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Downward Dog Days NYC: The Gongyo

2009-07-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Still on a a "transcendental tear" after my Yoga teacher training, last night's spiritual excursion was to a Gongyo - a formal chanting ceremony in the Nichiren Buddhism tradition, as practised by members of Soka Gakkai International.

Wiki oh wiki, what is Nichiren Buddhism?

Nichiren Buddhism focuses on the Lotus Sutra and a belief that all people have an innate Buddha nature, and are capable of attaining enlightenment in their present lifetime. Nichiren Buddhists believe that the spread of Nichiren's teachings and their effect on practitioners' lives will eventually bring about a peaceful, just, and prosperous society.

Sounds good to me!

I was first introduced to SGI by leadership coach and friend Chuck Craytor, an SGI devotee for over 20 years. I was mesmerized by the power of even a small roomful of people chanting the key mantra, or Daimoku: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

From Wiki: The basic practice of SGI members is based on faith, practice, and study. Faith entails chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo daily and reciting gongyo (the Expedient Means and Life Span Chapters of the Lotus Sutra). The duration of chanting tends to depend upon the individual member; typically it will start off minimal (5 to 10 minutes morning and evening), but long term practitioners frequently chant for at least half an hour or an hour morning and evening. Some members will occasionally chant daimoku tōsō ("chanting struggle"), which is extended chanting over several hours in a single day. ... As lay believers and engaged Buddhists, SGI members strive in their everyday lives to develop the ability to live with confidence, to create value in any circumstances and to contribute to the well-being of friends, family and community. The promotion of peace, culture and education is central to SGI's activities.

Applied Buddhism - what the world needs more of for sure. We arrived at the NY location at 7pm. You need to sign in with ID if you're not a member. Upstairs, a large room with rows of chairs face the alter or Gohonzon. There is a set half hour practice which follows a slim little volume you can buy for 75 cents called "The Liturgy of Nichiren Buddhism".

The procedure is this: first, a spirited recitation of the Lotus Sutra - a hypnotic poem in a kind of phonetic Japanese. Some know it completely off by heart, which isn't meant to be impressive to the casual observer but really knocks your socks off. Then there is some gonging, with silent prayers in between, followed by a truly frenzied repetition of the Daimoku. It's led by someone with a mike and will be as fast or slow as that person decides. In this case, the woman leading it would make a darn good fist of "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Indeed, the more frenzied the chant, the more emotion is generated and the deeper the effect, I'm told. During the chanting many people fondle a string of prayer beads.

You couldn't help but notice the extreme diversity of people sitting in the chant. There was truly no one main kind of "chanter". Half an hour passed quickly, and yet slowly; it is amazing what the brain does when it is forced to focus on one phrase. Time expanded, then contracted.

Afterwards, we peeked into some upstairs rooms where the sutra was being taught slowly for beginners by a man with a very strong Japanese accent - it required considerable meditation to work out what he was saying. Then we traipsed down to the bookshop and each bought a copy of the 75 cent liturgy and a CD to listen to how it should sound.

Gongyo has a completely different sound and feel to the melodic Kirtan. It's all good.

Hear the Gongyo for yourself:

Gongyo slow and steady

Gongyo fast and furious by Western Bhuddist monks

Tina Turner reciting the Lotus Sutra for Larry King - really impressive!

Downward Dog Days in NYC: My first Kirtan

2009-07-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

This is NOT Obama, sorry. I think it's a photo of Swami Sivananda, founder of the Sivananda movement - from a postcard I bought at the shop. "Nothing is impossible to a person who practices concentration." Could have been said by Obama himself ...

If you've ever wondered where those Hari Krishnas disappear off to when they float down the road in their orange robes, their chants and bells fading into the distance ... I think I've sussed it out.

It would be a place like the Sivananda center, which in NYC, is actually a real live ashram tucked away in a row house, with resident Swami. Having recently completely a basic yoga teacher certification, I'm in the process of educating myself about as many different forms of yoga as possible - from the Friday night downward-dog-dating scene at some studios, to the fluorescent-lit gym drill to rubbing trunks with Ganesha himself - it's all good.

According to Google, Sivananda is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the teachings of Vedanta, which is based on the Upanishads, or the last of the Vedas, the four holiest books of the Hindu religion. This is already getting complicated - go wiki it yourself, but in essence, the idea is ...

1. Human nature is divine.
2. The aim of human life is to realize that human nature is divine.

Or, according to the Sivananda "About Us":

"Brahma Satyam. Jagat Mithya. Jivo Brahmaiva Na Parah."

which translates to:

God only is real. The world is unreal. The individual is none other than God.

I still don't quite get it, but then, we're talking thousands of years of tradition - these things take a while to sink in.

Back to the center. It's got a spiritual, peaceful vibe, and not at all intimidating, elitist or even scary as some might think whenever they see a flapping mandala under a stoop. It reminded of Vipassana or TM centers. There's a cute little shop selling yoga accoutrements and spiritual books at front, and a kitchen where they do $10 meals Mon, Tue and Sun at 7.30pm (you need to sign up).

The Kirtan, or rather, Satsang, is held every Wednesday deo 7-8:30pm and all are welcome.

On arrival, remove shoes, switch off cell, climb the steep stairs to a long, narrow, warmly lit room set up with cushions, mats, percussion instruments, and a chant book - though most attendees seem to know it off by heart.

There were just five guys present in a room of mainly women, who, as the Swami joked, "haven't been scared away." Swami himself is a 40-ish, shaved-headed, engaging male with a accent from Somewhere Over There. He plays a mean tamboura or sitar - I couldn't quite see, but it's the stringed instrument that produces that signature twangy accompaniment to Indian chanting.

I soon discovered - in a gentle way - you're not really supposed to wear tank tops (bare shoulders) like I and several other newbies did. The "dress modestly" edict means a t-shirt and cotton pants, not hot yoga camisoles and wet-look lycra leggings.

The kirtan starts with a round of OMs - maybe a dozen - like waves - very resonant and really set the tone. (Yoga teacher Shaun Granato once did a series of 'cascading' OMs in a class at Joschi that resembled this.)

The first half hour or so is silent meditation - challenging, because the car alarm outside went off and would not quit, though this added to the experience in a strange way.

Then, the singing and chanting "Hari Krishna" style began - from the book. Yes, I really felt like I was transported to the banks of the river Ganges. A sound that really envelops you. They say the quality of the OM (actually AUM with an emphasis on the M) varies with the state of mind of the individuals in the room.

Swami then does a reading - in this case it was about letting go, a popular theme that we never seem to quite master until we're 6 feet under.

More chanting and prayers from the book ensue, then someone brings a candle around, and you're supposed to fan the flame towards you with your hand. Being a newbie I stared at it rather lamely but appreciated the concept.

Lastly, a paper napkin is handed out to each person, and someone comes around with a small saucepan spooning some sweet grain thing resembling semolina and ghee sweetened with honey. This, Google tells me, is called a prasad. I have to say it was delicious - must get the recipe :o)

So now I know where Joschi teacher DonnaLynn got her final chant from - and what it means.

Sivananda's printed catalogues show that have an ashram in the Catskills where they conduct an utterly mind boggling array of courses - everything from permaculture (featuring the original Australian founders of the movement) to 5-day yoga retreats, cooking classes, stress management to their own on-site yoga teacher training. There's a pretty ritzy one on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, with, strangely, a 'beautiful person' shot that looks like it was lifted from an Armani Xchange ad, on the cover.

Tonight I'm going to experience the Gongyo at the Soku Gakkai institute with my fellow graduate trainees. I'll get enlightened yet ...

UPDATE: I took advantage of the free first Open yoga class at 4pm. It's a long hour and a half, beginning with some serious pranayama (breathing) including holding one's breath for 30, 60 and then 75 seconds - some serious oxygen exchange going on there!
The poses begine with a simple Sun Salutation repeated a dozen times, then a meditative progression through 12 basic postures, starting - rather than ending - with headstand. Then there's shoulder stand, plough, bridge, staff pose, seated forward bend with leg bent (janu sirsasana), crow, and triangle pose (trikonasana). The emphasis is slow, retention of the pose. This is Hatha, rather than Vinyasa yoga. There's quite a good discussion of the differences here.

Traffic Cone Bag (TM) - "Happy Hour" Security feature

2009-07-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here's another cool feature of the minimalist TCB design: SECURITY.

By unclipping one or both of the snaphooks, you can secure the bag to the leg or arm of your chair, so prevent swipe-and-grabs in bars or restaurants. Or, perhaps it enables you to keep the bag off the ground rather than swimming in spilled tequila and peanut shells (but at least it's washable). The same snaphooks are what enable you to sling it to the handlebars or elsewhere of your bike, stroller, wheelchair ...

STRAPS TOO SHORT? The bag is designed to be minimal, one size fits most - with no unnecessary clips or adjustments. If you're big across the chest and you find the straps a bit short, you can add an extender like a carabiner or two between the snap hook an the D-ring. One size fits most, but easily modified by readily available fittings - is the key to simplicity.

Comment on your TCB please!

Order a TCB from me here.

Traffic Cone Bag (TM) News - new loop for blinky light

2009-07-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a Bike Friday speaking tour in Georgia, where a number of my TCB's were bought by local commuters.

