The Wigg Party

Fell and Oak Bikeways – Wigg Party Endorsement

Morganic — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:21:02 +0000

As some of you may have heard, the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority is looking to build better bike lanes on Fell and Oak Streets between Scott and Baker Streets. These dual three block stretches are, of course, critical in connecting the comfortable Panhandle multi-use path with the Wiggle proper. Currently, there is a fairly treacherous bike lane on Fell Street, and absolutely no bike infrastructure on Oak Street. The MTA recognizes that these two streets are the ones most heavily used for bicyclists heading to Golden Gate Park or down to the Mission or downtown, and so they are putting together a plan to create separated bikeways for these three blocks on each street. There is a workshop being held on Saturday December 3rd from 10 am to 2 pm where you can come check out the latest designs and provide your feedback.

We’d like to encourage you to not only show up to provide your input, but we at the Wigg Party are specifically endorsing the option of removing parking along one side of Fell and Oak for these three blocks to accommodate the new bike lanes. Here’s why.

The MTA has narrowed the options down to three. Each of the three options include one-way separated bike facilities on both Oak and Fell Streets. They previously were considering a two-way bike facility on either Oak or Fell but they have determined that a two-way bikeway offers more problems than solutions (Can you imagine relying on drivers on one-way Fell and Oak to account for bicycle traffic coming the opposite direction? We can’t either). Therefore, the only question that remains is how do we reconfigure Fell and Oak to make room for the separated bikeways.

The three options are:

Remove parking along one side of both Fell and Oak between Scott and Baker
Remove a travel lane from both Fell and Oak between Scott and Baker (taking them from 3 to 2 lanes along this stretch)
Create a “tow-away” lane on Fell and Oak between Scott and Baker. This means that there would be two permanent travel lanes and one lane that would be traffic during the day and parking at night.

We’re going to take the options in reverse order.

The Tow-Away Lane

In many ways, this seems like the perfect best of both worlds option. There’s even the added bonus that we may have actually provided the original idea for this about a year ago. In this configuration, you get the full 3 travel lanes when you need them, and residents get to keep their parking spots at night. However, when you dig a little deeper, it’s less a “best of both worlds” and more a “worst of both worlds.” Not only would this option require an incredibly ingenious design so that the different uses at different times would be naturally intuitive to drivers, but you would need intense outreach to educate drivers about this unique set-up. Honestly, even if this was all done really well, we’d put the over/under of crashes along this stretch at +/- 2 per week, particularly at that tricky 7 pm (or whenever it is) changeover. Rear-end city. Not only is the design a significant challenge, but one has to ask whether having a parking spot that requires you to move your car at 6 am is really worth very much to folks. The whole option seems nice in theory, but is pretty much guaranteed to suck in practice.

Removing a Travel Lane

This option is pretty much an awful idea. Even though most people like to think all bicyclists are narcissistic, ego-maniacs who wouldn’t care if all the roads in our city dropped cars directly in the ocean, we actually understand that Fell and Oak, while being the only appropriate cross-town route for bicyclists, are also important major thoroughfares for cars too. And this plan would pretty much screw that up. Sure, having two lanes on Fell and Oak between Scott and Baker could potentially be made feasible by carefully timing the lights and other traffic engineer magic tricks, but what happens when somebody who lives on these three blocks needs to move? Chaos, and a major backlash for bicyclists, that’s what. Not to mention that removing this travel lane would require a CEQA Environmental Impact Report which would basically delay the project for approximately infinite years. All in all, if you think removing a travel lane is the right option then you are a certifiable moron.

Removing Parking

Which brings us to the only sane option on the table, removing the parking along one side of Fell and Oak respectively. We don’t have the exact numbers of how many parking spots are in question here but we’ll ballpark it at around 75. Now, we know that parking in this neighborhood is already pretty tough (although we can pretty much guarantee that anybody who whines about this fact isn’t aware of the tragically underused parking available at the DMV lot every night). Instead of focusing on the number of parking spots that will be removed, we’d like to focus on two other figures: 441,541 and 0. The first is the number of personal automobile parking spots that exist in the city of San Francisco and the second is the number of safe, accessible bicycle routes that connect the east side of town with the west. And that’s really the most important thing to remember here – not building these separated bikeways is really not an option. If we want to be a Transit First city, if we want to get more people on bicycles and, therefore, out of there cars, thereby lessening auto traffic and freeing up more parking spaces for the stubborn or infirm, then we absolutely must find a way to connect the Panhandle to the Wiggle. We realize removing parking is going to automatically upset some people (it’s not called the “third rail of local politics” for nothing) but we can make up those parking spaces elsewhere (like the DMV parking lot… where they already exist).

