
Homeless Crusty Punk Pirates Have Seized Control Of The Janis Joplin Tree.
16 04 2009Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: Golden Gate Park, Hippy Hill, Janis Joplin Tree
Categories : Golden Gate Park
ZZ Top Got A Posse.
15 04 2009This is probably one of the stranger things that I’ve seen on Hippy Hill…
Or at least it was strange in greater numbers than I’ve seen before.


I want to say that’s an Amish sect, but I could be wrong, doing a field trip to Hippy Hill on a Sunday. Notice the guy in the green with the tupperware of glass pipes for sale. He’s one of those guys who sells his goods in the park by yelling out at people from a dozen feet away. As they ride their bike. Down a hill. No thanks guy, I don’t want to get high right now. I’m just trying to ride my bike through the park without hitting anyone.

A representative from the Hippy Hill is dispatched to open diplomatic relations and ask if they have a lighter.


On the way out the sect stops by the Janis Joplin Tree to negotiate for the barter of some nuggets.
I know it’s easy prey to make fun of someone because they dress differently, but I’m not even going to go there. Strictly from a fashion standpoint, I approve of any kind of organized religion that encourages their spiritual leaders to get crazy with their facial hair. I’m just jealous because I can’t do that. I can dot.com slum it and go 2 weeks without shaving and it just looks like I have scattered breadcrumbs on my chin. I would kill to be able to grow out a ZZ Top caliber beard.
And fashion wise, the boys dress a lot like most of the straight edge or even 2-tone ska kids that I went to high school with. I’m a creature of habit and I like the idea of having a simple uniform to wear everyday. I can get behind that.
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Tags: Golden Gate Park, Hippy Hill, Janis Joplin Tree
Categories : Golden Gate Park
Flickr.com/UHCC
15 04 2009



I passed by this neat mural right off of Dolores Park while riding my bike to BYOBW on Sunday. That’s one of the things that I love about riding my bike in the city, if you see something neat you can just pull over and check it out without having to worry about finding parking.
My favorite part is his signature is his Flickr account. Awesome!

google23cd6e96b3f29a0b.html
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Tags: San Francisco Murals
Categories : San Francisco Murals
Bring Your Own Big Wheel. San Francisco. 2009. FREE
14 04 20092009 was on like Donkey Kong!
Although this was the last year as a renegade event. Next year the promoters will have to cough up $10,000 (ouch!) for permits and paperwork. But for now it was on.


These guys were awesome. I was talking to Super Mario and was all
“That game is a classic! I just bought Super Mario on the Nintendo 64 for my girlfriend’s daughter. She had it as a kid and lost it so I picked up a copy on Ebay and that game is going for up to $50. People still love and aggressively bid on those old Super Mario 64 cartridges.”
And Super Mario was all “Yeah, Ebay is weird.”
The Princess did the entire race in character and with the dress. That’s what I love about this event; it’s not a sausage fest. There are a lot of girls and kids that race.










I biked all the way from The Outer Sunset through Dolores Park and over to Potrero Hill in under an hour and a half. I rule. It’s pretty essential to get to BYOBW early to get a good spot. I was at the bottom of the hill at the second to the last curve. It was a bit shady, but there was a small wall to stand on that was perfect protection from all the carnage.
I stuck around for an hour and then biked back over to Market and Noe where The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were having a free block party. Chances are, if you have a free party with a sound system in this city I will be there to rock the house.
Hey, Mike! You wanna go get annihilated and rock out with a bunch of queens and bears?
The streets of San Francisco were very kind to me this Easter Sunday.
Thank you.
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Tags: Bring your Own Big Wheel, BYOBW, Death of Fun, Easter Sunday, Super Mario, The Streets of San Francisco
Categories : FREE, San Francisco art and adventure
Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race. San Francisco. 2008. FREE
10 04 2009I really like this video a lot.
First off, check out that street! Good Lord, welcome to San Francisco.
It does a great job of capturing people just flying down that hill and destroying their big wheels in the process, just a wave of human flesh and plastic that’s been eaten alive as they skid down that pavement. I think my favorite are the kids in the trashcan and compost bins. Imagine those guys slamming into you from behind.
I also like that it’s not a sausage fest. There are lots of girls that are in the race too.
Now check out this video, from a slightly higher vantage point and with far more carnage.
From this angle it feels like everyone is just falling off the edge of the world as they exit stage right. And check out the guy dressed as Frogger who is jumping through the race and fucking with everyone at 2:02.
Last year was the first year BYOBW was at Vermont Street and it was super fun for me. I thought it was the perfect ratio of participants vs spectators. You could get there early to take pictures and get a good spot and not feel like it was a mob scene. It was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, since the pillow fight on Valentine’s Day cost the city $30,000 to clean up that god ugly fountain at Embarcadero Plaza, the city has been cracking down on non-permitted flash mob like events. I’d like to think that we can keep this party going. We’ll see what happens on Easter Sunday.
http://www.jonbrumit.com/byobw.html
PEOPLE!! BEHAVE!! THE EVENT IS AT A CRITICAL MOMENT … and REQUIRES YOUR RESPONSIBILITY and GOOD WILL!!
PLEASE – NO COWBOYS – NO RAMPS – NO HATE MAIL
… BE NICE! and NO MATTER WHAT – DO NOT RETURN TO LOMBARD STREET for a BYOBW type thing – NO!!
ALERTS!!
RIDE or PARTICIPATE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
SF POLICE HAVE PROMISED TO SHOW UP AND TICKET EVERYONE RIDING OR RACING
SFPD TACTICAL vs BYOBW? yes – this could be the case!
Tickets could be for anything like jaywalking, obstruction of traffic or other things (?!) and could be for as much as $100 or so
THINGS TO REMEMBER – EVENT or NO EVENT!!
THIS IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT – please .. NO BOOZE, open containers or the like … for your own sake do you need another ticket!?
please use the porta-potties
please be nice to the neighbors and
HELP CLEAN UP DURING AND AFTERWARDS
OTHER NEWS or REQUESTS!!
DON’T DO IT!
stay home and obey the law you heathens!!!
don’t make me come over there – i do not want to miss my gma’s bday in kzoo!!
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Tags: Bring your Own Big Wheel, BYOBW, Easter Sunday
Categories : FREE, San Francisco art and adventure
Amazing Turk Street Mural by Mr. Maxx Moses
9 04 2009
While riding my bike back from the Saint Stupid’s Day Parade last week I stopped off to take some more pictures of my favorite San Francisco mural.
As long as this mural is still around and I’m in the neighborhood I will take pictures of it.







Check out the signature tag right above the red arrow.

I didn’t notice it at first, but that’s actually a three dimensional piece that someone cut out and then glued to the side of the building.



That alone deserves another +7 in creativity points for the Turk Street Mural.
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Tags: Maxx Moses, San Francisco Murals, Turk Street Mural
Categories : San Francisco Murals
Saint Stupid’s Day Parade. 2009. FREE
8 04 2009
I checked out The First Church of the Last Laugh’s 31st (!) annual Saint Stupid’s Day Parade last week. Wow, they’ve been doing this for a while now. Every April Fools Day they do a march downtown. On weekends they march through North Beach and on weekdays they march through the Finical District. Since I don’t have a job I spent my Wednesday afternoon marching with my people through the Finical District
John Law bought out his Doggie Dinner heads.

This was the second stop at The Tomb of Saint Stupid. Perfect spot to rock out.



The Doggie Diner heads followed us to Battery Street.

Wavy Gravy gonna go get mellow y’all.

This was the third stop at the statue of the bare butt mechanics.
I loved the guy getting all Braveheart at the top of the statue.




LOTS of photographers with their power lenses.







That’s very much a Burning Man thing that I had forgotten about. I would be standing around and people would get naked next to me and then instantly there’s a swarm of paparazzi type activity that makes me not want to be a photographer anymore.
I love this montage. Say hello to contestant #1. Let’s hope he has a sense of humor.

Say hello to contestant #2. Looking sharp and looking for love.

And here’s contestant # 3.
That looks like a yummy salad there, buddy. Smile for the Internet.


What’s funny is that even though the couple at the end got it, contestant # 1 still looks oblivious. Let’s hope he has a sense of humor.





And this was a scene straight out of Animal House. The parade is led down this dead end. Notice the mini-van that is trying to back out.

Yep. This looks like a perfect place to jam. Let’s rock out!