From Sorella Cycling Club member Gwyneth Lodge, who hosted my Cuba talk:

I have loved the bag so far! I haven't actually used it on a bike yet, but have been carrying it around anyway as a cute casual bag. My city bike/bar bike is a fixed gear, and I just rode fixed for the first time last night at the velodrome. I'm confident I can handle fixed on the streets now, so I'll be back to my usual riding around town. That's what I really needed the bag for.

A new little feature for the June 2009 run: a little elastic loop to hold a blinky light. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but in this day and age of overfeaturing (like supersizing only in features, not calories), my aim is to keep things as minimal and as simple as possible. Everything you need, and nothing you don't.

The light I like to use with this bag is the one that's usually clipped onto the tool bag hanging off my bike seat. It's a Planet Bike SuperFlash, which has a brilliant strobe-like flash and is probably the most effective compact tail light on the market for the price (around $25). Clipped onto the loop, it lights up the whole bag like a sheet of orange. Of course if I really want to stay alive or when riding more serious distances at night, I use my DiNotte system that lights up the whole ROAD, but this is adequate for just getting about town - plus you can easily take the light with you.

Of course you can also use the optional Lightweights too - I have a small starter sets that you can buy with the bag.

Minimalism is what I'm all about. I'm not a fan of bags with unnecessary bulk, zips, closures, patchwork, pockets you lose movie tickets in, unless I'm in the mood for bling then I'd probably go splurge on a Marc Jacobs beaded bowling ball bag. I don't particularly care that it's not made of recycled materials - I want a little bag that does the job I need - looks good with a suit or shorts, compressible, can tuck it under my arm, sling it over the bike, doesn't clash with anything. If a tool fits the purpose, you'll use it to death and save the environment anyway by not creating landfill because you won't be buying three different things that kind of do the one thing you want.

Thanks to Caroline Fu for pulling an overnighter to get these finished for my Georgia trip. "The bag is deceptive" she says. "it looks simple, but it takes a long time to sew because you have to finish it really nicely, and because it's a minimalist design, you can't hide bad stitching and alignment in patterns or folds." Read Caroline's story, and if you like her meticulous sewing on your TCB, give her a call and let her know. She's a lone rangerette, she'll be delighted: (212) 278-8830

Comment on your TCB please!
Order a TCB from me here.

Downward Dog Days NYC: Now a certified yoga teacher

2009-06-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Fun and games with partner yoga - teacher Michael Kersten shows me a basic Cir du Soleil move

Pictured above: Spring 2009 graduates. Spot the Galfromdownunder doing the easy pose - Navasana.

Three grueling months are finally done and dusted - I'm now a 200-hour certified Vinyasa yoga teacher, according to the certificate that now sits on top of a pile of books including anatomy, The Bhagavad Gita, the Sutras, and a very thick training manual from Joschi Yoga Institute, NYC.

No longer can I make half-baked Downward Facing Dogs with my knees on the ground begging like Fido. Why didn't anyone ever correct me in the past? There's nothing like a formalized course to set you straight on misconceptions you might have had for years.

The course was big on anatomy, as Joschi, the head yogi, is a certified authority in that subject, along with psychology, dance, and other related fields. He and business partner Monika run a tight ship; there's no woo-woo laxness about the course. You invested hard earned money into educating yourself, they make sure you stand in Tadasana and deliver. They showed us that a knowledge of anatomy is really valuable in a movement-based yoga style such as Vinyasa - all those rotator cuff injuries might be avoided if you knew how vulnerable the shoulder really is - just four little muscles that guide the ball and socket around like a golf ball on a tee ... and twingy backs might be helped if you simply sucked your tummy in and your tail under "like a panini". Especially "when waiting on the platform of the subway" says Joschi. And roll those shoulders BACK!

Testing out my Yoga for Cyclists class in Georgia - more pictures of this.
Comment from Sharon Sussman, retired orthopedic surgeon and one of my Bike Friday customers: Right under "roll those shoulders BACK" was a photo of your cyclist class with a profile of someone who was definitely not rolling them back (the guy in the white shirt) and I realized that right there is a big issue for cyclists. Almost everyone except very upright tourists, mountain bikers and 'bent riders ride in a forward-folded position with their necks extended. Shoulders back, chin level is the antidote for that.

Despite my job as a card-carrying Customer Evangelist where I speak in front of crowds for a crust, I experienced an interesting form of stage fright when it came to the earlier teaching exercises. Meticulously (overprepared) sequences seemed to clean evaporate from my head when under the spotlight. This reminds us how important it is to "break up the concrete" and stick one's neck (keeping it in line with the spine) outside one's comfort zone. "It takes a while to find your rhythm and flow," said Randi Zinn, a brilliant young teacher who inspired me to get certified in the first place. "Get up, dust off, start over." Like, "before yoga course, chop wood, carry water. After yoga course, chop wood, carry water" - except I'll upgrade my Wal*Mart axe and bucket. I shall persevere "like a king on a throne with a broken heart," as Sutras teacher Michael Kersten instructed us. Yes, you're treated to many useful, spiritual gems too.

My focus will be teaching vinyasa yoga to beginners and cyclists. Non-cyclists will benefit also - my studies reveal that so many of our activities are done in a 1-dimensional, front-to-back plane - walking, hiking, swimming, typing, driving, eating pasta, hitting the HD TV remote control, extreme knitting - probably because our eyes are on the front of our heads. It's all closed-shoulder, closed hip movement. We don't often crab sideways - dancers or skaters are blessed with that whole body extension and flexion. 1-D movement leads to misalignment, as I showed ad nauseum in my Andy Pruitt Bike Fit multimedia. I hope my class will be a beneficial complement to a spin class.

Cycling is on the increase - and as we get older and stiffer we need to stay flexible. Flexible body, flexible mind ... most of my customers are 55 and over, because most people can ride a small wheeled bike - til the day you pedal into that last great rest stop in the sky. See my unfettered opinion on people who are marginalized by society.

Stand by ... in a good Tadasana, of course!

A fun interlude - teacher Sarah Coleman shows us some partner yoga - better than marriage counselling.

Floating Sticky: Galfromdownunder where?

2009-06-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a clue to where I'll be when, or was:
Bike Friday Event Calendar ... specifically my spot on it

+++

Jan 2008 San Francisco/Sacramento
Feb 2008 Hawaii
Mar 2008 Arizona
Mar-Aug 2008 Galfromdownunder downunder
Sep 2008 New York

GAL MOVIES

Check out the latest Gal movies on YouTube or go right to the all-time best ones

My old Livejournal Latest News use to do the job of this WHERE sticky - now it just stores interesting history about my Cuba book for posterity

Permalink for this post: www.galfromdownunder.com/where

A reader tracks down the Handsomest Man in Cuba! (and no, it's not the hombre on the cover)

2009-06-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Since my book The Handsomest Man in Cuba was first published in 2003, several people have gone over and used it to track down some of the people I met and stayed with. You can read about some of those encounters in this set of blog posts.

But I fell out of my saddle when Ken Lyneham from downunder actually went out of his way to locate the Handsomest Man himself. He's not the photographer on the cover (who could well be taking a photo of the Handsomest Man, or maybe Señor Hassleblad is just handsome inside) - but the hunk I met at the only fancy hotel I stayed in. And let me get the record straight - I shook his hand and that was it. So many people have written saying ... didja ... ? Puh-lese. Allow me to read you the closing line in that paragraph of daydreaming: "I let go of his hand." Yes, fully clothed and standing either side of a chicken wire gate we were, when we stopped shaking hands. Get it?

More thrillingly, Ken tracked down Lolita - the most beautiful woman in Cuba, at least in my eyes.

Ken wrote ...

Lynette,
Si, [I met] Roberto Fonseca Aguila, the one and the same, nice bloke too, very modest. He seemed perhaps, a little embarrassed when we read to him your soliloquy translated into Spanish. I didn't know if you remember or not, but you gave me a mission, if I chose to accept, and that was, if I was to make contact with Roberto, that I should take a photo of him. I have some really nice photos of Arismilda, Juan and their family. When we met them, she arranged for someone to go to daughter's school, to bring her home to meet us. Lolita? Well she is a truly lovely person, I'm not sure but I think Sylvia has her correct address and I am sure she would really love you to drop her a line or two ...

I am at the moment in the middle of writing up the journey we made. There were five people I wanted to visit from your book. Lolita, the bloke who lived in the two story house on the corner several streets up from where Lolita lives. The next was the young girl with arthritic knee who lives with her mother at Boca de Dos Rios. She is not her aunt as you mentioned in your book but her mother. The next was the 'Handsomest man' . He was extremely difficult to locate, you have no idea. Finally there was Arismilda and her family. We met them all except for the man in the two story house ...

Well I'm not going to rain on Ken's parade as he is writing his own story and I'll let him thrill you with it. All I can say is, Ken, I would have been bloody embarrassed too if I'd been in Roberto's shoes - or rather, flip flops. That paragraph reads somewhat like Mills & Boon soft porn. He probably ran for cover the moment he saw you across the road brandishing the book and pointing.

