A few weeks ago, the answer dawned on me:

Project Rickshaw!

Step 1: Find an awesome cute girl
(ahem)
Step 1: Find a rickshaw!

I checked Craigslist up and down the West Coast (& a few East Coast cities) and then eBay, and then Googled everything I could think of. Most of the links were about modern pedicabs and the like – but a few were gold, especially after I realized I needed to filter my search to classic Asian ones.* After much Googling I came up with a few different types like these…

Step 2: Find one actually for sale.
Many of the posts were for ones that were once on sale and had been sold or were otherwise unavailable. Luckily one of my first hits was a guy (Hi Jason!**) down in Orange County who happened to have a genuine ROMP (Rickshaw of My People)….it was gorgeous but was sadly missing it’s canopy. He had bought it off someone a few years earlier who had brought a few back with him from India & had no need of it. I really liked it, esp. the hand painting (see the photo below) , but I was really bummed about the canopy. I kept looking, but in the end decided the price was right, the seller was helpful & really it was just a beautiful machine – so it was on.

Step 3: I borrowed something big enough to fit a rickshaw in it (it turns out a rickshaw will just fit perfectly in a small SUV(!)), woke up crazy early last Sunday and drove down to Orange County. In a brutal day of driving I returned around midnight with a large disassembled rickshaw! (thanks for the loan Sean!)

Step 4: I put it back together, took it to a nearby bike shop, let them do some fixes on it & took it for a test ride. Up until that point, I had never ridden it – it’s chain was broken when I bought it – so there was no test ride. Thus, I was really excited to try it out.

Hmmmm. Not what I hoped.

It was crazy heavy, and really uncomfortable to ride. The seat was like a brick, the handlebars way too low, and the fixed-rod breaking system left me skeptical. But more than anything else – it was just heavy heavy HEAVY. I have strong legs, and bike constantly, but this really had me intimidated – would it be any fun?

I took it back to the bike shop, where we put on a new seat, and raised the handlebars as high as we could (only a little more) and did some other minor tweaks that rendered it a lot more comfortable, but there wasn’t much else to be done & I took it home. The only thing to do was to try it out for real as soon as possible.

I think this says “May your journey be blessed/auspicious”. (Thanks Srikar!)

Step 5: So yesterday was the day: the shakedown cruise. I decided to surprise Kimberly (the alpha-cuteness in my life) by picking her up on a cross town grocery shopping trip (she’s a fan of the Chinese shops on Clement).

And how was it? Well the bad news is that it was still crazy-super heavy, but the good news is that it was nonetheless SOOO MUCH FUN. The ride there by myself was slow (45 minutes) but fun, and the ride back with Kimberly and a bunch of groceries was even better. Kimberly got out and pushed once and decided to give me a ride for a block or so and we had to walk it up a hill – but wow – what fun! People all over town got excited or amused seeing us (We posed for lots of pictures). The passenger seat was comfortable and easy to sit on(another concern I had) & there was plenty of room for groceries It was just a great time, leisurely trundling around town on a gorgeous spring day.

The hardest part was biking up my street on the way home. By that time I was plenty tired & the slope up Valencia St. to my house (& on to Kimberly’s 4 blocks later) is long and steady. It was a big problem and no fun. But at least the rest of the day was fantastic.

CONCLUSION:
In the end, I LOVE MY RICKSHAW. It is seriously FUN! That being said, I’ve decided that as much as I love that it is a fully authentic Indian rickshaw, I’d rather have a somewhat less authentic Indian rickshaw that I’d use more often. The part I’m most excited about is the gorgeous passenger seat assembly with the hand-painted peacocks, lions, and Hindi script (see possible translation above). So I think I’m going to try to get a lighter frame bike for the front half, and have someone build me a lighter back assembly to put the original passenger seat on. I think that will be perfect & even more fun. Also hopefully they can build me a canopy We’ll see! So, stay tuned for the continuation of Project Rickshaw! (and if you know of any bike frame whizzes let me know!)

‘deep

.ps
And fear not Trikeasaurus fans! Trikeasaurus 2.0 is almost here!

Here are more pix from the shakedown cruise:

Thanks Fawn!

These next few shots are from Brian Kusler’s always-fun Flickr stream. There are a few more cute shots there! Thanks BK!

*This also fits in well with my new found appreciation and curiosity about the ancestral homeland, India. But I also have to say, I REALLY want one of these Taiwanese ones, bad!

Here are some more pics of these awesome Taiwanese ones… I found a tiny children’s version (so cool!( but it is way too small for actual use….))

If you ever come across one please let me know.

