Environmentalist Propaganda of the Day

After listening to some lectures on ecological sustainability recently, the inner environmentalist in me wants to come out and say hello. Hopefully inspire others. To this end, I will be periodically interjecting the blog with ecological tips for a greener world. Come on admit it, everyone's got a little hippie in their hearts somewhere.

So here we go with tip #1. Rather then loading up on bottles of water, consider reusing bottles by refilling. Especially if you are in an environment where it is easy to do so. Most plastic bottles never get recycled, and are non-biodegradable, making them an expanding and persistent problem in solid waste. Even if you do recycle bottles, they will need to be trucked to a recycling center and reprocessed, leaving a carbon trail along the way. Reuse is essential to sustainable living, and is fundamentally better then recycling.



Also consider that bottled water, though substantially more expensive, is subject to less health regulations then standard tap water. Some brands of bottled water, are just filtered tap water, repackaged for an image of "purity." Link: NRDC

At work it was easy to fall into the habit of taking freely provided water bottles, drinking them up and then tossing them for recycling. Then a couple months ago , it just dawned on me, what I'm I doing creating all this waste when I carry a water bottle on my bike, which I ride to work everyday. So now I just refill my bottle, quenching my thirst at work with considerably less waste.

So the next time you get that itch to chuck a bottle, think about reusing it instead. The bottle will love you for your kindness as well. I hear them talking to me in my sleep, and they told me so...

Link: Container Recycling Institute

The "I PISS EXCELLENCE" Yellow Jersey IMAX Ride

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I did 3 Midnight Ridazz rides in one day as well as riding between each one and eventually riding home. It could have been 4 rides, but I couldn't get awake early enough for the unusually early Pier Pressure ride. The first ride of the day for me was The "I PISS EXCELLENCE" Yellow Jersey IMAX Ride, to go see the Tour de France documentary "Wired to Win". The pissing excellence is in reference to the drug testing between stages, and we wore yellow, color of victory in the Tour.



While waiting for the film to start, we wondered the California Science Center at the USC campus. At the top of the building is a high wire bicycle with heavy weight to counter balance the rider. Most people who tried it went tepidly across and back, but Cole, from our group, rode it hard and tilted it all over the place. Was awesome to see, and next I'm at the Science Center, I'd like to try it out as well.


The documentary was fascinating on two main levels for me. One is that the documentary focuses mostly on the adaptation of the brain to extreme physical conditions, with the Tour De France as a case study. The other level is just the awe of seeing these super humans of endurance riding on some of the most beautiful roads in the world, on the epic screen size and resolution of IMAX. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in psychology, physiology, and or the sport of cycling. A word of caution though, it's guaranteed to make you feel slower the next time you get on your bike.

Link to Flickr Set:
The "I PISS EXCELLENCE" Yellow Jersey IMAX Ride

Also, in testament to the small world we live in, at the Wolf Pack race later that day, we ran into the projectionist who was showing the IMAX movie, and he recognized our yellow jerseys & shirts.

Siggraph 2007

I finally got around to processing my photo's from the Siggraph convention in San Diego. It was an awesome experience to be around so many talented people, see the cutting edge in the Electronic Theater, and listen in on lectures by the masters of computer graphics, such as the technical artists at Pixar. It was my first time going to Siggraph, and big thanks to Sony for giving me the opportunity to go.

I met up with some friends from school that came for one day, and I had a fun time in San Diego outside the convention as well. I also brought my bike, so I rode to the convention from the hotel everyday, and also got in a nice big ride around the edge of the city and along the bay. Also gotta love the mediocre service, but simply amazing vegan Mexican food at Pokez. I'll post up some pictures from elsewhere around the city when I get a chance.

Link to Flickr Set: Siggraph 2007

First Wolfpack Race

I've been part of a lot of activities and events recently that I'd like to share, but work, photography and spending almost every other free minute bicycling has kept me pretty busy. I'll post more pictures and accompanying writing, as I get caught up on my back log of photos to process.

In the mean time here is a picture taken of me at my first Wolfpack street race (photo courtesy of Spook). It was a short distance crit, 3 laps around a city block, so all sprinting. In the pic I'm about to get fourth place, split second behind third, out of about I think 15 or 16 riders. Nothing special for getting fourth, but I was pretty stoked about it, having no idea how I would measure up to Wolfpack riders. I'm wearing the yellow jersey in homage to the Tour de France, as there was a themed ride earlier in the day to watch an IMAX documentary on the Tour. I'll post more on that and other such things later.

CUBCAMP XXIII H.EAR.LA

Video recorded by Richie on last Thursdays Cubcamp ride. Featuring bikes weaving through LAX arrivals and a mysterious shadow from off camera, unbeknownst to me, that fondles my backside inappropriately. Crazy times call for crazier bicyclists, or something...

100 Miles by Moonlight. The Dark Century.

I just woke up from the coma induced sleep of crashing on my bed after riding my bike for 100 miles through the dead of night, on the Dark Century. It was an epic journey from Union Station downtown, to Hollywood, then snaking down the LA river to Long Beach, then north to El Monte, across south Pasadena and finally back to downtown. There were a lot of beautiful views of various parts of LA at night on the hills, and we went through lots of areas I'd never been before. It was a life perspective changing sort of ride. Lots of pain and accomplishment awaited our finish, and we satisfied our hunger at Denny's which has never tasted so good, but only because I was so hungry.

Final stats from my bike computer: 99.8 miles, 6:16:37 riding time (doesn't include planned and unplanned breaks for food, drink, fixing mechanical problems and flat tires), average speed 15.8 mph, 2946 ft. of climbing, and an estimated 5830 calories burned for a rider my height and weight.

