Lewis Lewis Reborn from MainStreetMedia on Vimeo.

A grease bus breaking down in Berkeley is like having a computer glitch at Steve Jobs’ house during the company party. Within a few hours of Lewis refusing to start, the small world of urban farmers and veggie diesel mechanics swung wide open.

Craig Reece arrived first on the scene, via cell phone. Craig runs PlantDrive.com,* a vegetable grease store of sorts. Craig sells conversion kits and components for people running waste vegetable oil in their diesel vehicles. Though we’d never met, Craig talked me through the engine and the triage process for Lewis.

*Editor’s note: We here at BTC can and will plug businesses we like. We like PlantDrive. This entire post, in fact, has more product/people placements than a sitcom kitchen set.*

Craig also recommended a few mobile mechanics.

One showed up that first afternoon in a sooty Mercedes that looked like it had been parked in an exhaust pipe. A tall lean man in a mechanic’s jumpsuit emerged. Dreads like ancient tug boat lines fell halfway down his back and framed his worn, super-sized facial features. A grease pirate. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time for a thorough check and just muttered some highly complex suggestions as he climbed back down into the french fry Mercedes and took off.

Then Billy showed up, on his bike with pannier bag full of tools. Billy is one of the nicest men on earth. He looks a bit like Jack Black and John Belushi in his mechanics Dickies pants and Converse shoes and heavy flannel coat. He speaks softly and deliberately and his voicemail says he is “delicately working on a car.” Billy searched Lewis Lewis for over an hour. Nothing. He returned the next day, this time in his red Mercedes grease sedan that looked as if it also spends nights in an exhaust pipe. No answers yet again. I liked working with Billy; it felt like being with a shaman of sorts.

Billy is also the boyfriend of Novella Carpenter . Novella works at Biofuel Oasis in Berkeley, a biofuel station and urban farming shop run by five women. Novella has become a big name in the urban farm world since her book Farm City came out and chronicled her exploits and experiments with raising goats, ducks, pig, and other livestock and fowl in Oakland vacant lots. She’s rather revolutionary, even in Berkeley, where “revolutionary” gets tossed around like Free Tibet bumper stickers in Boulder, CO.

Just down the road, Grist.org food editor, Bonnie, who has been posting BTC dispatches, works in her home office and knows Novella and Billy. And a few blocks away, Jenny, science editor for our book publisher, University of California Press, met us for coffee. All of which is a short bike ride from Alice Water’s Oprah-huge Edible Schoolyard.

So it seems Lewis Lewis drove right into the epicenter of the urban farm and biodiesel web. We can’t begin to describe how happy we are to have him back.

On our way out of waste vegetable shangri-la, we filled up with 100+ gallons of greasy gold from Craig and headed south into the California night, stopping at 2am beside a classic example of large-scale monocrop – miles of potato fields sown by equipment larger than Lewis Lewis. We woke early and rolled out before coffee could brew. To Flagstaff, AZ…

Stuck in quiet little neighborhood of south Berkeley. Lewis Lewis hasn’t woken up since Saturday night. It was not a late night for him so we are flummoxed as to the root of the problem. He will not start and we have employed most of the Shadetree mechanic options at our disposal. He gets towed to shop today.

VITA PAIRS UP WITH CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED BAND, HEAD LIKE A KITE, TO RELEASE RESERVE COFFEE AND LIMITED EDITION VINYL – AVAILABLE NOW!!!

The launch party for Head Like A Kite Blend and new album, Dreams Suspend Night, will be at Neumo’s May 21, 2010 in Seattle.

Caffe Vita will launch Head Like a Kite Reserve, hand picked organic Farm Direct coffee from select drying patios in the mountain jungles of Aceh (label below), and release a limited edition white vinyl version of the new HLAK album, Dreams Suspend Night, on May 21, 2010. Available exclusively at Caffe Vita locations, online at www.caffevita.com, select retailers, and HLAK shows.

Buy the Limited Edition Vinyl + The Reserve Blend HERE $18
OR just grab the Coffee HERE $14

Breaking down beats seems as natural to HEAD LIKE A KITE’s Dave Einmo as breaking down genre barriers. On HLAK’s new full-length Dreams Suspend Night, blip beats dance around meaty analog synths and mischievous guitars, while HLAK drops the vocal hook bombs. Drummer Trent Moorman brings the beats live. Guests like Boom Bip (Neon Neon), Her Space Holiday, Asya of Smoosh, and members of The Long Winters, The Saturday Knights, and Swervedriver fuel the party.