In conclusion, please come out to the MTA workshop this Saturday, December 3rd from 10 am to 2 pm (it’s a workshop so you can just drop in at your leisure). It is hosted at the San Francisco Day School at 350 Masonic and Golden Gate. Check out the facebook event if you have any other questions.

AND VOTE TO REMOVE THE PARKING ALONG THESE THREE BLOCKS OF FELL AND OAK STREET! Tell them the Wigg Party sent you.

Facebook Link Digest 7/13

Morganic — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:48:17 +0000

Wigg Party Contribution to HuffPost SF

Morganic — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:45:22 +0000

I know you all are anxiously counting down the hours to the Wigg Party Party this Thursday evening (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133693926712330), but to keep you occupied in the meantime, check out this article we just contributed to the brand new San Francisco version of the Huffington Post. Enjoy!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morgan-fitzgibbons/its-on-us-san-francisco_b_887109.html

Facebook Digest 6/21

Morganic — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:55:35 +0000

Facebook Link Daily Digest

Morganic — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:16:37 +0000

Wigg Party Facebook Post Daily Digest

Morganic — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:05:12 +0000

Bikes and Beats this Friday

clint — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:30:07 +0000

The Intersection of Music, Bikes and Art

It is difficult to explain how excited we are for this upcoming Friday. Bikes and Beats, whose first event was launched as the Wigg Party Party anniversary celebration, is back again and with more exciting activities to boot. Plus a portion of the proceeds will be donated to us, The Wigg Party, and Sunday Streets San Francisco. Friday’s Bikes and Beats event, held at Public Works (161 Erie) party will start at 10pm and will be an excellent place to wrap up the SF Bike Party. There is no better way to kick off a week of bike centric events such as Sunday Street Mission and Bike to Work Day like shacking your tail feathers at one of SF hottest new clubs.

Check out the Facebook event page and invite all your friends. Scroll down for more details on how to get advance tickets and the awesome activities happening at Public Works include two rooms of music, street food, raffle prizes, DIY bike crafts, bike art, bike fashion, bike poems, bike parking, and well…you and your bike. Did we mention there will be bikes?

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PRESALES ARE ALMOST GONE!
$6 presales
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/170547

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TWO ROOMS OF MUSIC plus:

JUST ADDED!
* Haight St Poet, Lynn Gentry, writes you your very own bike poem *

* DIY Bike Crafts – Make Your Own Spoke Card & more! *

* Live Custom Screenprinting by Like Minded People*
(http://likemindedpeople.us/)
~bring your own garment!!! Choose up to 3 music and bike
inspired designs, place wherever you want and voiilaaa! instant
dope custom steeze for you and your crew!~

* FREE Bike Valet Parking provided by SFBC (http://sfbike.org/)*

* Street Food Vendors by Apothocurious*

* Outdoor shenanigans hosted by the famous San Franpyscho van
& design crew! (http://www.sanfranpsycho.com/)*

* Bike Art Exhibition by Hugh D’Andrade, Erik Anderson and Peter
Warren

* Jaw-Dropping Raffle Prizes *

* Bike Fashion by Kazoo Studios and Aqua Cherry with support
from http://Level4Couture.com/ *

* Live Painting by Delvin Kenobe Leake

* Fotomagic Memories by CUDUNKO!faux toe *
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THE POLISH AMBASSADOR (1320 Records, Ample Mammal, Oakland)
http://thepolishambassador.com/
Record Release for “Future, Sex, Computers” out NOW!
One of the most sought-after party rockers within the far reaches of our solar system returns home from a busy touring schedule for his first SF show in over 6 months! The man in the blue and yellow jumpsuit delivers electronic dance beats for future freaks.

PARTY BEN (House Nation/99.7 NOW, Slacker Radio)
www.partyben.com
Remixes and rumpshakers galore from the original mash-up machine. Check out his site for a gang of free downloads!

NON STOP BHANGRA*
http://nonstopbhangra.ning.com/
A genre-busting elixir of North Indian Bhangra music and dance, mixed with hip-hop, reggae, and electronica.
*BHANGRA DANCE LESSONS starting at 10:30pm!

M.O.M. (Motown on Mondays)
http://motownonmondays.com/
DJs Timoteo Gigante and Gordo Cabeza mine the vaults to bring timeless originals and inspired reworks of classics and forgotten gems from the Motor City!

DJ DEEP
http://flashdance.org/
You’ve seen the mobile sound system, boogied at the Flashdance parties, now catch the man Deep behind the decks at Public Works! A mix of all things funky for the bike-powered party people.

NISUS (Blasthaus)
http://nisusthemovement.com/
Nisus moves dance floors like a class five rapid, flowing seamlessly through electro bangers to whomping dubstep explosions with tech-funk tweaks, leaving crowds in an inspired mess of sweat and revelation.

IZZY*WISE (Afrolicious)
Cumbia, klezmer, dub and deep deep, live vibes from the one like Izzy.