I think I'm going to go lay down some more. Bed, so soft, so wonderful...

Get ready for TOFU time!!!

Tofu, Tofu, TOFU!!! My favorite festival is back for year twelve!! Eat it!! Yes!!

My First Spoke(n) Art Ride

Once a month on the second saturday, a number of galleries in East L.A. in the Highland Park area have simultaneous art openings. Spoke(n) Art is an organized bike ride touring these openings. Bikes are ideal for this due to their ability to traverse tight urban areas without the traffic and parking congestion of numerous cars, or the time it would take to walk to the galleries further away from the center.





It was an awesome evening, with a fun crowd, interesting art, and exploring a part of town I'd never spent time in. I also had decieded to continue pushing my self by riding out from home in Santa Monica, and eventually riding back after an amazing afterparty held after the ride. There were events like drunken kiddy bike racing, and a live band playing surfer rock with a backdrop of bicycles lit up with christmas lights.



For any one with a love of riding, exploring, art, or any combination of the three, I highly recommend checking out Spoke(n) Art and seeing what's going on out East.

"So what are you going to do now?" "I'm going to Disneyland!"

My Disney Flickr Set



My friends convinced me to get a season pass to Disneyland, which I agreed to in large part due to the photo opportunities. Disneyland holds a unique place in American history and culture, a testament to American idealism, technical innovation, and artist vision, as well as excess, consumerism and tourism.



Now with the season pass I can visit this focal point of America, without the pressure to hit all the rides in a day, and take a step back to really observe my surrounding's in the happiest place on Earth.





One thing noticeably different since my last time to Disney Land, which was the high school senior class trip, is the inclusion of a lot more Pixar licensed displays and attractions. The Turtle Talk real-time interactive show, with CG characters having real dialog with kids in the audience, was particularly impressive to me.



This was accomplished with a premade animation tree controlled by an operator for the movements, a voice actor impersonating the character, an automated dummy lip sync, and some amazing rendering engine that could do dynamic lighting on a very large, high resolution display. It's not perfect, but it's well done and really shows a lot of potential. I'd never seen anything like it before.



Holographic displays of characters from Finding Nemo were also added to the remodeled Submarine Ride, which attracted a long line all day. Most of my photos from down there didn't turn out, but I'll try again next time.



I definitely have to hand it to Walt Disney. A man with a grandiose vision, who built under his meticulous oversight, and the design & craftsmanship of the Imagineering team, another world that would live on to attract millions of people from across America, and the world. I highly recommend watching some of the Disney Vault DVDs, several of which include footage of Disney in his own words as well as friends who knew him. Hearing him speak about his ideas, it's hard not feel the optimistic excitement he had for what the future would have in store for us.



Walt went to great length's to see his ideas realized, gathering the brightest minds, and artistic talents to his studios & workshops. Some of his educational films, were of significant cultural impact on events such as World War 2 and the space race. It's not all fun and fairy tales. Going into great detail is outside the scope of this blog, but the history of Disney is an interesting one.

Ride-Arc "Incarceration, Gentrification, and Homelessness"

"Transitional Housing"


On July 6th, Ride-Arc hosted their 2nd Anniversary ride on the eye opening but bleak topics of homeless population shifting, upper class developments amidst poverty stricken areas, and the rapid expansion of the incarceration system.


"In front of needle exchange clinic" (Pictured is Alex Amerri, one of the ride founders.)


Contrast in demographic could not be more apparent then in Downtown L.A., with upper scale loft/condo developments springing up with 4 million+ dollar pent houses, literally only blocks away from transitional housing, a needle exchange clinic, and homeless encampments.


"In front of needle exchange clinic"


Right at the heart of the city a new large scale jail facility is being constructed near the Civic Center. Already standing is the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, the largest such jail in the United States, and was of monumental expense to the State of California. This facility is able to house a high concentration of prisoners through the use of a panopticon inspired design.


"Twin Towers Correctional Facility"


In a panopticon, inmates are housed in a tower with a circular or polygonal floor plan and a single guard on each floor in the center, who is able to watch any inmate on the floor from a single location. This particular facility also subdivides cells on each floor into two half floors to stack more cells into less space, and one way optical glass is used to keep inmates unaware of when the guard is actually watching them.


"Twin Towers Correctional Facility"


"Twin Towers Correctional Facility"


Then we made our way back to the SCI-Arc campus, for food, drink, and music. It was a fun after party in spite of it concluding our trip to the county jail. I didn't get any pictures of the party it self, as it was low light (didn't bring my flash) and I didn't want to feel like I was in event photographer mode. It was interesting to walk around the campus a bit though and I took a few pictures inside.


"SCI-Arc Campus"

At art school we had a our fair share of drafting tables for doing illustration work, but SCI-Arc is the champion of most drafting tables in a single building I've ever seen.


"SCI-Arc Campus"

I was also highly captivated by a simple chair hung from the ceiling in a small gallery space near the entrance. It's amazing how different a feeling you get from something so familiar when it is simply presented in a different way.


As things were starting to settle down I got involved in a long and interesting discussion with the Ride-Arc organizers and a girl I had met at the Independence Day critical mass ride a few days previous. Debated were pro's and cons of wealthier people moving into downtown, other social issues, environmental problems, and how different demographics react to these issues. I'm looking forward to the next event if for no other reason then the conversations that can happen.


"SCI-Arc Campus"


After the after party there was a bunch of folks still seeking yet more adventure. I joined them in their quest for an early breakfast and drinks, as we indecisively meandered the streets of downtown looking for something that was open. We finally stopped at a local diner, and made conversation over toast and jam. Finally at what was then I think 5:15 in the morning, I rode my bike back to Santa Monica.