Courtesy of Adele Burnes

This means so much to me I don’t know where to start!

To be appreciated is always nice, to be honored is even better, but to be honored by people you admire, that is simply fantastic.

For those of you who don’t know who The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are, check this great Wikipedia article* – but in the best sense of the words, I’d say they are the clown-priests of San Francisco, steeped in social justice, gay pride, high & low comedy, and irreverent demolition of many of the most troubling aspects of organized religion (like guilt and intolerance.) Add to that the fact that they bring flair, wit, and humor to all they do, and you begin to understand why I hold The Sisters in such high esteem. And now they have deemed me to be part of their world. Wow.

The proclamation says it all:

SAINTHOOD!

Absolutely, Totally, and Universally Administered by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., The Sisters Hereby Forever Proclaim Amandeep Jawa

I now answer to “Your Saintliness”, or “Your Holiness”

-Saint ‘Deep

*Even if you think you know who the Sisters are, the Wikipedia article is a GREAT read. At the very least, check out their mission statement at the end of the “Inception” section & the list of my fellow Saints. I imagine those are the A-list saints (unlike lil ol’ me) – but nonetheless wow again! (Also there is a pic of Sister Viva L’Amour in the “Sisters at Reno Pride” section.

.ps for a few more pics go here…

.pps The Sisters’ website is here…

I’ve been thinking about the future of FlashDance lately…But before I carry on with my thoughts, let me say how much fun the last 3 FDs, (27, 28, & 29) have been – I love you folks! Thank you for always making it worth the effort! And as for what follows, please don’t think it means I don’t appreciate y’all….

It is a mixed time for FlashDances & I’m curious what the future will hold for my beloved little party… As supa-fun as it still is, I’m beginning to wonder if after 5 years, FlashDance’s time might be ending….

On the plus side:

• the last 3 FDs have been FANTASTICALLY FUN!
• FD 27, the 2nd Annual Michael Jackson Memorial FD, was HUGE! (but it is different than a normal FD.)
• FD 28 reopened an area of the City that I feared we’d have to abandon due to a bad run in with the law near there last year…
• I got Sainted at FD 29!!! (More on that here – SO AWESOME!))
• I’m playing the best music mix I’ve ever done at these last 2…

On the minus side:

• Attendance was super sparse at the start of 28 & I almost gave up and went home (though it rallied into a great night.)
• We didn’t manage to have one in August (I was totally swallowed by the work monster) but no one seemed to miss it (usually I get emails.)
• At FD 29, attendance seemed down a good bit for a while, but luckily lots of random passersby joined in and it got big & super fun!

Some may say that I’m over-focused on attendance, but honestly it is about crowd-energy: a dance party full of people feels so much better than a dance party of a few people. And, depending on the size of the outdoor space, even a well-attended FD can feel sparse.  The size problem is often most acute at the start of FD – when I’m most nervous…. but maybe that’s my fault for being late so often… Then again, the FD list is now over 1875 people, so it seems like getting at least 40 people at the start of an FD would be easy.  Obviously, no one is doing anything wrong, if FD isn’t fun enough to sustain a critical mass, maybe it is just time to let it go. We’ve had a ridiculously fun 5 years!

Luckily, we’re not there yet, it is still super fun, It’s just that I’m wondering if maybe people are starting to move on… I guess we’ll see. For now I’m still having a blast, so we’ll keep going….

Which brings us to Halloween!?!?!? Given the drama of last year’s attempt at Take Back Halloween what should I do this year? I’m fairly sure I’ll do a FlashDance but hw, when, & where are all unknowns… Put your thoughts in the comments so everyone can discuss….

