The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s annual Tour de Fat event hits Golden Gate Park this Saturday from 11am until 5pm at Lindley Meadow (map). It’s called that because it’s sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company, the makers of Fat Tire beer.

It’s a raucous, family-friendly celebration of all things fun and cyclical. Hop on your two-wheeler and join the Tour de Fat Bike Parade at 11am. Dress up in costume or outfit your bike for the grand display. Sort of like a kinder, much gentler critical mass for all ages.

From noon until 5pm, enjoy “Afternoon Ballyhoo” at Lindley Meadow, which they describe as “two parts bike rodeo and one part circus”. Check out fire-jumping bike acts, cycling games, and live music from Mucca Pazza, Dovekins, The Daredevil Chicken Club Presents: A Honeymoon Cabaret, The Raspyni Brothers, and Americaine: Stupide.

You’ll also have a chance to get your bike repaired (or at least tinkered with), your face painted, eat some good food, have a beer and join their “cycling circus of sensory splendor”. Bring an item of clothing and you can silkscreen it with bikes at the DIY booth.

Tour de Fat is a free event and all proceeds from beer sales ($5 for 16 oz.) will benefit the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.

If you do bring your bike, free valet parking is available. But even if you’re without your own set of wheels, you can still come out to enjoy the cycling fun. This is a great event for the kiddies.

Video below shows last year’s Bike Parade coming by the de Young Museum. And while we’re on the topic of biking, check out this interesting article on the history of cycling in San Francisco.

Sarah B.

Why should the de Young and Academy of Sciences have all the after-dark fun in Golden Gate Park?

Next Wednesday night from 5:30pm until 8:30pm, the Conservatory of Flowers will keep their doors open after hours for SLURP!, a night out amongst the fiendish carnivorous plants in the Conservatory’s special exhibition Chomp 2.

Tickets are $5 per person but we’re giving away a pair for free plus a cool steel CHOMP! water bottle. Just send in your answer to the trivia question below via our Contact Us form by Monday, Sept. 20 at 5pm. We’ll draw the winner at random from the correct entries.

Q: Venus flytrap is the common name for the carnivorous plant pictured with this article. What is its scientific name?

At SLURP!, you can explore all of the Conservatory’s galleries, enjoy craft beer from local Clara Street Brewery, plus flash your smile for free souvenir photos from the trap-happy Magnolia Photo Booth.

Artists Sarah Filley and Yvette Molina of Wonderarium will also be on hand with their Mobile Plant Ambassador. The duo is working on a giant floating terrarium for Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

Enter to win tickets to SLURP! by Monday at 5pm. But if you don’t win, stop by next Wednesday night to enjoy the Conservatory galleries, some good beer and goofy self-portraits in San Francisco’s very own jungle under glass.

Sorry kids – SLURP! is for those 21 and over only.

Sarah B.

Get your giggles on this Sunday when Comedy Day returns to Golden Gate Park for its 30th year.

San Francisco’s professional comedy community joins together each year to produce the five-hour show. The Punch Line, Cobb’s Comedy Club, SF Sketchfest, Rooster T. Feathers and Comedy Day each contribute their favorite comedians to produce a highly entertaining, five-hour set.

Grab a patch of grass and enjoy over 40 entertainers whose sole purpose is to try and make you wet your pants. Check out the page of confirmed performers and the show schedule which includes SF Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Eddie Brill (warm-up comedian for Late Night with David Letterman), KGO’s Brian Copeland, and well-known political satirist Will Durst.

Comedy Day is free and runs from 12noon until 5pm at Sharon Meadow (map) in Golden Gate Park.

Sarah B.

Foggy Night, Land’s End, 1953. Photo by Fred Lyon.

Fred Lyon, a San Francisco native with 70 years as a photographer, will be appearing at Green Apple Books on Saturday afternoon to show off his newest collection of photos, San Francisco Then.

The prints therein came from a box of old negatives that he rediscovered in his filing cabinet from his early years experimenting with photography in the 1940s and 50s – photographs that had been just gathering dust until now. Newly printed and displayed together for the first time, they offer a candid and raw rendering of San Francisco, pieced together by an artist who loves (and can tell) a good story through words and images alike.

30 of Lyon’s images were recently on display at the Modernbrook Gallery downtown (see images here). The Chronicle covered the show and has a great article on Lyon’s background and the tale of how he convinced Willie Brown to write the introduction to San Francisco Then.

Stop by Green Apple Books (506 Clement Street) on Saturday afternoon from 2-3pm to meet the man behind the lens and hear some great stories of S.F. back in the day.

Sarah B.

Sutro Baths Divers, 1953. Photo by Fred Lyon.

Go-Cart Racers, 1953. Photo by Fred Lyon.

The Lands End Lookout will be located on this patch of land adjacent to the parking lot and Point Lobos Avenue.

In late July, the first public meeting about the new Lands End visitor center, tentatively being called the “Lands End Lookout”, was held at the Cliff House.

During that meeting, attendees were asked to brainstorm on some questions to help guide the architects in their designs, such as “What does Lands End mean to you?” and “How do you use Lands End?”. Check out what attendees had to say (PDF)

The next public meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 28 where managing architects from Esherick, Homsey, Dodge & Davis (EHDD) plus NPS and Parks Conservancy staff will present schematic drawings of the visitor center, which have incorporated feedback from the community.

The new visitor facility at Lands End will be located adjacent to Pt. Lobos Avenue above the Sutro Baths. It will contain informational displays describing the area’s rich cultural and natural history and will allow locals and visitors to enjoy an indoor space that will complement the dramatic coastal environment.

If you’re interested in attending the Sept. 28 information meeting at the Cliff House, you need to RSVP by Sept. 21 by writing trailsforever@parksconservancy.org or calling 561-3054.

The Sept. 28 meeting will be held from 6pm until 7:30pm at the Cliff House. For more information on planned improvements for Lands End, visit parksconservancy.org as well as the NPS Park Planning site.

Sarah B.

It was a nice sunny day for Michael Franti’s annual Power to the Peaceful Festival in Golden Gate Park’s Speedway Meadow. And boy was it loud! I was at Baker Beach earlier in the day and I think we could hear the festival all the way over there.

Were you peacing out at the festival?

Sarah B.

Photo by Tiffany Silva

Watching Michael Franti and Spearhead perform. Photo by Steve Rhodes

Michael Franti peforms. Photo by Steve Rhodes

American Idol finalist Crystal Bowersox performs. Photo by davidtoshiyuki

Thanks to K9VidBlog, here is some footage from the festivities at the Golden Gate Park Music Concourse this morning. SFCitizen also has pics from the event.

Sarah B.

On Tuesday from 12noon until 1pm, Green Apple Books (506 Clement Street) will host award-winning author Dave Eggers, who will sign copies of his book Zeitoun, which is now available in paperback.

From Green Apple’s website:

Zeitoun is a compelling and urgent work of narrative non-fiction that, through the lens of one family’s harrowing experience, examines the state of post-hurricane New Orleans and its national and international context in all its complexity.

It’s tough to put it better or offer more aptly high praise than the New York Times Book Review did, saying, “Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina… Eggers’ tone is pitch-perfect-suspense blended with just enough information to stoke reader outrage and what is likely to be a typical response: How could this happen in America?”

Eggers is also the editor of McSweeney’s, co-founder of the local non-profit writing center 826 Valencia, and author of the Pulitzer-finalist memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

Stop by to meet Eggers, who makes his home in San Francisco, and if you haven’t already read the book, pick up a signed copy of Zeitoun.

Sarah B.