The Carnaval Will Not Be Motorized

I rode in a Carnaval parade this year, supposedly San Francisco's "best-attended Carnaval ever." There were hundreds of thousands of people there, and it was loads of fun.

Loco Bloco, which is often described as a "youth drum and dance ensemble" from San Francisco's Mission district, wanted a Carnaval float that wouldn't pollute. Loco Bloco is a great group that does gigs at environmental justice events, so this makes perfect sense. They hooked up with the bikers and artists at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Cellspace. Biker/artist Bill got straight to work on a parade float that could be powered by bikes. Even without the parade decorations on it, the float was a thing of beauty. We put a couch on it, and we put some people on the couch, and we took it on a test run through the east Mission. SUVs fled when they saw us coming. Indeed, we took up more of the road than that durnfool "world's biggest SUV" thing, except we carried more useful stuff and spewed infinitely less exhaust.

The float carried Loco Bloco's band, Mala Fama, and all their stuff.

Biker/artist Clare organized the ever-acrobatic Bike Circus, and they showed up in their fabulous costumes, doing graceful and skillful stunts, right behind the float:

The Circus started warming up. Clare was riding high (above) and Joe was riding low (below).

Biker/artist Mona had made a great feathered outfit for the Hallowe'en Critical Mass, including a bird helmet. The helmet flew in for an encore appearance at Carnaval:

Seconds after she fastened her helmet (above), the paparazzi arrived.  They took a few photos and off she went; but soon there were more paparazzi ... it seemed like they were on every block! I think she spent half the ride being photographed. One photo ended up on the front page of the next day's Chronicle.

Behind the acrobats, separated by a sun-headed giant puppet with big arms, were the bikers who weren't trained in acrobatics. People like me. Untrained, yes, but stylin' nonetheless:

Acrobatic Janice (above) comes back to give us a tip or two.

My fellow CRVSADERS were there, on handmade choppers with long forks and other oddities, festooned with red and gold streamers:

Their eyes blinking in the morning sunlight, Anna and Matt (above) were making a rare exception to the CRVSADERS credo: "Build by day, ride by night." It was worth it, though; the bikes were a hit! Some of them were a bit wobbly, but it only looks as if Josh was narrowly missed by an untrained marauding chopper maniac (below), and it only appears as if she was careening into a crowd of innocent bystanders, screaming "ahhh!!!"  (Actually, she's a specialist at balancing and aligning brakes.) Mike showed up on another funky chunky chopper (below).

I wasn't able to do any CRVSADing myself -- is "CRVSADing" a word? -- because I was towing food and drink and the first aid kit in my nifty "BicycleR Evolution" trailer, and the trailer hitch wasn't compatible with the bleeding-edge technology of the CRVSADERS fleet.

It hooked right up to my folding bike, though, so that's what I towed it with. There were other folding bikes there, and other bikes with trailers, and cargo bikes. We just had a whole bunch of weird ol' bikes there in the untrained contingent, so's the onlookers could get a glimpse of the many things bikes are capable of doing -- in addition to towing floats in parades, that is.  Steven's cargo bike looked like it was in flames (below), but in fact he was hauling water. My own trailer, by the way, looks like a cooler on wheels. People kept asking me if I had any beer for them.

Even the normal bikes and bikers were dazzling, thanks to the artful application of red and gold streamers, flags, body paint, and snazzy outfits. We seemed to have two color schemes going, both of them called "red and gold." For some this meant red and gold, but for others it meant red and yellow. It all worked. Some velorutionaries were wearing black shirts with this catchy slogan on them, written in gold ... um, yellow: THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE MOTORIZED

Nicole's revolutions weren't motorized at all (above). I used the opportunity to wear one of my own favorite red-and-yellow shirts (below).  Using all three colors was also acceptable (below). Who was that masked red and gold and yellow man?

The theme of our contingent was "The Reincarnation of the Ghetto Nation." Clare explains:

This theme is similar to the idea of the Livable Cities Movement or a Green City. It was collectively brainstormed by the youth and staff of Loco Bloco. The idea is to reclaim the word, 'ghetto,' while redefining inner city living. San Francisco neighborhoods are dominated by cars and endangered by gentrification. Working class and poor neighborhoods are especially effected by lack of non-commercial public space, rising rents, and the criminalization of youth encouraged by such measures as Proposition 21.

Bike riders, artists and the youth of Loco Bloco have some dreams in common: a green city with safe places for children to play, bike lanes, environmental justice, affordable stable housing, good schools, and public space where it is legal to meet, play and hang around without the exchange of money or the danger and noise of traffic.

Loco Bloco and the float looked fantastic up at the front of the contingent, and there were some choreographed bike dancers alongside the float, as well. I couldn't get any good pictures of the float or the dancers, but I was able to slip under the arm of the sun-headed puppet and get pictures of the circus in action:

Now Joe's riding high (above), and so is Clare (below)!  Here she is, preparing for another spectacular leap into the air. Get ready ... get set ...  Whoops, time to stop and change my roll of film. Sorry.

Here are some nice, bigger photos: