Entries from March 2008 ↓

Over at an Atlanta cycling based web forum. Faster Mustache. There was an interesting point/counter point discussion on the Critical Mass that occurred Friday. I spoke with my dad who witnessed the San Fran Critical Mass the same day. He spoke of the herd mentality, and how these things can go either really well. or really badly.

First off I love the variety in the cycle culture found in this city.
I just moved here to atl recently, and I have been on my bike every day. Talking to people, riding with people, and visiting bike shops. One thing I have learned is a lot of people have a generally different cycling/more aggressive style than I am used to seeing in other parts of the country. At first when everyone I met had a, “I have been hit by a car,” story I thought it was only drivers, but after a little observation I learned it was just as much our fault as cyclist as theirs as drivers.

The Atlanta CM was an interesting experience for me. I have ridden in cm’s in several different cities and countries. And have gone so far as help organize one, but this was easily one of the largest I have been involved in. Of course when you have this any people on bikes in a herd you have issues. I tried to do my part to do what I could when I could to help cars that were lost in the pack make it to a safe exit point, but with communication being at a premium it proved difficult. Plus the fact I didn’t know any of the other riders it also proved to only make it more difficult. Only while blocking intersections was I able to learn who to talk to to help things flow a little more smoothly. While CM’s don’t have a leader there are those who provide a sort of back bone and structure. I thought while riding some of the side streets that this mass was going great, but once we got to Ponce de leon. It did become painfully obvious why a lot of cyclist say they can’t ride down Ponce alone. And I was able to see just how a large Mass can be harmful to the cyclist/driver interaction in a city. The angry reaction from drivers at the intersection near the Majestic was a perfect example considering the fact we blocked traffic for nearly seven minutes or about 3-4 traffic light cycles.

I noted from several people that this one was a lot more spread out than than usual as well. But watching some of the cyclist involved it would have made me uncomfortable to ride a lot closer to some of them given their skill level. After announcing in a clear loud voice, “On your left,” several people didn’t look or check their blind spots.

Though riding is healthy for the human psyche it cannot cure all ills. All riders carry some weight of diseased spirit. Still, better we ride than vegetate.

A few members of the Atlanta Sedition Orchestra invited me to ride this months Critical Mass with them on Friday. Not being one to turn down a chance to act silly in traffic I gladly accepted and rode with them.
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They warned me before hand that the Atlanta mass was a lot bigger than any of the others I had ridden before, but even being told that did little to prepare me for a park that was just bursting at the seams with bicycles.
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As I took a moment to let it all sink in, someone asked me. “You aren’t from around here are you?”
“Nope.”

Apparently it was obvious that I was not used to seeing that much random bike culture in one place. Fortunately I am already familiar with what goes down at a Critial mass just not exactly on this sort of scale. I am sure there were over 200 people in attendance. Before the mass got started someone who watched me ride up asked me to give them a wuick course on “Power sliding for dummies” according to them I make it look easy. I felt honored almost.

Then the mass got underway. There is something about a tidal wave of bike several city blocks long thats just amazing. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of.
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I got commissioned to make a [tag]messenger[/tag] [tag]bag[/tag] next month for an upcoming Earth day raffle!

To make it even more interesting I was also given full creative control.

I also have the idea for my next personal bag out in my head which means I may be giving one of my bags away soon.

It will probably be the Star bag
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I really want to attend this.
Their statement

This ride, on behalf of the Atlanta Percent for Art Coalition, intends to bring more awareness of local public art to our allies, the urban cyclist. If you see the value of bike friendly and culturally vibrant public spaces, you will enjoy this ride.
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Riders will meet in East Atlanta at the workshop of the SOPO Bike Collective. We will work our way west to downtown and end at Eyedrum Art + Music Gallery in the Old Fourth Ward. North and South boundaries of the route are Highland Ave. and Memorial Dr. A complete map will be made available in print and online April 6th.
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The ride will last 1 1/2 hours and we will cover 10 miles with some steep hills. All riders should wear a helmet. Expect a casually paced, fun and informative ride.

So I am riding my bike home after doing some more volunteer work at the bicycle co-op and I decide to ride a more relaxed pace that normal. Mostly because I felt like crap anyway. While ascending from the bottom of the hill I saw a person slam their bicycle into the triangular median and take a head first dive onto the pavement. No bracing with his hands or anything, just a head first dive onto the pavement. I then sprint up to him thinking this could be bad. Once I get my own bike situated I helped him up and proceed to check him for a concussion in the most unobtrusive way possible.

Since no good deed goes ever unpunished, and I had been trying not to laugh the entire time, since the guy had basically face planted right in front of me. While I was wrapping up our conversation, I had a petite seizure. I can’t talk while having these and I only have limited motor function. At this point my new best friend decided he wanted a hug and thank me for stopping to help him. At that point I really just wanted to stand there for a second wait for my head to clear, and then go home.

