I don't think before I type's Comments

Pic via hunter1828.

I don't think anyone could have initially complained when BART announced a "Buy American" policy for bids on their new fleet of future rail cars.  But as disappointed as we all were to find out this futuristic fleet didn't include hover trains with robot conductors, I think we were even more disappointed to find out that the "Buy American" policy was really just rhetoric. Granted, our nation's crumbling industrial capacity and our general cultural disdain for public transportation systems are really to blame; there simply just aren't any US companies that currently build rail cars.

So with no US companies to step up, BART instead took bids from three foreign companies who each committed to meeting the guidelines of their "Buy American" policy. Turns out that this policy only really requires that just 60% of the materials used in the new BART fleet be manufactured in the United States. On top of that, every single one of the foreign bidders plans to do their American manufacturing on the East Coast, ensuring that virtually none of the $2.5 billion dollars will be spent creating jobs in California.

Last month, BART officials declared their findings after an extensive study of each of the three bids. South Korean Rotem (a Hyundai subsidiary) was by far the least favored. Instead, it came down to a pretty close finish between French Canadian Bombardier and France's Alstom.  On April 23rd, BART declared their support for Bombardier (which for obvious reasons, they like to refer to as a "North American" company instead of just calling them Canadian), which BART will likely vote in as the winner at a public meeting tomorrow morning at 9am (yeah, that's in 12 hours, cause I know you're totes gonna read this tonight and change your morning plans). 

Critics are crying foul because the "North America" Bombadier has apparently struggled to come up with a BART plan that will use just 66% US sourced parts. Also, Chicago's Bombadier built fleet of rail cars were apparently made with defective Chinese parts that recently forced replacements in all 775 of Chicago's trains and a complete recall and loss of 54 of those trains. 

By now, you've probably heard that really annoying, cheesy radio ad advocating for a "BART for America". These ads are being funded by interests supporting the Alstom bid, who apprently submitted a plan to use 95% of US sourced materials for only about 12% more cost than Bombardier's bid, which still below the total project price tag of $2.5 billion. Unions are backing the last ditch effort to push BART towards the Alstom bid, and if you care enough to make a fuss and maybe create a few more manufacturing jobs in South Carolina or whatever, you too can show to the BART Board of Directors Hearing at 9am tomorrow morning and yell at people who aren't listening and have already made up their mind!

'MERICA! 

Tomorrow, May 10th @ 9am: BART Board Room in Kaiser Center, 20th Street Mall, Third Floor, 344 20th St., Oakland, CA.

Future trains brought to you by the metric system and French Fries. Pic via BART.

Since the Mission District was established by urban explorer Straüs VanMission Sløot in 1989, no bar within the jurisdiction of its confines has inspired such polarizing opinions from people as Dear Mom. Built from the ashes of El Rincon, the mere mention of Dear Mom elicits such a dichotomous emotional response that it threatens to tear the native Caucasian community of the Mission District apart. 

If you've been there before, you left with one of two statements rolling off of your tongue: "Hey man. I found this really cool bar. You should come out, I'm having all of my birthdays there forever." Or "Yo, fuck this place. Get my Segway. I'm going back to NOPA."

At the end of the day, all we have are facts. And here are the undisputed pros and cons of Dear Mom, which are all very real and none of which based on conjecture. 

Pros:

• Ample standing 
• The Bar is co-owned and managed by Neil Diamond's son Brad Diamond
• Interior lit exclusively with artisan lightbulbs hand-crafted by estranged Latvian light-psychics
• Over 4 different kinds of canned beers
• Sports attractions such as football, pool and flannel olympics
• The bar is made of cocaine-mâché 

Cons:

• The staff make fun of you if you order a drink
• Brad Diamond will throw you out if you joke that he's "Your Friend in the Diamond Business"
• Getting stabbed on Folsom as you walk home
• No designated coke room (handicapped bathroom)
• Every record in the jukebox is the new Beach House record
• The bar is exclusively populated by shitheads

These are the facts as they stand. But seeing as nightlife is a wild, frenzied, subjective medium, it's left to you to decide. You, the plumbers, the joe twelve-packs, and the freelance art directors that give the Mission its gritty, working class spirit. What do you think about Dear Mom?

