 What is a Pubcrawl? An age-old practice, the pubcrawl has been recently enhanced by members of a proud circle of friends (of which the author of this proposal is a member) who reside in the neighborhood of Williamsburg, located in the urban utopia of Brooklyn, NY. Like Snoop Dogg before us, we now hope to bridge the east coast/west coast divide through the all-uniting principles imbued upon us by the ancient ritual of the pubcrawl.
Not to be confused with “bar-hopping,” the pubcrawl is more than a night out, it is an event, by which a group of people begins an evening’s festivities at a particular bar, and after thoroughly patronizing said establishment, then moves on to another (usually predetermined, but often improvised if necessary), and then another, and so on, all the while collecting new members in the open arms of the entourage, growing in size like the proverbial snowball.
It should be noted that the pubcrawl’s rewards go far beyond the opportunity to imbibe copious amounts of alcohol, preferably in clever configurations (like the Irish car bomb, a shot of Bailey’s and Jameson’s dropped into a half-pint of Guinness, and downed rapidly; or a concoction local to Williamsburg called the “Bucket of Joy,” which is literally a metal bucket filled with ice, vodka, and Red Bull, sucked up by the party through straws).
No, the pubcrawl is better characterized by its sense of camaraderie – new friendships are made, and old friendships made stronger. The pubcrawl engenders a sense of belonging, sings with a collective voice formed from a shared pursuit of exuberance, excitement, and a dip in a fountain. This is no frat-boy social night, mind you – it is all inclusive, outrageous but non-destructive. It is exactly the kind of party we want to share with the world.
And so it is with great anticipation that we (and by we I mean me, or rather I) propose a trip to the sunny shores of San Francisco to bring the pubcrawl westward…ho!.
 Why San Francisco? The initial impulse actually comes from the first pubcrawl, which occurred 26 July 2001. One member of the inaugural crawl was Ryan Junell, a resident of San Francisco who was visiting New York at the time. As an original pubcrawler, one of the only non-Brooklynites on the journey, it only makes sense that the first out of town pubcrawl take place on his turf. Since it has not escaped my attention that Mr. Junell (or RyRyJuJu, as he is known in the pubcrawl circle) is a judge for the contest, I wish to invite and encourage all the other members of the judicial panel to join us – yes, you Wayne Bremser, and you too, George K Darby, please, and Jeannette Harshbarger, Elly Millicam, Steve Rhodes, even Svante Tidholm, yes even Svante – join us on our pubcrawl.
Indeed, as the first bicoastal pubcrawl, we’d like to gather as many people as possible. How many? Fifty? One hundred? One thousand? They’re all welcome...
To what end? Second only to the fun of the actual pubcrawl is reliving the event through digital documentation, which is posted on the official website (located at http://www.uncleleron.com/pubcrawl), and would of course be adapted for inclusion on the contest sponsor’s site. Like the Brooklyn-based pubcrawls before it, the SanFranCrawl™ documentation will certainly contain digital photos of the disparate faces that come into the warm and fuzzy pubcrawl circle. Also featured will be editorial descriptions of each stop on the evening’s itinerary (a tentative list of destinations will also be posted prior to the pubcrawl, to be determined by myself and several former and current San Francisco residents). Separately, specifically for the sponsor’s content needs, a personal travelogue of the journey, from Brooklyn to San Francisco and back again will provide meta-commentary on the trip, the crawl, and the contest as a whole (not unlike my European Travelogue, which can be found at http://www.theotherwords.com/). Most exciting of all this digital content will be a digital video, made available through the magic of Quicktime technology – a rousing sequel to the one created from footage of Williamsburg pubcrawl number two (which can be found on our website, or downloaded directly from http://www.uncleleron.com/pubcrawl/video/pubcrawl_final.mov).
Who is responsible? Joshua Dickens is an actor/director/designer who makes movies when he’s not making plays when he’s not making webbles. An avid, if too-infrequent traveler, his last major journey was a European vacation. A native of Nashville, he now makes sweet country love to all the people of Brooklyn while attempting to make Uncleleron.com the next big thing. He has never been to San Francisco.
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