The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
CAMPUS BIKE PROJECT NOW OPEN
In case you weren't aware, The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign now has a second location: it's called the Campus Bike Project, and it's located at 608 E. Pennsylvania Ave. in Champaign. Google maps still thinks that address is in Urbana, but click this link to see a correct map of the CBP location. We're behind overhead doors 8 through 13 on the west side of the Natural Resources garage, just east of the law building and just west of the Stock Pavilion; just south of the Natural Resources building and just north of the cemetery.
We opened at the end of March, and we're ready to help with your bike repair needs. The CBP works pretty much like the IMC location does, and your membership is reciprocal, so feel free to use whichever location is more convenient.
The CBP is open during times when the Urbana location isn't, so between the two locations, we now have almost 30 hours per week of staffed hours where you can get help fixing your bike. Here are the hours at the Campus location:
Sunday: 5 to 9 p.m.
Monday: 8 a.m. to 12 noon
Tuesday: 6 to 9 p.m.
Friday: 12 noon to 5 p.m.
OPEN HOUSE TOMORROW AFTERNOON
To celebrate Earth Day one day late, the Campus Bike Project will be holding an Open House on Friday, April 23 from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Every hour on the hour, you can get a tour of the shop and ask any questions you might have.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The CBP is still in that cute baby-animal stage when it's almost able to walk on its own, but still stumbles from time to time. Aw, precious, huh? Don't you just want to give us a helping hand? Here's are some ways you can help:
Forward this email to people you know who you think would get some good out of our shop
Hang up some fliers around campus. We have plenty at the shop; stop by and pick some up. Post them on bulletin boards, staple them around bike handlebars, hand them out to random people on the quad or at a residence hall, etc.
Volunteer during open hours. Have a couple hours a week to spare? Want to learn more about bike repair or help others repair their bikes? Or maybe you have organizational skillz you'd like to share? Or perhaps you'd just like to greet people at the door? We have a bunch of volunteer opportunities available, so stop in and inquire, or reply to this email.
Donate something on our wish list. We have several things we could use that we'd prefer not to have to purchase. Scan through this list and see if you have anything you can spare:
Bookshelf stereo or computer speakers: my little transistor radio isn't getting it done
Couches or chairs: we'd like to get a lounge area going in the back of the shop; end of the school year is coming, and this kind of thing should be opening up
Small refrigerator: Just a little dorm-sized guy would do the job.
Microwave: Same here; we get hungry too, you know?
Digital camera: Doesn't have to be anything special, just so we can upload photos to the web
Bikes and bike parts: Don't abandon your bike on the rack for the summer, and don't let your friend do it either. Drop it by the shop and we'll put it to use.
"There is a saying in Chinese: 'Laugh at the poor, not the prostitutes,' " Juanjuan Wu, a professor at the University of Minnesota and author of Chinese Fashion From Mao to Now, told me. "Hipster fashion only really works by communicating your irony—in other words, someone needs to 'get it.' Hipster irony in dress would most likely be misinterpreted in Chinese society as simple poverty or weirdness."(Bonus: The Flying Pigeon Project blogs about classic Chinese bicycles. Here's the Wikipedia article about Flying Pigeon, a Chinese bike company. Fun fact: Flying Pigeon bikes have 28 x 1-1⁄2 inch wheels.)
There was a large troupe of dancers in dark coveralls moving about, shuffling, sliding, writhing, and plunging in a mixture of zombie-like and playful ways. Almost as interesting as the dancers was the space. The basement of the barn was a dairy operation with eerie metal cages and milking stations set up in a circular array. Upstairs in the humongous domed hay loft a silo formed the center and the curvature of the roof drew the eye upward.... A spare musical accompaniment complemented the improvisational dancers as they were drawn into the hay loft. The audience was mixed in with the performers and they were clearly engrossed in the piece.
PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.
It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.
When and if the oil runs out and runs postmodern car culture aground, Champaign-Urbana’s pretty well positioned to deal… at least insofar as it will still be pretty easy to move around town, scavenging for food and whatever else one does after cars are gone (besides, like, live in a totally unalienated utopian World Made By Hand). It’s completely flat here and with the roads free of cars there’ll be no excuse, really, for not always just cycling from point A (say, your non-alienated libidinal workplace) to point B (e.g. the collective farm where you’ve gotta pick up your broccoli ration).
the man told Dr. Bloem something amazing: he said he was a regular exerciser — a cyclist, in fact — something that should not be possible for patients at his stage of the disease, Dr. Bloem thought.
“He said, ‘Just yesterday I rode my bicycle for 10 kilometers’ — six miles,” Dr. Bloem said. “He said he rides his bicycle for miles and miles every day.”
“I said, ‘This cannot be,’ ” Dr. Bloem, a professor of neurology and medical director of the hospital’s Parkinson’s Center, recalled in a telephone interview. “This man has end-stage Parkinson’s disease. He is unable to walk.”
But the man was eager to demonstrate, so Dr. Bloem took him outside where a nurse’s bike was parked.
“We helped him mount the bike, gave him a little push, and he was gone,” Dr. Bloem said. He rode, even making a U-turn, and was in perfect control, all his Parkinson’s symptoms gone.
Yet the moment the man got off the bike, his symptoms returned. He froze immediately, unable to take a step.The Times posted a video along with the article.
