Strike Soudain

Despite Writer Guild of America’s strike, just resolved, and supporting actions by screen actors and such professionals, some feature films and television programs continue to be released, and there are many existing amusements for just about every taste.

British Pathé filmed daily life a century ago leaving relevant clips as these:
Cycle Town, Copenhagen, Denmark (1923)
National Bicycle Week, Hyde Park, London, England (1923)
The Postman (1940)

Misfit teen heroine Moondance Alexander (Michael Damian, dir., 2007), played by Kay Panabaker, rides her pink stepthrough bike for local transportation and on part time store deliveries, which as advertised expands her horizons. She comes upon a pinto horse loose from its paddock. Upon returning it to owner Dante (Don Johnson), he teaches her to jump Checkers in competition, thus getting one over her snotty school nemesis.

The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom (Tara Johns, dir., 2011) depicts confused preteen Elizabeth Gray (Julia Sarah Stone), who believes the barren Country Western singer is her mother. She tries to ride her banana bike 500 miles from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Dolly was scheduled to perform. Her adoptive mom Marion (Macha Grenon) intercepts her at the US border and tosses her bike off a cliff. Bittersweet but contrived, closest Dolly ever came to appearing near there was Madison, Wisconsin in 1976.

In feature film Barbie (Greta Gerwig, dir., 2023), Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling) dotes on Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) admidst an idealized matriarchal society, content to play stoker on her tandem. Eventually, Ken dolls rebel and seek patriarchal power until female dolls get them to fight among themselves.

No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky, dir., 2023) has desperate escort Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) hired by anxious parents to seduce their reluctant son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). She tempts him every way she knows how, including stuffing his bicycle in the back of a van while kidnapping him.

Florence Pugh plays A Good Person (Zach Braff, dir., 2023) cursed with bad luck. Fiddling with smartphone navigator, she crashes into a roadside excavator injuring self and killing her finacé. After a long recovery. she's hooked on opioids and rides a BMX instead of driving.

Grim documentary Amber (Elizabeth Fisher, dir., 2023) delves into unsolved mystery of Amber Rene Hagerman’s disappearance. This 9 year old left home in Arlington Texas on her bicycle only to be found dead 4 days later. Outcry resulted in the so-named Amber Alert System that since has saved lives of over a thousand children.

Because majority views television for events reporting and serial entertainment, effect of WGA strike has been to afford fascist news a free pass to spread lies with too little to counter and expose. Most networks don't incite violence and issue hate speech with relentless enthusiasm. Unbalanced agitation leads to division, terrorism, and treason among disturbed individuals and splinter groups they target. Rupert’s daily assault upon the democracy he loathes doesn’t need guild writers, isn’t scripted, and solicits few advertisers, since they can sustain attack through corporate agendas and private patronage.

How can you stop their 24/7 barrage validated by resultant hate and murder they themselves provoked like some self fulfilling prophecy? You'll never assess degree of damage done to democracy over 146 days of unchallenged opinions. Once late night commentators begin to return next week will anyone notice balance restored?

Is there any point in complaining when narcissists revel in your anguish? Every appeal to fairness just feeds their twisted needs and fortifies their sociopathies. For them schadenfreude is a favored sport. Publishing articles and speaking up publicly confines your arguments to a past that nobody wants to relive, while perpetrators commit new conspiracies nobody wants to admit to being so gullible to allow themselves to be hoodwinked and victimized by.

Slipstream Belain

“The idea of being a ‘serious' cyclist still strikes me as a bit funny. After all, riding is fun.” Bill Chappell, NPR. Really? Cyclists often compare prepping equipment to packing a parachute. Must take in conditions, speeds, terrains, and traffic on rides.

There’s no upside to revealing what’s inside. Despite scriptophobia arising from messenger blame and undeserved shame, no writer can quit confessing, describing, exposing, or expressing what they’ve absorbed through social osmosis belain in this historical slipstream of 130 billion human predecessors while hurtling along hypersonic information currents.

To achieve her new cycling speed record of 296.01 kmh (183.932 mph), Denise Mueller-Korenek took to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, towed behind a jet vehicle, until her giant chain gear bicycle could be pedaled. Drafting behind a fairing, and following thousands of predecessors, she currently stands alone, under conditions few would ever have an opportunity to duplicate or want to. Going so fast for only a moment? Recall someone who nearly doubled that speed racing down a volcano slope. What about elapsed unassisted point to point maximum? A century ago 6-day velodrome racers were happy to lead field and take home a payday. So many conditional records! Why risk certain death for pride marred by an asterisk?