Head Like A Kite’s ride in the music industry started in 2006. Marrying a love of progressive electronic production… More on HLAK here…

FRIDAY, MAY 21 @ NUEMOS
KEXP, CAFFE VITA, SONIC BOOM RECORDS PRESENTS
HEAD LIKE A KITE CD RELEASE PARTY
DAEDELUS
THEE EMERGENCY
+DJ sets by Terry Radjaw (Fresh Espresso/Mad Rad)

more info at neumos.com

We now nightcap bourbon before sleep at the Rest Area beside I-5 between Bear Creek and the town of Talent, Oregon, roughly 500 miles from our next destination, Santa Cruz and the Homeless Garden Project…

written at…

11:05pm

Caffe Vita will launch Head Like a Kite Reserve, hand picked organic Farm Direct coffee from select drying patios in the mountain jungles of Aceh (label below), and release a limited edition white vinyl version of the new HLAK album, Dreams Suspend Night, on May 21, 2010. Available exclusively at Caffe Vita locations, online at www.caffevita.com, select retailers, and HLAK shows.

ORDER THE VINYL + THE HLAK RESERVE COFFEE NOW ONLINE >> WILL SHIP ON MAY 21st. IN ALL VITA STORES + EASY STREET RECORDS + SONIC BOOM Starting MAY 21st.

Breaking down beats seems as natural to HEAD LIKE A KITE’s Dave Einmo as breaking down genre barriers. On HLAK’s new full-length Dreams Suspend Night, blip beats dance around meaty analog synths and mischievous guitars, while HLAK drops the vocal hook bombs. Drummer Trent Moorman brings the beats live. Guests like Boom Bip (Neon Neon), Her Space Holiday, Asya of Smoosh, and members of The Long Winters, The Saturday Knights, and Swervedriver fuel the party.

READ MORE ABOUT HLAK + DREAMS SUSPEND NIGHT HERE…

These are the pictures.

This was the invite:

caffe vita, one pot and maggie savarino
invite you to a midnight supper.

on thursday, april 22nd,
in a gilded room at the se corner of 3rd and ankeny, at midnight,
seattle and portland converge at high temperatures.

doors at 10pm. supper served at 11:30pm.
music at midnight.

caffe vita is providing the gilded room and fire.
christian krogstad of house spirits is bringing the white dog.
y la bamba, tahoe jackson & friends will provide the acoustics…
…to bounce off the golden walls
…with wine from our most beloved pnw artisans.

and there will be food:
michael hebb/one pot, naomi pomeroy/beast,
mark fuller/spring hill, jason french/ned ludd,
will come together to cook out of a massive wood fired oven,
built by Neapolitan masons.

and of course: caffe vita farm direct coffee will be served.

The discerning Cable Griffith will be there.

But once your dogs start to bark and your thirst crawls up your throat, there’s only one place for you: City Arts‘ Best Of Art Walk Awards at Caffe Vita in Pioneer Square, 8:30pm.

A lively centerpiece to an otherwise sprawling evening, our Art Walk Awards (sponsored by Blue Moon) gives you the chance to toast the efforts of Seattle’s hardworking artists, while joining in a little healthy competition that puts cash in creative hands. If you cast your vote in time, you could help a local artist win $500.

May 06, 2010 6:00 PM

SODO Commerce Building
66 South Hanford Street
Seattle

thaw
thaw is Seattle’s annual spring fashion show & fundraiser featuring independent designers. Proceeds benefit the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) to fund social services and research. Grab tickets here…

thaw 2010 DESIGNERS
Heilyke, Jill Lindsey, Michael Cepress, Wyatt Orr and Seamless in Seattle Alumni Winners

thaw 2010 SPONSORS
ABSOLUT Vodka, Beauty.com, Bowie Salon and Spa, Marios, Seattle Magazine, Via Tribunali, vitaminwater zero and smartwater

thaw 2010 CONTRIBUTORS
Barolo, Butler Valet, Caffe Vita, Des Voigne Wine Cellars, Finamore Spirits, Georgetown Brewery, Heffner Management, Jaxx, Ohana, Paragon, Park La Fun, Patisserie Natalie, Hitchcock, Sway and Cake, Tango, Two Beers Brewing
LIVE AUCTION - a short list of exclusive items, including:
* September Fashion Week in New York – tickets to the DKNY, Lela Rose, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors runway shows.
* One-of-a-kind bag, handmade by Paul Frank.
thaw SHOP – The thaw Shop is on-site and open exclusively on the night of the event. Guests can peruse and purchase accessories procured from local designers. 100% of sales benefit HDSA.

HUNTINGTONS DISEASE
Huntington’s Disease is a devastating, hereditary, degenerative brain disorder for which there is, at present, no effective treatment or cure. HD slowly diminishes the affected individual’s ability to walk, think, talk and reason. Onset of HD can occur anytime between birth and 80 years of age. The affected person experiences years of slow, painful mental and physical deterioration. Each child of an affected parent has a 50/50 risk of inheriting Huntington’s Disease.

Watch a short video of personal stories told by people affected by HD at:
http://www.huntingtonsdiseasedocumentary.com/

“thaw Fashion Show spotlights fresh designers from Seattle in a funky-glam evening with gimme-gimme auction items such as tickets to Fashion Week Shows in NYC, a fierce runway show and people-watching crowd of hipsters.
- Seattle Magazine, May 2009

“Seattle’s essential showcase of new and emerging regional fashion design talent. And it’s a great party with amazing auction items to boot.
- Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, May 2009