Louisville Gets the Boot

This bulging tire needs a boot!

Not really.  So far Louisville is fine by me.  On my first day of the return ride from Santa Claus, IN to Hartford, CT I noticed a hop in my back tire.  Early in the tour I picked up a nail while riding through Native American land in upstate New York.  The nail had come in sideways through the tread and damaged the casing over about a half inch, rather than just a small puncture hole.  At first the reinforcement of the patch behind the weak spot was enough, but the tire degraded at the damaged location.  ~ 600 miles later - the back tire is hopping and the tube is trying to exit the casing.  Time for a tire boot.  I wrapped the tube with a dollar bill (great solution, right?) and tucked it back into the tire.  Good enough for now, but I need a new rear tire soon.  Aside from the blazing heat, it was a great day of riding with surprisingly low traffic and beautiful scenery.

Not a bad view from lunch.  Overlooking the Ohio River.

Crossing a rail bridge where the trail ended.  Shhh.  Don't tell.

Fortuitously, I was stealth camped just across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY and it's several bike shops.  The camp was quiet, appropriate for a camp fire, and boasted a river view of Falls of the Ohio.  Stealth camping doesn't get much better.  A short ride down the bike path, through a junk yard with a hole in the fence (trail ended), and then along some more dike-top bike paths brought me to a converted rail bridge between Jeffersonville and Louisville arching over the Ohio River Falls and dam.  The bridge was spectacular and lured one to linger with classical music and benches (really!).

This bridge plays you music.  Because awesome!?

Fingers crossed that the bike shop in Louisville that opens at 10am carries 700x40 tour capable tires.  I need the fatties for my GAP and C&O tour leg, not to mention my random trail jaunts for camping.  The minor detour will also give me a chance to peruse the bike friendliness of this  Bronze Bicycle Friendly community.

Falls of the Ohio, looking toward Louisville

Falls of the Ohio, looking downstream

Plug of the day - Night Fall.  There is a key Night Fall fundraiser on Sunday (9/13) at the Pond House in Elizabeth Park.  Support this surreal and ephemeral art and performance event, coming yearly to Hartford's parks.   Be a part of the community that loves and furthers this Hartford gem.  And save the date for the Night Fall performance on October 10th in Keney Park. Read more!

Hanging Out

The best part of bike touring is hanging out.  Stopping and spending time.  Taking in the scenery.  Breathing and enjoying the current moment.  Having a couple beers with strangers. 

When I lived in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (2007-2010) there was a tiny bike cooperative - The Bike Project.  A crew of regular volunteers and members seemed to be there all the time - hanging out.  I'm headed off on this tangent, because I think BiCi Co. will be that destination and connection for our community.  Beyond the nuts and bolts and bike safety training, BiCi Co. will be a welcoming social space.  Conversation may involve bikes but will often veer into politics and the local bands playing this weekend.  The crew will be diverse and reflect both cycling die hards, Park Street neighborhood residents, and the downtown employee recreational cyclists.

My camp spots have been stellar this trip.  On the bank of Black Creek.

Hanging out.  That seems like a shallow goal for a nonprofit social enterprise.  Perhaps, until you step back and realize that most of the jobs folks get nowadays are through connections and networking.  Then hanging out means jobs access.  I could also describe how major projects and social movements are often hatched while simply hanging out.  The more diverse the group, the better.  Some of the best teaching and learning happens during down time and “hanging out”.  That’s when the experts aren’t frazzled and get one-on-one time with those that spend extra time in the space.  So yes, BiCi Co. must be somewhere folks want to hang out.  I think that means we’ll have a coffee maker with an honor box and some places to sit down and chat.  It also means, that we’ll plan unstructured time in the space and social meet ups.

Note - The Bike Project grew from a small room to two large locations with paid staff in three short years.  Urbana, Illinois is now a Gold Bicycle Friendly Community.

This construction company fence makes me pine for Anne Cubberly's creations.

I tasted ALL of those honey wines.  And left with two bottles.

In Salmanaca, NY.  This shrine was amazing and confusing.  The whole front yard.

One of the prettier swamps.

This fellow galloped up to meet me.  Expectant.

Read more!

