war is green

A slideshow celebration of cycling a la familia, from the family-biking-obsessed folks here at totcycle and our friends/inspirations from Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and Eugene. Soundtrack from Vancouver, BC.

It's how we roll in the Pacific Northwest.

Viewing tip: fullscreen it (expand button in lower right), the resolution on Vimeo is surprisingly good. And tuuurn it up! Thanks so much to all who contributed photos.

Speak!

2010-01-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

Pickled Cauliflower

2009-12-14T21:52:00.001-08:00

Pickled Cauliflower,
originally uploaded by warutledge.

I'm going to miss these mornings, if they end.

2009-12-14T21:46:00.001-08:00

I'm going to miss these mornings, if they end.,
originally uploaded by warutledge.

pretty much everything i need.

Farmers Markets Food Stamps = WIN

2009-12-01T16:10:00.001-08:00

In the midst of discussions over "food deserts" (areas of town with no access to fresh groceries, usually poor urban neighborhoods) comes news that a program creating food stamps for farmers markets is booming in New York City. read more http://www.planetizen.com/node/41842

2009-11-06T17:32:00.001-08:00

Underfoot you can feel the sexual frustration of what the Presidio has now become. What seems like millions of pine cones, closed tight and hard litter the ground. There has been no heat, passion, to open them up. These trees don't belong here and this forest is dying.

Candied apple: tricks or treats?

2009-11-02T11:36:00.001-08:00

When I was 5 or 6 the already spooky house on the block gave out apples like these. It added to the mystique. I remember being told we couldn't eat it due to the chance of an embedded razor.

Muni Fare inspectors

2009-09-17T16:44:00.001-07:00

I'm curious if you're asking the right question. Should we be asking how to catch people doing something wrong or brainstorming how to do something better?

From the comments here, most are trying to catch kids near schools. Kids pay less than half the fare price. Are they really contributing to muni's operational budget woes? I'm not so sure, considering how many carry monthly passes given by parents, making the point of entry moot.

Should we be asking how we can make rapid entry at any door a viable option? People use the rear door on crowded buses because passengers have yet to realise how to move to the back of the bus.

Over crowding buses is dangerous to passengers and other drivers limitting the bus drivers visibilty. It adds time at each stop, slowing the bus down, delaying it. Maybe TFIs could better train drivers to maintain their schedule and safety. Buses might not crowd and jam together.

This is not to say that TFIs should be dismissed. We still need the possible deterent of having a fare checked. I'm just saying we shouldn't be eager to hunt witches when the problem lies elsewhere.

SF 2 Honalulu via iPhone Map

2009-07-11T18:11:00.001-07:00

SF 2 honalulu Step 15: Kayak

Now ask yourself why you have to drive to Seattle first.

Oldest Farmers Mkt in CA

2009-06-20T11:44:00.001-07:00

And Peter

Fabrica de jabones

2009-06-17T18:20:00.001-07:00

HIV benefit

2009-06-13T16:11:00.001-07:00

Frzn

2009-06-10T13:06:00.001-07:00

Up

2009-06-04T12:34:00.001-07:00

one good gift for two

2009-05-30T22:11:00.001-07:00

wedding bouquet

2009-05-25T13:17:00.001-07:00

so down

2009-05-19T21:48:00.001-07:00

Posted via Pixelpipe.

17th St Work in Progress

2009-05-12T12:54:00.001-07:00

Posted via Pixelpipe.

17th St Work in Progress

2009-05-11T07:05:00.001-07:00

Posted via Pixelpipe.

chilangas

2009-05-02T11:45:00.001-07:00

hasta la torta

Posted via Pixelpipe.

library ride

2009-05-02T11:21:00.001-07:00

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Snarky

2009-04-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

A quick response to a ridiculous, misguided "article" by Max Shulz, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on Campus Greening:

Interesting article. I wonder how a Facilities and Operations Department for a particular university would regard a stipulation for campus management to include improving energy access to sub-Saharan Africa. For a department concerned with grounds keeping, waste management, and campus energy, perhaps they are missing their mark. Surely neo conservative mentality would approve of domestic investment of crippling technology in developing countries. No one in Europe would purchase old tech, and thankfully the U.S. seems to be catching up, if I interpret correctly the importance of this issue to universities, as laid out by Mr. Schulz.

