BicycleFilmFestival2011

 

Introduction/Definition/etc Body Conclusion Discussion Page History Page Statistics Page Views:  since creating on 20110807

 

Introduction/Definition/etc

 

Another year at the biker's Mecca...

Good stuff, wish I had a DVD or more links to share...

 

Body

 

Heading down to the Skate Park, under Interstate 395, near Capital Hill,
2nd and Virginia SE (which is difficult, cross streets for computer mapping

programs)

VeloCityCoop (  ) had booth setup
I had put an announcement and several other agenda items on the last

volunteer meeting I had made.

 

After some snide comments about doing some easy duty at the booth,

very few there yet,

saw the grill and eventually got a hot dog for $3, while possibly helping

make change for other, people were pleasant, and relatively happy.

 

talking with the guys, watching Neil put on a new saddle, a white one,

on his mostly white fixie, with blue solid rim.  I'm really just checking the mood
and wandering aimlessly

 

Work up the nerve to talk with the women, sit on a hill, worried about the ants

like FortDupontSummerConcertSeries2011

My conversational skills, I start whining, and notice it with some others,

who basically say I know that, to the comments on the BMX are with '29

inch wheels

clipboard guy with megaphone,

 

took a few stills with one low end camera,

Not sure what to make of the shoes up in the ceiling

later seeing in the movies what it might be...

 

They are taping for something in DC, I'd talked with people,

earlier, hoping to put something in the festival myself,
knowing my quality isn't that good.... There singing

Later, I see the umbrella strobe flash on jump ramps...

 

Talk with one rider about her front chain ring # teeth 52
inside is 42, some issues I had with that on the Fixie Project

that's not going anywhere, I'm worrried about breaking a hip,

after seeing a couple years ago, at the Festival,

the Bike Polo Manual.  I mention chain type
and wander off, I'm annoying people who are being

nice to me...

 

I hear of the AlleyCat and talk a little about my experience

with RaceToTheDeath2010 , it's probably only $5 or $10

to enter so why not start?  (I later see in the Paralympics movies,

why that might not be a good idear...  A Class 4 rider in with

Class 1's or similar caused an accident in a pack, and

the woman has a plate in her head, doing rehab work to

do some of the most basic of movements, but still

in the field...

 

I talk with another woman about the C&O Canal
and GAP which will be finished on Nov, 11 2011

(she notes the 111111, and I'm able to remember the

date to write it here, and maybe finally try it sometime,

I'm missing riding that this weekend to do BFF11,

my anmual mecca, or just an excuse)

 

There are several camps in biking, touring, commuting,

racing, BMX, and other specialties.  I don't get much

respect form the guys in the spandex team jerseys,

going much faster, skinny tires, I say stuff like

"I'll give you a 60 lb handicap of bags,

and then add fat tires and a heavy bike too, as they

climb the hill faster than me, on trails or just saying hello,

I'm guessing they are either amused, when acknowledge me

at all, some moods, I'm not really good at being socialable,

others I amuse them...)

 

So I'd read or heard somehow that the GAP is crushed limestone,

thinking it's better than C&O Canal dirt, and had talked about

Park Rangers and maintenance, the Parks Service needs more

Appalachian Trail type work on the trails, but they tend to do

a natural healing, we disagreed on whether the budget cuts

would be devastating, I am of the thinking that they have

to do the wash outs, when the banks blow out on storms,

more than the muddy surface issues...

 

She said they are finishing toward the City,

Pittsburg, PA, McKeesport I guessed, I have the trail

book, In My Bag, I'd wanted to read up on it,

but been busy, tired, depressed.  She says the

downtown segment was a right of way issue or something...

 

She announces, it's 3 pm, I had lost track of time
I was heading out when started talking with her,

I say goodbyes and give her my name, she's Diane,

IIRC.

Now getting moving,  coming from a direction I normally wouldn't
I try to figure out a route along the way, avoiding the traditional hills
going diagonal across, not over and up

I'm hearing ambulances along North Capital,
wondering where from (turns out the AlleyCat race was then,

but it could have been anyone...)

 

I see another bandana, this one blue, I had picked up a red

along the road in Virginia...  Wondering if it's gang related...

And turf wars, but no solders are out, AFAICT...

 

I get to the movie site, Gala Theatre in Columbia Heights,

and there is a shower tent there, next to the Bike Valet,
I joke, "most work places don't have showers..."

to the people volunteering to help out.  I had tried on the

BFF two years ago, in Navy Memorial, we have a tradition

of crappy weather at BFF, that one was snow...

