Spherical Abberation

Si, se puede. Highlights from Cesar Chavez Day

Reed and Richmond in the Mission

When local TV anchorman and legend Dennis Richmond retired two years ago, an artist at 24th and Osage set up a shrine outside his window. He has since added Lou Reed. I felt lucky to catch him at work on his next canvas today while walking by.
(Be sure to "embiggen" the photos by double clicking on them. I'm really amazed by the details in the artist's apartment, including the Bud sign and portrait of the woman behind him.)

From Needy to Kneady

Further evidence that our little neighborhood is quickly becoming the next Valencia street was this week's arrival of the overly cutely named Local (Mission) Eatery. I'll refrain from passing any judgment until I actually try it, but I wonder if American Apparel is next on 24th Street.

More Good Advise from Ms. Teriosa

Many of you were impressed with the great shop window project we posted early about the fortune teller Ms, Teriosa. Not one to sit on her laurels, she has some new answers to life's big questions that we thought you would enjoy. That girl holds no punches.

A Pretty Boy Is Like a Malady

Do you trust this captain to get us where we belong?
I certainly don't
He contends that the storms have left forever.
I don't believe him.
I don't like that song he keeps singing. There are too many lyrics
getting in the way of the melody and his voice.
He keeps bragging about his intense honesty. I have never trusted honesty.
I would prefer to retreat behind this door of lies. There may not be honesty
within lies, but I've lived long enough to know that's where truth lies.
The whispers rising from that circle once would have frightened me.
I would have thought they were talking about me.
My elegant apathy has erased any remnant of paranoia.
Is there a greater entrance with a knock of greater providence?
What if I ignore the device and delicately tap just above.
The relevance of the date has been lost on me. My grasp of numbers has reached a point where I now see eight as a slithering vowel.Even the fetishes that once frightened me now give me comfort.
They have been drained of all former sense of guilt.
Guilt itself has become a raisin of drained regret.
Pain that once was molten fluid is now soothing talcum.
Hair color protocol has not been abandoned so much as decoded.
Or is it a dyslexic confusion of eye and hair color or the eternal
search for the creature with blazing blonde eyes?
Many will make their comments about the futility and folly of that quest.
But is any quest worth its energy? Or is the reigning question for each quest :
How much luggage can we bring and will there be a steam iron in our room?
Folly no longer seems so frivolous. Old age seems so much friskier.
Even decay has lost its menace. It all comes down to neatly arranged spices and scent free soap.

So how much will we ultimately put in the window and sell?
Or is it an installation?
And what installation is not for sale?

May Your Fortunes All Be Free

Though it's been around for a couple of months, I thought some of the out of towners might enjoy knowing about Ms. Teriosa has been operating her free fortune shop down the street for a while. You'll always see a number of folks hanging out front to read her words or wisdom or scribbling their own questions.Triple Base Gallery has this to say about it:
Kelly Ording & Jetro Martinez
“Ms. Teriosa”
3135 24th Street

The artist duo has transformed a vacant storefront into a free fortune-telling business. Cards left outside the storefront instruct passersby to ask “Ms. Teriosa” a question about their future and deposit the card inside a mailbox slot. One week later, the questions will be answered and displayed in the window. The installation includes a bright, bold, carnivalesque mural on the facade and hand-painted elements on the storefront windows.
www.kellyording.com, www.jetromartinez.com

As a public service to our readers, we wanted to offer to drop off any questions you might have for Ms. Teriosa. It's free, afterall, and it might be the perfect way to start of the new year.

Broccoli Rape?

Bizarre, even for the Mission.

What We're Seeing in the Mission

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween (and Dia de Los Muertos)

Not Quite Sure...

...what this bit of collage on top of a billboard around 24th and Alabama is, but I like it. Is it just me, or is the spirit of Joseph Cornell everywhere these days?

What We're Seeing in the Mission

What We're Seeing in the Mission

The cool and cheerful artwork outside the Brava Theater around the corner from me.

What We're Seeing in the Mission (and Noe Valley)