FlashDance 28 7/24/10 Playlist:

• Flash – Queen
• You Sexy Thing – Tom Tom Club
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours – Stevie Wonder
• Renegade Master (Fatboy Slim Old Skool Mix) – Wild Child
• Harder, Harder, Harder, Harder! (Daft Punk Vs. Passions) – Electrosound
• Hey Mama – Black Eyed Peas
• You Dropped A Bomb On Me – The Gap Band
• You’re The One I Want In The Next Episode – Grease Vs Dr Dre & Snoop Dog
• We Trying To Stay Alive – Wyclef Jean
• Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) – Janelle Monáe
• Bulletproof – La Roux
• Beauty In the World – Macy Gray
• Superstition (fade) – Stevie Wonder
• Imma Stop Loving Drugs (Ke$ha Vs. Glee Cast Vs. La Roux Vs. Black Eyed Peas Vs. Iglu & Hartly) – Titus Jones
• We Are The Ones – The Coup
• Head – Prince
• P Control – Prince
• Get Ur Freak On (LP Version) – Missy Elliott
• Aaja Nachle – Sunidhi Chauhan
• Show Me Your Jalwa – Richa Sharma, Kailash Kher, Salim Merchant
• Tabba – DJ APS Feat. Mohammed Siddiq & Ranjit Kaur
• Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) – The Jacksons
• Intergalactic – Beastie Boys
• Praise You – Fatboy Slim
• Suffragette City (Illuminoids Remix) (David Bowie Vs. Illuminoids) – The Illuminoids
• A Little Less Conversation (Elvis Vs JXL Radio Edit Remix) – Elvis Vs JXL
• Telephone – Lady GaGa & Beyoncé

FlashDance 29 9/25/10 Playlist:

• Flash – Queen
• You’re The One That I Want In The Next Episode (Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg vs. Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta) – Disfunctional DJ
• M.I.A.’s Lips Ain’t Sealed – DJ not-I
• Telephone – Lady GaGa & Beyoncé
• Don’t Phunk With My Heart – Black Eyed Peas
• Dance To The Music (w/ will.i.am) – Sly & The Family Stone
• Dance Wit’ Me – Rick James
• Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) – Janelle Monáe
• Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson
• Digital Love – Daft Punk
• Gifted (Boombotz Remix) [feat. Kanye West, Santigold, Lykke Li & Maximum Hedrum] – N.A.S.A.
• Touch My Girlfriend (Mariah Carey Vs. Avril Lavigne) – Titus Jones
• Bulletproof – La Roux
• Bad Romance – Lady GaGa
• Om Mangalam – www.Songs.PK
• Jogi – Panjabi MC
• Sajanji Vaari Vaari – Sunidhi Chauhan & Shekhar Ravjiani
• Mo Money Mo Problems – The Notorious B.I.G. Featuring Mase & Puff Daddy
• Freedom 90 – George Michael
• Yo Viviré – Celia Cruz
• Hey Hey Hey – Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Rock With You – Michael Jackson
• Beauty In the World – Macy Gray
• The Cure vs Jay Z – G
• Ghetto Supastar – Pras
• I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
• September – Earth, Wind & Fire
• Dancing Machine – The Jackson 5
• Remember The Time – Michael Jackson
• One Way Or Another – Blondie
• SOS – Rihanna
• Day ‘n’ Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi
• Kissed It (feat. Velvet Revolver) – Macy Gray
• One Nation Under A Groove – Funkadelic
• Like A Prayer – Madonna
• F**k You! – Cee Lo Green
• It’s Not Unusual (Single Version) – Tom Jones
• Late In The Evening – Paul Simon

So another two months, another two good FlashDances. Both of these were a little smaller than I would like to be honest, but I still had plenty of fun. There were extenuating circumstances in each case, but still I can’t help but wonder if people still love ‘em as much as I do… I guess we’ll just see how it goes for the next few…

—

It turns out I had blown a bunch of easily replaced fuses & the next day, Sunday, we were back in business. So we headed back to ferry Plaza on a GORGEOUS Sunday night (three day weekend!) and rocked it out. Again I was hoping for bigger turnout, but given the reschedule & the fact that it had been Carnavale that day, & that many people are out of town, I think the 80 people or so (at the biggest) acquitted themselves quite well. The playlist is below.

