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Environmentally Friendly Electric Bicycle

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a2b_silver_6002I imagine carrying fresh produce on the back of my new electric bike with the Mediterranean Sea on the horizon. My new futuristic ride feels old school, as if I’m riding small, easy streets.  “Arrivederci!”  “Halo!” I hear zipping past a “marketplace.” But I’m really riding in grimy, urban sprawl Brooklyn, and actually hearing, “Yo! that’s a cool bike. What is it?”

Truckers’ heads pop out looking down from the high beds of their trucks at me in the bicycle lane, and give me a thumbs up. (Much more courteous than the usual exchange.) Strangers on the street, from every walk of life, cycling and motorcycling enthusiasts, and people of all ages seem extra curious about it. The cops don’t know what it is, as I roll accidently through a red light, and think it might test them.

I did say bicycle lane. This little cat goes 20 mph, not fast enough to keep up with the 30 mph speed limit that motorized vehicles in NYC are allowed. I judiciously ride in the bike lanes. ”It’s a bicycle, it’s a bicycle, it’s a bicycle,” says Zach Schieffelin of McCarren Motors in Greenpoint, “don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.” What, of course, makes it so appealing is that it uses no gas and is completely environmentally friendly, cleaner, a cost saver, and can be taken indoors. It also requires no license. It just needs to be charged up about every 20 miles by plugging it into a standard household outlet. It’s too heavy to carry up stairs at 70 lbs, but conveniently fits into my building’s lobby.

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North Brooklyn Bands Invade Barcelona

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img_3463Seeing Vivian Girls, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Crystal Stilts on the same bill might not seem like such a big deal in Brooklyn, but when all three bands are playing to thousands of Catalunyas, 500 yards from the Mediterranean Sea, people get excited. While jaded hipsters might cry, “Ugh, I just saw Crystal Stilts last week at Don Hill’s,” which the band, whose stock has been rising over the past year, did just recently play, one cannot deny the power of seeing a local band whose buzz is skyrocketing, play on a big stage with smoke machines and strobe lights, et al. Fact of the matter is that three of North Brooklyn’s most impressionable acts were picked by indie-tastemaker and stage curator, Pitchfork, to play back-to-back-to-back on Friday afternoon in Barcelona.

Having recently seen both The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the Mercury Lounge and Crystal Stilts at the Shank, a warehouse venue in Greenpoint, it was practically beyond my scope to even think about seeing each of these bands on a large stage with a big crowd. However, once in the moment, my skepticism went the way of the dodo, as each band had total command over the audience, making the best of their late afternoon sets, though each is probably better suited for darkness.

From the looks of it, the audience, which packed the Pitchfork set for each band’s set, and especially during The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, was absolutely thrilled to have Brooklyn in the house, and vice versa, as Vivian Girls bass player Kickball Katy got the crowd riled up with “Barca” chants, a reference to FC Barcelona’s recent Champions League victory over Manchester United. Fact of the matter is, if Brooklyn is an indie breeding ground, and Primavera Sound is an international coming out party, then Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are soon going to find themselves trading in used-Econoline vans for buses, and shitty amps for some serious audio equipment.

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