Posts Tagged ‘parade’
Friday, February 26th, 2010
What makes San Francisco’s monthly Critical Mass an illegal bicycle parade is the fact that nobody gets permits. ‘Cause getting a permit is hard - it would entail doing stuff that costs a lot of money and it would make you a magnet for lawsuits, so who needs that, right?
The thing is that corking intersections and running red lights as a group (hallmarks of Critical Mass going back to the mid-1990’s), those things are obviously illegal, so the SFPD could start issuing citations whenever it wants, of course. And that’s true no matter how they roll in the Empire State. (Actually, I question how the New York decision affects us here in San Francisco at all, but oh well.)
I’ll tell you, the biggest shock that drivers have when they get stuck at an intersection is that they get no sympathy from the cops. Drivers without criminal records tend to stay by their cars and watch the parade of bikes.
OTOH, drivers with criminal records, well, Critical Mass is a test of their ability to maintain. Some fail.
Do I think San Francisco has the will to kill Critical Mass? No. But do I think Police Chief George Gascon is planning on shaking things up, in the coming months, you know, when rain no longer threatens* and the number of cyclists is bigger? Yes.
“Hey, man, we don’t have any “leaders,” man. The City can’t do nothing to us, nobody’s in charge of CM, man.” Yes, roger that. I don’t think anybody’s going to stick you with a bill for $35,000 or anything, but changes are a coming…
Collateral damage from Critical Mass - MUNI vehicles stretching to the horizon in both directions. (Is that on the DO list or the DON’T list?) This kind of thing is one of the reasons you don’t see CM listed at the SFBC website calendar anymore.
Where’s Waldo, Cagney and Lacey on a recent Critical Mass ride:
The wonder of encountering an unexpected Critical Mass for the first time. Out-of-towners Rachel and Monica were delighted:
To Be Continued…
*Actually, tonight looks to be clear as a bell, Mel. But the forecast was for rain so tonight’s should be a smaller ride.
Tags: 2009, 2010, biclcye, bike, bus, chief, commute clot, confrontation, cops, cork, corked, critical, critical mass, cyclists, delay, department, dept., friday, fridays, George Gascón, intersection, Judge, last, market, mass, month, monthly, Muni, new york, parade, police, Police Chief, rain, San Francisco, sexy, SFPD, stalled, tacoed, transit, trolley, Wheel
Posted in bikes, crime | 2 Comments »
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
This was the scene last night at the Palace of Fine Arts, where Stanfurd freshman and bay area local Crystal Lee was crowned Miss Chinatown USA 2010. It’s international news.
All the pageantry was caught by David Yu of davidyuweb. He always has great photos of whatever’s going on the bay area.
The crowning the School of the Arts alum:
Here are all the contestants: Christine Lim 李汶娸, Kristina Owyoung 歐陽坤怡, Samantha Chin 陳冠曄, Leilani Soon 孫愛蘭, Anna Chiem 詹佩盈, Christina Zhang 張子倩, Crystal Lee 李萬晴, Gloria Mui 梅主恩, Angela Wang 王兆蓬, Chang Liu 劉暢, Li Li 李欣燃, and Tong Qiao 喬彤:
How many peacocks had to die for this outfit? None, I s’pose:
Congratulations:
Crystal Lee
San Francisco, CA
Miss Chinatown U.S.A.
Kristina Owyoung
Lafayette, CA
Miss Chinese Chamber of Commerce/First Princess
Christina Zhang
Pleasanton, CA
Miss San Francisco Chinatown
Li Li
Flushing, NY
2nd Princess
Anna Chiem
Chicago, IL
3rd Princess
Angela Wang
Sugar Land, TX
4th Princess
Anna Chiem
Chicago, IL
Miss TVB Choice Award
And of course our Chinese New Year’s Parade is coming up (rain expected – it’s free to watch of course, or you can pay $30 for reserved seating) on Saturday, February 27th, 2010, right after the Coronation Ball:
Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Coronation Ball
Friday, February 26, 2010
San Francisco Hilton & Towers
333 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco
(415) 982-3000
6:00 pm No Host Cocktails
7:00 pm Dinner and Dancing until midnight
Tickets: $120
The newly selected Miss Chinatown USA and her court will be crowned at the annual Harrah’s Coronation Ball. The black tie dinner/dance, attended by many community leaders, promises to be a highlight of the Lunar New Year festivities.
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 20th, 27th, 2nd Princess, 3rd Princess, 4th Princess, American, and Tong Qiao 喬彤, Angela Wang, Angela Wang 王兆蓬, Anna Chiem, Anna Chiem 詹佩盈, ball, beauty, Ben Fong-Torres, ca, california, cardinal, Chang Liu, Chang Liu 劉暢, chicago, China, chinatown, chinatown usa, chinese, Christina Zhang, Christina Zhang 張子倩, Christine Lim, Christine Lim 李汶娸, coronation, court, crowned, crystal lee, Crystal Lee 李萬晴, David Yu, davidyuweb, feathers, February, Festival, First Princess, flickr, Flushing, fourth, freshman, frosh, Gloria Mui, Gloria Mui 梅主恩, Harrah’s, Hilton, il, images, Julie Haener, Kristina Owyoung, Kristina Owyoung 歐陽坤怡, KTSF, ktvu, Lafayette, Leilani Soon, Leilani Soon 孫愛蘭, Li Li, Li Li 李欣燃, mandarin, miss, Miss Chinatown U.S.A, miss chinatown usa 2010, Miss Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Miss San Francisco Chinatown, Miss TVB Choice Award, ny, pageant, palace of fine arts, palo alto, parade, peacock, photographs, photos, pics, pleasanton, princess, queen, red, Samantha Chin, Samantha Chin 陳冠曄, San Francisco, second, southwest, Stanfoo, stanford, stanfurd, Sugar Land, third, tickets, Tong Qiao, tvb, tx, university, winner, 劉暢, 喬彤, 孫愛蘭, 張子倩, 李欣燃, 李汶娸, 李萬晴, 梅主恩, 歐陽坤怡, 王兆蓬, 詹佩盈, 陳冠曄
Posted in events | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The anti-abortion mobile billboard trucks seen below, in town for Saturday’s West Coast Walk for Life, could be banned from the Streets of San Francisco, IMO. Here’s how to do it:
Step One: Amend San Francisco Police Code section 680 to make it look more like the City of West Hollywood’s Municipal Code section 11.441. Basically, that would mean, instead of banning “commercial advertising” on vehicles, we’d be banning all advertising, banning all mobile billboards.
Step Two: Start writing tickets.
What’s that you say, what about the First Amendment ‘n stuff? Well, let’s read up on a recent case from the California Court of Appeal called Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, et al. v. City of West Hollywood (B201721). You see, this animal-loving guy from S.H.A.R.K. got busted for driving his animal-rights mobile billboard advertising truck around town. He sued West Hollywood after he got cited but he lost. Why?
Here Come Da Judges (the bulk of them, anyway):
“The city concedes that SHARK was engaged in noncommercial speech but maintains its ordinance applies to both commercial and noncommercial speech. SHARK, however, argues that the term “advertising” applies only to commercial speech. We agree with the city that the ordinance applies to both commercial and noncommercial speech.
“The term “advertise” is not limited to calling the public’s attention to a product or a business. The definition of “advertise” is more general: “to make something known to[;] . . . to make publicly and generally known[;] . . . to announce publicly esp[ecially] by a printed notice or a broadcast…”
So it looks like West Hollywood has a green light to stop both commercial and non-commercial advertising trucks from roaming its streets. What’s preventing San Francisco from doing the same thing?
Click to expand. On the Embarcadero:
And Market Street:
Just asking.
(Brace yourselves, more these trucks like these are on their way. Get used to it…)
How West Hollywood does it, after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 2010, 6th, 8m78856, abortion, advertising, annual, anti, ban, california, choice, crowd, illegal, law, legal, license, los angeles, march, march for life, market, mobile billboards, parade, plate, prop, rain, San Francisco, SFPD, shark, size, street, thousands, trucks, walk for life, west coast, west hollywood
Posted in advertising, law | No Comments »
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
These mobile billboard trucks, in town for today’s West Coast Walk for Life, don’t appear to constitute “commercial advertising” so the people responsible for them don’t appear to be violating San Francisco law.
Click to expand. On the Embarcadero:
And Market Street:
Anyway, this is what’s roaming the streets today…
Tags: 2010, 6th, 8m78856, abortion, advertising, annual, anti, california, choice, crowd, illegal, law, legal, license, march, march for life, market, mobile billboards, parade, plate, prop, rain, San Francisco, SFPD, size, street, thousands, trucks, walk for life, west coast
Posted in protests | No Comments »
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Let’s see here, that was a big march the anti-abortion people put on today, huh? The Chronicle (or what I’m actually looking at - SFGate, San Francisco’s online newspaper) was on the scene today and reports that “several thousand“ were at the West Coast March for Life on the Embarcadero.
On the other hand, the organizers themselves have the number at “at least 35,000.”*
My count was 22,000+ so 35k sounds, how shall we say, optimistic, unless they’re counting people who didn’t march and were hiding somewhere. PipeLineNews (“the RIGHT news… RIGHT now”) comes in with a guess of “23,000 – 25,000,” which I’m thinking is their good-faith effort to be objective.
But, as always, You Make The Call. If you think this video shows the crowd passing any given point at more than one person per second, then you’ll think an estimate of several thousand is too low. So much for crowd estimates….
UPDATE: The Chronicle’s Joe Garafoli discusses yet another estimate of precisely 22,809 marchers. And the SFPD weighs with more than 10,000 all told. Here’s an IndyBay report that indicated the crowds were smaller this year (they weren’t) and here’s another with five glaring errors in the first three sentences. Oh well. Lastly, here comes the Catholic News Agency with an estimate of 25,000, which sounds perfectly cromulent to me.
Today’s vanguard:
Click to expand
Read all about it, after the jump
*And when you tell lies/ An angel dies. Remember that for next year, Dolores.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, 6th, abortion, annual, anti, choice, crowd, march, march for life, parade, prop, rain, SFPD, size, thousands, walk for life, west coast
Posted in protests | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Boy oh boy, when you hire PR flack Sam Singer to represent you, as many others have done, he won’t just hide in some office, oh no. What he’ll do is go out in the field and meet your nemesis head on. As here, during yesterday’s big labor rally / march / sit-in in and around Union Square.
With hundreds of unionists assembling behind him on Market Street, Sam sang to the media, complete with Frank Chu watching on.
Sam Singer complaining to KTVU 2 about how Local 2’s Mike Casey left the negotiating table:
AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka on the right, with local labor leaders addressing a huge crowd at 750 Market:
Fire fighters union president John Hanley:
Handshakes are out, terrorist fist jabs are in:
About 800 marched (or 1400+ or 1500 if you’re a partisan with rose-colored glasses) up to the nearby Hilton Hotel, where 100+ got arrested.
On It Goes…
UPDATE: Dan Nguyen-Tan has video of the march right here.
Tags: 2010, afl-cio, associates, boycott, flack, hanley, Hilton, hotel, John, l trumka, Local 2, march, market, Mike Casey, parade, pr, public relations, richard, richard trumka, sam siner, sam singer, San Francisco, singer, street, strike, union, workers
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
San Francisco’s monthly semi-unauthorized bicycle parade was well-attended and exceptionally ugly last night. Did your bike suffer any property damage (“let’s fucking beat up his car!”)? For whatever reason, Halloween Critical Mass 2009 had lots of gaps so that led to confrontations at every intersection – confused car drivers were tempted to just push through to end their lengthy waits. And the SFPD seemed less pro-bike than I’m used to seeing. Oh well.
Now, grab your parasol, pack your marshmallows, count the choppers, put on your PJs, and raise your fixie. Let’s take a gander.
Just look at the stalled MUNI buses and trolleys (trollies?) stretching from Mid-Market all the way back to the Ferry Building last night:
Click to expand
The riders could only just sit and stare:
Stare at this, a car-free Market Street:
via geekstinkbreath
Now let’s take it to the streets. Ichiro was there. He started going on about how there’s “sexiness in the infield.” OK fine:
About an hour or so after the six-ish P.M. starting time, the stalled buses started to pile up:
A happy corker vs. an unhappy corkee at the intersection of 8th and Market Streets.
After a while, car drivers start getting into this rolling Rorschach test. Some sit on their cars…
…while others, like this SUV driver, get out to fruitlessly confront the madding crowd:
IMO, parolees display the least tolerance for CM. Oh well. They just can’t handle it.
A stalled driver gets freaked out by Pumpkinhead:
Thank Gaia the cops were there:
Oops, here there are, pushing along the stragglers on Market:
And then an error – the main body of riders hung a right and headed up Van Ness. That’s not the way to cork MUNI, which got back to normal on Market Street round about 7:30 PM. Oh well. Van Ness from Hayes looking north up to California – the whole thing was entirely filled with bikes:
So there’s your Halloween Critical Mass 2009. See you next year.
Tags: 2009, 30, 30th, biclcye, bike, bus, confrontation, cops, cork, corked, costumed, costumes, critical, critical mass, cyclists, delay, department, dept., friday, fridays, halloween, intersection, last, market, mass, month, monthly, parade, police, San Francisco, sexy, SFPD, stalled, tacoed, transit, trolley, Wheel
Posted in bikes | 4 Comments »
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
LovEvolution 2009 (or LoveFest or the Love Parade, call it what you will, gallery here) went down in Civic Center yesterday- what a huge turnout it had.
Here are the best photos uploaded to Flickr.
Auric Goldfinger really started a trend, back in the day:
via Kanaka
Cf. this shot from the Chronicle’s Frederic Larson - showing why you generally want to keep your white people skin tone magentas lower than the yellows. As always, click to expand.
Hey buddy, get gold or get gone – chest hair is no excuse:
via SFBart
Here we go, a little gold goes a long way:
Kanaka again
All right, that’s it for gold. Now how about orange?
Beefcake beefcake, beefcake!
via SFBart
DJ Baybe flew in from Spain just for this event:
via Benjsf
The Center of Attention:
via Bendjsf
Furry boots on top of the truck require an extra hand or two to secure footing:
via Kanaka
And let’s give it up for the DJs:
via Kanaka
Everybody is a participant, everybody is an observer:
via kutchingboy
It’s all fur this year, either up top or on your platform shoes.
via Brian Caldwell
Market Street was just packed, baby:
via Kumasawa
And if you can’t afford the entrance fee, just neck outside the double chain link – show them all why they call it LovEvolution:
via Brain Caldwell
And There You Have It - those are the best photos from Flickr.
See you next year!
Tags: $10, +3, 6th, annual, best, bus, cage, california, cameras, civic center, crowds, dancers, department, dept., dj, djs, dollars, electronic, Entertainment, evolution, flicker, flickr, floats, go go, gorgeous, los angeles, love, love evolution, love parade, lovevolution, lovolution, market, Muni, music, myspace, naked, not safe for work, nsfw, nude, nudity, october, parade, photographs, photos, pics, pictures, police, san francisco 2009, sandra gorgeous, Saturday, sexy, SFPD, shots, sweet tooth, transit
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Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
LovEvolution 2009 (or LoveFest or the Love Parade, call it what you will) is still going strong down in Civic Center today – what a huge turnout it has – check the best photos from Flickr and some more photos posted on SFist. Now this year everybody’s paying $10 to get in, so that helps to pay for San Francisco’s excessive fees for doing anything, anytime, anywhere. Anyway, it’s fuzzy cowboy hats as far as the eye can see. And MUNI is FUBAR’ed beyond all recognition. Oh well.
Remember, this type of gathering is Why They Hate Us. Not Fleet Week or nothing, it’s this kind of stuff that They hate. Oh well. Here’s a slide show of photos to ponder. And here’s the post-first, edit-later (Go Go Gorgeous is a person, really? “Kobayash,” is a last name, really?) San Francisco Chronicle’s take, along with 23 photos. And here’s David Yu’s shots.
The cage dancers of Market go rolling up the street. Go Go Gorgeous!
Click to expand
Sandra Gorgeous of GGG, (“a full-service Go Go company“) blowing you a kiss - the whole team is “all about adding that sexy, fun, and friendly energy to good events. Pour some gorgeous into your event!” Available, I’m sure, for weddings, bar mitzvahs….
They had a ton of floats going uptown to Civic Center…
…populated by people like these representatives from Sweet Tooth Entertainment:
2009 on the left, 1969 on the right. Dude was baked:
Do people really spray paint their Dell Inspiron laptop computers gold and then take them on parade? People do. “Gold! I love goooold!”
And they all ended up in Civic Center, thusly. Just look at all these good-for-nothing pukes clogging up the place – is this why my grandfather fought the Second World War, and spent his weekends on the Jersey shore?
Pretty much.
See you next year!
SF LovEvolution Fast Facts
WHAT: San Francisco LovEvolution : A Dance Music Parade & FestivalLove Week page for more info.San Francisco LovEvolution Event Changes this year : on the need for a $10 entrance fee to the festival site at Civic Center Plaza
WHEN: Love Week starts Wednesday, September 30th with official and affiliated parties each night all week and through the weekend.
The main LovEvolution event is Saturday, October 3rd from 12noon – 8:00pm.
WHO: SF LovEvolution is all ages & all friendly peoples.
WHAT’S MORE: A parade starts from 2nd & Market St. in downtown San Francisco with ~25 floats heading West down Market St. The parade is free and all ages.
THEN WHAT: The floats arrive at Civic Center plaza where they park to becomes 25 stages on a transformed festival grounds with food, beverage, a new live electronic and performance stage, and outstanding revelry. There is a $10 entrance fee to the festival grounds, children under 12 with their parents are Free. All ages welcome. No outside alcohol.
WHY: The entrance fee was necessary for the survival of the event due to significantly higher city related fees. Please read the whole story below!
THERE’S MORE (!): After the festival ends at 8:00pm a number of after parties kick off all over the city, including the Official After Party produced by Skills & Spundae on site at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. After parties have their own admission and age policies. See the
LOVE: YES
As anyone who attended last years event knows, SF LovEvolution is now the largest electronic music event in America. Thanks to all those who have faithfully supported us and to the many new Lovers who attended last year. Because of the growth of LovEvolution, however, and to preserve our ability to parade down Market Street and party right in front of San Francisco City Hall, we’ve had to institute a few changes to this years event.
First, because of escalating city fees and the events growth last year, LovEvolution 2009 will require a large increase in all levels of traffic, police, security and medical personnel. This translates into a very large increase in how much money it costs to pull off this special event. As this is a non-profit event with minimal corporate sponsorship, we will be charging a $10 admission to LovEvolution this year in order to pay for the increased staff and other event expenses. We’ve always asked for a $10 donation but since most people do not give, donations are not sufficient to fund and improve the event. In order to be able to continue the event, we received special permission from the city for a $10 admission plan. This is as close to free as we could make it and at $10 for 250 world class DJs, LovEvolution is still the best bargain for an event of this scale in America. **We pay 100% of the costs back to the city, so without this change, we could not have the event. Please note kids under 12 with their parents are FREE. You can also get in free by volunteering. Of course – the parade is FREE to all and the entire event from 12noon- 8:00pm is still ALL AGES.** (After parties will vary by event).
Second, there will be no glass or outside alcohol allowed in the event. This has always been a condition of our permits, but when the event was smaller we never had to enforce. But the site was littered with broken glass last year that presented a safety hazard, so we now have to enforce this policy. This is for all our safety and is no different than at any concert or gated event, so please don’t bring alcohol or glass, it will be confiscated or you’ll be turned away at the gates.
On the bright side, the $10 admission will allow us to continue having this amazing event as well as to add some special production elements in Civic Center plaza. This year we are premiering the LovEvolution Live stage in front of city hall featuring an all out performance by The Mutaytor, and much more tba. The $10 admission will also allow us to reduce prices at our bars since we are now not as dependent upon alcohol sales to pay for the event. We’ll also be eventually eliminating entry fees fees for the floats so producers can make their floats even better. And YES – there will be ins and out allowed. And YES, kids under 12 with their parents are FREE.
Last but not least, the $10 admission will allow us to increase the amount of our non-profit contributions to other worthy organizations. Non-profits that received funds last year and/or we expect to donate to this year include:
Friends of the Main Library
Next Aid
Aids Housing Alliance
The Center for Sex and Culture
Beat University Scholarship Fund
Black Rock Arts Foundation
Bay Area Young Positives
Burners Without Borders
San Francisco Suicide Prevention/HIV AIDS Nightline
Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity
Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity
Thanks for your support and looking forwarding to a fabulous LovEvolution 2009!!
Tags: $10, +3, 6th, annual, bus, cage, california, cameras, civic center, crowds, dancers, department, dept., dj, djs, dollars, electronic, Entertainment, evolution, floats, go go, gorgeous, los angeles, love, love evolution, love parade, lovevolution, lovolution, market, Muni, music, myspace, naked, nude, nudity, october, parade, photographs, photos, pics, pictures, police, san francisco 2009, sandra gorgeous, Saturday, SFPD, shots, sweet tooth, transit
Posted in events | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Here’s what Twin Peaks looks like after the intentional act of arson over the weekend:
Click to expand.
This is what it looks like a little higher up from the Twin Peaks Overlook:
It seems like a pink Hindenburg crashed:
And the remaining balloons look like the start of a Christo art exhibit
Anyway, it looks like a few road flares could have done the damage, which amounts to about 150 square feet or so of charring.
Oh well.
Tags: $28, 2009, 27, accelerant, accelerants, arson, christmas tree, fire, flares, Gay, giant, june, morning, night, parade, pink, plastic, pride, road, San Francisco, triangle, twin peaks, weekend
Posted in crime | Comments Off