Meanwhile, here are Ken's photos of Lolita, Roberto and Arismilda and her esposo Juan. Everyone looks somewhat different from what I remember - after all, we ARE talking nearly years ago. I tried writing to these people but never got a reply - mail that is anything other than a postcard tends to go 'escondido' (missing). And yes, just like when I came face to face with the Handsomest Man in Nicaragua, my camera broke, meaning there were no more pictures after landing in Santiago de Cuba. Bummmmmmmmmmer. Thanks so much to readers who are taking me back there ... time for another visit - providing it doesn't screw up my Greencard. Ken's photos with his captions:

1. The photo of Arismilda and her husband, was taken in the sala of their house on the corner, opposite the bakery where Lynette tried to buy her bread rolls, in Manzanillo, Cuba.

2. This shot of 'The Handsomest man', was taken inside his house, in a quiet back street of Pilon. It took many kilometers and many more directions by "helpful" people, (99% of the directions were for the wrong Roberto),before we found the correct Roberto Fonseca Aguila. The lead that took us ultimately to him, was from his cousin Roberto Aguila, the man we were wrongfully directed to in the first place.

3. The third shot, is of the delightful Lolita. I took this one of her standing in her kitchen close to her new gas stove, (she got it free from the Government), that replaced the very smoky one used by her and Lynette. She had tears of joy when we read to her the parts where she was mentioned in, "The Handsomest Man in Cuba". as were all the others, Lolita was amazed to find that she had been made a part of a world famous travel book! [A mere legend in its own lunchtime, but I appreciate the support = The Gal]

4. That young girl [Nayra, with the arthritic knee] is now a teacher at a local school and was teaching when we arrived, so we didn't get to meet her. The photo I have attached here above is apparently in the room you slept in but with a new toilet added on - Ken

I must thank Ken also for popping by when I was in Sydney and fixing my smoking Apple Powerbook adaptor kinda like this.

The Handsomest Man in Deutschland

2009-06-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

UPDATE! Translation at the end of this post ...

I've just received a couple of reviews for the German edition of the Handsomest Man in Cuba - re-titled Cuba Particular by the folks at Piper-Verlag/National Geographic Adventure Press. Here they are:

Review 1 - Globetrotter
Review 1 - a random online review
See translations at the bottom of this post ...

If you can read German, be my guest and post a comment below telling us all what they say! Although I studied German for 4 years at school, the only words I know are "Lebkuchen" - a heavenly gingerbread cake-cookie dipped in a thin layer of dark chocolate, and only sold around Weinachten (Christmas), and "Sie antwortet, das fussball ihr langweilig ist." which means "she replied that she found football boring."

A German friend in New York mentioned that the translation sounded a little strange, so I asked the publishers to reassure me otherwise. Here's what they replied:

Dear Lynette Chiang,

As your German editor I'm very sorry to hear that your German
(speaking) friends criticized our translation of your wonderful
Cuba escapade THE HANDSOMEST MAN IN CUBA.

At the same time, I'm grateful for the chance to assure you of our
high standards in terms of translations for our NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
paperback series and the impeccable track record of your German
translator Andrea O'Brien. To wide critical acclaim she translated
renowned travel writer's such as Maria Coffey, Tahir Shah, Josie
Dew, and Iris Bahr, amongst many more.

As an avid admirer of your writing Andrea O'Brien worked
meticulously to capture your voice, particularly its spirited and
spontaneous undertones. I can only assume that this might have led
your friends to criticize the translation as "too colloquial" where
it is, in fact, as true to the tone of your original text as a
translation can possibly be.

Moreover, I hope you'll be relieved to hear that the critical
reception of your book in Germany is another case in point of the
translation's high quality. Your book received very favorable
reviews, which appeared in the widely read German adventure
magazine Globetrotter, in a magazine for book-sellers ("Book-seller
today"), and on a much visited Austrian online portal for book
reviews. Up to now we haven't received a single negative comment on
the German edition of your book, neither from critics nor from
readers. On top of this one of the most popular German long-
distance bikers Tilmann Waldthaler read the German translation of
your book in manuscript and supported it with an enthusiastic pre-
pubilcation quote ("An adventurous trip of a brave young woman who
sees and describes the world in a refreshing manner.").

Your German agent also kindly told me that you would like to
receive more information on the nature of our marketing co-
operation with NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Germany. The co-operation dates
back to the year 2001 and comprises the labeling of our paperback
titles with the prestigious NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC label and special
marketing activities, such as a full-colour ad in the German
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Magazine for each title, presentations of our
series in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC catalogues, and shared distribution
platforms in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC's German online shop. Ideally, the
co-operation is based on the shared mission of inspiring people to
care about the planet, especially its cultural and biological
diversity, and of exploring its unlimited room for adventure.

I very much hope this information helped to reassure you of the
high quality both of the translation and the publication background
of the German edition of your book. Please feel free to contact me
directly with possible further questions anytime you wish.

Many thanks and all best for your ongoing and future adventures -
of which I'm of course always interested to learn more,

Philip

__________________________________________

Dr. Philip Laubach-Kiani
Lektorat Malik / Editor Malik
Piper Verlag GmbH
Georgenstraße 4
80799 München

Tel. +49 (0)89 381801-17
E-Mail: philip.laubach@piper.de

Well, I can assure you my voice isn't eine klien nachtmusik to everyone and I can only imagine translating my ABC-isms (Australian Born Chinese-isms) was a big challenge. Still,

What's more, we have Bike Friday Dealers in and around Germany now, so the more small wheeled bicycle cheer I can spread, the better.

Thanks to the literati involved in this project: Stéphanie Abou @ Foundry Literary + Media, Sabine Ibach @ MOHRBOOKS AG and Philip @ Piper-Verlag for their kind attention. I feel like Bill Bryson for 15 nanoseconds!

+++

TRANSLATION of the above reviews

Kindly provided by Monika Werner of Joschi Body Bodega. She's the co-owner of the studio where I am getting my yoga teacher certification ...

1. Globetrotter Review
Lynette Chiang
Cuba particular
A tour around the island with a bicycle, the train and a van [A van? Are you kidding? - The Gal]
255 pages, 13 color pictures paperback

A meander around Cuba - what started as a round trip by bicycle morphed into a zigzag across Cuba by bicycle, car and train. Lynette Chiang, curious about the country and its people, traveled across Fidel Castro's empire far from the tourist throng. Despite their deprivation, Cubans constantly surprised her with their openness and love for life. At the age of 34 she left a respectable job, 3 bedroom house, fast car and a nice guy in Sydney and - despite an appalling sense of direction went on to discover the world by bicycle. Since then she's lived and worked in Great Britain, Ireland, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and the USA.

2. Random online review

Lynette Chiang's initial plan was to simply travel Cuba by bicycle. What developed a blithe, Caribbean zigzag across Castro's Cuba far from the tourist throng.
She chronicles her experience in an exceptional travel tale about the Caribbean's biggest island, relating her encounters with the locals who, though living under deprivation, haven't lost their joie the vivre and openness. An impressive travelogue which explains why jumping off the trail of mass tourism is worth it - at almost every destination.

3. Piper Verlag webpage

Young Australian Lynette Chiang journeyed through Cuba on a Bike Friday folding bike with simple camping gear and lots curiosity about Cuban people. Her four-month journey zig-zagging across the island from Havana to Santiago de Cuba is scenic, human, delightfully varied and enlightening. Whether on the street or in one of several casa particulars (cheap, semi-private lodgings) she is constantly surprised about the openness and contentment of the island's people, despite their tough lives under government regulation. A haunting view of Cuba far from tourist traps - insightful, and accurately observed by a passionate traveler.

Folding Bikes: Let's start with the horse before the cart

2009-06-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Meeting bicycling scholar Prof. John Pucher from Rutgers uni - he lives in Central Jersey and hasn't owned a car for over 35 years. Beats my 15 or so, but who's counting? Read John's academic bio. A cooler article about him in Momentum mag.

More about this on the Bike Friday blog.

I've just attended the American Institute of Architect's Fit-City 4, an annual half-day conference Promoting Physical Activity Through Design.

It was well attended, and I was one of three people who actually rode a bike, specifically a folding bike to the conference, stashing it under the reception desk. Naturally, bicycling was a central topic in addition to walking and stair climbing. Yes, there was even an expert stair designer on the panel, and the Dept of Mental Health and Hygiene (cleanliness is next to clueyness?) developed a lime green placard you could take away to hang in your stairwells.

It reads, "Burn Calories, not Electricity." Not bad slogonometry, but if only they'd asked an advertising copywriter to give our "say it straight, then say it great" treatment, you'd end up with something snappy like "Burn Carbs Not Hydrocarbs". (Or as my seatmate Dave Miller, cognitive engineer and veteran of Bike and Build put it, "Burn Ass Not Gas." We copywriters are incorrigible ... )

I liked one contributor's talk about a 'scenic, educational and circuitous route to the bathroom' benefiting both the abled and otherly-abled. "That's truly universal design," remarked Dave Miller. The case studies were very interesting, but left right at the end when people's tummies were grumbling. I would have opened with one, and sprinkled them throughout the worthy though comparatively prosaic keynotes. Oh they never built a monument to a critic ...

I met the lively and decidedly unprosaic bicycle scholar John Pucher, who presented tables showing how the USA was at the bottom of the pile in bicycle use, and Australia embarrassingly not far behind. In particular, he showed that women make up a fraction of USA cyclists compared to men, but rival the male ridership in other European countries. Same goes for the elderly - the older you are in those countries, the more likely you are to ride.

