May 2005AD Berkeley critical mass

Thanks for the photos! However, I caution all that
no photos can do justice to what a great ride it was. I shall attempt to summarize in
painstakingly brief form:

1) The weather! It was divine. Wispy puffs of stretchy thin cotton high
above on a light blue sky. Perfect temperature. When else does one
have such safe space to enjoy the clouds from the largest open spaces
(big scary streets) without fear of sudden death from every direction?

2) The riders! Big ride, lots of new people (Sorry I was late as was
watching presentations on ideas for a carfree district on Treasure Island,
rather than the current car-oriented proposal). And of course, the
CHEERING PASSERSBY!!! Blowing kisses from cars, dancing in windows and on
rooftops and struttin' down the sidewalk, BCM spread worldwide cheer;

3) The music and the messages! Personally I was glad to be able to hear
the music more -- and the deluxe improvised cordless phone mic patch
appears to have improved (oftentimes one could actually tell what was
being said, and it was louder and available to more people!). Plus
we had great mixes, spectacular DJ'ing from the hard pedalling
superstar V., and occasional and poignant bursts of humorous and
politically prescient pronouncements.

4) The descent on Zellerbach! At one rider's behest, we went to
Zellerbach to raise awareness about the speaker there, who supports
the war on Iraq (NYT columnist Thomas Friedman). At least one rider
went person to person on the long line, discussing the issues, while an
enormous bicycle cyclone filled the plaza. And miracle of miracles: we
made it out without breaking up or losing the energy!

5) THE LENGTH: this was one of the longest rides in recorded history!
Something like 2.5 hours by the end of it.

6) The route: we did a loop looking something like an enormous
snuffalupagous with huge QBERT earrings and a funky snail on a saddle
riding it. Why we went just about EVER'WHAR! including but not limited
to (some assembly required) the main drag on Telegraph, Downtown
Berkeley, University Ave, MLK, Zellerbach, College to, Ashby Telegraph
to 51st, Shattuck and 51st to Ashby, San Pablo all the way to Solano,
the Alameda, Downtown yet again!!!, Durant to College (again!!!), and
stopped at...

7) NABOLOM! A collectively owned and operated neighborhood bakery,
struggling to survive, which serendipitously hosted us to baked goods
and outdoor fiddlin' and accordion under a jungle-bright sliver of
moon piercing tufted flocculi of clouds above.

and of course...

8) YOU! Nice to ride with you all and...

9) Street theater!!! Including the temporary placement of found barriers
across San Pablo, no doubt inspired by a particularly miscreant
motorist.

AND finally:

10) THE DANCING.


yowl!


ah yes, one more:

11) The Mayor! Tom Bates smiled as we passed at Dwight before
Telegraph. Watch for him on Bike to Work Day (see Bike Month
events at http://www.bfbc.org/)


---

p.s. found this passionate diatribe about Thomas Friedman:
http://www.nypress.com/16/20/news&columns/cage.cfm

Entitled, appropriately to us wheelers, "A Shake of the Wheel: The mixed-metaphor madness of Thomas Friedman," check out
the first paragraph:

I have been trying to avoid writing about Thomas Friedman. Two years ago, when I had a serious drug problem, one of the
worst symptoms was a monomaniacal obsession with Friedman. I called his office regularly from overseas, sent him rambling
two-page letters, harassed him in 100 different ways. Once, I even called the office of Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and,
pretending to be Friedman himself, screamed at Sulzberger.s secretary. I told her that I was pissed, that "Arthur better
get his car out of my fucking parking space" and that "golf this weekend [was] out of the fucking question."

IT'S THAT DARNED PARKING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thomas Friedman is an enigma.

He has this perspective of 'neocons for alternative energy!', where all at once, he seems to be pro-foreign intervention yet strongly promotes hybrid cars and solar panels for houses so that we have a lower demand for middle east oil, yet is antagonistic to anti-intervention people who have been saying the same thing. I noticed that a few other conservatives have been acting like they've always been in favor of hybrids and oil alternatives, and that this has always been the conservative position, and saying Ford can't innovate. His 'World is Flat' book is dumb too because he keeps pointing out the obvious that free trade causes competition for jobs internationally, but says that the solution is for all americans to try twice as hard to become great computer programmers yet... already there are tons of out of work computer programmers walking the streets. There will never be more than 2% of the economy based on computers anyway, so what the hell is he thinking. I don't know. http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/04/05/friedman/

Kudos to the photographer lady! Thanks!

This was a great ride. I haven't been able to go for MONTHS and it was great to be out again. Weather was excellent! Nice cool breeze, beautiful light.

I'm bummed I didn't stick around for the ride down to San Pablo. Maybe next time.

That screaming lady at Ashby & Shattuck gave me nightmares. She was really really livid and I kept seeing her screaming death threats over and over in my dreams

oops, one of those was a duplicate