Tabling in Vegas! We’re a couple days into tour and I only have time for a quick update, though a few partial essays are waiting in the wings. My plan before we set out was to sit in the back seat and spend all our hours on the road writing. I did that for a […]
On the freeway, out of the cloud
Women, bikes, and the futon bike
Posted onI’m posting this mostly as an excuse for the photo. The article it goes with, profiling several women in Portland’s bike industry, is really nice as well, and worth a look. The article is in up and coming Portland online news source Neighborhood Notes. And it’s written by Melissa Reeser, a poet, blogger, and the […]
Creating a rural bike community
Posted onNevada City California: We woke up on a farm in the foothills of the Sierras to the sound of chickens and birds and the smell of vegan breakfast cooking.
Gotta keep moving
Posted on(Photo © Jonathan Maus) Yesterday was Sunday Parkways in southeast Portland—our neighborhood. I pedaled the 6.2 mile course with Joe in tow on our long dreamed-of Futon Bike. He was filming footage for his documentary. The entire way, people laughed, pointed, and yelled. In a friendly way. Mostly.
Bikenomics zine cover
Posted onMy house is full of friends cooking and eating. There’s an amazing pie, an adorable baby, and good conversation to be had. But I’m sitting here at the computer writing about how to internalize the externalities. I took a break to show you the front cover that Joe designed today. Wait til you see the […]
Dinner & Bikes Tour '011
Posted onWe’re heading out on tour next week. For the entire month of September, we’ll be driving around the western United States. Joe will show his inspiring short bike films, Joshua will serve up equally inspiring vegan food, and I’ll be talking about the bicycle economy. We’ll have books, zines, and movies for sale, a sort […]
Buddhist economics
Posted onThe writing process for my Bikenomics zine (it’s due out in two weeks!) keeps getting derailed by fascinating research avenues. Like this one: a 1955 paper on “Buddhist Economics” by economist E.F. Schumacher. It’s a simple argument for valuing humanity and dignity over goods and capital. The Buddhist point of view takes the function of […]
Quantifying Britain's bicycle economy
Posted onPashley made the bikes for the Royal Mail and now sells cargo-worthy commuters to the general public. (Photo: Elly Blue) Researchers from the London School of Economics have been looking into the bike economy, and have found it to be thriving.
Taking the Lane #4
Posted onA quick post because I really am too busy to blog. But wanted to show you all that one of the new zines went to press on Thursday. Joe sat down before breakfast and made the cover: You can go ahead and pre-order this one.
Taking back the streets, with books, by ...
Posted onPortland’s Street Books—a library on a cargo trike that serves readers who may not have a home, identification, or other welcoming access to books—has been in the news a lot lately. This charming video shows it well.
Biking big, thinking big
Posted onMy latest column over at Grist is about bicycling when you’re big. It was going to be quite a different piece. Krissy Durden, a Portlander and fat-acceptance activist (who publishes a zine on the topic called Figure 8) connected me with the woman featured in the column. Durden also gently steered me away from the […]
Protagonism and Horizontalidad
Posted onI’ve been reading A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit. Here’s an excerpt with some new words we could use around here, too. She’s talking about Argentina during its economic crisis a decade ago: “The 2001 meltdown created something akin to disaster’s sense of community. It was […]
Bicycle society in Jakarta
Posted onThis news report is a tantalizing look at cycling in Indonesia’s capitol and largest city. There’s a huge grassroots movement (the Bike to Work organization has 50,000 members) and a weekly ciclovia called Carfree Day, but people on bikes still need to contend with terrible traffic and a lack of bike infrastructure. Worth a watch.
Real books are just hotter
Posted onJust came across this sweet article by someone who works at one of the last big independent bookstores standing about the need to counter the seductive advertising of e-book readers and remind the world that real books are really freaking rad. His advice: Publishers should tantalize consumers by evoking books’ sensory pleasures: the smell; the […]