Anyway – like I said, we’ll see how FD 27 goes. That one will be the Michael Jackson Memorial FlashDance in late June – it will be interesting to see what that is like – one year out from the best FlashDance ever! Check the videos of last year’s mega-awesome after the jump…

Here is the playlist for FlashDance 25 (4/10/2010) at the 24th St BART Station.

1. Flash – Queen
2. Yo Viviré – Celia Cruz
3. Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
4. O.P.P. – Ultimix Mix – Naughty By Nature
5. Mo Money Mo Problems – The Notorious B.I.G. Featuring Mase & Puff Daddy
6. You’re The One I Want In The Next Episode – Grease Vs Dr Dre & Snoop Dog
7. Bang Bang (feat. Adam Levine) – K’naan
8. Track 12 –
9. Late In The Evening – Paul Simon
10. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) – The Jacksons
11. I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
12. Don’t Stop the Music – Rihanna
13. Yo Viviré – Celia Cruz
14. Track 12 –
15. Telephone – Lady GaGa & Beyoncé
16. The Real Funk (Original Mix) – Infekto [Money Shot]
17. (Keep Feeling) Fascination – The Human League
18. Touch My Girlfriend (Mariah Carey Vs. Avril Lavigne) – Titus Jones
19. Superstition (fade) – Stevie Wonder
20. Let’s Go Dancin’ (Ooh La, La, La) – Kool & The Gang
21. Hombre is in the groove (Deelite vs M.I.A.) – DJ Prince mashup
22. Track 15 –
23. I Want You Back – The Jackson 5
24. The Love You Save – The Jackson 5
25. Om Mangalam – www.Songs.PK
26. Hot Hot Hot – Bend It Like Beckham
27. M.I.A.’s Lips Ain’t Sealed – DJ not-I
28. Late In The Evening – Paul Simon
29. Livin’ la Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
30. Track 08 –

Here is the playlist for FlashDance 26 (5/30/2010) at Ferry Plaza:
(Note: We started with “Bohemian Rhapsody” rather than the traditional “Flash” for my late great friend, Bob Seymour…)

1. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
2. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – Michael Jackson
3. Hung Up – Madonna
4. Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) – Janelle Monáe
5. Another One Bites Da Funk – Party Ben
6. Freedom 90 – George Michael
7. Mo Money Mo Problems – The Notorious B.I.G. Featuring Mase & Puff Daddy
8. Bachna Ae Haseeno Revisited – Vishal-Shekhar, Sumeet Kumar, Vishal Dadlani & Kishore Kumar
9. Telephone – Lady GaGa & Beyoncé
10. Hombre is in the groove (Deelite vs M.I.A.) – DJ Prince mashup
11. Hot Hot Hot – Bend It Like Beckham
12. Yo Viviré – Celia Cruz
13. I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) – Hall & Oates
14. Flash Light – Parliament
15. Believe In Sexual Eruption (Snoop Dogg Vs. Cher) – A Plus D
16. Bulletproof – La Roux
17. Boyz – M.I.A.
18. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson
19. Baby I’m A Star – Prince
20. Mundeya De Dil Hil Gaye – Kais Feat. D.S.I.
21. Sajanji Vaari Vaari – Sunidhi Chauhan & Shekhar Ravjiani
22. Break It Down Again – Tears For Fears
23. You’re The One I Want In The Next Episode – Grease Vs Dr Dre & Snoop Dog
24. Tightrope (feat. Big Boi) – Janelle Monáe
25. Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) – MIKA
26. Bizarre Love Triangle – New Order
27. Lovely One – The Jacksons
28. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

Ed. Note:

1. Ok, it has taken me a month to get around to posting about my Halloween party. LAME. Sorry! I hope some of you (any of you?) are still interested.
2. If you are just looking for pix of this year’s Halloween costume, check out the previous post … Rowrrrrr! (click here)
3. Finally, if you wanna skip my blather & see all the pics of the festivities (rather than the select few I’ve used here), I HIGHLY recommend Kevin Kranzky’s pix (& video!) here, and Steve Rhodes pix here – BIG THANKS GUYS!
4. 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!