[Photo via The Bold Italic]

Previously on Uptown Almanac

• Dear Mom: A Bar So Big, Your Momma Will Fit In It
• Dear Mom Buys Mission Hill Saloon, Bringing the Mission its Fourth Thieves Bar

In 2006, I watched a charming, somewhat 50’s-inspired young indie band play at what was then the Balazo Gallery on Mission. I bought an EP of theirs called Loose Change. The EP featured six short and sweet, excellently crafted pop songs and I came to love it for its simple elegance and likability. There was no “getting it” involved in the appreciation of these songs, they were just good.

That band was called The Morning Benders. Over the years, I enjoyed reading pieces about them every now and again and took pleasure in knowing that they were doing okay for themselves out in the world. In 2010 they released a much huger sounding and very produced record called Big Echo, which was also good and, despite the sonic maturing, it still had the same simple “songy” charm I enjoyed with their first EP.

Whatever, they were a band, I thought they were good. Cool? This is what they sounded like.

OK. Some of you may remember that at the end of March, The Morning Benders released a statement that they were changing their name because “Bender” means “GAY PERSON” in Europe and so they simply had to change their name to POP ETC (which they did) to protect gay people in Europe from being called gay. Or something. Really high-minded and forward thinking, The Morning Benders. Thanks for saving gay people!

So anyway, these kids changed a whole lot more than their band name. Rather than explain, I’ll just let you guys go ahead and take a gander at the video they just released:

Uh.... Cool, guys. Really cool.

So just off the bat, here are my thoughts.

1. This band totally made a big stink about “we’re changing our name out of respect for the gay community” when it was obviously just to promote their new, completely unrelated white (sorry, asian?) kid smooth RnB jam project.

2. Nice tank top.

3.  It’s hard for me not to feel like this dude didn’t just start making electronic music because it’s super “in”. This could just be because I really like guitars and stuff, but I feel like this music sounds really phony, joyless, uninspired, not super well-constructed, and contrived.

I’m not saying artists shouldn’t branch out and try new things, but putting out boring smooth jamz about “living it up” seems to me like a cop-out. Also, rock n roll is an important American art form that I don’t want to see die in favor of writhing pretty-boys in tank tops. Like, dude are you wearing lipgloss?

Here’s your moment of zen.

Previously on Uptown Almanac

• Eurodummies Call "The Morning Benders" Gay, Band Gets Hella Bent Out of Shape

I've been receiving some flack for calling the Mr. Mission Competition (which also happens to be a fundraiser for the respectable Leukemia Lymphoma Society) "obnoxious."  The argument, as it has been argued, is that it's a fundraiser for cancer research, so the organizers deserve a pass no matter how lame of an idea it might be.  CLASH SF's illustrator, Stacey Toth, even went so far as to draw up a lovely illustration depicting me as a monkey under the headline "People Like to be Mean."

And maybe they're right.  Maybe an awkward, highly-suspect competition run by bros and burners and marketing types deserves that pass because it's raising money for a good cause.  And if my criticism was in any way interpreted as discouraging people from donating to cancer research, I offer my sincerest apologies.

However, when the promoters essentially call people "faggots" for criticizing them, it gives me pause.  Are these people really noble do-gooders hoping to rid the world of cancer, one questionable event at the time? Or are they just out-of-touch, backwards-thinking homophobic pricks capitalizing on a culture for self-promotion?

I'll leave you to be the judge of that.

Previously on Uptown Almanac

• Obnoxious "Mr. Mission" Contest to Crown Douchiest Hipster in the Hood; Please Nominate Me