1. ANYONE WITH NEWS VIDEO or PRESS CLIPPINGS please hang on to them and
reply.
I heard I was on TV but haven't seen. PLEASE retain any vids.


2. Lost+Found list is growing.

PLEASE reply with anything lost or found, even if its small.


3. Several photos sets are already posted.
Also a printable souvenir copy of the route map.
Follow the PHOTOS link from the ride home page.

http://chicago.worldnakedbikeride.org/photos.html


4. Preliminary turnout reports are so huge that I must wait on video count
to confirm.


5. Ride reviews so far (submit your own by reply):


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From: Ron / Subject: Yesterday's ride was great!

I have been to the last 3 events and I must say this they are getting better
every year, the get together, the ride, the party afterwards.
Everything went well with no misshaps. :) I wish we could have more of these
kind of events through out the year.

Sad thing is, I don't have any pictures of me being there. If anyone has a
picture of me. can you please Email (naked_ron@...) it or them to me?
Or mail a disk? I can pay postage and something for your troubles.
I was the naked long haired guy with mustash
This is me from last year: http://bedno.com/photo.php?c=20070609&i=119

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From: CHITOWNDAWG / Subject: WOW... WHAT FUN

damn it was awesome.. was my 1st naked bike ride.. while organized one.. lol
i am a nudist and folks form my group came also.. and wow..
did we have a good time.. not only bein nude but also promoting a good
cause.. just wanted u folks to know how much fun it was.. and i shall see
u all again next year.. and hopefully some of you will come to our events

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: axch16 / Subject: ride

hei this was an awesome ride !
my first one and not the last for sure - thanks to all the volunteers for
the great work and the gentleman in suit doing his best to keep the ride
moving in an organized way. I was right up there near by him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Joseph L. / Subject: Great Success and Organization!

Andrew and Steven,
Kudos to both of you for another well-organized ride. Sorry not all riders
take responsibility for the mess they help create, but I'm certain everyone
had a great time due largely to your efforts.

From my perspective, the police did a fine job of protecting and serving. I
talked with three different officers at the check-in point and they really
seemed more concerned with keeping everyone safe and not hindering the
freedom of expression. I think the Chicago police deserve a special public
thanks if that is possible. Some riders at the check-in point wanted photos
of their group taken in front of my check-in sign. The officer chatting with
us offered to take the pictures. People handed him their cameras and he
stood there taking pictures on everyones' cameras for about ten minutes. Of
course they were trying to get info about the ride by chatting with me and
the riders at the check-in. They easily could follow people from the
check-in to the real start point if they wanted to hassle us. I think they
realize the smartest action is to let the ride happen, keep everyone safe,
and let the citizens of Chicago have some harmless fun.

The people of Chicago also deserve a special thanks. Their enthusiasm and
support for the riders is outstanding. You feel like a celebrity riding
through a narrow gap in the crowd with people reaching out for high-fives.
Every one of them embraces your freedom of expression and many probably
secretly wish they had the kind of self confidence it takes to ride a bike
naked through the streets of Chicago.

I look forward to working with you both next year for the 2009 ride.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Todd
Subject: my first WNBR

I expected the naked ride to be a mixed bag: a little thrill from the public
nudity and a large dose of discomfort both physical and mental.
Undoubtedly the thrill would diminish and the discomfort might grow.
And internet photos can hang around a long time.

I prefer to think of myself more as a rationalist than a coward but it was
easy to 'decide' to sit the naked rides out for several years. As dark
clouds gathered on the horizon yesterday evening I imagined a sorry scenario
of a torrential downpour dissolving the ride as I cold, wet and alone donned
a raincoat to howls of derisive laughter from cruel onlookers.

But I had offered to haul a performer on my trailer and having made a
commitment I wasn't going to back out from just a threat of rain. The ride
theoretically had a purpose of voicing a progressive message. I've been
making an effort to do this on critical mass rides. I didn't think
nakedness would contribute much to any message or lend credibility to the
messengers. But the more informed I become, ie the less I depend on
corporate media for information, the more I realize that we must be our own
media. And to do that we must sometimes leave our comfort zone.

