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Alan, Sarah Jane, Kane, Shingo, Andy, and I rode in Sunday’s Scooter Rage 19 here in San Francisco… Our little scooter gang is growing into a healthy group now… The ride started out at First Kick Scooters in SOMA, and made its way all through San Francisco — the ride was called the “Three Golf Course” ride, though I counted that we passed five: McLaren Park, Harding Park, Olympic Club, Lincoln Park and the Presidio…. It was a gorgeous day, absolutely perfect for a scooter rally.. All in all, there were about 100 scooters on Sunday.. and no real hassles (although I heard somebody had a crash, so that’s no good)..

I made a scooter movie for you all to watch.. enjoy.

As previously reported, David Best (of burningman temple fame) was planning on building a temple in hayes green…

Well, it’s there now… and it’s basically a mini version of the temples that he’s built for burningman, with the intricately cut-out shapes, all nailed together… people have already started to leave bits and pieces of themselves all over the temple.. flowers, messages, change, etc…

it’s great to see a bit of burningman culture right in the middle of the city — audris, andy and i walked over to the temple around sunset yesterday and it was great to see a good sized group of hayes valley folk wandering the green at magic hour…

It’s great to see how nicely Hayes Green is coming together..

This weekend was Bay to Breakers… and what a glorious weekend it was.. Unlike past years, I chose not to start at the start. Since I live only a few blocks from the course, instead of waking up ass early at 7am and heading downtown, I chose to sleep in a bit and join up with the race at Hayes and Gough. So.. all in all, it took me about 6 hours to complete about 1/2 of the course.. that’s about.. um.. 3 miles in 6 hours.. not bad, yah?

Well.. I woke up before 8am anyway, and since I was up already, I decided that I’d try and get down to the course to see the “elite” runners run by.. I got to the course at about 8:10am, and by then, they were already long gone, having completed the entire 7.5 mile run in like 34 minutes or something. Oh well. I did get to see quite a few people run by… I never realized just how many people 70,000 are, but I guess in years past since you’re moving with the crowd, you don’t realize how many people that is..

As we passed one of the icky green ponds in the park, Jablow and Rob were convinced that they were going to take a little swim. Connie tackled Jablow while he was untying his shoe, which made him land headfirst into the pavement. Ow. His head made a nice thud, and Connie’s goal of getting Jablow to NOT swim was a success. Rob, on the other hand, snuck over to the other side of the lake, and dove right in, headfirst. Unfortunately, the pond was like 1 foot deep. OUCH.

So.. yah.. it was a good day despite the 2 head wounds (they’re ok).

grrr..

So, my phone line and DSL have been down since yesterday morning.. I called SBC to ask them what the problem, and supposedly there was some sort of massive explosion somewhere, and lots of cables were cut. So.. they’re repairing the cable, pair-by-pair, and the estimated date that I’ll restore phone and DSL access is.. May 10th. I talked to the SBC guy and he said that it’s a major event, but as of now I see no articles mentioning anything about it at all..

Aaargh.

5 days?!?! That’s insane. I’ve not heard of an SBC outage lasting THAT long. Considering I work from home, this is going to be a big pain in the arse.

Luckily for me, I’ve found that the public library has free WiFi, and that’s just a few blocks away from my house. The library is nice, but I think I might seek out a cafe with free WiFi instead, since I’m getting hungry and thirsty.
Actually, I’m sitting right here near the CD library.. Ooo.. Maybe this is gonna work out just fine afterall…

But.. this means I can’t work until the wee hours of the morning.. and, I actually have to put on pants now.

I saw Her Space Holiday, Bright Eyes and The Faint last night here in San Francisco.. The show was at the Concourse at SF Design Center, which is this HUGE warehouse-like building.. It’s a magnificent space — for a convention or something.. NOT for a show. When you walk in, it feels like you’re in a huge airplane hangar or something. The acoustics were awful, the sightlines were atrocious, and oddly enough, for such a huge space, it was incredibly hot. The only good thing was that it was really easy to get a drink, albeit you had to stay in the “beer garden” areas off to the side of the stage. No drinks on the main floor, cuz that’s where all of the teenagers were hanging out, I suppose.

I really wanted to see HSH, but Phil (who had my ticket) arrived a little late, so I listened from outside whilst watching the ticket arbitrageurs (er.. scalpers) work in the rain. The show wasn’t sold out, so there were tons of people trying to sell their tickets.

The Faint put on a really good show — they play video behind them while they perform, and the video is sync’ed exactly to the songs they play.. it’s pretty cool. The Faint’s music is much more energetic than Bright Eyes, so when Bright Eyes came on, it was comparitively much more mellow.. And, Bright Eyes didn’t have as cool as videos as The Faint.. I mean, the bands share like half the members anyway.. that way, they’d build the energy up until the end…

hey… do you have $2 million dollars lying around? If so, I have the perfect place for you… Albion Castle, in the hunter’s point neighborhood in San Francisco.. is for sale… Yah, so it’s in between a bunch of projects and a radioactive decommissioned naval shipyard.. but, it’s a castle!! with a spring!! So cool!!

Sounds really, really cool.. I think I’ll go and check it out.. it’s just here in San Francisco, after all..

Andy got to hang out in the armory in the mission this weekend, so I want to also tour a crazy San Francisco landmark..

David Best, who is reknowned in San Francisco for building a series of “temples” at burning man, is looking to build a temporary structure in Hayes Green — the new park being created by the Octavia Street Boulevard project. He’s looking for $25,000 to be donated for the project. The city balked at the pricetag for the project, which some are callinf the “Gates of The West”. So, now he’s looking for private donations. Christo and Jean-Claude self-funded the $20M for “The Gates” — and made a tidy profit for themselves by selling the original prints and sketches associated with the project. Does San Francisco not have the same patron base to support a project 1/800 the size (monetarily, at least)? I’ve seen “The Gates” and Best’s work at Burningman — both were equally inspiring to me, so I would hope that we San Franciscans are not put to shame by those New Yorkers…

So.. go donate if you can.