Sustainability conferences like this are always worthwhile, if for no other reason than to reiterate thorny problems and maintain momentum towards solutions. And, as a friend Max once said, "people do not need to be informed, so much as reminded." Professional pow-wows get people aware, networked and motivated - one architect asked about my bike nestled in reception, and went away "inspired to start riding again".

However, conferences often simply preach to the choir, and miss the opportunity to break new territory - perhaps due to political agendas and a bit of 'that's the way it's always been done.'

After being a Evangelist Behaving Badly at the Bikes in Buildings hearing (I learned quick that you don't get up and speak out of turn - but at least I didn't throw a chair like at the Rent Control hearings), I made sure to voice one, and only one contribution. The title of my spiel could be summed up thus:

Why not start with the horse, rather than the cart? Pictured: We call this, "under the table"

Since this conference was about "Intelligent Design", I pointed out that unintelligent, or rather, shortsighted design has led us into the mess we're in. I challenged the architects and designers present to start from the end user, with the piece of transport you can take with you. How hard could it be now - just leave a little extra space around each desk, wider turnstiles, put a bicycle symbol on the big blue wheelchair button ... and pass a bill allowing folders in all buildings at all times. I also pointed out that the social problems they all raised - obesity (older people and the otherly abled can ride because everyone can get their leg over a folder), tiny NY apartments (a folder takes less space), mass transit compatibility (you don't need a separate rail car for folders unless EVERYONE starts riding them), theft (take it indoors) - were all pretty well handled by buying even a cheap folder. I bookended my spiel by telling them I was not there to sell them a folding bike. That drew peals of laughter.

I hoped keynote speaker and DOT Commissioner Janet Sadik-Khan, who's made giant bunny hops for NY cyclists, wasn't sitting up there planning to let down my tires. You could say my agenda is somewhat at odds with the bill she is pushing to require storage space in buildings and encourage facilities like bicycle parking garages (watch my movie of the Cycle2City facility in Brisbane). But frankly, I cannot see the point of me pushing that platform when she and most other advocacy groups are doing it so well. I'm just the lone strangerette flying the folding flag.

Before I'm accused of selling folding bikes and thus stimulating the economy, health awareness and sustainability, I'm not saying folders are the only kind of bicycle you should ride, any more than I am saying kill the car. All are useful when appropriate. I'm just wondering why no one in these 'intelligent design' conferences ever starts with the "appropriate bicycle". At least ONE person could entertain that notion. Several architects came up to me after and said, "you've got a point." Time after time, people bemoan lack of space but never start from the thing we're trying to make space for. We push smaller cars, cellphones, slimming diets, personal stereo systems - why not smaller bicycles? (And smaller strollers, please).

What do I mean by appropriate bicycle?

If you want to ride mountains, get a mountain bike. If you want to be a roadie get a road bike. If you want to tour, get a packhorse bike. If you want to do triathlons get a tri bike. If you want to ride with someone very close in front or behind you, get a tandem. If you want to commute with a ton of stuff get an extracycle. If you want to ride but do less work, get an electric bicycle. If you want to be clever, get a unicycle. If you want to be scary impressive, get a BMX. If you want to ride to work and not have hassles locking, storing etc, get a folder.

And, pass a bill that says every building must have copious storage space for regular bicycles, but in the interim, which could last for years - please folders allow folders inside at all times.

Now for some emotional caveats ...

If you hate folders because you think you'll look like a dork - ok don't ride one.
If you your like regular bike better - ok don't ride one.
If you can't afford one starting at $125 or however much that cheapest folder on the internet is, despite the fact you have spent twice that on chai latte's and your iPhone just this year - ok don't ride one.

I will wait with you (inside) while building managements hum and ah about about allowing bikes inside, and hope your clunker doesn't get stolen by someone packing a chainsaw.

A bigger wheel even USES MORE RESOURCES to make, so if you don't need it for the job, save it for your time trial or 24 hrs of Adrenalin win.

Taking things to the extreme, I like bikes but they're not porn to me - I don't particularly want to see whole sidewalks clogged up with metal tubing - this picture is only cool because it's the Bisbee Bicycle Brothel and not the pavement.

But aside from these arguments, which are not real barriers - more preferences - put the horse before the cart and get the right tool for the job. REI and EMI and the like build their livelihoods on that premise. You can get a folder for under $200. Not a real good one, but it will do the job.

The Executive Director of the AIA, Rick Bell, made sure I didn't get too carried away with my folding tirade but did concede that even at the AIA offices they were wondering how to park bicycles inside. Have I got an intelligently designed bicycle for you, Rick ...

Now - here's a place in NYC where bikes AREN'T allowed and that's perfectly OK by me.

tikit on trial in NYC - my own mildly ballsy 'bikes in buildings' experiment in NYC

Get your tikit off the carbon express Bike Friday's Mission

Below: John Pucher makes a powerful point ... More of John's barcharts on the Bike Friday blog. What's gonna turn the tables on this? Maybe the widespread adoption of an everyperson bike - a folding bike!

USA is the lowest bicycle using nation - and I'm embarrassed to say - after Australia.

USA does not like to use the bike for work trips. And shame on you New York! Well, you do walk a lot, and you're pretty fit compared to some, we'll give you that ...

Bicycling for all ages and stages overseas - better a folder than a walking frame...

More of John's barcharts
The full montymedia ... John's Fit-City4 presentation : Cycling and Walking for All New Yorkers: Path to Improved Public Health
Can you stand more Puchernomics? Of course you can ... More John Pucher articles

Thanks to my fellow Joschi yoga teacher trainee Karyn Menexas of Dept Mental Health and Hygiene for connecting me with this conference.

NY Minutes: Meeting a Fellow Adventurette

2009-06-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sandy Thompson, formerly of xploring.com, a division of ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi. (I was a copywriter for Saatchi in Australia, Ireland and Creative Director for an afiliated agency, Tribu, in Costa Rica). xploring is about super curious cats like us getting out there among the pigeons, seeing how they eat, sleep, fight, make up, brush their teeth and win Nobel Prizes, multimediaclasting and customer evangelizing - just up my silicon alley.

The meeting was fueled by a mutual friend, my former boss Jorge Oller at Tribu. Thank you Jorge for your persistance, not only am I honoring you with the attached photo, I am honoring your capitulation to my Customer Evangelism by showing your Bike Friday tikit in stylish repose (see below).

I was excited to meet Sandy because I'm always keen to meet anyone who's been pursuing a similar path to me - out on a limb, living a nomadic life pushing relationship marketing to the nth degree by living with customers - and in my case, with a thin umbilical cord reaching the way back to Bike Friday in Eugene. You could call it adventure ethnography. I've even been scolded by one customer as he drove me somewhere ("get off that cellphone Lynette, you're as bad as my daughter!"). Like being 12 years old again in the back seat of the car ... I've even ... well, you'll have to wait to read about that in my book. It's all good.

Sandy has since branched out on her own, and I hope to exchange ideas and laffs with this fellow Adventurette who looks like a movie star but actually BIKES to the store. She eyed my Traffic Cone Bag and immediately saw a place for it in her commute. We gals know a good widget when we see one.

Stand by.Jorge Oller's tikit to ride in Miami - but of course!

New York Minutes: Why you need a folding bike

2009-06-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

i.e. a bike you can bring inside. Say no more. Wait! Say THIS. OK, I gotta say more ...

At the Film Society of Lincoln Center's GreenScreens event on May 5, I was the lone little panelist touting the virtues of transportation you can take with you, not to mention that you can get your leg over a small wheeled bike when you're 64, 74, 84 ...

Present at the screening were luminaries of the bike advocacy world including Bicycle Film Fest's Brent Barbur and Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance frontman Scott Bricker - featured prominently in the film Veer - who came all the way over to the dark side especially for the screening. Unfortunately, the rain kept most people off their bikes and away from the event. I tried to find Scott after the show for a chat, but I guess he'd already winged it back to the west coast.

Naturally I did a bit of the crowdpleasing 1-2 with the pink tikit, and raffled off a Traffic Cone Bag.

Thanks to the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Isa Cucinetta, Marian Masone, and former GreenScreens coordinator and Bike Friday tikit owner (!) Sharon Behus for getting me and Bike Friday in the limelight for a New York Minute.

More NY on a Friday

My mother 71 and 5 days later ...

2009-05-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

You never know who you might run into when you least expect it ...

As you can see, mother is still on a tear in NYC. Her visit to 'the center of the universe' is drawing to a close and she will soon return to her 15 year post at Sydney's premier stufforama to the stars, Peter's of Kensington. Not only is she the oldest staff member there, she knows how to sell Alessi accoutrements like a deeeeemon ...

Last night we scored $19 frontish-row tickets to the most amazing, trippy, surreal, illusionist dance performance I've seen since Philippe Genty - MOMIX's 'Botanica' at the Joyce Theater. OK, I saw PG a looooong time ago. Perhaps this stuff is now par for the course...

"It's like Circ du Soleil before the latter went all commercial," said mum. Google MOMIX and you'll see it's commandeered by a truly Dali-esque character-choreographer, Moses Pendleton.

It opens with a stunning multimedia closeup of a rose that recedes slowly into deep space. Then this ghostly 30' (40?) tall plant costume wafts on stage, opening and closing like a giant jellyfish on a stalk. Three maidens in white virginal dresses rise from the billowing sheeted floor to frolic with its fuzzy tentacles.

