Haight-Ashbury Street Fair. 2009. FREE

16 06 2009

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It’s been ages since I’ve checked out the Haight Street Fair, which is kind of odd considering I try and ride my bike to the Haight and back at least once a week so I’m somewhat of a regular on that street. We’ve had some great times here. Winnie went one year when Primus was playing and ended up hanging out with them in a local bar afterwards. I was there when DJ Tracy spun a set all day at Amoeba (The old raver store before the record store moved into the Bowling Alley) and then they locked the door and let the party go renegade after the Haight Street Fair ended.

We’ve both had good times there but lately I’ve just associated that block party with crowds and claustrophobia. I’m not sure what’s happened in the Bay Area, if there are more people here, more people going to events, or if it’s just my senile mind playing tricks on me. But it was a sunny day yesterday and my moods are a slave to the weather, so I decided to do the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair for the first time in over a decade.

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This Mexican kid in the green shirt looked like he just walked out of a Jimmy Kimmel skit. This house was blasting Funkadelic records and the kid kept trying to crash the party. Without much success. Snoop Dogg looks happy to see me though.

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Frank Chu was out on patrol.
We exchanged pleasantries and conspiracy theories.

The award for the third greatest rock shirt of the day goes to –

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Misfits kid on Hippy Hill.

It’s the combination of the shirt, his antenna dreadlocks with the antenna goatee, the SF Giants hat, and the humpty-dance pose that makes it an all-around classic Haight street look.

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The number two greatest rock shirt of the day goes to the 1991 Jane’s Addiction.

It was all pretty much a downhill ride from there, huh Perry?

If only all the rock shirts that I bought 18 years ago still fit me.

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And the number one greatest rock shirt of the day goes to the straight edge dad with a kid in a stroller who zipped past me in a heartbeat.

I have no idea which band that is, but anyone wearing a California Straight Edge shirt and taking their kid out to the Haight Asbury Street Fair wins the contest, any contest, as far as I’m concerned.


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Categories : FREE, San Francisco art and adventure

Sunset. FREE Party on Treasure Island.

9 06 2009

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Treasure Island is a weird time capsule.

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Like most Navy housing units, the architecture is 50 years outdated and it feels like a pocket of earth that is out of step with time.

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There are also several abandoned units; they look exactly like any kind of dorm you would see on any California college campus.

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the ruins of Treasure Island 2

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Eucalyptus trees grow like weeds and have consumed some patio areas or have fallen down dead and untouched on sidewalks. Amazing that there’s all this abandoned property on multi-million dollar real estate that also has a priceless view of the San Francisco skyline.

The ruins of Treasure Island 1

Perfect location for a Sunset party.

Hopefully we’ll be able to do this again next year.

UPDATE

Nice video from nilia75.

Some San Francisco love from the Wighnomy Brothers

***

Related Posts –

420 Party at Stafford Lake. 1997. FREE

Sunset Season Opener at Stafford Lake. 2009. FREE

Sunset Season Opener at Stafford Lake. 2006 – 2007. FREE


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Anchor Steam Brewery. FREE tour and samples.

4 06 2009

Anchor Steam Brewery FREE tour and samples 1

This is another one that’s been sitting on my local San Francisco “to-do” list for over a decade that I can now finally cross off.

Every single drop off all Anchor Steam beer is brewed in their single location located in Potrero Hill. They offer free tours that usually book up 6 weeks in advance, although I cruised in without even having to show an ID so you might be able to crash this party if you’re feeling lucky.

After the tour there’s a generous sampling party, we got to take in

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Some Anchor Steam beer.

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Some Liberty Ale.

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Apparently Anchor Steam also makes their own whiskey named after their Potrero Hill location?! I had no idea.

Sadly, they do not offer any tours or samples of that product… which is probably a good idea for everyone involved.

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A Porter beer sample.

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A Barley Wine beer sample.

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A Small beer sample

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And another Anchor Steam sample for the road.

