Pillow aftermath by Gretchen Robinette

A recent article in the SF Chronicle indicated that the recent 2009 Valentines Day Pillow Fight incurred at least $19,000 in city cleanup costs. As a result, the city is looking into cracking down on this and other related messy events like the Zombie Mob which leaves a trail of fake blood and the Pie Fight with it’s splattering of shaving cream pies. Of course, fake blood and shaving cream is much easier to just hose away than feathers.

As many of you know, I’ve been involved in a number of these events, either as a UN CCH Observer at the Pillow Fight or one of the hoards of undead at Zombie Mob. I admittedly have had a bargeload of fun at these events and left my quota of blood behind upon the sidewalks; while I spilt no feathers myself as a UN Observer, we did little to stem the flow. I am also a firm believer in Leave No Trace at Burning Man, Balsa Man, and whenever I go camping; unlike most, I even pick up after myself at movie theaters. Why then do I participate in events that leaves such a wreck in it’s wake? This is a good question‚ one that I was already beginning to ask myself before reading the article in the Chronicle.

Rowdy analogues around the world

While contemplating the nature of these events it is important to realize that these large entertaining mob events have analogues in the rest of the world: the chaotic stampedes of Pamplona Spain’s Running of the Bulls, the actual bloodletting during the Shi’a celebration of Ashura, the rowdy Haxley Hood game in England, and the citric squashing of the Battle of the Oranges in Italy. The Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight may not have the history behind it that these events have, but it is arguably similar in both style and messy aftermath. Also, it seems fitting that as Americans our large mob events would have no connection with history.

Pie Fight Aftermath by Steve Rhodes

That said, Pillow Fight did leave quite a pricy sludge of feathers behind which is hard to just shrug off. As stated so eloquently by NinaVizz (aka Nina Alter), all this highlights “why the Leave No Trace ethos in anarchist art making is so fundamental.”

The Pillow Fight, Zombie Mob, et al. have no meaningful historical connection and thus are essentially anarchistic celebratory expressions of the community. While the Italian government may shake it’s head when cleaning up the smashed citrus covering it’s streets after the Battle of the Oranges, the celebration resonates with a historical toppling of the tyrant Raineri di Biandrate (and the subsequent tyrant Marquis Gugliemo of Monferrato). Because of this deep connection with the past, the Battle of the Oranges can be celebrated by all and the resultant cleanup can be shouldered by all. Whereas the Pillow Fight is essentially an event enjoyed by but a few and shouldered by everyone else in the city with a number of pissed off citizens.

The responsibility of participation

Whether you want to call them flash mobs, pranks, or celebrations, I think there is a need in society for these sorts of events. By their very nature these events guarantee that at least some artistic flotsam and jetsam is left behind. However, I believe those who participate should work to make the event fun for all ‚Äî including those responsible for cleaning up. In the very least, we should reduce the impact it has on our city’s workers and others.

In this regard, the Obama/Bush street sign change was a perfect execution as the signs were easy to remove and by many accounts the city workers got a laugh out of the whole thing. I doubt this was true for those cleaning up the sopping feathery sludge left behind after Valentine’s Day, and personally I don’t see any way for the chaos of Pillow Fight to be contained or diminished, so I will no longer be participating in it. As for other events, like much of life, I will consider my level and style of participation on a case by case basis.

That’s right folks! There will be a Balsa Man Decompression for all of you who didn’t get enough tiny art at our inaugural Balsa Man event this past August. Even better Balsa Man Decompression will be held in the middle of Burning Man SF Decompression this Sunday, Oct 12th from noon till 10pm.

We will be decompressing by hosting the Balsa Man Tiny Art Station complete with blasa wood, blades, and glue. If you have your own supplies and tools please bring them too! Due to fire restrictions, there will be no tiny art burn at SF Decompression, but participants are encouraged to have to bring their tiny art home for their own personal burn parties.

The Tiny Art Station is also a skills training workshop for people interested in making their own diminutive masterpiece for next year’s Balsa Man 2009 “Big Dreams Writ Small!”

Hope to see you there!

This post is brought to you by the fabulous Prim Queer Hostess Nifercritter

Last year throngs of leather-clad daddies swooned in shock and horror, when they discovered that MODESTY IS THE NEW KINK. Please do join me again this year, for a delightfully ostentatious picnic in the heart of the world’s largest leather event.

Yes, indeed, dear gentleperson, I am hosting a redux of the most photographed event at last year’s Folsom Street Fair — Miss Nifer’s Prim & Proper Tea Party. I’m inviting all my queer ladies and gentlepersons of all genders, to join me at Folsom Street Fair (in the 8th St. Food Court area) on Sunday, September 28, 2008 from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM, for the not-to-be-missed *2nd Annual Prim & Proper Queer Tea Party*.

Please save the date for this VERY CONSERVATIVE affair. We will drink (spiked?) tea from little china cups, and eat little cucumber sandwiches seated upon our quilted blanket, spread out right in the middle of the action.

Miss Nifer Nefarious respectfully requests her guests to adhere to STRICT “Prim & Proper” attire. (English tea time, or 1920’s picnic era….)

Feminine Attire:
- BIG sun hats, or -tiny- hats
- Parasols
- Long frilly dresses

Masculine Attire:
- Tweed suits
- Knickerbockers
- Mustaches
- Cravats (neck scarves), bow ties, and other ties
- Bowler hats, Flat-top straw hats, & Newspaper boy caps

Because this is a queer affair, I *strongly* encourage you to play with the theme and adopt it to your personal idea of gender identity and orientation….. but please stay within the theme, that “Modesty is the New Kink”. Become inspired by photos of last year’s Prim Queer Tea:

***YOUR participation is essential to making this event the most refined event at Folsom to date! PLEASE RSVP today, so I can organize who is bringing what edibles or other supplies to the picnic, (and also to coordinate our arrival time). Send an email to sporktree (at) gmail dot com.***

Humping Crumpets,
Nifer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PostScript – Looking for something to bring?

I’m trying to make this AWESOME, however it will help me out TONS if a few people brought things. Check out my list below, and email with what you can bring. PLEASE ONLY COMMIT TO BRING STUFF IF YOU PLAN ON COMING FOR SURE. I’d hate to not have a critical item, like cream, if someone doesn’t come. Er, I mean “arrive”. And we surely don’t want to ask a leather daddy for some cream, for who knows what we might get our pot filled with!

Please RSVP to sporktree (at) gmail.com if you can help with any of the following:

+ Tea cups & saucers (mismatching would be cute! )
+ Tea Pots & Tea Kettles
+ Napkins & little paper plates
+ Large blankets & quilts that can be put on the street (We will need to cover at least a 25 foot square area)
+ Some silverware (actual metal would ROCK…. they don’t have to match)
+ Silver serving platters (It’s all about the POSH!)

+ Tea!
+ Small Eats – Scones, Tea Biscuits, Crumpets with jars of Devon Cream or Lemon Curd, Petits Fours, Fruit
+ Milk & Milk Pitcher/Container
+ Sugar Cubes & sugar bowl
+ Tea-spiking stuff– whiskey, rum, ??
+ Sandwiches (Possible ideas: Cream Cheese & Cucumber, Chutney & English Cheddar, Pear & Stilton Cheese, Fig & Olive Tapenade, Cream Cheese & Mandarin Oranges, Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese, Egg Salad

I look forward to meeting you all at The Fair!

Your hostess,
Nifer

By now it should be common knowledge that NIMBY was engulfed in flames on September 10th. The villian was not the notorious flame effects art, nor was it a stray welding spark, nor was it a late night drunken game of redneck soccer. It was an innocent-seeming candle [edit: some reports are saying that it was a space heater]. With all the dangerous equiptment left and right, the danger inherent in such a small flickering flame [or small appliance] was forgotten.

Thankfully, the fire was extinguished before it destroyed much more than the container where it began. The inspectors have come and gone by now, issued their citations, NIMBY now stands shuttered. The art and artists who called it home are left without access to their means of creativity.

Like the fire that engulfed Headless Point and the troubles of the Shipyard, it is a sad day. Both Headless and the Shipyard have recovered to a certain extent but it has been a long haul for both of them. NIMBY’s fate is still uncertain but there is a movement to find a new location to start again — sadly rebuilding at the current location is not an option which makes things so much more difficult.

I will miss NIMBY as I still miss the Cracktory. I was never as close with the Shipyard nor with Headless — the latter had it’s calamity right when I was getting to know it. Whereas, NIMBY, like the Cracktory, felt like home — I never actually lived there, but I have numerous good memories from art projects and laughter between freinds around the burn barrel.

Is it wrong to miss a location as you would miss a person? More to the point: is it wrong to miss a place more than you miss people?

I’ve floated through numerous social circles in my life: some have evolved and reformed and others have disappeared to become little more than pocket lint. These fickle social strands flex, twist, grow, and sometimes disintigrate with few feelings of sadness for me. On the other hand, when places move on, especially places with such character and moxie, I am left with a hole in my heart which can never quite be filled.

Blogged from my iRudder

So I got hit by a car on Friday of last week. Typical frantic mother deciding last minute to pick up cough meds for her daughter. She pulled into a parking spot right in front of me. Thankfully, I was able to stop in time so as I didn’t go flying into her car. Still my front wheel tacoed and I dropped to the ground giving myself some quality road rash on my elbow.

She was nice, drove me to work, and she’ll pay for all damages. Turns out that the damages are just to the front wheel, but I’ve got decent rims so that turns out to be a decent amount. I was already leaning towards looking at a new bike sometime this year so I decided take a gander on craigslist to see if there was anything interesting. As it turned out there was. A total drool-worthy bike right up my alley — so I went ahead and did it using the repair money towards this new bike instead. I figure I’ll slowly repair the old bike and sell it or use it as a second bike.

I’m really happy with my new bike and it’s frankly a bit 1 level higher quality overall then what I was looking for originally. It’s pretty and therefore solidly a target, so I’ll need to upgrade my locking standards. It’s also a bike that goes against almost everything jwz says about proper bicycle commuting, but then again I’ve been bicycling for years in San Francisco too so I’ve built up my own share of opinions on bicycles, commuting, and utility bicycling.

When I first started writing this post, I had thought I would craft a similar advice list discussing where I agreed/disagreed with jwz; however, as part of this is about upgrading my own bike I thought I’d create a list for intermediate level utility cyclists — which will be the focus of my next post.

Come out tonight and join us for What’s Your Answer?!!

From the same people who’ve chosen to accept the BLAME (and some limited legal responsibility) for such FAMOUS travesties as URBAN Golf, The BUZZED BEE, The $25,000 Pyramid Scheme, and Crackhouses For Humanity comes the most COMPELLING underground entertainment EVENT of the first part of this week:

“WHAT’S YOUR ANSWER?” – the Pub Quiz night where the most humorous answer wins!

At “What’s Your Answer?” we don’t care how many obscure historical facts you’ve memorized, or which team has kept up to date on the latest dirt about Britney Lohiltonhan, or who knows which rogue nation just now broke off all diplomatic ties with the U.S. and is threatening an imminent nuclear attack. Well, okay, we might care a little bit about that last one. But ONLY if your answer is funny.

That’s right. The answer that gets the most LAUGHS will also get the most points, as awarded by our panel of celebrity judges. At “What’s Your Answer?” there’s NO NEED to actually KNOW ANYTHING, just so long as you and your team can crack wise. Or crack stupid. We really DON’T care. But at the end of the night, the team with the most points will win some fabulously crass PRIZES, and bragging rights (or “street cred”) redeemable within a laughably small and hopelessly ESOTERIC local sub-culture!!!

This NOT-TO-BE-MISSED show will DEBUT at 9pm on MONDAY the 26th at renowned Mission Street hotspot 12 GALAXIES.

$5 dollars admission, no one turned away for lack of funds, taste, timing or tact.

More details at the “What’s Your Answer?” Web Experience
As seen on LAUGHING SQUID