Also this cool Chinese one is on sale on eBay & I can’t help but to keep thinking about it

** BTW: Jason seems to have another one that he’ll probably be selling soon if anyone is interested.

(photo courtesy of KayVee.INC on Flickr)

Being a simple recreational trike, she was never really physically capable of the hard riding being Trikeasaurus required, but damn if she didn’t make a good try. Bent seat posts, broken fenders, and now finally, a cracked rear axle have taken a toll.

The cracks* in the axle have more to do with my new speaker-mount rig (super awesomely heavy duty, but alas too heavy) than the trike itself, but it just reinforced the fact that this light duty recreational trike was never designed for the kind of wear and tear I put it through…..

Fear not, Trike-fans! I’ve ordered a new Worksman industrial grade tricycle** to become Trikeasaurus 2.0. Trike 1.0 – we’ll miss ya!

*I’m planning on trying to get the cracks in the axle welded so it can be given/donated/sold to someone as it is still a useful light duty tricycle….

**I’m getting a “Mover“

You know that feeling you get on New Year’s Eve? Since there are soooo many fabulous parties and options and groups of friends doing various things, it’s hard to figure out what to do! And then you second guess yourself all night: “Am I at the right party – is this going to be the most fun I could be having right now?”

Maybe you’re lucky and don’t suffer from that – but I totally do. Or did.

These last two years, I haven’t had that feeling at all! I’ve finally figured it out! I was right where I wanted to be & had a fantastic NYE. Since I’m a little slow, I actually had to be convinced both times – but both times it turned out to be perfect. And this New Year’s was even more fun than last!

Last year, my friend Dan & I put together our first “New Year’s Eve Bike + Music Ride” with our music bikes & a good number of our friends. Frankly it was a ridiculously good time. So you’d think we would just do it again this year and repeat our supa-fun time.

But somehow, we just couldn’t commit to it. Neither of us were super excited. Neither of us were quite motivated. We had this vague sense that it should/could/probably would happen – but that is not quite enough activation energy to get our selves into gear…

Luckily, our friends insisted. By the night before New Year’s we had agreed. By a few hours before our ride, we were getting seriously excited. About 30 seconds into our ride I realized “Whoah – there is NOTHING I’d rather be doing right now” and it only got better as the night went on.

This year our ride was bigger, but also it was a warmer night and tons of people were out on the street and cheering when we came by (sorry I don’t have more video of that). The cops were tolerant, the streets were full of happy people, we picked up new folks along the way, and entertained MUNI drivers, revelers, skateboarders, and the general public – it was BIG fun. We started at around 8 and biked til 2am!

I can tell you right now what I’ll be doing next New Year’s Eve as long as I’m physically able! You guys should come too! SUPA-FUN! I guarantee it.

(And if you want more video – I posted Dan’s excellent video after the jump – note that some of the footage is the same, but some is different)

.ps
And yes, just like last year I got up super early the next day and made it out to Breakfast of Champions with the Space Cowboys & danced out the morning til I collapsed. I LIKE MY NEW YEAR’S TRADITION!

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

So my long tradition of ridiculously ambitious Halloween costumes continued this year with my second attempt at a dinosaur (to see more, click here for a quick summary or here for all the pics). I did pretty well – I give it a B-.

(click the picture to see all the pix)

The genesis of this year’s dino, other than my general fascination with the beasties, was the last dino costume, the Deepasaurus (from Halloween 2006). While parts of it worked well (the head!), the totality of the costume left a LOT to be desired. As my friend Peat generously put it at the time “It’s a good 1.0″ Ironically, just as I was finishing that costume, I realized how to make it much better, and with MUCH less effort!

So now, 3 years later – I tried it.

(click the picture to see all the pix)

What I ended up creating, while much better than Dino 1.0, was a far cry from what I wanted (I made some mistakes!), but still I can’t really complain. It looked great in the end! My costumes are always an iterative process anyway… and I’m pretty happy with Dino 2.0 – The Glamosaur!

Read on if you want to know how I did it…

Before I go any further though, I should also give a shout out to my co-conspirator Catherine Tullner! I usually do these things solo, but as Cath is the best costume maven I know, I couldn’t resist having her help me out & she was HUGE help! Here’s her Halloween costume – fantastic!

[Ed. Note: before reading further, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND opening this link (to the Making of pix) in a separate window so you can follow along with the pix as you read what follows.]

