Hustle

Well today is certainly less humid and more hospitable than the past 2 weeks.

Ride was mostly quick & uneventful with minimal tourists along WFC. Somewhere at the end of Midtown south I saw a bus along the highway that promoted Hunt Valley tours and was reminded of the movie passes I used to get in college to go to the Hunt Valley theater but I don't recall if I ever went. Oh, well, that meant I had to catch Gigli on TNT rather than on the silver screen.

Am reading the Kafka's The Penal Colony and I think it's the piece I like best -- a few weeks ago I bought a small collection of his works in the B&N imprint. The Stoker was really good, too, and makes me want to read Amerika because it's that book's first chapter.

Saw "Inception" last night -- great film. Makes me wonder if I can train myself to keep out unwanted visitors. I wonder if my subconscious would be more or less vicious than DiCaprio's. They utilized the mise-en-abyme to its limit and it was really well done. It's the sort of thing that anyone could've come up with but you really have to let your mind go and just write that sort of thing after (I'm theorizing) reading everything there is to know about dreams, levels of consciousness and psychology.

My brother and I did that once only it turned out to be the outline for a movie about sibling rivalry and caffeine.

The rides home are typically uneventful and we want them to be that way. It's easier to let my mind wander in the morning because I'm not contending with traffic and there are far less distractions (vis-a-vis ajar cab doors and important, multi-tasking pedestrians who are LOL'ing across 6th Avenue).

The worst of it during the evening ride is between W. 2nd Street to W. 23rd. The slowest, and therefore most agonizing spot is where 6th Avenue and Canal Street converge. There's curbside parking (many spots are taken by police vans) and hundreds of cars are piling into 3 lanes (the 4th is for buses).

I'm usually wearing a t-shirt that may not be fully dried since the morning's ride (and/or lately, the lunchtime run) so between that, the humidity, and a waining sense of urban patriotism, I just want out -- stay in the bike lane (on the left) keep an eye on the potholes and one out for the assholes and hustle. Making a left into 31st street is terrible too, as the whole street is just torn up and loose gravel is everywhere so you cannot brake too hard or you'll skid. That left turn, however, is necessary so I just have to plan ahead.

If something really interesting happens, I'll post that but otherwise, the goal is to hop on the train and forget the bike ride and then get off the train and forget the train ride.

Thank you for reading.