Waive goodbye to the mini-van as it backs up through the parade.


Love the Free Bernie Madoff sign.


I worked in the Finical District about 10 years ago. Amazing how timeless this area is. During the weekday it’s packed with stressed out people and all that collective road rage energy. Then on the weekends it’s a ghost town. The Finical District is like San Francisco’s Bermuda Triangle, or at least it has the same weird and haunted energy to it.

This is stop # 7 at the Banker’s Heart.



I just now noticed that the guy in the white with the flagpole is not only wearing the exact same tennis shoes as I am, but he built his entire look around those shoes. Nice one, brother.



Bringing it back home to Embarcadero Plaza.


It was kind of a goofy, fun, stupid parade in the great tradition of most eccentric San Francisco fringe type gatherings, but really it’s no more absurd than what goes on every single weekday in the Finical District with people dressing up in their suits and ties and wasting their lives away in cubicles while out economy has been run into the ground by organized crime derivatives bandits.
Go put that run-on sentence in your pipe and smoke it.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: Doggie Diner, Frank Chu, Saint Stupid's Day Parade
Categories : FREE, San Francisco art and adventure
Sunset Season Opener at Stafford Lake. 2009. FREE
7 04 2009





Matty B passed away earlier this year. I didn’t know him very well but I used to see him all the time when he worked at Housewares. He was always super fucking cool to me, especially considering I never bought any records at Housewares but was in there once a week because I collect flyers. We were also both extras in that corny raver movie, Groove. Sunset had an alter for him on Sunday.

I brought up a Guan Yin for good luck.

Peace be with you, Matty B.
***
Related Posts –
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Tags: Matty B, pacificsound.net, Stafford Lake, Sunset, Sunset Park Parties
Categories : FREE, San Francisco art and adventure
Sunset Season Opener at Stafford Lake. 2006 – 2007. FREE
2 04 2009I remember when these parties used to happen all the time at Richmond ’s Point Molate or Berkley Marina. We’ve long since worn out our welcome in those locations so it’s kind of amazing that a decade later we’ve been able to hold onto Stafford Lake, a hidden gem just 30 minutes north of San Francisco. Before youtube and before all the social networking sites that exists today, 800- 1,000 people would descend on this tiny suburb based on just word of mouth and a phone number for the first Sunset park party of the year. And we would rock the fuck out on their lake!
This was one of the first Sunset videos to go viral. It’s a great 8-minute static shot that does a perfect job of capturing all the insanity that goes on right by the decks. Yo! Waldo! I found your future ex-wife at 6:25. She’s smoking hot.
Here’s another great static shot video from 2007.
It does a perfect job of showing just how large Stafford Lake is. You can trek out to the bathrooms and by the time you’re ready to head back there’s a small army of people and their gear between you and your camp. You can spend the entire day bugging out and making a spectacle of yourself and still not cross paths with half the people there. It’s pretty epic.
Here’s another 2007 video from luxvibes. I like his work
The opening shot from across the lake at the party’s peak was an excellent idea. I can’t believe I never thought of that before. And the closing shot with the Come-Unity sign made me smile. Sunset parties at Stafford Lake are pretty unique and special. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep this party going a while longer.
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Tags: pacificsound.net, Stafford Lake, Sunset, Sunset Park Parties
Categories : FREE, San Francisco art and adventure
Yelle live at UCSD in San Diego. 2008. FREE
1 04 2009Youth is King. I remember back in my 20s I could go out three, maybe four, times a week and still ace all my classes. Once you hit your 30s though your metabolism starts changing. It’s like the reverse of puberty and your body definitely lets you know when you’ve overstepped your boundaries. These days for every 1 night that I go out it takes me at least a day to recover. Youth really is King.
Yelle is one of my new favorite bands. They’re a 3 piece electro-pop group from France and their debut album is entirely in French, yet they still have a huge following in America and other non-French speaking countries. Both times she came through San Francisco her shows sold out and this free show at UCSD at the ungodly hour of high noon was the very day after they did a show at San Diego’s Beauty Bar. Amazing the things you can pull of in your 20s.
Check out the laptop jockey. My man is SELLING that free show.
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Tags: YELLE, Youth is King
Categories : FREE, Music
