To the druids, it means this.

To you, Flagstaff, it probably means this.

I, on the other hand, am happy enough to play outside and howl under the beautiful yellow moon.

Here is my stuff for May’s The Noise. I’m applying for jobs like a crazy person (more on that later), so that’s where all my energy is going.

The combination of budding trees, flourishing grasses, ferocious winds, fantastic music shows, fresh sun burns, and crowded bike lanes can only mean one thing in Flagstaff. Spring is upon us. It also means that Flagstaff Biking Organization’s (FBO) famed Bike to Work Week is right around the corner. This year’s events will take place in various locations from Sunday, May 11 to Friday, May 16.

Anthony Quintile, general manager of Absolute Bikes and go-to-guy for Bike to Work Week, is especially excited about this years events. “The City will be more heavily involved this year,” which is great because with the Mayor involved, including many city council members, Mr. Quintile says cycling is also publicly recognized as a “legitimate form of transportation.” This kind of promotion and support can result in many positive developments for our booming cyclist community.

This year is also special because New Belgium Brewing Company, who decided not to continue it’s annual Tour de Fat in Flagstaff—which provided FBO with it’s annual budget—will be supporting Flagstaff’s premier biking organization by sponsoring the entire week.

In the same way that Earth Day should be regarded everyday, the point of Bike to Work Week is to promote cycling beyond just a fun weeks worth of events. Gas prices are expected to reach $4 a gallon this summer. “Cycling,” as Mr. Quintile explains, “is a great way not to pay those rising gas prices.” Flagstaffers are fortunate enough to live in a climate that allows us to bike much of the year. The point of Bike to Work Week is to get more bikes on the road.

I asked Mr. Quintile about those people, like this writer, who already commute on their bikes much of the time. How can veteran cyclists make a meaningful impact during Bike to Work Week? He responded immediately, “instead of being that wacky person that rides to work every day, this is an opportunity to become a leader in the workplace, to motivate and give tips to fellow co-workers.”

This year’s Worksite Challenge will run for four days – Sunday at midnight to Thursday at noon—instead of just one day. Those interested in facilitating a work-site challenge at their day job should refer to FBO’s website for further information: www.flagstaffbiking.org

Sunday, May 11, 9am to 3pm at Heritage Square

The Human Powered Parade starts at 11am, downtown at Cherry and Leroux. Awards will be given out to the two best-decorated bikes. Cyclists are encouraged to stay downtown and attend the Bike Bazaar. Whether a new rider, a commuter, a weekend warrior, or a racer, young and old, there will be something for everyone at the Square —everyone on two wheels that is. Among live music, events, and prizes, there are cheap options for those looking for gear, parts, or refurbished bikes.

Bike Swap – Everything from the necessary to the beloved will be available for wheeling and dealing. This will be a great opportunity to trade, sell, or cheaply purchase bike gear with members of the Flagstaff community and beyond. Tables are available for a $20 donation to set up your wares for sale (and yes, friends can share!).

Bike Recycling – There are a lot of Flagstaff residents who have bikes and bike parts that are either rusting away in yards, or collecting cobwebs in garages. You know who you are. This is your chance to get that immobilized bike off your conscious and donate it to FBO where it will be refurbished and passed along to someone who will ride it. Newly refurbished bikes will be available for purchase as well.

Monday, May 12

7:30 AM: Kick-off Commuter Ride from City Hall

Hundreds of cyclists sharing the road make for quite a powerful statement. Celebrate the efforts of those individuals and organizations that have worked so hard to improve biking and walking in our community. Come join local elected leaders, officials, and hundreds of your closest friends for a short “commuter” ride through downtown, finishing at Heritage Square for a free breakfast. That’s right, free breakfast.

Tuesday, May 13

6 PM: “Jack and Martin’s Excellent FUTS Adventure” Cruiser Ride

Starting at the Pay-n-Take on Aspen, cruiser bikes of all varieties—from townies, tandems, custom cruisers, to old school balloon-tired relics—will block traffic for a half an hour downtown. All riders welcome.

Wednesday, May 11

Bike to Breakfast Day!

Breakfast station locations:

• City Hall, sponsored by the City of Flagstaff
• Fort Valley Road @ Late for the Train
• Beaver St near Biff’s Bagels, sponsored by Biff’s and Jack Welch
• North Humphreys @ Coffee Pedaler, sponsored by Coffee Pedaler
• Beaver St & the FMC ped bridge, sponsored by FMC
• Rt 66 & San Francisco St, sponsored by Absolute Bikes
• Cedar-Lockett & Fourth St, sponsored by Friends of Flagstaff’s Future

6 PM: Town Hall Meeting: City Hall

Join local officials at City Hall for a discussion of cycling issues in Flagstaff and to find out what’s being done to make Flagstaff more bicycle-friendly.

Thursday, May 15

Bike to School Day!

Many kids ride their bikes to school already. Today, parents are encouraged to ride with them. High school kids are encouraged to rediscover their bikes. Many outreach programs will take place throughout the day including a “Cycle Train,” where adult “conductors” will escort kids to Thomas Elementary School. Pine Forest Elementary will host a FBO sponsored Safe Kids bike rodeo, and a “Golden Sprocket” award will be given to a local high school and middle school that has the greatest percentage of students commuting to school on their own steam.