Do none know when end will come? Some receive dire prognoses that specify, though could be wrong by decades. Often worry that riding alongside petroleum exhaust will expose lungs to those 450 carginogens found in fuels. Diesel fumes can trigger fatal asthma. Increasing traffic on unfriendly roads means instant fatalities are ever present. Probably 99% of conspiracy theories are paranoid fantasies that choose familiar comforts and deny painful truths. Worrying about unlikely stuff diverts you from ascertaining actual facts and wastes your time on earth.

What constitutes a life? They falsely say, when all is said and done, more will be said than done. They undervalue commonplace actions, commuting, cooking, eating, gardening, metabolizing, preparing, producing, reflecting, reading, respiring, shopping, sleeping, web surfing, and working, which quietly consume most of your time alive. You hardly get to speak aloud with little incentive to converse with yourself other than mentally. Life is a series of preparations for moments that never arrive alongside catastrophes and tragedies thrust unavoidably upon you. Wise weather whatever adversity overwhelms workers and worrywarts.

Count your blessings this July 4th. While every other national holiday celebrates some celebrity, event, group, or hero, on this those united rejoice The Four Freedoms - from tyranny and want, of religion and speech - ratified by UN and USA as the cornerstone of fairness and justice. But is it just an illusion? It's the perfect time to evaluate by hitting streets on a freedom machine. A billion people go by bike to absorb free vitamin D, avoid traffic, blast flab, boost mood, breathe fresh air, build muscle, buy confidence, cut costs, exercise mind, explore surroundings, extend life, meet locals, thumb nose at automotive paradigm and unexamined conventions, and transport self through space/time. But terrorists and tyrants want to dominate and intimidate, and steal your transportation independence through random gun violence sanctioned by congressional greed and corrupt policies.

Nam June Paik may have coined phrase “electronic superhighway” during 1970’s, but has internet fostered a homogenous or smarter population? Ironically, more facts mean fragmentism, normalization of lies, overthrow of consensus, polarization of politics, and reactions based on too few truths. Before 2000, David Bowie called Internet “the new rock and roll”, and predicted its potential will be unimaginable, “as exhilarating and terrifying as an alien lifeform.”

More humans have died from traffic accidents in last 100 years - considered the bloodiest stretch in history - than soldiers in wars. There's an easy remedy: Deny, revoke or suspend licenses. Any applicant who can't pass an operator test and psyche evaluation shouldn't be driving (or purchasing guns for that matter). It's no imposition: Cities and states provide bike lanes, busses, sidewalks, subways, and trains, all cheaper than owning a motor vehicle, even subsidize bike own/share programs, though controversial among neocons and taxpayers. New Yorkers commute by bike making over 100,000 trips daily, or take taxies or Uber, thereby enjoying plenty of alternatives. Recidivist DUI, OUI, and traffic offenders demonstrate they have diddly capacity to learn civic duties without more drastic measures. Unlike biking, jogging and walking, driving isn’t an inalienable right, but a licensed privilege. Motor pirates and proscribed drivers can already be given jail sentences, though seldom are.

You’d think that side streets with 4-way stops at every intersection would be safer than main avenues with relentless traffic, but you’d be wrong, since so many motorists disobey speed limits and traffic controls where they think nobody notices. Aggression, impatience, and scofflaw defiance are symptoms of sociopathy. 

“[Bicycling’s] like being a bird flying in a sky filled with airplanes: the deafening roar of their engines, their impossible speed, the cruelty of steel, the inescapable menace, the looming sense of catastrophe, your own little wings flapping in silence while theirs slice thunderously.” Jill Lepore, “Bicycles Have Evolved. Have We?” The New Yorker, May, 2022

Peloton, racers, time-trialers, and triathletes compulsively share a need for speed. Look at peloton's furious pace averaging 35 mph during last 10 miles of Etape 4 of Tour. Behooves long distance riders to recall Vélocio’s (Paul de Vivie) Seven Randonneuse Commandments:
1. Take infrequent short stops, so as not to break momentum.
2. Light and frequent meals: Eat before feeling hungry, drink before feeling thirsty.
3. Never go so far as to reach abnormal fatigue, which results in lack of appetite and sleep.
4. Cover before getting cold, disrobe before getting hot, and don't be afraid to expose skin to air, sun, or water.
5, While riding, abstain from meat, tobacco, and wine.
6. Stay within your means, especially early when tempted to force yourself because you feel strong.
7. Never pedal expecting to build self-esteem; remain humble.

