Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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04/09/2010: "Hammerin' to the Hammer...."
Last night was "Bike Night" at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, just a couple of blocks from UCLA's main entrance and actually at what is one of the busiest intersections in the world, Wilshire and Westwood, a grinding chaos of nervous sheet metal lumps vying for lane space, but one in which bicycles seem to coexist quite nicely for the most part. The Hammer does this every year, assisted by the LACBC, which also provided the bike valet service--much appreciated in a city with a severe paucity of safe spots to park a bike!Gina's iPhone video here shows just one small segment of the bike parking--this part was in the museum atrium itself where the event took place--with hundreds of dozens of bikes and hundreds of riders milling around, eating the (free!) vegan food provided, talking, drinking, listening to the bands and DJs, and wandering off upstairs to view the museum's collections--or play ping-pong at the table set up by the giant picture windows overlooking the Westwood street scene!
The big event was going to be a screening of the iconic Pee Wee Herman film, which we passed on. But we much enjoyed the Van Goghs, Gauguins, Rembrandts, Fantin-Latours, et al that we found in one gallery--and the spirit on the floor, with hordes of happy cyclists, friends to meet, and some pretty damn good music playing, was delightful...as was the food, of course; we rather made pigs of ourselves, I admit....
Below are Gina's iPhone shots of the main party floor and the overflow bike parking in the loading dock--where I couldn't help making the eyeball calculation that a hundred or more bikes were grouped where there might have been room for eight cars, and where we ran into the LACBC's Dorothy Le, who is spearheading the 4th Street Bicycle Boulevard lobbying effort to which yer editor is making a modest contribution.
The ride home, on quiet streets--even Santa Monica Boulevard was quiet last night--and through a soft velvet dusk, was as delightful as the fun and fellowship, and it was a particularly wonderful evening to be riding a bicycle in Los Angeles....
