Grabbed the 4 from 42nd Street / Times Square then switched to an A at Broadway / Nassau. Headed towards JFK but had to bail at Euclid and wait for a local.

Tonight 100 of cyclists across the city will once again come together to participate in a monthly community bike ride called Critical Mass. The ride, which originated in San Francisco in 1992 has since spread throughout the world and has existed for over 6 years in New York City.

Last night I took in a screening of Still We Ride. The story begins on Friday August 27, 2004 in New York City, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention, when 264 people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and parading without a permit during the monthly bicycle celebration. But unlike the majority of the RNC-related arrests, which have been dismissed, bicycle-related arrests and bike seizures at monthly Critical Mass rides have persisted.

"Under the law, including New York legal codes, a group of bicycles is exactly the same as a group of automobiles," says Stephan von Pohl, a World Carfree Network USA board member. "When any group of citizens are arrested for doing something legal, like riding a bicycle on a public street, we believe that it's a human rights violation."

Most recently, in March of 2005, there were 37 arrests and an even higher number of bike seizures. The monthly pattern of confrontation has forced the bike community into a legal battle with the city and has politicized the once celebratory ritual. The city believes that the event, which has no leadership organization or planned route must apply for a permit in order for cyclists to assemble and ride through the streets. "You’re blocking traffic," says the assistant chief Smolka, in one scene. A cyclist replies, "I am traffic! What do you mean?"

For five months, a small team of producers has been gathering hours of footage from independent videographers who have been documenting the ongoing harassment of Critical Mass. The resulting video is a collage of sound and imagery that is often raw and gritty and sometimes absolutely beautiful. It illustrates the most striking stories from the ongoing saga and condenses them into a continuous narrative. Still We Ride is directed by Elizabeth Press, Andrew Lynn, and Christopher Ryan and produced with the help of Brendt Barbur, director of the Bicycle Film Festival. -----End Original Message-----

Heading north on 87, I came up behind this sweet ride. Plate reads "BIODEEZL" and I could definitely smell something different, exhaust wise, while driving being him for a few miles.

Made a trip up to Skidmore to check out Steven Heller give a lecture on "Weapons of Mass Dissemination: The Propaganda of War." Mr. Heller is the art director of The New York Times Book Review and has managed to completely chronicle the past hundred years of graphic design to such an extent & depth that his influence cannot help but be felt by every design student and practitioner everywhere in the world.

His interest in European graphic design has enabled him to point out some stylistic differences based on culture. "There are different sensibilities between different cultures. In U.S. design history, the word has had primacy over the image. Some other cultures give the image primacy over the text, for example in Berlin around the turn of the century."

He went on to talk about how Italian fascists sold fascism to their youth culture and how the Germans/Nazis picked up the swastika. In Sanskrit, swastika literally means "it is well." As the symbol of auspiciousness, it is fittingly associated with the sun, both in its resemblance to a sunwheel and as an emblem of the sun's munificent power. Some say the twisting path of the swastika's intersecting arms denotes the sudden leaps on the path to self-realization. According to the Italian Buddhist scholar Giuseppe Tucci, Buddhism sees the swastika as an endless knot with neither beginning nor end: the infinite peace of the balanced and enlightened mind.

So, some of you may know I'm collecting Pepsi caps so I can enter the code underneath into the Every10Minutes.com website and try to win a new XBox 360.

I haven't been doing to bad thanks to Walter, MikePop, and a few others who all have tossed me codes every once in a while.

Yesterday, I got an email from Regan which contained 'virtual' code. Meaning she passed along the 10 letter/digit combination under the cap. I mentioned this to MikePop and he joking quipped that I should ask HN to donate unused/unwanted caps. So, if you drink Pepsi products and it has an orange cap, you're welcome to send it to arepem360@hotmail.com.

Regan, "Thank You' very much for the cap donation. I have to check the exact number but I'm pretty sure I've racked up enough points to either pick up two caps or one t-shirt which I'd be willing to send your way.

Avoiding the rain, there was just enough light out to grab this picture.

Spike Lee, film director, producer and screenwriter, is renowned for bodys of work that explores African American experience visited the New York State Writers Institute at the University of Albany this evening.

He was joined on stage by Kaleem Aftab who authored Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It. For just over an hour the two discussed Lee's career in film, where & how he got started, his successes & box office failures, but they mostly talked about how Lee has challenged racial stereotypes and addressed controversial subjects in his films.

Following that they allowed for about 10 questions from the audience and while I expected them to be heavy on racial areas they were suprising more obscure inquiries in his less popular box off films like Bamboozled, Crooklyn, & Girl 6.

At the suggestion of Ben (G7) I tossed the mohawk Hiptop sticker on the back of my device. It's like carrying around a sticker version of Kale or Divinity.

Fashionably late, as always, a post of some goodness sent to me from Houston's own G7 who recently took a trip to China.

Package contains a McDonalds menu/coupon combination thing, a Renaissance Beijing Hotel card for tourists that you show to the taxi drivers, (I see you went to the Temple of Heaven) and best of all an empty can of Red Bull! Empty!? WTF, you get thirsty on the 18 hour plane trip to Newark?

The can itself is pretty cool, it reminds me of those 8 ounce mini cans the soda companies have recently introduced to the public. Logo and branding are the same but the color is a golden brown instead of the silver most of us know.

I put a Red Bull can most of us are used to seeing for a side by side comparison.

My sister tied the knot today on the beach in a small simple ceremony.