Not only is there a new Bubble, but web geeks are happily celebrating the fact that they are in the middle of it. Tonight, Thursday, August 31st, will be the first ever Bubble Thursday. The bubble bursting drinking will begin at 7pm at Dada in San Francisco.

Come hang at the first ever Bubble Thursday where we celebrate how awesome it is to be living in the bubble!

We *were* going to call it Bubble Mondays (which sounds cooler) but we slipped on our release date.

Just a small gathering of SF geeks who like Web 2.0 and alcohol (not necessarily in that order).

Rules of Bubble Thursday.

#1. The first rule of Bubble Thursday is that you don’t talk about the dot bomb.

#2. The second rule of Bubble Thursday is that you do NOT talk about the dot bomb.

#3. You can’t buy drinks with stock options.

#4. If a VC funds your startup at Bubble Thursday you have to sponsor the next Bubble Thursday.

#5. If you’re a VC you have to buy me a drink.

#6. You MUST have fun! No exceptions!

This drinkup is being organized by Kevin Burton of Tailrank, but I’m not quite sure if he would want to admit that in public.

Rumor has it that first person who can out the Dead2.0 blogger gets a free drink.

Burning Man 2006 is now in full swing and Current TV is on the Playa and have setup an online television station, TV Free Burning Man. They have been shooting video, doing interviews and uploading a daily show from Black Rock City. They will be doing a live broadcast the burn on Saturday night (September 2nd) starting at 9pm PST/12am EST.

Created in close cooperation with the Burning Man organization, TV Free Burning Man is Black Rock City’s very first television station. Dedicated to bringing the magic of Burning Man to a wider audience, TV Free Burning Man invites the participants themselves to help create the media that will be broadcast.

In addition to TV Free Burning Man, you can tune in to the live stream at any time via the Burning Man 2006 Webcast.

Wow, this is amazing. My good friend and co-conspirator Violet Blue has just informed me that she is now the new sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her column, “Violet Blue: Open Source Sex” will run in the paper every Thursday and debuts on September 21st. See her blog post for the full story on how this all happened.

It’s official. I’m now the sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Not just ‘plucked’ from the blogosphere to freelance for a 141-year-old mainstream media institution; Phil Bronstein hand-selected me to be their frontline sex writer, with a column and everything that comes with it. I just got home from the Chronicle building — today was the final meeting with the PR department, and to set the launch date (I wore my Laughing Squid shirt to the meeting). At one point David Wiegand said, “We’re just making sure it’s okay before we plaster your face on buses.” I don’t remember my reaction to this, though my memory tells me I shrieked like a little girl and ran in tight little circles with clenched fists tight against my sides in the middle of the circled chairs of Chron/SFGate staff. I think I actually said “yikes” in an extremely composed way. I’m pretty sure he was teasing. Ulp.

So in addition to her new role as the San Francisco Chronicle’s sex columnist, Violet is also a published sex author, a ten year veteran of Survival Research Labs, a podcaster and a blogger for both Fleshbot and Metroblogging San Francisco.

Congratulations Violet, for “crashing the party”. Also kudos to the Chronicle for making such a bold and riskly move. You’ll be glad you did.

Tonight Jean-Jacques Perrey & Dana Countryman performed to a packed house at Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco. They played a bunch of stuff from their new album “The Happy Electropop Music Machine!” and closed with Jean-Jacques’ famous E.V.A. Otis Fodder DJ’d before the show and Jello Biafra did the introductions. Here are the photos I shot.

V. Vale, Marian and RE/Search have once again produced another legendary show.

Photos of Jean-Jacques Perrey & Dana Countryman

They have one more show as part of this tour, this Thursday, August 31st at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.

UPDATE: Check out Matrixsynth’s write-up and photos from the Seattle show.

Along with Flickr’s geotagging launch today, Upcoming.org rolled out a bunch of new features, including Flickr photo integration. So now, if people shoot photos at an event that is listed on Upcoming.org, a special tag will be generated for their photos and then when they tag their photos in Flickr, the photos will automatically show up on the Upcoming.org event page. Also the tagged photos on Flickr will cross-reference the Upcoming.org page. To see it in action, check out the The Valleyschwag Hoedown listing on Upcoming.org.

