Where You Go When You Want to Think

This site has excerpts of my novel-in-progress, Hot Love on the Wing, as well as thoughts on post postmodernism, avant garde art, literature, music, and the community of artists in Bushwick and New York.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

How to Get Back to Bushwick

Utica Ave., more than 3 miles of this.
Under a Florentine sky I saddle my beast and we ride into the early dusk. She is slow to get going but responsive to stop. I've had to take care of her often lately; I ride her hard.

Yesterday she had a broken spoke so I took her to Larry's Bike Shop down on Flatbush Ave. It took a while to fix and true the wheel, so that by the time I was ready to roll I had scoped the map and devised an alternate route home - up Utica Ave.

Lined with auto stores and flat fix shops, I was doing just fine when I heard a nasty hiss. Too good to be true. I laughed at what the fates had dealt, walked, tried to get on a bus, was denied.

I was the only white person on the streets, which is fine by me, but the closest subway was about a mile an a half east. How to get home to Bushwick? About to take a cab, I asked a nice woman and her son if they knew of a car service.

They told me to get my bike fixed at a shop right there, next to the yellow store. A dude who rode a teal fixie with a rainbow colored chain named Duiight, d-double-i-g-h-t,  laughed at me for not having a spare and said, you gonna learn ow to patcha tube today. But the tube wasn't all - the tire itself had popped too, and he cut a piece of rubber to brace the wheel to make it work "that much mo' bet-ta'." I thanked him, now I won't even have to get it fixed. He laughed, you will, he said.

I'm calling Duiight this weekend to get my baby remodeled - front free wheel fixed. Ooooeee!!

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