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September 26, 2006

Ghost Bikes installed

On Sunday, a small group of riders installed two new Ghost Bikes.
It was a Septemberish evening and a fallish errand- remembering the dead, in a quiet way, not attracting much attention. One of us pulled a trailer carrying the two bikes, the signs, locks, and paint. The rest of us followed along and we were a 5-bicycle procession in the hush of Sunday night.

Since I painted the sign for George Chavez's bike, I felt a particular sense of connection to him, even though I knew nothing about him or his life. As I worked on the sign I thought of his friend, a woman who had contacted Howard to put up the bike, then disappeared. I wondered why he spelled his first name with the anglo G, and not a J, and if his family called him Jorge, and I thought of his friends and if he was on his way to work when he was hit and who it was that ran away from the scene. As always, with the Ghost Bike projects, too, I thought about how easily it could have been me, or any bike rider. And how I would want to be remembered.
We locked his bike to a yellow caution sign with a fire truck and the word SLOW on it.

In the neighborhood where we installed Chris's bike, whose name we didn't know until a man who was acquainted with him, and knew what happened, told us. He also pointed us to exactly where the accident had happened on the street, although he let us know that he heard Chris had been dragged for a block.
We placed his bike in front of a storefront church, in hopes that the people might adopt and tend to it.
After a brief police interaction- they just stopped to make sure we weren't up to anything, before warning us to be careful and cruising off- we stood watching a slow-moving freight train.
On the way home, Dan and I received this message from the universe-
colorful, blinking, spinning lights in the distance, and as we got closer we found a carnival in the middle of the city, in the process of shutting down, but with rides still moving, whirling in the early September air. We paused to take in the sound of whirring machinery, the flashing and spinning, the carosel ponies, trucks painted with cherubs and merry-go-round horses, and people rushing around taking it all down.
Signs and wonders.
Possibly orchestrated by those who've gone ahead of us to let us know we don't need to grieve so long, because they're right there in front of us. All we need to do is look around..

p.s. thanks to Howard for ghost bike photos.

Posted by pippypippy at 12:49 PM | Comments (3)

September 19, 2006

Hollywood! (The visual weekend summary!)

Did you know? They have everything you need in Northwest Indiana~

A beautiful landscape- and I'm entirely serious here, if you like that industrial quality, and that wonderful sense of smallness it invokes. Plus the hopes of the past, the faith in giant, faceless mechanisms, and the noise and smell of grinding machinery. Rusting hulks of giant past notions of progress, of a future that came and went, all still grinding away and transmogrifying into something else. The shells of rusted dinosaurs. What is it? There's something about it all.

And in the middle of it you can find~

All manner of unexpected treasure! Which can be yours, for a small price, if you pay the man who looks like a big, sweaty Santa Claus!
(and plus, can you see Lascaux on the cinderblock wall? Next to the Escort wagon with the windows gone??)

In a dark, dusty, warehouse, in the very back of more dark, dusty warehouses, we found it! The '67 Schwinn Hollywood!! Purple (although in the dark, I though it was pink! But the sparkly seat was all I needed to see)

We paid Santa, 2 for $50 and thus she was ours! Along with~

The red Thunderjet we found in the junkyard out back!

Whoa.
You know its Deluxe!

You know its that fine, Chicago Schwinn Quality!

We only needed a few parts

(more for the Hollywood than the Thunderjet- Mr. Goddamn Sunshine looks devastatingly handsome on that thing, I'd say he's gonna have the ladies all over him. You can look, but don't touch the Thunderjet, ladies, that's all I'm sayin'.)

and then we got some essential parts~

and some prayers

and fixed it all up real nice!!!

Everybody's gonna want one.

Posted by pippypippy at 08:54 AM | Comments (6)

September 11, 2006

Je parle français!

Un peu, anyway!
Its a done deal, something I've always wanted to do!
Since I am not going to skool this fall (but still haven't given up on it yet- at least not entirely, although I am back to the drawing board- which, hey it can't be a bad place for an artist to be!) as a consolation prize I have signed up for Frenchie class at the Alliance Francaise. I start next Tuesday, and I couldn't be more excited!

Posted by pippypippy at 12:55 PM | Comments (3)

September 06, 2006

how do you know

When to give up on something?
*just thought I'd add, this entry refers to school and not men!* :)

Posted by pippypippy at 10:45 AM | Comments (4)

September 04, 2006

Okay- please disregard previous post

Because! There still may be some hope!
We are waiting on our miracle, and will post developments as they happen! In the meantime, here is some fun video of May's Critical Mass- (I think its very charming when the crowd begin to chant about donuts) watch the counter and look for the pink messenger bag at the 12-second mark!
Blink and you'll miss me! Video courtesy of Mr. Goddamn Sunshine! Thanks, Mr.!

Posted by pippypippy at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)