And keep your knees in, not flailing out and wasting force. If you consider such advice generally ignored by champions, you’re already a “cicli-junkie” in need of obsession therapy. It’s never just a weekend century, but several days a week of endurance training building up to each randonneur event. Don’t these ring wraiths have wage slave jobs to preclude perpetual practice?

Sarina Tomchin, an endurance athlete of over 100 duathlon, triathlon, and ultra trail running competitions, is the artist/designer/founder of Cycology, a Sydney, Australia based global business selling “cychedelic” cycling apparel online to over 80 countries. Cycology is the name of more than a dozen local bike shops patronized by cycoholics. Also in on this wordplay, Cyclopath Cycling Syndicate shop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, retails likewise exotic apparel.

The Last Rider (Alex Holmes, dir., 2023) chronicles champion Greg LeMond's nadir year (shotgun victim) and storied Tour de France comeback in 1989, his second of three general classification wins of the July Classic, yet again in progress. To date, Lemond is the last and only American accredited to have won. The director met the retired champion during production of Stop at Nothing (Alex Holmes, dir., 2014) , about now-disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, “a man who set out to destroy anyone who questioned his reputation," so made another documentary that instead casts a positive light on cycling heroics. Why is there no statue of Lemond, who made his presence known when they unveiled Major Taylor’s Memorial in Worcester, Massachusetts? France erected one to the late twice winner Laurent Fignon, the competitor Lemond beat.

Tour de France: Unchained (Jamie Batten, dir., 2023), aka Tour de France: Au cœur du peloton [Inside the peloton], is a French language, English subtitled, Netflix series released this June. Both were timed, obviously, to promote interest in world’s biggest spectator event attracting up to fifteen million fans, since free to public, and viewership on broadcasts of one hundred and fifty million. NFL Superbowl sells less than one hundred thousand tickets, though viewership exceeds one hundred million. FIFA World Cup Football draws up to three million spectators, except when hosted in a desert state, though once set a record for viewership at one and a half billion.

"After a long day on my bicycle, I feel refreshed, cleansed, purified. I feel that I have established contact with my environment and that I am at peace. On days like that I am permeated with a profound gratitude for my bicycle. Even if I did not enjoy riding, I would still do it for my peace of mind." Paul de Vivie, cyclotouriste and publisher of Le Cycliste

“There comes a time in every little girl's life when her momma says, ‘Girl, do your best, [be]cause one day you may come to find that all of your life has been a wicked ride.’” Melody Gardot, Wicked Ride, Some Lessons, 2006

Picky Balletomane

Bicycle Day’s 80th Anniversary Poster depicts late cosmic and prolific guitar picker Jerry “Captain Trips” Garcia who had a dominant compositional hand in over 100 albums and 450 songs by The Grateful Dead alone. B&C lists a dozen songs that celebrate April 19th, 1943, the day biochemist Albert Hoffman first dosed himself with LSD and rode home by bicycle gingerly.

Recording a song and releasing to world for free can be a cheap ticket, lawn dart, long shot, or low road to upstart infamy. Pandering to base instincts and hormonal urges will always attract indiscriminate consumers, whereas only a balletomane or critic can appreciate choreography and compositions presented from deep thought, diligent practice, and drop dead talent. Consequently, more chunks of coal exist than multi-caret diamonds, while outputs of consequence get buried beneath payloads of nonsense.

You get to vote which is which among another 5 dozen newly identified tunes directly related to bicycling, most recently released. Surprises how few of them reference e-bikes, which have grown in popularity over last 2 decades, and how many unique titles continue to emerge, as if composers and musical groups had no clue 3,000 others already covered similar emotions and experiences. Would have posted this before Tax Day had not examples kept appearing; probably ought to keep monitoring sources. How many click tracks and glitch beats are needed to capture a clacking chain, dancing derailleur, or whirring wheel?

