Filmed by Bike 10

I was kinda nervous because “Bike Kill,” the first film in last night’s Filmed by Bike program was so bad ass. After the about two minutes of video from some sort of hard core bike jousting event, which included a giant paper-mache penis battering ram knocking guys in leather off of BMX bikes; I couldn’t imagine how our little film, “The Ant and the Grasshopper” would stack up.

But it fit right in with its own brand of bad assisitude: a little quieter and while not nearly so much of a kick in the balls, still something of a poke in the eyes—at least mine, which got a bit misty at the whole reality of the thing, which included, among other items, a train ride with my family, the opportunity to drink in the street with people I know, and a night of entertainment of several sorts, none of which form the standard quotidian amusements of a community college teacher from Seattle, Washington.

It was a day when bikes leapt off racks at eighty miles an hour and where nobody could ever quite stop shushing the shushers, but for me, it couldn’t have been better unless the evening’s program wasn’t 21 and over the kid could have seen her work on the big screen. As it was, I managed to manage by enjoying pretty much everything, which wasn’t particularly a challenge since pretty much everything was so swell.

Portland remains just so fucking cute you want to strangle it and a hipster Chamber of Commerce advertisement for itself, but I also believed it’s still practically a stage set for a kind of alternative future from a steampunk version of tomorrow, where everyone, even the grownups ride bikes and stays out late, and it doesn’t matter if what you’re doing or where you’re at isn’t a place your mom would go because it’s really about being a part of something where surprisingly, your own piece fits right in.