Knifebeatsfinger presents “Last Voyage of Omega”, an original sci-fi comedy about the afterlife written by Sean Kelly and directed by Helena Nolan, which takes place Fridays & Saturdays through August 9th at Stage Werx in San Francisco. Portions of the show will be influenced by feed back from people on Twitter.

LAST VOYAGE OF THE OMEGA is an original science-fiction comedy about a crew of hard-partying space travelers that mistakenly set their stasis chambers to three-billion years to avoid a nasty hangover. They end up stranded on planet Earth. Their shields are the magnetosphere. All like has evolved from their dead skin cells. They crew: Janet, Reyna and Prepiel enjoin a battle with an saucy and sassy incarnation of Cthulu, Carlotta Catorce for the hearts and minds of the human race. Portions of the show will be influenced in advance by cell-phone users logged in to twitter.com.

Tickets are now on sale through Brown Paper Tickets.

photo by unknown

guest post by mikl-em

JUST MARRIED FINALLY …and… NO STOPPING. I like that.

Four years ago the first same-sex marriage in California history was successfully conducted. That same couple had another wedding ceremony in San Francisco yesterday. This followed a reboot of the legal system which had thrown an error upon seeing two gender=F values on the marriage certificate. Large programs like California sometimes do need methodical debugging. But there’s a history here of gradual improvement on important functions like Environment and Equality. Hoping that this trend continues.

I had the tremendous pleasure of being in a huge crowd yesterday outside San Francisco City Hall to celebrate the first same-sex marriage since this right was upheld in California. It was a great day! Unfortunately we didn’t get a glimpse of the couple, but it was a very exciting and positive nonetheless (in spite of some rather negative protesters, who were few but carried big signs). I took some pix & videos, and wrote it up on Flickr. See the description of each pic for more details.

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, the couple who were married in SF, are in their 80’s. They have been together for 50+ years and have been activists and community-builders throughout. Gay.com has a great article with more details about their wedding and the wedding of Robin Tyler and Diane Olson from LA (shown below) who have tried every year for 8 years to get a marriage license on Valentine’s Day.

The SF Chronicle’s website has a great archive of coverage of the issue of same-sex marriage in California. Here’s coverage on yesterday from the BBC.

photos by Gay Weddings & mikl-em

guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

San Francisco’s most handsome World War II veteran, the Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien will tonight play host to a party celebrating the premier of a new History Channel documentary called (… wait for it…) “Hero Ships: S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien.” Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and can be ordered online. The screening will take place aboard the O’Brien, at San Francisco’s Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf. No need to bring a life vest: The ship will be moored for the entire event.

photo by Telstar Logistics

The Cacophony Society and Transtagonist present Public Marching Band this Sunday, June 22nd in San Francisco. Meet at 2:02pm in front of the Ferry Building, bring an instrument and wear a hat.

via Urban Prankster

poster by Star

Burning Man presents Precompression 2008: Dreams & Delusions this Friday, June 20th from 9pm-4am at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco.

Live out your American DREAMS & DELUSIONS! American Dream-inspired attire encouraged — from Wild West to repossessed … from Liberty’s torch to white trash porch … and sea to shining sequin!

This will be a SUPERSIZED Flambé with dancing, mad-capped circus, Vaudeville and aerial arts, your favorite DJs, fantastic bands and Mom’s Apple Pie served piping HOT over four rooms and three floors, including a conversation-friendly subterranean lounge to share plans for Burning Man ‘08.

Discuss the old dreams and create The New Frontier — for the playa, America, and the planet! Save the date … pARTicipate!

Here are a few photos and videos I shot today at RoboGames 2008 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. RoboGames runs through Sunday, June14th (tomorrow), so there’s still plenty of time to check it out.

More Coverage:

- Tim Hwang
- James Shearhart

photos by Scott Beale

Alternative Tentacles presents Biafra 5-O, celebrating the 50th birthday of Jello Biafra and the 30th anniversary of Dead Kennedys, with two special shows featuring Jello Biafra and his new band, along with The Melvins and several other great bands at the Great American Music Hall on Monday, June 16th and Tuesday, June 17th.

UPDATE: Here’s V. Vale’s RE/Search write-up on Biafra’s 50th Birthday Party.

poster by Nat Damm

guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

I don’t know if this has ever been measured scientifically, but I suspect that among white-collar workers who toil in San Francisco’s downtown high-rise office buildings, the incidence of Tugboat Envy probably approaches 100 percent.

