Noisebridge May Have a Future!

Normally, this would be the slot for the weekly Bleeding Edge column. However, this is one of those weeks in which all relevant items on the BayImproviser Calendar have already been reported (most at the Center for New Music and the weekly gig at the Luggage Store). Given the number of calendar changes that have followed in the wake of the cancellation of all public performances at the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, it is unclear how many of those events will still take place.

On the other hand, there appear to be plans for the next G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event run by the Noisebridge hackerspace. While that event is not on the BayImproviser Calendar (where I usually encounter it), it has been posted on Facebook; and the context is likely to be different from that of past monthly gatherings. When writing about Noisebridge, I try to mention consistently that this organization operates entirely through monetary donations. This article addresses how that approach to finances may have put the organization in jeopardy.

Since 2017 there have been serious issues of code violations identified by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection. (Whether the thoroughness of the inspection may have been prompted by the 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire is left as an exercise for the reader.) The result of the inspection was that the current hackerspace needed about $150,000 of work.

That magnitude simply was not in the ballpark of the monthly donations that Noisebridge usually collects. However, exactly a week ago Sarah Feldberg reported for the San Francisco Chronicle that the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken had deposited $150,000 worth of bitcoin into Noisebridge’s account. Two days later a Facebook Event Web page appeared announcing that the next G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E|N|O|I|S|E|P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S event would take place this coming Saturday.

For those that do not follow the Bleeding Edge announcements regularly, this is a two-hour event during which gourmet vegan pancakes are served in a context of experimental acts, electronic sounds, and noise. There is no charge, but the event is a good opportunity for making donations to keep Noisebridge up and running at its current venue. Performances tend to be by groups that are just as imaginative in their names as they are in what they play. There will be five sets at this particular event, which will be taken by Liver Cancer, Bryan Day, the duo of Jack Hertz and Noah Vail, EARTH JERKS, and Headboggle.

The event itself will take place on Saturday, March 14, beginning at noon. Noisebridge is located at 2169 Mission Street, two blocks south of the BART station at 16th Street. The aforementioned Facebook Events page was created and posted by Headboggle and EARTH JERKS.