more nytimes bike style: portlandia video edition

the ny times is pretty good at delivering news in a timely fashion, but they are not always timely in their cultural trends. if only they had someone on staff who's been riding a bicycle for awhile now who watches style to alert them to this trend of cycle chic. (pssst, they do.)

the mama texican sent me this link of portlandia types talking about their style in "the pearl." and yes, bikes are accessories. of course.



enjoy! and bill cunningham, why wont they listen to you more? heh.

los angeles on $100 a day via nytimes

you guyyyyyys, the frugal traveler (seth kugel) went to LA and discovered that to be able to do LA on $100 a day, the best option was....(everybody now) RENT A BIKE.

a lil excerpt (emphasis mine):

WHEN I told people I was visiting Los Angeles for a week without setting foot in a car, one word came up more than any other: “impossible.”

There is the fact that the county covers more than 4,000 square miles. That it has seemingly endless, overlapping multi-lane highways versus a tiny number of bike lanes. And oh, yeah: that it is bisected by a mountain range.

Taken together — not a great place to get around on a bike.

But what if you can’t afford to drive? What if, in fact, you wanted to visit the city on about $100 a day?

so, go on and read more from the frugal traveler! so happy this article exists about el lay in the nytimes. :) i think i may just have to check out this bike in la business very soon. perhaps i can bring a partner in bici dingding crimes. ;)

An ode to master Bill

Ages before the Sartorialist there was Bill. I have followed his interviews, media NYT posts and columns for ages and seeing this picture today pop up in my feed-reader made me smile.
Bill Cunningham at his age of 80, continues to use film and not digital for all his shoots. Timeless, classy and simple.
Fantastic!!
Photo via the sartorialist

mis bicis are my therapy

the most popular article in today's new york times is their well blog's "phys ed: why exercise makes you less anxious." having personally experienced less anxiety and depression after riding around, i was rather intrigued and clicked on through to the other side.

to summarize, princeton university researchers recently compared rats that run to rats that don't run. they put both sets of rats into a stressful situation: swimming in cold water. i don't know about you, but i believe swimming in cold water would be pretty stressful to almost anyone. anyway, the study found that the rats who run had new brain cells created by exercising (not a new discovery). these new brain cells, "the researchers concluded, appeared to have been 'specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.' The rats had created, through running, a brain that seemed biochemically, molecularly, calm." the author noted that running is a form of aerobic (cardio) exercise, and, in theory, the conclusions should extend to cycling and swimming. also, for the exercise to start to work, it takes somewhere between 3 weeks and 6 weeks to for the difference to be noticable.

i am not a scientist or a medicinal doctor. i do, however, have a brain in my skull. this brain has been put through a lot of stressful situations. put simply, i have been both the rat that does not run and the rat that runs. and i can say with absolute certainty, that i have responded better to stressful situations after i started biking around the city. i notice i feel calmer, more ready to think rationally and in turn better cope with the stress.

for example. i am under personal stress in this picture (to clarify: the stress was not from hanging out w/ the people i was around). but...notice the smiles? i'm keeping the stress at bay, quite easily in fact.

Úna and cali kriss krossin' the bicis.

this study doesn't exactly break too much new ground, but it did get me thinking about myself and then about you guys, our lovely readers.

so what about you? do you feel less anxious after you have ridden for a couple of months? would you recommend biking as a form of therapy or medication for a friend in need? please let us know in the comments.