Courtesy of Steve Rhodes

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…

October 22: I talked to D. Miles, wrote up an invite & sent it out to all my peeps, especially my FlashDance peeps. The idea was simple: the party would be like one of my FlashDances, but with more DJs and soundsystems than just mine! It would be like the Castro, but away from neighbors to annoy, and with a strong ethos of “costumes” and “fun” rather than “drunk” and “gawker”.

Later that day: I began trying to work various back-channels at City Hall to gauge their position and chance of shutting us down preemptively.

Days later: My invite had spread to the local blogs: the SFist, then SF Bay Guardian’s blog & then SFStation. The Facebook invite was steadily gaining attendees. I began to hear numerous rumors that City Hall was aware of what I was doing & was planning on looking the other way as long as nothing destructive was happening & no traffic was being blocked…. I began to stop worrying about a shut down & started worrying about many other things

Friday, October 30th: Trikeasaurus breaks an arm during Critical Mass. The sound system was OK, but my ability to transport my sound system easily was compromised. Dag. Unbeknownst to me this was the beginning of many small tragedies that made for a tough weekend. At least my Halloween costume was finished. (I give it a B-.)

Saturday, October 31st: The numbers on my Facebook invite came in at around 550. I noticed that a great deal of them were kids from high school – which was great, but would they appreciate my kind of dance music? That became my primary worry. (I don’t have any Jonas Brothers!) I also worried about the possibility of getting shut down, but not nearly so much. Would enough people show for it to be fun (at least 100). Would too many people show up who were more drunken-mob than fun & cool? There was PLENTY to worry about.

That night I packed up my gear and costume (Thanks Bob & Palak!) – made all the more difficult by the broken Trikeasaurus – & headed out to Justin Herman Plaza, nervous as hell.

I arrived to find somewhere around 500 (!) people already there and rarin’ to go! Yipes! We were ON!!!

I immediately started setting up my equipment.

Within seconds 3 cops showed up and shut me down.

We were OFF!!!

The cops made it very clear that since I had no permit, if I turned on my sound system it would be confiscated. I was stunned. They were nice about it, but completely unyielding. Ugh. SO. DEPRESSING. I was really upset.

I think my contacts at City Hall did reflect City Hall’s intent, but I wasn’t dealing with City Hall, I was dealing with SFPD. And they were having none of it.

Anyway, I had planned slightly for this contingency (thanks Dan!), but was sure that whatever we did, the cops would just show up and shut us down again. So disappointing. It took me about 10 minutes to clear out my head and decide what to do: Yes, I was certain if we moved to a new location the cops would shut us down AGAIN. Which would mean just jerking everyone’s chain a second time. But on the other hand, I felt like I owed it to everyone who showed up to TRY didn’t I?

So, I sent out a message via SMS as to the new locale and biked off (in the opposite direction I needed to go). Minutes later I doubled back & arrived at the new location to find a news van already there (not good, they’d just attract cops) but we went for it (a bit aways from the van)… and started setting up shop & hoping people would show.

Within about 30 minutes, we had around 250 people The new location was gorgeous (what a view!) and the people were, as usual, fantastic. D. Miles made it over with his lighting rig and sound system and we had a great FlashDance! Another DJ (go Blayze!) showed up and set up a second dance party near mine & D’s. And this time, the cops never bothered us.

Many, MANY, many things went wrong that night** – but wow what a great time. Numerous people have told me that it was the best Halloween Party they’d been too and the best FlashDance I really really want to thank everyone who showed to both parts of the evening, and give a special thanks to those who signed up for the SMS list & showed up at the backup location – you people rock! Thank you for making a GREAT night for everyone! And my apologize for the copsmack to all of you who just made it to the first location & not the second….

Now we just have to fix it for next year! No Copsmack in 2010! Here is Steve Jones’s (my favorite crusading local journalist!) take on the SFPD’s Halloween-stomping in the Guardian…

‘deep

* David is the center of the roller disco folks in Golden Gate Park, and the man behind Black Rock Roller Disco at Burning Man. He has been throwing street parties for skaters for 30 years here in SF – D. is legendary.

