Subject: 11th birthday: berkeley critical mass :::'##::::::'##::: :'####::::'####::: :.. ##::::.. ##::: ::: ##:::::: ##::: ::: ##:::::: ##::: ::: ##:::::: ##::: :'######::'######: :......:::......:: This Friday is the 11th anniversary of Berkeley Critical Mass. No definitive enhancements of festivities have been announced -- but anything can happen! At the very least, it's bring your bike, running shoes, rolling shoes, or whizzychair, a gleefull wish for the wind in your hair, and a potluck bring your own cup and spoon affair. Flashing lights -- they delights. In past years we've had all kinds of amazing festivities including many a car pińata and bicycle birthday cake. Last year our tenth anniversary coincided perfectly with the dedication of the bridge to the marina (another ten-year project!) and we had a dance party on the bridge, forming a cabaret line swinging legs up over the car rooftops as bike lights waved to Parliament's "Flashlight." Divine... Some ideas... Stage a bicycle marriage? Obviously the next step after same sex marriage. Hopefully queer power can save that ailing institution but if not...why not wed the world with GEAR POWER! (Okay, i'm silly but...this could be as big as Councilmember Olds' bicycle-only cellphone ban! 8)p Uhm, some of you may care that the Anarchist Café is that night (it's often said that CM is an anarchist event, quite a complement for such a disorganized coincidence). We could take the Bay Bridge over...right? Oh wait, the Clog the Highway Petrol might object. Consensus, please! Or else, put it to a vote. HAHA, we outnumber them! Um, and, there's talk on some local transport advocacy group lists of hosting the fifth Towards Carfree Cities conference here in Berkeley or elsewhere in the Bay Area (a year from now; the next one, IV, is July 19-24, Berlin). But internationally, there are complaints about how hard it is to get into this country and how expensive it is for many around the world. Someone in Montreal has offered. Near Mexico City was suggested. Vancouver? Get movin' if you care to host it! http://www.worldcarfree.net/ But just in that spirit...how about we do something really dramatically and wonderfully carfree? Liiiike.....all ride our bikes around town in an inspiring, fresh air, breezy, uplifting, free feeling demonstration of how great a two-wheeled people-power-friendly world can be. Last year I suggested we move the anniversary to April, the first daylight ride. That was pretty well rejected by those who commented, as I recall! :) Just thought I'd mention it again. Hmm, on second thought. I once put off my own li'l birthday six months because I was working so hard on the Bay Bridge equal access campaign and all the rest that I didn't have time to sleep let alone do justice to the li'l pile of presents family members sent...the party was attended by other members of the illustrious Bay Bridge six but a high-strung ex-housemate went bonkers and broke a glass door, then called the police. And gosh I'd gotten permission from him to have a quiet dinner party (which it was) until 11 PM! The cops came into my apartment and kicked me out on my birthday! No joke! Okay, scratch the idea of moving the party. Ha! ;> Can you say chronic post-traumatic stress syndrome, folks? What do we have to do to build a world based on love and kisses not shoves and pissers? Besides, there's a reason it was on Int'l Women's Day and I like the dark and hope it rains too so I don't have to lug all those water balloons and water pistols to the ride. 'Nuff said. Someone on the ride last fall that went out to the ebony-water-encircled and full-moon-lit end of the Emeryville Marina pier (where there was dancing to James Brown with Tiki Lanterns on the sound system trailer, no less) had an interesting idea...she enthusiastically offered to organize a scavenger hunt to a keg party...although the idea hasn't to my knowledge attained "fruitation" yet. But really the biggest thing to my mind is to let people know about the ride. Is it too late to form an ad hoc outreach committee? No! Go wild! Even better have your own meeting invite the pope and a bar of soap let the air run through your hair give it gumption on your humpschwinn feel the cow begin to plow rain in daisy this poem cwaaaazy. Hal? Jason. speaking of whom... so massaz, it's our birthday this friday. how does it feel to be a pre-pubescent 11-year-old? ever miss the terrible two's? i've heard confirmation that this ride will be "spectacular," although no tangible evidence of cake or other glittery accoutrements has been received by this agent. nor am i aware of any determined outreach campaign to share the gift of the mass with those ailing and unenlightened ones fumbling in the great massless night. an early heads-up to various interested parties (over a month ago) turned up at least one indoor location and some outdoor party destination spots, including a new one the ride has never been to. these possibilities live on... there was a monday night meeting which was good, despite its short notice -- and participants pledged to