one less car news

Chicago has a pretty big art scene and a pretty big bike scene, so combining the two only makes sense.

The 2010 bike show opens this Friday at New Wave Coffee (2557 N. Milwaukee).

The coffee shop I used to go to to use the internets was the host for the past few years, and it was always kinda cool to see all the art. Granted, there wasn’t that much “crazy” art- mostly pics of Critical Mass rides and a few other things, but it was still kinda cool.

Last year I set up a booth at the after party and was pretty disappointed. I thought we would sell a lot and we sold very, very, very little.

The party was pretty cool, but there were a few people who were just assholes about it.
Brandon came down to check it out and I'm hoping he will chime in with his thoughts.

Anyway, over all it’s a pretty good event and is good for cycling in Chicago, so go check it out, have fun, and say thanks to the people who set it up!

-Cole

My Two Cents by Brandon Dee

Winter time in Chicago- not the best time of the year to visit, but there's less snow there than home, and it's always good to see your best friends when they live 3 states away, so what the hell...let's go to Chicago! And to Chicago Bronwen and I went, filled with dreams of getting rich quick...or at least a couple slices of pizza paradise.

I don't know what happened before the after party show wise- I wasn't there. Probably some good stuff, but like I said- I wasn't there.

Now, maybe I'm wrong- my memory can be hazy sometimes, but i swear the after party was 3 floors of craziness. Packed wall to wall all night. There probably was some rad art there, but there wasn't enough of a break in the crowd to hardly check any of it out. It seemed like the hippest of the hip were all there- I'd drop some names but I ain't that hip- plus I only knew two people there (the two I came with), but because I was wearing colors (Wild Angles), I did get an invite to a Rat Patrol party later on, but we didn't go.

A handful of bands played, from big bands full of horns to hit whatever the hell is there with drumsticks, noisy, sampled...noise. Our pal Leslie's band was pretty rad, and the only act I caught part of. Don't remember their name, or I'd give them props.

But for the most part, I was there for business. We were promised a table, chairs- the usual. We got there to set up & someone finally found a little coffee table for us to use & I found a chair for the three of us to share for the rest of the night. There wasn't any space to put our banner (we figured we'd hang it on the table) and we had about a poster sized space to use.

So we made a cardboard sign. A couple. But in the end it didn't matter. The people were there to party- not to shop, that was for sure. Talking with other vendors throughout the night, nobody else I met seemed to be doing very well either which I thought was kind of a shame, since that was a big part of it- or so I thought.

While we stuck it out through 'til the end, we all knew it was a lost cause pretty quick. We came broke. We left broke. But that time in between can't be replaced. I got the chance to ride bikes around the city, go to decent book & record stores, and most of all, spend time with my favorite people in the world. Living three states away we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but when we do it rules... and that made last year's Winter Bike Art Show super rad.