My Pink Roadmap

I am a painter.  I am a crafter.  I am a dog lover.  I am a concert-going, album-release-date-following, band-shirt-wearing music junkie.   One thing I was not: a videographer.  Several months ago, on a whim, I signed up for a digital video class while in pursuit of my graduate degree.  Though I was a bit apprehensive, knowing nothing about video and rarely going to see a movie, I figured I would do the coursework, throw together a video, and wham-bam-A+!  Little did I know, there was something much bigger in store.

It was early November and our final project deadlines were looming.  A friend invited me to a Monday night screening of a German cycling film at a local tavern; sensing adventure, I accepted the offer and set off with her to the screening.  Walking up to the tavern, the sidewalk was inundated with bicycles.  Bicycles?  In Dallas?  It’s no secret that Dallas is no Portland when it comes to being bicycle-friendly.  In fact, it was a rare occasion I saw a bicycle on the road at all, yet there they were, 20-or-so strong, glistening in streetlight.  We meandered our way through the maze and into the Tavern.   I struck up a conversation with a guy with one pant leg rolled up, a messenger bag slung across his shoulder, and a tight-fitting cap.  Apparently, this cyclist gathering is a weekly thing.  “It’s just the Monday Night Mash,” he said. 

Monday Night Mash?  I wondered about it for several days.  I consider myself to be fairly in-the-know with regard to goings-on in Dallas, so how is this such a surprise to me?  Do they all know each other?  Where did they meet?  How do they contact each other?  Who organizes this?  And maybe most importantly, why do they do it?  And thus, my class film project was born.

About a week later, after contacting a few cyclists on twitter to find out where they would be gathering that Monday night, I showed up at the designated spot, with me school-issued camera equipment in tow.  I knew no one there, and no one there had ever seen me, yet there I was.  I got surprisingly few strange looks and several cyclists approached me to inquire as to what I was filming for.  I didn’t even own a bike, yet everyone was so friendly!  The event organizer pointed me to several FaceBook and twitter profiles so I could follow what was happening and film more rides.  More rides?

Monday Night Mash.  Tits Tuesday.  Zip code rides.  Critical Mass.  Holiday rides.  The list went on and on.  It turns out every ride was organized by a different person or group of people - all through social media.  Very few of them know each other from anywhere other than the rides or had each other’s cell phone numbers, yet nearly every night, people gather for no apparent purpose other than to ride their bikes and be a part of this temporal community of cyclists there for the same reason.  Single speed, fixed-gear, geared, tandem, cruiser, road bike, unicycle – everyone is welcome who loves to ride.  Then, after the ride and possibly a drink or two, they all go home and back to their separate lives.  It’s there, then it’s gone.  Fascinating.

I threw together a video with my extremely limited video editing skills in 48 hours with no sleep and made my deadline.  Nervous and sleep-deprived, I got up to present to the class.  They loved it.  I put the videos up on YouTube as a thank you to the cyclists who had helped me along the way, and before I knew it, the video was up on 10+ cycling websites, got local online news coverage, and received over 800 hits on YouTube.  I feel like I need to show this to the world, afterall, everyone wants to be a part of something.  The fact that things like this exist is nothing short of inspirational, in my eyes.  I am currently editing it down more to submit to film festivals. 

I am now fairly well recognized within the Dallas urban cyclist community, and I daresay I’ve made some good friends in the process.  An everyday encounter followed by a series of chances and risks have caused my entire life to change; this has snowballed into something much, much bigger than any class project.  I have since been approached to do some activist cycling videos to help change city policy and most recently, to document SXSFixed 2010.  I welcome you to join me on my most recent project beginning Saturday 3/13/2010 in following 16 fixed-gear cyclists on their bike ride from Dallas to Austin in a span of three days, just in time for South by SouthWest.  Crazy?  Absolutely!  Follow us on twitter (@SXSFixed) and check out our website (www.SXSFixed.com), where I will be updating the map with photos, video, and interesting tidbits every step of the way from the back of a pickup truck on the road to Austin.  The resulting film will be screened at a local bike shop.  Who knows?  Maybe I can inspire someone else to take a leap of faith.

Lacy Mahone
@LaceofBase
www.LaceofBase.com