Band of Bicycles

The Prospect Park Bike Lane gives me the goosebumps! Check out this excellent coverage from Momentum and City Streets!

http://momentumplanet.com/videos/the-prospect-park-west-family-bike-ride

The interim executive director of the San Diego Bicycle Coalition sent this to me. I have registered and will be on the call. Hear you there? xx Larken

Free Webinar: Women Can Change the World through Cycling
Wednesday, March 30, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. EDT
Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/852395306

Attend this free webinar if you want to learn how to increase the number of women cycling for transportation in your community.

This webinar builds on last year’s session, “Writing Women Back into Bicycling.”* Five speakers offer compelling insights about cycling projects run by inspiring women, illuminate what women told APBP they want in a cycling environment, and suggest best practices to help you make a difference in your community. Don’t miss the stories of some of the wonderful women leading the cycling movement, and results of APBP’s 2010 survey on Women Cycling.

APBP encourages individuals to gather colleagues and friends together to watch the webinar and discuss and plan afterwards. Build your team. Check out the Women Cycling Project here: https://apbp.site-ym.com/members/group.asp?id=63197

Presenters:
Andrea Garland, Alta Planning + Design, presents women’s viewpoints on three of the open-ended questions from the 2010 Women Cycling survey: “What would cause you to start or increase your cycling?”, “What reaction do you get when cycling for transportation?” and “Why do you use your bicycle for trips?”

Kristin Gavin founded the Gearing Up program in Philadelphia, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide women in transition from drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence and/or homelessness with the skills, equipment and guidance to safely ride a bicycle for exercise, transportation and personal growth.

Fionnuala Quinn, PE, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, offers up a brief history of APBP’s Women Cycling Project which she helped to inspire, points to resources we can use, and suggests next steps for the project.

Anna Sibley, Masters in Public Health candidate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, summaries the results of the 2010 APBP Women Cycling Project and survey.

Carolyn Szczepanski, Communications Coordinator, Alliance for Biking & Walking, and columnist for Bicycling Times magazine, profiles some of the women leading the bicycling movement. Her talk is inspired by http://blog.publicbikes.com/2011/03/fifteen-women-who-rule-the-biking-world/

*View the recording of “Writing Women Back into Bicycling” here: https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=897166865e5e76b2a06a

Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals
PO Box 93 • Cedarburg, WI • 53012

262.375.6180 • info@apbp.org

www.apbp.org

Called Professor Ellen Turkel today who is the professor for City College of San Diego’s Bike Riding Class.  I invited her to the Bikes Del Pueblo Pot Luck Meeting at 7pm at Snowdrop tomorrow (for address email me: Larken@BandofBicycles.com)  Turns out she is from the Bronx (of course) and co-facilitates an innovative month long summer study abroad in Italy and France through the City College that integrates health, nutrition, hiking, walking and bicycle touring.  This is as cool as Sierra Nevada College Burning Man Class that hitched me up to Black Rock City last August!

She invited me to speak at her class next Wednesday. So I will be meeting them at Fiesta Island, giving a short presentation (about you my lovely Band of Bicycles), and then…off to ride bikes together around San Diego.

I adore real education!

THE WILD FINISH story

On a snowy Easter Sunday, Monica embarked on a bicycle journey across the vodka-soaked roads of Poland in search of the man who haunts her–a man of power, genius, fame and violence–her grandfather. Along her path, she squats and pogos with anarchist punks in old factories, barely escapes a knifing by Neo-Nazis, hides in churches and is hypnotized in a para-theatrical workshop. You will be led by many eccentric guides through this surreal landscape; a mohawked bike messenger, Ingrid Bergman, a girl with a third eye and your bewildered hostess, Monica Dudarov Ossetynska Hunken, heiress to cult and Slavic royalty.

THE WILD FINISH
a workshop of new solo show
Written and Performed by Monica Hunken
Directed by Melissa Chambers
Produced by Culture Project
Women Center Stage Festival

The Living Theatre
21 Clinton Street between Houston and Stanton
New York, NY

Only Two Shows!
Thursday March 10th & Friday, March 11th, 7:30pm
DISCOUNT CODE- If you purchase before February 22nd you get $3 off with this code: WCSF3

More about the show and tons of great pix:

http://monicahunken.com/thewildfinish.html

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=151784504876039

I sauntered around the 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair munching handmade Carmel Corn with honeycomb crumbs and dark chocolate swirls from Liddabit and discovering impressive custom and up-cycled bicycle glamour better than I saw in Copenhagen during the climate conference and at the Mission Bicycle Fashion Show in San Fransisco.

It is evident when designers are also bicycle enthusiasts because they create things that work for your everyday bike life.  Dargelos does this in innovative ways which are functional and aesthetically beautiful.  Their super savvy  Snap Pack is a cooler version of the super useful fanny pack. This combination purse, wallet, and pouch snaps on to your handlebars when you are riding and has one magnetic pocket.  I am often in the situation where I am trying to reduce the amount of impact on my back and shoulders while biking.  The Xtracycles we ride at the Bike Salon are perfect for big loads or grocery trips.  But when I am commuting on a faster bike for daily jaunts I have found hat shoulder bags tend to slip down my arm into my front wheel.  To prevent this from happening I try to squeeze the straps of my reusable grocery bag over each arm to become a back pack.  It is always kind of a yucky process and uncomfortable especially when combined with the puffy jacket maneuver that makes me feel like a biking marshmellow machine. The Dargelos Trans Porter bag solves this quandry by easily converting from a shoulder bag to a back pack. Simple and Revolutinary:  Check the video.

No more orange safety vests or stupid ugly reflective stuff.  There are really cool neon bright pink and yellow key chains and the Lightning Vest is made from retroflective woven strands that fold up into the size of your palm and stretch out elegantly when you need to be visible at night.

Another bike bling-a-lishous designer is who hand makes their designs in Brooklyn who caught my eye is D’emploi. They are the first designers to implement 3M retro-flective tape which I covered my bike in a couple of years ago at the Bright Bike Project by Michael Mandiberg at Eyebeam’s Holiday Hackshop 2008.

D’Emploi re-use waxed canvas sourced from local Bronx Boat Yards, New Jersey Canvas Mills and Army Navy Stores to create durable back packs, pull overs, and their signature Belt Pouches with details like velcro and zippers will make sure to stow away all your simple necessities: like chap stick, keys, cell phone, granola bar and condom.  They’ve got really cute bandannas with bike parts that glow all over them and undeniably cute fashion that just makes you want to bike along the train tracks.

Just don’t do it if you are Glassbead video collective at the Republican National Convention if you know what I am saying.

Gratitude to 3rd Ward for always bringing the best innovations to light.  The second floor has been bustling with happenings this year and the Handmade Holiday Craft Fair exemplifies the spirit of the Holidays in the most fun way imaginable.  Special thanks to Liz Clayman for the awesome photos of the bike gear.  I am spending time on the West Coast in San Fransisco, Tahoe, and San Diego and looking for bike friendly geniuses out here-please send recommendations my way!

Here are a few other bike-a-lishous mentionables from the Holiday Craft Fair:

Itentaschen featured up-cycled swiss sign bike panniers and yoga holders-naturally rainproof, and they suggest you lock through the bags themselves and just leave them on your bike.

Custom bike seat re-upholstery in leather and vinyl and cute bike gloves from Don’ Saddles who also teaches leather working and crafting classes at 3rd Ward.

Conceptual Installation and Performance Artist Hannah Curtis, who works under the name Volatile Blossom, is a Band of Bicycles favorite.  She peers fearlessly into the darker facets of life and accepts them with dangerous celebration. I instant messaged with VB while sitting next to her at Cafe Orwell to discuss Bike B& type things, biking and art.  All typos have been kept intact to give you an authentic experience of our IM session.

me:  that’s hot

Hannah:  all night long

i don’t stop

i ride all the time

anytime.

summer

winter

24/7

7 days a week

and with your mom

me:  rawrrr

i think there’s a name for that

Hannah:  bike messenger?

me:  heh.

I was thinking of something else, but sure, bike messenger? Is that your job?

Hannah:  No I have another part time bullshit job

that i ride my bike to

me:  nice! Why do you choose to ride to worK?  Is it far from public transit?

Hannah:  No not at all, I live a few minutes from two different train lines that (eventually) access my work, I ride because I love it! I love the freedom, that it’s sustainable, low cost and fun. It’s still faster, smarter and sexier than your average subway journey, even when I arrive at my destination with debris in my hair and garbage in my eyes.

me:  yugh.  Garbage in your eyes?  What’s the grossed thing that has been caught on you while riding?

Hannah:  Well, that’s a personal question but i’ll answer it :

Hannah:

Actually maybe that story is for another time.

but it involves matching double denim tracksuits and your mom

me:  you really have a thing for my mom

Hannah:  well I met her and she is just lovely!

me:  lie

me:  but i am intriged to know the truth about this garbage tale, maybe we can update the post when you are ready to come clean.

me: ba dum ching

Hannah:  Really it’s just debris from the road

me:  sure

me:  hannah your work often deals with ideas of decay and urban dwelling.  You you think there is a direct relationship between your biking habits and what comes though in your work?

Hannah:  I think it surely allows for me to explore and interact with such spaces. With biking you are interacting with the environments in which you encounter rather that subway or car where you are not in direct contact. I love to see the beauty of the ‘urban sprall’ opening out before me and my bike tours always lead me to find new places of interested such as abandoned spaces.

me:  Your most resent project was in an abandoned space right?

Hannah:  Yes, I was apart of Overtake, an art series that explores and takes over abandoned spaces for the purpose of art making. This edition was at pleasure beach, a ghost town in stratford ct where we lived and worked in the broken down homes that sprinkled the beach. We were emersed in the remains of peoples lives and the experience was very inspiring. We knew from the beginning that the decayed homes were scheduled for demolishtion hence all our work would be too. I worked outside of my normal parameters of self censorship being tied to every step of creation – knowing that no material existence of your work will exist after x date pushed me to work without certain fears attatched to the end product.

me:  I sounds freeing to work that way?  Do you think the experience will change your process in future projects?

Hannah:  Yes. Every experience does.

me:  A trend I’ve noticed in your pieces is a love for the grotesque, and in things that are temporary.  What do you think drives this fascination?

Hannah:  Temporary is my namesake. ‘Volatile blossom’ tries to capture that explosive moment in which a delicate bud can no longer contain it’s powerful bloom. When I shut my eyes all I see is time lapses of flowers opening and closing with ephemeral light into dark decay. Grotesque, Yes, I love to question the ‘natural’ and the ‘expected’ to produce flamboyant archetypes of treacherous beauty and maniacal twists on femininity, social and cultural normality, medicalization, spirituality and religion as well as mainstream conceptions of the ‘body’ and the ‘self’ and the institutions that maintain them. For your viewing pleasure.

me:  Amazing.

me:  You’ve had a busy couple of months with becoming an Artistic Evolution sponsored artist and being involved in some really interesting projects with the OverTake and Apothecary Ladies.  What can we expect to see next from Volatile Blossom?

Hannah:  The next few months for Volatile Blossom will be the artistic equivalent of an atomic bomb bloom.

me:  Whoa!  That massive!
Hannah:  Yeah, that’s 50 megatons of bike powered creativity coming at you, Brooklyn.

me:  Word.  Can’t wait to see!

me:  Describe your bike in 2 words.

Hannah:  Well I ride two bikes.
The first is a cruiser. Slow and reassuring.
second is my racer. fast and dangerous.

me:  What’s your riding style?

Hannah:  I ride like it’s a roller derby game and the cars are other players and I’m the jammer and I have to go as fast as I can and hope no one knocks me over.
me:  Do you like to ride alone or in groups?

Hannah:  I like both!

me:  What is the best method to pushish cat callers?

Hannah:  Cat callers? Oh god. I don’t know anymore. Mace? Longer skirts?

I don’t know what do you think?

me:  I have many thoughts on the subject, I think you just gave me an idea for a new post.

Hannah: Heh heh heh

me:  Thanks for taking the time to talk with me!

Hannah:  no. thank you.

me:  no. thank YOU!

Hannah:  NO THANK YOU.

This was sent to me by DataLore Collective Member, Alyssa Benson, and it looks really cool.

o The Limit
Presented by the DataLore Collective and Chez Bushwick
In conjunction with Arts in Bushwick BETA Spaces 2010

November 14, 2010
5pm – 7pm
Chez Bushwick – 304 Boerum St. Buzzer #11, Brooklyn, NY 11206
L Train to Morgan Ave, FREE

An interactive multimedia experience of the internal workings of a cyclist.

Experience the light and sound created by the biometrics of a single cyclist. Utilizing electronic sensors, witness the transformation of biofeedback into sounds as a cyclist pushes herself to her physical limits. Within the space, video of the Bushwick streetscape metamorphoses to the pulse of her racing heart. Live music improvisations will draw upon the sights and sounds to express the thrill and struggle of cycling on the streets of New York City.

Refreshments will be provided.