You are hereWhat a weekend! Was it as good for you as it was for me?
What a weekend! Was it as good for you as it was for me?
First off, looks like I missed some good times! Thankfully James was on the scene with his badass camera to take a bunch of Fabulous Friday and Sexy Sunday pics. Check his photostream for all the goodies:
Photo by James
The beach trip was everything I hoped it would be and more. Swimming, fires, cooking over fires, great friends, fireworks, buried kegs, dogs, music, LOTS of nudity, BMX riding, angry park rangers, and all together a really chill time. Good to see all the friendly faces out there and take a few days' break from the hecticness that is Austin, now all that's left is for me to wash the grit from my clothes and blankets, and sand the rust off my BMX. Riding a rawed bike into the gulf was probably not the best idea, in retrospect. Now my bike looks like "The BMX of The Deep" or some other ominous sounding velocipede.
A bit of news on the downlow: anyone interested in the latest installment of the epic narrative of James Clayton should keep their eyes peeled for this coming weeks' edition of The Austin Chronicle. Rob D'Amico is the author of the upcoming article, and from the sound of things he's taken a much deeper look into the issue than anyone else covering it to-date. Plus, you might even see a picture of yours truly show up somewhere amongst the article. I can't wait to see it.
I know I promised to write some stuff on my thoughts about April's Critical Mass (and the state of mass in general), but I haven't yet. I'm sure I'll feel insanely inspired soon and will ramble and rant away, but until then you'll have to deal. The short story is that I love Critical Mass and what it is, but I'm worried about what it's becoming, and my role in it all. I want to have fun on the rides but don't want to see a repeat of the police crackdowns of the early 90s. I'll blahblahblah later when I have a few moments for quiet introspection, but right now duty calls.
I loved my break, but I'm so glad to be back to biking around in Austin. See y'all on the streets!
I was enjoying the general feel CM had in August or so, it felt a lot more mellow, and there were fewer altercations with police and motorists. The police involvement is annoying at best and results in arrests at worst, yet we definitely don't want a police escort/defined route type deal - that kills the mood and the ride completely. I have been thinking, maybe there is a way to notify people in the heaviest traffic areas of the general route (guad down to the bridge, the civic circle, those general areas) that mass will be happening and there will be traffic delays or something? People hate surprises (sadly) and warning them to take a new Friday commute home might mitigate any negative reports of traffic clogging/corking. The mass after Thanksgiving rocked even if it was smaller, because the roads were deserted and the police presence was smaller accordingly. I want to keep going with CM for sure, but I'm not antagonistic, and the rides lately have had a more antagonistic to motorists and anarchic feel (which can be good but off puts some people).
I was active with CM in the 90's, and one thing they were really looking out for was the "leader". That's where I'd worry about your role in the Mass. Not that you're the leader, but I bet this site could be used to somehow back up some prosecutors' arguments to that effect. Ahhhh, maybe I'm too paranoid, just make sure they can't paint you as the organizer (or the "decider" heh heh heh)....