And let's not forget lazer walrus. At the rate this town is fetishizing lazer animal art, I predict we'll see laser-themed furry costumes make their debut at Folsom Street Festival 2011.

Oh yeah, the art? 1500 bones and it's yours.

Black Christmas: Why So Jolly?

Broteen Shakes forwarded us the video flyer for YBCA's “Noel Noir” party, noting it “might be pretty fun.”  After watching the trailer, I couldn't help but feel both confused and as if I got slapped in the fact by insanity itself.  Looking for more info, I turned to the event's about page:

On December 10, don your fanciest thrift store best for the people’s winter ball and we shall bedeck the holidays in black! Noël Noir is a celebration of the Bay Area's love of the strange and the beautiful—for art and culture geeks, decompressed burners, untenured professors, hippy futurists, the funemployed, poly gamers, queerdos and anyone who wants to take a picture. More Tim Burton than Frank Capra, Noël Noir will whisk you away into the season’s seamier (and sexier!) underbelly.

What that means in English is, “it is a costume ball / holiday un-party in which you get drunk while rocking out of a selection of bands curated by Noise Pop.”  Even if that isn't your thing, let me stress you watch their video flyer.  It's a goddamn masterpiece.

($20.  Friday Dec. 10th)

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