Bike Commuting Of Yore

I've already watched this 3 times. A nice little escape into Cycle Chic country.

The BFF Review: Rise Of The Nesmith Hipster

Last Saturday was the Bicycle Film Festival in Washington DC. I went to two out of the three programs and for the most part I enjoyed myself. For me the two films that embodied the true nature of cycling and most accurately illustrated the passion of cyclists were: "SKI BOYS",the last reels of the Ski Boys, which document their inventive exploits in rural Ontario during the early 70's, and "WHERE ARE YOU GO a documentary following the the four month Tour de Africa.

After watching these and several other selections I was on a huge veloculture high, which came crashing down when they showed "BROADWAY BOMBER/BRIDGE BATTLE", a first person helmet cam film of a street race through NYC. I have been in my share of adrenalin fueled sprints through our fare city and the rush is not lost on me. However, putting pedestrians in danger is just lame. This movie made me angry, I wasn't feeling the velo love anymore. To my amazement I found myself actually hoping that these d-bags would be hit as the bulleted through crowded crosswalks into fast moving traffic. Then a thought came to me, "This is why people throw crap at me when I commute to work. This is why it's so hard for cyclists to get a foothold in our car based culture".

People work extremely hard at advocating for cyclists, getting bike lanes approved, changing laws and gaining acceptance, and when people see butt holes like these flying within inches of an old lady in the cross walk it nullifies the progress made.

Ok, rant almost over...

As I stewed in my seat, I hoped the next film would wash away some of this anger, I was wrong. The final film of the evening was "ANIMA D'ACCIAIO (SOUL OF STEEL)", A Portrait of the legendary Italian frame builder Giovanni Pelizzoli aka "Ciocc". This would have been a great cinematic experience had the hosts been paying any attention and realized that the top and bottom of all the films were cropped off. This was a problem for those who wanted to read the subtitles which were half on the screen and half off. So I stared at the nice Italian people imagining how interesting their insights were and how enjoyable their dialog would be to read.

Overlooking a rather careless film choice and a technical blunder the BFF was pretty cool and I will probably give it another chance if it comes back to DC.

Now to the cultural phenomenon of the evening: The Nesmith.

It wasn't a shock to see the hipsters out in droves at this event. The shock came when I saw several hipsters wearing heavy knit hats with the little pom pom on top, (aka "the Nesmith") made popular by The Monkeys' guitarist, Mike Nesmith .


Making the Nesmith Hipster look complete is the earth tone "well worn" flannel shirt seen above.

This particular Nesmith, (seen volunteering at the BFF DC) is sans flannel, but the pom pom on the knit hat worn just off the back of the head is a sure tell. I imagine the Nesmith Hipster goes dormant during the summer months only to return in late November when the temperature drops.

Although the Nesmith Hipster seems a rare find, I believe that because of the hipsters' knack for proliferation we will be seeing a dramatic increase in population in the coming months.

In the photo above, not only did I capture the illusive "Snarles Barkley", but a potential Nesmith. Notice the flannel and set back hat, unfortunately because of the camera angle we may never know if this hipster was a true Nesmith.

The Wednesday dance is your chance to do the hump...

My New BFF

I just got tickets to the DC Bicycle Film Fest and I am pretty pumped. As anyone who lives here knows the metro area (and the east coast for that matter) is pretty dry when it comes to main stream bike related happenings. Slowly, event promoters are warming to the DC area with the events like NAHBS coming to Richmond in February and smaller events like the BFF. Velocultre seems to be blossoming in DC and that's a good thing for everyone. As cyclists, we need to support these events when they show up, encouraging veloculture in our fair city. Now if we could only get the Tour de Fat to show up we'd really be legit.

Get your tickets online.