** After our second set up, I was plagued by sound system problems perhaps due to moisture (that’s my best guess?) – I’m really sorry for all the frustration the intermittent sound caused! And super thankful D.’s sounds system was there to take up the slack. Additionally, a forgotten-at-home hard drive meant I had to DJ from an iPod which is a good bit more difficult and a lot less fun. These and a lot of other small scale snafus really made the evening a struggle

(photo courtesy Mike Bolger – check out his blog & pix here)

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!)

I can’t wait for next FD!

click this link for the playlist:

• Flash – Queen
• boom boom pow in miami bitch (black eyed peas vs lmfao) – jimmylin mashups
• Excellent – Blackalicious
• Knobbers – Crookers
• Day ‘n’ Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi
• The Love You Save – The Jackson 5
• Upside Down – Diana Ross
• Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) – Beyoncé
• The Humpty Dance – Digital Underground
• Let There Be Love / Beethoven Lockdown (Kanye vs. Justice vs. Soulwax vs. Walter Murphy) – Party Ben
• N.A.S.A. Music (LA Riots Remix) – N.A.S.A.
• Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson
• Bad – Michael Jackson
• Breakin’ Dishes – Rihanna
• Mundeya De Dil Hil Gaye – Kais Feat. D.S.I.
• Desi Rock – SWAMI
• Om Mangalam – Various
• Bachna Ae Haseeno Revisited – Vishal-Shekhar, Sumeet Kumar, Vishal Dadlani & Kishore Kumar
• Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
• Shake Senora – Harry Belafonte
• Poker Face – Lady GaGa
• Le Disko (Radio Edit) – Shiny Toy Guns
• I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
• Out Of Control – Bombay Rockers
• Boyz – M.I.A.
• Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) – The Jacksons
• September – Earth, Wind & Fire
• Lovely One – The Jacksons
• Rock Your Body – Justin Timberlake
• American Boy (feat. Kanye West) – Estelle
• It’s Not Unusual (Single Version) – Tom Jones
• Round And Round – Tevin Campbell & Prince
• Dhoom taana – Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone & Shreyas Talpade
• Hathi Mere Sathi – Mykel Angel
• You Make My Dreams – Hall & Oates
• Cecilia – Simon & Garfunkel
• Faith – George Michael
• Mountains – Prince

(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):

Click below for the full story behind the video…

Thursday: The surprise and tragedy of Michael Jackson’s death (and his tragic life) gave us the BEST FlashDance we’ve ever thrown, and that is saying something. More here. The bad news was that the Trikeasaurus sound system died, and three days before I was supposed to be in the big Pride parade.

Friday: I saw David Byrne in concert from 15 ft away. It wasn’t even the best DB show I’ve seen and it was still fantastic. Also, I resurrected the Trike sound system at great expense, realizing that the joy/$ ratio was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, dealing with the Trike and getting to DB precluded me making it to Critical Mass which would have been even more mega-fun.

Saturday:
- I made my sign for Trike for Pride (thanks for the inspiration, Chandra!). Here it is in the important constructed-but-tragicically-upside-down phase:

Given how many people took pix of JUST the sign I’d say it was a big hit. It also got cited in the SF Chronicle’s coverage of Sunday’s pride parade Though unsurprisingly, they got their facts slightly wrong (unless it was a T-shirt too – look at the paragraph under “T-shirt weather.”)

- I went to see the Dyke March & play music for the marchers. I had figured that it wasn’t my place to be in the march and I should just hang on the outside and play music for the lesbians, but they loved the MJ and the Trike (& the sign) and I got sucked into the March as well. The tail end of the March became “Mobile MJ Dance Party with the Happy Lesbians”. SIMPLY AWESOME.

Sunday:

- At 12:30am, I led a procession one of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence had asked me to help with. What followed was 100 people marching down Market to Union Square for a “Joy Blessing” service. That ended at 2am.

- Got home at 4am & went to bed at 4:30. 4 hours sleep = not OK.

