Big wheels keep on turnin’
They both begin with an A, but that’s about all Austria and Alabama have in common. Don’t let Austrians and Alabama mix. The results can be quite… wrong, yet somehow still entertaining.
Tonight, there is an event at The Lab celebrating SRL‘s 25th year of freaking people out with mechanized mayhem for the fuck of it. I remember 1999 like it was tomorrow. Tokyo was an amazing experience I’ll never forget. 17 days of setup, working like 16-18 hours a day, all for a show that lasted not even an hour. Fuck, it was all worth it! That was the year we had machines hooked up to wifi and controlled them over the Internet in real-time (minus a few seconds). V.Vale & RE/Search is hosting this, Matt Gonzalez is gonna say nice things about radical SF art and Mark Pauline will tell funny stories about things you’re really not supposed to do. Karen, Eric Paulos & I get to be mini-interviewed about SRL hi-tech weirdness. There will be tons of amazingly blown up photos of SRL shows over the years. Come check out the mayhem! The Lab @ 7pm. 16th & Mission, SF.
I’m not a big baseball fan, but my friend Jay got a handful of free tix to tonight’s Giants game against the Padres. The advantage of a having a friend who is gainfully employed by a corporate advertising whore is the free shit he occasionally is constantly peppered with. I hadn’t been to a game in PacBell park in quite awhile, and was a little surprised by the $5 hotdogs and $8 beers. Word to the wise, you can get Guiness now and it’s the same $8 as domestic pisswater. I guess gouging the populance is about as American as an institution can get. So is sneeking beers into the stadium. I digress, the worthy moment of the evening was when Barry Bonds hit his 666th homerun. Wow. I’m not big on numerology, but I know more than a few friends who will find special significance in this. I only wish I was armed with my camera to capture the moment the giant 666 flashed on the scoreboard. I was half-expecting Beelzebub himself to come crawling out of the bay and hurl fireballs everywhere. Instead, we just got rain.
Music for America is a rad community site that is aiming to get over 1 million new progressive voters into the mix this year. They recognize a simple truth, music is political. Music for America makes it easier for bands to organize tours, get volunteers for shows, promote positive social change and energize new people into owning a stake in their future. There’s tons of shows coming up and many opportunities to see free shows for volunteering to work shows. Most likely there’s stuff in your town.
They’ve done it for many years in Berlin, with close to 2 million people hitting the streets. Now the Love Parade comes stateside, hitting San Francisco in a very natural and easy way. We have Burning Man, full moon parties, a thriving night life scene, and plenty of hungry freaks always looking for new freak opportunities. It makes complete sense that SF is the first US city to host a Love Parade. I took these pictures before my camera’s batteries went bye-bye. Why do Sony Cybershot’s die completely with the lens still extended? Major design flaw, never had that problem with my Canon.
Also, Earthdance pix from a few weeks ago. Hey, I was part of the largest drum circle in the world, led by Micky Hart (4000+). The love keeps on giving.