Friday, April 27, 2007
Tonight in DTLA!
OK - so this is actually the second race of a three race series. At the first race, a couple weeks ago (Fri the 13th), the second place winner Nick, called the first place winner Jack, a cheater. There was tons of controversy about the whole thing and a lot of nasty things were said. Without going into all the petty details, the organizers decided to keep the cash pot for this race.
Then a messenger friend got into a bit of a mess on a Wolfpack ride, so that cash is going to her to help her pay for medical expenses and such.
In any case - word is that Jack and Nick will duke it out on the streets tonight. It's going to be crazy. Guaranteed good times. You'll be sorry if you miss it. I swear.
After that Hollywood Midnight Ridazz takes to the streets, or you can hit up the Contra-versy afterparty..
This Weekend - East Side (Bike) Polo Invite!
That's "East Side" as in NYC not East LA.
The first time I saw Bike Polo played was in Seattle in 2003 at the CMWC's. I've never played (cuz I'm lame) but I've watched a couple tournaments over the years and they are super fun!
Here's the info if you're in NYC and want to check out the action this weekend
Schedule of Events
Friday
Party and Registration: Bushwick Country Club
618 Grand St, Brooklyn
Happy hour until 10:00 for contenders.
Saturday
Qualifiers: Game play starts at 10:00am sharp.
Chrystie/ Broome St. Court.
Polo Sprints: After competion.
Three Sparks Night: Polo Alleycat. Starts at 8:00pm at
Chrystie/Broome St. Court.
Bonus points for drunkenness and Prom costumes.
Bike Prom: Get dressed the fuck up!
Prom at the Chunk Shack! 794 Broadway #2, Brooklyn.
Lloydski and Stachemaster DJing until the morning.
Prom Photos!
10:00pm on.
Sunday
Finals. Game play starts at 10:00am sharp!
Chrystie/Broome St. Court.
BBQ at night. Location to be announced.
Also - the New York Times published an article (and a video) about it today. For archival puposes - here it is:
Their Kingdom for a Bike: It’s Polo on Two Wheels
photo by: Andrew Gombert for The New York Times
A bike polo game last month in New York. The East Side Polo Invite tournament will be held this week in Lower Manhattan.
By KATE TORGOVNICK
Published: April 27, 2007
You do not have to be a king to play polo. You do not need a 300-yard grass field, a long-handled mallet or a helmet. In fact, you do not even need a horse.
On asphalt courts and parking lots in cities throughout the country, bike messengers, bike-shop employees and assorted cycling enthusiasts are playing bicycle polo. The game dates to the 1800s, but it is being transformed from its prim beginnings to a rough-and-tumble sport as it mixes with bike-messenger culture.
Urban players ride fixed-gear bikes, the kind messengers often use to zip through traffic and dodge pedestrians. They set up orange cones in lieu of goal posts and knock around street-hockey balls. Because wooden mallets often break when hit against concrete, players make their own mallets, attaching a handle from an old ski pole or golf club to a piece of industrial-strength piping.
In downtown New York, on a court shaped like a large asphalt bowl, a group meets every Sunday for pickup games. When Doug Dalrymple, a former bike messenger who now is a food deliveryman, started playing last summer, 10 players regularly showed up, he said. The number has at least doubled since then, with many more 20- and 30-somethings going to watch.
“My first game was like learning to ride a bike again,” said Corey Hilliard, a messenger who started playing four years ago. “You have to hold a mallet, the handlebars, follow the ball and be able to change direction quickly. It’s almost like the pinnacle of intense cycling.”
Hilliard’s team and others from the United States and Canada will compete in the East Side Polo Invite this weekend at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Lower Manhattan. The tournament will be composed of 10-minute games and will feature social events like a bike prom. Hilliard’s team is called the Broad Street Bullies. Dalrymple’s is the Ratkillers.