It Appears that Winter is Here - Let there be Sleds

Winter is Connecticut has arrived.  That said, so what?  It happens every year and doesn't take that much ingenuity and gusto to figure it out, make due, and even enjoy the Hell out of it.  One way 'the royal we' has learned to enjoy winter is bicycle commuting year round.  The frigid temperatures, varied conditions, ice, and snow give us something to push against in this world of depressing ease and leisure.  We highly recommend it.

Bikes work on snow too.  Amazing!

In the interest of spreading camaraderie and cheer during the S.A.D. months we (not just the royal) meet up for breakfast and unbridled smugness.  It's called IceBike to Work, but you don't have to be on the way to work, or even on a bike for that matter.  Try walking, taking the bus, car pooling and come hang out with us.  Those interested in winter cycling that just want tips, they are most welcome too.  Actually, everyone is welcome.  But smugness does require some level of commitment.  The Committee doesn't hand that out for nothing.

Friday, February 13th is actually an international holiday recognizing the smugness of winter bike commuters.  While eating your eggs and toast you can contemplate that in cities like Boston and Chicago the smugness is much harder to find.  Winter bike commuting isn't uncommon there.  Where do they get their smug?

Two IceBike to Work Locations 

Friday, February 13th

• East Hartford, Maddie's on Main Street, right across from P&W.  6:45am-8:30am.
• Downtown Hartford, Ashley's on Main Street just south of downtown, next to Hook and Ladder restaurant.  7AM-8:30AM
• Heads up - Both of these venues are cash only.  Bring your frozen greenbacks.

Give it a try and spread the word.  If you have experience skiing the clothing is very similar.  Get some lights and consider studded tires if you're going to ride on icy days.  The key to overweening smugness is within your reach.  Reach out and grab it!

Art Sled Derby

Saturday, February 14th

Elizabeth Park Hartford Overlook

Lining up at 11AM

Facebook Invite

The Art Sled Derby is not related to bicycles - although we will be attempting to transport several  unwieldy monster art sleds via bicycle trailer.  Build a sled or just show up to cheer and laugh.  No pre-registration required.  Just show up. There will be fantastic sleds and even more fantastic crashes.  I've included a couple photos of my entries from 2013 (A Lazy Boy) and 2014 (Bouncing Baby Buggy).  Our 2015 sled is a team entry by TEAM TROUBLE including contributions by the veteran Beat Bike Blogger Ken K and his lovely, mischievous wife.  It's f'ing ridiculous!

2013.  Didn't die. (Photo credit - Steven Yau)

2014. Also didn't die.  2015 - TBD. (Photo credit - Steven Yau)

If you're still reading, you really have a problem.  Rather than read my blog, you should put in some thoughtful bike, walk, or transit comments on the Hartford I-84 redesign.  They are looking for public comments, and the opportunity for this design phase ends February 20th.  If you don't make your voice heard early on large infrastructure projects, you'll be dead before they design it again. (COMMENT HERE!)

Read more!

A man and his rocks

Editor's note: I have always been a big fan of Stone Field Sculpture. Some of my earliest memories of Hartford are of me climbing up the rocks. For the 30th anniversary of the piece in 2007, I founded the "Friends of Stone Field Sculpture" and had a picnic there. When iQuilt was planning on turning the rocks into some sort of stupid water feature, I got back in touch with Carl's wife to prevent foutainification of my favorite piece of public art in Hartford. Dario shares an affinity for Stone Field Sculpture and wrote this:

Leaning on my bike in the shade on a beautiful warm spring afternoon, gazing at the rock sculpture on the long isosceles triangle of a lawn in downtown Hartford, I realized actually how beautiful the scene was. Carl Andre's 1977 controversial sculpture of eight rows of boulders (the first at the tip of the triangle has only one; the second, two; the eighth which runs parallel to Main St. has eight, for a total of thirty-six) has aged very well. Rocks do that. The seasons pass and the rocks slightly weathered by time develop a patina. They are of basalt and gneiss, two types of rock easily found in this region. Since its creation, the "Stone Field Sculpture" has been a source of controversy. "It's just a bunch of rocks. That's not art! Anyone can do that!", decried many at the time and over the years. The City of Hartford even tried, unsuccessfully, to recoup the $87K it had paid the artist (not with taxpayer funds, by the way). The rocks have become part of the urban landscape, the sculpture is appropriate to the strip of no-man's land between Main St. and Gold (a short, winding street) and the city's oldest and most historic cemetery. The artist, Carl Andre, now in his mid-70's, is one of the fathers of Minimalist art. He is featured in a NY Times article (May 7, 2014) about the upcoming exhibition, a retrospective of his work, at DIA in Beacon Falls, NY. Andre is known for his use of local, simple, natural, but also industrial, materials and for arranging them in simple and suggestive forms. He is "exacting" in the materials' disposition. 