Regardless, the impact of millions of people turning onto coal energy for the first time because there were no earlier adopters to lower the cost of alternative technology obviously has everything to do with the way a U.S. institution runs its business, be it education or producing widgets.

Also, while I'm being snarky, could you provide some information on your so called panel of experts evaluating the globe as a whole? You've called out pillars of sustainable intellect, such as Darryl Hannah, a force to be reckoned with, but nothing about this Copenhagen Consensus, a program the Economist Magazine called questionable.

Aside: I think I attempted to respond to this article once before, but it was never posted in the comments, hence a blurb here, out of place for me.

RC- What?

2009-04-30T08:26:00.001-07:00

climate best by government test.

Posted via Pixelpipe.

office blues

2009-04-14T17:47:00.001-07:00

someone else might find it degrading to be set up in the blueprints & planning

Posted via Pixelpipe.

IMG_0330

2009-04-13T01:35:00.001-07:00

Posted via Pixelpipe.

corn d. cobber

2009-04-13T01:20:00.001-07:00

Posted via Pixelpipe.

nervous

2009-03-31T03:30:00.001-07:00

she had me at code.
long before i saw dawn through
her eyes down my road,
and i felt guilty
adrift not to savour, sleep
and the tremble.
contradiction not balance,
or something similar, my words
her lips, in the dark, regardless
of nature.
she had me long before that.

Much like the songbirds, I prefer the museum than City Hall

2009-03-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

taunting

2009-03-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

this room was inspiring

2009-03-09T01:27:00.001-07:00

three dollar bills

2009-03-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

I still remember the night my uncle in charleston played the pedal steel for me. it was the first time i had met him, and he also introduced me to the texas tornados that night. i felt like i had a lot of learnin' to catch up on, and i was only 9. maybe 11. just being from texas wasn't nearly enough. maybe that was something he said.

the kitchen was being rebuilt. uncle ed shot it up with a shot gun when he caught a burglar coming in the back door. everything but the kitchen got away. i spent the rest of the night with heavy pipe pluckin' twangy strings under a shop light on an orange extension cord. i remember sleeping poorly on a cold leather sofa. i thought leather sofas were dumb. i've carried that distain for leather sofas for twenty years.

i like that in my release from structured education i return to photography and poetry. amid books on soil, dirt, and better ways to move people. little shards of silver, words, bicycles, feet. i picked up a book of poems by galway kinnell. i'm sure i saw there, months ago, that old price scratched and halved in pencil. perhaps it was over a year ago when i passed it up for something else.

i'm glad a march for equality, that started in the same spot more than thirty years prior, lead me to it. and a taco. and that street is called church. my church. if only it had better whiskey.

2009-02-21T15:32:00.001-08:00

Buildings Perú

2009-02-09T12:37:00.001-08:00

Perú has changed drastically in the 10 years since I've been here. At the same time, there are many things that remain exactly the same. I took this photo before, the only perceivable difference is the color and format, previously in B&W Ilford.

I am convinced that all buildings here share the exact same design, apart from a few modern buildings and the poorest of the pueblos jovenes, which are mere cardboard. A cement frame is poured with vertical columns spaced 12 feet apart and 10 feet high. This is then filled with brick. The result is building after building of rectangular framed homes, the more elaborate of which have stuccoed or plastered the brick over for a finer touch.

Most buildings have rebar sticking up from the vertical columns, as if they are in anticipation of an additional floor. This applies to single story structures as well as 10 story complexes. This does not mean that there are not inhabitants in lower levels, nor is this only poverty level homes. The same phenomenon occurred at a newly constructed University.

