…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
• 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

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).

I decided to bring Trikeasaurus….

But I didn’t ride down much…. Click HERE for more…

After the po-po frustrations of FD19, I decided to try to get over the bad taste in my mouth by just hitting it again. The very NEXT weekend!

(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:

Click HERE for more…

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.

Click HERE for more…

(or “The One SIMPLE REASON You Need to Be On Facebook”)

I’ve been thinking a lot about Facebook lately, and why it is so great. Not iPhone-great, but almost Wikipedia-great: it has changed the way I use the web, and my life in the real world is richer because of it. Also, I’ve been trying to get all my friends on Facebook. So this blog post is my attempt to convince my hold-out friends (Gretchen, Kelly & Brian, Chell, Greg & Nina!) Feel free to send it to the FB holdouts you know!

THE ONE SIMPLE REASON YOU NEED TO BE ON FACEBOOK: Facebook makes 90% of your friends much more present in your life than ever before. Seriously!

ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN:
Most of you have a set of friends that you see often: you know what they are up to, how their love lives are going, what their life is like, what movie they just saw, what they are doing this weekend. You often know what they had for breakfast. You call them, they call you, you go out with them, they come over. Things are great. This is your circle of immediate, close friends.

But all of us have friends at circles farther out in our lives. There is the set of close friends that you don’t see as often as your immediate, close friends. There is the set of close friends who live far away. And then there are the good friends who simply aren’t close friends. And so on & so on, there are circles of friends going farther and farther out. I’d imagine that 90% of my friends are in one of those outer circles.

Connecting you to these people is where Facebook really shines:

Click HERE for more…

So… there are many fun Indian traditions and holidays…. and I’ve gotten to do none of them. Zilch. None. Never.

Until yesterday

Most of the Crew

Aparna Abuse (click image for more pix)

For some reason, as a child we skipped all the fun Indian activities and holidays. It was probably for a lot of reasons, but fundamentally maybe there just weren’t enough Indians around in North Carolina 30 years ago? Sort of a cultural critical mass problem?

Anyway, here in the Yay! Area, we don’t have that problem. And thus, every year, the kids at Stanford do a Holi celebration. Holi is the Indian festival of colors & I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do it. I finally made it down this year…..

Click HERE for more…

Here is a handy FAQ about my 40th Birthday bash, held this past weekend:

Q: Did you have fun?
A: Woooooooooooo! Woooooooooooo! STILL BASKING! I hope some of you had at least half as munch fun as I did. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Q: How many people showed up?
A: I’d LOVE to know – anybody have any good guesses? At it’s peak maybe 150? 200? Anyone? And how many people over the course of the night?

Q: Do I have to look through all 300 odd pix of your party?
A: Um. No. But I seriously recommend this quick-n’dirty little video I made. Just watch a little – All your friends are doing it. You can quit at any time. Really – go on:

Music: “Don’t Stop Believin’ In Planet Rock: JOURNEY vs. AFRIKA BAMBAATAA” by the AWESOME A Plus D – the hosts of Bootie – my favorite dance party.

Q: The video is great and all but I wanna see pix, yo!?
A:

1. The best 50 shots (on FaceBook – these shots all come from the two links below)
2. The best of all the photo booth shots
3. The best of the random shots

Q: Wow what was the story on the awesome photo booth?
A: Mark Johnson loaned us most of the equipment, Adrian Cotter provided the rest and manned the booth most of the night. YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. And whilst I’m at it, big thanks to Marc Fong for the disco ball & lighting – rockstars all and all!

Q: Where did you get those awesome cupcakes you were giving out!? Why didn’t I get one?
A: Kara’s Cupcakes! Shocking fact: the white ones are better than the chocolate ones. Shocking. There were only 100 – and I ate one – so 99

Q: Why GLAM?
A: GLAM – because I love bright shiny things. When i turned 31 I decided to reclaim my love of all things shiny, sparkly & bright. Guys (at least straight ones) aren’t supposed to love that stuff as much as I do. Yeah. Whatever. It’s been all GLAM ever since You can find pix of them all here.

Q: Why a Day of the Dead party?
A: Why “Dia De Los Muertos?” – because I’m 40!!!! Holy Frijoles! Here’s what I wrote in the invite:

As the Wikipedia says “Many people believe that during the Day of the Dead, it is easier for the souls of the departed to visit the living.” And what could be more appropriate for my 40th Birthday? Now that I’m officially dead, the best way for me to visit with you would be my Day of the Dead Party!

Q: What was up with the alien mask?
A: Many years at my GLAM PArties I try elaborate facepaint. I always think I look hideous in the photos. This year inspiration struck. Unfortunately it struck two days before my party, so I had to scramble. And BTW, IT WAS A SKULL DAMMIT!

Q: What was the best costume!??
A: Every year, someone blows me away withe the unexpected. And this year, while Steve G’s macrame ensemble was lovely (though glam?), Adrian’s Day of the Dead work was AMAZING. (SORRY NO PIC YET – COMING ASAP)

Q: So how do you feel now that you’re 40?
A: Eh? What’s that sonny? I can’t hear you?…. hey you kids! get off my lawn!

Seriously – I’m really lucky. You all made this a fantastic birthday party. I really do put a lot into making stuff like this happen, but I get so much more than I put in because of all you fine folks. I love you guys!

SF Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight 2009

For the past 3 years on Valentine’s Day here in SF, there has been a MASSIVE flash-mob pillow fight. They have all been moste excellente, but this one was even more vast than the last two…

This video, taken from high above, does it justice:

And though I had thought about skipping it this year*, the fear of Missing The Fun won out… so I assembled Trikeasaurus & headed out (I actually forgot my pillow!):

NOTE: This video is really long – so watch if you like, but for purposes of this blog post, definitely check out the start & if you want 1:45, 4:30, 5:00, & 6:40 as well (I’ll see if I can get a shorter edit)

In the end, I got my glasses broken, lost my favorite jacket*, inhaled a troubling amount of goose down, got my nose scraped, & Trikeasaurus was injured. And was it worth it? I think this next shot sums up my feelings….

Click HERE for more…

You better!

Here is the Facebook Link to the Invite

RSVP on the invite, por favor!

Hey kids – I turned 40 today! Frijoles! I decided to make compilation album to celebrate and as a gift to my friends. Here are the liner notes. If you want any of the music (or the whole CD) drop me a line… I’ll have an iMix ready soon. In the end, I *wish* there was an easier way for me to get it to you, period.

First of all, let’s just say it up front: this compilation is an OUTRAGE. While it purports to be a record of my thirties, where is the Prince, or the Stevie Wonder, or the Michael Jackson!? Sting, anyone? Only one U2 song? Where the hell is Pete Townshend or Cake? Whither Lyrics Born, Blackalicious, or Spearhead? Midnight Oil? Not here? How is that possible?

And what’s up with the fact that it’s biased to my late 30s rather than my early thirties – lame!

Only 18 songs? How can 10 years in my life be only 18 songs?

An outrage I tell you!

And yet, I’ll stand for it. There is nothing good without constraints, I think. And the length of one CD is my only bulwark against self-indulgence.

So here you are: massively unfair, wildly subjective, and hopefully, nonetheless, right if not accurate. A flawed but deeply personal record of my thirties. I hope you:

• like at least some of it
• find at least a tiny bit of the transcendence, solace and inspiration that I have here
• find something new
• aren’t bored with the stuff you’ve heard me play a million times

I love you!
‘deep

READ ON FOR THE SONG BY SONG NOTES:
Click HERE for more…