The symptoms are as easy to identify: From your lofty downtown office perch, you gaze out the window at the San Francisco Bay, and you notice a tugboat hard at work out on the water. And wistfully you think, “Wow. Wouldn’t it be fun to give up this cubicle gig and get a job on that boat?”

Sound familiar? For anyone who has ever experienced Tugboat Envy, I come with information about what it’s really like aboard a hard-working San Francisco tugboat.

A few months ago I had the opportunity to spend the day aboard the Marshall Foss, a modern tractor-tug built in 2001. Equipped with two twin-turbocharged diesels, sophisticated Z-drive propeller thrusters, and a computerized bridge, life aboard the Marshall Foss is a bit like working on the railroad, and a bit like living in an aquatic RV. Her crews are on duty for 15 day shifts, which are followed by 15 days off. Their duties take them all over the Bay as they help ships of all sizes navigate tides, piers, waterways, and other unpleasant obstacles to maritime commerce.

I took lots of pictures, so now at least you can go on a virtual tour of a San Francisco tugboat *before* you quit your day job.

photo gallery: Tugboat Marshall Foss

photos by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

There’s construction underway at the corner of Howard Street and Hawthorne Lane in SoMa, and sometime during the last few months the building that previously stood on the corner was demolished and removed. The result is that this fantastic “ghost sign” for the Sherwood Packing Company, a long-forgotten wholesaler of pork products, has re-emerged to see the light of day.

The sign is painted on the side of 639 Howard, and in a fittingly postmodern coda, the building that once housed the Sherwood Packing Company is now home to… A Verizon mobile phone shop.

photo by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

Supernova 2008, a conference on the decentralization of business and technology organized by Kevin Werbach, takes place next week in San Francisco on June 16th at the Mission Bay Conference Center and June 17th & 18th at Wharton West.

Business, technology, and social interactions are decentralizing, tearing apart industries with the force of a supernova. Intelligence is moving to the edges, through networked computers, empowered users, fluid digital content, distributed work teams, and powerful communications devices. Business models are under pressure as end-users gain greater control, computing becomes a commodity, and companies collaborate across geographic boundaries. At the same time, new opportunities are emerging through social software, pervasive wireless networking, massively multi-player virtual worlds, and distributed e-commerce, among other trends.

Supernova is offering Laughing Squid readers a $200 discount on the conference registration, just enter the code “gd08″ when you register.

They are also hosting a video contest for startups, giving away three registrations.

photo by Scott Beale

We have some tickets to give away for RoboGames which takes place this weekend, June 13-15 at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. I will be updating this post with information on the ticket giveaway.

Round #1: The current time is 12:03pm PDT on Tuesday, June 9th. I’m going to give a pair of RoboGames tickets to next five people who leave a comment on this post. I’ll contact the winners for their mailing address so I can send the tickets via US Mail. Please note, due to the last minute nature of this giveaway, we are only sending tickets to Bay Area addresses. We will need your mailing address by 1pm PDT on Wednesday, June 11th in order to send you your tickets.

** Ok, we have our five winners for Round #1 **

Round #2: The current time is 2:26pm PDT on Tuesday, June 9th. I’m going to give a pair of RoboGames tickets to next five people who leave a comment on this post. I’ll contact the winners for their mailing address so I can send the tickets via US Mail. Please note, due to the last minute nature of this giveaway, we are only sending tickets to Bay Area addresses. We will need your mailing address by 1pm PDT on Wednesday, June 11th in order to send you your tickets.

** Ok, we have our five winners for Round #2 **

UPDATE: Thanks for playing everyone, all RoboGames tickets have been given away.

If you didn’t win a pair of the free tickets, you can always buy your tickets in advance online or in person at the event.

photo by Scott Beale

In honor of John Wayne’s birthday the BYOBW crew is organizing a water balloon fight this Wednesday, June 11th at 6pm in San Francisco’s Alamo Square.

In honor of John Wayne’s Birthday, the BYOBW crew is instigating a water balloon fight in Alamo Square on the Duke’s Birthday.

If you’re siding with the Mexican’s, wear blue shirts.

If you’re siding with the Texans, wear brown shirts.

Remember the event is BYOWB (Bring Your Own Water Baloon)

UPDATE 1: The San Francisco Citizen has a report from the event.

UPDATE 2: GETV has posted their video coverage of the water balloon fight.

via SF Metblogs

The 5th annual RoboGames, the world’s largest open robot competition, takes place this weekend, Friday, June 13th through Sunday, June 15th at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion in San Francisco.