Then there's an eye-popping blackout scene where only the bobbing and twisting lace-covered arms and shins of dances are illuminated in glowing green light, resembling caffeinated glowworms going troppo in a dark cave.

A gal did this amazing spinning thing with a hoop of floor-length beaded strands on her head. Mum dryly remarked "now if we tried that spinning beaded lampshade trick we'd end up with it wrapped around our necks."

Her favorite was the gal who did a conceptually simple but stunning piece where she writhed in a skincolored bodysuit on a tinted, tilted mirror surface - a 'hall of mirrors' idea pushed to the max.

A jaw dropper was this enormous, rubbery and anatomically-correct Triceratops skeleton ridden slo-mo-rodeo style by a semi-naked goddess, while in the background a bunch of rock-like creatures engulfed and cavorted with naked bodies. The museum of Natural History oughta get this act into their lobby to jazz up their dinosaur bones exhibit ... in short, A MUST SEE. Our cheapseats were quite acceptable, as some of the scenes best viewed from further back appeared on video simulcast on a giant screen at the back.

Mother meets Faith Popcorn, trends guru.

Mum also popped into the Museum of Sex (see the cool video I shot playing in the window) and watched humans, Walt Disney characters and Bonobo monkeys doing it before concluding that she'd 'seen it all before'. She did buy a pair of the $3.99 back massagers which are probably the most useful thing in the gift shop - certainly moreso than that cone-shaped pointy thing we're all still wondering how you get your jollies with.

We stopped by Rickshaw dumpling, the only tweet I follow - not that I've ever managed to be in the same place as their truck, but for some reason I just like to know where they're dispensing their incomparable Peking Duck dumplings ...

We had grand plans to go to Coney Island and tour the lower east side today, but only made it as far as the 6th Avenue street fair and then, I am ashamed to say, yet another long perusal of Filene's Basement and TJ Maxx. We are, after all, women, first and foremost ...

A bit later: Well, according to my mother, the highlight was a visit to the cavernous high fashion discount store, Century21 in Bayside, Brooklyn - NOT the insanely popular downtown Manhattan location, which is always sheer bedlam and picked over like a carcass by armed and dangerous fashionistas. The Brooklyn store is massive, with everything nicely organized and plenty of browsing space. Like I said, women ...

Gal in NY

Mother sports my employer's slogan and my Pocket Rocket Pro Petite

Doing the motherly thing - attending the screening of my little folding bike flick @ Film Society of Lincoln Centre's GreenScreens event

Happy 71st in NYC, Mum (that's Mom upover)

2009-05-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

Above: My mother is a big Sesame Street fan. She carries a photo of Bert and Ernie in her wallet. Shot in FAO Schwartz - where you can create a muppet of any kind but the one you're actually a fan of, due to "copyright". What's up with that? I want my own Prof. Bunsen Honeydew, the most Chinese of all the muppets!

My mother celebrates 71 years on the planet today - here in "the center of the universe" (as my NY friends call it). In a week she's practically walked the entire length and breadth of Manhattan. Twice. Not surprising - she's recently done belly dancing, quigong, pilates, tapdancing and yes, poledancing with me! Read the full montymedia about that. I wouldn't be surprised if she enrolled in breakdancing like the show we stumbled on in Central Park last Friday - check out my movie. My mother's hero? "TINA TURNER".

She even took yoga and pilates mat classes at Joschi, where I'm currently enrolled in a 200-hour yoga teacher training course. Monika (pictured left), co-owner of the studio, said Irene was the oldest student the two-year-old studio had hosted so far. Joschi posed for the occasion too (below right). He was getting her all yoga-robic but eased off when I mumbled her age from the adjacent mat mid-downward facing dog (adho=down, mukha=face, svanasana=dogpose). Yep, I'm reliving those scrambling-to-catch-up days of being a part time student, but at least I'm not stuck in a swivel chair.

We took her to one of New York's top rated vegetarian restaurants Blossom, for the most steaklike un-steak ever. You'd swear you were eating filet mignon in a port wine demiglaze. Not recommended for celiacs, however, as it's a slab of pure gluten i.e. seitan. I wore my little button saying "HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP DEATH" for the occasion.

We then zipped over to the downtown TKTS booth to get half price tickets to see "33 Variations", a play starring Jane Fonda as a Beethoven scholar stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Not too close," said my mother to the utterly bored and distracted cashier, a burly bloke in a grey T who yammered on about his wife to someone in the background instead of paying attention to paying customers. So where did we end up? Row BB, a cryptic name for the seats directly in front of the stage - and with a straight shot view up Fonda's nostrils. Unbelieveable. We should have demanded a refund. However, we agreed it's the closest she'll ever get to Jane Fonda, and that unique vista up both Barbarella's celebrity nostrils.

The play was quite enjoyable, and because it was all about Beethoven complete with an accomplished pianist, I killed two birds with a $65-per-head stone in getting a bit of a Broadway-style mini-musical thrown in.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater itself is an cosy, intimate little space, the impressive work of a theater-restoration architect friend, Francesca Russo. For those who barf at those awful, generic multiplex cinemas and concert halls that resemble airport lounges crossed with a 1970's sportsbar aesthetic complete with vomit-disguising carpet, this is the antidote.

Here she is Warrior II-ing in Connecticut (that's Virabhadrasana II, class). I suspect you're supposed to imagine a spear in one hand and a shield in the other.

Here she is with Daryl and Heidi Hawk family's rabbit in CT. We had rabbits when we were kids.

Tomorrow? Museum of Sex - where she plans to pick up some souvenirs from the gift shop for her pals back home. The Joy of Bonobo Sex on flashcards? Watch this space for the goods!

The Gal most recently evangelized in Colorado, getting her knees looked at by the famous Andy Pruitt, and will be presenting her shtick in Georgia end of June.

Traffic Cone Bag (TM) Customer Comments

2009-05-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

Leave a comment below with a link to your TCB shot, or Email your shots to galfromdownunder at gmail dot com for inclusion here. | About the Traffic Cone Bag

Susan Notorangelo does a Michael Jackson (sort of) in safety orange on one of her PACTOUR expeditions.

April 14, 2009: Danny Chiang is a New York architect, Bike Friday owner and brevet aficionado - he likes the bag in "musette" mode. "It's a New York bag!" he declares. Shot in Chelsea's Senegalese-French cafe, Patisseries des Ambassades

Interview by Matador Travel

2009-05-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Matador's Julie Schwietert Collazo interviewed me recently on the Handsomest Man in Cuba.

Cheap'n'Choosy: Super cheap (and cool) laptop sleeve

2009-04-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I tote my 12" laptop in my Traffic Cone Bag. It's not really designed for this purpose, but in a pinch, it will carry a small laptop and its annoyingly clunky adaptor. But here's the real Gal cheap'n'choosy Tip of the Week - forget fancy neoprene laptop sleeves, the simple bubblewrap envelopes you can buy for a couple of bucks from a stationary story makes a terrific, super light laptop sleeve. I usually carry my laptop like this on the plane in my carry-on. You can get it in white and black and silver - the silver looks cool, should that matter (of course it does). What's more, I put it on the X-ray belt in its sleeve and TSA don't mind at all.

The Gal Traffic Cone Bag

Downward Dog Days in NYC 2009

2009-04-08T20:51:00.001-07:00

Bike Friday customer Colin Freestone is a long time yoga practitioner. "When I did a cycling trip and neglected my practice I became "unco" (uncoordinated)" he said. Read more.

BACK from a month of customer evangelizing in Arizona and Colorado I've headplanted myself into a 200-hour yoga teacher training course at a small, Chelsea studio called Joschi Body Bodega. Yup, as I told my Facebook friends, "this is the year for getting certified in everything you normally pay for". Certainly better than sinking money into high risk stocks!

I've noticed that my cycling life has probably created, shall we say, certain imbalances in my mortal coil. Crunchy knees, and a stiffish upper body which I sought to rectify by taking up poledancing. Only trouble with that one - you need a pole! I realized I can't be the only cyclist noticing these changes. I decided that with the right education, I could devise a yoga practise suitable for my bicycling brethren.

Why yoga?

Despite the plethora of new-fangled exercise regimes, yoga has been around for oh, 5000 years (according to chapter one of my course notes). Exercise fads coe and go like diets. They seem to use more and more complicated equipment. You can do yoga on a desert island - no fancy equipment required - just your body and gravity. Perfect for the New Sustainability.

Tonight I learned how important it was to breathe through your nose rather than your mouth. According to my notes, "mouth breathing can adversely affect the development of the thyroid gland. It can retard the mental development of children."

Yikes!

This seems to be ratified by Bike Friday customer and Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Lou Ignarro who I met at Desert Camp 2008.
"Breathing through the nose increases availablility of nitric oxide," he said. Why is that important? Read about it here.

Countin' Cougars in Colorado

2009-03-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

So here I am in Boulder, Colorado, for the first time in my life, and direct from another Arizona Desert Camp.

