...Industrial Society and Its Future

My disdain for the social circumstances of the present were stoked today after reading through Theodore Kaczynski's Manifesto. Here is a quotation from the section entitled 'Surrogate Activities', which seems to me a remarkably apt appraisal of a cruel social phenomena that I had lightly touched upon in several of my unpublished posts. The desire (nay need) for purpose and the fabrication of goals as a sort of psychological security blanket. Enjoy:

41. For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less satisfying than the pursuit of real goals (that is, goals that people would want to attain even if their need for the power process were already fulfilled). One indication of this is the fact that, in many or most cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are never satisfied, never at rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives for more and more wealth. The scientist no sooner solves one problem than he moves on to the next. The long-distance runner drives himself to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate activities will say that they get far more fulfillment from these activities than they do from the "mundane" business of satisfying their biological needs, but that it is because in our society the effort needed to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality. More importantly, in our society people do not satisfy their biological needs autonomously but by functioning as parts of an immense social machine. In contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities.

I strongly encourage you to read this text in its entirety. It is my belief that this whistle blower is one of the most admirable personalities of our age. While I cannot condone the use of violent force as a catalyst for awareness or vehicle of revenge; Theodore Kaczynski is a hero of so-called 'modern' thought. It is my personal belief that his insight into the schizophrenia of industrialized peoples is on par with Martin Heidegger's Question Concerning Technology, and could be taken as a less academic expatiation on those principles.

...the weekend madness (installment 10)

Firstly, let me apologize for not keeping my promise of new posts every day. My "job" is slowly getting work and my time has luckily become more filled out with responsibility and purpose, which is good for me, at least, if not for this blog.

I've had a lot on my mind recently and spent much of this past weekend riding around trying to forget my worldly troubles, when in hindsight, I probably would've been better off going for a long ride out of the city somewhere to clear my head.

Friday night i met up with some friends at Coco66 for beer and pool. Here's a spy photo of yours truly sharking the competition (like famous people, vampires, and the Met, I have an aversion to flash photography):


Saturday rained on my plans to go cycling in the morning, so once it cleared up a bit I decided to ride around in Cobble Hill and Brooklyn heights before meandering to Bushwick to look at an apartment I'm probably not going to rent.

Here's downtown Brooklyn on that overcast day:


I really like to just lazily pedal around these neighborhoods, fantasizing that one day I may make enough money to afford even a closet in one of these magnificently overdone buildings that are so common around here:


I always thought you could tell the general level of wealth in Brooklyn neighborhoods by the density and lushness of the trees lining the blocks.


For some reason, vehicles always look better when photographed on moist pavement with cloudy skies. The blues are supposed to be indicative of my mood at that moment, but since many vehicles have expressive headlight-grille styling, these two appeared as though they were having a friendly chat as they waited which struck me as a charming way to suffer dour weather. I could've really used someone to chat with right about then...


Then I rode around some more and after checking out the apartment, I happened upon this (someone told me it's an art-supply shop) place in the no-man's-land betwixt Bushwick and Williamsburg. Nice Murals:




It always brings a gentle smile to my face when I happen upon works of art for public enjoyment such as this. I wish more of the dilapidated structures in this city would just allow graffiti or commission a mural from a local artist.

Then I cut through the heart of hipsterville to check out my friends' loft they've been busy building out, filling the space with a real beast of architecture. I lent a hand cutting a few pieces of wood here and there, but otherwise I think I was more in the way than helpful. To preserve their anonnymity (at least for now), I took a couple of ambiguous snapshots of some of the spaces within it:




I can hardly wait until its completed and inhabited by them; Its going to be really a special thing and a place where even more drunken debauchery and poor decision making can take place than already does...


Sunday I watched a rerun of the Tour of Switzerland and a Masters Golf tournament at another friend's place before retreating back to my own apartment to watch Vexille; which I assumed was going to be either retarded, uninteresting, or both. To my surprise, it was neither and was rather entertaining in a Children of Men X Gundam sort of way. Worth checking out....

