Month / October 2013

by Adron

Streetcar Mobile Music Festival, Sleuthing News & Updates, Plus a Sneak Peak of Next Episode of Transit Sleuth TV

The Streetcar Mobile Music Festival, or more simply the #SMMF, was great. (There’s a video sneak peak below, keep reading!!)

I’m currently working on getting the footage put together of the three bands I was able to see. It’ll be on an upcoming episode of Transit Sleuth TV in the coming weeks. Why did I only see 3 bands? It’s all about the logistics of how the festival works, it’s really pretty cool. Albeit it does leave you missing some of the bands.

How the Logistics of Music Work at SMMF

This years festival has a loading and unloading stop where all the bands stage ready to get on and off the streetcars. At the same time an audience builds up at the stop for switching to the streetcars as one arrives with a previously playing band and a new streetcar arrives to embark the next band. Check out this map below for an idea of how it works.

The starting point is also the ending point. A band boards with all their gear at the starting point, which this year was at the eastern stop just over the Broadway Bridge. The stop is N Weidler & Ross (id: 13607). That is is used for quick mobile phone update of when the next streetcar is arriving. At the festival you could see a lot of phones being used to record the bands and see when the next arrivals were coming over the bridge.

Once the band boarded they would play a set while the streetcar travelled south toward OMSI. This year the last stop at OMSI wasn’t taken however, because of construction for the pending connection to the new bridge. Because of this the streetcar was turning at the section of the route tagged turnaround below. Once the streetcar turned the second half of the set would be played while we traveled back north to the N Weidler & Ross stop. There the band, and much of the audience, would disembark and wait a few minutes for the next streetcar to arrive and start the jamming over again with a new loop trip.

Click for full size image of map.

Bands

For more information on the bands check out the Streetcar Mobile Music Festival Site and there is a bands section. Here’s a video sneak preview of the band Thanks that’ll be in the upcoming episode of Transit Sleuth TV.

Bicycle Brown Bag, The BBB!

In the coming week on October 17th another Bicycle Brown Bag with Adonia Lugo is coming up. Adonia will be talking about “Recognizing, Supporting and Celebrating Diversity in Bicycle Culture“. From the Bicycle Brown Bag site:

Yes, L.A. has a head start on Portland in the realm of diverse bicycle culture. But a tour of St. Johns or East Portland will reveal the variety of people riding bikes here. As we work to encourage everyone who wants to use a bike for transportation to do so are we missing the “ Invisible Riders” ?
Adonia Lugo will draw on her experiences at Ciudad de Luces (now Multicultural Communities for Mobility) and CicLAvia, as well as her academic work, to address this topic.

A cultural anthropologist and activist, Dr. Lugo blogs at urbanadonia.com about her carfree adventures as a Chicana woman and the belief our cities can be socially just and ecologically sustainable. In Los Angeles, she co-founded CicLAvia and City of Lights/ Ciudad de Luces (now Multicultural Communities for Mobility).

It’d be great to meet and see others, so ping me via Twitter @transitsleuth and let me know you’re coming. I’ll be sure to say hello!

Happy hygge, cheers!

by Adron

Streetcar Mobile Music Fest #SMMF 2013

The Streetcar Mobile Music Fest 2013 is happening this Saturday (that’s tomorrow). The last one was great, careening around the CL Line and the one before that (or was that just bands on streetcars?) was great too! Either way it’s going to be a great time, so come ride a CL Line Streetcar and enjoy the scenery and music! I’ll be there video recording and photographing the event for fun (thus, say hello) and the intent afterwards is to get a crew together afterwards for dinner and drinks. Of course, somewhere on the streetcar line!  😉

For a quick idea, here’s a video montage from last year.

by Adron

Cycling, Transit and Sleuthing News and Updates

A few things going on with the sleuth activity as of late.  First and foremost I’ve setup a schedule I’ll be aiming for with Transit Sleuth TV. The idea will be to publish an episode every 3 weeks on Monday morning at 7:30am. This frequency is starting as of today, Monday the 7th. So the next episode I hope to publish on the 28th, parts are coming together already. For the latest episode, check out “To Orenco, Mobile Ticketing, Powell’s and Introducing Jonathan Scheff!“. Episode 1 is out too, check it out “Transit Meet n’ How to Carry Wine & Gelato“.

In upcoming episodes I’ll be covering PARK(ing) Day from a few weeks back, commentary included. I had a great ride out and met a number of excellent individuals; Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman, Hart Noecker and many others, Cheers & great job on the event!  Interviews with more Portlanders and their ways of getting around; jumping the bus, rolling with the MAX, or how to know a bike boulevard from a bike lane while pedaling along at pace. I’ll also continue the frequent coverage of trip tips & tricks. The aim is to answer the questions like, “how do I get my beer, unbroken, from store to recliner for the big game?” or “how do I carry 40 lbs of groceries home without busting the eggs” and one of my all time favorites, “where are the best” If there is something you’d like to see, leave a comment or ping me directly I’m totally open to new segments, stunts or other bits.

Transit & Biking Round Up

I’ve been reading blogs in the Portland area for a while now, specifically around transit and bicycling. Here’s a collection of the top sites and blogs with some additional sites I’ve researched and collected together. This is similar, and maybe I can light off some similar posts by others in the city that outline other sites they use for their day to day transit, cycling and related lifestyle matters.

If you know of any other blogs, websites or others out there that provide event information, helpful tips or other information please post a comment and I’ll get a page put together that is dedicated on Portland resources for this.

by Adron

Transit Sleuth TV : Episode 2 “To Orenco, Mobile Ticketing, Powell’s and Introducing Jonathan Scheff!”

In this episode I’ve added a new segment around an interview with one of our local Portlanders. This episode I’m talking to Jonathan Scheff in the middle segment of the show.

Adventure Segment

This episode starts off with an adventure that Paul Peterson and I took via the Trimet #4 with a transfer to the Blue Line MAX out to Orenco to check on how that neighborhood has been developing. It’s grown a lot and changed for the better in just the last couple years. These days one can even see the cranes working on the Intel complex. Paul and I also have a chat about what to do or not to do at Orenco. We grab some Sushi at Yuki’s and then head back.

During our trip Paul and I battle with trying to figure out where his tickets went on the Globe Sherpa Mobile Ticketing Application for Trimet. It seems he was able to get it figured out via their support, as he’d hit a bug of some sort. The other things that was interesting was that he had the iOS 7 beta and it was actually working great. However Trimet and Globe Sherpa have offered differing information on iOS 7 working with the application or not. The verdict – it’s confusing whether one is doing the right thing or not with the application.

Interview Segment *new*

After that I interview Jonathan Scheff about his move from New York to Portland, bike commuting and bike adventures. Jonathan is the first of many interviews that I’ll have on Transit Sleuth TV talking about biking missions, transit rides and other adventures! Jonathan kicks this off for us with some tales of moving woe and risky bridge traversals.

Something Useful Segment

This useful segment is a simple life suggestion. I cover a cool place to just chill out, watch a streetcar roll by on the flanged wheel or just watch the fascinating individuals of Portland passing by.

When you’re done watching, subscribe to the blog and or to the Transit Sleuth TV video channel too.