Alexey Marti, Bicycle [jazz], Travesia, self, 2017

Animal Portraits, Bicycle, Young Mothers EP, 374731 Records DK, 2018

Arno Schubert, Bicycle [hip-hop], single, RNO Records, 2020

BLERTA (Geoff Murphy), Bicycle Song, The Return Trip [soundtrack], EMI Music, 2004; begun in 1970 as Bruno Lawrence Electric Revelation and Traveling Apparition, and compiled in 1976, these humorous short stories and songs chronicle group’s tour of New Zealand.

Calypso Rose, The Bicycle [Trinidad folk], Calypso Rose, Ra, 1968

Contact Lens, Bicycle, Silos, 699663 Records DK, 2020

David Gibb, Rusty Bicycle, Pedal Onwards, Little Seeds Music, 2022; “Rusty bicycle, left out in the rain... grease those gears, oil that chain, else you’re not going to get to ride that bike again.”

Demian Feriy, Bicycle [eam], I, self, 2012

DJ Mahoutsukai feat. Hana Mari, Saki Ibuki, Anzu Kojima & Shino Kuroki, By Bicycle [techno], By Bicycle Ep, simasima, 2023

Dom Whiting, Drum and Bass on the Bike, DJ event videos since 2021

Elias Caldwell, Bicycle [synth], Iridescent, [self], 2023

Eliot Park, Bicycle, Just Be, self, 2018; “Birthday present, oh, what a dream! Shiny red with a sparkly seat. and I can go about a-hundred-and-three on my B-I-C-Y-C-L-E. Saturday, oh, what a day! Rolling down the road through the sun and the shade, no training wheels, no siree... I’m the king of the road on my bicycle, bicycle. Yippee ki-yay, and away we go.”

Ezra Fike, Bicycle, Alphabet Pie, self, 2017

Gerald Taucher. E-bike [Austrian], Zwischen Domois & Heit, self, 2022

Giancarlo Scalzi, Bicycle, Missing Pieces of Scoundrel Rocco, Dimetric Sounds, 2013

Gidiboyy, Bicycle, Gidiboyy Lomo 2, 3666843 Records DK, 2022

HÅN & Killowen, Bicycle [alternative], projections on a human screen, self, 2021

Harlem Yu, Bicycle, The Moonlight That Can’t Be Turned Off, Mandopop, 2013

Indian Summer Jars, feat. Sarah Fiore, Ragbrai, Heart Rock, self, 2014

Janet Blair, Bicycle, Over Under, self, 2020; “Life’s no game of chicken, that bird just doesn’t fly. Love is seeing ours not mine. It’s kinda like the pedals on my child’s bicycle. The pedals lock beneath your feet, you try to make them go. To move the bike along, one of those pedals must come low, snd start the forward cycle: confess, repent, grow.”

John Colleoni, Bicycle (Rev Tribal) [Italian techno], Retrosynthwave, Italian Way Music, 2022

JooJoo, Bicycle Day [acid dark techno], Darkprog Mixtape, self, 2022

Joy Lewis, Bicycle, single, Gabbiani Records, 2021

Keezy, Bicycle [hip-hop], single, self, 2018

Lea Miller, Jr, Bicycle [piano instrumental], In Tenda Nel Bosco [In a Tent in the Woods], Sunshine Music Records, 2021

Lions of the Interstate, Bicycle, Hug Point + Death / Love, self, 2019

Liquor Bike, various titles [post-punk], Neon Hoop Ride, Grass Records, 1994
Liquor Bike, Pavements And Sidewalks, Lowborne, Merkin Records, 1993
A “liquor bike” according to urban slang is any conveyance one uses after losing license to operate a motor vehicle.

Lonnie Park, Bicycle Day [juvenile], My Earth Songs, self, 2020; meant to encourage children to ride ecologically to school in support of UNICEF, so not an LSD reference.

Macbeth, Bicycles [Italian metal in English], Vanitas, Art Music Group, 2002; “Service is suspended, Service shall resume. Service running late again... Cities got new friends that the cities really cared. The looks are trifle shifty, and they’re not about to change. ‘Cos no one likes what they are not, and slowly we're strange, and everyone's buying bicycles. Not the bus, bicycles; Not the train, bicycles.”