So the key to my idea of a dinosaur costume is making the bulk of the beast. The last time I tried that by stacking foam – which turned out to be a bad idea One of the biggest points of failure of this “stacked” method was the tail. I made a tail that way for the last dino & days before I was done I realized that it was horribly problematic & essentially my dino had no tail! I scrambled and came up with another tail idea involving a foam “noodle”, like the ones kids use for swimming (at the local hardware store, the sell hollow ones to wrap pipes). I basically just wrapped carpet foam around one of these noodles & voila, I had a tail….

Immediately, I realized that that technique was MUCH better than how I created my costume at the time – so I filed it away for the next attempt. Which was this year.

So I took some noodles and made a basic skeleton (just some ribs attached to a spine) & then wrapped carpet foam around it.

This is where the first problem arose: how to close the carpet foam around the skeleton. Sewing would rip the foam & duct tape doesn’t stick to it. I considered gluing it together, but would I be able to find a glue that didn’t just get absorbed into the notoriously absorbent foam?

As I was thinking about this, I was also getting increasingly worried about the second major problem I knew of – which was coloring the body after I made it. Trying to paint the last dinosaur was a HUGE pain because of the aforementioned foam absorbency. I ended up using latex house paint last time to put a paintable base coat on it, which worked but was super heavy and a ginormous pain.

Eventually, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Both problems would be solved if I just wrapped the whole foam beast in duct tape. A. lot. of. Duct. Tape. Despite various misgivings about this plan, time was running short & so I decided to go for it. In hind sight, I wish I had tried the glue, or come up with something better.

So thus began the process of duct taping the hell out of the body. This mostly worked well and made for a pretty sturdy costume. But again, like last dino, the tail was a big problem. The first problem was that in taping it we had weird bunches around it that required more tape and more cutting of the foam & it ended up being less bunched, but also not looking right until I added more foam layers – which turned out to be fragile (the costume is currently ripping on these extra layers.

The biggest mistake, though, was in the body geometry. I should note that the dino geek in me wants to make it clear that this mistake resulted in the body having a biologically more accurate design, but was not what I wanted / needed

When we were taping up the body, we taped the tail going straight along the spine – which is anatomically accurate – it is how modern science realizes that dinos must have been shaped. But it is a horrible geometry for a human costume. I needed a geometry more like how we thought dinos looked when I was young: with the tail dragging behind, rather than waving in the air as a counter balance. Fundamentally I needed the “Man in A Godzilla Suit” look, not the “Jurassic Park Velociraptor” look. To wit:

(from “Dinosaur Odyssey” by Scott Sampson)

So the good news is that I made the tail anatomically correct! Straight along the spine. The bad news was that I was a guy in dino suit dammit! I needed the old-school tail drag geometry! You have no idea how much anguish this caused for me But there was no time to fix this…. so we moved on…

After duct-tape-a-palooza, I then made the head by folding a square of thick foam around a balloon & then taping it into the shape I wanted. Then, I made a lower jaw out of another piece of thick foam & then more taping to shape it right.

I then made gloves and feet out of more foam & in the case of the feet I taped the foam around some cheap bedroom slippers I bought. These feet and gloves were MUCH better than dino 1.0’s.

That left me with a giant duct-tape-asaurus. Amusing enough – but without that essential ‘Deepness! But really, ‘Deepness is just a few bottles of glitter away!

That brought me to the next mistake, albeit not a huge deal – I started applying the glitter with Elmer’s glue – which is fine but not great for a flexible surface. Spray mount was a much better choice and I did a lot of it with spray mount. Finally, after the glitter dried, I painted the whole thing with a coat of water based polyurethane so that I wouldn’t flake off all the glitter everywhere As it is, a week later, there is still a bit of glitter sprinkled along the hallway at work

I also added some green tights for the workday & some green sparkly pants for Halloween itself. Oh and I put LED blinky lights (from my bike) inside the yellow ping pong balls that I used for eyes. I wish there were pictures of these touches, but oh well. [Update 12/1: This video at the 30 second mark shows the eyes pretty well - Thanks Kevin!]

And lo – Glamosaurus was born.

.ps

The irony of all this is that just like last time, as I was finishing the costume, I came up with a way to make it much better, faster and cheaper. If I had a few more days, I probably would have tried it So this means there will be a Dino 3.0 in a few years…..

I could go on and on explaining that love, but suffice to say there was a point when the young ‘Deep, circa 5 or 6 years old, decided to seek a better parenting opportunity* by running away from home. To begin my new life on my own, I carefully chose the three things I’d take with me: a blanket, a spoon, and a jar of JIF Extra Crunchy: I have always been serious about my peanut butter. It is a conscious effort not to eat peanut butter every day of the week**.

