Thanksgiving honors special providence, when God goes that extra mile and intervenes to save sinners from catastrophes.Those who celebrate this holiday see it as an annual miracle when bosses give them a couple days off to figure out what Christmas recipients want, then go out and buy their gifts. During 1960’s bike boom, many preteens longed for a bicycle. For those who feed crowds and serve families, it’s an anxious interval of painstaking forbearance for buying ingredients, cleaning house, preparing feast, and putting on football for guests while wrapping up mess.
Labann takes an early spin on his bicyclette melaine, black bicycle, before festivities begin. Somebody must've raised a candle high, because pandemic ebbed and weather held, so got in a circuit on a wing and a prayer. In America, folks arrive at destinations by Wednesday night, sleep in, then wend their ways to where they were invited the following afternoon. More travel occurs nationwide on Thanksgiving eve than rest of year, but morning of holiday itself sees the least. Bicyclists who venture forth at dawn can ride on just about any road, even those typically impractical due to heavy traffic. After a couple of hours sweet smells of baking pies and roasting meats amuse bicyclists most, since motorists occupy vacuum packed rolling cans insulated from environment they despoil.
Few outside North America, and only 300 million residents, recognize this dated tradition on brink of disappearing altogether, compared to at least one billion bicyclists among planet’s eight billion inhabitants, some so enthused about their every day open air adventures as to write thousands of songs.
Alex The Astronaut (Alexandra Lynn), Ride My Bike [indie], How to Grow a Sunflower Underwater, self, 2022
“I wanna climb so high, but I can’t find you. And I’ve been riding my bike slipping through the side streets, sweating up the hills. With these bricks what do I build? I’ll find it. I’ll keep riding.” All of Alexandra’s songs are informed by her autism diagnosis.
Bombadils, Bicycle [Canadian folk], Dear Friend, self, 2022
Luke Fraser and Sarah Frank from Halifax, Nova Scotia hark back to bluegrass. “The road’s got its ups and downs. It’ll break your heart. Slow down, or you could brake too hard. But there's a spark in my spokes spinning round, the brightest hope I've ever found. I see it in you and all the people riding through. So I'm not stopping yet. It feels too good to fly.”
Jaś Zgnilec feat ANA, Rower, single, self, 2022
Mooz Vibes, Velo Électrique [French Polynesian synth beats], single, self, 2022
BTS (Bangtan Boys) feat. RM (Kim Namjoon), Bicycle [K-pop], single, self, 2021
"Let’s ride a bike, if we’re sad... open our arms freely... Let it roll sometimes, like a bicycle wheel, I need to find something...”
Stamina MC (Linden Reeves), Bicicletta [English & Italian expletive drum & bass], single, self, 2021
Lil retar & Okti, Rower, single, Cucumber Gang Collective, 2021
Alphabeat, Back Of My Bike [Danish pop], single, Warner Music, 2019
Cruising the Boardwalk, I Can Ride my Bike Song, single, self, 2019
"Turn off your brain from the daily mundane that’s so crazy insane... I can ride my bike today. Be free!”
Rue (Park Hyeon Jun), Rain and Bicycle [K-pop], single, self, 2020
Maude Latour, Ride My Bike, Starsick EP, self, 2019
“My mind's on fire, I feel the blood rush to my brain... I can't explain, so take a right at Central Park to clear my mind. And get that runner's high, high, and, baby, for the very first time I’m not afraid to die... think I found what it means to be alive. So I backpack through the universe, and I came back with no possessions except heartbreak and life's fake. And all the gods gave me one message, that you live fast and you die quicker.”
John Mineton, Rower [hip-hop], Rower,single, self, 2017
Rivival Now, I Ride My Bike in the Rain, At the First Revelationiest Project, Arkam Records, 2016
Passenger (Michael David Rosenberg), Riding to New York [folk ballad], Whispers, self, 2014
"See the doctors told me that my body won't hold me, my lungs are turning black... there ain't no turning back. They can't tell me how long I've got, maybe months but maybe not. I’m taking this bike and riding to New York... 'Cause I wanna see my grandson one last time... I wanna see my daughter, tell her all the things that I should have taught her, and I'd do it if I had to walk.”
Bicrophonic Research Institute is an anarchic organization of bicyclists who make “concrete music” tracks by riding bicycles equipped with a GPS receiver and Raspberry Pi computer on back rack and stereo speakers on handlebars. Using bespoke mapping software, they link different sounds to different places, meaning that what's played by the bike changes depending upon how fast cyclists pedal and where they go.
Established in London by Kaffe Matthews and Dave Griffiths in 2014, every year BRI collectively and conceptually undertakes several projects involving architecture, contemporary issues, cycling possibilities, finances, politics, or time, while running local workshops in sonic bike making and sharing developments online and open source. As a result independent sonic cycling hubs also exist in Berlin, Brussels, Finland, Houston, and Magdeburg.
Kaffe Matthews, Radio Cycle Highlights [excerpts from live broadcasts], podcast, self, 2002
During July of 2002 BRI's Kaffe Matthews broadcasted Radio Cycle 24/7 as an experimental podcast.
Melanie Anne Safka, Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), Buddah, 1970
"We all had caught the same disease, and we all sang the songs of peace. Some came to sing, some came to pray. Some came to keep the dark away. So, raise the candles high, 'cause if you don't, we could stay black against the night (sky). Oh, oh, raise them higher again, and if you do we could stay dry against the rain." Though not about bicycling, this Woodstock anthem naîvely extols a kinder society, one in which bicyclists can enjoy peaceful alternatives.
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