Got some cool shots a little while back from the front of my bus to Cal Poly Pomona. The windshield had obviously been washed very recently and afforded a really amazing, front-of-the-boat field of view.
It always feels good to be in the fastest, most efficient lane.
Inspired by a short Australian video, some Metro employees (myself included) who regularly bike into Union Station from Pasadena decided to host a bike bus for Bike to Work Day. As shown in the linked video, a bike bus is like transit but by bike. With scheduled pick up points along a set route, bicyclists join up with the ride as it approaches its final destination.
First stop bicyclists met up at Pasadena City Hall early (6:15 or so), as city staff and volunteers set up a Bike to Work Day pit stop. These early riders included Fox news reporter Phil Shulman, who covered the ride with streamed audio and video (I'm the guy in the orange Bicycle Fixation sweater), a woman who monthly rides to Downtown L.A. from Montrose, and a handful of Pasadena resident Metro employees. More bicyclists joined up near the Fillmore and Mission Gold Line stations. A slight tumble slowed us down a bit (failed brakes are bad!), before we got to the Arroyo Seco Bike Path (beautiful as always, save all that concrete), and then we snaked through Lincoln Heights with some LAPD bike officers, who joined us at Heritage Square station (someone needs to give them some better traffic riding training, Ron Durgin?, just saying).
Definitely a success. Contact me if you're interested in joining another go-round sooner rather than later.
We've got it all in Pasadena. This is looking at the Marengo St. bridge over the 210 freeway.
At the NELA (Northeast L.A.) Spoke'N Art ride this past Saturday, I observed some funky art, consumed some free beer, watched a police officer let a blonde woman escape some kind of traffic violation with just a warning, bought a "I bike L.A." shirt for the Midnight Ridazz team that's doing some kind of something somewhere that needs fundraising, liked the "Pics or it didn't happen" photos on display at the Bike Oven and Flying Pigeon L.A., gave my new old blue Nishiki a good ride, took some pics that I'll post to Flickr any evening now, reflected yet again on the difference between getting pulled over in a car versus a bicycle, answered three persons' questions about the ride (once in bungled Spanish that required back-up, I believe it's every 2nd Saturday, and it visits NELA art galleries), super liked a green king painting protected by a pup, enjoyed some tacos, sat in a chair upholstered with beer can tabs, yapped a few words with DJ Chicken Leather, yapped a few words with other cool folks, savored a red velvet cupcake, defended leaving the party early with this lame reply, "...early to bed, early to rise" (which is decidedly not what I do), and generally had a good evening.
I'm a "Crazy, Deranged Fool", from Gapingvoid.com:
A CrazyDerangedFool [CDF for short] is, like me, somebody who has the temerity to aspire to work in a way that produces both joy, meaning and contribution for both them and others, while also paying the bills. It's about creativity, it's about finding meaning, but it's also about living in the real world. That's the reality I want to live in, and from the vast quantities of e-mails and comments I get from y'all, that seems to be your game plan, as well.
This IS INDEED the crazy, deranged, foolish world of our own making that we chose to live in. And this IS INDEED the crazy, deranged, foolish world we will die in. We've already crossed the Rubicon. Alea iacta est. There is no going back. Ever. Amen.[SIGN UP HERE..]
Check 'em out in person at Flying Pigeon L.A. Or check out this Flickr set from a visit I made yesterday. Josef, the owner of the shop, also sells Flying Pigeons.
I think that's a Vega. My parents had an orange one when I was a kid. I remember my brother figured out how to drive it somehow, clutch and stick shift and all, at eleven years old. He would move it around in the gravel driveway.
I remember my mom struggling with it, using seemingly all her strength to get the clutch to the floor on the way to run some errand, or as an Aunt and cousins were visiting, and we suddenly had to go somewhere to do something fun.
And the thing was ugly!
And orange.
Anyway, it was interesting to see the one above surrounded by bikes. I wanted to challenge it. See if it had the same stubbornness in it as did our orange one.
So there's this book I read a couple of weeks ago called Blink. And it's got a ton of really great, enthralling anecdotes. It's basically about the snap judgments humans make, how we make them and why, about their power, and about their susceptibility to error.
In a blink, you've made a decision or acted or reacted in some way without even really thinking about it. Your brain processes the bank of information you've stored up in there, all unconsciously, through a kind of "thin slicing", and spits out a result so you can act when you need to. Now, if what you've stored up there is accurate, you'll make a good snap decision; if, however, you've been storing up junk, then your snap decision's not going to be very useful.
Jesus Castillo - Killed by a drunk driver - 4/19/2009 - From SoapBoxLA:
Jesus Castillo moved from Sonora, Mexico to Echo Park in search of the American Dream. He was 44. He didn't own a car. In fact he didn't have a drivers license. He simply rode his bike everywhere.
He lived in Echo Park and he was a day laborer, taking work when he could and where he could. Through it all, he rode his bike everywhere.
A week ago, late at night, he was riding south on Glendale Boulevard when he was hit from behind by a motorist who, according to witnesses, was swerving. He was killed just under the Sunset crossing of Glendale Boulevard. The police arrested the motorist within hours and charged him with vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving. The motorist had a suspended license and was driving the car belonging to his mother.
The parents of Jesus Castillo are in town, having traveled from Sonora to visit the spot where there son was run down from behind and left to die in the streets by a drunk driver.
I have to seek out "The Wall That Cracked Open" sometime soon. It's like Willie Herron's a favorite author and I only just found out about the novel that he's actually really famous for.
My first introduction to his work was "La Dolient de Hidalgo". And it just blew me away. The whole thing just has this visceral vibrancy, and unlike cinema, or even graphic novels, the storytelling in "La Dolient" falls at you all at once, pulling you into this or that detail before releasing you to explore other facets of the telling. I really enjoy the nonlinear force of it. I think that's how we find the stories in our lives, out of order and by force of the appeal of the details.
