Rock Lobster Ride and Public Space Party

Joannie at her first ride n two years at the rock lobster ride by Louisa Ashleigh Krupp

All day, I rode my bike through Brooklyn.  Down Atlantic and back, to and  from Park Slope, up to Red Hook, we rode, taking n the pulsing city, the best way I know how.

It was all a prelude for the Rock Lobster Ride later that evening.

Hatched between drinks after the drag march, the facebook invite referred to the old B52’s song we danced to n high school.   I was blown away by the song then and still am.

It wasn't a rock. It was a rock lobster. 
Come dance with your friends from Public Space Party. 
Bring your bike and some music. 
Wear a wig! Dress up! Invite other friends.
Transform New York's public spaces into DiY spaces for pleasure, dancing, exchange, highs and lows, and trouble. Yes, of course, we will have the sound bike.

 Public Space Party  organzed the event. 

The point of  these rides is to revel in public space in nyc, even as it changes and evolves.  But to still try to find it, to try to revitalize it,  dance in it, even in this great big shopping megaplex we know as NYC inc.

So we met in the park, chatted, and zipped in circles, down st marks place, to astor place, where we danced.

Some cars loved us; others honked and tried to block the ride.  

Riding, police told us to turn down the sound system.

Still, we made our way down to the Bowery where cbgb’s used to be, passing a sidewalk café usurping and encroaching into  public space like much of the city,  listening to the romones, with people from the Bowery Residence joining us along with other people from the street, slam dancing and remembering what was there before.

And we kept gong, up to 14^th where the Palladium used to be. Today its an NYU dorm, just as CBGB’s is now a shoe store.

And then downtown to Punjabi on Houston for some food.

This is my favorite part, explained my friend JC, just hanging out in public space with my friends with no plan.

Riding back, we passed Odessa, where we used to go after rides.  Kates has closed; Lfe Café Closed, so many of our haunts closed.

Even some of the parks where we tried to go out were closed. 

But we kept looking.

Ended up talking and sitting for hours at the park along the bike path on Stanton.

Despite the losses, the city felt alive and pulsing.

Talking and recalling the Billionaires, the ant war movement, public space, the ways we it, and our next ride, maybe to the Bronx, maybe to Roosevelt island.

As for now, that will have to wait as we’re off for a little adventure over the next month.

Planes taking off tomorrow. We’ll miss you nyc.