Here’s what you missed while you were thinking about giant ketchup packets:
August is supposed to be a slow month? The dance community didn't get that memo. Aside from the Jazz Dance World Festival, next month sees Dance for Life, a gala for AIDS-related charities; Mark Morris Dance Group presented by Ravinia at the Harris Theater; Chicago Dancing Festival at Millennium Park; and the conclusion of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Summer Festival.
The Berwyn Spindle, an endangered suburban landmark and the only Berwyn attraction many of us can actually name, was the destination of Friday night's Critical Mass bike ride. More than 2,000 riders came from Daley Plaza, many of them chanting support for a much-debated statement about car usage and “a great kitsch monument.”
Afraid your move to Dubai will make you homesick? DAMAC Properties is building a low-rise just for you in Arjan. Westside at Lincoln Park is a luxury building “inspired by Chicago style architecture.” Their ads look pretty familiar too.
Styx fans rejoice: Dennis DeYoung’s "Hunchback of Notre Dame" will receive its Midwest Premiere, and its second production ever, next spring at Bailiwick Rep.
Berwyn Spindle image by Joe M500
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Critical Mass is so irritating. Talk about being so inflammatory that you hurt your cause.
How is it "so inflammatory that it hurts (the) cause?" It's a healthy, peaceful monthly demonstration advocating an alternate means of transportation. Even though the possibility exists that the ride, as we know it, may disband after its tenth anniversary in September, it's done wonders for bicycle awareness and helped shape Chicago into a premier bike-friendly city. If anything, Critical Mass could be a victim of its own success.
I've ridden in my share of Critical Mass rides and the only inflammatory commentary I've seen came from drivers of cars. And most of them, I assume, feel they should be the only ones on the road anyway, so you aren't gonna change their way of thinking, regardless of how much they spend in fuel, insurance, and car payments.
"Even though the possibility exists that the ride, as we know it, may disband after its tenth anniversary in September,"
its meant as a joke. its impossible to end critical mass, even if you wanted to. no one owns CCR. its not like people are going to stop showing up at daley plaza the last friday of every month. the whole point was to bring a lot of people out for the 10th anniversary (since people who didnt "get" the joke and thought it would be ending would show up), and then propel into the next month for an even bigger ride.
It's the JoeM500 Trifecta! My pic of the spindle used in the article, I rode critical mass and earlier in the week we went and visited the worlds largest ketchup bottle in collinsville!!!
Check out The catsup bottle!!!!
Critical mass had it's few, isolated dark moments, but overall it was a fun and worthy ride. Just seeing the estimate to move the Spindle get cut in half was worth it! I high-fived more kids on that ride than a little league word series!
I've personally witnessed Critical Mass riders antagonizing drivers by parking bikes in front of their cars, lighting cigarettes, and then just standing there. Also, riders riding in circles in the middle of Lincoln/Ashland/Belmont long after the procession had gone through. Also, the use of air horns.
It's a nice idea, but there are unfortunately people out there who use it as an excuse to be a hooligan, for lack of a better term. Don't pretend you haven't seen them. My neighbor used to ride in CM, but stopped when she saw the behavior that was going on with some of the riders.
Some people in those rides are just not the best representatives for an event trying to make a good and worthwhile point.
^^^^ Oh, and when I saw this, I was on a bike too.
Parking the bike in front of a car is the only way to save a few lives when the driver is already irritated and attempting to swiftly manuever through crowds of bicyclists. While I do know that some people can be a little less politically correct at it, I always thank the drivers for waiting and give them a smile. Last ride there was an extremely angry man in a convertable that actually moved his car right up into the crowd of bikes. He backed up and waited for a few minutes and then completely flipped out. Once the officers that we flagged down came over, the cop was quick to point out that I could not stop traffic in that way, but when I told him why I was standing there, he and the driver exchanged words. The driver lost his temper again and the officer asked the guy to exit his vehicle. I drove away at that point only to see the guy in the SUV (who was later determined to be wielding a hammer).
Critical Mass is ending because the rides are now interfering with public transportation, which is a No No to the cause. But just as important given our state of intellectual decay, its/the rides are no longer critical. Critical Mass has become a place for young consumer hipsters to meet and make consumer babies as opposed to thousands of sources for collective of grassroots action and activism that it once spawnded
Too say that its impossible to end Critical Mass is to ignore the planned sacrifices made to start the ride. Think ten dedicated people ridding monthly all winter. Consider that before the City of Chicago assigned a special police escort at- tax payer’s expense- riders got arrested for blocking traffic and attacked by car drivers. And all those Critical Mass T shirts flags, etc,etc, didn’t follow out of the, some body paid for them. Trust me, the rides are ALOT of work. When the leadership stops going after making a strong case for it to End, it will dry up and die, like it should, unless a corporate sponsor steps in!
Now if hou wanna call the best forum of public protest in Chicago since the closen down of Lake Shore Drive and before that the Apartied Protest in Chicago, inflammatory and antagonizing , Go look at all the ghost bikes that Critical Mass leadership types left to mark the spot where people were killed by cars and trucks. I find cars very inflammatory and antagonizing