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beer:30, hearts, Things/Thoughts

Happy Friday!

January 7, 2011 2 Comments

One of the many things I miss already from this past Holiday season, is our very San Francisco Anchor Steam Christmas Ale.
I can wait another year, es OK.

Anchor steam christmas ale. kthx
anchorluv ahoy!
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SF bike party core group test/ride, from December 2010.

January 6, 2011 8 Comments

This was back in early December, a core group of San Francisco bike extraordinaries+enthusiasts, rode a testing a route of what would be the 1st unpublished SF bike party. A lot of outstanding efforts, time, and planning has been discussed and the route for this upcoming Friday event was tested a few times.
Many props to all the organizers, volunteers and chefs in the bike party planning kitchen making all that noise.

In preparation for this Friday’s ride, below is a little video I made last year (at the time there was no URL available but now you can find all the info at sfbikeparty.org.) I think I’m liking this presentation style of including a video, what do you think?! not bad huh..
I have also included the set of fotos below, these are too from the first test/ride Dec.2010 =)
[vimeo] Video:

2 photos of the crew: awesometasticos!!! missing a few, but mostly there.
San Francisco 1st bike party  
minus Deep (Photo taken by him)
San Francisco 1st bike party
minus me (same)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
parteeeey
YEAH!
More fotos of the ride: Distance of about 16-18 miles.
 The route was smoething like panhandle>Bernal Heights>Bayview>3rd>Howard>Dolores Park. 
Good times.
lights at the statues
The start at the Baker street statue.
the guys
The boys.
on valencia
On Valencia street.
you!
You!
oh haaaaaay
hot chocolate duo
ramonsitta
ramonsitta
kevin +mary kay
peace duo
cue ef si
qfc beats duo
friends
blue and red duo
up the hill team effort
Push team duo! — up a STEEP hill. (Deep’s sound tricycle weights a ton!) Go teamwork!!
mustachow
fashionable duo
qfc
chatting-the night away duo
dogpatch
dogpatch duo
friends
amigas duo
casitas y bicis
The view from the back of bernal heights.
cristina
Cristina is a star.
bayhsore
Bayshore stop.
monkey electric by a kelleys mission rock
Dan +his monkey electric bike by a kelleys mission rock
Alongside the water
on howard
on Howard.
La CTX
Stripey socks smileys. Calitexican.
super good times from all the by-standers
Super FUN good times from all the by-standers. Be aware of the tremendous amounts of smiles this ride causes =)
deepsaurus
Deep and the Trikeasaurus
las spice bikers
and let’s hear it from the WOMEN!! yeyaaaaaaaaa ♥!!
golden standard
golden standard.
dial M for troubles
M+M: We say you can ride hills, all levels, all bikes. There is no shame of walking up a hill if you need to.
We like routes, we like hills: they do a body good. Your legs will thank you. kthx
the end.
the end.
+Don’t forget to join the party tomorrow night. Bring your neighbors, bring your friends.
More details at SFbikeparty.org

– – –

//// The San José bike party will be in the family of parties with SJ Bike party (posts from August and April rides), as well as the East Bay party.

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Behind the scenes: the SF bike expo 2010!

December 15, 2010 3 Comments
catwalk list
Bike catwalk list

It is finally here! Another MEGA fun behind-the-scenes post, for the day we were all fashion bicycle models for Pedal Savvy at the SF Bike Expo in the Cow Palace, November 6th.
This was fun, we modeled, got tons of hairspray and fancy stuff on our hair, got our make-up done and off we went.

hair
getting lots of hair spraysssssstsssssss
cheeeez
cheeeeeeese
wheeeeee
here I am!!
all smiles
KT
I love this photo of KT, while she wasn’t looking =)
racks
zzzzzzzz
make-up session. and I was ready for mi second dose of coffee!
Listen up everybodyyyyy
“…Shall we read the following chapter…”
sssssup
sssssup
Gwen's mom
the show isn’t complete without Gwen’s mom around =) We love her!!
patricia
Patricia
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meligrosa/5177470017/" title="Katieeee <img alt="Katieeee
Katie super star doing some finishing touches on the bicycles.
The bikes included brands like Felt (mine came with a coffee cup holder…how apropos) Public, Electra, dutch bicycle, Globe, Dahon, and even a bamboo bike!!
bisous
bisous for everybody
!!!
Gwen at work
HAAAY
Gwen and us — HAAAAAAAY

There was some review around the interwebs, blabbing upon how this stuff was so hip, unnatainable and how much it didn’t represent the bicycle community across the states. You know what —- this is San Francisco and it is a world-class city with all its flaws, beauties and struggles. We were all there because we opted to do so, opted to support our friend Gwen and the SF Bike Expo team and we are ALL riders between the ages of 18 to 40+, and although we don’t represent everybody, we do our best to do so, work our ass off either in school or jobs, and bike every day. We also had two young children to model for the evening show with their dad, so cute!
Know that the companies and tailors, many of them locally-based, that provided their goods to be shown off, were more than proud to do so. We all don’t buy an entire outfit, nor buy the latest and greatest to ride — we are here because is fun, we are city people and if you don’t like to see us having fun and enjoying our day off by being here all day in this fabulous bike fashion show, then don’t get caught up judging against it. I’m also not about to promote the mentioned site link, which is in no big city, but somewhere in the east coast and probably snowed in. So that’s that and that said..