- Got up at 8:30 am, shoveled some peanut butter into my mouth, and saddled up the Trike. I had been invited to ride in the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s parade contingent “Byke Pride” and was super excited. Again SUPER AWESOME. Riding with my friends in front of thousands of cheering Bay Area folks was just so great. I played a little non-Michael stuff, but the crowd clearly wanted the MJ, so I obliged.

One particularly great moment for me was my little mini tribute to MJ, mid procession: During a pause in the parade, as we were halfway through the route, I played “Man In The Mirror” on the Trike, but stepped away from it so it was alone, with bikes gliding around it. It was kind of a “missing man” tribute. I don’t know if anyone got it, but it was a beautiful moment for me at least.

- After riding the parade twice (once again with our City Assessor (& friend) Phil Ting), I was out of gas (only four hours of sleep). I went home, plugged in the Trike and hit the bed for a 1.5 hour disco nap.

- At 2:30pm, Trike and I both recharged, I got up and zoomed back out to the post-parade festivities. I spent the day from their roaming around town booming the MJ tunes alongside Dan Nguyen-Tan’s 7-seater bike. We had our sound systems in sync playing the same music and brought the joy all over the city**. As always, Dan and his crew bring the fun in a similar but different style & we always have big fun together.

- At around 5:30pm, we then brought the music bikes into the post-parade party area at the Civic Center and rocked it out with a few more dance parties. Lots of random zany goodness. To wit, the lovely Alida Brandenburg & Jenny Yoshizawa showed up.

- 7pm after finally leaving the party, I finished it all off by a lovely dinner with Dan’s crew.

Tada.

So that was it. Simply fantastic. And I’m done. I have no energy for any more fun at the moment My Michael Jackson playlist is also done for the moment But I am still surprised and saddened that he is gone. Even now, the line near the end of “Man in The Mirror” – “You better get it right while you got the time” brings tears to my eyes and sounds like a call to action for all my failings and shortcomings as I get older. Did you get there, MJ?

But with the sadness, comes a clarity about my life and what I try to do. After watching crowds and crowds of people erupt into joy as I boomed Michael Jackson (& other assorted Jacksons/Jackson 5 songs), and dancing with so many people that were having a purely fantastic time to his music. It is clear that Michael channeled the joy into peoples lives, no matter his shortcomings (& they were perhaps vast). And Gay Pride is about JOY too, from the Sister’s “Joy Blessing”, to the parade’s celebration of liberation, to the dance parties with the happy lesbians, or watching Dan’s crew inviting strangers onto their group bike & “making their weekend”, to just watching Alida & Jenny getting their awesome on, I realize it is all about joy and channelling joy into the people around you. I’m pretty good at it in a small way, too. That makes me happy. I’m no MJ, and neither are you, but whatever you do to make people’s lives around you joyful, that is what it is all about. Get to it!

And again, thanks Mike, for all of it.

* Perhaps the first few days of some of my relationships, but those memories are colored by so much…. Maybe my safari in Africa back in 1996?

** Except for the one totally a@#*) cop who gave me a ticket. And note, giving me a ticket doesn’t make him a loser, but being mean about it and giving me attitude does. Grrrrrrr. I really *hate* dealing with Trikeasaurus tickets and the expense. Booooooo

Update: 6/24/10: Fixed typo: Africa safari was “1996″, not “2009″

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:

Around 3pm I heard the news. As disbelief broke, I found myself quitely crying (surprised myself) in my office. Friends started txting and pinging me on Facebook, knowing how much I’ve always loved Michael. Soon thereafter, first one, then more and more, started suggesting (& some demanding – I <3 you Alida! ) a memorial FlashDance...

It took me a while to get there. Mostly because I was just so sad. Would I or anyone feel like dancing? But the answer came in my thoughts on other people's Facebook posts trying to put MJ's sad tale into perspective & reconcile their sadness with the sordid details and innuendoes of his life. As I said on Facebook, "I know he had his problems, perhaps vast - but no one in the world brought the joy like Michael Jackson." It was always about the joy. No one brought the JOY, like Michael. And the one relatively small way I bring the joy is my Trike and my FlashDances. The way forward was clear.

