Brooklyn Critical Mass 10/13/06

I got a chance to ride in the Brooklyn Critical Mass on Friday the 13th...ooooh scary! About 20 of us bikers met at the Park at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge on the Brooklyn side. This is a nice park and home to inline skaters and skateboarders who spend hours grinding the steps of the George Washington statue in the middle of the park. Its a good place too for the youth of today...better then some lame skate park that the city could build for them...but that would take away important space needed for unaffordable luxury condominiums. It was cold with a chill in the air singaling that fall is here and Winter is coming soon.
We rode out of Williamsburg and into Bushwick, a place where bikes are often not welcome. We were welcomed with occasional cheers and someone throwing a potato at one of our heads. We darted through the urban maze of barber shops and converted warehouses and arrived at a morbid art show on Bogart Street. It was the Gimme Head show at the Ad Hoc Art gallery, 49 Bogart St. Dennis McNett curated this show of 50 artists renditions of heads-sculpted, drawn, printed and projected. I liked the nazi skull mickey mouse and Tod Sealie's series of roadkill photos...yummy. It made me hungry for the cheese spread and $2.00 Pabst. I was scared Austin was going to eat all the blue cheese, but he held back. So the Williamsburg half of the critical mass went to the art show to wait for the Grand Army Plaza half who reluctantly journeyed into the heart of BUSHWICK (NOT East Williamsburg...ok) They arrived after about 20 minutes of art viewing with the scooter brigade of cops who have been peacefully monitoring the ride since it began. One officer asked some people outside of the gallery if the ride was over...we said yes. The cops left. Hmmm. How to get rid of the cops? Just go to some art show and tell them the ride is over...then wait for them to leave and proceed with the ride. This works in Brooklyn. So after trying to pull people away from the warm gallery and cheap beer the mass reformed and took off, just in time because the gallery brought out the meat balls. The we rode back through Bushwick and under the J Train on Broadway. Some people wanted to go to the Recycle-a-Bike party in Dumbo, part of the Dumbo arts fest and others wanted to go to the King Kog party in Williamsburg. Decisions decisions. I headed over to King Kog, the track bike boutique who have rearranged their store on Marcy St, and have cool merchendise like vinyl tube pads...sweet. They also had lots of free beer donated by Crumpler.

Here is a little movie from the ride.