Later, after happening upon "No Somos Animales", and taking a ton of detail pics, I got some good background info from a Flickr user. I hadn't been able to recognize "No Somos Animales" as Herron's work from just being familiar with "La Dolient de Hidalgo", and while attending a Willie Herron show recently at Downtown L.A.'s most recent Thursday night Art Walk, I realized that I don't know that I would have been able to recognize his newer work as coming from the same guy either.
I had a good time, and his work continues to reward getting up close, and lingering on the details--something that taking pics is really good for. The guy continues to evolve what he's after, and I think it's great stuff. Here are the links to the detail exploring I've been blessed to do so far.
"No Somos Animales" - Click through the link on the Flickr note to see more details.
"La Dolient de Hidalgo" - Again, I used the Flickr's note feature to link through to detail shots. I've only done this, I think, with these two murals. And I did it not knowing that they were done by the same guy. Which, I think, says something about Herron's storytelling and knack for innovating.
"The Wall That Cracked Open" - this links to the best set of pics I found via Google. Googling "The Wall That Cracked Open" is a good way, though, to find out more about the importance of this mural. SPARC's page is a little tough to read, but a good, quick primer.
And here's a link to the most frequent set of pics I took, from the Downtown L.A. showing.
================================================================================================================= An extraordinary bicycle advocate passed away last year. Dennis Crowley's favorite place to ride was the Arroyo Seco where he dreamed of reviving the California Cycleway, an elevated bikeway developed by Pasadena Mayor Horace Dobbins at the beginning of the last century. This Tour de Arroyo will honor the memory of Dennis Crowley and promote the vision of a bikeway for fun and commuting between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles . The Arroyo Seco has been called the most celebrated canyon in Southern California . This spectacular corridor with a gentle river flowing through it links downtown and Northeast Los Angeles with Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley . On this ride we'll tour the scenic hightlights of the Arroyo Seco on a gentle downhill ride of about ten miles from Pasadena to the Los Angeles State Historic Park near downtown. Riders can then take the return ride to the starting point with stops at some of the cultural gems of the Arroyo or return on the Gold Line train from the Chinatown Station. It's a ride you'll always remember. Arroyo Seco Foundation , LA River Center , 570 W. Avenue 26, Suite 100 , Los Angeles , CA 90065 info@arroyoseco.orgAnnouncing the
Tour de Arroyo
A Fun, Festive Bicycle Tour of the Scenic Arroyo Seco
Honoring the Memory of Dennis Crowley
Saturday, May 30, 2009, 9:00 am
Assembly - 8:30 am - Memorial Park, Pasadena
Rally - 10:30 am - Los Angeles State Historic Park, The CornfieldDennis Crowley
The Arroyo Seco
Sign Up Now to Ride!
Tomato observations and thoughts:
This staring cat has that aloof stare that cat's do so well, staring at you as they do, but not really acknowledging, just staring.
Huntington Beach, CA
***
I'm watching Kill Bill all these hours later.
After I saw two pale huskies pulling a cyclist on the Arroyo Seco Bike Path. I gave them a wide berth. Maybe they've made it to West L.A. by now.
The bar you lift your bicycle over at the entrance of the path at Sycamore Grove Park was strangely absent. I took a picture of where it should have been with my camera phone. At the North entrance, the bar's still there. I dislike the trash bins lined up like soldiers in the yard before that point. I like the roosters standing guard at the stable. The hills get steeper there, but not so bad, now that it's over.
In Lincoln Heights I ate a few bugs, as if they got pushed over from the L.A. River by the recent rains, the air brisk and me traveling too fast, vehicle propelled on my two wheels by my own two feet, for them.
Where's the L.A. River run through Lincoln Heights?
Below Main Street where the UPS trucks pass me by too closely. I don't take the lane, but they'd raise hell if I did. Maybe I'd raise hell if I did. There's plenty of room for me to stick to the shoulder, most of the way. But they'll pass me too damn close at the other points. A behemoth of a brown truck rumble is what I want to yell at. But I just stare some kind of longingly. I don't even really whisper a curse even. Not this time.
I think I risk insanity by bicycle some days. But knowing insanity's akin to knowing life and liveliness.
Tomorrow, I'm up early. Gonna go back down the other direction.
Now, the Bride will soon have a name and the black mamba will make its appearance.
I am very glad to see that Pigeon Shop will be back in business in Highland Park soon!
Going to be a bit late on getting any L.A. Bike Summit notes up. This week's a crazy one with some large assignments due. Have got to stay afloat...
Ron Milam (of Bike Sage and much more) MC'd. To his right are: Dhyana Quintanar, Bike Coordinator, Mexico City; Eleanor Blue, BikePortland.org; and, Noah Budnick, Transportation Alternatives, New York City. Bernardo Baranda Sepulveda, from the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, Mexico City, was not able to attend, but will be joining all these foks at Saturday's Bike Summit L.A. events).
I had to cut out before I got to hear from the other presenters, but here's my grand take-away from what Noah presented:
Use data, in graphic form, to make your case for bicyclists and pedestrians.
I thought I had more take-away's, but then I realized everything else I wrote down (which wasn't much, I was going for quality distillation) were pretty much points of evidence in support of this strategy.
For example:
Metro volunteers parked a ton of bikes at the Rose Bowl a couple Saturdays ago.
"The Antigua Cultural Coffee House is recognized as one of the best and most interesting places in Southern California to purchase specialty-roasted, family-owned plantation coffee, organic green coffee beans, and tea, while enhancing your drinking pleasure through the experience of an indigenous culture."