So we were on. I sent out an email to my FD list, which was soon picked up by some blogs and SFStation (a local events site) & then SFWeekly's page. It was getting noticed fast. Other people had similar plans and I tried to coordinate...

At 7:15pm, I made it to the park where 2 news vans and maybe 10 bicyclists waited. We took it to the streets to cheering and dancing and lots and lots of smiles. Pretty soon, we were 20 or 30 bikes - this was on.

After a good hour of roaming San Francisco we rolled into the Embarcadero (UPDATE: video of the ride below!) - expecting there to already be a big crowd - but there wasn't. Some groups had evidently planned for something at 6:30 but I heard later that they didn't pan out. We rolled in and set up. What started at 20 people at 8:30 was maybe 100 by 9 and very quickly 200 soon thereafter.

It was epic. 3/12 hours (I brought 2 laptops) all Michael, The Jacksons, and The Jackson 5. We started with a moment of silence. We danced and danced. Even though we lost a speaker, and thus had only one working, it was non-stop for 3 and a half hours. There were news vans and reporters. There were visitors from outside the US and homeless folks. We had sing-a-longs & at least one brilliant Thriller dance. The vibe was more beautiful than any other FD - which is saying something... I think it was the best FlashDance ever.

It also was the kick off for an amazing four days. One more gift of joy from the man who has given so much of us the most. More on that soon.

'deep

.ps

***UPDATE 1/16/2010: Here is my favorite video YET of the evening & a GREAT video from the ride - thanks Patrick & Boris!

The ride:

******

I’ll update this with some more video as soon as people send it to me, but here is the best news footage I found, from KPIX. It is long, but if nothing else, check the 6:30 & 8:40 marks in the link below:
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=51897%40kpix.dayport.com

Here is some more of those amazing dancers… (and where I got my snippet from)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of7_2wF8DEI

Here is my “Best of Michael Jackson & The Jacksons” playlist – which was the basis of all the dancing this weekend:

• Just A Little Bit Of You – Michael Jackson
• Off The Wall – Michael Jackson
• Working Day And Night – Michael Jackson
• You Are Not Alone – Michael Jackson
• Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ – Michael Jackson
• Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson
• Beat It – Michael Jackson
• Man In The Mirror – Michael Jackson
• Bad – Michael Jackson
• Rock With You – Michael Jackson
• Black Or White – Michael Jackson
• The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson
• Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
• P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – Michael Jackson
• Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson
• Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Live from the 1981 U.S. Tour) – The Jacksons
• Walk Right Now – The Jacksons
• Can You Feel It – The Jacksons
• Lovely One – The Jacksons
• Blame It On the Boogie – The Jacksons
• Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) – The Jacksons
• Sugar Daddy – The Jackson 5
• Mama’s Pearl – The Jackson 5
• ABC – The Jackson 5
• I Want You Back – The Jackson 5
• Love Is The Thing You Need – The Jackson 5
• Body Language (Do The Love Dance) – The Jackson 5
• Get It Together – The Jackson 5
• Little Bitty Pretty One – The Jackson 5
• (Come ‘Round Here) I’m The One You Need – The Jackson 5
• The Love You Save – The Jackson 5
• Stand! – The Jackson 5
• You’ve Changed – The Jackson 5
• I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix) – The Jackson 5

Also “Thriller” and “I’ll Be There” were in the mix…. especially “Thriller”….

UPDATED:
Looks like we got covered on NBC’s today show. Here is a snip from a longer segment (we’re around 0:28):

Here is the link to the full story.