Windows seem to come largely in nearly a floor to ceiling fashion. Generally, giant rectangles are cut out of the street-facing wall in two story buildings. In some instances this area is recessed 2 feet, leaving an odd, cubbyhole birdhouse appearance.

It's all very odd.

Give us your cold, wet huddled Xmas Trees

2009-01-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

Tree Burn - This year, the police chose to drink what appeared to be beers and watch from atop the dunes. I aimed a camera at them from our perch 10 feet below, at which point they pointed their flashlights at us. Aside from a raging bonfire of christmas trees and sparkler poi, it all went off relatively uneventful. The encore sparkler poi barely turned heads, no thank yous. Was there another one after that?

The most entertaining I felt was watching two girls, somehow the children of Prometheus and Sisyphus, one named after my cat and probably of the same age. They attempted to steal fire, for some reason only known to the South. A few yards away, Aeolus would again punish the hybrid children. Eventually, I wondered if they would learn futility. During a pause, I almost approached, and asked if they'd learned a lesson. Much as I continued to feed my fat cat Twyla, They began again. Futility, Lost?

A slow to motivate mass begrudgingly procured tree bits from a late coming truck, and even I scooped an armful of the wet remains of this Christmas past. More than once I looked up into the night sky and was thankful we need not spare the air. Then the thoughts of creosote. Does it ever stop?

We left the blazing flames in search of ship. Bad Vibes Bob's single mast bay sailor the Sweet Mae turned up beyond a forlorn trio of found art. A lover longed for a love longing for a parting pillar. Mae, too, was broken and may have broken one of us. We did find evidence of a dream weaver's predecessor, however.

After much exploration and talk of shattered toes, we scrounged for sand dollars on our way back to the Pyre. Something about a Sand Dollar Menu item. I didn't even get any broken sand dollar dime change.

In the end, we posted sentries in a battle of Elements. Fire braved Water, won a skirmish or three. It may have won against Time, in the end, but we left a Bacchus Passer-by to witness the final blows. Metal, too, played a part. We removed the remains of Christmas Wreaths, wiry skeletons intent on haunting sharks and other fine fish. Reel after Reel, braving the chance of charred hand and eye. Eventual, in this, we succeeded. This, we deposited next to a nearly full trash can on the Great Highway. I wondered how little trash along side a bin would be enough to deter the Scavenger. You see, they don't collect from bins that aren't completely contained. They file a motion for the City remove it. DPW, ironically.

What? It wasn't all that Greek, honestly. Really, it was quite plain. Ordinary. For us.

2009-01-05T01:07:00.000-08:00

2008-08-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

In the hurricane of life, as a friend put it, we struggle to maintain the eye. In lieu of such an early season in the Gulf of Mexico, this may not be a good metaphor, however poignant it may be. Immediately, however, I must digress.

I remember 8th grade, 1990. Bill Clements' parody campaign ad I designed for Social Studies (including pop-out bobble head [I was pro-Richards]), Desert Storm, and meeting my friend Teddy in Earth Sciences that first day of class, poking him in head as I blamed him for something we both did. Sometimes they ask when I went Left, and I ask in response, When wasn't I?

What I remember most frequently, however, is the discussion in that Science class of hurricane season. Back then, in Texas, the season was yet to begin. September was the real month storms began to take hold in the Gulf, and the occasional down pour would only result that green-grey sky on rare occasion. In other words, we had time at the middle and end of August to discuss the natural occurrence that is hurricane.

Today, some nearly 20 years later, I think, beyond how old I am, I think, didn't I just see a storm begin with H just last week? Have we really gone 'round the alphabet already? Did K, K, the middle, hit before Sept 1st not 3 years ago? With all these audacious questions all a-tumult, I know climate change. Not in any scientific sense, but in shear subjective memory.