Prompted by the article and short video about the exhibition, I rode my bike from campus, down Vernon St., across the Learning Corridor, down Retreat Ave., through the Hartford Hospital campus, down Park, left onto Wadsworth St., across Bushnell Park, to the field of stones. And what did I see there besides a bunch of rocks? I saw something magical and quite beautiful. Buses unloaded students on Gold St. who marched up the sidewalk to catch their transfer on Main. Mothers and children cut through the field of stones, following their more direct desire lines. A heap of clothes and personal belongings was behind one of the boulders in the middle of the sculpture, not a late addition, but a temporary locker for one of the urban denizens. A passerby took a break and sat on the rocks. I wasn't sure myself if I could do so, the field of stones being a work of art and all. And then I realized, what Andre's sculpture does to us: It invites us to inhabit it, to view it as part of a landscape. It's next to a cemetery of headstones and it is a gracious, quiet complement to that historic and human artifact. I've ridden by Stone Field Sculpture on my bike hundreds of times and have always known it was there, but I have never really observed it. Why? Because we just don't look at rocks and because the beauty of the installation is not what it is, but how we interact with it. For many, Andre's minimalist work blurs the line between art and non art, but whatever is beautiful is aesthetic and art is the realm of aesthetics and, for me, Andre's field of stones was beautiful yesterday. I expect it to be so today, too.

Read more!

Garage Bikes Join the Fray

The Hockanum Trail is still a bit wet.

This past weekend was an explosion of cyclists getting back out on the road after a long winter hibernating.  I can't imagine the torture of riding on a trainer or running on a treadmill, so I'm of the always outdoors variety.  Welcome back delicate garage bicycles and their riders.  We missed you.

I wanted to share a couple of upcoming events with you such that you aren't caught unaware and flat footed:

• Saturday, April 26th.  Hartford Bicycle Studio Pop-up show.  One night only.  7PM at 30 Arbor Street.  Local artists and functional art bikes.  Patrick Connolly puts his spin on the Hartford bike scene.  Facebook event with more info.
• Detour de Connecticut - Saturday, April 26th.  Brendan already told you about this.  If you do the Detour and then go to the art show, I will will buy you a beer.  And then I'll scrape you up off the floor.
• Bike to Work Events - Various dates in mid-May.
• East Hartford Bike and Walk to Work Breakfast.  Wednesday, May 14th.  6:30AM-9:00AM.  On Main Street between Pratt & Whitney and Goodwin College.  Free breakfast and other bike safety items for attendees.
• Downtown Hartford Bike to Work Breakfast.  Friday, May 16th.  Meet at the Old State House between 7AM-9AM.
• Other events across will be announced by Bike Walk Connecticut.  Register your own town's Bike to Work event here.
• Bike Buddies and Meet ups help get new bicycle commuters started.  Stay tuned to Bike Walk CT for more information on those, or offer to lead in a group yourself.
• Dinner and Bikes.  Saturday, June 7th.  Vegan dinner, bicycle movie shorts, and Bikenomics with Elly Blue.  Tickets available now.

Do you bike, walk, or take the bus?  If you're reading this blog and that isn't the case, I am questioning your sanity.  A group of Hartford citizens from various neighborhoods are organizing to get more attention for sustainable, affordable, and environmentally friendly transportation.  Hartford has had plenty of advocacy for single occupancy vehicles and parking lots, now we're putting voices behind the other side of the argument.  Join us.  Take a survey on what the name of the group should be, and what issues it should be working.  If you're available, it would be great if you came to one of the upcoming meetings.

See you out there.  Be safe, especially if you're rusty from riding stationary all winter.

