Light Lane

A friend of mine sent me this recently, having seen it as an installation at the Art Institute of Chicago. Pretty cool concept, although I would like to test it out in person. The lines seem a bit thin and naturally would only work during nighttime but the idea is revolutionary. This could really improve safety on the streets.

Farewell to the boys at BByB!

As I was rushing out my door last week, I was flagged down by one of my favorite mechanics at Brooklyn Bike and Board, the much-beloved bike shop beneath my apartment, who asked if I knew they were leaving. "Leaving?? No!" He said indeed, they were moving to Ft Greene to Brian's own shop. I said, "I thought this was Brian's shop...".

So did Brian, but turns out we were both mistaken. Check out the story below from Brian's facebook page and DON'T GO TO BByB ANYMORE!

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What's going on at BByB


by Brian Gluck on Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 8:41am.

Things are going to be a little different at BByB. Although the shop is still operating, the friendly, knowledgeable, and darn good looking fellows you know and love are no longer there.

Here's why:

My partner fucked me. Yup. Looked me in the eye and fucked me.

Before BByB started, Nick and I met, sat down, and talked about what was what. He had expectations, I had expectations. We hashed it out.

We finally came to an agreement. He would own shares in the company, I would own shares in the company. He would put up the money, I would put up the blood, sweat, and ideas. Done and done.

I began working knowing that these things were true. For two and a half years I began to and continued to hold up my end of the bargain. Through thick and thin I steered the ship.

We had a recession. We struggled with the seasons. We were robbed. We had another recession... but we hung on. We put our nose on the stem and continued to crank through it.

This past October I received an email. The email of all emails. The email was to Nick's lawyer, explaining the circumstances and goings ons at BByB. For whatever reason, I was CC'd on it.

Attached to that email was the Articles of Incorporation that is filed with the state. This has on it what the State of New York understands BByB to be.

My name was not listed as an owner. Or anywhere, for that matter.

Despite our agreement, despite what Nick had said to me over the years, despite Nick telling everyone that I was the managing partner...

I was not.

He lied to my face, and to everyone else, for nearly 3 years.

I was a glorified employee. I believed in the words of a man who has no integrity. A man who can't stand by his word. A man who lies to anyone who he thinks he can one up. A man with no morals.

So this week I left. For better, greener, and more honest pastures. Myself, along with a few distinguished individuals, are moving on.

We, along with some other fellow clients and fantastic regulars, will be doing the same things you know and love.

Just at a different location:

Red Lantern Bicycles
345 Myrtle Ave. b/w Adelphi and Carlton
347-889-5338

Thank you all for all the memory's and we look forward to making more. Thank you all for all the lessons and hope we haven't finished learning. Thank you all for bringing your bikes to us and allowing us to make them run better than new.

We hope we can continue to do so.

And we hope to see you soon.

With love,

The Boys at BByB

How do you keep the faith?

A friend of mine posted this video blog from mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato, in which she answers the question: How do you keep the faith, i.e. how do you keep going when things get tough in this career?

She has some valuable insights and I'm posting this mainly so I can go back and watch it in the future to remind myself of this sage advice. There are never any guarantees and every day in this career is a risk, but it is also a great privilege to spend time with music and that will never change, no matter where you end up in your career.

I'm struck by how often I hear the really great artists say this, that what we do is a privilege. Callas said in her Juilliard masterclasses, "...the work is hard, in the beginning, during and afterwards. But is is a privilege. I consider myself privileged because I have been able to bring truth from the soul and mind, give it to the public and have it accepted. Not everyone can do that. It is one of the greatest powers one can put at the service of one of the greatest arts--music."

Lucky Chicago!

Chicago's new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, wants to make Chicago the most bike-friendly city in the U.S. Check out the video below to see how he plans to achieve this. Bravo, Rahm!

Welcome to the Church of Bike!

This child was born to be a Baptist preacher.

From bicycles to beautiful singing

My attention is constantly flitting from one interest to another so I've decided to embrace it and in doing so, expand the scope of this blog. With that, here is the lovely Carol Vaness singing "Dove sono i bei momenti" from Act III of Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro. Vaness sings this absolutely beautifully yet still viscerally, which is the only way Mozart should be sung, in my opinion. This video clip is from a fantastic 1985 Met production with Thomas Allen as the Count, Ruggero Raimondi as Figaro, the infamous ill-tempered diva Kathleen Battle as Susanna, Flicka von Stade as Cherubino, a young Dawn Upshaw as Barbarina and Jimmy Levine in the pit. (Incidentally, I learned recently that Levine stuttered as a child. Who knew? See and listen here for a very interesting interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross on NPR.)

Physics of the Riderless Bike

Check out this interesting video from Science Friday about the physics of riding (or not riding) a bike. This could lead to some pretty interesting changes in the geometry of bicycle design.

Win a Limited Edition STRiDA MK2 Bike at fredflare.com

I've started tweeting again (@sarahenb5) and this morning, I came across this giveaway via @peopleforbikes. It's a pretty strange-looking machine but it's lightweight, folds up into a convenient, compact shape and uses a kevlar belt instead of a chain, which means no messy grease to contend with if you're wearing nice work clothes. The upright position also allows for great visibility in traffic, which is a definite bonus when riding in a big city like New York. All in all, a pretty neat ride. Have at it!

Adding to our ranks

Check out this encouraging article in the NY Times today about Deputy Mayor Wolfson and his adventures as a brand spankin' new bike commuter. Although he acknowledged that his commute down the Hudson River path was fairly easy, he remarked that “I’m sort of proof that if I can do this...anyone can do this.” He even said he was going to encourage the Mayor to start biking. Hopefully through a little firsthand experience, our elected officials will start to better understand the joys and challenges of commuting by bike in New York resulting in better integrated policies that will improve the livability of our great city. Three cheers for progress!

Happy National Bike to Work Day!

After an inexcusably long hiatus, I've decided to start posting again and can't think of a better day to start than National Bike to Work Day. It's been raining incessantly but Mother Nature was kind enough to give us a few dry hours today, which made for an idyllic NYC spring morning commute to work. Brooklyn looks and even smells so green and lush, it was one of those blissful rides that makes you so grateful to live in a city where you can hop on your bike and get anywhere you want in the blink of an eye. In honor of this, I wanted to post this sweet video I came across the other day on one of my favorite bike blogs, Urban Velo. Couldn't agree more with the sentiment: Bikes Make Life Better!