My Colorado Schedule

I've already been treated to a couple of nights at the home of the Bike Friday Club of Denver leaders Tom and Dianna McDermott, who took me cougar spotting at the local Whole Paycheck on the first day. Cougar spotting? Git thee with the times or, for those too lazy to click:

Cougar – an older woman who sexually pursues men at least eight years her junior.[12] The term has been used in (American) TV series, advertising and film. The 2007 film Cougar Club was dedicated to the subject. It is also featured in the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch "Cougar Den".

There was only one possible sighting - a woman in a baby pink Chanel-cut suit, big glasses, blonde hair, beige pumps. Let's say, the kind of outfit you would not ride a bicycle in except for a Bond poster. "At 46, your qualify as a cougar you put on that flapper dress," said my hostess Dianna - "but the bike shoes would kill it. No date."

I bonded with this couple over a supersized packet of Kettle Chips which left the three of us swearing never to touch another one until sometime tomorrow. I also marveled at their languid lapcats - two pedigree Rag Dolls that flop about like Ty Beanie Babies.

We then headed to Fort Collins where we checked out local bike shops Full Cycle and Cycologist. I asked the owners/managers if they sold folding bikes. "No - not that we wouldn't," came the very polite reply, which could well be the Colorado equivalent of the "we feel that folding bikes aren't real bikes" I got from some Australian bike shops. I'm almost embarrassed to call myself Australian with some of the crap I heard downunder.

"People are very friendly and laid back here," said Dianne, a transplant from Philly. "It's refreshing, although the knocking off early to go biking when you're trying to do business takes a bit of getting use to."

Colorado is full of legendary destinations - Boulder, Aspen, Vale, Steamboat Springs, Telluride where Tom Cruise supposedly has a house, Breckenridge ... no wonder people want to relocate here. And leave too.

"I'm leaving because I'm weary of the attitude, the sense of entitlement ruining Boulder," said a friend heading for the Pacific Northwest, which has its own burgeoning yuppiedom = people buying back their hippiedom.

We tooled around on our bikes and just missed out on a tour of the New Belgium Brewery, which closes at 3pm - possibly to dissuade happy hour alesuckers. Instead, we toured the bike racks outside, loaded with employee cruisers emblazoned with the Brewery decal.

Finally it was time to head south west to Boulder, where I met with my second host, Bike Friday Club of Boulder leader Jeff and AK Butterworth and the outgoing incumbent, Jeff Buechler. What a wonderful celebration we had at a restaurant called Sherpa. Jeff's wife AK works for AeroGrow, a company that makes tabletop hydroponic, grow-lighted herb gardens. Predictably, they sell like hot cakes in New York and LA where you are separated from the fecund soil by a thick layer of concrete.

Today I managed to score a squeeze-me-in consult with the famous Bike Fit Guru Andy Pruitt, who works with Lance et al. I've blogged about my crunchy knees and I am hoping he'll just tell me it's old age. My plan is to film him and share his insights with the Bike Friday community. Stand by.

Traffic Cone Bag: Made in the Garment District, New York

2009-03-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

After numerous false starts my Traffic Cone Bag has finally gotten a green light.

Traffic Cone Bag Central

Making it in NYC article on FastCompany.com

It's being made in the famous yet increasingly impoverished Garment District of New York City - at a non-sweatshop price.

"This use to be the fashion capital of America," said Caroline, who's made clothes for some big names in couture including Calvin Klein, Baby Phat and Tracey Reese.

Like many immigrants she worked her way up from scratch to supervising a large cutting room staff and knowing every computerized cutting machine in the business. Then she was laid off.

"The fashion companies shipped everything offshore, fired everyone - now look what's happened."

The "now look" she's referring to isn't the latest way to team a sarong with a business suit and get away with it.

It's the slump in the clothing sector – the very people who are meant to buy those clothes – the American public – haven't got the money. According to Caroline, it's because companies are sending labor offshore, and rents are become luxury-condofied.

In a small, unluxe room in a rabbit warren of a building on 37th St, she sits among the bolts and bobbins of her trade, showing me photos of a dress she constructed for a first appearance by Hilary Clinton.

"I came here with no English and $300 in my pocket," she said. She waves away my probing for more "story".

"Every immigrant has a story," she says.

Caroline's quote is higher than it would be if made in quantity offshore. In fact, a friend of mine showed me a highly constructed bag he got through his bike club, complete with club logo "for $6.50".

"I'm pretty sure they were made in New Jersey," he said. We all conceded that if they were, someone poor seamstress was being paid in coffee and bagels.

If sweatshops still abound in the city, Caroline isn't spending time dwelling there.

"I just do my own business, do it the best I can, be honest, be reliable."

She also waves away my questions about how much my bag would cost if made in China, her home country.

"The best thing you can do for this country is to do what Obama says – buy local, get things made local," says Caroline. "Then people will have jobs, they will have money to buy food, clothes, make this economy more stable."

That sounds pretty logical. Did she read that somewhere? Caroline stabs her temple with a finger.

"No, I've just thought about this!"

She tells me she's making no money on my project – she wants to keep her talented understudy occupied and she likes to support personal creative endeavours.

"Work on your own ideas, you own business. You get a high paid job, you can lose it overnight. When you have your own business, your own good ideas, you can make your way."

Got my Greencard at last!

2009-02-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well here it is - some 8 years after landing in the USA on a temporary H1B work permit.

In truth, I only started applying for it properly about 18 months ago, under the category National Interest Waiver, which I talked about here.

The people I must thank include the referees I had to muster to build my case. Either that or get married, and we can't have me doing that, now can we?

Thank you to the following people for providing glowing references:

Fred Matheny, RoadBikeRider.com
Alan Scholz, Co-founder, Bike Friday
Dan Okenfuss, VP Public Relations, Little People of America
Douglas Card, Adjunct Professor, U of O
Eileen Lafer, Professor, U of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio
Fred Iannotti, Life Member, Appalachian Mountain Club
Gihon Jordan, Transportation Expert
Jackie Huba, Principal, CustomerEvangelists.com
Jeff Bernards, Bicycle Advocate
Jerry Norquist, CEO, Cycle Oregon
Jerry Segal, CFO, Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis, Inc.
Jim Clash, "The Adventurer", Associate Editor, Forbes Magazine
John Chamberlain, Senior VP, BT Commercial
John S Allen, Regional Director, League of American Bicyclists
John Schubert, Cycling authority, Adventure Cycling Association
Jorge Oller, CEO, Tribu Saatchi & Saatchi Costa Rica
Joy Ramos & Daniel Davis, Producers, Beyond 50
Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide
Kristin Allen, former Marketing Director, Bike Friday
Lon Haldeman, Ultracycling Hall of Fame, www.pactour.com
Paula Radetzky, U of O
Patricia Lang, Rhode Island Blood Bank
Phil Liggett, Voice of the Tour de France, OLN, ESPN, NBC, CBS

ALSO

Majid Shirzadegan, U of O - for pointing me in the right direction
Peter Eberhardt - for pointing me to Majid

AND the following lawyers for generous advice:

James von Boeckmann - who drafted this petition for an affordable fee
Cletus Weber - a Seattle-based expert on NIW who I couldn't afford but gave me excellent advice
Sean Manning - who drafted my original work permit petition 8 years ago

MOST OF ALL, to BIke Friday, for helping fund my petition so I can have more options in 'merica.

Of course, I'm trying not to grimace at getting this card right when the USA economy is tanking, but them's the breaks. I guess I can now go join that loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong line I saw yesterday ...

The Longest Line in NYC: Women for Hire Job Fair, Feb 2009

2009-02-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

We interrupt this program for a report from the cold, hard pavement outside your window.

A jobseeking friend invited me to join her at a Women for Hire Career Fair at the Sheraton New York.

Thinking it might provide a palpable insight into the current state of the nation for my FastCompany blog, I hastily printed out my resume as required (complete with a nice glaring typo - doh!) and jumped in a cab to make it by curtain call.

On arriving at 1.15pm - the cut off time for entry and 45 minutes before the advertised closing time - I saw a line longer than a queue for free immortality with front row tickets to U2 thrown in.

It started at the 7th Ave subway station and weaved around two sides of a very, very long block.

"GIT IN LINE MOMMY, WE BEEN WAITIN' 2 HOURS," said a gal when I tried to politely ask if "this really was the line expecting to get in by 2pm?"

"You can't line up anymore, most of these people ain't gettin' in," she said. Flashback to my Not Getting Into The Chanel Mobile Art Exhibition x 10000.

I fantasized for a moment about boldly cutting in front of her and instantly biff! pow! aaarrrgh! starring in my own manga comic.

I wandered all the way to the back of the line - a long hike - gaping at what I saw: people bundled up in the sunny but freezing air, clutching resumes and portfolios for as far as the eye could see. The stipulation about "smart business attire, no jeans, sweats, sneakers" seemed moot.

"It's the first time they've allowed men in," said one man waving his resume. He looked at the envelope in my hand. "Now why wouldja want to fold your resume?"

I asked if I could film him. He suddenly turned steely. "No you cannot. I charge $400 an hour for that." There were teeth.

"Never seen anything like this before, some people been waiting since 6am," said a policeman, blowing into his hands.

He pointed to a guy in very un-business like attire - unless you consider playing baseball a business - but at least the wind wasn't biting at his core. "No-one after that guy in the blue jacket is getting in."

I looked at the long, snaking trail of pure patience following the guy in the blue jacket.

"Why are they still standing there?"

"We told 'em, they're not listenin'."

Well, they say persistence pays off - my friend had been waiting since 11.15am and got in at 1.40pm - with frozen feet that still hadn't thawed by the time she got home to Jersey City that evening. "My feet are still killing me," she said later on the phone.

After filming the line, I returned to the lobby and eavesdropped on conversations as people left the fair.

"Did anyone think that was worth it?" said a women loudly as people spilled out of the elevator.

"Not worth a two-hour wait freezin' your titties off," replied another, out of earshot of the recruiters.

"Tiny room, everyone jammed together, company reps telling us to go check out the website ... what was the point?"

The organizers should have known that in this economy, the event would be utterly swamped and held it at the Javitz Center or restricted entry - something.

What about speed interviewing - like speed dating, allowing each of the thousands of people their 3 minutes? Do the math:

* 3000 people x 3 minutes/60 = 150 hours of interviews
* 150 hours/40 companies = 3.75 hours on average for the entire event, plus minus a couple of hours leeway.

Or, what about having employers bundle up and stroll down the line talking to prospectives, who would hold up a card with their company of choice? What about thinking laterally about this? Better that than allow people already looking for work to suffer such discomfort and indignity.

"No solicitation" was the order of the day, yet in this climate, vendors selling hot coffee and cookies down the line would have been welcome, entrepreneurial and entirely appropriate, as is the norm in third world countries. And looking at the length of this line, I could barely tell what country I was in ...

Now, we return you to your $450K job with bonuses.

It's not a Junket. It's a Job - "Best Job in the World" submission

2009-02-20T18:04:00.000-08:00

Even better than collecting the mail (one of the duties listed) - is ... click on video below to see what MY focus would be if I got this job.

OFFICIAL LINK TO MOVIE Friends, please rate it here for the contest before March 8, 2009

This is my submission to the Queensland Tourism Island Caretaker Job, along with the 20,000 other applicants (including Dean Martin's son, and the Edmund Hillarys and Jacques Cousteau's of the world, and even an hilarious Osama impersonator). My friend Sue Carey challenged me to defend my self-styled title as a multimediaclast - this is for you, Sue!

Judging from the staggering caliber of applicants, I'll be surprised if it floats (ha!) but not only do I love a 1-minute creative challenge, I console myself that I've been doing this exact same job for the past 5 years as the Customer Evangelist and chief content creator for Bike Friday. The only difference is my butt is planted on a bike saddle, rather than a boogieboard.

For tech trivia buffs, here's how I made it:

I crunched it on my ye olde 12" Mac Powerbook running Tiger with iMovie HD 6, and Quicktime Pro. I shot the video with my digital camera one-handedly as I always do, and added some scruffy strumming on my no-frills (not even a dot on the fretboard) Martin guitar. It took a few takes because I had to keep re-shooting myself to get my head in frame and not looking too washed out, and also practice that groove without fluffing every third bar (it's about time I took lessons - the same handful of grooves are wearing thin).

I actually arranged a cooler, more complex track using GarageBand's readymade loops - then just decided to keep it simple. The only bit of Garageband remaining is the electric guitar cameo at the very beginning. Rather than fiddle with mikes I just shot myself strumming with the camera then extracted the sound in QTPro, exported it to a .AIFF file and imported it into iMovie. Digital cameras record sound amazingly well considering - ALL the sound for my two adventure DVDs were in-camera.

More on shooting like I do.

For advertising and strategy buffs some cerebrals for you:

Rather than cram as many 'pick me pick me!' creds as I could into the 60 second spot, I approached it the way I like do anything that's remotely advertising - a simple idea based on a core truth.

When I asked 'merican friends and strangers about Queensland Islands they drew a blank, citing every other island in the atlas, most notably, the Bahamas. Originally I filled up the entire 60 seconds with people citing every island you can imagine - "St Barts, St Kitts, Martinique, Cuba" even "Haiti", where my sister is at the moment, and she reports that it ain't a paradise (something in her last email about soup with potato, intestine and teeth in it).

The folks I interviewed were just sliver of the "800 million potential tourists worldwide" (that figure courtesy of the UN via Google in 2006), if only Queensland could give folks a reason to fly to Australia to sink toes in in *its* white sand rather than go closer to home.

Therein lies the real challenge - forget hanging ten with Nemo and cleaning the pool!

I would have loved to have kept Justin's other classic lines in like: "I haven't heard of Hamilton Island, but I've heard of clam chowder!" (We were eating clam chowder in Chelsea Market and I was trying to get him to concentrate). His other classics were "Queen's England?" "Never heard of Queensland." "I thought it was the convict's land!".

Who will they pick?

It should ideally be someone who can inspire people to choose Queensland islands over other choices considering the rather susbtantial carbon emissions involved in getting there.

Will they go the predictable route and choose a girls-gone-wild Pam Anderson chestalike with a handycam?

Will they choose a scholarly Marine biologist with a great butt?

Perhaps they will choose someone who isn't yet a waterbaby - I actually think that's a great strategy, because by getting your diving ticket and blogging about it on the islands, you could lure millions of would-be divers to spend their coin getting certified in Queensland rather than Roatan. Think of that extended market!

If they choose a certain, short, Chinese female - either me or one of my half billion sisters, it will be a much need boost for the image of Asians - bah, we're still pigeon-holed as unsmiling students shoveling rice into their mouths and scientists wearing lab coats. Um, ok, I still shovel rice in to my mouth.

Finally, to those who think the job's a junket - blogging for a living is hard work. I am at my laptop 25/7 pulling experiences, words, music, video, image hopefully in a way that "makes people late for work." I've done this while stationed in all the places you see on my site http://www.galfromdownunder.com. It's surprising, but when you are sitting at a table in front of a computer, you could be anywhere and it's the same. *** More about this below.

Hence my strapline: It's not a junket. It's a job.

But it's a job with a real paradise out the window, rather than a framed, motivational poster with picture of one to brighten your carpeted cubicle.

Feel free to comment, I welcome all feedback.

*** Wanna know how hard? Google "Best Job in the World" and it brings up a lot of news coverage like this, and somewhere there's invariably a sentence "Responsibilities include little more than filing the odd blog on life in paradise." Well, as a 25/7 blogger for the past 10 years I can tell you it's hard yakka, as we say downunder. I remember spending many lonely nights in a concrete box of a cybercafe in little Mexican towns, feverishly tapping away and uploading photos to the Bike Friday website. Read my Mexico Blog. When I was in Italy on an official tour, I was typing every night instead of cruising the Prada stores in Orvieto. Read my Bike Across Italy blog. Every year for the past 7 years I've done several week long events including Bike Friday Desert Camp, Cycle Oregon, Round*Up in Philadelphia, or the Australian Bike Friday Club Gathering; whenever I am in an area I do an extensive multimedia blog be it New York, Chicago, Australia, San Francisco, Texas, Hawaii and so forth. Then there are my personal blogs, company blog, FastCompany blog. Then there are all my Bike Friday videos and Galfromdownunder video projects. special video projects like my own advocacy outreach: Burn Carbs Not Hydrocarbs, the tikit on trial. Then there are all the talks I do. Then there's the advertising. And on and on and on. That's about half of it.
So in short, no, it's not a junket - bloggers are busy people.

ADDENDA: the YouTube version - but please make sure you rate it at the official site link for the vote to count.

Dr Ruth Westheimer @ Bottle Rocket

2009-02-09T20:54:00.001-08:00

If anyone needs to watch their shekels in this recession it's probably the average New Yorker, according to a recent report from the Center for Urban Future which revealed, among other things:

* A New Yorker would have to make $123,322 a year to have the same standard of living as someone making $50,000 in Houston.
* In Manhattan, a $60,000 salary is equivalent to someone making $26,092 in Atlanta.

My NY recession tip of the moment involves saving money on entertainment without really trying, thus: I get the just-expired TimeOut NY dumped in the lobby every week. The idea is that you get so engrossed flipping through it and 'awwww shucksing' over all the things you just missed, you subscribe. The real benefit is that reading it takes so much of your morning you actually feel exhausted like you vicariously partook - but your wallet is intact.

But I was foiled: a friend got so tired of me recanting just-missed events he bought me a subscription. Watch out wallet, I'm armed and dangerous ...yet there are actually many cheap'n'choosy pickings between the covers. One that jumped out was a free wine tasting/book launch by pint-sized, 80-something sexologist Dr Ruth Westheimer.

Now I recall thumbing through a Dating (or was it Romance?) for Dummies micro-book by Dr Ruth and noting the sagacity of the 1-lines therein. So I made a point of attending this, a launch of her latest how to do it: "I PREDICT GREAT SEX FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE".

The appearance drew a packed house at the Bottle Rocket wine shop in Chelsea.

Unfortunately a deadline had me landing there just after she delivered her latest G-spot tips to the adoring and imbibing crowd. But in the true spirit of cheap'n'choosy, I got her to sign her, um card. See below. I'm waiting for the Teutonic talking book!

Now I don't actually drink, but I fell under the spell of an amazing elderflower liqueur called St Germain, which is apparently one of the hottest newish poisons on the planet right now.

It's just what gets a teetotaller - sweet rather than dry, but not cloyingly so. Mix it with sparkling water and a twist of lemon and voila, super refreshing! The marketing is slicko - hanging around the neck is one of the most beautifully art directed little micro brochure-booklets you will ever encounter, complete with photos of Pierre on a clunker riding off to pluck elderflowers by hand. The St Germain equivalent of naked virgins plucking at harps.