revive the glorious days of "Monday Night Bike Action" meetings. being cautious, we're just doing them once a month, not every week, to begin. the monday before berkeley mass is the day -- next one is monday, april 5, au coquelet café, 9 pm. it's an organic affair; hang out, talk about life, dream up ideas, maybe even actualize on to realize some of them. that night is a full moooooon ride so the potential for an after-meeting howlin' soar is palpable and present. presents!? birthdays! how can you go wrong? and finally...on a sad note...it appears we've lost a friend and champion of the movement based in toronto, who had visited the bay area (some of you might recall): tooker gomberg. tooker gave a great deal and evidently took his life recently. gee, who would get depressed trying to do something good for this world? the gray menace strikes again. i hope at least part of this ride will be in the spirit of remembering and celebrating his life, the street theatre he loved, the high-profile campaigns he undertook. a memorial discussion is here: http://www.planetfriendly.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=19 Here are some of his words announcing a recent video piece he produced: > On Saturday Nov. 1 we took part in the national Stop Esso day in > Canada, and put together a quirky little film about what happened. In > "Barking for Clean Air" you'll see: > > - people fuming at Esso, > - a cop telling us it takes energy to make our bikes, > - a special appearance by an Esso lawyer > > Download "Barking for Clean Air" at: > http://static.zed.cbc.ca/users/k/Kairos/files/stop-esso-web.mov and another about Buy Nothing Day: > check it out at: > http://static.zed.cbc.ca/users/k/Kairos/files/BND.mov > > And find out more about Buy Nothing Day at: > http://www.adbusters.org > > And if you're in Halifax be sure to join us at our > Free Street Party > Friday, 6 pm > Spring Garden Rd and South Park St. carbusters has the below short article remembering him: http://carbusters.org/ Canadian Activist Tooker Gomberg Presumed Dead: High-profile environmental and cycling activist Tooker Gomberg took his life on the early morning hours of Friday, March 5 in Halifax, Canada. Some readers will remember his articles in Car Busters magazine, or his "Greenspiration" tour of the world with his wife Angela Bischoff. Gomberg founded one of Canada's first curbside recycling programs in Montreal and headed Edmonton's EcoCity Society. He was also elected to and served on Edmonton city council and cut a colourful figure as executive director of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters. In 2000 Gomberg took on Toronto incumbent mayor Mel Lastman, in a mayoral campaign filled with humour and publicity stunts. Gomberg became famous for his vociferous and unconventional sense of political theatre. Last spring, he was arrested at a rally protesting the war in Iraq when he used a megaphone without a permit. In 2002, he was dragged out by police from Toronto's Empire Club after shouting down Alberta Premier Ralph Klein during the premier's speech on why Alberta doesn.t like the Kyoto accord. He organised a group of protesters who threw pennies at the head of Imperial Oil during the company's annual general meeting to make the point it would cost only pennies per share to reduce greenhouse gases. Gomberg.s term on Edmonton city council was marked by his advocacy of bicycling. He once aggravated his fellow councillors by chaining his bike to Edmonton's new City Hall. Environmental groups in Halifax, Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton are planning memorials for him. As one activist wrote, "May he rest in peace. Or continue to disturb the peace... That would be fitting." Police believe that Gomberg, who friends said had long battled depression, jumped off Halifax's Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, leaving a helmet and a bicycle behind. As of March 8, his body had not been found. He was 48 years old. ~~~~ >From someone on the EBBC-TALK list: > Tooker was a high profile activist in Canada who > successfully used direct action techniques to advance > the cause for bicycling. My favorite story that I > have told several times is that of his fighting the > bike ban on the Montreal metro by taking successively > larger and larger things legally onto the metro, > culminating in a full size folding ladder. This > showed the authorities the absurdity of the ban and it > was reversed. One of the items they carried through was a full-size painting of a bicycle on cardboard. Tooker with a big smile: "Is *this* okay?" Tooker miming station agent, shaking head energetically: "Oh yes, that's fine!" >From the same person on the EBBC-TALK list: > I met Tooker at the Break The Gridlock conference a > few years back and found his breakout session to be > incredibly inspirational. He and his wife, Angela Bischoff, kept this website of thir travels by wheel around the world collecting and sharing inspiring stories of ecological success: http://www.greenspiration.org/ His death is a great loss. jason