Some photos below in honor of carrying silly things on bike trailers.  Justin just moved across town and was photographed doing so by Real Hartford.  Huzzah for awkward loads that are easier to move by bike than car!

South Green neighborhood had a cleanup day, and I needed to move the supplies across Colt Park.

This absurd table base will be used somehow.  Statue base perhaps?

This Burley just followed me home and is likely to be converted to a cargo trailer.

Read more!

Hartford artist mutilates mountain bikes and makes cool art

Victor Pacheco is a cool guy. You may have noticed some of his murals on and around Park Street, his giant guiro and tables at La Paloma, or maybe went to the shows he had around here before he moved to New York with his wife. I don't remember how I happened upon this, but apparently he has made sculptures out of SRAM components. Check it out. Read more!

Secret Art in Hartford

Sad?  Resigned?  Bored?

Freedom or security?

Day of the Dead

Ambling around the less traveled Hartford by foot and by bike, one finds amazing works of graffiti art.  The best pieces often the least accessible or exposed.  I find this really interesting.  It's as if those that wander off the beaten path in urban Hartford get rewarded with private viewing of secret art.  I'm thinking that wasn't necessarily the goal of the artist.  Most graffiti is put up without permission and under threat of vandalism and  trespassing charges.  Putting the piece up in a seldom used train tunnel gives the artist much more time than what could be slapped up on a visible overpass or abandoned building facing the street.  The artist has time to layer, add detail, and go large.  If they don't like something, they can fix it.

Another interesting aspect of graffiti art in Hartford and some other cities, is when the previously illicit art, honed in the shadows, becomes an accepted art form and finds its way onto buildings as advertising and decoration.  When graffiti is seen for the value it adds, instead of the value it detracts - and it can do both.  Park Street has several "legal" graffiti based signs and art, as does Homestead.  I recently came across a huge piece on Windsor Street.   Certain entrepreneurs, public organizations, and arts organizations have identified the talent and recognized the visual draw of well executed urban art.  Every time I pass Pelican on Park Street, the Sophia Maldonado work on the front of the building makes me want to get a tattoo, and someday I'll actually do it.

You may have seen these modified crosswalk signs around town.

Hartford has a little slice of Heaven for lovers of graffiti art.  Its actually called Heaven, and this legal graffiti zone / park is located just north of downtown Hartford.  If you haven't been there, you are missing a dynamic art hot zone.  Pieces may last a week, or several months.  There are small quirky works and stencils and huge sprawling burners and artworks taking up entire walls.  The Hartford Graffiti ride that I'm doing on Friday, July 19th starts (@ 7:30PM) and ends at Heaven.  If you show up, make sure you bring fat tires, pumps, and spare tubes.

*** The Hartford Graffiti Ride has been subsumed by the RAW Real Ride due to rescheduling of that event for the same evening.  Still riding, but starting from Real Art Ways on Arbor Street.  Meet at 6PM, and roll when it starts to get dark. ***

This bee was hanging out in Heaven a couple weeks ago, but he's gone now.

A friend from Urbana, IL just forwarded me a photo of a Kickstarter funded public art piece in an underused and previously boring alleyway.  This is a great business model for public art in times of contracting municipal budgets!  Find a building owner with a vacant and boring wall, pitch them an idea for a piece, start a kickstarter campaign to pay the artist.  Graffiti artists that had been forced to do their best work in secret could make some inroads into exposed public spaces, with the time needed to put up the best - and get paid.

Found this unexpectedly well populated wall in Stafford Springs.

Heads up to Tavis / Skan duo (or someone that knows them can give them my contact info).  I've seen a lot of your work and chatted with a certain arts organization.  What would you think of a Kickstarter type campaign and piece on a large wall associated with the arts organization?  I would love to help make this connection and could even help with the Kickstarter stuff.  Drop me a line either through Beat Bike Blog, or you can email me directly (acherolis at gmail.com).

Nice burner by the river.  

Read more!

Are you ready to get out and ride (greater) Hartford?

Open letter to folks that like to have fun,

Get off your ass and ride both these great events in Hartford happening within a week of each other.  Tell your friends, co-workers, and perfect strangers that they are total dorks if they don't show.  Hartford's bike culture is rising like ocean sea levels - started slowly, but now we're picking up speed.  Watch out for bike flooding in low lying areas.