This one yet to be seen, but dumps a rainstorm down

on us while I was inside...

 

One guy at the ticket counter asked for a bag, to save

his cell phone.  I had pulled my wallet out of an old

bagel bag, I'd been carrying for days.  Tired of giving

sweat soaked money to a church lady, for the

dinner they were nice enough to prepare back in June...

I'd just biked up a hill, and they had tried converting me

later, when I was getting ready to start a meeting...

 

Make it late to For Aaron, come college age guys

had lost a buddy (in a car accident, I later learn)
decided to ride cross country to keep his memory

alive, and create a scholarship fund for the high school

they were all from, in Pennsylvania, near State College

(middle of the state)...

 

You see, as they talk after, they didn't do a lot

of planning, routes and stuff, more on the fund raising,

sponsors, one heavy set lead character, talking

early and often, even during a radio broadcast interview

about hot having been on a bike in 7 years,

and going to do a cross country soon...

 

People never do enough planning, though some of us

obsess about it, and don't do the actual trip...

 

Nor do I...

Like ComputingAcrossAmericaBook

describing his first night out...

So For Aaron, it's 107 heat in California after they

did the celebratory dip the wheel in the ocean,

a big send off with families present, crying dad who

lost his son, many times, shown...

 

And off lost, into the desert, up a mountain,

spent an hour at 5 miles per hour climbing,

all the people involved talking after
to work through the loss On Camera.

Post processing they talk about they should

have paid more for the Winnebago $2.5k
that broke down mid trip, than for the $8k camera.

 

I bite my tongue for some of it,

the father who had intended to have something

for the kids to show, about 2 months later
they finish from Central PA to the Atlantic Ocean,

taking fools gold one old man gave them in the dessert,

and spreading it, like ashes, I've not done with my father...

 

Several segments showing the tombstone
but I'm always forgetting names
ala look me in the eye by John Elder Robison
(Augusten Burrough's of Running With Scissors fame's

Aspergian big brother who worked on KISS electronics shows,
found a Porsche in the woods,

But I'm shifting gears from continuing reading

ComputingAcrossAmericaBook

it's too painful, not doing a trip I had hoped to do,

had a Recert Appointment cutting short the time

necessary, and then fighting on the services to get there...

So neither book is finished,
though look me in the eye is sounding familiar,
had I read it before?  Maybe from segments or

Barnes and Nobile web video reading with his brother
or something (find link?  A Highly Recommending intro)

The movies included Bikers Are People Too
showing his life in a town where he lived in an

abandoned building down by the railroad tracks,

talking of his girl friend, saying he has to finish

high school, like everyone does, now much older,

but probably only in 5th grade or so...

 

And then there is Bike Meets Sewing Machine
and they are procreating (making) caps
And I stole some stills of that, I'm hoping to put up.

I'd much rather buy a DVD of the Previous Years,

I need a better way of showing this stuff to people...

 

The display and caps on sale at the Bowery NYC,
took place in _? Spain?

The best movies are generally the short ones,

even For Aaron ride talking about all the footage

they had done as a kid, had so much material,

but cutting it down, especially for a tribute,

is tough.  I know this blurb is way too long and rambling...

 

Some movies are more commercial, and I'm
wondering about not clapping early for some movies
If I were to get something into the show and heard silence

afterwards, a heart breaker...

Styling in Ghanna, guys quit school,
hussling to survive.  Took his school money and bought

a bike instead...  Learned about it from Internet Cafes
and probably performing there too,

people throwing money at him as he does tricks,

amazing tricks.  Though the jumping over live

bodies laying down next to each other is starting

to make me sick...  What happens if they miss?

Death defying? 

 

I make room during one of the sessions,

and the two guys next to me, had just placed

in the Alley Cat, "how do you follow that?"
He's Saying Of the Movie Clips...

Ogden, lost his dog, a 3 legged dog
to cancer.  He's biking before, talking about

all his dog has gotten him through, and

biking after, with lots of crying.  And this is

a tattooed guy, starting talking about years

in Prison...

 

One about a BMXer Skate Simpeil

or similar title, I need to read my program,

a microfiche with all the info packed into a

small card...

 

The Pool, with the Nike logo, gets transformed,
from a real swimming place, old people taking recreation,

now it's a shark tank.  Skate Park, with big names

the next generations are doing amazing stunts...

I had to start making room in the front row, it's getting

crowded in here, move my stuff / 3 bags, a little more under me...