Let your body move to the music, hey, hey, hey. 
Come on, vogue.
We had our favorite paparazzi and friends in the house!
paparazzi
we all love Richard
dusty is hereeee!
Dustyyyyyyyyyyy
and then, the camera loves you
…and then, the camera loves you
howdy
scoreeeee
JD scored some rims
brush up session
the we had a brush-up session
heeeeeeey
we are readyyyyyy to go!
adm love!!
Robin’s finishing touches
Dad and kids
triple troubles!! =))))
with Joe
Matching reds – I hearts Joe!!
amour de ma sunglasses
amour de ma sunglasses — mi amiga KT of VéloVogue 
 
last pose
KT et moi had way too much fun back there!
frenchie et freinds
We had a huge bike pile going on, so here are most of our bikes. It does a body good.
—-
And what is a bloggera to do, asides drinking coffee and taking photos….
Richard caught me right-handed doing both, here is me and below the shot I took from the stage:
Meli and a camera
and here is, once again a shot from the bikecatwalk shot from the stage! =)))
the crowd!!
the crowd!!!

  

+++can’t get enough?! Here are more goodies

Photographers were Dusty (set not up yet) and 

Richard (with assistant Ivy and friend!) of cyclelicious whose set can be viewed here: link
Adrienne recently posted a cute SF Bike Expo “tribes unite” post at CYLRAB here: link

Just this week, the video sprung out from the blogesphere, was so happy to see the clip, which quite sums it up. +Eeek and whose legs are those sans tights?!? The videos sum up so much fun!!

Gracias y thank you to everyone that dropped by +enjoyed the show!!feed the models. and bring all the coffee to me!!
♥xxo.meli

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Much needed Monday motivation: « À Bicyclette »

December 13, 2010 7 Comments

My partner in artsy-things-and-silent-film crimes, sent me this link the other day which he so nicely included the lyrics +translations. So cute, now I need a little Campari mid-day cocktail and close my eyes imagining I’m at his concert.
Yves Montand, Olympia 1981

 

« À Bicyclette » “By Bicycle”
Quand on partait de bon matin When we left early in the morning
Quand on partait sur les chemins When we left on the roads
À bicyclette By bicycle
Nous étions quelques bons copains We were a few good friends
Y avait Fernand y avait Firmin There was Fernand and Firmin
Y avait Francis et Sébastien There was Francis and Sébastien
Et puis Paulette And then Paulette.

On était tous amoureux d’elle We were all in love with her
On se sentait pousser des ailes We felt like we were growing wings
À bicyclette On our bicycles.
Sur les petits chemins de terre On these little dirt roads
On a souvent vécu l’enfer We often went through hell
Pour ne pas mettre pied à terre To not dismount
Devant Paulette In front of Paulette.

Faut dire qu’elle y mettait du cœur I must say that she really put her heart into it
C’était la fille du facteur She was the daughter of the postman
À bicyclette On a bicycle.
Et depuis qu’elle avait huit ans And ever since she was eight
Elle avait fait en le suivant She followed him around
Tous les chemins environnants All the neighborhood roads
À bicyclette By bicycle.

Quand on approchait la rivière When we approached the river
On déposait dans les fougères We left in the ferns
Nos bicyclettes Our bicycles.
Puis on se roulait dans les champs Then we rolled in the fields
Faisant naître un bouquet changeant   Giving life to a changing bouquet
De sauterelles, de papillons Of grasshoppers, butterflies,
Et de rainettes and tree frogs.

Quand le soleil à l’horizon When the sun on the horizon
Profilait sur tous les buissons Cast over the bushes
Nos silhouettes Our silhouettes
On revenait fourbus contents We returned exhausted and content
Le cœur un peu vague pourtant Yet the heart a bit vague
De n’être pas seul un instant Because we never had a moment alone
Avec Paulette With Paulette.

Prendre furtivement sa main To furtively take her hand
Oublier un peu les copains To forget the others a little
La bicyclette The bicycle.
On se disait c’est pour demain We tell ourselves that’s for tomorrow
J’oserai, j’oserai demain I will dare to, I will dare to tomorrow
Quand on ira sur les chemins When we go on the roads
À bicyclette By bicycle.

