Tweed Ride Route: First Friday ArtRide to visit AUG, Bell Arts, Laurel Galleries & more

The rain is pouring down right now but the Tweed Ride today and Tweed 2 tomorrow are still on! I wish my bikergo had fenders (inventer Steven Ascher is working on it) but right now I suspect I will end up with a skunk stripe on the back of my very sweet brown tweed with green piping  jacket and on my lovely paisley skirt!

One word for riding in the rain: fenders!

We’ll meet as usual at 5:30pm on the Ventura Beach Promenade at California Street and start our First Friday ArtRide with a visit to the Artists Union Gallery. We’ll ride off into the sunset about 6pm and the rain will determine our route: if it’s not pouring, we’ll take the beach bike path around Surfer’s Point and along the Ventura River to Main. We’ll turn left at Ventura Avenue to visit a swarm of westside galleries if the weather holds. If it doesn’t, we’ll go straight to Bell Arts for “No War Stories – A Soldier Returns to Vietnam” with Moses Mora who will share his perceptions of the country forty years after he was there as a soldier as it is today, post war – a place of peace, progress and development  with photos of Vietnam on display by Raya Hayes-Mora.

Also near Bell Arts we’ll spend some time at VITA ART CENTER for “The Games People Play” featuring work by Jennifer Guernsey, Amy Schneider, & Jill Shanbrom who produced a series of collaborative works, each piece based on a childhood game. While maintaining the traditional rules of each game, Jennifer, Amy and Jill  have also added a few new rules of their own which should make this a fun show for all of us.

From the Westside, we’ll ride back to Main which we will cruise with possible stops at Red Brick and CSUCI galleries, then roll up Main to Ash where those of us who cycling in Saturday night’s “Saints and Sinners” Fashion and Variety Show will rehearse for our part.

Next we’ll ride to the galleries on Laurel where we will enjoy beer from Anacapa Brewery (bring money to donate and your own cup please!), to hear Dew Wat’s Rite, and attend the closing reception at the Laurel Gallery for A Month with the Karen: A People’s Struggle Told Through the Eyes of a Missionary Photographs by Gordon Griffith.

According to Griffith, “The Karen are a tribal people who live primitively in the jungles of Burma.  They fashion everything by hand from surrounding resources, and are farmers that raise necessary crops for survival.  Ideally, this would be a simple life, but this is not the case. For over sixty years, the Karen have been in a civil war with the Burmese Junta.  Children grow up with the fear of spontaneous gunfire and involuntary flight.  This in turn has risen up Karen soldiers, determined to bring peace to their people.   Often teenagers and young adults themselves help the Karen in any way possible.  This often turns into a lifelong passion to protect their people.  I even briefly encountered a General in his mid-seventies at the hospital.  He had back problems and was about to return to the front lines to fight. These soldiers have the daunting task of protecting those who are on the run.  These individuals are referred to as the Internally Displaced People, or IDP’s.  Food and supplies must be carried into the jungle and patients must be carried out.  Only the fortunate children are sent to dorms in the safe areas of Burma to attend school.  Safe areas, however, are scarce. Others flee into Thailand and must reside in refugee camps.   Conditions are poor and crowded, but these Karen have opportunities not available when they are on the run.  Rations are provided through mindful patrons, and education is a tool provided for advancement outside their native land. Effects of war are visible in many different ways.  They can be seen through victims scarred by landmines, gunfire, or disease, children who have lost their parents physically or mentally; or through elderly who have witnessed over half a century of unprovoked death and destruction.”

On the way over there, some of us will be stopping at Mackenzie’s to pick up fish tacos and other culinary delights–there may even be 2 for 1 or other discounts for those who show in TWEED!