'Bred Crumbs
09.28.02
I've got to admit it – I just can't get down with the whole bicycles-instead-of-cars thing. I consider the problem and possibilities: clearly, society's dependence on oil is a bad thing, destroying the environment, breeding terrorism and triggering war after not-quite-justifiable war*. In some ways, the notion of a society where all one's needs could be fulfilled a short bike ride away sounds kinda nice. At least in a city with no winter.
But then every few years the San Francisco monthly bike event Critical Mass gets big and out of hand, as it did last night, and the cause loses me all over again.I wisely made sure I got home from the office before things got ridiculously congested, but it was still a bit of an ordeal just trying to walk across Market Street to go to Robbie's. Many of the bicyclists ignored and endangered me in the same way they claim drivers treat them; I just darted around them and glared. (Hey bikers, you may not care if you're blocking cars, but you're blocking pedestrians and mass transit, too. Think about that?) I saw the motorists' frustration, and I understood that more than the cyclists' goals.
(Ruining traffic seems like a really bad way to sway people to your side. Years ago, Woody Harrelson and some pals snarled the Golden Gate Bridge by climbing up it to promote protection of the redwoods, and friend of the environment that I want to be, if I'd been caught in that traffic jam, I would have wanted to take a chainsaw to a redwood myself.)
Reading about Critical Mass today, my blood got slightly boilly at the thought of the women who was losing $10 every five minutes she was late to pick up her child at day care. And regarding the confrontation where a driver inched his car forward intersection and bumped a bicyclist, truth be told, my sympathy is with the driver.
On the other hand, when I crossed the biking horde myself, I was amused by the guy who had decked his bike out like a Chinese dragon. And what the stuck motorists who laid on their horns thought that was going to accomplish other than add to everyone's anger, I can't imagine.
Historically, I guess, this tactic – massively annoying people until you get your way – seems to work in the long run. But all I know is, every time the San Francisco cyclists try to take over the streets to a degree that traffic stops, all I want to happen is for the area governments to immediately scrap all plans for bike lanes and programs and dismantle the ones that exist. The cyclists have a good point, but they're pushing me to the opposite side as hard as they can.
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* By the way, here are some recent Metafilter links on the iffyness of Bush's case for war: former Marine and Iraqi-arms expert Scott Ritter details how threatening Saddam's weapons program isn't; the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists casts knowledgeable doubt on the White House's "evidence" of Iraqi nuclear progress (and wins bonus points by quoting Jon Stewart); and the London Review of Books suggests a disturbing and all-too-likely explanation of why Bush really wants war. Meanwhile, a McCarthyesque blacklist of people who dare to disagree with the adminstration may already be under construction. Hope I can still go on my vacation to Florida in a couple of weeks after writing this footnote.
09.25.02
Fun trivia: Savage Steve Holland, who directed the pivotal John Cusack-'80s-teen-comedy doubleheader of Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer, also drew and voiced the famed Whammy of the game show Press Your Luck.
Hey, it's better than a Snapple "Fact."
Having been pointed to the movies-for-the-masses tool DFilm (or D.Film or DF1lm, depending on which part of the website you're looking at), I humbly present my directorial debut, Icebreaker. It's kinda like Firefly, but better. And more plausible. (Site link from Jody via demented friends)
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On the always scintillating TV Guide Channel, Reese Witherspoon – who is fast becoming the Melanie Griffith of the Aughts – explained that her new movie Sweet Home Alabama is about "how people treat each other in the Midwest." What a geographically confused thing for a Nashville girl to say.
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You may notice a slight design tweak on 'Bred Crumbs. The gutters were feeling a little crowded. Plus, this change should make lines a little less long for those of you who use vast screen resolutions but don't shrink your browser windows. You know who you are.
09.22.02
Hello, numerous new visitors (and gracious thanks be to he who sent them). Welcome. Feel free to look around and visit frequently. Despite what recent entries may suggest, I promise I do write of other things besides messed-over TV shows.
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