I’m not a big fan of Michael Franti’s music or his ego. That’s kind of funny because I tried really hard to be into his earlier band, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, but it just didn’t work out. I think I liked the name of that band more than any of the music they actually made. I also distinctly recall watching The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy host 120 minutes on MTV and Michael Franti spent the entire 120 minutes talking about how great and deep his music was. The other half of that band, Rono Tse, just sat there looking lonely and depressed. It was painful experience, it was like watching an early version of Jon & Kate plus 8 where you have one overbearing personally that’s doing all the talking and the Asian kid who’s just sitting there looking lonely and defeated.
That and the fact that when you look at a Spearhead CD booklet it’s all glamour shots of Michael Franti posing and showing off his tattoos. He’s like the Bay Area Rastafarian version of Zoolander. We get it Mike; you’re on an ego-trip. Just take a time out every now and then and let the Asian kid talk for a change.
I’m not a big fan of Michael Franti’s music or his ego but the guy throws a great free / $5 donation party in Golden Gate Park. It’s the week directly after Burning Man so everyone still has this post-Burn glow. It’s also in the same place that the Human Be-In was in 1967. That only happened once with 20,000 – 30,000 people and it’s become a legendary event. The Power To The Peaceful has been happening for a decade or so now with crowds of 50,000+ people and yet it still manages to slip under most people’s pop culture radar.
Also, there was an amazing thunderstorm this morning. Check out the video over HERE
Buildings shook; car alarms cried out in terror, it was a massive shock and awe exercise. If those thunderstorms and the intense rain showers that followed had kept up for the rest of the day there’s no way this party would have gone through, but amazingly enough the party did see the light of day.
I didn’t see as much Obama gear as last year. Last year Obama was hands-down the most popular brand label of clothing. There were several booths selling his images, he was more popular than Adidas and Puma combined.
I heard about this offhand and apparently some of the Mermen played surf rock at this street festival last year in a sideband.
Fuck.
I would have loved to hear those guys play surf rock at my beach for free. I live for stuff like this.
So when I heard (offhand) that there was going to be a Taraval Street Fair the same day as the last Sunday Streets I knew I had to check it out.
I’m not entirely convinced that the Taraval Street Fair just wants to be left alone.
It’s the dark, edgy, loner of the San Francisco Street Festival circuit.
It’s the Luke Perry of the show.
Anywhoo, I volunteered to be a crossing guard for Sunday Streets. There’s a strong desire there to extend the hours, but the explanation given to me was that they are only able to run this campaign for $25,000 – $30,000 per event and 100-200 volunteers till the 2PM shift. Hopefully, as it gains steam, if more people volunteer (C’mon it’s not like most of us have jobs or anything anymore) we can extend those hours.
So because I was more preoccupied with making sure agro drivers didn’t run over any pedestrians or bicyclists, I don’t have that many pictures from this Sunday Streets, but I did find a youtube that summed up my feelings towards that day perfectly.
And there was a Free Doin’ it in the Park at the 25th Ave part of Golden Gate Park.
Check out how all that morning fog burns off and by 4PM it’s like San Diego out there in The Sunset.
Some local San Franciscans that don’t Burn anymore have started this tradition of creating a miniaturized Burning Man down at Baker Beach, back where the original Burning Man used to happen when it was free and in SF.
I was kind of amazed at how many of these structures I recognized, even the ones from years that I didn’t go to.
There’s a miniature La Contesssa.
Miniature Flock by Michael Christian.
There’s a condensed version of the Deep End, Opulent Temple, Space Cowboys, and Illuminaughty, rave camps.
Miniature David Best Temple.
Miniature Paul Addis
Coked-up, Napoleon Complex, Anger-Management Issues, Only-Been-to-Burning Man-Twice-Before-and-Now-Is-a-Self-Appointeted-Expert-on-the-Topic-Mr-Know-It-All-Paul Addis.
Miniature Belgian Waffle
Miniature The One Tree from 1998. By day it was a public shower where you could go and be a Woodstock Hippy. By night it had flamethrowers shooting out into the sky.
Anyone else think it’s hilarious that they keep shutting down the Bay Bridge during Burning Man? Not that many people can afford to go on Labor Day vacations these days, but each year thousands of San Franciscans migrate out to Nevada for Burning Man and we keep chopping up the Bay Bridge once they’re out of town. That just cracks me up.
Burning Man has been called a lot of things by people who both love it and loathe it, but it wasn’t until this day that I realized it was very much something that I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call it before. Corny.
Burning Man is really fucking corny.
I’m not talking 2009 San Diego Comic Con corny, which has evolved into a very hip kind of multimedia event these days. I’m talking like 1980s Doctor Who convention corny or 1990 Stargate One convention corny. I’m talking Renaissance Faire corny. People were even talking to each other in Burning Man catch phrases like it was a Renaissance Faire.