Had those long-ago events occurred today, would I still hold an old friendship dear? Would our English teacher's hair still have maintained the same helmet that eventually brought about the bonding of mutual ridicule?

Climate change. Ann Richards. If only I had been more active, a few years later, at 17. I do remember the regret I felt at being too young to vote, and the beginning of my recognition of voter apathy in my friends.

Perhaps later I will discuss tonights true origin of the hurricane analogy. Until then, I will only state that it was a night full of beauty. The people present to help shut down to cars park-deprived streets, depressed poetess celebrating her birth, artists pushing up against society, deranged friends hanging on to bath tubbed plants for dear life, early morning gifts of bliss, labored unity, skittish kittens clamouring for pettin's, fermented grains, cured plant leaves, zero waste.

Tonight, we are the eyes of the storms. Perhaps, yet, we are the change. Too bad I prefer the Freak Power.

sundays in sco

2008-08-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

i went over to blue bottle with dicky the other day to buy some coffee 'cause i'm not really happy with the beans i've been getting by my house. the castro cheesery makes a descent espresso, but their fair trade fair has left me less than satisified. goldilocks had an easier time with porridge, but i'm already sold on grits.

it was a sunday afternoon, sunny and still warm. some kids set up shop across linden alley from blue bottle, little boy and his sister, about 10ish. i thought they had a lot of gall, or some big...well, nevermind.

i noticed her first, but the boy came from inside. he seemed to be the one running the show. she just took care of the jug while he was away.

i got schooled on coffee by an extremely cute girl. she refused to grind my beans, and told me sunday afternoon was not a good time to buy coffee, slim selection. i was happy with the transaction, though. i so happened to be reading and interested in what she claimed was her favourite, the one from papa new guinea. since they don't grow coffee here in the states, and the locals in papa ng sound like real activists, i went with it.

i really wanted the chiapas beans. once upon a time i dreamt i'd volunteer for the red cross in chiapas, meet marcos, and perhaps smuggle guns or hearts in a red cross ambulance. one day, subcomandante, un dia.

we were about to have a cigarette, when i thought we'd need something refreshing, so i got us some lemonade.

i gave the kid a dollar for two tiny cups of fresh lemonade, about the size of a jello shot. i think they were the orangey lemons, i forget their name. meyers, or something. it was 25 cents for 3 cups, but we're big tippers.

dicky claimed that this was what america was about, smaller guy setting up shop across from a small guy. we used to take up coffee as our product of debate in the free market v. social responsibility talks.

Unfortuantely, it seems it's only in SF that a small guy, such as Philz, sets up shot in the midst of Starbucks stomping ground. However, SB is usually hopping at 6am when I trundle off to work. I still make the extra block down and back. Not only does Phil have a better cup, but it's small and local. And it's just me, the barrista marcus, and the cumbia he plays.

so, dicky was about to dump his cup in the dumpster in the alley when i remembered the kid said he had a trash can. sure enough, he had a bag full of tiny, crushed paper cups.

i asked him if he was going to compost those cups

he looked confused, and replied "compost?"

i said, yeah, compost. these are compostable.

he said, "yeah, sure"

i told him, just put it in the green bin

he said "ok"

i walked away and lit my cigarette

my friend and i walked over to the hayes valley park, watched a girl with amazing breasts throw something away, and listened to a young wife bitch at her husband for taking too long to eat some hamburger. i can't tell if i'm better off being single and eating a burger in peace, or just lucky i'm not married to that woman.

later, i stopped in to see about some absinthe lollipops at miette, picked up some nice cold cuts at golden, and a small sourdough loaf at urban bread.

all in all, it was a good day, despite getting distracted watching tv in gta. i won't get the loaf again, and the lollies sound difficult to get. they sell out within a day, and batches are few and far between.

if anyone's got some home brew out there, i'm lookin for a little green lightning.

2008-02-04T19:22:00.001-08:00

http://rawketscience.blogspot.com/2006/08/green-smoothie-recipes.html