Nowtopian

A Sublebrity in Italy!

The big Interplanetary Critical Mass on Saturday May 31 in Rome, followed by the Sunday June 1st 25-kilometer ride to the beach (and following the monthly Critical Mass on Friday May 30), has to be one of the most fun three-day periods I’ve ever had. I am overwhelmed by the attention and affection showered on me (and gifts!) and the odd experience of fending off people’s gratitude” after all it is the people HERE in Rome who created such a beautiful Critical Mass. A huge amount of work went in to setting up the three-day extravaganza, which was attended by probably 1500-2000 on Friday, 4000+ on Saturday and another 1000-1500 to the beach on Sunday, all larger than previous years (this was the 5th anniversary).

I came to Rome four years ago, but this visit was such a surprise! My great hosts, Paolo and Giusi and their sweet daughters Greta and Viola hosted me in fantastic comfort:

while the huge community of cyclists made me feel like an old friend almost as soon as we said hello: Ilaria, Imma, Giorgia, Rosella, Giulia, Giuso, Livio, three Francesca’s, three or four Federico’s, Luca, Pietro, Piero, Patrizia, Rosabella, Giancarlo, Gianluca, two Chiara’s, Pepino, Fabbiana, Flavio, Uva from Sicily and Ciclofficina Etnea, AnnaLisa and her eco-taxi project, Eleanora, Magdalena, the list goes on and I’m sorry if I forgot anyone” it was really hard to remember everyone’s names in such a short time. Giovanni from the Ciclofficina in Florence, Eric from Campobasso, Romano who gave me all his books and maps on cycling in Rome and Lazio.

(Giorgia and Rotafixa at back left, AnnaLisa and Francesca the librarian in foreground… not sure the name of the fellow on the eco-taxi)

Giulia

Alessio, from whom I borrowed the Ciemmona banner on a previous entry, with me, at SNIA before the Big Ride.

Imma in the middle, with her friend whose name I forgot, at the piazza prior to riding in the Big Critical Mass.

Rotafixa discusses the finer points of Sicily with Uva from Ciclofficina Etnea.

Rosella gave me such a great welcome… she and Livio were a couple of the main organizers, along with many of the other friends I’ve pictured here…

Luca (behind) and Andrea Maccarone who is Italian but lives in Toulouse where he is organizing the 2nd Intergalactic Bikeforum of Popular Ciclofficine (DIY bike shops) on June 13-15.

Then all the Internationals I met, who also gave me such a warm welcome and embrace! The Spaniards, Rebecca and her ferret and a half dozen other MadrileÃ±os, whose names I never quite got, one sweet guy originally from Mexico City. Felix, a Brit who helped Paolo with the interview we did for Il Manifesto, who tore off his suit from a corporate conference just minutes before joining the ride. I had a charming conversation with Åªna from Dublin via Catania, Sicily where she’s teaching English and connected with the local cyclists. Anthony, the Irish watchmaker, built an impossible painting machine. Andrea, Olivier and Alvaro from Toulouse (Alvaro originally Mexican too), Sylvan from Belgium, Becky and Geraldine and their posse from Lyon, Eileen from Geneva, ex-pat Andy who is high-end programmer and hacker, William from New York and Florence and perfectly bilingual (he was shooting lots of great video the whole time), Alessio the blogger, Morgan from Vancouver, Adam and Maryann from Hackney in London.

Alvaro from Mexico by way of Toulouse, France.

Rebecca from Madrid, who always had her ferret in her basket or wrapped around her neck, even when dancing to reggae!

Rosa, who lives and works in Ethiopia these days, but is home for the summer, taking a break from a culture with no word for “pollution” and that has basically run out of fresh water. She was the translator for the story of the train in the last entry to follow about the ride home from the beach.

My host, Rotafixa, who makes his own frames, and loaned me one of his amazing, speedy, one-speed bikes. He likes the fixie, but gave me one with coaster brakes (thank you!)…

Sylvan, from Belgium, having her 30th birthday by returning to ride in the Big Critical Mass weekend in Rome, where she spent five years earlier in her life. She tells a great story about corking during the Friday ride, coming in the next post.

