Fossil Fool
Rides and performance updates:
LiveOnBike performance at BMF 2012
13. September 2012
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“Beat Pedaler” airs on KPFA — 30 minute radio piece about Fossil Fool and Rock The Bike
30. April 2012
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Many thanks to independent radio producer Vanessa Lowe who recorded the sounds of Rock The Bike’s workshop and 2 events in order to produce “Beat Pedaler”. The piece features lots of Fossil Fool music. Enjoy!
Listen online: www.kpfa.org/archive/id/80135
Stompodium: Stomp Powered music instrument in progress
25. March 2012
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This is my new foot powered music instrument for Fossil Fool performances. My hope is that I will always perform with it. It should also be light enough to walk around a festival and participate in jam sessions or do a street performance. It’s no heavier than an acoustic guitar in a hard case.The shape is hollow and contains a 10″ dual voice coil subwoofer and a matching 200w amplifier.It has a telescoping handle that will support various music making circuit boards like a delay pedal and a beat machine.
The power source for all of this is Stomp Power. The performer stomps a lever that yanks a cable around a speed-increasing pulley and dumps the energy into a flywheel, which quickly accelerates to 3000 rpm. The flywheel mounted to the shaft of a permanent magnet generator, the same one originally used in the Choprical Fish Soul Cycle.
Nationalizing the Idaho Stop
16. March 2012
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Petition link: www.change.org/petitions/bike-people-nationalize-the-idaho-stop
The traffic system was not made for bikes. It was made for cars. Bicyclists are ‘vehicles’ subject to enforcement of car-based rules. Stop signs require a cyclist to start from zero MPH and build up their momentum again which requires lots of power. Many intersections are safe to roll through. Rolling through is the default behavior of many (most?) cyclists, yet a police officer can enforce the Stop Sign laws at will even if the situation is clearly safe. The petition is to Nationalize the Idaho Stop, which allows cyclists in Idaho to roll through if it’s safe.This effectively turns Stop signs into Yield signs for cyclists. It is still the cyclist’s legal responsibility to avoid accidents by riding safely and yielding to vehicles who were there first, and pedestrians wishing to cross.
Transatlantic performance with no Fossil Fuels burned.
23. August 2011
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We recorded this performance at the Artland Bicycle Music Festival in Quakenbruk Germany. We used Pedal Power to amplify the recording in the attic studio. Over in the Artland Cafe, the performance was shown on a big screen in the cafe, and the four members of the audience pedaled to power the audio system. Enjoy!
Musicians:
Yours truly, Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper
Cello Joe, Cello
Maya, Cavacinho
Mafi, Maracas
Zori, Congas
With Ariel on Pedal Power, enjoy!
San Francisco Bay Guardian publishes 3-page interview
18. May 2011
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Check out Steve Jones’ interview with Fossil Fool.
“I care deeply about biking and a lot of the people I was with did too, but I felt like the bicycle advocacy scene was not very effective when it came to actual outreach. I felt like the thing that had been really formative for me was this person-to-person interaction, in my case by hanging out with the guys who started Xtracycle, and going on quests to get ingredients for dinner and riding late at night with the music systems on the tour. I felt like those experiences were what made bicycling appealing, but the bike advocacy scene was using guilt trips and telling people you should ride a bike because you’re too fat and you should ride a bike because there’s too much traffic. And I felt like we needed to shift that mindset and really start focusing on the fun aspects of biking and the social aspects to grow the scene.”
Read the full interview.
How to Roll with Rock The Bike this Earth Day
21. April 2011
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Feeling a great cruiser ride? Come join me this weekend for some of the rides to our Earth Day events. Arbol rides have been epic lately.
Thursday 4/21: We are aiming to leave York & 21st at 9:45 AM to ride through the District then
Wiggle to USF. The last hill to USF was a bitch last year! Check out Leif
dealing with it.
Mei and I have studied the bike map and know an easier way with no
panhandle.
*Come to the event at USF on Thursday 4/21 at lunchtime, help us Pedal Power it. Spin Art.
Awesome organic smoothies. Goats. Student bands and Fossil Fool mixing it
up. Nicco on harmonica. *
It’s on the USF campus in front of Gleeson Library.
maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Gleeson+L…
Friday, Earth Day, 4/22 — I’m thinking about helping Pedal Power the One Dance
Event at noon in Union Square. I tried learning the dance. It was fun and my
back cracked in new ways: www.bayareandw.org/
Saturday, Earth Day SF 4/23. This event is going to be a good time. I reached
out to Afrolicious, Ashel Eldridge, Kevin Danaher, Laura Fox, and Pamela
Parker to see if they want us can Pedal Power their sets. I will let you
know what they say. This event is a big volunteer effort — completely
optional. Come help if you want to, let me know if you’re in!
*Sunday*, Volunteer on an amazing urban farm and help bike blend amazing organic
smoothies at Hayes Valley Farm. Ride there at 12 noon.
El Arbol Canopy Layer nearly complete, sounding amazing
14. February 2011
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photo: Aufdencamp
In December I started building the Canopy of El Arbol, sculpting pink household insulation foam and glassing it. It’s basically the same process as papier mache, but using the strongest glue on the planet and glass fibers instead of newsprint. Less than two months later, the Canopy is operational as a speaker, rolls well and doesn’t get tangled on utility wires, and is on its way to being a aerial rig.
In the first mockup, the aerial rigging point on the rear branch was much lower to the ground and closer to the trunk than it is now. Now it’s over 12 and a half feet up and four feet out from the trunk. The branch is about 6-8″ in diameter and about 1/8″-1/4″ thick fiberglass throughout. It’s extremely stiff. A tension cable, as represented below by the yellow measuring tape, will make the rear branch strong enough for aerials. We plan to test it with a 1000 pound load.
Interview on the eve of the Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival
19. January 2011
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Paul Freedman – The Pleasant Revolution from Jonathan Grevsen on Vimeo.
Many thanks Jonathan Grevsen
Up close view of the roots of El Arbol
22. December 2010
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Performing LiveOnBike with the Blue Whale at the Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival
11. October 2010
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