Thanks to all the awesome volunteers that came out to clean up Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park on Saturday as part of a Starbucks 40th Anniversary community service event.

According to the Chronicle, the work the volunteers accomplished translates to 3,000 hours and $90,000 worth of work that would otherwise fall on the Department of Public Works.

Volunteers picked up trash, planted, and painted over graffiti. Joining them was Richmond District Supervisor Eric Mar.

Thanks to all the green shirts that helped beautify our neighborhood!

Sarah B.

As part of yesterday’s Sunday Streets celebration, Golden Gate Park’s godfather of skate, David Miles and the California Outdoor Rollersports Association, organized three challenges to attempt to break skating records for the Guinness Book of World Records.

First up was The World’s Longest Skating Serpentine which they broke by chaining together 128 skaters and winding their way down JFK Drive.

Then it was onto The World’s Longest Chain of Inline Skaters and finally finishing with an attempt at The World’s Longest Chain of Roller Skaters. Unfortunately, the excitable group was not able to break the last record but they did come away with two new records – way to go!

They even had some city celebrity in on the action – Mayor Ed Lee and SF Rec & Park GM Phil Ginsburg were part of the record breaking feats.

Special thanks to k9sound for providing video of the events.

Sarah B.

Unlike the past couple of years when the festival has only had a few big headliners, this year’s Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park (August 12-14, 2011) is packed with big names on the music scene.

The lineup was just revealed this morning; here are the highlights:

Muse
Phish (2 sets)
Arcade Fire
Black Keys
MGMT
Girl Talk
Decemberists
John Fogerty
Erykah Badu
Beirut
The Roots
Arctic Monkeys
Big Audio Dynamite

Check out the full lineup here

Tickets for the festival go on sale this Thursday, April 14 at 12noon Pacific time and include:

Special 3-Day Ticket – $175.00 (Limited Availability)
Advance 3-Day Ticket – $185.00 (When Special Sells Out)
Regular 3-Day Ticket – $199.50 (When Advance Sells Out)
VIP 3-Day Ticket – $450.00

What do you think of the lineup? Are you going to check out the festival this year?

Sarah B.

Carnivals and their sideshows are something of a relic now in our country. But there was a time when traveling carnivals would roll into small towns, featuring sideshow performers like the tattooed lady who performed nearly nude on stage, showing off their tattoed bodies.

Author Amelia Kelm Osterud has written a new book entitled The Tattooed Lady, the first ever history book about this small subculture. She’ll be at Green Apple Books on Thursday, April 14th to discuss the book and talk about its corageous subjects.

These women spun stories for captive audiences about abductions and forced tattooing at the hands of savages, but little has been shared of their real lives. Though they spawned a cultural movement—almost a quarter of Americans now have tattoos—these women have largely faded into history.

The first book of its kind, The Tattooed Lady uncovers the true stories behind these women, bringing them out of the sideshow realm and into their working class realities. Combining thorough research with more than a hundred historical photos, this social history explores tattoo origins, women’s history, and circus lore.

The author is herself a tattooed, adacemic librarian who hails from Wisconsin. Stop by Green Apple Books on April 14th for a book signing and discussion of her new book.

Sarah B.

This Saturday and Sunday, the SF County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park will host the 16th annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair.

The free two-day event features dozens of vendors (booksellers, distributors, independent presses and political groups, from the local area, the west coast and North America) displaying books, pamphlets, zines, art, information and other interesting stuff – plus loads of speakers, free bike valet parking and more.

The fair will also feature an art show, displaying works from local radical artists, curated by Jon-Paul Bail and Brianna Lengel-Bail.

The fair runs on Saturday from 10am until 6pm, 11am until 5pm on Sunday. Admission is free.

Sarah B.

It’s baaaaack! This weekend, Sunday Streets returns to Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway from 11am until 4pm.

Come out and walk, ride, dance, hula hoop or just stroll along Sunday Streets longest route, nearly 6 miles of car-free roads through JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park and on the Great Highway from Lincoln to Sloat Boulevards.

In addition to the usual menagerie of exhibitors and events going on at Sunday Streets, I also got word of a special event where the California Outdoor Rollersports Association and the skaters from the Black Rock Roller Disco will attempt to break three different Guinness World Records for skating:

1) The Worlds Longest Chain of Roller Skaters is specifically for four wheel “quad” roller skates. Each skaters will hold on to the other skaters hips as the group moves together a distance of at least 400 meters without breaking the chain.

2) The World’s Longest Chain of Inline Skaters follows the same criteria.

3) The World’s Longest Skating Serpentine is a little different as it is for both inline and regular roller skates. A skating serpentine is a long line of skaters that are linked hand to hand. The leader or “head“ of the serpentine moves forward and the chain of skaters follow. The head makes turns to the left and to the right as it moves forward forming a snake-like motion with the chain of skaters.

Based on the event website, it sounds like they’re looking to get about 600 people involved to break the record. Mayor Ed Lee has been invited to participate and if you’ve got a pair of skates and also want to help with the record-setting venture, head over to the event website to find out how to register, which is required.

There is a $10 fee to participate. Skaters will meet at 10am at Skatin’ Place at 6th Avenue and Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park.

And if you can’t make it out to this week’s Sunday Streets, mark your calendars for Sunday, July 10 when it returns to our neck of town. Other Sunday Streets dates in 2011:

May 8: Mission route, including the popular route along 24th and Valencia Streets;
June 12: Bayview route, 3rd Street from Mission Bay, Dogpatch to the Bayview Opera House;
July 10: Great Highway route #2;
August 14: Civic Center/Tenderloin route;
September 11: Western Addition route, including North of Panhandle, Alamo Square and Fillmore and Japantown
October 23: Mission route #2

Sarah B.

One of the 365 sketches by Jay Mercado that will be on display at his studio this Saturday

[This event was originally scheduled for March 5, but it will now be on this Saturday, March 12th - SB]

Local artist Jay Mercado is hosting a special, one day only exhibition on Saturday to showcase his daily sketches from the past year.

This group of ink scribblings is a sampling from my ongoing morning sketch ritual. I invite you to see the 365 from 2010! To sketch is to live in the moment. It becomes a visual journal born from the quiet action of observing. Sketching is an integral form of meditation which serves to ground me and provide an inner oasis as I begin each creative day.

The show will run from 10am until 5pm, with a special “informal super-mini-sketching-semi-workshop/doodle session” from 10 until 11 from Jay. I hear mallomars will also be served, or you can just salivate over some of Jay’s donut art.

Jay’s studio and gallery, Art Mercado, is located on the corner of 10th Avenue and California.

Sarah B.

If you’ve been looking for a good overview tour of the Lands End area and its history, this event is for you!

Led by Lands End historian and retired GGNRA ranger John Martini, the 2 hour “Steam Trains, Shipwrecks, and Sutro Baths” walk explores some of the area’s rich history.

John will follow the old Land’s End railroad grade to a scenic overlook and, if the tide is low, you may spot the rusty remains of steamships wrecked on the rocks below.

John will also tell stories and share photos as you walk within the ruins of Sutro Baths, including a venture inside one of the tunnels Adolph Sutro created in the 1890s as part of his Baths complex.

The tour runs from 10am until 12noon. To RSVP and get the meetup location, call (415) 561-3054 or write trailsforever@parksconservancy.org.

Sarah B.