Then there was the local couple about my age who hailed me during CM on Friday and asked if I wanted to do an interview with La Repubblica? Of course I said yes, and that very night Cecilia Gentile, the journalist, called and we had lunch on Paolo’s beautiful terrace the next day and the article appeared on Sunday in the national edition! I had a weirdly celebrity-ish time, having three major pieces in different national publications (Il Manifesto, L’Espresso, and La Repubblica), two public presentations of Nowtopia, four video interviews, and maybe 100 people ore more greet me personally during and after the three rides, plus I felt like I was constantly being smiled at and having my photo taken”¦ Very strange! And very fun! Here three of the videographers who I was interviewed by at various times during the three days of cycling and talking:

Eleanora, William, and Magdalena

Critical Mass in Rome (part one)

Just as incredible as you might imagine”¦ maybe more so”¦ Wild bikes, warm people, a sweet scene late in the ride when a woman sat on her boyfriend’s handlebars facing him, with her arms wrapped tightly around him in a loving embrace, her head buried on his shoulder, while he pedaled along in the ride. Riding through Rome, through thousands of years of history at every turn, is simply incommensurable! Nothing like it”¦

In just a few days in Rome I have been so welcomed, and so warmly embraced, it’s almost embarrassing, but in fact it has been the thrill of a lifetime! I have more than 50 new friends, and I’m sure there are at least several thousand more whom I will meet eventually. Rome could be a second home, without doubt.

Critical Mass is an unusual prism through which to experience a city. For one thing, it’s always unique in each place it happens, but on the other hand, it’s a eerily familiar experience. Well, I’ll take it from the top, knowing that I have already forgotten way more than I can remember and write down here. I headed out at 5:30 on Friday to find a small group gathering at a nearby “ciclofficina” (the local DIY bikeshops, of which there were four, but as of yesterday at the Ciemmona a fifth one announced itself) but in the dense streets of Monti here in the center of Rome, I could not find them. Luckily I was loaned a cellphone so I made a call, simultaneous to Ilaria calling to see where the hell I was, and she found me a few minutes later. There were already a group of about a dozen Spaniards there, including one fellow from Mexico, and Rebecca with her ferret in her front basket (she later that night danced to pulsing funk and Motown with the sweet animal draped around her shoulders!). The rest of our entourage soon pulled out and 30 of us or so headed towards the gathering point at Piramide. Here’s Ilaria with her sound system in tow.

At Piramide about 1000 cyclists assembled (this was the local, smaller “normal” ride on Friday night), including a bunch of us internationalistas who had already made it to Rome for the Big One to follow on Saturday. Piero, whom I’d met the night before at the ciclofficina Don Quixote at SNIA (more on SNIA in the next post), was in fine form, juggling with a bunch of friends, and a vehicle called “Ciclo Ludo Muzga Bus” decked out in several drums, getting everyone dancing a bit as we enjoyed the late sun streaming over the Pyramid (stolen from Egypt by the Romans more than 2000 years ago and rebuilt here).

Continue reading Critical Mass in Rome (part one)

Great Night at Flexi (and beyond)

I had a fantastic night at Flexi Libreria last night. Somewhere between 50 and 80 people jammed in to the beautiful new space, which takes its name from the increasing precarity that its founders, all research and technical workers during their “day jobs,” face. Francesca, Andrea, and all the folks I met there were so hospitable and gave me an incredible welcome and a fantastic venue to present Nowtopia. It’s hard for me to judge, since I’m presenting, but as in Milan, it seemed to really resonate for the folks who came, and the discussion that followed went in interesting directions, about organization, subcultural exclusion, technology, human nature, work and ecology, a side moment on my ideological influences and the state of EarthFirst!, Peter Berg, and ecological politics in general in the U.S. It was the best night I’ve had on the tour yet. Special thanks to Rotafixa and Andrea for making this happen, and doing the simultaneous translation. Here are some photos of the place, the crowd before the Talk, and some shots during the Talk (I admit this is a bit of a scrapbook/journal for me at these moments, but hey, it is after all MY blog! Apologies if you’re only interested in deep thoughts, which only pop up here intermittently at best!).