6 PM: The Orpheum is hosting the state-wide premier of Seasons, a widely acclaimed film that showcases the world’s best and most interesting mountain bikers, told through the course of the four seasons. Worksite Challenge winners will be awarded dazzling prizes during intermission. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Friday, May 16

6 PM: Bike to Potluck Cyclo-Bration!

As Bike to Work Week comes to a close, FBO is hosting a potluck at Thorpe Park’s Ramada. Bring table supplies, beverages, and/or a dish to share. It will be interesting to see how folks tote their food across town on two wheels.

Tacos Locos, a new Mexican joint south of the tracks, opened on Friday for the art walk. I tried it out; it wasn’t bad. Plus they’re open late, which brings much needed competition for 2 AM cravings.

I didn’t stay out late and I didn’t have a drop to drink, yet I’ve been puking my guts out for two days now.

Did anyone else get sick?

my grandmother sent this. I think it’s beautiful.

I don’t know much about the case, but Smith’s book, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide was one of the most powerful books I read while in graduate school. I read it for my “sex, politics, and reproduction” class during my first semester. I later wrote a paper regarding the atrocious boarding school experience and presented it at a Women’s Studies symposium. Her book was my central inspiration for that paper.

Hugo Schwyzer, who teaches history and gender studies at Pasadena City College, recently blogged about Andrea Smith’s denial of tenure from the University of Michigan.

It’s a strange case. Smith had been given a joint appointment in American Studies and Women’s Studies at the Ann Arbor campus; ’twas the latter department that nixed her promotion while the former supported her tenure cause. She’s also the director of the campus Native American Studies Center. Few of us are privy to the details of her file, and the Women’s Studies department at Michigan has not commented on why it has denied Smith tenure. But to those of us familiar with Smith’s published work, the decision is inexplicable. Her book Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide is a master-work of both advocacy and feminist scholarship, and is used in women’s studies courses across the country. (It’s on the short list of books I’m considering rotating in to my women’s history syllabus).

At research universities, the proven ability to publish is a critical part of getting tenure. So many assistant professors struggle to get anything notable into print; Smith has already done so by producing a text that is not just interesting but fundamentally ground-breaking. She’s got another book coming up: Native Americans and the Christian Right which is available for pre-order.

Read the rest and then scoot on over to brownfemipower, here and here.

From Tucson Bike Lawyer. This makes my stomach turn.

MADRID, Spain - A speeding motorist who killed a teenage cyclist is suing the boy’s parents over damage to his luxury car, the government says.

Enaitz Iriondo, 17, died instantly in August 2004 when businessman Tomas Delgado’s Audi A8 crashed into him at 100 mph near Haro in northern Spain, an Interior Ministry traffic report said. The speed limit was 55 mph.

I should be writing about how messed up and scary Israel’s blockade of Gaza is, but it’s really nice out and I don’t want to bring anyone down.

Ray got me stoked on this video. I hope I can figure out a way to see it without paying 40 bucks for the DVD. I’ve been playing this video lately just for the song.

Better quality from their own site.

I usually don’t do this, but I wanted my response to this comment more widely considered. It seems like a lot of blogs out there have simply become battlefields for conflicting ideologies rather than a search for common ground. It doesn’t have to be that way.

A recent comment:
Don’t get me wrong, I am in favour of reducing pollution, conserving resources et cetera, but keep in mind that humanity is only responsible for a small fraction of CO2 production. Termites, as a species, produce more CO2 than humans. CO2 comprises less than one half of one tenth of one percent of the atmosphere. The most abundant and the most potent greenhouse gas is water vapour - H2O mole per mole has a higher enthalpy than CO2 - yet hydrogen fueled automobiles are touted as a solution for global warming.
Just look up at the sun to see the real cause of global warming. Envirnmental alarmists who think that humanity causes climate change and humanity can change the same are an example of pure hubris. Besides I am rather enjoying the milder winters here in Canada.

My response:
Well, I’m not going to waste my time trying to convince you otherwise, but I don’t want to write you off either.

Many people and corporations are making a lot of money on keeping this a debatable issue and, according to your comment, it sounds like they’re doing a damn good job. So we obviously disagree with each other there.

But the recent and overwhelming focus on climate change, as real and as scary as it is, has detracted from the other environmental problems that continue to exist.

You mentioned pollution and resource depletion. Those are two problems that have turned hundreds of miles of sea into dead zones. If you see fish as resources, note that 90 percent of the large fish in the sea are gone. Consider mineral depletion, soil erosion, the fact that every single stream in the US contains carcinogens (and cancer is now the leading cause of death), or that dioxin and other deadly chemicals are commonly found in women’s breast milk….

There have been 5 major world-wide periods of mass-extinction of species during the earth’s recorded existence. We are in the middle of the sixth one. 150 species are lost every day. The primary reason is simply loss of habitat.

Nobody can argue that we’re not behind much of, if not all of these things.

I’m not an alarmist, I’m a realist, one of many who would rather not live under the threat of apocalypse than maintain an abusive, exploitive lifestyle that is not only killing us but isn’t even making us any happier.

Instead of visiting blog sites and trying to cut me down on things we obviously don’t agree on, why don’t you consider the things we DO agree on. I’m tired of simply “respectfully disagreeing” with people and then never talking to them again. My point is, we don’t have to agree on global warming, but align yourself somewhere. We can build from there.

This is messed up.

What does one say to a young woman gang raped by men paid by us to work for a company from which our vice president profits, men who have yet to be charged with any crime, a company yet to make amends in any way, and a presidential administration effectively granted immunity by our representatives in Congress?