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!)
If you know much about SF, you know that the SF Bay Guardian matters. It is the local-scene and left-wing-politics weekly and I love it. Every year they do a “Best of The Bay” issue wherein they give the low down on what’s what in my beloved Yay Area…
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!
or “Gay Pride + Michael Jackson Memorial Weekend & a few Thoughts on Joy”
(NOTE for non-SFers: It was Gay Pride Weekend here, a.k.a “Pride”, centered around the big Gay Pride parade on Sunday, as well as a huge party in the nearby Castro and numerous related events. It’s a big city festival for everyone – especially by & for the gays, but welcoming for straights as well.)
Yesterday on Facebook, I announced that the past 4 days have been the best four days of my life. Since I’m not given to hyperbole, it must be true .
Seriously though, that is a strong claim, and I should probably just say that I can’t think of a better four days in a row*. So let’s just say the past four days have been amazing and stack up against any in my life (wow!). I’m actually a little exhausted from how good it has been. Lots of dancing, lots of laughing, lots of sharing great moments with great people and even a few tears and reflection thrown in. And the weather has been perfect.
Here’s the video (Instead of watching here, I highly recommend going to YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook & watching it in HD or higher quality):
UPDATED 1/16/10: I just came across the best video of the night yet (better than mine below) and a great video from the ride itself… see updates at the bottom.
Four or five news vans, 200 (300?) people, a musical bike ride through the city, sing-a-longs, moments of silence and tears. That’s the short version of Thursday’s special Michael Jackson memorial Trike ride and FlashDance. It was the best FlashDance ever.
Here’s the video (Instead of watching here, I highly recommend going to YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook & watching it in HD or higher quality)
Click the link below to get the full scoop, write up, playlist & more video:
…wherein I briefly recount the initially ill-fated but ultimately triumphant FlashDance 21 mini-saga… (.ps If you have any good pics please send them along!)
Saturday 8 PM: I showed up (remarkably promptly) at Church and Market & set up. A small crowd of FlashDancers was already there waiting!
8:15 PM: After playing 1 song, a (remarkably nice) police officer showed up & explained that she already had a noise complaint & we had to go. Boooo! She suggested Dolores Park.
8:30 PM: Set up at Dolores Park – many folks walked on over from Church and Market (maybe 100 peeps) and we were good to go – or so we thought. There was another, smaller dance party going on nearer to the houses on Dolores – but it was clearly ending.
8:45 PM: 3 songs in and people were grooving, but Park Rangers showed up (I have NEVER seen Park Rangers in Dolores Park before!) They said that their supervisor called to say there had been complaints. (I’ll bet that the complaints were probably about the other party.) They agreed to not give me a ticket if we shut the music down. I was really, really bummed.
8:50 PM: Honestly, I was ready to give up but various dancers said “Let’s just go to 24th Street BART Station” – I agreed.
9PM – 11:30PM: We had one HELL of a FLASHDANCE!!!! It was awesome! BIG BIG thanks to everyone who came out for any of the various stops and BIGGER thanks to those who convinced me to stick with it. I had SOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN!
A couple of lessons:
FDs are RIDICULOUSLY FUN. Seriously, I’ve been so worried about getting shut-down & potentially having to scrap FD, I had almost forgotten. One of the reasons I didn’t get a May one together was that I was just worried about another cop-episode shattering my enthusiasm. I had just gotten over it by the time I scheduled June’s, but honestly, I’ve been feeling a bit precarious. Well, now I remember why this is all sooooo worth it. SO. MUCH. FUN. Thanks to everyone who pushed me into a better attitude.
YOU MUST MUST GET ON MY SMS/TWITTER UPDATES. My messages weren’t as clear as they should have been, but many people figured out what I meant and showed up at Dolores Park & then 24th St BART. I’ll be clearer next time, but you really NEED to sign up for SMS messages! Click here & scroll down to the section about SMS updates for instructions.
24th St BART Rocks! The cops came by at least 3 or 4 times while we were there, but didn’t say anything. Lesson Learned. I think i may do the next one at 16th St Or Civic Center…..
Again – thank you ALL for such a fun night. Between that and Sunday Streets in the Mission the next morning, I’m still glowing!.
As a final note – here is the play list (more or less) from FD 21. I’m really happy with the mix. As always I’m always looking for more stuff to play – lemme know what you think….
Flash – Queen
Breakin’ Dishes – Rihanna
Lovely One – The Jacksons
A Love Bizarre – Sheila E.
Soy Callejero (Mark Pistel Remix) – Los Mocosos
Livin’ la Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
Blame It On the Boogie – The Jacksons
Poker Face – Lady GaGa
Kids – MGMT
Dime Que Te Quéa – Gecko Turner
Tabba – DJ APS Feat. Mohammed Siddiq & Ranjit Kaur
After FlashDance 20 (& dancing at Bootie afterwards) Saturday night, I was too much of a sluggolith to make it to the early parts of the always awesome Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Bonnet Contest & Hunky Jesus Contest. Though I did fly by for a brief dose of Easter Drag Queen Goodness:
But the main event of the day was at 4pm on Vermont Street: The 9th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race… basically a bunch of people bring Big Wheels (and similar kids bikes) and race down the REAL windiest street in SF. This year’s edition was very nearly COPSMACKED – but eventually decency prevailed (BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO WORKS SO HARD BEHIND THE SCENES TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN).
It worked! FD20 was another excellent time. I think it was a little smaller than the average FD which always bums me out a little (less passersby in our location & farther from the Mission), but twas a fine time nonetheless. It was a beautiful night along the water & a much fun was had.
The faux-po (rather than the po-po) for the port did show up, and so we moved it to the Ferry Plaza, but that was fine….
BIG Thanks to Doug Herbek for his legal advice and Steve Jones for writing in the Guardian & most of all, all of you FlashDancers who continue to make FD SO. MUCH. FUN!
Dear SF Po-Po, why do you keep trying to put the SMACKDOWN on me? I am just trying to use my powers for AWESOME. Really.
So Saturday night’s FlashDance 19 was just kicking into STUPENDOUS-FUN gear and suddenly 6-8 cops showed up and put a SMACKDOWN on us. One was especially super f&%ng aggro: Before even saying word one, he had already plowed through one of my speakers and then started grabbing at cables on the back of my rig to yank them out. NOT COOL.
(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:
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…..
If this blog turns into one of those "and this morning I had cornflakes!!!" blogs, send me some email & I'll send you my real address & you can come & shoot me.
) this one was big, simple, low stress, and just kinda perfect…
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