With a very supportive wife and no boss to offend I had no excuses left to
not ride this year. Well I did have one last excuse and it's one that is
surprisingly common. My body doesn't fall into either of our idealized
extremes of masculinity or femininity. I'm a guy with tits.
Small enough that any shirt mostly hides them.

If I was a chick with a dick instead of a dude with tits it would have been
easy as most everyone was topless but plenty kept their bottoms on.
I considered remaining fully clothed but doing so would be cowardly,
motivated by a fear of embarrassment or ridicule. I'm not ashamed of my
body and somewhat unusually I know why I'm unusual. Specifically I have an
expansion of a polyglutamine repeat on my X chromosome in the place that
encodes a receptor protein for the hormone testosterone. And while my body
is swimming in testosterone its effects are uneven and it fails to fully
perform the function of suppressing breast formation. I just happen to know
this because the same genetic variation is the cause for my neuromuscular
degeneration which is known as SBMA/Kennedy's disease.
Scientific understanding of our genetic diversity should lead to greater
acceptance of our differences. If only science had as much influence as
faith.

Anyway, my expectations/fears were not supported by reality. The rain never
came. The temperature was perfect. The gentle breeze of motion felt great
everywhere. But best of all was the huge positive energy.
Most everyone was happy and smiling, both the riders and the public.
Even the police. I didn't see any heckling or any embarrassment by anyone.

The ride was big enough that there were folks of most all shapes, sizes,
ages, colors, genders, orientations, etc. from completely clothed to
completely nude and even more variety in body painting and costuming.
And very quickly it all seemed normal.

The ride had similarities to a typical mass but it was more organized and
directed and yet more festive. It was apparent that a lot of work went into
this ride and it worked. There was an element of protest, but without
hostility in either direction. The end result was something of a Mardi Gras
/ carnival parade, especially in the bar areas of Clark and Halsted where
for blocks at a time cheering throngs lined the sidewalks and occasionally
even flashed us.

Public nudity didn't horrify or harm anyone. Mostly it delighted. It did
get me thinking and it makes me wonder how f*cked up we are institutionally
when Janet Jackson's costume "malfunction" received such heavy media
coverage and was promoted as such a scandal and the ongoing obscenities of
Iraq, Afghanistan, our vast prisons, our absurd war on drugs, our racism,
our sexism, our bloated military budget and shrinking social services, our
deteriorating environment, our corrupt and broken facade of Democracy, our
violent entertainments, our ridiculous car centric transportation system,
...(I could go on and on for far too long here), scarcely ever get honest
and thorough coverage.

A year or two ago I had an exchange with Aurora Butterfly here in the forums
where I stated that the whole bicycle + nudity + protest thing just didn't
make sense to me and she said roughly, "Try it, you'll like it."

She was right and I was wrong. Thanks to everyone who worked to make the
ride what it is.

And perhaps next year I'll dispense with the briefs if someone will write
across my back "There's more to life than the bottom line" and put a red
stripe across my ass.

Todd Allen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Jason S / Subject: my first WNBR

I would like to apologize for "crashing" kinda the WNBR...my wife and i were
biking home down wood..and i took us down an alley to get to damen..and
woops...there was WNBR...now we were stuck...we rode with you all for a few
blocks before finding thomas and taking that home..

not that i was embarassed or anything..but i felt like a jerk...you all took
the courage to be as "bare as you dare" and get a good ride going and here
are 2 punks fully clothed hoping into the ride ...kinda of taking of
advantage without the work...

plus the section we were in was riding on both sides of the road ....which
i thought was not really cool and didnt want to get dinged

otherwise it looks like it was a great ride...and the ppl we were around in
the ride were super nice..

cinchel

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Lewis / Subject: what a blast.

What a great group and what fun that was. Thank you all so much, I loved
being a part of it.

I was wearing a marti gras style feathered mask and had a green print sarong
over my shoulders, but was other wise nude. If anyone has any pictures of
me please send them to chicagowad@... I would love to see them.

If anyone who chatted me up would like to continue an open line of
communication, that is where i can be reached.

Ride safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: John / Posted My Pics and Video of the Ride

http://www.flickr.com/people/johnjensen/

Go sign up for a free flikr account and friend the above site to see the
hidden set containing World Naked Bike Ride photos and videos for Chicago.

I had a blast! I loved being naked with you all!

Till Next Year!

JJ

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