Real Ride - Riding Around a Tree - Saturday, September 22nd.  

• There will be three sound systems (think boom box times 10) blasting tunes from bike trailers.  Front, middle, and tail of the group.  An upgrade over previous rides.
• Meet at Real Art Ways (56 Arbor Street, Hartford) to fancy up your bicycle. Cover yourself with things that glow and blink. We ride once the sun has set. Light up the night on this guided bike party through Greater Hartford.  We all leave together, pause a few times to regroup and finish at Real Art Ways for snacks, sips and tunes. 
• Highlighting this ride: Adam Niklewicz 's "Walking Around a Tree" projection will make its debut on Saturday, September 22 on the facade of the AT&T building downtown. "Walking Around A Tree," along with the sculpture/installation "The Charter Oak" on 215 Pearl Street, is a collaborative effort between the artist, the City of Hartford, The Wadsworth Atheneum and Real Art Ways. 
• The ride is FREE. Refreshments and light-up accessories will be available at the cafe for purchase.

Discover Hartford Bicycle Tour - Saturday, September 29th (NEW ROUTES)

• Family-friendly, leisurely ride to discover Hartford's neighborhoods, parks and architectural and cultural gems.  Choose from 10-,  25-, or 40-mile routes.  Registration / check in begins at 7AM in Bushnell Park and the rides leave at 9AM.
• Online Registration is open.  $30 for Bike Walk CT members and $40 for non-members.   Online registration ends on September 27th, and goes up to $45 for everyone day of the event.  
• Proceeds benefit Bike Walk CT, the organization making you safer with the 3-foot law and vulnerable user legislation.  Bike Walk CT gets more bike commuters on the road with the very successful Bike to Work events.  You can learn how to ride the streets safely with their Traffic Skills 101 course.
• Volunteers are still needed.  You can sign up online.
• Spread the word by inviting your bike loving (or bike curious) friends to the event on Facebook.

See you out there.

Tony C

Read more!

GHGT and RR - Be there.

So.  Tomorrow evening (Friday, June 29th) I'm going to ride around Hartford and nearby environs to peruse some choice graffiti.  The not so organized ride will be dubbed - the Greater Hartford Graffiti Tour (GHGT).  You are welcome to tag along (pun intended?).  There is a Facebook invite, but I've heard some people out there still shun Facebook.   Meet up at 5:30PM at the carousel in Bushnell Park.  We'll roll around Hartford, then branch out.  The Hartford bit will be short.  Bring fattish tires and don't expect to ride fast.  It's going to be warm out, so beverages are probably a good idea.

Also, the Real Ride approaches.  Saturday, July 7th a raucous group of lighted revelers will roll about Hartford and converge on the riverfront to watch the Riverfest fireworks from an undisclosed prime location.  Show up at Real Art Ways at 6PM to start the festivities and decorate your steed.  The ride begins at 8PM and we'll catch the fireworks at 9PM. Real Art ways has concessions if you're hungry or thirsty.

Bring your own materials or use those that will be available to bling your bike.  The more glowing, flashing, lighted-ness the better.  This is the fifth one of these, and they keep getting better.  If there be rain, the rain date will be July 8th - same as Riverfest.

Oh yeah.  Both rides are FREE!  So even if you have a horrible time, you didn't waste any of your hard earned dough.  See you there, and spread the word. Read more!

Grand Opening of the Hartford Bicycle Studio

Guest Post from a new Purveyor of Downtown Bicycle Culture:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Hello ladies and gents of the Beat Bike Blog,

I’d like to invite you all, and all your readers, to the grand opening event of The Hartford Bicycle Studio this Friday night.  This has been in the works for a long time and we’re very excited to share our work with everyone.

I’ve created The Hartford Bicycle Studio with the goal of promoting local artists and our cycling community here simply because I love art, bikes, and of course, Hartford.  Our artists paint bike frames by hand to create unique, functional works of art.  Bikes, art, and items made from recycled bike parts will be available for sale. Some of our artists will also be offering custom bike painting services to customers beginning this month.  You can go to www.HartfordBicycle.com for more general info on the studio, too.

