Monthly Archives: October 2022

Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa is known for being a musician, songwriter, composer and bandleader. As an exponent of the satire American culture, his work is characterized by nonconformity, sound experiments, musical virtuosity and improvisation. If you are asking yourself what is one relation of Frank Zappa with bicycles, just go on reading.

Do you know that the first TV appearance of Frank Vincent Zappa he played… two bikes as musical instruments? It sounds crazy, but I promise it is true. He appeared on Steve Allen’s syndicate late night show in March 27th, 1963. Precisely, he used a bow borrowed from the band’s bass player and drum sticks. Then, the twenty-three year old musician continued by plucking, banging and bowing the spokes of the bikes. As a result, he produced funny, strange sounds from his innovative instruments. Indeed, he announced he had played bicycles as musical instruments for two weeks at the beginning of the performance, as a clear expression of the humor he showed.

Alireza

Some bike-fantasies deal with the possible relationships of some historical people no matter whether they enjoyed a bicycle or not. Just imagine how it could have been as it comes to King George, Joan of Arc, Gregor Mendel or Grace Hopper. The Iranian painter Alireza Karini Moghadam fantasizes with Van Gogh.

Van Gogh is known for being an impressive painter as well as for suffering psychological problems. Regarding this, some people thought he was always in bad mood, although this is not true. Alireza knows it and tries to express it in their paintings. Imagination paves the way. Indeed, thanks to his deep studies on Van Gogh, he is convinced that the painter loved life and thus paints him with a smile on the same landscapes and similar paint techniques. Vegetables capture most of attention, similarly to the yellow and blue colors, and of course Van Gogh himself. Moreover, Frida Kahlo, Kanagawa, Leonardo da Vinci and Edvard Munch influence him.

Dangerous by design: Paintless crosswalks

Seattle, and most US cities, are full of paintless crosswalks.
You know they are crosswalks because there are ramps installed on the sidewalks with the typical dotted/yellow covers to help blind people.
However, drivers have a hard time seeing the ramp, not to mentioned if there are parked cars before the crosswalk, so painting that zebra crossing is vital if you intend drivers to stop when there are people crossing.
I have personally seen drivers honking the horn at pedestrians using paintless crosswalks, and a couple of almost accidents.
So please, US departments of transportation and urban planners, could we make sure pedestrians won’t be run over by cars by actually making crosswalks visible to drivers?, please.

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