Margo Lauritzen, Bicycle [indie alternative], She’s a Scientist, self, 2020; “A bicycle is very nice and you should try it once or twice. A bicycle is very cool; if it breaks you can fix it with bike tools. A bicycle is very clean, it keeps our trees and gardens green. A bicycle is very neat, see them gliding down the street! Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle!”

Markus Nikolaus, Bicycle Day [psychedelia], The Acid Kids, Porzellan Bar, 2021; influences include riding a bicycle under LSD during COVID lockdown in downtown Berlin. “But baby, we can be as good as new. Take some acid, take some truth. Take my heart, it’s all for you. Let’s take it back. Going with the bike all day, Bicycle Day; let’s take it back.”

Marwin Fetwig, Bicycle [eam], Secrets, UBM Records, 2022

Masaya Yanagi, Bicycle [jazz], single, self, 2021

Michael Cassady & Paul Rust, RAGBRAI, Don’t Stop or We’ll Die, self, 2022

Midichlorian, Bicycle Day 2023 [synth & spoken word], The Slow Ride, self, 2023

Mr. MoJo, Bicycle Day [dubstep], Bicycle Day Mix 2022, self, 2022

Nancy Kopman, Bicycle [juvenile], The Seasons, self, 2013

Oneul, Do exercise! (Bicycle) [instrumental], Cosy Piano Music, self, 2021

Oolong, Bicycle Day [explicit punk], Edema Ruh split EP, self, 2022; “Finally, biking. Hoping for better things, I won’t even say it... Feel like there’s something with the beat in the air; I’ll follow.”

OV, Otomo Bikes [techno], Figs Compilation, Future Times, 2019

Pavel Dobeš, Bicykle [Czech], K svatku, Parlophone, 2001; “My baby has a bi-bicycle and rides like the wind... She has a bi-bicycle and I have a bi-bicycle. We both ride like the wind.”

Pedro Coudsi, Bicycle [eam], Bicycle, Dreamhop Music, 2022

pijama land, Bicycle, Léopard, Sonder House, 2023

Refeeld, Bicycle [English jazz instrumental], Sunny Weekend, self, 2021

Revival Now!, I Ride My Bike in the Rain, At the First Revelationiest Project, Arkam Records, 2016

Robert Pletzer, E-Bike Song - KitzBühel [Austrian folk], video single, self, 2018

Self Made Man, Bicycle [Swedish], Lust Garden, Heartwork Records, 1990

Soleil Rouge, Bicycle [synth], Evolving, 2022

Sukisha. Bicycle [J-pop in Japanese], Beside Your Bedside, self, 2019

Swanky, Bicycle Day [synth], 1943, self, 2023

The Falderals, Bicycle [folk], Love Everything, self, 2019

The Gray Goo, Bicycle Day [psychedelic doom funk], 1943, self, 2022; single track bicyclists from Montana open their debut album with 10 minutes of heavy vibe a bit reminiscent of Mogwai, Hunted by a Freak.

The Penelopes, Bicycle [synth], SpaceBoy [soundtrack], Pour Le Monde, 2021

The Singing Lizard, Bicycle [juvenile], Make Believe, AlphaBeat Records, 2014

Timothy Eerie, Bicycle, Ritual, Nomad Eel Records, 2019

Tom San Filippo, Bicycle Day, single, self, 2023; “The genie's out of the bottle; explain I cannot till my words and my mind stop to soar. Reality shattered, and from here, ever after, perception has opened her doors. Dear Mrs Hoffman, there’s been a problem…”

Trachta (Francis Trachta), Bicycle, Differences, self, 2012

Trophy Jump, Bicycle [Croatian in English], Haphazard, Horn & Hoof Records, 2019; “Dominik once said that he would beat a bike thief dead; that’s the only person that he would murder. Must be really sad to lose your two-wheeled friend to a guy that's definitely not worth her. What kind of person you must be to steal some stranger's property, especially if you steal a bicycle, then you must be the worst dude in the world.”

Wurmy Wormfield (Charles Herman-Wurmfeld) & friends, Bicycle Day [juvenile], fangtasia music, 2021

Xdinary Heroes, Bicycle [K-pop], video, JYP Entertainment, 2023

You Anin, Bicycle [techno], Inside, self, 2018

Word Spokane

Spokane, a city in Washington State in nation's Northwest, has a sense of whimsy. Someopne risked death or serious injury to install a bicycle, properly wired down, high on an abandoned concrete pier smack dab in Spokane River late last year, leaving residents to speculate as to its installation and intention. Need life be more mysterious than it is already?