I'm sure Dr Ruth would approve with one provisio - everything in moderation, including moderation ...

The Handsomest Man still scrubs up well

2009-01-16T22:21:00.001-08:00

Pictured: Cheryl Lead took this shot of the coverguy admiring his cover!

FIVE YEARS after the first edition of my book, Then Handsomest Man in Cuba, people are still somehow finding well-thumbed copies in doctor's waiting rooms (even a hostel bookshelf in Nepal!). It's gratifying to receive the occasional email from a reader who liked it - even a few who didn't. It's just been released in Germany as of 2009, thanks to my agent Peter McGuigan of Foundry Media - and I'm glad my German is rusty - I can't imagine how some of my Aussieisms like "threw a pickle in the cheesecake" came out of the Google Translator. Please ask for copies at your local bookstore - it really helps keep an author stay in the $1 bins inside the store rather than outside - soggy books are indeed sad.

Dear Lynette,

I just finished "The Handsomest Man in Cuba" and loved it, loved it, loved it!I THANK YOU for sharing such a wonderful adventure. I just wanted you to know that even after these years your book is touching the lives of those of us who somehow missed until now.

A retired school principal living in Eugene, who loves to read, cycle and travel internationally (often solo), I felt several special connections as I journeyed with you through Cuba. My own solo trip to Cuba in will occur in April and "Handsomest Man..." has peaked my anticipation. In fact, on recent trip to Denver, I left my copy on the plane and had to go online immediately online and order a replacement copy. I hope a United employee took it home and is enjoying it as much as me.

I know you are very busy but I just wanted to drop a note and express my appreciation. Joining Andrew Pham's "Catfish and Mandala," at the top of my all-time reading favorites, "The Handsomest Man in Cuba" will always hold a special place for me. Thank you Lynette.

Sincerely,
Jerry Henderson
Eugene, OR

Good news for crunchy knees (and 3 bike Fit Experts you should know)

2009-01-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

Mike Sherry, Empire Cycling Team (Manhattan) coach and owner of Performance Labs HC, does professional bike fitting to prevent crunchy knees. Despite his reputation for expertly coaching a gung-ho cycling team he happily posed with my pink Bike Friday commuter, the tikit, and his more usual Cervelo. Por que? He's surprisingly egalitarian when it comes to bikes. "I'm actually into extracycles and bikes that carry load," he says. Not too loudly of course ...

UPDATE: I happened to be in Colorado and got a consult with Andy Pruitt

TODAY I received some good news - and in this recession, any news is good news.

My knees, which were starting to sound like I was hiking through a thick carpet of autumn leaves relatively when descending a flight of stairs, are not falling apart after all. I merely have a relatively benign form of crepitus. Wiki it and you'll see that it's a term for anything resulting in knoisy knees. In my case, no bones or diminished cartilege seems to be involved - just fluid.

I consulted RoadBikeRider.com's Ed Pavelka on this last year, who wrote: Lynette -- you need to see a cycling medical specialist. The best in the business is Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. If you can't go to Colorado maybe he can recommend someone in your area. Generally, pain behind the knee indicates a saddle that's too high. But there can be alot more to it than that. Good luck. -- Ed

Being of limited financial means I did what we all do ... let it slide for a while. But in New York, the noises in my knees soon became noises in my head.

At the suggestion of Mike Sherry, coach for the NY Empire Cycling Team, I made an appointment with knee guru Dr Andrew Feldman.

My pink tikit caused a bit of a sensation when I wheeled it into the waiting room where it took its place among the crutches and walking frames. I felt a bit guilty sitting among people with some serious orthopedic problems; although misfortune can strike us all, "use it or lose it" should be our mantra until further notice.

Feldman's intern, a David Hasslehoff-lookalike who bore all the markings of a roadie cyclist (short hair, clean shaven, body like a beanpole) stared at me disbelievingly when I told him my employer also made folding bikes that were ridden by bike racers. "What, a FOLDING bike can race?"

In fact, he continued to flip through the Bike Friday catalog I brought along (to prove I wasn't merely a couch potato wasting a sports medico's time) during the entire consult.

"Stop riding a bike," joked Feldman as he entered the room. Then more seriously, "Yes if you stopped, your knees would get better. But my job is to keep people doing their sport - i.e. manage without damage."

He looked at the x-rays and I sat there dreading the result - a friend told me about his ex who was a mogul skier, and had to have bone fragments sucked out from under her kneecaps to be able to walk again.

But the x-rays were "clean". Apparently, that cacophany in my knees is merely fluid rather than bone-on-bone, resulting from my occupational hazard - riding a bike.

"Over time, with repetition, your knees can start to track incorrectly, creating inflammation too," he said.

I was given two knee braces with donuts cut out for the kneecaps to use "when exercising", a script for Voltaren, a physiotherapy prescription for strengthening the area, and instructions to get a proper bike fit done. Now, my Bike Friday does fit me well, it's just that I'm always riding different models and demos without doing much finely tuned fitting, and this can play havoc with your knees. Plus, I confess I've never had a professional bike fit done, in the same way I've never had a facial or colonic irrigation done. It's just one of those things you tend to not get done!

I'd already consulted on email with Andy Pruitt, Bike Friday owner and cycling doc to the stars, as well as the Bike Friday owners and cycling gurus Ed and Fred at www.roadbikerider.com, and even RAAM legend Lon Haldeman who, despite crossing the country in 9 days on a bike has silent knees.

They all said the same thing - get a proper bike fit. Unfortunately Andy Pruitt in Colorado isn't on my doorstep but Mike Sherry is at the moment. So maybe I will pedal uptown to Mike, and finally getting around to it - the facial comes next, hold the colonic irrigation ...

THREE BIKE FIT EXPERTS TO KNOW ABOUT

Mike Sherry, Performance Labs HC and coach for the Empire Cycling Team, NY. I met Mike by accident when I answered his Craigslist post selling a Blackberry Pearl. Serendipitous for sure! If he can coach a winning team like Empire he must know something we don't ... fee runs around $250 for a complete fit.

Bob Olsen, WheelWerksBikes, Crystal Lakes, Illinois: I met Bob 'The Fit Guy' Olsen Haldeman's Wisconsin Camp 2006 (he's the 6th photo down on that report), and wish I'd had the presence of mind to get a bike fit done then. I've been trying to catch him coming or going during Arizona Camp but so far, no good! Bob expressed some interest in being a dealer for BIke Friday, a bike which, of course, can be made to fit the most hard-to-fit people including petite women. How about it Bob? Fitting fees start from $100.

Dr Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, Boulder, Colorado: he's the doc to the stars like Lance; read his ultracycling creds here. He apparently owns a Bike Friday, which is why he appears on our Famous Fridays page, but I've not yet been able to locate one as proof. Here's an exchange I had with him this year which might help those with the same experiences:

UPDATE: I happened to be in Colorado and got a consult with Andy Pruitt

Hi Andy,

Lynette Chiang from Bike Friday here. I haven't met you yet, but I've certainly put you on our Famous Fridays page under "those in the know"! Ed Pavelka kindly sent me to you ... I've been developing a bit of a sore left knee. There's pressure diagonally to the right of the kneecap, and then pain behind in the crook of the knee. Sometimes that leg feels like it's going to give out if I stand up. I often sit cross legged like meditation - largeoly because I am short and chairs don't cater to us. Also, my knees crunch when I walk downstairs although there's no pain, just a squelching cartilage sound rather than bone on bone. On the inner ankle bone protrusion of the same leg there is also moderate sharp pain. I get the feeling you've heard all this before, and wondering if you can suggest anything. Attached is a pic of me on my bike last week - I tend to wear my cleats really loose and yes, I wear 'spinning class' SPD shoes. If you can tell me what you charge, if you take insurance etc, it would really help. Maybe I could wrangle a trip to visit the Bike Friday Club of Boulder this year if absolutely necessary.

Lynette

I received this nice reply:

Lynette, yes I have heard that before. Sounds like you have chondromalacia of the patella, with some structural contributors. Medical grade bike fit (including orthopedic evaluation) is crucial for you. For the moment, stop sitting in the meditation position, avoid stairs and keep your cycling mellow. I would be happy to see you. I have cc Avery Marzulla on this email, so she can contact you about the possibility of coming to Boulder. good luck and I hope to see you soon. Andy

Andrew Pruitt, EdD
Boulder Center for Sports Medicine
311 Mapleton Ave
Boulder, Co 80304 USA
303-544-5700

As at Feb 2008 I was given this info by his office:

The full cost of the appointment as a self-pay patient (if insurance covers nothing) is $550. The evaluation is $212, functional activity is $63 per unit (usually bill 4 units) and computer motion analysis is $273. If you have to pay for any of these on your own a 40% self-pay discount is applied to the functional activity and computer motion analysis, and a 15% discount on the evaluation. The most common situation is that insurance will pick up Dr. Pruitt's charges from the evaluation and functional activity, but not the computer motion analysis. In that case we would bill the medical charges to your insurance and you could pay for the computer motion analysis, which comes out to be about $165 with the discount ...

I hope this post helps those with crunchy knees ...

More gossip from the Gal