On Friday, I participated in part of something that’s pretty great: Critical Mass. This biking group, it’s not even a group, they just meet outside the Carnegie Library in Oakland on the last Friday of every month at about 5:30, then they just go on a bike ride. The kicker is that, at least when I went, there were at least 100, probably 150 people there. So we took up multiple lanes of traffic- sometimes the entire road. Man! That was cool! Ever ride a bike through what traffic would be like if there were no cars? It’s a cool thing!

It ended at the Paint and Body Shop in Wilkinsburg (now I guess an art gallery/concert venue or something) and there was a party with food, so I went. They were serving pasta and sauce, and when I was in line for food, the question wasn’t “Do you want meat or meatless sauce?”, it was “vegan or non-vegan?” Actually, it was “is anyone here not vegan?” … it was a pretty hairy group of people. I soon left.

In their defense, their cheap beer of choice was Pabst. The same cannot be said for Joe and Connor, unfortunately, as they elected to purchase Natural Ice for beer pong on Saturday. Nevertheless, that party was one of the best in a long time. (see the log I posted on .vomit for details)

Today: I went to the Mattress Factory, and got FREAKED OUT. I like to think I’m usually pretty brave (that may be true or not. I still haven’t given blood.), but something about that place was so terrifying. Like the dark room with just a big blue rectangle… there are so many ways that could become scarringly frightening. (for example, if you turned around and the walls on the way out were covered in something scary) (Note that none of it actually was frightening- I mean, it wasn’t a haunted house) But it was fascinating! The room with mirrors in all directions- you can’t experience that anywhere else! I felt like that was modern art that, maybe I didn’t understand it, maybe I didn’t appreciate it, but maybe I started to appreciate it. Yeah, it’s pretentious. Of course it is. But unlike most pretentious shit, as I was observing it, I thought, “Wow.” If you’d like to go, let me know, because I’d love to go back- there’s a lot I didn’t see.

And now I’m getting the music sentimentality. If you ever listen to the radio, listen to my show tomorrow (10AM-12PM, 88.3fm, wrct.org) because it’s my end-of-semester wrap-up, and it’ll be amazing. Listening to my favorite songs of the semester means reliving the semester, which means nostalgia. Again, when it comes down to it, I like being a connoisseur of pop music, hipster as it may be.

And speaking of nostalgia, I’m starting to get the end of the year blatz. Shit! I want to hang out with every single one of you! Especially the seniors! I will try not to let my schedule get filled with other noise.