“Slow down! You’re driving to fast!”
“This was a lot cooler last year.”
“I’m going to check out the other side of the playa, I’ll tweet if I see anything cool” – bonus points for the 2009 reference.
I say this as a 34-year-old adult who has spent over 2/3 of his life buying comic books and action figures, Burning Man is pretty corny and the Balsa Man speaks to that inner fanboy. I’ve already started to brainstorm on what is the most obscure or unique thing I could bring for next year. Like a 2009 Thunderdome that was punked with the Hot Topic banner, or the red dice from 2001, or the Doggie Diner heads, or Jim Mason’s sundial from 1997, or a 2001 Jiffy Lube with Larry Harvey on megaphone talking down the angry mob of queens. Funny, I just now noticed that there are no pictures of the Jiffy Lube on the burningman.com image gallery. Kind of odd considering what a fuss everyone made about it at the time.
Burning Man is pretty corny and Balsa Man is like a free miniature convention for Burning Man nerds right on the beach. I’m sold.
I actually crossed paths with The Godfather of Skating at the Tom Jones Panty camp during Burning Man 2002.
It’s kind of a funny story that’s not even appropriate for posting online.
I took the Green Tourtise to Burning Man 7 years in a row. Going to Burning Man is like being struck by lightening and I had that once in a lifetime experience 7 years in a row. I started in 1996, the Hell year. The year that people were being decapitated, run over by cars as the slept in their tents, and maimed left and right. At times the skies were filled with Medivac helicopters, it was like Apocalypse Now but with House and Trance beats in the background. Check out the aerial view from to get an idea of how scattered brained everyone was back then.
Look how honky-tonk The Man’s altar was back then. It was just a couple bales of hay. These days it’s these really unique and elaborate alters or temples. I remember they had a temple a few years ago that was the size of a Home Depot, but back then it was just on some bales of hay. It felt like the Dukes of Hazzard were running the show in ’96. Yee-haw!
Then keep in mind that the Rave Ghetto was TWO MILES away from the main camp and they had not yet banned cars on the playa.
At night you’d be walking the desert feeling like a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Charles Manson and then a BMW would zip within a few feet of you going 80 miles per hour. With its lights turned off. Yee-haw!
It was a completely different experience back then. From 1998 on they’ve been in the same spot, which has always felt like camping at the Burning Man Mall. You had the Black Rock mountains, the train tracks, line of cars waiting to get inside, and all of these other distinctive landmarks to give you a sense of perspective. These days, after The Man burns you can ride your bike for miles and still navigate your way back to your camp without a problem. Back in 96 after people starting breaking camp you could walk 20 feet away from your tent and be completely disoriented. It would be like getting off MUNI downtown and finding that Market St and the Finical District had disappeared. It really was like camping on the moon.
2002 was a great Burn for me. Normally the burns have been all hype and very anti-climatic for me. It’s like Super Bowl Sunday. You sit around doing nothing for 4 hours, get up to go to the bathroom, and then when you get back it’s all over. Yee-haw! But 2002 was a great Burn and I felt like I had accomplished everything that I set out to do and wanted to go out like Seinfeld, just exit stage left on a positive note.
I think the 2002 Temple really sealed it for me.
I’ve always been really impressed with David Best’s work, every year it kept getting better and better and he kept taking more chances, but he nailed it that year and for the first time I felt like it actually upstaged the burning of The Man himself. Everyone loves to bitch and complain, Hell, we’re Americans, that’s our national pastime these days. But ultimately not only do you have a hell of a lot more freedoms at Burning Man than you do else where, but if you’re talented enough your art can actually upstage The Man himself. If you’re talented enough, your Burn can actually be more spiritual and touch more people than the burning of The Man at his own party. That’s something to think about.
Fast-forward 5 years later
System downtime means that I actually get home from work at a reasonable hour. I’m channel surfing when I hit Dave’s Skatin Place show on public access. Just to back peddle a bit,
David Miles Jr is like the Afrika Bambaataa of Golden Gate Park. I’ve always seen him as not only one of the local community activists that are always trying to make San Francisco a better place to live, but also one of those guys who just does it without looking for some political payback or favor. D was instrumental in having the Golden Gate Park side streets closed off to traffic on Sundays, does roller disco in the park, and has his own roller disco ring by Center Camp at Burning Man each year since early 2000. I want to be just like this guy when I grow up.
Back to the show,
Dave’s public access show is on and has footage from Burning Man 2001 and 2002. Excellent ! It’s all there, the La Contessa , the Taj Mahal, Drago the Dragon, the David Best temple even the Green Tourtise. Awesome. It’s one of 3 episodes he did on Burning Man, so I go online at to find out when the others are but for the life of me I can get the public access show site to work.
http://www.accessf.org just got a retarded public relations upgrade. I was on there a few years ago because I noticed some local house music and 9/11 conspiracy public access shows that popped up on my radar that I wanted to keep tabs on. Before, it was a really basic site but was at least functional. You could easily search to find a show and if there was a url associated with it. Now it’s useless. There’s a PDF file for listings? What the hell? Why not just put it on micro-fish and have it down at the library…
So I got Dave’s cell phone number from the end of the Burning Man episode and I cold-call the guy the next day.