On a recent Sunday, the two teams played an unofficial preview match, the three players on each team positioned at the far ends of the court. They rested their mallets on the ground and slid their feet onto the pedals. After a cry from the sideline of “Three, two, one ... Go,” the teams raced for the ball in the center of the court.
Hilliard, the only player who wore protective gear — his sticker-covered helmet and white sunglasses obscuring most of his face — came away with the ball. But Dalrymple cut off his path as he plowed toward the goal. Hilliard whacked the ball through the wheels of Dalrymple’s bike, and their mallets tangled. Hilliard’s snapped in half.
“Mallet, mallet, mallet,” Hilliard yelled, and a player on the sideline tossed him a new one.
Contact is allowed in urban bike polo. The rules of the game — which are few — have been adapted from equestrian polo to work in the small spaces available in big cities. The most important rule is that the players’ feet cannot touch the ground.
If a player’s foot touches down, he must ride to the sideline and touch an orange traffic cone with his mallet before returning. “It’s kind of like a power play in hockey,” Hilliard said.
The United States Bicycle Polo Association promotes a grass-court version of bike polo in which collisions are discouraged. The organization’s director, John S. Kennedy, said there were competing stories regarding the origin of the sport.
“The legend is that the British government sent a bunch of bikes to a ruler in India,” Kennedy said. “He gave them to his stable boys, who had always wanted to play polo but couldn’t afford it. They cut down mallets and started playing.”
As the story goes, British soldiers stationed in India took the game back to Britain, where it became so popular that it was played as a demonstration sport at the 1908 Olympics in London. According to Kennedy, bike polo has enjoyed several bursts of popularity through the years.
“I hear from people all the time, ‘We played with croquet mallets or hockey sticks and we thought we invented the sport until we found your Web site,’ ” he said.
Dalrymple said, “For people who love bikes, who work on their bikes, it’s just another way to live the biker’s lifestyle.”
Back on the court, Dalrymple charged toward Adam Staudt, a 27-year-old messenger who had broken away with the ball. Staudt lifted his mallet, hoping to strike for a goal in the split-second window of opportunity. But before he could make contact, Dalrymple knocked the ball away from behind. As Staudt leaned his bike to try to recover the ball, Dalrymple’s mallet got stuck in his spinning spokes. Staudt was sent flying onto the pavement.
“They’re really, really physical,” he said.
The Ratkillers won the game, but the competition may be different at the East Side Polo Invite. Dalrymple said that he expected teams from others cities to show off moves he had never seen.
“It’s not like baseball or soccer or tennis where it’s homogenized,” he said. “Bicycle polo lives in bubbles, and it leaves a lot of the interpretation up to the player. The guys in D.C. might play a totally different way than the guys in Philly. It’ll be interesting to see how the different styles compete.”
----------------------
here's a link to the vid - it's the one titles "No Need For Horses"
The first time I saw Bike Polo played was in Seattle in 2003 at the CMWC's. I've never played (cuz I'm lame) but I've watched a couple tournaments over the years and they are super fun!
Here's the info if you're in NYC and want to check out the action this weekend
Schedule of Events
Friday
Party and Registration: Bushwick Country Club
618 Grand St, Brooklyn
Happy hour until 10:00 for contenders.
Saturday
Qualifiers: Game play starts at 10:00am sharp.
Chrystie/ Broome St. Court.
Polo Sprints: After competion.
Three Sparks Night: Polo Alleycat. Starts at 8:00pm at
Chrystie/Broome St. Court.
Bonus points for drunkenness and Prom costumes.
Bike Prom: Get dressed the fuck up!
Prom at the Chunk Shack! 794 Broadway #2, Brooklyn.
Lloydski and Stachemaster DJing until the morning.
Prom Photos!
10:00pm on.
Sunday
Finals. Game play starts at 10:00am sharp!
Chrystie/Broome St. Court.
BBQ at night. Location to be announced.