... keeping it real Thursdays

I was dismayed to read that a new ghost bike has been chained to a signpost at Fulton and Washington where Julian Miller was fatally struck by a motorcyclist on September 18.


I really don't feel like getting into a road rules debate right now, but this article about what supposedly lead to her and the motorcyclist's death kind of got under my skin...

The article even relates one person's corroboration of reports of two guys on crotch-rockets racing up and down Greene Ave before the incident. I've got nothing wrong with clubs, or even gangs, that center around a particular vehicle, hobby, or sport; but I'm pretty sure everyone in Brooklyn is intimately familiar with the growing popularity of driving a motorcycle like a goddamn maniac in the middle of the night. So why aren't we doing something about the ones who are flagrantly disobeying both common sense and local law; and instead pleading with cyclists to be more "defensive," "watchful," and "vigilant" of them?

Since when is it the duty of the law-abiding citizen to accommodate the transgressions of the law-breaking citizen? All this mentality does for us is perpetuate this disgusting culture of fear we've submitted to both consciously and unconsciously.

Though after reading the "account" of what transpired, it seems that Ms. Miller was salmoning up Greene or riding off the sidewalk between cars in the dark of night.

If you'll recall, I recently be-frogged my bike in a clever lightway that helps me and my penchant for dark clothing stay visible when riding after hours, and as a result I've become keenly aware of many bikes' extreme lack of illumination. I don't want to encourage people to bedazzle their bikes with those stupid peel-n-stick neon green reflectors, but some lights or reflectors are always a good thing (bear in mind, if you have lights theres really no point in having reflectors too, since the light should outshine the light bouncing off the reflector; if it doesn't, you need new batteries for your lights).


I've also started riding around Prospect Park on Tuesday and Thursday evenings since I'm somewhat unhappy with the speed my fitness allows me to ride at. In doing so I notice an irritatingly common problem with bicycle traffic at this time of day: people salmoning, lightless, through the pitch-dark park to (I assume) save a few seconds on their evening commute.


But recently I haven't been vocalizing my disdain for bike salmon, and instead have adopted a live-and-let-live policy, only saying something when they directly affect my safety or path of travel. I figure nobody wants to get lectured at anyway, and hopefully one day they'll realize that riding with traffic is far less scary than the opposite by their own volition.

Then again, the Police certainly aren't helping the situation (that is assuming they lead by example, which we all know, they don't), as evidenced by this occurence I was fortunate enough to capture this morning as I walked my bike to the service entrance of my office building:


Yes, thoust eyes dostn't decieve thee; that is indeed a Cop-salmon. I thought i was going to catch him sidewalk-salmoning, but right as I managed to free my camera from my bag, he rode into the new protected bike lane on Broadway... Oh well, this just as bad if not worse in my opinion.

Not to leave you with a sour taste for cycling, I was heartened to see that the Bergen St. 2,3 station in Brooklyn now boasts bike racks for commuters to use.


I only wish we could see this at every train station instead of having people to resort to vertical locking jobs on scarce bike racks, fences and signposts... But it's nice to see people are at least riding part of the way to work...

...the weekend madness (installment 10)

Last week I decided that this weekend past I would go out and do something interesting or exciting for a change, so I decided to wake up at 5:30 am Saturday and join the Escape New York ride presented by NYCC.


The ride set out from Sakura Park on 122nd St and Riverside Dr. at seven in the morning, so I had to ride up there from Brooklyn starting at 6:00am. I stress the extreme earliness if the ride because I'm not what one would call a "morning person" and not having registered for the ride beforehand, I was pleased with myself for not making an excuse not to go and rolling over back into sweet cozy slumber.

I arrived at the staging area exactly when I had planned and after forking over $50 to take part, I downed a few cups of coffee and some pastry before loading my pockets with Boudreaux's Butt Paste, super foods, half a banana, and chocolates.


After a getting a cue sheet (map and list of turns in sequential order) and stretching a bit, we were off!