I’m all “Hey, I really enjoyed your show last night. I don’t Burn anymore, but those years that I did are really special to me and it’s amazing when I can find footage of that time. I was wondering if you could help me out though. I was just checking out the public access site and for the life of me I can’t find when your next episode is gong to air.”
And then D goes off. “I don’t know what’s going on with those turkeys. That used to be a really fun station but now there’s big money involved. You have these political cronies that are pulling in 6 figures and running that station into the ground, they are wasting over ten thousand dollars every month on the new Market Street office that they really don’t need but just want for the prestige. Those clowns are fucking up that station.” Ten minutes later D is all “Sorry to go off, I talk a lot and those idiots just get me worked up.”
And I’m all, “No, I hear you. I see that everywhere. It’s the same thing with work, it’s the same thing that’s going on with the government right now. It’s the same thing with Bush putting one of his incompetent horse judging buddies in charge of FEMA and then watching New Orleans fall apart. These guys are corporate raiders that don’t know how to manage anything, they just give kickbacks and cushy jobs to their fuck-buddies from bowling night and just dick around while Rome burns.” About ten minutes later I finally wrap up my “Never underestimate the awesome power of incompetence, fuck Chris Daily, and fuck nepotism.” speech.
Dave’s all, “Yeah, glad you enjoyed the show. I have no idea when those turkeys are going to air that again, but you can check out the entire thing on my site for free. I’ve also got that and the Malcolm in the Middle Burning Man episode.” And then Dave goes off on the Malcolm in the Middle Burning Man episode for another 10 minutes. Classic.
Amazing 2009 BM footage from stevesf123 that was posted online on the Sunday of Burning Man (!)
Amazing turnaround and amazing aerial view as they fly into Burning Man 2009 and later into San Francisco Labor Day 2009.
I love those clouds too.
It’s easy to get caught up in the human spectacle below, but just look up and there’s this amazing skyline untouched by skyscrapers or telephone pole lines.
UPDATE # 2
Great footage by Mr. Holehead of the BrassTax Boom Box at Burning Man 2009
What’s funny is that the sun woke me up this morning and that 31st Ave was still sunny and clear when I left for the day. But just a few blocks down the street and you could see that there was a pocket of fog just sitting down there by the beach. Just like the Twilight Zone. It’s like it’s own completely different ecosystem down there. You can go from San Diego to Bermuda Triangle tropical rainforest conditions in just a few blocks.
And then it all burned off 20 minutes before the block party was over. Yo! Sunday Streets. Can we change our hours from the 10AM – 2PM shift to…let’s say noon – sunset? Can we make that happen? Because, seriously. Most of this town can’t even get out of the house before 4PM. Trust me on this one.
Who’s a good dog!
Who’s a good dog with the most bad-ass tricked out bike!
That’s right, you are!
Good dog! You’re a good dog!
You were always on my mind.
You were always on my mind.
I saw this set up a few months ago at that free bike party in Golden Gate Park that I never got around to writing about. They tried to go renegade that day but had to retreat back into the neighboring Burning Man Golden Gate Park parties jurisdiction to avoid prosecution. That was an interesting day.
All the electricity for this party isn’t provided by a generator. It comes from all the people peddling on those bikes. Really ingenious idea.
And this is what a human bike-powered renegade party on Ocean Beach looks like.
The next Sunday Streets will be back in The Outer Sunset the day after The Man burns.
Seriously? Who scheduled that?
Are the promoters for the Outside Lands Festival on your board of directors?
Deep just won a Best of The Bay Award for Best Block-Rockin’ Bike in the city. Score! It’s all kinds of awesome whenever someone wins one of those one-of-a-kind awards that the writers of the Guardian made up specifically for that person. That’s a very unique gift, it’s a very public compliment that was just broadcast out there for all of San Francisco to see. Definitely gives you some unique street cred as well.
I got to the Embarcadero Plaza at exactly 8PM. No flashdance party but there was something else going on. I went over to investigate and discovered that some high school kids already had their own flashmob going on and were breakdance fighting. Awesome!
That Hansel is so hot right now!
Anyhoo, my party was setting up nearby at the Ferry Plaza.
And into the night it went.