Also - the New York Times published an article (and a video) about it today. For archival puposes - here it is:
Their Kingdom for a Bike: It’s Polo on Two Wheels
photo by: Andrew Gombert for The New York Times
A bike polo game last month in New York. The East Side Polo Invite tournament will be held this week in Lower Manhattan.
By KATE TORGOVNICK
Published: April 27, 2007
You do not have to be a king to play polo. You do not need a 300-yard grass field, a long-handled mallet or a helmet. In fact, you do not even need a horse.
On asphalt courts and parking lots in cities throughout the country, bike messengers, bike-shop employees and assorted cycling enthusiasts are playing bicycle polo. The game dates to the 1800s, but it is being transformed from its prim beginnings to a rough-and-tumble sport as it mixes with bike-messenger culture.
Urban players ride fixed-gear bikes, the kind messengers often use to zip through traffic and dodge pedestrians. They set up orange cones in lieu of goal posts and knock around street-hockey balls. Because wooden mallets often break when hit against concrete, players make their own mallets, attaching a handle from an old ski pole or golf club to a piece of industrial-strength piping.
In downtown New York, on a court shaped like a large asphalt bowl, a group meets every Sunday for pickup games. When Doug Dalrymple, a former bike messenger who now is a food deliveryman, started playing last summer, 10 players regularly showed up, he said. The number has at least doubled since then, with many more 20- and 30-somethings going to watch.
“My first game was like learning to ride a bike again,” said Corey Hilliard, a messenger who started playing four years ago. “You have to hold a mallet, the handlebars, follow the ball and be able to change direction quickly. It’s almost like the pinnacle of intense cycling.”
Hilliard’s team and others from the United States and Canada will compete in the East Side Polo Invite this weekend at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Lower Manhattan. The tournament will be composed of 10-minute games and will feature social events like a bike prom. Hilliard’s team is called the Broad Street Bullies. Dalrymple’s is the Ratkillers.
On a recent Sunday, the two teams played an unofficial preview match, the three players on each team positioned at the far ends of the court. They rested their mallets on the ground and slid their feet onto the pedals. After a cry from the sideline of “Three, two, one ... Go,” the teams raced for the ball in the center of the court.
Hilliard, the only player who wore protective gear — his sticker-covered helmet and white sunglasses obscuring most of his face — came away with the ball. But Dalrymple cut off his path as he plowed toward the goal. Hilliard whacked the ball through the wheels of Dalrymple’s bike, and their mallets tangled. Hilliard’s snapped in half.
“Mallet, mallet, mallet,” Hilliard yelled, and a player on the sideline tossed him a new one.
Contact is allowed in urban bike polo. The rules of the game — which are few — have been adapted from equestrian polo to work in the small spaces available in big cities. The most important rule is that the players’ feet cannot touch the ground.
If a player’s foot touches down, he must ride to the sideline and touch an orange traffic cone with his mallet before returning. “It’s kind of like a power play in hockey,” Hilliard said.
The United States Bicycle Polo Association promotes a grass-court version of bike polo in which collisions are discouraged. The organization’s director, John S. Kennedy, said there were competing stories regarding the origin of the sport.
“The legend is that the British government sent a bunch of bikes to a ruler in India,” Kennedy said. “He gave them to his stable boys, who had always wanted to play polo but couldn’t afford it. They cut down mallets and started playing.”
As the story goes, British soldiers stationed in India took the game back to Britain, where it became so popular that it was played as a demonstration sport at the 1908 Olympics in London. According to Kennedy, bike polo has enjoyed several bursts of popularity through the years.
“I hear from people all the time, ‘We played with croquet mallets or hockey sticks and we thought we invented the sport until we found your Web site,’ ” he said.
Dalrymple said, “For people who love bikes, who work on their bikes, it’s just another way to live the biker’s lifestyle.”
Back on the court, Dalrymple charged toward Adam Staudt, a 27-year-old messenger who had broken away with the ball. Staudt lifted his mallet, hoping to strike for a goal in the split-second window of opportunity. But before he could make contact, Dalrymple knocked the ball away from behind. As Staudt leaned his bike to try to recover the ball, Dalrymple’s mallet got stuck in his spinning spokes. Staudt was sent flying onto the pavement.