Live VJing all night by the one and only ALLOFITNOW!

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$6 presales: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/170547
$10 at the door
10pm-3am
21+ with ID

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Menus from Urban Eating League Round 2

Morganic — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:50:27 +0000

Here’s 4 out of the 5 menus from the Urban Eating League on Sunday for your imaginary culinary pleasure. Enjoy!

Faith, Geoff, and Lindsey’s “Homebrew” Dinner (Hotel Zorba):
1. Skewers of deep-fried sweet potato and apple with a leek walnut cream dressing. Paired with homebrewed kombucha.

2. Stew and a Biscuit – Dried fava and cranberry bean stew (with fennel, celery, onion, leek, and soup stock made from the Divis Market juice booth scraps! garnished with fresh fava puree) with a quinoa flour cornbread slider, stuffed with roasted leeks and fennel. Served with a “mimocha,” a mimosa of kombucha and fresh mandarin juice.

3. Birds Nest Salad – a nest of pea shoots, beet green chiffonade, and home-sprouted alfalfa, topped with mandarin slices, sunflower seeds, and a quail egg. Served with a beet juice cocktail.

4. Beer Tasting with Bar Snacks – a course highlighting two of our homebrews, a hefeweizen and a cinnamon porter. Paired with a snack plate: salty kale chips, spicy gourmet popcorn, sweet roasted mixed nuts, and home-pickled radishes and carrots.

5. Shepherd’s Pie – potato crust, mushroom filling with four kinds of mushrooms (foraged black trumpet, king trumpet, shiitake and cremini). Topped with homemade goat ricotta. Served with a roasted apple chutney (apple, walnut, pistachio, ginger, leek, fennel). Paired with a tasting of the cinnamon porter and hefeweizen.

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen:

Amuse Bouche (served to all diners in all rounds): Rosemary crackers, Bella Carpa chevre, homemade fig compote and homemade apple bourbon compote.

Butternut squash, shallot and parmesan ravioli with a sage brown butter sauce and pasta crane.

Quinoa flour crepes with a spicy roasted butternut squash, potato, carrot, onion and herb puree.

Cold beet salad with pickled red onions, fennel root, corriander-roasted almonds, Marin Cheese Company Feta, and blood oranges.

Flatbread with kale, preserved lemon peel, Vella Dry Jack Cheese and garlic.

Duo of pizzas:
Rouge et noir brie pizza with pink lady apples and rosemary.
Potato, thyme, beet greens, garlic, Sierra Nevada Jack Cheese pizza with an egg.

House of Love:

African sweet potato groundnut stew over basmati rice

sweet potato*, tomato*, crunchy peanut butter*, carrots*

Organic red quinoa with granny smith butternut squash curry

squash*, carrot*, leeks*, ginger*, granny smith apple*

“ Roots raw ” beet salad with chevre, served on beet greens

raw red and golden beets*, carrots*, ginger*, fuji apples*

Raw California kale slaw with tomatillo-avocado dressing, served with Indian bruschetta and fresh avocado

kale*, baby bok choi*, carrots*, spring onion*

pan-roasted tomatillos*, avocado, cilantro*, chili, lime*

olive bread crouton with Indian tomato chutney and chevre

“South” Indian grilled cheese sandwich with fuji apples

grilled challah and wheat bread, white cheddar, chevre, fuji apples*

slow-cooked tomatoes*, fresh curry leaves, spices

*organic

Three Ten Tower of Taste

First Round: Sage butter sweet potato mash on a sage butter toasted crostini, filled with a dollop of goat cheese, drizzled with a beet balsamic reduction and topped with toasted pecans and a toasted sage leaf

Amuse Bouche (served to guests as they entered, except for the first round): A spoon with a dollop of the sweet potato mash, beet balsamic reduction, goat cheese, toasted pecan, and a bit of butter fried sage leaf

Second Round: Quinoa mushroom arugula patty topped with caramelized onion, goat cheese, and sauteed swiss chard

Third Round: Beet towers with chive goat cheese layered between purple and golden beets on top of a bed salad greens sprinkled with maple caramelized pecans, apple & radish slivers and an apple balsamic tahini vinaigrette

Fourth Round: Kale & Swiss chard saag (cottage cheese, coconut milk, spices…) on a toasted pita round

Fifth Round: Apple fava bean falafel in a pita bowl with an apple, cabbage, carrot slaw, garlic feta herb tzatziki, lemon tahini sauce, and a side salad from round 3

Urban Eating League Round 2 Recap

Morganic — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:21:56 +0000

Well, it’s official. We’ve spawned a monster. The Wigg Party and Apothocurious hosted round 2 of the Urban Eating League last night, and in just one month the event has grown by an order of magnitude. We upped the ante from three host sites to five, but it was really the creativity of the Eating teams that saw the biggest leap.