I really like this part of town. The Embarcadero is a great location for flashmob types of events. This is where Critical Mass starts every month. This is also where they had the Valentine Day pillow fight that caused $30,000 in damages to that god-ugly fountain and was the catalyst for the city’s Death of Fun campaign. It’s almost a textbook definition of how to create a Temporary Autonomous Zone. Normally it’s occupied by skaters, tourists, and homeless guys passed out in a pool of their own vomit, but I really like it. I live for free outdoor parties and it’s the renegade ones that have that added thrill that acts like a magnet and attracts some of the more interesting people in this city. This party is fast becoming one of my new favorite San Francisco rituals.
You can find out more about the next flashdance party over HERE
UPDATE # 1
Rad video of the parties Bollywood peak from raunet.
I’m telling you, The Embarcadero is an amazing place for renegade parties. It has a lot of character.
The Flaming Lotus girls had a free party on Saturday at The Boxshop to show off their new art project, Soma. The Boxshop is an interesting artist collective in Hunter’s Point, which is San Francisco’s version of Detroit, aka Beirut By the Bay. I had to leave early to make it to the flashdance party that was happening later that night so I didn’t get that many fire pictures. Still, I’m constantly amazed how Burning Man people in this town have adapted to their environment and can make amazing art out of what other people would throw away. They’ve definitely left their mark on this city.
I was really surprised when I heard about this block party. San Francisco’s Death of Fun campaign has been pretty successful so far this year. Congratulations, gentlemen. You have already claimed the life of the future BYOBW block party. That was really brave of you. You almost killed the How Weird block party and don’t think we’ve forgotten about you DNA Lounge. Fuck you and the taxes you pay every year.
So when I heard that there was going to be a new block party under this hostile regime change I knew I had to check it out.
And this is what the Super Hero Block Party looked like at 2:30 PM.
What’s funny is that if this was Sunday Streets the permit would have official expired over half an hour ago.
If this was the Haight Street Fair it would have been packed.
If it was the How Weird Street Fair it would have been in what House DJ Architects refer to as the Barn Building stage of the party.
That’s another Burning Man thing that I had forgotten about. People drag thousands of dollars worth of steel and soundsystems out to this god-forsaken place, juice it up with enough decibels to kill a Godzilla, and there’s like 4 people dancing. Look at that, it’s right behind a MUNI graveyard. This is where old cable cars swim upstream, against traffic, to be gutted, rusted, and then die alone on the outskirts of beautiful Hunter’s Point.
And this was the crowded dancefloor. Let’s go back and check in the BrassTax camp.
Funny thing. I’ve been living in this city for 15 years and I’ve noticed that there’s this one demographic that seems to be permanently stuck on Hawaiian Time. It’s physically impossible for them to get out of the house before 4PM. They’re like the Twilight vampires of the San Francisco scene. I always seem to be out of step with those guys and find myself going to these amazing empty parties in weird locations and then spend half my time taking pictures of the urban decay around me. I know, life of the party…
Vanilla Ice actually lives here. He moved in 2 weeks ago when his next VH1 show fell through and his old lady kicked him to the curb. He was suppose to be performing on the Sunset stage but that fell through as well for reasons unknown to me.
And check out that boardwalk.
I actually had a hell of time taking in my cocktail and beats as the skaters and fog flew past me. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I thought it was ironic that the first annual San Francisco Street Fair was on the same day as the San Diego Comic Con. I used to go to that back when I was in junior high and it’s amazing to see how what used to be a corny convention of hard-core nerds exploded into one of the major multi-media events of the year. It’s on Goggle’s front page. It’s on youtube’s front page. When I grew up, being into comic books was like being into pedophilia; it wasn’t a very cool hobby and if you wanted to survive you were very careful whom you shared that vice with. Now it’s Hollywood. That’s what’s amazing to me. Anyone can do that. Anyone can take a corny thing and turn that into the next Burning Man, turn that into the Star Trek franchise, turn that into the next major multi-media event of the year.
Sunday was one of those classic sunny San Francisco summer days where there were a dozen different things going on. Some 25,000 people were in the AIDS walk in Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Symphony was doing a free show in Dolores Park, and the Sunday Streets project shut down a few block in the Mission for an early block party.
This guy was playing guitar from his room but it was that hand made drawing that caught my eye and was probably the most random sight of the day.
It’s former KTVU reporter Dennis Richmond!
People were yelling his name as they walked by like it was Metallica.
I just wrote about this guy the other day and how everyone from the 25 year old Harvey Milk documentary are still ubiquitous today.
How random is that…
Valencia Cyclery had a free renegade style barbeque once the Sunday Streets officially ended at 2PM. Deep and the Trikeasaurus provided the beets and people were playing frisbee in the streets. It was like a Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff song.
And the next two Sunday Streets are going to be in The Outer Sunset. It’s amazing what different worlds they are. You can get a tan in the Mission, ride the bike back to the Outer Sunset and catch a cold. It’ll be interesting to see if as many of the locals come out when we take over The Great Highway for a few hours.
The Outer Sunset 