and it would only be appropriate to share with you my other alter-egos floating around on the internet:

The French Greg Hum:

The Carleton University Greg Hum:

The McGill University Greg Hum, Mr. birthday boy.

Of course, just because I could only find three other imposters of myself on the internet doesn’t mean there aren’t more lurking in the dark, waiting to come out. I was hoping to find Greg Hum the Nobel Laureate in Astro-Physics, but alas, I’ll just have to settle for me, the fan of role-playing videogames.

I’ve failed miserably to keep this blog updated in the past five months since my last post, so I’m going to promise more fequent blogging from now on and make it up to you right now with my “what I did over the summer” post that I’ve had saved as a draft for three months:

Here are some things I learned this summer:

• Free shows/UCB comedy/come out and play NYC are excellent reasons to hang out in New York City during the summer. I saw MGMT, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Michael Ian Black, and a random blues band show all for free.
• If you go to Critical Mass Manhattan, cops will gladly ticket or tackle you:
• if you go to Brooklyn Critical Mass, cops will gladly block traffic for you



• wearing a helmet spared me serious injury when I flew over my handlebars onto the pavement, but didn’t spare my front tooth from needing a root canal.



• it’s really easy (and fun) to spend no money on gas, lose weight, and get places much faster than walking by biking instead of driving. 35lbs in 8 months easy.
• ultimate frisbee in the muddy rain is pure bliss.
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is my new favorite TV sitcom ever. (next to arrested development, of course).
• The freely distributed NYC Bike map, marked with streets, subways, and bike lanes, was my best friend while biking in NYC. I know my way around the city and Westchester a whole lot better after exploring by bike
• subway dancing is contagious. really.

So even though I didn’t have an internship this summer, I was happy to not be in front of a computer all day like I had been in my previous summer jobs. I made productive use of my time in other ways, like taking a summer class, reading books, and exploring the great city of New York on my bicycle. After spending so much time outside I discovered the art of people-watching in interesting places like central park and Coney Island; No where else could you witness two evil grandparents take turns spraying their unsuspecting infant grandchildren with a boardwalk hose, all the while laughing in summer glee. At some point during my summer I came to really appreciate the notion that productive play is productive learning, and life was more enjoyable as a result.

On that note, I leave you with some intellectual stimulation: a few of my favorite TED talks videos.

First, “Do schools today kill creativity?”

Second, “Why we don’t understand as much as we think.” (for the record, I immediately knew the answer to the battery, wire, and light bulb question because it so happens I used to love playing with batteries, wires, and light bulbs)

And third, “The amazing intelligence of crows”

So on Wednesday I decided to spice up my commute and bike from my house to class the entire way. It would be a 25 mile ride that looks like this:

Armed with some water, my notebook, and a camera I woke up at 5am (the earliest I’ve been up since finals week last semester) and left my door at 6. I kept the following mental log of adventures I came across along the way:

6:00am: Left house in musty 60 degree weather as I made my way across to Yonkers.

6:30am: Rode down Nepperhan Ave In south Yonkers. It was really quiet as no shops were open yet and traffic was minimal, but homeless old people were everywhere, moping around aimlessly. I felt like I was biking through a deserted city of flesh eating zombies. One homeless guy I passed tried to casually break into what he didn’t realize was an unmanned undercover cop car. When he found the doors were locked, he just walked away slowly with his head down in shame.

7:00am: Crossed the Broadway bridge from Riverdale into the very tip of Manhattan, which is just a bunch of trees:

7:05am: All these trucks parked in the bike lanes made biking in them near impossible. Those bastards.


7:15am: Found a dock with scenic view of Hudson river and George Washington Bridge. This is what my beast of a bike looks like:


7:20am: Continued down a dirt path two joggers were coming from, until I came to the end of it which was a hole in a fence that put me right on the Amtrak train tracks. Whooops. Well I had to backtrack a few miles but it was worth it because I came across some sweet graffiti pieces, including a tag by the famous REVS.

7:40am: Found my way to the West Side green way, a two-way bike/walk path that spans the entire west side of Manhattan along the Hudson river.

8:00am: Came across this huge Civil War memorial:



8:20am: Crossed over to east side on 69th and rode through Central Park. Saw a large group of people cheering in a courtyard with bright lights on. It’s the set of the “Early Show!”:

8:30am: Arrived at Hunter College with over an hour until class started at 9:50. Ate a bacon egg and cheese sandwich and sipped on an ice coffee; the perfect reward for a successful workout.

Overall the ride was a great experience and was pretty safe as there was little traffic so early in the morning. It was my first ride into Manhattan, and definitely not my last. After going down the wrong path for a while the entire trip ended up being closer to 35 miles and probably would’ve taken less than the 2 1/2 hours it took me door-to-door had I not gotten lost. The neatest thing about biking to Manhattan was seeing stuff I never would have seen otherwise in a city I’m fairly familiar with. It was also great to not be sitting behind a window and actually biking along the Hudson river for a scenic view. To anyone who road bikes regularly, 35 miles probably isn’t much, but for me it was a step up from just biking around town.

