Bikes and Creative Time

I really love two brands right now: Linus bikes, which is new to me and Creative Time, which I consider to be an old friend.

Recently, Santa Monica was ranked in the top ten of the most bikeable cities in the U.S.  Even before the ranking had come out, I knew that I needed a new bike. 

Whenever I have friends visiting from out of town, or often, when I am meeting a friend for lunch, we end up on Abbot Kinney, a wonderful walking/shopping street in Venice.  We generally eat at the most delicious Gjelina.  After lunch we stroll down the street.  In a ritualistic fashion, I always stop at A+R, the Scandinavian shop Huset and Chariots on Fire.  Between Gjelina and Intelligentsia, tucked away down a little pathway, is the Linus bike store.

The Linus concept was to take the beautiful and simple lines of European bikes from the 1950’s and 1960’s and recreate them using the most modern technology.  They have created classic bikes that function and perform for the modern day.  I like the Linus bikes for their simple clean shapes and their wonderful muted colors like sage, cream and coral.  Their bags and accessories share a similar stylish design sensibility.  Also, I am pleased that there isn’t an overwhelming array of options. 

I would go to Linus and gaze lovingly at the bikes.  And finally one day in March, I bit the bullet.  I got a Dutchi 3 in marine with a nice woven basket.  As the website says, “This is your classic Dutch bike; a sweeping curved frame and refined upright posture make it the elegant choice for trips to the market or just riding down the boulevard.”

My Linus bike has changed the way I go about my day.  Santa Monica is a great city to ride in; I now ride to the library, the market, the gym and the co-op instead of driving.  My Linus bike has literally changed my life for the better.

Creative Time has been in the news lately, because Anne Pasternak, its  president and artistic director for the past twenty-one years, is going to be the new Director of the Brooklyn Museum. 

You may not know what Creative Time does, but you have certainly seen the work.  You may have seen in person or on Instagram last summer, Kara Walker’s, “A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby,” or you may have happened upon “Heard NY” by Nick Cave in Grand Central Terminal in 2013.  I have always enjoyed the “The River That Flows Both Ways” by Spencer Finch on the Highline close to the Chelsea Market, but only recently did I discover that every window pane is a color that the artists photographed on the river.  If you have been out to Coney Island in the last 10 years,  you will have seen vestiges of the “Coney Island Dream Land”.  I love the Os Gemeo mural across from the Stilwell Station.  Everyone has seen “Tribute in Light” around September 11th each year, the sky is lit by two ethereal towers.  These and so many more are amazing Creative Time projects.

Creative Time is a fantastic public art presenter, which means that they put art in the public realm.  I love that you can just be walking down a street and run into art, good art too.