The International RoboGames returns to San Francisco for its fifth year of hosting robot builders, engineers, scientists, and ordinary garage builders from around the world as they go for the laser-etched gold, silver, and bronze medals! Come to RoboGames for three solid days of mechanical
sportsmanship, gearhead mayhem, and all the things your mom told you to never, ever do with science.

Hundreds of participants, vendors, cool workshops, nifty exhibits and people just like you who have bent, engineered, tweaked, fiddled and built their way to the Olympics Of Robots!

Here’s the full schedule of events and advance tickets are now on sale.

Here are my photos from RoboGames 2007.

Oh and RoboGames is now on Twitter, follow for the latest updates.

UPDATE: Here are some photos and video from RoboGames 2008.

photo by Scott Beale

On Monday morning (June 9th) at 10am PDT, Steve Jobs will be giving his keynote at the sold out Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Moscone West in San Francisco. Of course the big news is that he is expected to announce the 2nd generation iPhone, running on AT&T’s new 3G wireless network. It’s also rumored that Jobs will be announcing Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6. MacRumors.com posted a really good WWDC 2008 Rumor Roundup, which gives a good idea of what to expect.

Here are a few places where you can follow live coverage of the WWDC keynote:

- Twitter via Summize

- Engadget

- Gizmodo

- MacRumors.com

- Ares Technia

- Macworld

- TWiT Live

- Wired’s Gadget Lab

- TechCrunch

- VentureBeat WWDC Livestream FriendFeed Room

- The Mac Observer

- Ustream (live audio stream)

- twistori

UPDATE 1: Here are some of the announcements that Jobs made during the keynote.

UPDATE 2: Apple has posted the video of the keynote.

UPDATE 3: Mahalo Daily has a 60 second version of the keynote.

photo by Rafael Fischmann

guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

San Francisco’s new Contemporary Jewish Museum opens to the public on Sunday, June 8, but yesterday I managed to weasel my way into a preview tour of the building. Created inside the shell of a (gorgeous) former PG&E power substation that was designed by architect Willis Polk in 1907, the new museum was reinvented by the reknowned modern architect Daniel Libeskind. The facade of the original PG&E building remains largely intact, with the obvious exception of a giant “blue steel” cube — Libeskind said that, not me — added to the western side of the structure.

Libeskind was also the architect for a famously somber Jewish Museum in Berlin, but he explained that the message conveyed by this project is very different. In Germany, he said, the Jewish museum is inevitably linked with memories of the Holocaust, but San Francisco’s CJM “celebrates Jews and Jewish life, in the spirit of the West Coast.”

That’s about right. The CJM includes several multimedia performance spaces, and it won’t have a permanent collection. The exhibits on display at the grand opening will include a sound project by John Zorn and installations by seven contemporary artists who reinterpreted the story of Genesis. I spent about an hour wandering through the grounds and spaces, and enjoyed it thoroughly, so check the link for more photos. There’s also an opening party scheduled for Saturday night, called DAWN 2008, with $15 tickets available at the door.

photo gallery: Touring the Contemporary Jewish Museum

photos by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

SF Indie presents the 5th annual Another Hole in the Head, a horror, sci-fi and fantasy film festival taking place in San Francisco June 5-22. Here’s the complete schedule of films and advance tickets are now on sale. The Opening Night Party takes place Thursday, June 5th at Annie’s Social Club in San Francisco.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Laughing Squid Lucky 13, I can’t think of a better way to have celebrated my birthday and 13 great years of Laughing Squid.

photos by Lane Hartwell

photos by Mitch Aidelbaum

photos by Steve Rhodes

Here are a few photos I shot during the setup of the party.

I also shot a few short videos of Extra Action Marching Band, our surprise special guest that close out the party with a bang.

“No Parking” mural by Sirron Norris located in SOMA, San Francisco.

See Previously: Victorion By Sirron Norris, Mural of a Giant Robotic Victorian House

photo by Scott Beale

The first ever CupcakeCamp takes place this Sunday, June 1st at Citizen Space in San Francisco. It’s like BarCamp, but with cupcakes.

See the wiki and Upcoming for more info.

illustration by Cindy Li

WordPress is having a party to celebrate their 5th birthday this Tuesday, May 27th at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. RSVP on Upcoming or Facebook.

Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, announced the first release of WordPress (version 0.7) on May 27th, 2003.