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
• Bachna Ae Haseeno Revisited – Vishal-Shekhar, Sumeet Kumar, Vishal Dadlani & Kishore Kumar
• Be Easy (Koi Naa) – Nivla Feat. P. Oberoi
• Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) – Beyoncé
• Stayin’ Alive – Bee Gees
• American Boy (feat. Kanye West) – Estelle
• Day ‘n’ Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi
• N.A.S.A. Music (LA Riots Remix) – N.A.S.A.
• Lady Marmalade – Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya & P!nk
• Boyz – M.I.A.
• The Seed (2.0) – The Roots & Cody Chestnutt
• I Like To Move It (Racoon Remix) – Sacha Ben Cohen
• SOS – Rihanna
• Can You Feel It – The Jacksons
• Don’t Stop Believin’ In Planet Rock (Journey vs. Afrika Bambaataa) – A plus D
• Upside Down – Diana Ross
• Sexual Healing – Max-A-Million
• Rock With You – Michael Jackson

 

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).

I decided to bring Trikeasaurus….

But I didn’t ride down much…. I was just there to watch and do my small bit to enhance the awesomeness that others had really created. So I perched up at the starting line and played a lot of amped up rock & power pop appropriate for such an aggro-fun race (“Sweet Child of Mine”, “Song 2″ by Blur, etc). The crowd and organizers were really into it At the end I did take Trikeasaurus down the race course with the big wheels – big fun (though dragging it back up was a beeeatch)

(Search YouTube for “Big Wheel San Francisco 2009″ for MANY more)

After BYOBW, some friends and I rolled to Dolores Park where we had an awesome impromptu FlashDance (call it FlashDance 20.5) at sunset – it was glorious!

Here are some o’ the tracks I played:

• Billie Jean vs Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (Michael Jackson vs Indeep) – UPDATES SPIN
• Harder, Harder, Harder, Harder! (Daft Punk Vs. Passions) – Electrosound
• Stronger (Clean) – Kanye West
• Just Dance – Lady GaGa & Colby O’Donis
• Kids – MGMT
• Hung Up – Madonna
• Paper Planes (LAZR Tag Remix) – M.I.A.
• N.A.S.A. Music (LA Riots Remix) – N.A.S.A.
• That Dude – The High Decibels
• Dec. 4th, Oh What A Night – Jay-Z vs. Frankie Vallie & the Four Seasons
• We Don’t Stop – Michael Franti & Spearhead
• Music – Madonna
• Electro Jugni – Swami
• Desi Rock – SWAMI

(click the image to see all the pix)

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….

(click the image to see all the pix)

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!

Here is the Playlist:

• Flash – Queen
• M.I.A.’s Lips Ain’t Sealed – DJ not-I
• Pon de Replay – Rihanna & Elephant Man
• Lose My Breath – Destiny’s Child
• When I See You – Macy Gray
• Respect – Aretha Franklin
• Play Your Part (Pt. 2) – Girl Talk
• SOS – Rihanna
• Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
• Bucky Done Gun – M.I.A.
• Supafunkadholic (Esjay’s Red Light Remix) – Delhi 2 Dublin
• Paper Planes (LAZR Tag Remix) – M.I.A.
• Baba O’Riley (The Illuminoids Remix) – The Who
• N.A.S.A. Music (LA Riots Remix) – N.A.S.A.
• I Like To Move It (Racoon Remix) – Sacha Ben Cohen
• Car Wash – Rose Royce
• Can You Feel It – The Jacksons
• Lovely One – The Jacksons
• Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) – Beyoncé
• SOS – Rihanna
• (Keep Feeling) Fascination – The Human League
• Bachna Ae Haseeno Revisited – Vishal-Shekhar, Sumeet Kumar, Vishal Dadlani & Kishore Kumar
• Dil Le Gayee – Jassi
• Come On – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
• Just Dance – Lady GaGa & Colby O’Donis
• Hombre is in the groove (Deelite vs M.I.A.) – DJ Prince mashup
• Do That There (The Young Einstein Hoo-Hoo Mix) – Lyrics Born
• Doo Wop (That Thing) – Lauryn Hill
• Let’s Go Dancin’ (Ooh La, La, La) – Kool & The Gang
• Boyz – M.I.A.
• Paper Planes – M.I.A.
• Erotic City – Prince
• I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ – Scissor Sisters
• Always On My Mind – Pet Shop Boys
• I Want You Back – Jackson 5