Scenes of gentle folk bicycling pepper biopic Jesus Revolution (Jon Erwin & Brent McCorkle, dirs., 2023). Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie) changes minds and inspires hope when his hippie ideals get applied in church of Pastor Greg Laurie (Kelsey Grammer). Edgar Winter Group’s Free Ride (1972) naturally fits film score: “I've come here to give you a hand, and lead you into the promised land. So, come on and take a free ride... We gotta do better, it's time to begin. You know all the answers must come from within.” Dramatizes Jesus Freak Movement that coexisted alongside Disco/Drug Inferno of early 1970’s.

Lifetime Network's original film Every Breath She Takes (Darin Scott, dir., 2023) has bicyclist Jules Baker (Tamala Jones) falling for a suave lover, Billy (Brian White). Once married, her savage husband physically and verbally abuses her, so she files for divorce. Crazy to reconcile, stalker Billy sets their home on fire and succumbs in flames. Or does he?

Vraylar Spot has a bipolar bicyclist who buys a child seat at a bike shop, gets a box of cookies at a bakery, then picks up her son from school riding throughout.

Boy scouts bike about in The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, dir., 2022), an autobiographical look at director's teen years. Lends personal authenticity to similar scenes in his blockbusters, like E.T. 

Upgrade.com Spot “Bike Shop: Triple Cash Back” (July, 2022), has a couple discussing merits of buying an e-bike as opposed to continuing to ride their debt donkey.

Twicycle has handlebars that its rider can crank to propel bike along with tradition leg twitches.

On Her Own (Fabienne Engel, dir., 2022) documents how Wiebke Lühmann took a month off to go bikepacking 3,500 km solo and unsupported from Hamburg, Germany to North Cape, Norway during height of summer in 2022. On one hand it looked more like winter above Arctic Circle along a gorgeous but rainy route. On other, almost no traffic meant zero human hassles while honking 120 km per 12 hour day, then hunkering against weather overnight.

Carmen (Valerie Buhagiar, dir., 2021) has title character (Natascha McElhone) evicted from church rectory, where she spent her life from teenage as a maid for her brother, a recently deceased pastor of a small Maltese church. Finally free, she embarks on a series of adventures, including learning to ride a bicycle, and surviving by irreverent and unexpected means.

In his Emmy winning documentary Paper and Glue (JR, dir., 2021) humanistic French artist JR celebrates ordinary people and chooses California’s Tehachapi Supermax Prison as another intimate space to plaster giant images on paper producing a collage of incarcerated felons and their families as members of an interconnected society.

Based on Mitali Perkins’s young adult novel, Bangladeshi drama Rickshaw Girl (Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, dir., 2021) introduces feisty teen muralist Naima (Novera Rahman). After her cyclo pedaling father gets injured, mother sends her to a big city to earn money and help family. To escape domestic servitude, she disguises herself as a boy and follows in father’s footsteps as a rickshaw operator. Naima’s creativity doesn’t quit as she still decorates rickshaw and paints murals. Will her emergence as an artist save her?

After most of humanity is wiped out, Elle Fanning happens upon a town’s sole survivor, Peter Dinklage. I Think We’re Alone Now (Reed Morano, dir., 2018) covers his obsession to bury victims and clean their homes while pocketing valuable resources, particularly batteries. She bikes around contentedly and doesn’t tell him that there are thousands of survivors still living nearby, until a couple who had enslaved her show up to reclaim her.

Parolee Chris Connelly (Jay Duplass) goes for a bike ride with Hildy Beasley (Kaitlyn Dever) after her mom Carol rejects his romantic advances in Canadian indie film Outside In (Lynn Shelton, dir., 2017).

In 1940 on day in question, April 9th (Roni Ezra, dir., 2015), mustered Danish reserve soldiers ask why they were called up, but suspect it’s because Germans were seen gathering at their border. Unit is sent south on bicycles to hold off invaders until reinforcements arrive.

Invisible Sue (Matkus Dietrich, dir., 2012) and her BMX boyfriend ride e-bikes to search for her kidnapped mom.