Flickr has just added support for geotagging (see Wikipedia entry on geotagging), so you can now add your photos to the exact location on a map where they were shot. You can look for locations of photos on the new Flickr map. For more on this new feature launch, check out TechCrunch.

If you haven’t already, check out Galacticast, a hilarious weekly video blog staring Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan that spoofs sci-fi, fantasy and horror. There have been some really great episodes lately, including “Queen Kong” and “Intergalactic Video Dating”.

Galacticast is based out of Montreal and first started airing episodes in May 2006. Here are the full show archives and information on how it is made.

RE/Search presents Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman at Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco on Tuesday, August 26th. This special concert will feature music from their new CD “The Happy Electropop Music Machine!”, as well as Jean-Jacques Perrey classics.

From V. Vale’s RE/Search newsletter:

Tue Aug 29, 2006, 7:30pm: RE/Search presents the first ever JEAN JACQUES PERREY concert in America (in person, direct from France), at Recombinant Media Labs, S.F. 763 Brannan at 7th-6th Sts. Hardcore Jean Jacques Perrey fans are urged to fly in for this ultra-rare concert by the 77-year-old musique concrete genius, who has been absent from the stage for over three decades.

He will be accompanied by Cool & Strange Music publisher Dana Countryman, and their new album, The Happy ElectroPop Music Machine, will be available for autographing at the show. If you don’t know who Perrey is, we urge you to Google Jean Jacques Perrey and have your musical horizons considerably broadened. As interviewed in our Incredibly Strange Music Vol One book, Perrey proved it’s possible to infuse music with humor, the Dada spirit, and long-lasting beauty, too.

Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman will also be performing on August 27th at The Triple Door in Seattle and on August 31st at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.

Mark Pincus, the founder of Tribe who left last year, only to see it slowly disintegrate, has returned and promised to ressurect the failing social network from the dead, declaring that “The ants took over!”

hey, this is an informal announcement that as of today jan and the board are gone. i’ve taken over tribe and you’re going to see big changes fast like getting rid of this big stupid masthead and returning tribe to the users where it belongs.

Here’s more on this news from Eran Globen, TechCrunch and Valleywag.

UPDATE 1: SiliconBeat confirms the story.

UPDATE 2: Mark Pincus posts about it on his blog.

V. Vale’s RE/Search Publications, which has been documenting unique and unusual underground culture for over 26 years, is just about to release “Pranks 2”, the follow-up to their legendary “Pranks” book which was orginally published in 1988. The first Panks book had a huge influence on me and many other people and I’m sure Pranks 2 will have an even bigger effect.

The articles and inteviews in Pranks 2 feature Jihad Jerry, Jello Biafra, Al Jourgensen, Bambi Lake, The Yes Men, The Suicide Club, The Cacophony Society, Reverend Al, Julia Solis, Billboard Liberation Front, Marc Powell, Frank Discussion, Paul Krassner, Margaret Cho, John Waters, Ron English, Joey Skaggs, Survival Research Labs, monochrom, Lydia Lunch, Monte Cazazza.

What are pranks? For us, pranks are any humorous deeds, propaganda, sound bites, visual bites, performances and creative projects which pierce the veil of illusion and tell “the truth”. Pranks unseriously challenge accepted reality and rigid behavioral codes and speech. Pranks deftly undermine phoniness and hypocrisy. Pranks lampoon sanctimoniousness, self-glorification, selfmythologizing and self-aggrandizement. Pranks force the laziest muscle in the body, the imagination, to be exercised, stretched, and thus transcend its former self.The imagination is what creates the future; that which will be.

Pranks 2 is expected to come out in October/November and can be pre-ordered now.

Pop Cling makes frameless adhesive art that can be applied directly to walls or other smooth surfaces. They have just released limited edition Pop Cling adhesive prints of Laughing Squid art by Attaboy (created for our 8 ½ Year Anniversary Show) and Joshua Ellingson (created for a Hi Fructose ad and our 10th Anniversary Party poster).