Anchor Steam has a very clean and sheen tasting room. The protagonist from Office Space does the tours and seems a lot happier to be behind the counter instead of filling out TPS reports. Anchor Steam has been in San Francisco in one shape or another for well over a century, so they have more history than most museums put together. It’s a San Francisco institution that’s definitely worth checking out if you know you’re going to be in the city.


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The Brass Tax. FREE party in Golden Gate Park.

4 06 2009

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There were lots of kids, lots of dogs, and lots of booze at the BTxGGPPwBC3 party this last Saturday.

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I also stumbled upon what has got to be the largest colony of succulents that I’ve ever seen in one spot.

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There was a shrine set up for Otto Schutt who passed away recently from cancer.

I love his taste in fashion, as is evident in his hoodie.

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UPDATE # 1

Great footage by Mr. Holehead of the BrassTax Boom Box at Burning Man 2009

I love it when DJs have a sense of humor.


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Categories : FREE, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco art and adventure, succulents rule!

DJ Dan. Take a Fix to Funk. 1994.

22 05 2009

dj dan take a fix to funk

This is hands-down my all-time favorite double cassette tape set.

The San Francisco Project series were live mix tapes of DJ Dan spinning at the Funky Tekno Tribe parties. This was during a period when Dan had just moved from LA to SF and was experimenting with more Funky House and Progressive House tracks, but still had that LA NoDoz level of intensity in his programming.

Not just really, really good records but LOTS of really, really good records mixed really creatively together, one right after the other, sometimes building into this kamikaze onslaught of sound.

I played the hell out of these tapes and must have made over a dozen copies of each for friends. I remember playing this tape during my summer job at SF State and even some of my co-workers who were into Hip-Hop and hated House loved this tape, especially all the scratching and the Jungle Brothers part at the end. We used to play it all the time and it became the soundtrack to my 1994 summer experience.

Dan just re-released a digital version of Take a Fix to Funk as part of his Future Retro mixtape series and you can check it out for free over here

Priceless…

UPDATE # 1

Dan just dropped

San Francisco Project #4 Weed Wacker.

These really are like the Paul’s Boutique of 90’s House Music mix tapes.

= Priceless

UPDATE # 2

Simfonik recently did an excellent post on DJ Dan’s involvement with The California Project

At 16 tapes spread across 8 different DJs, The California Project is easily the most ambitious mixtape box collection that I’ve heard of.

Dan’s two contributions were “Live at Organic” and then one simply labeled “live” I’ve heard, taped, and traded both these tapes over the years and there was a lot of confusion as to where they came from, so it’s nice to see the story behind it. Simfonik also did an excellent job, as he always does, of scanning the original j-cards and cassette tapes themselves. It looks like for the California Project all the DJs donated pictures of themselves as kids to be used in the artwork. Quite an amazing find and you can check the whole thing out for free over here –

DJ Dan – The California Project

Related Posts –

DJ Dan Live at Love Fest. San Francisco. 2007. FREE


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Bay to Breakers 2009. FREE.

19 05 2009

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This race ends in The Outer Sunset area of Golden Gate Park and that’s normally where most of the splinter parties are at, so I normally ride my bike straight there to check out the action.

Bay to Breakers is a pretty unique event and it’ a great free party with 70,000 + other people. It’s one of the few events that San Francisco will wake up at the ungodly hour of 8AM on a Sunday and then be smashed by noon. People were annihilated last year. If you’re any kind of recovering alcoholic you want to stay far, far away from Bay to Breakers.

You could definitely notice the effects of the city’s Death of Fun campaign but people still had a great time. As I type this now on Monday it’s really cold mid 50s and overcast outside. The fog has come in and even bundled up under a few layers it’s still cold. Yesterday it was gorgeous, sunny in the low 90s, with people in shorts and no shirts. Amazing how drastically the weather can change in just a single day out here.

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There wasn’t anywhere near the number of floats this year, but there was still quite a few sound systems. I think in the future we’ll see smaller scale, individually powered, sound systems.

All you really need are some speakers, an energy source, an ipod, and some wheels.

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The pink people were back and set up shop under the bridge again.

I had heard reports that all music had to be off by 11:30, but this was the party going off at 3PM with no indication that it was planning to wrap up anytime soon.


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Categories : Destroy All Livers, FREE, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco art and adventure

How Weird Street Faire 2009.

11 05 2009

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This struck me as an odd sight.

It’s not often that you have block party on a sunny day with not a single person in line for the porta potties.

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The South of Market condos are in season again. You can see this structure has some new growth over on the right hand side.

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How Weird 2009 2.5


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How Weird Street Fair. 2006 and 2008. San Francisco. $5-$10 Donation Block Party.

9 05 2009

There’s a lot to love about the 2006 How Weird Street Fair video. Love the tiki bar, love the didgeridoo guy with the megaphone helmet, loved the way it was filmed.

Not really in love with the psytrance soundtrack. But hey, it’s a free country.

What I love most about this video is the architecture the background. Check out all the Victorians. This is back when How Weird was on Howard (Get it? How-Weird) on 8th, over by the nucleus of the club district in San Francisco. They had to move the block party in 2008 over to 2nd because some neighbors that moved into the heart of the club district of San Francisco were complaining about this party.

Which kind of begs the question, what kind of people move into a club district and then complain that there are too many parties?

It’s like moving into Harlem and then complaining that there are too many Black people living next too you.

Anyhoo, How Weird survived last year, this time over by Howard and 2nd and closer to the Finical District. I’ve always maintained that the Finical District is one of the weirdest parts of the city, it really is San Francisco’s Bermuda Triangle.

During the weekday it’s packed with all this road rage energy and people that hate their lives, jobs, commutes, co-workers, ect.

Then on the weekends it’s a ghost town, but sometimes you can still feel some of that disgruntled poltergeist energy that’s been accumulating over the decades.

Very weird and creepy.

This 2008 video was shot by Lux Vibes, I like his work a lot. He covers a lot of ground in this one. Again, it’s the architecture in the background that trips me out the most. All those skyscrapers and other finical temples that create city blackness in the afternoon, or funnel vicious city winds down certain streets. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it, that the city insisted that we move this freaky block party from a somewhat public area down to this deserted area just south of the unprotected heart of our finical temples.


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The California Academy of Sciences FREE for Sunset residents.

9 05 2009

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The California Academy of Sciences has started a new free day specifically for local residents. If you live in The Sunset you got in for free today and there was almost no line to get in. Amazing.

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The trick is to grab the free passes to the Planetarium and the 3D Show as soon as you get in and then plan your day around those shows.

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This was another shot of the line to get in from a few hours later.

If you were trying this on that other free day there would be 300+ people in line ahead of you.

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This sign cracks me up.

Just incase you weren’t sure which direction down was, The Academy has got you covered.

The Free days at the California Academy of Sciences for Sunset residents are May 8, 9, 10, 2009

And then again in September 11, 12, 13, 2009


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The Conservatory of Flowers. FREE the first Tuesday of the month.

6 05 2009

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I didn’t realize it till just now, but I love how the girl in the pink jacket is standing with the pink flowers and her mom in the white jacket is standing is solidarity over with the white flowers. Thank you both for keeping my picture balanced!

Most people know that the Conservatory of Flowers is free the first Tuesday of the month. What most of those people don’t know is that there is an amazing drum circle that also jams out in front. I was there on a Thursday a few weeks ago and they going off at like 3PM when most people should have been at work. The Conservatory of Flowers drum circle is a really polished group with tight synchronization, especially considering that they included someone on electric guitar and someone else on a didgeridoo.

A Didgery what?

Yes, a didgeridoo.


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Categories : FREE, Golden Gate Park

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