bike art

Dandyhorse magazine is celebrating its Food Issue Launch Party, on October 3rd, 8 pm at Parts & Labour, which is located at 1566 Queen Street West. The Food Issue is guest edited by Bob Blumer of the Food Network, "a guy that bikes 1,000 kms in 10 days and calls it a vacation".

In the issue:

• dandyhorse pits Canadian pro rider Ryder Hesjedal against Toronto courier Kevin Barnhorst
• Two of Toronto's best chefs concoct energy bars that actually taste good
• A cyclists' tribute to Jack Layton
• Artwork by Jason van Horne
• Stunning photos by John Lee and Molly Crealock
• Bike Spotting with more cargo bikes than you can shake a tire lever at

The cost is $7 for magazine plus Pay what you can donation ($3 suggested). The event is on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=267992546555792

At the party:

• a special performance by LUxURY Bob!
• two Linus bikes up for grabs, courtesy of Curbside Cycle. Raffle tickets are only $5 each! Draw is at 11 p.m.

The Toronto Bicycle Music Festival is taking place September 18th with the first set at Trinity Bellwoods Park at 2 pm (facebook page).

Toronto's second annual pedal-powered, mobile music festival is featuring Jeremy Fisher, The Strumbellas, Lenni Jabour, Abigail Lapell, Amélie & Les Singes Bleus and more!

September 18, 2011 starting at 2 pm at Trinity Bellwoods Park (south end near Queen St.)

They're looking for "bike roadies" to help out at the festival. If you've got a bike trailer or cargo bike and time ping them! All roadies have to do is to help move a musician's instruments and gear from various Toronto locations to one or more west-end parks, and back. All the locations are close together. In exchange there will be food and a small surprise gift.

Contact Adam at adampopper@gmail.com or (416) 476-4806

Backwards Rider, the hero in one of the films and a capable video-maker himself. Photo by Xander.

The Bicycle Film Festival is coming to town! From August 10-13, the travelling film festival will be staking out ground in the hearts and minds of Toronto bike lovers.

The festival will feature close to 50 bike-related films at the Royal Cinema (College and Clinton) going from Friday to Saturday. Today, Wednesday, features an art show and panel discussion at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West) followed by the Bikes Rock Kickoff Part at the Horseshoe (370 Queen Street West).

Canadian films being shown include Fabric Bike, featuring Toronto's fashionistas The Deadly Nightshades and the bike they make out of fabric.

Parts Unknown about George who was the popular proprietor of the ramshackle Parts Unknown back-alley bike shop that was forced to close (George is now operating out of a garage in the back alley at Denison and Queen St West).

Photo by Tino.

Labour of Love about Canadian ultra-cyclist Caroline Van Den Bulk attempting the Race Across America 5000 mile endurance race.

Toronto Artist Alberto de Ciccio built a draisine, based on the original invented by Karl von Drais (ca. 1820). Built for a solo exhibition by Alberto on June 3rd at La Carrera Cycles on Harbord street in Toronto. Alberto also mentioned that he also built as a tribute to dandyhorse magazine.

Fellow blogger, James of The Urban Country, has produced a nifty little site called Rate My Vélo. Post a photo of a bike, someone riding a bike, or just looking good near a bike, and subject it to intense voting from the critical citizenry.

Rate My Vélo show pairs of photos seemingly randomly (though there isn't a large database just yet). One then simply clicks on the photo they prefer out of the pair. And then one is presented with another pair and so on. After one gets bored with that, one can look at the most popular photos (currently heavily favoured towards chic chicks on bikes).

The Toronto Cyclists Union has just announced a bike giveaway of a Batavus bike donated by Curbside and ING. The bike has been made pretty by Velocolour, a local bicycle painting shop. Anyone who joins or renews before August 25th has a chance to win.

A Blessing of Bicycles and Cyclists. ALL WELCOME.

Free bike maintenance and valet parking provided.

Sunday April 11th 13:00 to 14:00
Trinity-St. Paul's Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts
427 Bloor Street West (One block west of Spadina)

This event is being co-organized by Tino and Trintity-St. Paul's.

Tino:

I believe that a kind and respectful gesture to all cyclists and bicycles is always welcome.
You don't have to be religious to take part. Neither am I. Hope to see you there.

The blessing will be conducted by Minister Vicki Obedkoff.

"When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When they moved, the others moved; when they stopped, the others stopped; and when they rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels." Ezekiel

Update: Second Blessing confirmed for May 28th at Bloor & Spadina before Critical Mass 6PM with Minister Vicki Obedkoff.

An Official Bike Month 2010 Event.

(Photo: purple_shutter)

The Bunch Family (a company, actually) of Toronto borrowed a purple bike from Yahoo! called Purple Shutters. The special thing about these bikes is that they take automatic photos and track the location by GPS as the users bike around. The bikes have been to a number of different cities. Since the cameras snap photos at regular intervals you can get some great off-guard moments but also plenty of banal photos. Take a look at the photos snapped by Toronto families using the bike.

To find out what kinds of bike adventures families were having, Bunch borrowed Purple Shutter from the good folks at Yahoo! Canada, and for the next two weeks, we are lending Purple Shutter to families in our community and asking them to blog about their rides.

To get the ball rolling, we invited families that we know love to bike to take Purple Shutter out for a spin but we also opened it up to all the Bunch families and asked them to request a date with Purple Shutter, letting us know where they would go and what they would do. So many families asked for a turn with Purple Shutter that we had to bring in “wranglers” to get Purple Shutter from one date to the next! Our bike wranglers are Matt and Dana from the Toronto band “The Bicycles”. Here they are, as photographed by Purple Shutter. Thanks guys!