bicycle

South by Southwest 2019 (SXSW) Days 9 & 10: The End

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

The smorgasbord of music, movies, workshops and more is finally over. I’m relieved and still recovering, but I’ll also miss the creative energy. I won’t miss the lines, craziness on 6th street, scooters everywhere and long days trying to see as much as I could. There was a Day 10 but it was mostly for gaming (though I did attend the softball game and barbecue). In this post I’ll do mini-reviews of the remaining three films I caught and share my thoughts about what it all means.

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South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 Days 7 & 8: 3 Movies & 2 Bands

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

I’m sitting in the Elephant Room in downtown Austin, Texas at 10:45 on a Friday night, the second Friday of the huge conference and festivals, SXSW. It’s an underground jazz club — literally — it’s in the basement and named for the prehistoric mastodon fosssil in the stone wall. It’s in between the 40′ acts. Graham Reynolds and Golden Hornet just played his own compositions, a rock / jazz / classical hybrid with trombone, violin, standup bass, drums and him on keys. The cat can play. While people talk and drink, come and go, I decided to post this blog, or at least the beginnings of one.

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South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 Days 5 & 6 = Walking. Weird. Wonderful.

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

After two more days of seeing films and comedy at South by Southwest, and walking well over 10,000 steps per day as a volunteer and then participant, I’m even more exhausted than last week.  But it’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time to tell y’all (who actually are reading this blog) what’s the big deal about SXSW. In addition to telling, I’ll do some showing. Continue reading →

South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 Day 1: A Dude Abikes Meets Yoga With Adriene!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

South by Southwest (SXSW), the annual, huge, internationally-famous smorgasbord at the intersections of technology, creativity, business, and more began today in Austin, Texas. After four days volunteering for the educational conference (SXSW EDU), I was already exhausted. But having mostly earned my free platinum all-access badge, I wasn’t going to sit home all day and miss out. Although I got a slow start, I found my way downtown (by bicycle, of course) to join the festivities. Herein is my report.

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My Recent Bike Riding: Stats and Feelings

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

After a number of bike news posts, it’s time for a personal update. This blog is meant to educate, inform, inspire and motivate. But it is also to shine a light on one bicyclist’s journey (literal and figurative), not just the good, but also the bad and ugly. Regarding the latter, lately the engine room has not been firing on all cylinders. But truth be told, it’s been that way since I can remember, just different degrees.

As I recently told a fellow rider on Strava, “I’m only as good as last night’s sleep.” Since that generally isn’t great, my biking suffers accordingly. There are plenty of reasons for that, and while some are under my control, most are not. So I do my best. The question is what to do about it, besides the obvious: stop blogging late at night and do what those celebrities like Jennifer Garner said in hilarious videos of a book with the same title: “Go the F*(& to Sleep!” However, if I did that, you wouldn’t have anything to read.

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My New Bicycling Magazine Is Here! My New Bicycling Magazine Is Here!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

Not since Navin Johnson (played by Steve Martin) got overly jazzed about the arrival of the new phone books in The Jerk (a film I’ve referenced as recently as my post Jerks in Cars Messing Up My Bike Rides) has a printed and bound document been quite so anticipated and well-received. Well, maybe that’s kind of a little bit of a possible smidgen or a skosh of hyperbole. Sure, when I became a member of the League of American Bicyclists, and Bicycling was was offered as a perq, I was glad to hear it. Just not jumping around shouting it to the whole street glad — only to my blog readers. Anyway, after four long months of anticipation, the last four weeks or so have brought incessant emails from the publisher but not actual magazine, it finally arrived. Let’s take a look under the hood.

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Austin Bike News Roundup for February 18, 2019

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 1 Comment

There is always something happening related to bicycles in my little world, but there have been a number of bike-related headlines around the city in recent days.  On this day of closed post offices due to the 40 or so men who have resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, here are the stories that caught A Dude’s eye:

  • Keep Austin Weird:  Man charged with assault after Sixth Street fight with pedicab driver, police say (February 17, Austin American-Statesman)
  • Fortunately, he survived:  Man injured in bicycle crash in downtown Austin (same as above)
  • The investigation into the death of Anthony John Diaz, killed after apparently getting run over by a bus, continues: UT Austin police seeking Good Samaritan witness to fatal crash (February 13, 2019 KXAN News)
  • Former resident, cancer patient, and guy who did some other bike-related stuff:  Lance Armstrong becomes ‘charity chaser’ for Austin Marathon (February 14, KXAN News)
  • For a bonus, although happening 11 days ago and is slightly out of town in Burnet, Texas:  2019 FIRST CHAIR ALERT: Spider Mountain Bike Park Opening Day (February 4)
Let’s dive into the details, shall we?

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Jerks in Cars Messing Up My Bike Rides

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

There’s alot of bike stuff happening in Austin, Texas.  Woom Bikes, which is a company that makes bicycles for children, is having a big event this weekend.  The City of Austin is starting a roll-out to provided dockless bikes and scooters with special parking “boxes” to try to get them out of harm’s way.  Next weekend is the Texas Bicycle Advocate Summit organized by Bike Texas, with people coming from Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.  Yours truly was offered to attend as a representative of Bike Austin.  The next day is Cyclists in Suits, where riders go to members of the Texas Legislature to promote better safety for bike riders.  That night will be the Pedicab Parade, with a marching band playing from the pedicabs.  Check back here for news and views you can use next week.  But meanwhile, I want to talk about an important subject:  jerks.

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Ride of Silence to Ghost Bike for Anthony John Diaz: ¡Presente!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

Today was a somber occasion, the ride to remember Anthony John Diaz, run over by a bus on January 28th.  I’ve been on a few of these now and it both causes me literal grief, not to mention that another senseless, needless, horrible death of a person on a bike who was doing the right thing simply pisses me off.  For some reason, a city bus driver ran over and killed a person riding a bicycle.  We don’t know yet if she was overworked, high on drugs or booze, hated cyclists, or what.  The place it happened is one I ride a lot and was due to be fixed years ago, but wasn’t.

Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living. 

— Mother Jones

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