26th Annual Moonlight Cruze in Austin, Texas
14 September 2008
26th Annual Moonlight Cruze,
AUSTIN, Texas — Several hundred cyclists and “bike people” of all stripes and badges met on the Lamar Street pedestrian bridge at 2:00 this morning and rode through the damp and darkened streets of Austin until just before dawn. The ride ended at a parking garage near the capital at about 5:30 am. If the ride went on from there, it was in small splinter groups. At that point, the showing was much smaller than a few hours before over the Colorado River as not every rider went all the way. I saw three guys playing music in the initial group on the bridge. Two of them had acoustic guitars and the last had a violin. Some people handed out flyers, a few people rode some wheelies, flexible chem sticks (the plastic things that glow in neon colors) were given out, music was consumed with beer. Friends met, people talked, bikes compared, fun ensued.
Fireworks were launched from the bridge at the beginning and at the rest stops along the way. The displays were impressive – probably just for the sake of someone riding a bike carrying fireworks. And alcohol … lots of it.
One bike had fire spewing from it, just over the rear tire. Read more 
Ire and Thorns in the Alamo City
Ire and thorns in the Alamo City. Something about this decaying metropolis carries a dark and gloomy energy, a permanent, foul hue of abandonment and despair.
I know I’m not the only one who sees this … it’s evident in the dour faces creeping darkly along the trash strewn, urine soaked sidewalks. The only people on the streets are the tourists near the Riverwalk and the derelict wanderers, both of whom are just passing through on their way elsewhere. For good or ill.
Haunted broken souls congregate silently under the cloud of the strange green lights of the late night bus, hurtling darkly away from the center of the city, through the ghetto of forgotten dwellings where those who are lost and gave up searching rest for the evening. Their dreams awash in a haze of cheap whiskey and unforgiving spouses.
In this city, the late night bus isn’t as late as other cities — especially the 24-hour cities — but I assure you it’s darker here and the heavy betting in the back of the bus is on the dawn never rising.