The Artists:

Matt Rubino

Molly Lantagne

Brian Burke

Heather Platen

Meredith Arcari

Amy Canter

Patrick Connolly

This event will be held from 5-10pm at 57 Pratt Street, home of our gracious friends at Downtown Yoga and Cycled Energy, Hartford's first green cycling studio (and winner of the 2011 Hartford Innovation Challenge) which captures energy generated by pedaling and sends electricity back into the power grid.

Aruna Chocolates will also be showcasing their ridiculously delicious organic, raw chocolate.

Our friends at Atom Space, the pop-up contemporary art exhibition, will also be hosting the opening for their show, As It Ever Was, next door from 6-9pm.

Come out to support the growth of local artists and our cycling community!

Thank you,

Patrick

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Of note:  This is the 1000th post on the Beat Bike Blog.  Kick ass kiddos!

Read more!

hot CATALOGUE

It's been awhile since there's been art to look at on Arbor, but it's coming back. See here:

By then we will have passed into Summer, and we will celebrate.

Come to CATALOGUE!: Saturday, June 25th, Matt LaFleur, WOOD AND PAINT

8pm, 56 Arbor Street, Hartford, CT, Suite# forthcoming

If you know Matt, and you graduated from the Hartford Art School, then you've probably been influenced by his work at some point or another. He's the guy who did the work that hit you in those juried Goldfarb shows as being sort of perfect. If you currently attend HAS, you're probably affected by him and don't know it. He's in the walls. Matt LaFleur is an incredible artist who values purity and deconvolutional ya know, straight talk, materials like sleek varnish, construction paper, wood, paint of course, log cabins, wood-burning stoves, pencils, and foam core. Matt is a chimney sweep who loves race cars and lives with his wife in Taborton, NY on a lake and is a storybook character or something. I am absolutely pleased, and honored in a way, to present Matt LaFleur in our June CATALOGUE.

Come round, from Boston, New Haven, wherever you be. Check out Matt's site, woodandpaint.com. And CATALOGUE on Facebook and at CATALOGUEprojects.com. CATALOGUE is a venue for events, a network for artists, and a workshop for ideas. It is a collaboration between artist, curator, community, and space.

Joe Saphire

Nick Rice

Read more!

Catalogue!!

Iconoclasm. We've all had it.

Announcing the next CATALOGUE: Saturday, February 26, Kevjn Kelly, Iconoclasm

56 Arbor Street

Hartford, CT 06106

Suite # 308

8pm

This event is a video installation based on the painting The Swing and, though video is finite, Kevjn's wraps around itself and makes me think of a spirograph, which makes finite images too, however infinite and true the splatters of color, information, interpretations, definitions, explanations, and patterns seem to be. It's a relief that we can enter Kevjn's installation from any perspective (though, to be clear, there's only one door into the space. It's a regular door). Kevjn is an experimental director and inquisitive artist - come see what he's doing, interpret what he's doing. There will also be drinks in the space, to drink, and things to read and people to meet. This is a CATALOGUE event - we are very very ready to get 2011 underway.

CATALOGUE is a venue for events, a network for artists, and a workshop for ideas. It is a collaboration between artist, curator, community, and space. It is created and maintained by Joe Saphire and Nick Rice.

Contact us for directions or questions: CATA.info.LOGUE@gmail.com, and please pass this announcement along to those we might have missed.

Joe

Nick.

It's a been a few months and I miss my old friend Catalogue. Also, Catalogue is rated one of the 25 best things to do in Hartford. Read more!

Bikes Outside: Bike Ballet

Exhibit A: Genderfuck bicycle. Note the bold fuchsia paint job that is paired with a deep blue crate.

Exhibit B: The font is bubbly, script, and ultimately, girly; yet, the tires say "move out the way before I run you down."


Exhibit C: Bicycle parking itself at rack where light pink ballet slippers are tied.

Verdict: Awesome. One fewer student in the Blue Hills neighborhood using a car to transport him/herself across campus.

Read more!

Bread Cycle Works Fiesta This Saturday

Artist Ted Efremoff and company's Bread Cycle Works Project began this past march in a vacant lot on Broad Street. Join them this Saturday at the green at Billings Forge (563 Broad St. Hartford, CT) starting at 3 PM to share in the fruit of their collective labor. Here are a few pictures and memories I accumulated over the course of their community-focused, bicycle-powered journey from seed to feast. I wasn't around for the plowing and planting stages, but I did take part in the harvest, where my story begins.

