Also, feel free to send me copy-edits and the like for this post (or any others) – I never have enough time to do a decent job on them! I’d appreciate it!
Late September: David Miles* (a.k.a. “D. Miles” a.k.a. “Skate Godfather”) and I ran into each other and started talking about the need to remake a great Halloween party for San Francisco, in the wake of the demise of the Castro St. festivities.
Early October: My enthusiasm for the idea gets weighed down by my fear of getting smashed by the City and my fear that my Halloween costume will be a huge FAIL.
A week or so later: My continued fear about my costume began to be overpowered by the notion that something BIG and FUN needed to happen to fill the void of the old Castro Halloween. My fear of party failure, however, remained intact.
A week or so later: I realized that to attempt nothing was far sadder than a failed attempt. So, in my mind, it was ON. The biggest question mark was what would the City do if I tried to start a new free public Halloween party, like the Castro, but perhaps, eventually, even better? Would they shut us down? Throw us in the hoosegow? Look the other way? Realize that this was Good Thing™ and embrace our efforts? There was only one way to know… Click HERE for more…
Saturday Night was our first FlashDance since the mega-over-the-top madness of the special Michael Jackson Memorial FlashDance. And while nowhere near as huge (nor will they probably ever be! ) this one was big, simple, low stress, and just kinda perfect…
I was surprised at how many requests for MJ there were (like I don’t play enough! )… but also the Bollywood stuff was well….
AWESOME!
Palak, my adopted little sis, with backup support from Kobie & Melissa(?) and an awesome tourist from Paris, busted the above totally impromptu Bollywood extravaganza to “Dhoom taana.” (I hope to have better video of this soon if someone sends it in! – I think a couple of folks shot it!)
or “Gay Pride + Michael Jackson Memorial Weekend & a few Thoughts on Joy”
(NOTE for non-SFers: It was Gay Pride Weekend here, a.k.a “Pride”, centered around the big Gay Pride parade on Sunday, as well as a huge party in the nearby Castro and numerous related events. It’s a big city festival for everyone – especially by & for the gays, but welcoming for straights as well.)
Yesterday on Facebook, I announced that the past 4 days have been the best four days of my life. Since I’m not given to hyperbole, it must be true .
Seriously though, that is a strong claim, and I should probably just say that I can’t think of a better four days in a row*. So let’s just say the past four days have been amazing and stack up against any in my life (wow!). I’m actually a little exhausted from how good it has been. Lots of dancing, lots of laughing, lots of sharing great moments with great people and even a few tears and reflection thrown in. And the weather has been perfect.
Here’s the video (Instead of watching here, I highly recommend going to YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook & watching it in HD or higher quality):
UPDATED 1/16/10: I just came across the best video of the night yet (better than mine below) and a great video from the ride itself… see updates at the bottom.
Four or five news vans, 200 (300?) people, a musical bike ride through the city, sing-a-longs, moments of silence and tears. That’s the short version of Thursday’s special Michael Jackson memorial Trike ride and FlashDance. It was the best FlashDance ever.
Here’s the video (Instead of watching here, I highly recommend going to YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook & watching it in HD or higher quality)
Click the link below to get the full scoop, write up, playlist & more video:
…wherein I briefly recount the initially ill-fated but ultimately triumphant FlashDance 21 mini-saga… (.ps If you have any good pics please send them along!)
Saturday 8 PM: I showed up (remarkably promptly) at Church and Market & set up. A small crowd of FlashDancers was already there waiting!
8:15 PM: After playing 1 song, a (remarkably nice) police officer showed up & explained that she already had a noise complaint & we had to go. Boooo! She suggested Dolores Park.
8:30 PM: Set up at Dolores Park – many folks walked on over from Church and Market (maybe 100 peeps) and we were good to go – or so we thought. There was another, smaller dance party going on nearer to the houses on Dolores – but it was clearly ending.
8:45 PM: 3 songs in and people were grooving, but Park Rangers showed up (I have NEVER seen Park Rangers in Dolores Park before!) They said that their supervisor called to say there had been complaints. (I’ll bet that the complaints were probably about the other party.) They agreed to not give me a ticket if we shut the music down. I was really, really bummed.
8:50 PM: Honestly, I was ready to give up but various dancers said “Let’s just go to 24th Street BART Station” – I agreed.
9PM – 11:30PM: We had one HELL of a FLASHDANCE!!!! It was awesome! BIG BIG thanks to everyone who came out for any of the various stops and BIGGER thanks to those who convinced me to stick with it. I had SOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!
A couple of lessons:
FDs are RIDICULOUSLY FUN. Seriously, I’ve been so worried about getting shut-down & potentially having to scrap FD, I had almost forgotten. One of the reasons I didn’t get a May one together was that I was just worried about another cop-episode shattering my enthusiasm. I had just gotten over it by the time I scheduled June’s, but honestly, I’ve been feeling a bit precarious. Well, now I remember why this is all sooooo worth it. SO. MUCH. FUN. Thanks to everyone who pushed me into a better attitude.
YOU MUST MUST GET ON MY SMS/TWITTER UPDATES. My messages weren’t as clear as they should have been, but many people figured out what I meant and showed up at Dolores Park & then 24th St BART. I’ll be clearer next time, but you really NEED to sign up for SMS messages! Click here & scroll down to the section about SMS updates for instructions.
24th St BART Rocks! The cops came by at least 3 or 4 times while we were there, but didn’t say anything. Lesson Learned. I think i may do the next one at 16th St Or Civic Center…..
Again – thank you ALL for such a fun night. Between that and Sunday Streets in the Mission the next morning, I’m still glowing!.
As a final note – here is the play list (more or less) from FD 21. I’m really happy with the mix. As always I’m always looking for more stuff to play – lemme know what you think….
Flash – Queen
Breakin’ Dishes – Rihanna
Lovely One – The Jacksons
A Love Bizarre – Sheila E.
Soy Callejero (Mark Pistel Remix) – Los Mocosos
Livin’ la Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
Blame It On the Boogie – The Jacksons
Poker Face – Lady GaGa
Kids – MGMT
Dime Que Te Quéa – Gecko Turner
Tabba – DJ APS Feat. Mohammed Siddiq & Ranjit Kaur
After FlashDance 20 (& dancing at Bootie afterwards) Saturday night, I was too much of a sluggolith to make it to the early parts of the always awesome Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Bonnet Contest & Hunky Jesus Contest. Though I did fly by for a brief dose of Easter Drag Queen Goodness:
But the main event of the day was at 4pm on Vermont Street: The 9th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race… basically a bunch of people bring Big Wheels (and similar kids bikes) and race down the REAL windiest street in SF. This year’s edition was very nearly COPSMACKED – but eventually decency prevailed (BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO WORKS SO HARD BEHIND THE SCENES TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN).
It worked! FD20 was another excellent time. I think it was a little smaller than the average FD which always bums me out a little (less passersby in our location & farther from the Mission), but twas a fine time nonetheless. It was a beautiful night along the water & a much fun was had.
The faux-po (rather than the po-po) for the port did show up, and so we moved it to the Ferry Plaza, but that was fine….
BIG Thanks to Doug Herbek for his legal advice and Steve Jones for writing in the Guardian & most of all, all of you FlashDancers who continue to make FD SO. MUCH. FUN!
Dear SF Po-Po, why do you keep trying to put the SMACKDOWN on me? I am just trying to use my powers for AWESOME. Really.
So Saturday night’s FlashDance 19 was just kicking into STUPENDOUS-FUN gear and suddenly 6-8 cops showed up and put a SMACKDOWN on us. One was especially super f&%ng aggro: Before even saying word one, he had already plowed through one of my speakers and then started grabbing at cables on the back of my rig to yank them out. NOT COOL.
Note: This is a horribly delayed post, but I was waiting for photos that did it justice (I need a camera crew for FlashDance and Trikeasaurus dammit!). Luckily, May-Li & Liza came through. Anyway this is the one of 2 posts about LAST Saturday (11/15), not the most recent Saturday. The other post is about Trikeasaurus rocking the Anti-Prop-8 Protest that day.
Also note that there is a video & the playlist after the jump!
(courtesy of May-Li Khoe)
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Flashdance 18 was just amazing. Maybe 100-150 people dancing at any given time and maybe 200 people over the course of the night. But as usual, the real story was just the vibe. A warm night and fun music were part of it, but really, as usual the key to such a great FlashDance is all the awesome people who came out to 24th & Mission and made it so fabulous! I love my peeps! Thanks for making 3 years of FlashDances so amazing!
FlashDance 17 was this past weekend and was fabulous! It was a little smaller than usual (were people gone for the 3 day weekend?) but no matter – it was super fun! The location was GORGEOUS – right along the water under an almost full moon with a stunning view of the Bay Bridge and our fair city. The weather was perfect, and no one hassled us for noise…
Also, I was REALLY happy with the playlist. I struck the exact right amount of new stuff and old stuff for my own preferences . I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did:
Flash – Queen
Hella Good – No Doubt
Don’t Stop the Music – Rihanna
Billie Jean vs Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (Michael Jackson vs Indeep) – UPDATES SPIN
Stronger – Kanye West
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – Daft Punk
Rock Steady – Aretha Franklin
American Boy (feat. Kanye West) – Estelle
Dance Wit’ Me – Rick James
Milkshake (DJ Zinc Radio Edit) – Kelis
Lucky Star – Basement Jaxx & Dizzee Rascal
We Don’t Stop – Michael Franti & Spearhead
Hung Up – Madonna
Electro Jugni – Swami
Bucky Done Gun – M.I.A.
Boyz – M.I.A.
Pon de Replay – Rihanna & Elephant Man
O.P.P. – Ultimix Mix – Naughty By Nature
Callin’ Up the Pieces (BMore Remix) – Party Ben
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life – Indeep
Mercy – Duffy
Rehab – Amy Winehouse
Upside Down – Diana Ross
Shadows – Honeycut
Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It – Will Smith
Livin’ la Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
The Girls – Calvin Harris
SOS – Rihanna
Walkin’ Out Yo Girlfriend (Unk Vs. Avril Lavigne Vs. Toni Basil) – Lobsterdust
You Make My Dreams – Hall & Oates
Don’t Stop Believin’ In Planet Rock (Journey vs. Afrika Bambaataa) – A plus D
All in all it was a simple, uncomplicated, fun FlashDance! Thanks everyone – can’t wait for November’s!
) this one was big, simple, low stress, and just kinda perfect…
. 
(courtesy of May-Li Khoe)