is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.

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Human-Powered Spinning Rides Make San Francisco Resident Eat Words.

On Saturday night I inadvertently joined the freaking urban alterna-circus for the night. So I guess I have to qualify even more the stuff I said about the fire jugglers, etc. There was no juggling of fire at the event, but there were sexy mouse clowns everywhere, and various crazy contraptions, and music performances, moonshine and beer and an offer to deep fry anything you wanted deepfried. It all reeked of The Burning Man Crowd. This was all to celebrate the last performance of The Human Mousetrap at midnight. Jeff, Caroleen, Liz and I, along with Elias and Kaeko, went and checked out the whole big scene in Bayview. I enjoyed every minute of the evening, and it reminded me of what is good and amazing and even inspiring about some of the aspects of human creativity that power things like Burning Man. But, no, I have not been converted. Worry not.

The best part was that there were rides powered by human pedaling of bicycle-like contraptions! I love rides! Especially the ones that spin you around!

A human mousetrap is just what it sounds like, if what it sounds like to you is a contraption that begins with lighting a fire and progresses with a bowling ball rolling through a huge and complicated obstacle course of stairs and netted throwing implements and raised bathtubs, etc. It all ends when the bowling ball makes a vault fall on a huge stuffed mouse. And of course all the while there are hot girlclowns clowning around in fishnet tights and bustiers. The dramatic portion of the Human Mousetrap was ponderous and took too long, but the course of the bowling ball and the drop of the vault was entertaining.

But, more importantly, there were rides there! And beer was One American Dollar. And there were many objects for looking at, and musicians a-playing songs, and the people-watching potential was about as good as it gets. The first ride I went on was powered by four people pedaling. I wandered up a hill to check out a two-person ferris-wheel thing, to see how it worked. There were too many people gathered around it so I wandered around in the dark through some bushes toward a strobe light and there it was: my ride. Four riders would get strapped into basket seats (two face forwards, two backwards) equidistant from each other around a circular form, and then the pedalers start their pedaling and the ride begins to spin. The ride is on the top of a hill and unlit, and there is a good view on one side of the alternacircus mousetrap and on the other side of the bay rimmed with lights. The first time I went on the ride I was sitting backwards. I was dizzy for 45 minutes after that, in a VERY GOOD WAY. So I drank two beers, of course. Then I decided that EVERYONE had to try the spinning, so I made Jeff and Caroleen go on the ride. This time we had four very aggressive pedalers at the helm and we spun around VERY SWIFTLY INDEED, and for quite some time. Did I mention that the ride is completely in the dark except for some strobe lights and the distant lights of the city viewed across a section of the bay? This makes it MORE FUN. However, apparently Jeff is not as fond of being spun around as are Caroleen and I. And so I hereby pledge never to talk him into going on a spinning ride again. In any case, after my second go-round (facing forward this time), J, C and I all contributed to the cause by pedaling for some riders. That was fun but tiring, and somehow contributed to the dizziness, which made it difficult to walk back down the hill on the wooden slatted contraption that is supposed to help one walk back down the hill. I drank some more beer, and then Caroleen and I went on the other ride.

The second ride is the ferris-wheel thing (follow that link and you'll see that this ride is described as "quite thrilling." There is also a hilarious photo along the left side of the page of a guy hanging on to a square frame lookingn terrified. That is probably what I looked like on the first few times around). It consists of two chairs to which were attached pedaling mechanisms. I got into the bottom chair while Caroleen climbed a ladder to get into the top chair, 10-15 feet higher than me. The we started pedaling, and became our own 2-person swiftly moving ferris wheel. This ride was right on the edge of the hill, and also tended to be jerky at the top, so I screamed the first, oh, 15 times I crested the top part. It was TERRIFYINGly fun. We were the last riders so the guy let us go on at it for quite some time. So we did. Then we went home, tired, and high from being spun around and up and down. Oh how I love those rides!

Caroleen and I began to get excited for our day at Paramount�s Great America, over the August 5-7 weekend.

Today I went to a barbeque at Marco�s house, and a good-sized group of us sat around all day in the sun or shade eating and talking and laughing and, yes, drinking beer, my theme for the weekend, and apparent summer occupation. Evany made an amazingly tasty blackberry pie. I brought an indian-spiced cauliflower and potato salad. On Wednesday it�s off to YOSEMITE.

12:17 a.m. - July 25, 2005

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