From the Pop Cling website:

Pop Cling makes art. Kick-ass, adhesive-backed art. You peel it off the backer and stick the image on any smooth surface. Try putting images on your concrete floors, or the sliding glass door leading to your balcony, or on your shower door, or on your kitchen cabinets. You don’t need a frame, you just need a blank space. Voila, you have fresh pop art on your wall from new, favorite, and cutting edge artists. They really are limited edition. They really come with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist. Pop Cling really is new and completely different.

Cross-posted to the Squid blog.

The Neverwas Haul is a fantastic steam-powered, mobile 3 story Victorian mansion that is being constructed for Burning Man 2006 by a team of industrious lunatics.

The NeverWas Haul explores the theme of the intrepid explorer, boldly adventuring into the unknown, seeking golden cities, mysterious artifacts, fame and glory. This pre-turn of the century, steam powered, mobile Victorian house is 3 stories in height, and is decorated with the relics and artifacts collected in its journey around the globe, as well as a few more specimens collected in Black Rock City. Participants are interviewed, measured and documented in arcane and amusing scientific experiments. Traditional Irish tea is served every afternoon, and visitors may tour the Haul and be impressed by our advanced steam technology and finely polished brass scientific instruments.

The Neverwas Haul project was turned down for a grant by the Burning Man organization, but that’s not going to stop them. In order to raise precious funds to complete the project, they are having a party and fundraiser tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 23rd at The Shipyard in Berkeley starting at 7:30pm.

The Imperial Hibernian Ministry of Insanity wishes to invite you to the dedication by the Hibernian Ambassador, his Honorable Dr. Hal, of Neverwas Haul, that is about to disbark on its exploratory adventure of the Black Rock Rendezvous. Festivities will begin at 7:30pm on Wednesday, August 23rd at the Shipyard (1010 Murray St, Berkeley; near San Pablo and Ashby). H’ors doevres and libations will be served to all who come. This is technically a fund-raiser, so bring wealthy friends and checkbooks. This is a Jules Verne inspired event - please dress accordingly! T-shirts will be available for purchase at this event.

UPDATE: Here’s video of the Neverwas Haul test drive.

According to BlogPulse, a website that tracks blog traffic, Laughing Squid was the #10 most-linked-to blog on August, 21st 2006. I’m in very good company up there.

Monkey Notions has made an excellent video about the Valleywag / TechCrunch Peace Accord using my photo of the now famous, less-than-enthusiastic handshake between Nick Douglas and Michael Arrington at the TechCrunch 7 Party.

quoting Brian Solis on Flickr:

TechCrunch7 Party $100,000
Open Bar $50,000
Picture of Mike and Nick shaking hands, Priceless…

In the photo Nick is slightly out-of-focus due to the depth of field from my prime lens. Since I was the “official photographer” of the party, my obligtion was to Mike, so the focus goes to him. Maybe if Valleywag paid me for my photos…

Rumor has it that the threat of “cooties” is what kept them from getting any closer.

UPDATE: Oh no, it looks like Nick is starting to violate their truce.

The one and only Ask Dr. Hal Show returns to 12 Galaxies in San Francisco each Wednesday night starting September 13th.

From Hal Robins’ newsletter:

The present era of the Ask Dr. Hal! show will BEGIN AGAIN as it runs every Wednesday night– until we say otherwise. The popular entertainment, spawned in the dust-blown Nevada desert and for years a weekly feature at the quasi-legendary Odeon Bar (now one with Nineveh and Tyre), after its long and lonely solo flight through starless darkness will fold its wings and roost anew at its last known perch, 12 Galaxies in San Francisco’s colorful Mission District, where jostling crowds of unfulfilled, bleating “hipsters” blindly seek release, after the drawing of the Veil of Night, from the pain and predicament of being “human.”

After a fling with Mondays as its signature night, entrepeneur/ringmonster Chicken John, the Yeoman of the Showmen, has determined that we will tread the boards once more at mid-week in the cavernous but welcoming space of 12 Galaxies, 2565 Mission Street near 22nd. The award winning (in the Bay Guardian) show is guaranteed to amuse, entertain and educate in its time-tested manner. You’ll see old friends and experience new surprises. Like an old wine, some things just get better with age.