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Supermarket Street Sweep – SMSW 2010!!

December 8, 2010 11 Comments

The Supermarket Street Sweep 2010, SMSW 2010 took place this past Saturday at noon here in San Francisco. Two awesome bike ladies Kacey and Jenny Oh, are the wheelwoman power rangers behind this operation alongside photographer Koshi and many volunteers.

“The Supermarket Street Sweep is an annual bike race that benefits the San Francisco Food Bank! For the past four years, hundreds of participants have zipped around the city to local supermarkets and brought back thousands of pounds of food to donate to this wonderful charity.” –supermarketstreetsweep: about 

This year I decided I was mentally ready to participate in this. As a lone wolf I often times am, I stopped by a few of years ago, but got a little intimidated (bike wise) by the cargo bikes, thinking I couldn’t carry much or deliver a big load of stuff. But then I saw some pictures later and learned furthermore about it, +I could totally do a food-bank fundraising alley-cat style ride, and so I was stoked to join this year!!

 posters for delivery

The 2 posters I gave as my contribution for the prices this year, were safe+dry and ready for delivery. Mandatory coffee stop before showing up at noon was a must. I even had a breakfast burrito. Extra bike fuel was necessary this morning.

 
Here is the complete map. Approx 14.8 miles
and the day went like this:
pamela
pamela! her set is here: link
reesie
reesie stopped by to take some snaps =)
chicas
chicas.
Katie got first place in the race on road bike. woo!
check-in
Nio and everyone, ready to check-in
jenny y kacey
Jenny y Kacey
jd y sasha
Jeremiah y Sasha
best socks!
mark had the best sox
where to go
and ready
cupids
set
take off
go!
1st stop: Safeway. The first stop was 4th and King and didn’t take many photos, I was still figuring and things around, bought some beans and canned food.
spoke card
spoke card
 
 
2nd stop: CALA foods. Heading from the SOMA to Hyde and California was the most fun because I knew I’d rn into the sea of red. Santacon was crawling around civic center and I knew my beloved Polk street would be plenty of entertainment. Never fails.
Route: 4th> Townsend> 7th> Market> Grove> Polk> California
 santasland
santasland
 more rice
Buying more rice and reading chisme magazine.
cala pit stop
CALA pit stop. 
 
 
 
3rd stop: Safeway. Heading to Webster and O’Farrell from California street, was all downhill. I liked that. Off to the Safeway between Japantown and the Fillmore. That safeway was packed. 
Hyde (big wheeeee!!> Geary> Polk> Macallister> Webster
webster y o'farrell
Safeway in the fillmore
frenchie parking
Frenchie parking. I took some time to stretch and drink lots of water.
new amigos
new amigos
These guys and their epic balloon swords, mostly from the Eat Bay, were super nice y encouraging =)
3rd stop: Rainboooow. Going from the Fillmore to the Mission was super easy, flat and the traffic was quiet serene. Once I got to Rainbow I thought I’d get myself a really fresh drink as I was super uber thirsty. Given that a place like Rainbow has all kinds of hippie cool drinks, I knew I’d find something fun. I was imagining maybe cilantro water? ha aa, well better yet, I got me some coconut drink with lime juice. Wattttt. Fantastico.
>Webster> Page> Gough> Mission> 14th> Folsom
I'm too happy for this place
oh rainbow. it’s so heavy up in here.
I was so happy my sudafed had almost entirely kicked in (I had been fighting with nasty ear flood feeling allergies) I decided to take a photo. When I set-up the timer of my silly happy moment, some guy working there gave me the dirtiest look. You know what, I don’t care what kind of philosophical dark day you are having mr. Nietzsche guanabee of the Mission. Now move over boy, while I go continue to overfill my mixte basket.
dingding and off I go!!
panda on 16th
This is somewhere on 16th. It started to sprinkle just a little bit, then it stopped.
4th stop: Smart and Final. Getting from Rainbow, to the Bay Shore blvd. I decided to go around the dogpatch to hit less traffic lights and mini hills and opted to take 3rd.

This one I wasn’t sure I could do out of memory, as I had already done the whole ride without a map, but if my memory served me right, I remember passing by this Smart and Final many times on multiple random rides. I thanks my good memory.

This was perhpas my favorite spot of the route, as I got to talk to a middle schooler that asked the group about what we were doing. I continued to talk him and his mom for a little bit and it was just a very nice moment. I told him I could totally see him on a bike and he got really shy, it was cute.

This was the stop I learned from my neighbor loaders, that if you have a goal of making a top cargo load, this is the time to do it. Makes sense since it is closest to the final point. Everyone had such crazy big loads and I even saw a trio of guys gobblyish walking down Oakdale because their bikes were just so overloaded. Dammmn awesome!

>14th> Rhode Island> 16th> 3rd> Evans> Toland> Oakdale
at the smart and final
dirty rice
mi buddy dirty dave
john's 315lbs!
John’s 315lbs! guaooo – this champ got 2nd place for cargo.
jiffy basket
jiffy basket
heavier items went in the basket, the pasta and such went in the backpack.
tonka trucks IRL
IRL Tonka trucks, riding on César Chávez heading back to the dogpatch

 

Final stop: Food bank. Pennsylvania and 22nd is where the Foodbank is. In the above little map is the red + black square. Getting there and delivering the tiny load of mine felt great, at this point I wish I could carry more, but 10lbs on my back is max, and the rest go in the basket. My intentions and will were gazillions of pounds however. It was super fun to see so many people and their loads. I chatted with most throughout the ride as I decided to do join up alone, I didn’t have a group or any of my girls with me.

Often I like doing stuff alone. And no matter what, you are always surrounded by good people.

jeremiah's load of buckets
load of buckets
dad and son duo
dad and son duo. Cooper was the youngest rider and such a fantastic trooper =)
miz jenny oh
yes finish!! checkin back in with Jenny
oh hai
oh HAI!
weight line
weight delivery line
deliveries into the food bank
my load
finito
check sheet
I may have not hauled a tremendous big load but at least I can proudly say I did the whole thing sans map.
damn RIGHT I ride the hell out of this city.
–
sasha
Sasha hauled an impressive 80+lbs in her everyday bike. That’s rad!
Mind you I think having a bike covered with heart-shaped stickers helps… =)
Afterparty: Rickshaw bagworks. Prizes, pastries, party on. Yes. Food from TaKorea and beer from 21st amendment. Nice and nice.

Rickshaw bagworks is located on 22nd street near Minnesota.

everyone luvs steven
Everyone loves Steven
He won the 1st place in the men’s road alleycat race, before the finish line was even open. Classic.
Rickshaw bag afterparty parking
rickshawlands
mike giant posters
hallo
matthew's new moonie hat
matthew won a beanie
foto chisme
foto chisme
ties and lycra
the boys
haaaay
the ladies
I was very happy and inspired to see the ratio of women quite high throughout the day. 
My ladies are super badass!!
smsw
raffles
mi poster has an owner!
mi poster has an owner! swoon ♥
– – –
Here is a foto I really liked, fueling myself with the AM power bfast burrito +not a surprise with coffee in hand…
Taken by Adam:
20101204122916 Cupid Coffee
Cupid Coffee (C)TyrellVoightKampff
SMSW 2010 Riders
SMSW 2010 Riders (C)jkoshi
Me and frenchie!!  
This photo was taken by Koshi, and you can view the complete set of all riders awesome rideres here: SMSW 2010 Rider Portraits
 
—- 

OK, that is all — thanks to the awesome volunteers, participants and organizers for making this happen. And come all next year, it is fun and the best feeling + great way to spend a Saturday on your bike around the city hauling food, for a good cause.

♥xxo.meli
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A Tuesday like no other.

November 2, 2010 13 Comments

+  Los Gigantes de San Pancho win the baseball world series —– the city is so crazy insane.
+  [Don’t forget] Califas voting day.
+  Y the most important annual holiday for me: ♥ Día de los muertos.

More pictures later – For now, here are our Día de los muertos awesome photos.
I have not yet been to the 16th and Mission station, but I hear is surrounded by the bikey calacas. So rad!!

♥Día de los muertos
**All photos of Mayra
and I, by Rio Yañez
Mayra recently posted a before and after post, make-up video included here  

La Meligrosa
“La Meligrosa”
Mayra y su bicicleta
“Mayra y su bicicleta”
If you haven’t been, the exhibition Honoring Revolution with Visions of Healing – ends this week, please swing by – there are amazing shrines and rad pieces in display. A post about the opening later on.
SOMArts | 934 Brannan St. –– 1Admission is free
Closing reception this Nov. 6th, 5-7:30 PM
Puro Lowrider shot
“Puro Lowrider shot”

Mayra by El Rio:

Flores
“Flores”
Mayra y su bicicleta
“Mayra y su bicicleta”
Viva Mexico
“Viva Mexico”

+Yours truly, by El Rio:

Beckoning 
“Beckoning”
Bicicletas
“Bicicletas”
Meligrosa in Red
“Meligrosa in Red”
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Happy Friday!

September 17, 2010 9 Comments

Because you left your heart in San Francisco, it now gets to ride around with me +frenchie, baby!!

♥ tgif
♥ tgif
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