All the deets are right here, at FinemanPR.
And there’s a little background on this after the jump.
Ashton, you’re not funny – try something else.
Ashton, your entourage (and also all the Pop Chips people) were afraid to tell you that your skits were not even remotely entertaining. What else didn’t they / don’t they tell you?
Oh, and the reviews are in:
Well, today’s the start of San Francisco Critical Mass Week 2012.
Michael Krasny of KQED Forum will kick things off with a one-hour show on the history of Critical Mass.
And then festivities will end, of course, this Friday with the big 20th Anniversary Ride the evening of September 28th, 2012. (Not that you’d know it from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition website’s ”Chain of Events” section, where all info about CM* is now censored.)
Suddenly surrounded by bicycles:
“It started with a bike ride in San Francisco on Sept. 25, 1992. About 50 people cycled in a pack along Market Street, hoping to earn some respect from drivers who sometimes ignored them or edged them off the road. They called it the “Commute Clot.” Today it’s known as Critical Mass, a movement that’s spread worldwide. Supporters say it promotes cycling and the rights of bicyclists. But critics say it is illegal, clogs traffic and antagonizes drivers. We talk about Critical Mass’ 20th anniversary, and its effects on the city.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
Chris Carlsson, co-founder of Critical Mass who was part of the first ride on Sept. 25, 1992, and has since participated in Critical Mass rides in Milan, Vancouver and Porto Alegre, Brazil
Hugh D’Andrade, founder of SFCriticalMass.org
Rob Anderson, blogger on transportation issues and author of the blog District 5 Diary“
Tune in at 10:00 on your radio or on your device, Listen Live.
*The SFBC raises money through fees but it also gets mucho dinero directly from SFGov. So that’s why it endorsed Ed Lee for Mayor even though SFBC’s members generally did not and still do not like Ed Lee. Similarly, Chrstina Olague, Mayor Ed Lee’s hand-picked recruit for District 5 Supervisor, gets endorsed over Julian Davis even though SFBC members actually favor JD. The SFBC is basically a quasi-government agency now, so it’s very afraid of seeming to say something negative about certain members of the City Family. It’s also afraid of hurting the chances of its officers someday getting jobs / health care directly with SFGov / SFMTA. Anyway, that’s why the SFBC is basically a SFGov kiss-ass these days. It will lobby San Francisco government, certainly, but that’s about as far as it wants to go. (Think about it – who would the SFMTA endorse for Mayor?)
It looks like this:
Click to expand
Quite a lot of stuff going on in that shot, huh?
I hadn’t seen the place since it opened up in March 2012.
This is what things look like back then:
The thing about Lucky Strike at 200 King near 4th Street is that’s it’s not like any bowling alley you’ve ever seen. Call it a “gastropub-ish funhouse” or an “upscale bowling lounge” instead.
Get the deets here and now let’s take a look.
Exterior at 200 King:
Click to expand
L.S. on the left, AT&T Park on the right, kitty-corner:
And the CalTrain station is to the right as you look outward:
Here’s the main bar and restaurant seating area. The idea of the communal tables on the left is to have them at Goldilocks height, not too low and not too high, to allow mixing and conversation betwixt those sitting and those standing.
OMG, this place is bigger than I thought it would be.
Moving on to the Einstein Room, with billiards and other diversions to entertain your brain:
But lets go further in, let’s go bowling:
Shoes shoes shoes!
On the way to the lanes:
I don’t know what this is:
Here we go, here are some of the lanes:
The main bowling area will have art all around, made by innumerable local artists. Here are some Obey Giants from Shepard Fairey, who used to be local.
Moving on past the Lebowski Wall(!) to…
…the Green Room, your own private party space with your own private lanes! OMG.
Can you imagine what kind of large, rich, youthful companies have already made reservations to rent out the Green Room and portions of the main bar area? Oh yes you can, give a guess and you’ll be correct. Anyway, here are the special Green Room lanes, one of which is named in honor of Brian Wilson, a part-owner.
In short, Lucky Strike is going to be awesome.
See you Friday!
All the deets:
“SHN (Shorenstein Hays Nederlander Theatres) and GOOGLE have announced a special live presentation with the cast of AMERICAN IDIOT as part of the Talks at Google series at their Mountain View headquarters. This very special event will take place this Thursday, June 14th at 3pm PST.
The event can be viewed around the world via livestream using the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/
The presentation will feature a live performance of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” as well as “21 Guns” by the entire cast. Viewers of the livestream can also participate in a Q & A by submitting questions directly to the American Idiot cast using the following link: https://www.google.com/
“The Talks at Google program is extremely excited to host cast and creative from the musical “American Idiot”, said Cliff Redeker, founder of the program. “This is the first time we’ve invited a Broadway show to the Googleplex and we’re proud to share the experience with the world through YouTube. We look forward to hosting many more Broadway productions together with SHN as the season unfolds.”
Talks at Google started in 2005 as an on-campus series to reach out to authors for exposure to the Google staff. The outreach has now surpassed Google employees and moved on to all who tune in via cyberspace. Everyone from then-candidate Barack Obama to superstar Lady Gaga has made their way to be on Talks at Google and it has since grown to include not just authors, but musicians, and now Broadway shows/performers as well!
AMERICAN IDIOT premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September 2009 and played through November of that year. In April 2010, the musical opened on Broadway where reviews were unanimously positive with Charles Isherwood of the New York Times calling the show “the most adventurous musical to brave Broadway in the past decade.”
TICKETS
Tickets for AMERICAN IDIOT range in price from $31 – $100 and are now on sale at shnsf.com or by calling 888-746-1799.
For more information visit: http://www.shnsf.com/online/
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE: JUNE 12-JULY 8
Tuesday through Saturday at 8 PM
Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday at 2PM
Added performance: Friday June, 22 at 2 PM
No performance: Sunday, June 24
SHN Orpheum Theatre: 1192 Market St. (at 8th)
Connect with SHN…www.shnsf.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/shnsf
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/
It’s time once again for How Weird, so dress appropriately and get on out there:
“San Francisco’s festival season begins
from Noon to 8pm
Howard & 2nd Streets, Downtown San Francisco
The 13th annual How Weird Street Faire
13 music and performance stages
spread throughout 13 city blocks!”
Ah memories: Second Street in the SoMA:
Getting help with those hard-to-paint areas:
The largest boombox in the world. These go to twelve:
Open air hookah on Howard Street:
Kate O’Brien’s Irish Bar & Grill did land office business, what with the food, booze and sexy ladies.
That Popchips company thinks it’s funny to have dull-witted spokesmodel / dull-witted investor Ashton Kutcher* do some free YouTube videos only to take them down if they prove too controversial.
All right, Popchips, here’s the thing: The problem with the video wasn’t that it was “controversial.”
The problem was that it was stupid.
Oh, and not funny.
Not funny at all.
Did you all think enough to say something, Popchips people? Something like, “Yeah, Ashton, we know you want to do these videos, but they’re not good.” Oh, you all just thought that, but you didn’t want to actually say anything at the time? Well that’s just not going to fly.
N0w let’s hear from people who actually tried eating the product that Ashton Kutchner wants to make money from:
“God, Popchips are awful. The flavors suck.”
And if newfangled Popchips turn out to cause cancer, then you the consumer just might end up dead from buying something that made dull-witted spokesmodel / dull-witted Popchips investor*** Ashton Kutcher ever so slightly richer.
You wouldn’t want that, would you?
*He reminds me of our similarly dull-witted former Mayor Gavin Newsom, for some reason.** Hey, whatever happened to that guy?
**Oh, maybe it was the Fiji Water I was reminded of. Our former Mayor just loved his Fiji Water, of course. I could totally see Gavin becoming a dull-witted spokesmodel / dull-witted investor / Brand Ambassador for the Fiji Water.
***Back in the day, famous actor O.J. Simpson similarly invested in HoneyBaked Ham. You know, because he liked the company. But OJ had the sense to not do stupid commercials for Honeybaked.
Boy, the Internet is full of criticism these days over how the SFPD and the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office have been handling the cyclist Chris Bucchere vs. pedestrian Sutchi Hui case.
And yet, what have they done wrong so far? Nothing that I can see.
Wisely, they aren’t trying to prove things that are tough to prove to the very high standard required, so stuff like who used Chris Bucchere’s online accounts to post his post-accident thoughts and what color what traffic light was when – that stuff, isn’t going to matter all that much if a criminal trial comes.
So that’s fine.
But there’s this:
““We have a witness that puts him blowing stop signs and lights on Divisadero Street,” the captain added.”
But the part of Divisadero that’s in the area doesn’t actually have stop signs.*
Check it out on the YouTube. The beginning part of this video, The Strava “Castro Street Bomb” (aka Castro Street Descent) shows the southern terminus of Divisadero.
As you can see, there aren’t any stop signs there.
But maybe the captain was talking about Castro Street?
If that’s the case, the question then becomes what would motivate a cyclist to behave in the ways alleged.
But we’ll find out soon enough…
*And the other part of Divisadero up in Pacific Heights far to the north? Wow, that’s probably the last place in the world where you’d want to be blowing stop signs on a bike.
Well, you make the call:
Of course you can conclude, at this early date, exactly this:
“Strava is not responsible for Chris’ actions…”
(That one comes from one of Chris Bucchere’s cycling buddies, BTW.)
Or, of course, you can conclude that Strava is totally responsible for the recent collision in the Castro.
Or you can be like me and remain unsure of the connection between the death of pedestrian Sutchi Hui and Strava.
Your choice.
Hey, let’s see what cyclists are saying about Strava and the recent pedestrian death in the Castro:
“as a STRAVA user, my first thought when I saw that he was using STRAVA was that he was trying to post the best time on a segment (STRAVA’s social aspect includes public leaderboards, which is actually kind of fun). looks like that stretch of Castro is, indeed, a marked segment, which is absolutely fucking stupid and likely encouraged in some small way his reckless behavior.”
And there’s this:
And then there’s this:
And here’s some more, from Alan of Scarlet Fire, on gamification and Strava in general:
“Strava ‘s biggest strength lies within the ingenious “segments” feature.
Upload a gpx track of your completed ride, and Strava analyses the data with all the usual stats you’d expect, plus a breakdown of specific segments of the ride, eg hill climbs.
Here’s the clever bit -
It knows who else has completed those segments, and ranks everybody according to time. The fastest gets a KOM, King of the mountain achievement. (Yes, girls, you get QOM’s).
Most people wouldn’t bother to go to the trouble of timing themselves on individual climbs within their ride. Way too much hassle! Strava does it automatically, and awards you an achievement when you beat your personal best (PB).
Strava app screenshot (Samsung Galaxy S2)If a section of your route doesn’t already appear as a segment, no problem – simply define it as a new segment and see how you rank. The premium version of the service also allows you to break the table down by age range and weight ranges.
Recently, whilst out on a ride, I was aware that a friend had been the first to log a new segment for a particular climb (there aren’t that many Strava users in North Wales yet!) and had the KOM award. Instead of going at my usual pace, the gaming instinct kicked in, and I found myself visiting a very high heart rate zone, and putting in a lot of effort. Later, when I uploaded my GPS data to Strava it was hugely satisfying to realise that I had beaten his time by almost 2 minutes and claimed the KOM. He also got an email from Strava saying I’d beaten his time. Nice.
Silly and childish? Very, I know.
Did it feel good? Hell, yes..
Did I get a better workout? Definitely.
Will I work harder on future climbs because this technology will let me know automatically whenever I set a new PB on specific climbs? Very likely.”
Here’s the latest regarding the Castro District’s international news:
“Expect Strava to get subpoenaed if this tragic story of reckless cycling and a pedestrian death goes to court.”
And here’s the Strava.Com segment what used to be called the Castro Street Bomb (and then the Castro Street Descent). It’s not too exciting. Rather sedate, actually. But I’m sure if you’re hauling butt to become the latest Strava.Com “KOM” (King of the Mountain) and you may or may not be “Idaho Rolling” through red lights, then it could be very exciting / addicting:
Strava still has lots of downhill “bomb” segments listed about town of course. How about the Hyde Street Bomb or the 20th Street Bomb?
What if I started a Market Street Drag Race website for car drivers? They could make a segment like “Second Street to Sixth Street Drag” or something and people could keep track of their times using the GPS. Would you say that I was encouraging recklessness? Or not?
And here’s part of the “Strava Kills” topic at the MTBR.Com forums:
“Unfortunately, there is no simple way for the biking community to pass on the message of “we are really sorry for your loss, please don’t judge all bikers. this particular individual is an a-hole, please stick it to him in every way possible”.
Sad thing is, even as this story makes it’s way around the cycling community, there are people that pull the same **** — running reds/stop signs/etc. from SF down to SCruz — that won’t connect this situation with possibilities around their own actions.”
And I’d link you to what they’re saying at the SF Fixed.Com boards but I don’t know how to do that. (It’s a bit contentious over there these days, I understand.)
And this just in:
