So pedalpooluza finally wrapped itself up! It was a two-and-a half week adventure, in which you could do bike events all day every day for two-and-a half weeks, if you didn't work or anything...
I went to a bike-in-movie as my last pedalpooluza event....it was great fun...about eighty bicyclists met downtown at a place called Friendship Circle and then we pedaled out of Portland about three miles or so to a little wooded area, where a screen was set up between two trees and a projector was attached to two car batteries and Voodoo donuts where passed around and Dead Baby movies where shown first (Dead Baby is a production company that makes stunt biking movies mostly,) and then a Grindhouse film called Switchblade Sisters was shown. It was a horrible movie about gangs, the Black Panthers and Chairman Mao, but the projector broke toward the end of the movie and then the whole event evolved into a crazy dance party (luckily, someone had brought a huge sound system on their bike trailer.) Anyway, I love Portland to death, even if there is a production company that resides here called Dead Babies....
Also, my computer is broken as of late, so I've been limited to my school library and the community computer at the house I live at; so I've been writing on my ancient typewriter in my room on warm summer nights, with my window open so that I can hear the Old-Tyme band that lives two houses down from us in a big, lemon-yellow house and that practices together in the yard most summer evenings...they drown out the sounds of domestic violence that otherwise pollutes the air in our 'hood, so I'm grateful for them! Anyway, typing on my 1930's typewriter makes for more creative writing I think, so I'm going to share a couple of my favorite pieces right now:
June 22nd, 2008
A Love-Letter To The American Gypsy,
Dearest hobos, train-hoppers, hitchhikers, vagabonds, rewilders, traveling musicians, etc....
I am in love! I love the way you inspire, with freedom; freedom from any specific location, freedom from family commitments, from jobs, schools and organizations in general. Freedom to do what you want, when you like. You define freedom for me, and I love and appreciate that about you.
I love you beauty; despite or because of hygiene indifference, and because of your lean, underfed (by typical American standards,) frames and worn-out, patched and repatched clothing, you look exotic and beautiful to me. I love yellowed, unbrushed teeth and brown, dirty skin, a dirt tan several weeks into a traveling adventure! I love backpack muscles and walking-mile-after-mile on the highway shoulder muscles, tree climbing, dumpster-diving, fence-jumping muscles!
I love the pets who travel with you; those faithful dogs, cats, ferrets, rats and whatever else you travel with who are in it for the adventure, just as you are. I love that they help keep you warm at night, when sleeping in boxcars, under bridges, on a friend's couch, or in the back of a cold van. I'm glad you have a warm, furry companion to sleep with; besides, there is nothing sexier then a dirty kid sleeping with his or her dog.
In short, I guess I just want to say thank you in the most sincere way possible for being you; being real, being free, and living on the edge and making the edge look good (and sexy!)
Love Carrot
Bummed
One of my housemates or her mom accidentally trampled my baby oak tree today while working on her garden. After seeing a portion of my favorite woods cut down this weekend, I feel like everyone is either subconsciously or consciously out to get trees, even though I know the oak tree was an accident. I feel really depressed about the environmental shit we are in right now that we've caused, with or without playing a direct role, we all are nonetheless, playing a role. A man also stopped by our yard today to ask me when we where going to mow.
"We aren't...we like it long..."
"Why?" He asked, smirking at me like I was crazy.
"Because we like it wild, we like to sit out here and watch it blowing in the wind..."
"I saw someone out here the other day drinking a beer....I wouldn't be able to sit and have a beer if my lawn was that long..."
"Well personally, I think it is beautiful..." I wanted to shake him and say "why can't you see what I see?" When I look at our yard, I see a whole bunch of biodiversity; at least ten kinds of wild grass, including foxtail, timothy, Kentucky Blue Grass and many others, all kinds of vegetables that we've planted, oak trees, a little blueberry bush, some grape vines, roses, mint, lemonbalm, motherwort, comfery, all kinds of wild growing things. I guess not everyone sees and/or appreciates that.
My housemate Dave walked around our yard, picking all the different types of grass. We where only able to identify six or seven of the ten varieties he found with my Pacific Northwest Field Guide. It was a fun evening activity though. A few evenings before, we had all been out on the porch eating strawberry-rhubarb pie, and Coral had noticed a group of ants swarming. We'd spent an hour or so watching the ants, who where apparently moving from one place to another, carrying little rocks and grains of sand with them. We where all enthralled by these tiny little ants, and I remarked, "I'm so glad we don't have a TV." When you don't have a TV, you do things like watch the ants, or watch the grass for an hour. And I think activities such as these lead to a greater appreciation of the natural world, such as it is. That is also why, when I get the chance, I spend a little time on my neighbor...(I guess I went to bed and never finished this piece.)
Love ya,
Carrot
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