I have been doing a bit of volunteer work since I have gotten into Atlanta. Most of it has been at the Sopo bicycle co-op I will be there tonight actually, building and working on bikes for people. Yesterday was “Food not Bombs” were I spent several hours helping cook, and then pass out food to homeless people in little Five Points. That was a surprising amount of fun, and I got to sit and talk with some really interesting people.
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I didn’t have my camera with me, so it was cell phone pictures for the day.

We met a group of kids who were currently train hopping from one end of the country to the other. The girl had a broken foot from a mis-judged landing and they all had. Their goal for the evening was to get drunk at which point an interesting question got raised.
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“You don’t drink?”
Me:”no”
“Drugs?”
“Nope.”
Turns out the rest of the rest of the people I was working with were all vegetarian straight edgers. They started off by asking me. Well do you eat meat. I answered, “of course.” Then they asked the amusing question.
“Well do you have sex”
“Dude, did you notice I am sitting here reading the local adult services and strip club directory.”

So here I am sitting out side of the Caribou Coffee in The Edgewood Shopping plaza. When two guys try to sneak up behind me. I turn my look over my shoulder several times before making it a point to turn around once they began to invade what I consider my personal space. One asked me for my laptop
“Give me your laptop”
I laughed at them both and replied
“You better want it a lot more than me,” and then proceed to case it up and place it inside of my messenger bag, while continuing to chuckle to myself.
They both look surprised as I then got up and asked them “what else do they want.”

As they both nervously look at me and then at each other I noticed one start reaching around his back, I figure he should be my main target. I am hovering leaning forward ready to lunge, and while I hoped it didn’t get to that. I really kinda wanted it to, I can tell you to the day the last time I got to choke someone out legally.

They chatted between themselves for a bit and started posturing about how they just got out of jail and what not. I wanted to point out I used to get paid to hurt people, but I felt it wasn’t the best time to divulge that fact. I stepped forward to place myself in position to strike and one of them places his hands out and ask me not to do that I was making him nervous. Apparently they just wanted to talk at this point. I figured my stuff was mostly safe now and listened to what they had to say. They said how they were walking, and I pointed out I was on a bike, so I told them I would let them go, that only went to piss them off. They accused me of treating them like bitches, I agreed with them and made a deal. So I gave them some of the change in my pocket in an effort not to re-escalate the issue. They left and I decided to do the same before they returned with friends.

After I said goodbye to my mom I met up with Marcus who was headed to South Carolina for a swing dance workshop and we hit the road for Atlanta. I have been looking forward to making this move for some time and was really excited about the entire prospect. My uncle originally wanted me to wait till Tuesday before I headed out to Atlanta, but instead I decided to ride out early and spend the weekend couch surfing with several people.

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The plan has worked out pretty well so far. Friday night Marcus, Ben the couch surfer I was staying with, and I went to the A3C independent hip hop festival. I got to see Del the Funky Homo-sapien as well as the Juice Crew.
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Plus this as the first time I was ever at a place you could get a hair cut, your belly button pierced, and new shoes while drinking. The culture and environment was like so completely different than what I used to. It was a lot to take in at once, but I ended up having an awesome time.
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The next morning was an early start. After Marcus left town, Ben and I got our agenda sorted for the day. It started with a little cycling around and site seeing before heading over to Freedom park to take part in International Pillow Fight day. I think it was pretty funny to see random people go walking or cycling down the street carrying pillows in the middle of the day. We got there to find a big circle of people hanging out in the park with pillows and cushions just waiting. Someone pointed out there were more cameras there than people. I could only assume this would be on lots of blogs the next day.
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Needless to say I had a blast.

I left from there to put in to some volunteer time at Sopo and fix a couple of bikes before heading off to dinner.
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After uploading and tagging 460 some odd pictures. My gallery has been restored and is now current. It would have been done sooner, but I was juggling several other projects at the same time.

The most recent picture actually came from The Hawthorne gallery. It is an amazing art gallery I found while waiting to meet someone at one of the local book stores. I loved the lighting and the installations of the art. [newline]

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Since I haven’t been sleeping lately, I have had some free time on my hands. I took the time to make myself another bag since my winged bag was wrecked by my trip to California. I have since patched that bag up, but it is nice to have an excuse to make a new [tag]messenger[/tag] [tag]bag[/tag]. The new bag is actually made from part of several older bags I [tag]salvaged[/tag] and cut up so it went together a lot faster since I didn’t have to make straps. The stars where interesting to [tag]embroider[/tag] and I had fun making them.
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