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–
Robert Ferrero
nymous@gmail.com
(503) 515-6386

Being a former pedicabber, this little bit of greenwashing from MINI grabbed by attention. Promoting your AUTOMOBILE company using green transportation methods such as pedicabbing by way of shipping your husk of a product all over the world (using resources along the way) to make your company look green is just wrong. No getting around it. Clever stunt, but totally not appreciated.

Oil on wood
66,5X57 cm
(Women on three feet)

I found Rubin Hirschbeck several months ago and keep returning to his awkward figure paintings as a reminder of something challenging that isn’t being made in the city that I live in. These aren’t pretty. These aren’t easy. I love his portrayal of women with exaggerated features, thick faces and joints, involved in awkward interactions on their own or with ugly men (or other women such as themselves). Awkward art.

Article from local (to me) paper, the Willamette Week, with an example of how families can live without an automobile given the use of single-day or hourly car rental services for far trips.

My only point of contention is that I have been a car-free cyclist for two years and wouldn’t mind having the use of an auto or a year-long trimet pass for those few obstacles that arise - though, since I wasn’t already a motorist I wasn’t eligible for the Low-Car Diet featured in the article. I won’t complain though. I have been happy about not having set foot in a car in over a year and having to find alternate means for far travel and heavy moving (so far I haven’t really found solutions, just the occasional helping hand or excessive bike trip… no real trips though. Not until I build my touring bike!)

A great video broadcast by CBN news on the benefits of cycling instead of driving. I personally save around $4,000 per year since I gave up my car (more if you count car payments and the constant repair of the crappier cars I drove when I was younger).

I will be posting, often, links to articles intelligently discussing the benefits of bicycling over driving an automobile - occasionally posting my own articles.

I had never looked into this form of racing before now, but after reading a few articles, watching some video, and looking at the keirin track frames featured on the many bike-porn-like gallery pages I am hooked.

From http://users.htcomp.net/gladu/%27drome/tracks/Keirin.html:
“Generally, races take place over a distance of 2000 meters. The riders begin slowly, jockeying for an advantageous position before entering into the second half of the course. This series of maneuvers may disappoint a little at first those spectators who have expected an extraordinary speed feeling. But then, as soon as the racers hear a bell sound telling that they have entered the last lap, the pitch of competition rises sharply and every rider begins to exert his full energy to his last spurt, dashing toward the finish line.”

Check out the gallery at: Keirin Culture
…and of course there are always plenty of attractive track bikes at Fixed Gear Gallery

Keirin in the olympics: Olympic schedule for Keirin races - Saturday, August 16th though I don’t believe NBC will be covering this event.