Public Notice
This week, Public Notice explores bike activism, the Y2K fallout, lesbians who lose their shoes, and so much more ...
By Kate X Messer, Fri., Jan. 14, 2000
I Am Bicycle (Yellow)
How you see your place on this planet and what you do with your limited duration on it has a lot to do with your perception of the ebb of time. Is it an ebb? A gigantic downward spiral? A large round thing? A circular swirl of learning and growth? A cyclical mess of recurring mistakes and travesties? A linear progression, surging ever forward into the future? How these perceptions alter your entire life's philosophy or world view is equally as tangled.
We bet the Yellow Bike Project (YBP) people see the world as a sturdy fat tire spinning on the fork of the frame of one cruisin' universe. You gotta think positive to do what they do. What do they do? Well, the Yellow Bikers perform the thankless, endless task of collecting and refurbishing donated bikes, painting them yellow, and placing them in the streets for public use -- free public use in one of the highest per capita bike theft locales in the U.S. of A. (see The Austin Chronicle "Stop Thief!" November 26). Think of them as Sisyphus with pedals.
Anyhooooo, the YBP is throwing a brainstorming party of sorts, a (re)Cycled Bike Conference, next weekend, Fri-Mon, Jan 21-24, inviting folks interested in bikes, community bike projects, public transportation issues, helping the environment, and meeting like-minded folks to come out and share ideas and create a network to network outside of Austin with other initiatives across the country. There will be workshops covering things like grant writing, fundraising, bike mechanics, welding, recycling parts, and youth bike programs. There will be a film festival, a YBP birthday celebration, and that ever-popular orgy of bike get-togethers world-over: the group ride. Ride wild and free, young bicycle patriots! 440-0471.
Y2K Took My Baby Away!
You took it all a little too seriously, didn't you? C'mon -- admit it, we're your friends. You bought into that whole Y2K thing, didn't you? Now, you're swimming in potable water and stubbing your toe on those cases of Heinz Baked Beans you scored from the international section of Fiesta, right? What's a gun-toting, sterno-sniffing doomsday predictor like you to do, now that the challenge of facing the real world is rearing its ugly once again? Well, you know our solution to everything: Give it away!
This month, until Mon, Feb 7, the Capital Area Food Bank is joining forces with those strapping hunks and lady hunks of the Austin Fire Department to collect your embarrassing remnants from Compound Paranoia. Do you really want to wait around to see if those Year 2525 expiration dates on your freeze-dried Army surplus chik'n 'n dump'lin's are telling the truth? Unload those preservatives! All 39 of Austin's fire stations will take that unfortunate stockpile off your hands during the Y Go 2 Waste Food Drive. Why, indeed? As indicated by the drive's name, CAFB is specifically interested in consumables; to recycle ammo, you are on your own: Our database of local paramilitary charities went down in a fit of Y2K. 282-2111, x106.
Quickies ...