Stewart Parker’s Spokesong [Dublin, 1975] is about religious warfare between Catholics and Protestants that has kept this poet/playwright’s homeland, North of Ireland, a battleground for previous 5 decades. While not a musical, a chorus figure, called the Trick Cyclist, who embodies the spirit of Belfast, sings most of its songs. Action takes place in a local bike shop, which among many once solicited sales by employing stunt riders.

Yesteryear’s great black superstar Marshall “Major” Taylor began his record setting career doing exactly that while wearing a military uniform, thus the nickname, in his native city of Indianapolis, before enticed to race by a shop back east, hence also known as “The Worcester Whirlwind”.

Vehentem Mane

This title would describe Dawn of Bicycling Culture if Latin wasn’t already a dead language centuries before its invention, whether from Leonardo da Vinci’s doodles, madcap draisiennes, or Michaudines. Morning rides on empty streets amidst misgiving and mystery mean swiftwalkers are reborn daily. Origins often blur and become obscure, while meanings intended by ancients and pioneers morph into whatever those who exploit them want.

From get-go, Bike&Chain weighed freedom of self expression against responsibilities to family, friends, lovers, and society. While bicycling, maintaining balance is essential, as in all aspects of living. Leaning into extremes, though increasingly popular, leads to toppling. So toned down rhetoric and touted authenticity of personal experiences and ethics of reporting sincerely from own memory.

Background earth tones (a Gerola multimedia panel) recall what outdoors used to look like: canopied side streets, cow paths across verdant fields, dark bowers among shrubs, home gardens exuding floral fragrances, and woods along neighborhood boundaries. Michaudine is a steel object d'art representing a distant cousin's invention that began first bike boom and paved way to safety bicycles. Pile of scruffy flipbooks from 1990’s full of compiled paragraphs and sentences written in black pen during stolen moments (before existence of smartphones, upon which you can now text yourself), validated evidence of an observational and revelatory process, were the origins of Bike&Chain. Organizing, typing, fact checking, establishing conventions for self consistency, and proofing were huge chores; then came embellishing text with further insights before laying out as a published 1,000 page millennium document eight years after Y2K.

In 1933, heyday of publishing books for profit, Enemies of Promise author Cyril Connolly concluded, “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” Surely there’s plenty of middle ground, such as being of service while meeting own needs in pursuit of facts to liberate self from delusions. Explains glut of self published books that gain no traction. Apathetic and lazy humans usually disregard jumble of influences over eons of existence that constitute any quote or slogan.

Mostly regret this thankless effort, though anything one does supposedly builds muscles. What else was there to do besides prostituting self for cash or submitting to slavery? Although chose a wildly expansive topic, felt bound to never oversimplify or even speak conventionally, so painted self into a panic corner. At best, spending thousands of days of one's life on a pointless quest is quixotic, if not totally deranged.

Earth Day, April 22, 2023, marks 53rd year of modern environmentalism urging you to take notice, how brown and gray have replaced blue and green. Every road now seems lined with cruddy litter, dead animals, and other organic debris; but manmade items most often seen are dead soldiers tossed indiscriminately: lager cans, libation containers, liquor nips, or the like. Biden versus bidon: One's an aged Peloton water carrier, other Italian for a beverage container. Can you do without either? Given sheer volume of drink debris, ever wonder just how drunk drivers are? Are you not what you swallow?

Peloton Pasta
Narrow Mostaccioli (tubes) and Rotelle (wheels) with Butternut Squash (chamois) Sauce: Mostaccioli mean mustaches, evoking vintage handlebars, though they’re angle cut resembling frame components, and you know what cyclists do with chamois cream. Serve with any green vegetable as a side dish (great outdoors). Totally vegetarian for Earth Day, this carte du jour feeds up to four.

Recipe Ingredients
1 cup dried Mostaccioli Pasta
1 cup dried Rotelle
1 fresh medium sized Butternut Squash
1 to 2 cups of Vegetable Broth, as needed
3 fresh Sage leaves or 1/2 tsp of dried
2 cloves of fresh Garlic
Grated vegetable cheese garnish (optional)

Directions

Wash, peel, and cube butternut squash. Peel and mince garlic with fresh sage leaves (or add dried sage). Boil both pastas as directed until al dente. Meanwhile, sauté squash until tender. Add garlic/sage; cook a few minutes more until soft, not browned. Stir in vegetable broth at half of the volume of squash; heat to a boil, reduce heat, and cook 5 minutes. Empty into a blender. Run until totally puréed. Combine cooked pastas with sauce in same pan to warm briefly before serving.

