October 29, 2006
Black Label Bike Kill 2006
For some the end of October means Halloween, for others it means the madness and sensory overload of Black Label’s 4th annual Bike Kill, a bicycle block party in Bed-Stuy. Whether riding a ridiculous bike or clothes lining someone off one, it was in your best interest to keep moving as a giant foam, sore-covered penis was on hand to blast clay slurry in the face of the unmindful.
Few rolled away clean or unscathed after the six pack race, foot down, excite bike course, bike jousting, general mayhem between competitions and air attack of giant foam skulls soaked in murky puddles, dead bicycles, and whatever else was on hand. If you can imagine it, it probably happened. Here’s to lazy Sundays.
More photos of Bike Kill 2006 by Tod Seelie, Mess NYC’s photo report (via BikeBlog), and on Flickr by f.trainer, violentgrind, and jyen1.
October 29th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
I’m still washing that semen out of my clothes. good times
October 30th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
It’s so nice to see that whites are happy to treck to Bed-Stuy as long as there are other whites there. Gentrification is takin care of us all.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:02 am
It’s a shame Jack off thinks he actually knows what he’s talking about. A lot of us live in Bed-Stuy, and have for a decade or so. Why do you think they have the event there in the first place, dumbass?
October 31st, 2006 at 11:22 am
Jack Off’s comment is a hasty generalization.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:06 pm
“Why do you think they have the event there in the first place, dumbass?”
Because it’s a lower income neighborhood and the chances of it getting broken up by the cops are slimmer than if you had it in, say, the West Village.
A decade, huh? You must really keep to yourselves out there.
November 1st, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Jack Off,
Street activity permits are approved by the local community boards for organizers based in the district or doing business there. The event is held in Bed-Stuy, CB3, because that is where they are based (it would be nearly impossible to get a permit to hold the event elsewhere, let alone the West Village, without a local sponser). No matter the location, this was a permitted event so police had no reason to break it up.
November 1st, 2006 at 2:34 pm
“No matter the location, this was a permitted event so police had no reason to break it up. ”
Open containers and drinking in public is not grounds for breaking up activities? I do believe if alcohol is going to be present, regardless of who brung it/how it was brought, a liquor permit also needs to be acquired.
So, people assume that just b/c it’s in Bed-Stuy, they can do what they please. The old, “Nobody will care, it’s the ghetto” mentality. But, residents do care. They care when roudy assholes, who normally wouldn’t be in the ‘hood, trash their neighborhoods. I don’t mean just physically trashing a neighborhood, but littering, being a drunk asshole, etc. I saw pix from past events where people were trashing cars?? Again, the broken window theory.
I’ve watched the ‘hood change drastically in just the last few years. Apartments on Bedford and Willoughby are the Clinton Hill apartments. I’m sure you see where I’m going. So, I get a little bug up my ass when I see large amounts of people, again, that wouldn’t be there under normal circumstances, walking the streets, acting a fool. Also, riding the trains w/ them there to, listening to their inane, pretentious conversations.
So, I’m sorry if some of you feel offended and I’m sure that a lot of people came, had a good time w/o being a douche. But, you can’t tell me that’s how it was for everybody, and you can’t tell me that everybody that came out don’t look down on the neighborhood.
November 1st, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Jack Off,
You’re just using straw man arguments to attack your own stereotypes of everyone you see in the photos. It’s a real shame you’ve prejudged this event because you see a lot of white people. You can email me (ra@razorapple.com) if you need to discuss this further.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Jack Off,
I personally spent over an hour cleaning and sweeping the street after the event was over. It honestly was cleaner when we were done than when the event started. It is across from a school after all. Your assumptions are based too much on a different group of people than the ones being discussed here. But I do remember the “there goes the neighborhood” feeling after the Taaffe lofts were renovated. The only problem is that the people you’re attacking are the same ones poised to lose their homes to the gentrification seeping in.