“They’re really, really physical,” he said.
The Ratkillers won the game, but the competition may be different at the East Side Polo Invite. Dalrymple said that he expected teams from others cities to show off moves he had never seen.
“It’s not like baseball or soccer or tennis where it’s homogenized,” he said. “Bicycle polo lives in bubbles, and it leaves a lot of the interpretation up to the player. The guys in D.C. might play a totally different way than the guys in Philly. It’ll be interesting to see how the different styles compete.”
----------------------
here's a link to the vid - it's the one titles "No Need For Horses"
Saturday, April 14, 2007
TODAY!! (sorry for the short notice)
My friend, roommate, and Editor of OrganicFoodee.com is hosting a fun but powerful action against climate change:
Step It Up 2007 at The Hollywood Sign
April 14, 2007 01:00PM to 03:00PM
Event Description:
Take a hike to the Hollywood Sign!
Location:
Hike up there through Bronson Canyon, from Canyon Drive in Hollywood.
Directions:
Drive or cycle north up Bronson Avenue until it bcomes Canyon Drive. Continue up Canyon Drive until it becomes Brush Canyon Trail. At the end, the road enters the gates to the park which is at the bottom of Bronson Canyon. Either park / chain your bike up here, or keep going on Brush Canyon Trail until you reach the car parks on the right or later on the left. Now it’s time to take a hike up the dirt trail until we’re all under the Hollywood Sign.
Key Facts about Step It Up 2007:
1. This is the largest day of action against global warming in the history of America.
2. It’s a nationwide campaign, with 1100 actions in 50 states, ranging from a rally of thousands in New York City to a community of senior citizens in Ohio holding a global warming awareness day. Go to StepItUp2007.org to find out more.
3. We have one unified message:
For Congress to cut America’s carbon emissions 80% by 2050…
(less than 2% reduction per year, something easy for us to do!)
Ysanne Spevack, Editor of OrganicFoodee.com says:
“Let’s have fun while raising awareness about climate change… And what could be more fun than a hike to the Hollywood Sign? We’re hoping OrganicFoodee.com readers and their friends will bring delicious organic goodies to share under the Sign, and that the whole hike will have a fun party vibe. The press will be watching, so let's make sure there's a whole bunch of people out having a good time and making their views about climate change known to the world.”
Friday, April 13, 2007
Catch Monica Henk's cowardly killer.
My friend Ki'ke's sister, Monica Henk, was struck by an SUV in Brooklyn a couple days ago. The killer fled the scene. She was taken off life support yesterday. The funeral is today in Queens.
I only met Monica a few times over the years I've known Ki'ke. She radiated light and warmth, and had a smile to match. She was a very fine woman and a very skilled tattoo artist. I can't believe the world is now without her physical presence.
Please help us find her killer by reposting this everywhere (myspace, friendster, your blogs, any news sites that you have access to, etc). Email me for the full size version at: info@redridinghoodproductions.com - please put "Monica" in the subject line.
Ki'ke - my heart goes out to you and your family. I love you tons.
Friday, April 06, 2007
"Scrounge" by the Barnstormers
this is a couple years old but it's so awesome I had to share it...
more about David Ellis and the Barnstormers later..
more about David Ellis and the Barnstormers later..
SSPT = Shameless Self Promotion Time
I got interviewed by Filmed By Bike (out of PDX) about 'Even the Girls!'
you can view it here if you like.
and also - I wrote an article for www.cicle.org about the first Wolfpack Midnight Drag Race, which happened in the 2nd St tunnel a couple weeks ago.
It's still on the front page right now.
you can view it here if you like.
and also - I wrote an article for www.cicle.org about the first Wolfpack Midnight Drag Race, which happened in the 2nd St tunnel a couple weeks ago.
It's still on the front page right now.
