Mission Mission

After hanging at GG Park for an afternoon listening to tunes amplified by cycle-powered generators, the Bicycle Music Festival finally took to the streets.  Obo Martin and his band were joined by Fossil Fool to provide music for the ride.  Each instrument was on a different platform towed by a bicycle, and it sounded pretty good whenever they stayed together!  The drummer kept falling back though, probably owing to the bulkiness of his craft.  Always the drummer.

Check out the crush of cyclists as they approach Divisadero and then swell down Fell past this poor overwhelmed videographer who ends up in the middle of all of it:

Many more photos available at the Bicycle Music Festival website.

Previously:

Judgement Day Melts Faces at the Bicycle Music Festival

This is not an official endorsement for Mission Workshop, since I have neither worn nor showered with their bags, but the promo videos for their products are beautifully shot cycling videos filmed in you-know-where, so check ‘em out.

Grocery Run:

A Day In The Life

Previously:

Ariel shows us his Hough

Here’s a clip of Judgement Day destroying the Bicycle Music Festival today in Golden Gate Park. I’ve never had my face melted by a violin and cello before!

The cyclists in front are powering all of the equipment. You’ve just got to check out the rig. The wheels spin the rotor of a generator that feeds into a small battery with just enough juice to keep things going for a few seconds. A meter shows the power level. If it drops below green, lights out. This actually happened shortly after I stopped filming and everyone was treated to an unexpected drum solo. While I was pedaling, I found a direct correlation with the power level and the bass instruments. Kick drums and bass lines really draw a lot of power!

You can still catch the rest of the fest when it rides down to Potrero Hill (16th and Irwin) around 6pm.

The Bicycle Music Festival is back!  What better way to spend a sunny Saturday than biking down city streets with a bunch of fellow cyclists in the middle of huge rolling concert? 

The fun starts in Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park at 12 Noon for a bushel of bands headlined by Sean Hayes.  At 5pm the party gets rolling through the streets (the full map of the ride can be seen here), with bicycle rapper Fossil Fool leading the way on his crazy double-decker musical cycling contraption (seen in the awesome GIF up there by Burrito Justice).

The route goes through Dolores Park (where, if last year is any indication, a few bands might post up and play),  Valencia,  24th Street, and Harrison, before looping back to 16th and finishing the party up at Showplace Triangle.  See you there!

Previously:

Last Year’s Bicycle Music Festival

Did someone accidentally/intentionally leave a tub of chalk on the block between 17th and 18th on Valencia? I’m looking at you Chalk Visions. Last night the new sparkly sidewalk was blanketed with scrawlings from dozens of people, or one person with severe schizophrenia. So how do Mission folks choose to express themselves?

With CEREBUS COCK AND BALLS:

With HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS ABOUT HIPSTERS AND FIXED-GEAR CYCLISTS:

… and with HISTORICAL FACTS (with bonus burritojustice shout out! I guess blogger hat-tip etiquette still applies in real life):

Check it out for yourself on 17th and Valencia. Hell, add to it if you want, but it’s probably a BYOC affair at this point.

Anyone who commutes down Valencia or Market on the regular no doubt has come across this fellow at one time or another.  How could you possibly miss his grey grizzled flowing beard and locks, or his duct-taped battletank of a Schwinn Sapphire that he pedals around so furiously?

This morning I finally decided to say a little more than “what’s up?” and managed to have quite a nice rolling conversation with the guy (I’m sure the fact that I was wearing the exact same jacket helped too), starting on Valencia at around 17th and lasting all the way to the end of Market.  Here’s a paraphrased transcript of our “interview” while in motion:

On how long in the biz:

I’ve been a bike messenger in SF for 35 years.  The last 28 of those years have been on this Schwinn Sapphire, except for about 3 months when it was stolen in the Mission.  Luckily, a friend spotted it about 3 months later at Bay and Gough.  The jerks couldn’t even get the U-lock off (they had cut through a skinny pole to which it had been attached to get it), so they just dumped it!

On Critical Mass:

It all started when a bunch of drunk bike messengers got tired of SF police handing out $20 tickets to cyclists all the time for bullshit minor offenses, like not putting your foot down at a stop sign.  $20 was a big chunk of your take home pay way back then, so they decided to shut down some key intersections around the city and show the cops they couldn’t just fuck with them.  Seems to have gotten their attention.

(more…)

Oh cool.

Chicago sure is different.

(Thanks, mr_htcht!)

Previously:

Chicago Street Art

All the other bicycles cleared out real fast when they saw what it did to that first bike.

How many bikes are in this photo?

I was wondering what those lanes on the sides of Valencia were supposed to be used for.  For all we know, they could have been meant for Segways.  One of the painters suggested to me, “You should take that home and paint it on your wall.”  Thanks for the idea!  I just might do that!  I think he was joking, though, because then he wouldn’t give it to me.

Previously:

Getting A Feel For The New Valencia

Valencia Doing Work

The New Valencia Is Shaping Up Quite Nicely