Passage #356: 15 June 2016
Luck of the Draw
When we began this ride, seven years ago, one of our goals (we had a lot of goals) was to make each route somewhat improvisational and exploratory, to let ourselves "be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters [we] find there." Every ride should be a scouting ride, we thought. And we (sort of) tried that and (sort of) learned that the thrill of abandoning oneself to the whims of the landscape, with all the backtracking and false starts that might entail, does not necessarily translate well to a group bike ride. To actually have any fun, it seemed, we would need to loosen the conceptual constraints a fair bit, which was just fine (we had a lot of goals).
But what would the Passage be like if we had never learned that lesson? Would each week be a kind of pure dérive in the streets of Koreatown? Or some oddly-cast performance in which we sit in the parking lot eating yams and grapefruits? More importantly, would we have built the Hacienda by now? We can never know. What we can do, however, is celebrate the seventh anniversary of the ride in a style befitting its origins. This week, we drop our usual motives for movement and action and try to find, within the mostly-rectilinear street grid of Hollywood and Mid-City, some attractions and encounters to draw us.