So about a year & a half ago, I came across this blog post by someone who loves peanut butter even more than I do (shocking! & perhaps a bit scary, actually) & ever since I have been looking for this “Parkers Farm” Peanut Butter of which he speaks. It had been a long and fruitless search and I had all but forgotten, until one day on Facebook, one of my friends mentioned her favorite snack*** & happened to include the brand of the peanut butter involved! I realized that she knew where to find it! Woot!

After getting the scoop, I immediately went and bought some. And……. lo! I had been delivered from darkness! It is truly the best peanut butter I have ever had. Whether you like all natural or not, whether you like creamy or not, whether you like sweetened or not, it doesn’t matter. This is IT:

• in San Francisco, it can be found at Whole Foods South of Market. [UPDATE 11/23/09: I have been informed that it is also at Whole Foods in Noe Valley & Delessio's Market near the PanHandle.] All Whole Foods don’t carry it, but here is a link to the Parkers Farm company & I think they have a link to some of the distributors.
• It is kept in the refrigerated case (like where they keep cottage cheese and butter.)

If you like mainstream peanut butter (as I do), you’ll find the honeyed ones are where it is at!
If you like natural peanut butter, I still think you’ll like the sweeter honeyed ones, but by all means go for the “Plain” if need be. I prefer the “Honey Crunchy”, but the “Plain” is also great & a significantly different excellent experience from the honeyed ones. The “Honey Creamy” is practically as good as the “Honey Crunchy.” There is a “Plain Crunchy”, but they don’t seem to carry it at my Whole Foods.

The second amazing thing about this peanut butter, after the taste, is that it’s ALL NATURAL – and the ingredients are ONLY: peanuts & salt or peanuts, honey & salt (in the honeyed case). WOW.

The third amazing thing is that unlike all other natural peanut butters I’ve tried, the oil doesn’t seem to ever separate! They have some process miracle going on in there. Fascinating. My mind keeps returning to this question – how do they do it?!!!

So, get to it people! You won’t be disappointed! And if you are ever at my house, feel free to ask for a taste spoon. And thus I shall spread The Gospel!

‘deep

* Since my Mom will no doubt read this, let me state for the record that I was getting fine parenting of course.

** Unfortunately, the latest pictures of me suggest that I have been… BUT I HAVEN’T – which of course, begs the question “What is the point of gaining weight if you aren’t doing it by getting to eat peanut butter 24/7?” – clearly my life (& my waistline) is amiss! I need to fix that – but the good news is that means more PF Peanut Butter for all of you Use it well!

*** THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SHANTHALA!!! And big thanks to my favorite blog Daring Fireball, & ESPECIALLY Davenetics for bringing me to the light.

.ps It is amusing to me that both of my food reviews have taken on biblical tones, and probably heretical ones at that. I’m clearly gonna burn in hell.

(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

So, how happy was I this morning when my friend Meli pinged me to show me this:

BEST BLOCK-ROCKIN’ BIKE

Amandeep Jawa’s bright blue, sound-rigged party-cycle — Trikeasaurus — is our bestest Critical Mass compadre and bike lane buddy, and an essential component of his impromptu FlashDance parties. This three-wheelin’, free-wheelin’, pedal-and-battery-powered funk machine has been bringing the party to the people — and leading spontaneous Michael Jackson tributes — from the Embarcadero to the Broadway tunnel for the past two years. Even if you’re just out for a stroll or a bit of that ephemeral San Francisco “sun”-bathing, when Trikeasaurus comes rolling along you just have to boogie on down the road, bust a move, get your groove thing on, let your freak flag fly, and insert ecstatic cliché here. We can pretend all we want in the privacy of our own hip sancta sanctorum that Destiny’s Child or OutKast will never move us, but somehow when Trikeasaurus comes bumping by, we just can’t help but bump right back. Don’t fight the feeling! Join the 500-watt, 150-decibel velolution today.

www.deeptrouble.com

Imagine how excited I was. And I loved what they had to say! They captured a lot of the ways Trikeasaurus brings the happy and they also put it so well “…insert ecstatic cliché here” indeed!

I’m a happy camper. This is one of those things that means something to me – THANK YOU SF BAY GUARDIAN!

Here’s the link to the actual online issue…. this is just one of numerous categories…

.ps

Oh and for those of you new to their BotB issues – yes, they make up categories as they see fit That being said there are a few music bikes of note in SF, so perhaps it can be said there were other options

.pps
This means that I’ve been a Best of The Bay in both of the local weeklies – woooooot! Once for Trike, and once for FlashDance!

(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 2009?

** 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

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.