As the nightshades slowly filter into a new, temporary Bushwick layer for the Fall, we have been looking to learn about the Brooklyn spots (hidden or hot), meet new rad people who love bikes and I think this Tour de Taco is just the thing! Going down on October 9th at 11am under the Grand Army Plaza Arch, Brooklyn. RSVPs are open, but limited to 75!
What a great way to welcome Namtron into the city!!? Tocos and Bikes!
Big Red, Namtron, Cannibal Vixen and MegO will see you there!
A hero of mine passed away on Sunday. Wangari Maathai died of breast cancer at the age of 71. She is a real life Jonny Apple Seed, planting trees, ideas and inspiration in the hearts of millions.
"Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice."- Greenbelt Website
Plants are the source of wealth. Not the stupid autistic stock market. Not balanced spreadsheets. Not subsidies and banks. That's a new contrived system that's only about 500 years old.
Plants are older then time and the workhorses of the planet. Evolutionary wise, we owe plants everything, as turned a hostile environment of carbon, methane and gaseous turmoil into a livable planet to support the evolution of life. If you are a creationist, it's one of the first things God created and called good. Plants turn the energy from the sun into energy we can use to eat, make into into electricity, and in the process creates the air we breath. Forests hold together the soil, put water back into the air along with oxygen, cooling the atmosphere through transpiration. Green makes you happy and relaxed. Being in nature heals the soul calms the mind.
I'd like to see a balanced budget spreadsheet do THAT. [That was for you, Mr. Harper and Rob Ford.]
The world is getting so crazy and complicated we are forgetting the basics.
Wangari was great because she recognized that the solution for complicated issues can come from simple truths... Plant a tree. She didn't listen when others said she was crazy. She spoke and lived her truths, and was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. Read more here in this New York Times article from 2004.
She did it out of love for her fellow women, love of children, love of this planet, a love of the future. Greatness and strength come out of love, not fear, power or greed. Looking around the world it seems a lot of us have forgotten this.
Do yourself a favour and plant something in her memory. I'm in NYC and I'm not sure how and where to do this, but it's going to happen. Greatness lives on in the hearts and actions of the future. For our future, do the simplest thing and be a Jonny Apple Seed. Or as Wangari said, be a humming bird.
Exciting times as I got to represent the Nightshades at Interbike 2011, as a contributing artist to the ARTCRANK exhibit. Pretty happy being kept in the company of Chris Piascik & Farizwan Fajari, among so many other fantastic artists! Next year I'll have to get down there myself!
So DNS is currently coastal in the USA. With Big Red & Meg-O in the big apple, Namtron & I were just in Portland, OR.... and instantly fell in love. From Biketobeerfest at HUB Brewery, to actually running into CarrieBrownstein (HA), to Zoobomb. Oh man. Zoobomb.
Zoobombing is officially the new favourite sport of the Nightshades (forget polo - although East Van’s Medal to the Pedal was quite fun). Imagine riding transit inside of a mountain with your bike (the weirder the better, or a pile of mini bikes are available for anyone who failed to bring their own). Then ascending in an elevator to a park high above the city, where you arrive at the Portland Zoo, and proceed to trek to an undisclosed location in the middle of that lush pitch black park. Once there you make a ton of new friends, hang around for a while, thennnn....
....BOMB EN MASSE THE BEST HILL OF YOUR LIFE. It’s a neverending stream of blinking red tail lights, yelling, unlit switch backs through Washington Park, the surrounding neighbourhoods, and back into the downtown - where you hop back on transit and do it all over again.
We also witnessed the first night of Zooprom - where this is done in party dresses.
Dear Portland - You were exactly what we expected you to be, and way way better. (maybe minus that weird mime clown who executed an awkward acrobatics routine to a remix of Rammstein. Not okay Portland, not okay....)
So far Cat and I have taken over NYC with a storm of seafoam glitter.
It's been like a combination of this:
(Woop! Anyone else spot the Cog sticker on the door? Good authenticity there set designer.)
and this
and a bit of this
Last night we went to a Chrome Party at their rad rad store after visiting both Kaight Boutique for a Prairie Underground trunk show and then the Polo Pit.
So the last Style Spin for the year is upon us, and we're going out with a bang! So much so, the BBC has decided to ride along with us (!!!).
So, meet us this Friday, on the patio of the Drake Hotel at 6pm for cheap Mill St. beers & free give aways from Atelier & Levi's Commuter Denim. Then we ride en masse at 7pm for a behind the scenes look into the best of Parkdale - including Carte Blanche, Vintage 69's concept store 'V', & private screenings of Stylist Desire Kaniki's motion editorials.
Then we spin back to the Drake Underground to dance the night away. As usual.
Also, in the spirit of stylish riding and all things Nightshades - Check out these rad photos friend & photographer Nathan Mills snapped of us a little while ago. (And, yes i rode in those shoes...)
