— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Scott Cox recently uploaded a whole mess of shots of mobile murals around The City. While this Park Merced truck was easily my favorite of the lot, his pic of a guy selling pumpkins out of a back on Harrison was truly the masterpiece of the collection. It is one of those rare scenes that actually make the city look like it has a New England autumn, even if the illusion was entirely created by “urban blight” and a half dozen or so fruits. (link)
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
As the rain subsided in yesterday afternoon, I decided to walk the two and a half miles from the Mission to Golden Era so I could stuff my face with vegan drumsticks. Unfortunately the much-anticipated Sunday Streets event was a total bust, but even without the streets being closed to traffic, there was still some great street art to look at from the sidewalk.
At one point I made my way down a short stretch of Olive Alley, which may not be as popular as Clarion, Balmy, Osage, or Lilac in the street art world, but nevertheless had some quality stuff to look at:
This particular piece features a mess of quotes written upside down (I rotated the below image) from classic anti-authoritarian figures like Chris Rock and Johnny Depp.
Finally, directly across the street was this friendly message:
(If you are interested in looking at more photos of viewing larger sizes, I uploaded a batch to Flickr)
— By Jane Parton |
I caught a glimpse of this in the front window of the Factory 2 U store on Mission & 23rd.
Even though it was pouring rain and I was horribly hungover I had to stop and take a picture of what might be one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.
Seriously though readers, who has a cute baby I can borrow for an afternoon and dress up as an old man from 1886? I can envision the calendar now; let's show Anne Geddes who's boss!
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
You can follow Mission Mission if you want to see more random shots of Giants fans, but this one is so over the top that I can't resist.
— By Josh Constine |
I hate this band The National. So while the flannel set were droning to their supremely unexciting set at Treasure Island Music Festival, I decided to keep my negativity to myself by browsing the vendors. That's where I met Mary Weather, aka Judy Elkan, a local screen printer who lets you buy your favorite free Mission landmarks in clothing form. She takes photos, sometimes collages them together as she did for this Dolores Park number, and applies them to [vertically integrated apparel brand] t-shirts and tank tops.
Now you can be surrounded by the Sutro Trident of Hope, mafia-organized ice cream vendors, and piles of bicycles regardless of where you spend your Saturdays.
Judy says the cops told her to get permit last year, but when she found out that only allowed her to sell at the Ferry Building, she defiantly raised a fist and set up her blanket/storefront at Dolores Park. Apparently the po po haven't given her any guff this year.
Sucks for Blue Bottle because the park is apparently a very lucrative spot. “My best day I made $400 in 3 hours” says Elkan.
Where do we draw the line on commercializing public spaces? Is Mary Weather eroding the fabric of the neighborhood by selling water-based fabric ink hand prints? Is this the first step on the road towards Mission souvenir shops and mass produced “I ♥ Dolores Park” mugs?
Or is this Count Chocula shirt cool enough to make you forget your morals?
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Pop's bathroom has been a real bummer ever since the new management decided to start painting the walls whenever a new tag went up, but luckily Carlos Reyes was able to snap this shot before it got covered up.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Aaron Durand recently spotted the brief return of famed late-90s graffiti artist Reminisce to the streets of San Francisco:
This was brand new, and it's been buffed over already. I don't think you can still find any of [the originals] around, we just got lucky she came back for a hot minute to put this here. (link)
For those who don't remember, Reminisce was a relatively popular street artist who covered the Mission, SOMA and other neighborhoods with her iconic sprays of horses (which can be viewed on the fantastic Transit graffiti repository). However, she quit the craft in the late 90s and moved to LA (boo! hiss!) where she does sculptures and other more socially appropriate things. Looks like she's making some sort of comeback?