Suitable accompaniments representing Grand Tour racing venues could be asparagus (Spain), broccoli rabe (Italy), Brussel sprouts (Belgium), haricots verts (France), spinach (Netherlands), sweet peas (England), or Swiss chard (Switzerland). Pair with La Bicicletta, a cocktail of Pinot Grigio or Prosecco on ice with splashes of Campari or Grand Marnier and club soda with an orange wheel; or a rosé, sauvignon blanc, or white zinfandel wine. For a perfect desert, combine musette bag fruit rolls (fig/granola filling rolled in chopped nuts) and banana gelato with an espresso. Screams Grand Tour appurtenances.

Commemorations and holidays bring out the best and worst of behaviors. On Halloween, 2017, psycho jihadist Sayfullo Saipov drove his rented Home Depot truck down a Hudson River bike path near former World Trade Towers, injured eleven, killed eight, smashed into a school bus, and tried to escape while grunting, “Allahu akbar!” until gut shot by New York’s finest. In January of 2023 he was convicted of his cowardly and mistaken murder of innocents, mostly tourists from Argentina and Belgium, among 28 felonies, and could be sentenced to death, a sentence appropriate for anyone driving a truck on a bike path.

On last show before 2022’s Christmas break, Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, having saved his best-to-last stocking stuffer, gave everyone in audience a Sondors Smart Step ReCycled e-bike. Jealous? 

Outspoken author and songwriter Jeff Tweedy of band Wilco argues, “Year-end lists are egotistic, simplistic, and too small to capture life’s bigness.“ Furthermore, “Rhyming rain and train is pretty much the end of your career.” How well does Labann already know? Exposed on a bike in the vast outdoors, where to go is truly a worry. 

Bicyclists pursue 4 kinds of routes: 1) Loops, all roads different, that add scenery to stave off boredom; 2) Out-In on identical roads for maximum efficiency, typical of commutes or shopping runs; 3) Helical or Intertwined, where some segments repeat in opposite directions, usually because alternatives aren’t available or safe; and 4) Tours from origin to destination, sometimes over course of days to months, often involving intermodal connections with motor vehicles, planes, ships, or trains. Sometimes only choices that appear safe are alleys, parking lots, or sidewalks. Choosing to propel by pedal means having to abide road planning neglect. 

Recently witnessed a road rage incident. On a 4-lane undivided road, 6 foot shoulder peters out to 6 inches just before a side street often used by bicyclists to least inconvenience motorists. Signaled a left turn, using arm outstretched. Motorists have forgotten what signaling means, never mind arm positions: Left (out), right (up), and stop (down), supposedly for everyone's safety. Driver of an overtaking GMC stake truck broke 3 laws in a row: 1) Didn’t stop to honor left turn signal, 2) sped up to pass within inches not leaving mandatory 3 feet, and 3) stopped suddenly blocking traffic. He then got out and thrice accused cyclist erroneously: 1) Idiot for cycling (Einstein rode a bike), 2) pussy for not driving (only fearless tackle traffic two wheeled), and 3) riding in middle of the road (was literally outside travel lane). He would have added felony assault to his misdemeanors but avoided him by completing intended cross, though can’t say whether he wasn’t run over returning to his own vehicle. You might recall reading here how drivers of Chevy and GMC SUVs and trucks account for bulk of observed bad road behaviors; this anecdote is no exception.

Brings up an interesting question. Can bicyclists ever be accused of causing an accident? If so, does insurance ever cover damages? Mere presence is no excuse. Why initiate incidents and risk injuries only bicyclists would suffer, not motorists?

About the only time bicyclists don’t get right-of-way priority is on prohibited highways. Otherwise, bikes belong, can ride on right side of travel lane without impeding traffic flow, if possible, must follow all applicable traffic code, which means crossing into left lane to turn, holding for oncoming vehicles to pass, so waiting in the middle of street. How can bicyclists not impede motorists when there’s no shoulder to retreat to? Lawyers use terms like “riding sidewalks”, “running red lights”, or “unexpectedly merging” to assess bicyclists liability, though motorists never expect them, they have to cross against lights or never get a chance, and usually there’s no alternative to unfriendly stretches.