Once in NJ, the pace quickened by a considerable amount and the cyclists began grouping into pacelines... I joined this one as It overtook me in part because they seemed to be riding efficiently, but also because of this orangey jersey that said "Formaggio" on the front and back. Being a big fan of cheeses, I decided this was the paceline for me and grabbed this guy wheel as they passed.

The route took us winding through upscale new jersey suburbs where the road quality rapidly changed from 'newly paved' to 'riddled with pot-holes' and back, lending an epic quality to the ride, fit for grey-scaling in the Rapha-way. Before getting to the first rest stop, my average speed was a whopping 26 mph... gotta love the drafting.


I didn't spend much time at this stop, only enough to relieve my bladder, fill water bottles, and take in a pb&j or three. Then we began to really get into hilly sections and the larger groups broke into smaller grupettos, selecting against weaker climbers. This group of three formed when the guy in second position and I caught up to the guy in blue and the guy in rear.


We traded turns pulling at the front but eventually the riders we caught up to wore out on a particularly steep section of residential road and from there on it was me and this guy:



After stopping for a terrestrial goose paceline (pictured above), I eventually got dropped by him and gathering what was left of my shattered ego, I huffed on alone for most of the rest of the way (sound familiar?). Heres a close up of the geese "threading the needle", as they say in cycling parlance:


I encountered some pretty dramatic climbs (one of which is a fabled climb of 8% average with the last section at some 19% grade) and also some killer descents, my max speed here was 39.9mph (note: photo below is a dramatization of that experience, I'm not dumb enough to try and go that fast one-handed)


Eventually I reached the halfway point (judging by the cateye) and turned south along the Hudson, just short of Bear Mountain.


I liked this ride specifically because though it took us through a veritable cycling mecca, we rode routes entirely foreign to me, leading me to feel lost much of the time, which strangely, I enjoyed. What I didn't enjoy however, was the unseasonably chilly weather; I assumed I'd tough it out until we got riding and my internal temperature would elevate to a comfortable level, but I didn't think it would be quite as cold as it was.


by the time I reached the last rest stop in Piermont, I was none too pleased with my lack of weather appropriate attire, quite unlike this 'double century couple' I saw (behind the normal people, standing at the counter); both wearing the kind of skinsuits that help perpetuate the negative stereotype of horribly dressed cyclists.

Conversely there were a surprising number of guys completely decked out in Rapha gear, which of course in turn made me green with envy at their 'epic style' and 'timeless cycling traditions.'

Any way, I got the requisite shot of manhattan coming back over the GWB,


And hurriedly made my way back to the start so i could get the hell home and warm up. Once i got into the city, however, I was surprised to find it a good five to ten degrees warmer than out in the boonies. I was also surprised to find mega-size heros and napkins;


Though realized that the only variety of heros available were meat, cheese, or vegan. I covertly aprehended one of each (not the vegan though, blech!) and proceeded to mix their ingredients by hand. Satisfied with my sandwich renovation, I turned around and witnessed incontrovertible evidence that the universe was likewise in favor of further meat-cheese collaborations:


I agree universe, I like cheese too.

At this point I knew it was safe to head home after watching a few gripping rounds of flat fixing contest.


Which, I have to point, out seemed obscenely wasteful of tubes, not to ruin the outro here...

...video Wednesdays

Sorry for the late post... Just saw this and laughed my ass off for a good ten minutes or so:



Arguably the best part is the helmet cam inset, so in case watching him from the side is too suspenseful, you can look down and quell your fear of his raw speed.

I like seeing ideas like this realized, though it seems somewhat useless on the downhills; I mean, all you can really do is coast right? Uphills are understandably the focus of much innovation in bicycle design, though are only one aspect of cycling (lets not forget about downhill and flats).

I think negating utility in one place in favor of high mechanical advantage in another is a little like buying new jeans to make cutoff shorts; then again, riding this slow would also likely force you to become masterful at bike handling, so maybe its not so half baked after all.