ROA part III from Spencer Keeton Cunningham on Vimeo.

This recent video documents the recent painting of a trio of three-story-tall sea lions by ROA in the Mission. It shows the softer side of ROA: ROA the fingerpainter, ROA the artist concerned for children's eyes, ROA the artist who is not too busy for the toothless crazy man. A true man of integrity.

Jello Biafra, the pudgy 50-something San Francisco punk rocker-turned-politician-turned-old-punk rocker famous for starting the Dead Kennedys some thirty years ago, is still hella bummed out about the late-90s gentrification in the Mission and rich people living in SF.  Why?  Because dot com yuppies are pushing artists and workers out of the city, turning “Kook City” into a “Dot com Monte Carlo.”  Sure, he might be right, but the lyrics to the first track on Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine's upcoming EP are particularly amusing, if not downright crazy:

Where did they come from Why are they here? Hi-tech piranhas With Bluetooth barnacle ears
Living breathing biohazards
Spit their money in everyone's face
Worship all these shitty indie-pop bands
Babies in cigar bars
Trying to play Gatsby

They want us gone
Close the clubs
We might disturb their lofts

Dot com Monte Carlo
Dot com Monte Carlo

Where's the gangs in the Mission
When you need em?
How 'bout some yuppie drive-bys
For a change?

Never knew geeks
Could be so damn mean
Artists and workers
Bulldozed out by the thousands
Can't afford to be black
Or teach school in this town
My vet had to relocate
To his garage

Where can we go
Oakland, then the Portland, then L.A.?
Their Gold Rush immolated like Pompeii
But they're back!

Dot com Monte Carlo
Yuppie San Francisco
Nowhere left to go
We got news for you

Kook City
Proud of it
You and Nancy Pelosi
Can go straight to hell

Valet parking signs on Valencia
Wanna chase those twits
Down the street with a chainsaw
Trespass their restaurants
Swipe the food off their plates
Til' they hit me
Then smear them with honey
And release thousands of bees

Look at the giant middle finger
They put up by the Bay Bridge
50 floors of luxury condos
Just for them
They're trying to put up more and more
On slippery landfill
So when the big quake comes
We'll drink a toast
Dance in the streets
And watch it all fall down

Timber
Timber
Timber… Die!

Having Mission gangs murder yuppies?  Chasing down twits who use valet parking on Valencia Street (sidenote: is there any valet parking on Valencia?) with a chainsaw before smothering them in honey and releasing a swam of bees on them?  Who does Jello think he is? Inspectah Deck?

Anyway, Ian S. Port of the SF Weekly notes this song is nothing new:

“Dot Com Monte Carlo” has been in the band's live show for a bit now, but its first recorded release will be on the new Enhanced Methods of Questioning EP, due out on Alternative Tentacles May 31 (available earlier online). Check out a visual sample [embedded above], and note the utterly creepy way in which Jello nods to the crowd at the end.

Sadly, there hasn't been any sightings of an old white dude weezing his way through The Summit with a chainsaw, so despite Jello's crazy eyes, don't count on a holocaust of Range patrons happening anytime soon.

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]

MrEricSir spotted this baller (sorry) art car on Valencia the other day:

On my way to Four Barrel, I came across this rather, um, unusual bowling-themed art car. It was a little Fiat with bowling pins that went in and out of the side of the car.

The pins going in and out of the car is no joke.  Eric's video of it shows the pins twisting and oscillating in and out of the car, even while parked and shut off.  I'd imagine it is fantastic in bed.