Again the guy sitting next to me, commenting on the BMX guys,
 showing what they can do,  both tires on the rail
"that's 6 feet" from one place to the side of a building

or something. "No way!", from someone
who was in the first 3 places in the local alleycat,

with some of the best coming into town too...

 

I make it through, the LA Marathon course,

they closed up, and bikers take it over 3 hours

before that 6 am or so start, and run a race..

 

I'm leaving alone, again...

After a pit stop, no go ahead, I'm slow...

The people drinking need to let it out,

or will be pee all over the floor...

 

Down to Bike Valets, torn in half cards
my King of Diamonds, a good car, not the lowley

Duece...

 

I should have given the drink ticket back as tip
to the people helping me, but had given it to the

ticket collector, with some comment about

who gave it to them?  "Nobody", mine from

old Clint Eastwood movies, "Nobody was Faster"

on the tombstones...  For Aaron, I'm remembering

it's "No Regrets"

 

Since I named Will Write For Food Writers's Group

at Street Sense, now renamed, rebranded to those who

are doing it now...

 

Concessions were nuts, cashews, almonds, peanuts,

resold from Price Club and Snyder peanut butter crackers
$2 each.  Good but salty...

Then later taking more out , $1
tipping, in response to the thanks,  nice girl,
cute girl likely volunteering at the bar,

but way too young for me...

In the LA Marathon where they closed down streets
arrive 3 am, doing the race even with the rain,

the title / dog tags, literally, should stay in LA
but Arizona won...

 

Interspersed/ interleaved having interview those that won,
some placing...

Paralympics,  Bejing 2008 was one of my favorites,

it's so hard to choose.  Moving, drama, and losses,

the attractive blind woman, a blond with a Russian Swimmer

build, stoker on a tandem, looking for a pilot
starting with a guy, moving to another guy, breaking up
need more time in the saddle, the whole drama on camera,

staged a little.

 

The girl missing an arm, prosthetic like quick release comes off...

Barbara, the woman who was in an accident in a race,

now a senior, has an oxygen tent for a bed,
keeping hematocrit levels below 47, the race limit..
(think Doping vs self care?)

 

I really liked the conversations in the quiet between shows,
I'd stayed upstairs between shows, others getting food and drink

and socializing, while one nice lady talking with me,
and later hoping to catch her back down stairs,

passing her as she checks her purse on the top of the stairs.

 

But I didn't say "good talking with you" when she had said that to me,

I'm too tongue tied at that point, even No Regrets
(remembering that was on the tombstone)

Some talking, waiting, hearing who they are

One intersession, seeing the wheel chair guy
and just had surgery guy who didn't go up and down,

I'd eventually followed some of the rules, no food

and drink upstairs, largely ignored later, but

gotta watch out for those wheel chair people
thinking stealing, I'm joking but most can't tell,

with me, such a dry and down mood,

people assume the worst...

 

Brendt Barbour, founder, on final session,

a female NY co director/ producer doing intros

"We need more women in biking"

And the Tradition (insert clip here)
While he's trying to read the fine print on his own program,

some notes he has extra too.  He has more sponsors now

too small, the fine print...

I'm later going home a mostly shy cutie says "Night,
get home safe".  Remember, "No Regrets",

but really as a clinical depressive, up too early,

not a drinker, though didn't mention that to the guy

who said he was alcoholic, since he was 14 or so,

totally wasted at this time, I'm thinking I should have

said something, like I trained to be a Substance Abuse Counselor,

or have someone keep an eye on him, introduce

the guy looking for a group to bike over to the bar,

we talked briefly about my old bike, his dad had the same

thing, I mention a Graduation Present, back in 1998,

wondering if his math is going to figure out I was on the 17 year

plan for a bachelors...

 

There usually is, regrets, I've got so many.

But I say, see you next year, instead...

 

Then riding, little like I saw in the movies, though much slower,

through DC, and a cab almost had my name on it,
my becoming a hood or door ornament, yet again.

Saturday night, good looking ladies going out, dressed to impress,
and probably some also standing around...

It's a new college school year and now August
some starting early?

I arrive a short 25 miles total today, not the 60's

some are doing cross country, low for the usual 100 milers,

I'm old, and I take a bath, soak some road and sweat off,

eat late some home, hot dog and snacks were not nearly enough,

 but something.

 

I'm drinking too much water, maybe from the salted nuts,
or the missing company, and up several times in the night,

to pee...

 

 

Conclusion

 

Summary of experience or similar

 

Discussion

 

A place for feedback on the page presented

 

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