The beloved 24th Street Mr. Burbujas mural, featuring the iconic anthropomorphic buff dancing washing machine discharging some serious bubbles in front of a GIANT LOADS sign, has been dealing with vandalism problems over the last few years.  But the owners—bless their hearts—persistently repaired the mural, keeping one of the last great icons of Mission District whimsy and wonder alive.

However, sometime in the last four days, they said “fuck it” and just buffed most of it out.  Outrage!

Now, one must speculate as to whether they intend to repaint/update the mural or not, especially given that they chose not to paint over the entire thing, notably leaving the tee-hee-dick-jokes GIANT LOADS sign fully intact.  And let's hope they do.  But in the meantime, Mr. Bubbles' untimely and unnecessary death must be avenged, preferably by firebombing the Benjamin Moore across the street.

(And here's Mr. Bubbles in better, cleaner days:)

[Second photo by Joe Schumacher]

Lydia from Mission Local came across this horribly lame news this morning:

Chris, who said he was from the collective Wallspace, was out this morning at 10:30 a.m. with two artists, Geso and Nemel, preparing to cover up the Seals on Bartlett and 22nd streets.

Lydia goes on to point out that most of the street is peppered with tags and blank walls, but the artists said the sea lions “had to come down.”

[Photo by Scott Cox]

In the TL!

I can only think of a few mediocre reasons as to why this Guerrero sidewalk whale is so happy:

• No dogs have pooed on him today.
• No humans have pooed on him today.
• Captain Ahab hasn't tried to buff him out yet.