Part one: Harvest M(ons)oon- July 10

The email had gone out a few days prior, scheduling the wheat harvest for 11:00 AM on Saturday. The sky looked threatening that morning, and it wasn't long after I arrived at 11:00 that the first few drops of rain began to fall. The next few minutes were a frenzied attempt to beat the rain. Sickles, scythes and my saw-chete (a machete with a serrated saw teeth on its back edge) were swished about with haste cutting, stacking and bagging as the rain increased its intensity to biblical. A couple of local guys came and pitched in, which was pretty awesome.

There were four cargo bikes on hand: The Bread Cycle Works plow trike with a trailer, a cycletruck-style conversion with a massive woven basket, a bakfiets-style conversion with a massive steel basket, and my Yuba Mundo with the trailer. We loaded as much as we could before the wheat got too wet, using trash bags and a shower curtain to protect as much as we could. We slogged up Broad Street, soaked to the skin, and arranged the wheat on drying racks in Ted's studio. We rode around the corner for coffee and lingered as our clothes slowly dried.


Part Two: Back For More- July 12

With rain forecast for Tuesday and beyond, Monday looked like the best day to harvest the remainder of the wheat. It was short notice and a weekday so extra hands were in short supply. I met up with Ted and Alex in the afternoon. I sharpened my dull Saw-chete to help facilitate cutting wheat and not accidentally damaging my own extremities.

As it happened, I did not cut myself with my clumsy blade-slinging, but by drawing my finger along a wheat stalk for a wheaten equivalent of a paper cut. The cut itself was minor, but I quickly demonstrated my God-given talent for bleeding. I disposed of the affected wheat (as bloodstained wheat is both nasty and non-vegan) and set aside my (t)rusty blade to tend to my wound. Unfortunately, my first aid kit was in the pannier I had left at home and nobody else had any band-aids, so I wiped my bloody hand with a baby wipe, tied it around my finger and headed for the nearest bodega for a box of bandages. Bodega #1 didn't have any, but bodega #2 not only had Band-Aids, they sold them individually! I was familiar with "Loosie" cigarette sales, but this was my first observation of the practice extended to first aid supplies-- freaking brilliant! I bought a loosie-depleted partial box for a dollar, figuring that it would be good to have a few extras on hand. No more were needed, but I was sufficiently amused for the afternoon.


Monday's harvest took a couple of hours with only three adults on hand, but we managed to get it all cut and hauled back to Billings Forge studio to scatter on the drying racks in preparation for the pedal-powered threshing and milling process. Passers-by stopped and asked about the project regularly.

Part Three: I'm Gonna Thresh You Sukkah- September 18

I wasn't able to attend the bike-powered thresh and milling session, but I did see the Sukkah (a Jewish feast booth) they built from the leftover hay when I was at the Farmers' Market. Here's a pic of the threshcycle setup courtesy of Ted:


Part Four: Eat!- October 2
Hope you can make it. Read more!

Birthday party!!

I won't actually be able to attend, but I encourage everyone else to go to catalogue this weekend:

Hello All Hello Autumn,

Announcing our September CATALOGUE: Adam McHose, Superorganism

Saturday, September 18

8:00pm

56 Arbor Street, Hartford, CT

Suite # forthcoming

Adam does identity. He deals in the things that visually make us up, and distinguish us from one another. We can see we're unique, yet we're also pieces of information. Adam paints people, both digitally and analogue(ly), graphs them, flattens them and makes them new. There's something thing-ish, un-reproducible about his work, but ones and zeros are still its foundation. His work is like fractals. It's portraits. Both discrete and continuous, and very colorful. Supercolorful. That's just me talking, though. Check out his website!

http://www.adammachose.com

CATALOGUE is a monthly event that showcases artists, musicians and other creative endeavors, and is hosted by Joe Saphire, Nick Rice, and Joel VanderKamp (our newly-wed!, ever-absent advisor). The event is a collaboration between artist, curator, community and space. Contact us for directions or questions: CATA.info.LOGUE@gmail.com, and please pass this invitation along to those we might have missed.

Joe Saphire, Nick Rice

I'll be off doing something along these lines:

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