>>COMIC ZEN We just want to breathe deeply and slow our caffiene mainline (ironically) when we read Paul Madonna’s All Over Coffee comic strip (is it a strip when it’s a single panel? More research is needed here). Shit is peaceful. Perhaps that’s why the Zen Center is tapping Madonna for this talk on creative theory, highlighted by a slideshow of his luminous scenes from our city’s vertiginous hills and boring flat parts.
>>PINTXO US, WE’RE DREAMING Next week, our restaurant reviewer Paul Reidinger writes about Txoco, a newish Basque restaurant in North Beach (RIP the similar Iluna Basque, whose Top Chef contestant chef, Mattin Noblia, now helms Rendezvous Tapas Lounge. We’ll leave the overall verdict to Paul, but we simply adore the pintxos — basically an hors-d’oeuvre-sized version of tapas. We had some stellar pintxos in Basque country earlier this year, and these little bites (technically each individual pintxo should last exactly two bites) whisked us back. Do not miss the boquerones (anchovies in olive oil, this version served with quail egg, manchego cheese, thyme, avocado, and aioli). Three dollars for two bites might cause some to balk, but each of those bites is a meal unto itself. Basque in the glory!
Vegan Filipino snaxx going mobile. Photo via No Worries
>>SOME WORRIES Before we even had a chance to visit, Oakland’s vegan Filipino restaurant No Worries is transitioning from a brick-and-mortar space to a food truck. “We’re minimizing our waste and we’re using less resources. We’re also more accessible to the community,” says owner Jay Ar-Pugao in this very positive video. September 1 No Worries goes mobile — which will, come to think about it, probably up our chances of every actually eating its food. [via Vegansaurus]
>>NUT YOUR AVERAGE DIVIS DIVE In an attempt to fashion itself into a one-stop shop, tiny KK Cafe on Divisadero began quietly began serving huge burritos last month. The cafe, owned by neighborhood legends Jack and Margaret Chang, already serves a fairly baffling mix of burgers (huge, juicy, and cheap), Chinese hot plate meals, and croissantwiches. But its most well-known product is the peanut milk, a concoction said to have healing powers. The Changs added beef and chicken burritos to their menu at the request of the rabid customers who stop off daily for another jug of Signs and Wonders peanut milk.
>>NO FUNCTION JUNCTION Oh dear, L.A. friends and fans, it looks like this year’s huge annual outdoor Sunset Junction festival in Silver Lake — featuring bands as varied as Butthole Surfers, Hanson(!), and Ozomatli — has been cancelled. War on Fun alert down south! (Well, it would be one, except corporate giant Live Nation was basically bankrolling the thing, until it wasn’t.) Luckily, some lovely DIY souls are trying to save the day with a guerrilla No Function Junction spur-of-the-moment festival of their own in multiple venues near the same spot. If you’d planned to head to head to Silver Lake this weekend, there’s still plenty to go for. Nothing, however, will be able to equal the drama of this absolutely amazing moment with Deneice Williams at Sunset Junction 2007 — she fell right off the stage, but before the ambulances came, she sang her heart out. Now THAT’s rock ‘n roll.