Homemade rosemary crackers, Bella Carpa chevre, fig compote and apple bourbon compote - No Big Deal

Whereas last time only a handful of teams brought their “A” game with costumes and skits, this version saw almost every team dress up, perform games and skits, and embark on an evening of impromptu revelry. Through the luck of the draw, I found myself escorting Team Snowpants or No Pants a.k.a. Team 4X4 Conversion Van which was decked out in snow gear and held as their mission for the evening to make it to first chair in Tahoe. While they didn’t quite find a way, they did tear up the streets of SF with some serious schussing. Ja?

Team Snowpants or No Pants

And it was truly a sight to behold when Team Snowpants or No Pants merged with Team 1/6th Asian (which also happened to be decked out in serious neon gear) at our second stop, Hotel Zorba. An impromptu skiing dance was choreographed in between our stops and the hosts of Hotel Zorba were treated to a show that can only be described as mesmerizing movement. Luckily, our friends at 100 Days of Spring provided us all with Flip Cams, so the whole thing was captured for posterity. Now about editing that footage…

Two teams stop for an impromptu gathering between host sites

Other team highlights that I experienced were three amazing magic tricks performed by Team Magic at our fourth stop at Safe Space, the culmination of which produced two delicious Old Fashioned’s that were enjoyed by the whole table. I also really enjoyed eating at Too Many Cooks with Laura, Will and Sam (whose team name I didn’t catch). After enjoying some delicious homemade Rosemary crackers and Beet salad, we all pretended we got food poisoning and splayed out like we were dead. This of course seemed entirely appropriate considering Too Many Cooks blindly chose a “slightly used” copy of the Natural Born Killers soundtrack during team introductions. Yeah, things got a little zany…

We learned you can never have too many cooks in the kitchen

And the food! The host sites are really the ones who make this event go. Our team enjoyed a delicious sweet potato and peanut butter soup at the House of Love (cooked with love by Jake Levitas and his housemates with a special guest appearance by Jake’s parents), then an amazing cranberry bean soup and quinoa cornbread sammie plus homebrewed kombucha at Hotel Zorba (following the sacred spring equinox ceremony which contributed to them winning the Most Creative award! The cornbread was of course gluten free and featured freshly foraged mushrooms from Sonoma County), enjoyed the aforementioned delectable beet salad at Too Many Cooks (who won the Flavor Slam award for best overall food), chowed down on some home made gnocchi with kale pesto between magic tricks and slightly risque stories at Safe Space, and finished it all off with homemade falafel pitas at 310 Tasty Towers where we were encouraged to make our own name placards, play Tasty Tower Jenga (with each piece instructing you to do something like “take a risk,” “kiss the cooks,” or “talk about what community means”), and feed another at the table based on which playing card you drew. The overall ambiance at 310 Tasty Towers, plus Tibet serving us all while on roller skates, won them Best Hospitality which came with a stunning trophy designed by Mark Gaffney and one free team entry for next months version (which is rumored to be a “Bikes and Brunch” format. More on that later).

Flavor Slam

Free Massages help you win Best Hospitality

I’m tempted to predict that it’ll be hard to top last night’s event, but I should know better. The biggest lesson we learned last night (besides making sure to explain the scoring system before all the teams embarked on their culinary journey – in the confusion, our team toyed with the idea of scoring on a color spectrum and another team actually did fill out the scorecard using pictograms) was that if you simply set up the container and give people the opportunity to be creative, they will rise to the occasion. Even if you stripped down all the hijinks and silliness, everyone who participated last night got to eat a seriously amazing meal with a whole slew of new friends, an experience that will no doubt echo through in this great experiment in community building we find ourselves undertaking.

Pure Joy at the After-Party

Somebody started "icing" people

The only parting thought I’ll leave you with as I attempt to digest everything on this day after is this: if all of this sounds like a good time, make sure to get out to the Divisadero Farmers’ Market early on our next sign-up day. I can guarantee that the spots won’t last long.

The joy of victory - Hotel Zorba wins Most Creative

The World's Greatest Air Banjo Orchestra

Please vote for the Wigg Party in the Green Awards

Morganic — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:00:15 +0000

The Wigg Party has entered our very first competition to try to win some money to support our growth, and we need your help! Please click on this link and vote for us in the Green Awards: http://www.THEGreenAwards.com/Default.aspx?v=176

Here’s the video we made for our submission: Morgan Fitzgibbons WIGG PARTY

If we win, we’ll receive $25,000! Runner-up gets $2,500, which isn’t too shabby either. You can vote once per day until March 27th. We’re up against some other great projects (particularly school projects – man those kids know how to get votes…) so you’re contribution is incredibly meaningful! Please vote and tell your friends. Many blessings.