Thus concludes another page in my bike diary. I’ll definitely bike down to the city again a bunch until class ends, maybe even taking different routes. Either way I’ve still much exploring to do in the Jungle that is New York City.

gatherings of epic proportions like this:
(click to watch)

and kids who think they can tour with the bigs guys. Hey is that a guy in a chicken suit?:
(click to watch)

On the topic of bikes, I’ve been biking here in Boston since January and haven’t loved biking so much since sixth grade when I thought I would grow up to become Dave Mira on my BMX. Since I bike to work everyday I’ve spent $0 on cabs/bus/T and it’s great. Not to mention I’ve learned a lot about bike maintainable, after replacing almost all the parts on my current ride. Monthly Boston Critical Mass group rides are the icing on the cake. What can I say, city biking rules.

I’ve discovered the East Coast Greenway effort, basically a collective effort to map a seamless and traffic-less bike route spanning all 3000 miles of the US east coast from the tip of Maine to the bottom of florida. So when I get home I plan to do some serious biking on my free time, at least biking from Scarsdale to Manhattan and back following the greenway routes through New York or local Scarsdale routes others have sketched out on MapMyRide.com.

If you’ve seen me biking and constantly bug me about wearing a helmet (yes, you. Caroline), know that I’m aware of the dangers of getting hit by cars and dragged on the pavement and do plan on making a hair helmet soon.

Oh, and come May 30th I’ll be at Critical Mass, this time in Manhattan. It will be epic.

Darnell (32 years old, African-American) said police should be more creative.

Let’s say you catch one of us — I’d make the boy wear a dress and makeup. Maybe for two weeks. Let the boy go to school looking like a girl. Let him walk the streets looking like he’s gay. I guarantee you, we’d have a hard time holding on to n–rs if you do sh–t like that!

Well said, Darnell.

It’s also worth checking out this NPR article and audio interview of Sudhir Ventakesh in which Ventakesh recounts some of his experiences following around the leader of a violent crack gang. Or if you’re really interested here’s a vid of him do a read from his latest book Gang Leader for a Day followed by a Q&A.

Just look at that badass. ]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thehum/2008/05/03/what-gang-members-say-about-newly-proposed-gang-tax/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thehum/2008/05/03/gaia-and-deep-strike-again/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thehum/2008/05/03/gaia-and-deep-strike-again/#comments Sat, 03 May 2008 22:17:36 +0000 thehum http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thehum/2008/05/03/gaia-and-deep-strike-again/ Sweet ginormous roller tags by Gaia and Deep both of which were picked up by Bombin’ Magazine Online.

A gutted Buick turned pedal powered shell gets pulled over and cops charge driver with “operating unsafe vehichle.” The drivers went to court and argued their vehicle was not any less safe than bicycles, horse-drawn buggies or a rickshaw, all of which are street legal.

Well the judge recently ruled in their favor so pedal powered buicks are now legal to drive around Toronto. Huzzah! From a news report on the trial: “the defence made a special point of asking the police officer if he had ever stopped a rickshaw or a horse and buggy. To which the officer sheepishly replied that he had never seen a horse-drawn carriage in Toronto.”

Here’s a video of the drivers driving and getting pulled over (click to watch):

yabbadabbadoooo

My good friend Dan MacDonald, who plays by the name Spitzer Space Telescope, was recently featured in BU Today’s arts section as “BU’s one man band.” He writes and plays energetic folk music inspired by folk of the 60s and 18th-19th century Ireland-a unique fusion indeed.

I just love how Dan managed to incorporate his love of sci-fi into a song he wrote called Mynocks in the Garden. (Mynocks are those little bastard creatures that chew on the Millennium Falcon’s powerlines in Star Wars Episode V). When was the last time you heard a folk song about Star Wars? Dan just makes wonderful music with a story to tell. Even ones about made up mythical creatures. Be sure to check out his Myspace

And I’m not the only one who loves his music. Another friend Callum Hanlon used Dan’s music in his entry for this year’s Boston Campus Movie Fest, where competing teams had one week to write, shoot, and produce a five minute long short film. This year teams were asked to submit their films online at a site called Ourstage so viewers could rate them. Cal’s Movie, titled “Hello, Love,” (the title taken from one of Dan’s songs) as of writing stands #1 in most views out of the 128 other campus movie fest movies submitted online. We’ll find out how they fare at the BU finale this friday and if they advance, also at the Boston finale on the 26th. If the film wins anything Dan will get tons of exposure and Cal and his team could be in for some prize money
.

-Gorg

As for a first post, here’s a fabulous collaboration of sorts between my two favorite street artists DEEP and Gaia located in Scarsdale NY.

-Greg