SF Examiner fills us in:

The company’s owner, Peter Acworth, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to nonprofits working to help Mission youth, and now he wants the building’s 38,000-square-foot drill court to be a community center — completely separate from the rest of the business, of course.

The massive space under a semi-cylinder roof is currently used for parking, but it was historically a place of gathering for boxing matches and other events to entertain soldiers. Acworth has a building permit for code upgrades, and he said monthly community events could begin by the end of this year.

“We want to resurrect this space as a place of assembly,” said Acworth, who bought the 1912 structure for $14.5 million in 2006, when he cleaned up graffiti and broken windows that had amassed since it was abandoned in the 1970s. “Our goal is to start slowly.”

The article goes on to talk about hosting banquets, film festivals (presumably not exotic film festivals), farmer's markets, sports events, and whatever else pops up while surveying the Mission's needs.  That all sounds fantastic, but I'll tell you what the Mission needs: a space for giant fucking concerts.  Presumably the acoustics aren't great in there, but it beats rolling to Oakland everytime we want to see a band people have heard of.  Plus such an attraction would help all the complimentary businesses in the area, which I'm certain no one would complain about.

Get on it, Kink.

[Examiner]

ATA's window on Valencia is now full of old KUSF art and memorabilia: busted stereos, station photos, posters, and some beat up old headphones.  The display urges passersby to brush up on the “Save KUSF” campaign, which is currently in limbo until we all find out if the FCC approves the sale of the station's transmitter or not which, yeah, we all hope doesn't happen.  In the meantime, swing by ATA next time you're in the area and take a look at the good ol' days of Sonic Youth concerts and San Francisco radio by real San Franciscans.

I made my way to the epic Blood, Bath & Beyond Day at Potrero del Sol on Saturday.  For those of you unfamiliar with Potrero del Sol, it's the park at the corner of Potrero and 25th in which you can drink beer and listen to metal just a few yards away from a playground and a child's birthday party without any neighbors calling the cops.  Coexistence in its purest form.

Well this particular weekend, the park was not only host to bands such as “Zombie Death Stench” and “Feral Depravity,” but also some Burning Man pregame picnic.  As the video shows, the two groups got along just fine…

Bonus shot at 1:50 of children rolling down the hill while some dude from Modesto screamed about society falling apart or some shit.

[video shot by Steve Rude]

Uptown Almanac favorite The Downer Party recently finished up recording their latest EP “Cities” in an Oakland basement and are hosting a release party tonight at the Bottom of the Hill.  $10 if you buy your tickets online.  Should be fucking rad.

Of course, if you can't make it tonight, you can give a few tracks off the new EP a listen on MySpace.  And if you've never seen 'em live and need a little extra arm twisting, check out Daniel Jarvis's vid of “Cocaine” live: