I’ve often felt I was born too late.

I didn’t come of age at The Farm, or The Mab,  and I missed Off Broadway and the Nightbreak by a few years. By the time I hit the scene there weren’t too many options left for a young punk rocker lookin for a wild time. It had already become a world of hand stamps and IDs, cover charges and agro doormen. Gone was the hint of danger, the controlled violence of a good mosh pit, gone was the urgency to hurry up and have the time of your life before the cops show up to shut the whole thing down.  Gone was the underground, the afterhours, the night…

But even in the absence of relevance there were those who played on. They came to the shores of Tire Beach with generators, they came to the corner of Mission and 20^th to play live in front of what once was Leed’s, and they came to Ace Junkyard, the last bastion of underground culture in San Francisco.

Located on McKinnon st. in the dirty depths of the Bayshore, Ace was a legitimate junkyard by day. A place where you could find a replacement alternator or a motor for the robot you were building in the garage, a place where the air was heavy with the smell of rust and rotten gasoline, and black grease was thickly caked on every hand you shook.  What set it apart from the area’s other dismantlers was the owner, a man named Bill. (Or, on occasion, a woman named Billenda.) It was his generosity and support of the local art and music scene that made the place what it was, but it was his soul that gave the place a life of its own.

Image by Scott Beale

If you’ve been lucky enough to have watched Cookie Mongoloid from atop a pile of scrap, or brave enough to have ridden one of the bike rodeo’s homemade thrill rides, or been fortunate enough to get to know Bill, you understand.  Ace was more than a place to see a show, or find a spare part. Ace was, to me, more than the sum of its parts. It was a place where I felt I belonged.

And now it’s gone.

After 25 years of operation, and a year long struggle with the landlady, Bill has been forced to close the gates of Ace for the last time, and so the unstoppable force of progress reduces to memory yet another sacred somewhere.

I raise glass to you Bill, and thank you with all my heart for the many ways Ace touched my life.

The spirit lives on in all of us.

******************************UPDATE 7/11/09 – 11:30AM ***********

False Profit gave a sneak peek at some of the fire art and one of the stages. (Via False Profit Twitter)

****************************************************************************************************

Wow. It seems like every big sound camp and art car in the Bay Area is involved with this event: Opel/Opulent Temple, the Space Cowboys, False Profit, Nuero Weapon, Symbiosis, Gravity Point, and Big Art Studios.

Supposedly there is sand, swimming pools, circus shenanigans, a 50 foot long boat suspended off of cranes, djs, bands, and probably flame throwers, as it wouldn’t be a burner party without some form of conflagration. Don’t miss the chance to see Beats Antique drop cuts from their new album, and the Mermen rock out on the surfin’ safari tip. It should be the Burning Man fundraiser of the friggin’ summer or so don’t sleep on it or you will be one sad panda. More info can be found over here.

–DJRMD

SAND BY THE TON
Presented by Big Art Studios
http://www.headlesspoint.com/sand/

Join us at Oakland’s newest beach for a grand opening
fundraiser of epic proportions.
Swimwear encouraged!

4 electronic music stages
3 live music stages
250,000 square feet of art studios
1000s of your closest friends
200 TONS of sand
1 carnival midway
5 swimming pools

MUSIC:
4 electronic stages
Opulent Temple, Symbiosis, Space Cowboys, False Profit, Gravity Point,
Neuroweapon

2 live music and entertainment stages
[produced by Dustfish + Circus Metropolus]
The Mutaytor, The Mermen, Extra Action Marching Band, Gooferman, Eric
McFadden, Vau de Vire Society, Polkacide, Beats Antique, 999 Eyes,
Mark Growden, Drop Motion

ART:
Dan Das Mann + Karen Cusolito, The Flaming Lotus Girls, Cyclecide
Heavy Pedal Carnival, Michael Christian, False Profits Labs, Justin
Gray, Orion Fredericks, Evan Tracy, Michael Sturtz, Mark McGothigan

DETAILS:
Saturday, July 11
American Steel
1960 Mandela Parkway, Oakland, CA
4pm – late
Free BBQ ’til 7pm

There will be a late night bus shuttle to San Francisco
BART is close by
Secure parking and valet available
Email info@thebigartexperience.com for VIP
Info and tickets: www.thebigartexperience.com
No one under 21 years old will be admitted

]]> http://steakumsblog.com/2009/01/16/mutant-bikes/ Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:21:08 +0000 HarlanWorld http://steakumsblog.com/2009/01/16/mutant-bikes/

Old Bikes…

New Trikes.

Got an old bike you don’t want, or don’t know what to do with it besides throw it in the garage, or putting it in your backyard and watching the chain rust from the weather. Well heres an idea; why not give to the people at . Cyclecide is a place where old bikes get go to get a new meaning. You wont see your usual two wheeled bike at Cyclecide, there they transform old bikes and bike parts into working pieces of art. Cyclecide is a “Bike Rodeo” workshop full of alter-bike mechanics based in SanFransico California.

Cyclecide, who performed two weeks ago at Maker Faire, are going to be back in town this Sunday at Cafe Mundi.

I suggest anyone with some spare time go and check it out – I had alot of fun at their station at Maker Faire. There are lots of wacky bikes you to you ride (or fall off of) but also awesome hand-made bicyle powered carosels and I believe the cost is only a suggested $5 donation.

From their website:

“Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo is a club of alter-bike mechanics, mariachi-punk musicians and psychotic clowns who love bikes, beer and building stuff. Together we form a traveling pedal-powered carnival that is fun for people of all ages.”

Austin Show at Cafe Mundi
November 4, 2007
1:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Cyclecide Bike Rodeo performs at Cafe Mundi Sunday Nov. 4th 1pm- 6pm

Special Guest Performers:
Datri Bean
Esmerelda Strange
That Damned Band! (999 Eyes)

Cafe Mundi
1704 E. 5th
Austin Texas
(512) 236-8634