Lots of excellent post-post-ride stuff follows below...

Tour Du Fat was excellent last Saturday. Bikes, bands, and beer! I left
near midnight, tanned and dusted with glitter, just as the Midnight
Marauders launched on their Solstice Ride.

After Fire Jam last Wednesday I had an impromptu slide show viewing of the
newly received raw official photos, and declared the 2008 best costume prize
winning team: Katy The Mermaid, Tricia the tree, Silvia (bike tattoo on
neck), and all three for their stellar volunteer service. Runners up
include Melissa, the Cloud couple, and many others. Y'all are awesome.
http://ChicagoNakedRide.com/photos

THIS FRIDAY is of course Critical Mass. I'll be there (presumably on
skates) weather permitting.
From http://ChicagoFunNews.com
Critical Mass (since 1996). Last Fridays All ages Free 5:30p.
THE monthly gathering of bicyclists making their presence known downtown.
Unplanned route slowly winds a dozen miles or so. Thousands attend in good
weather. Includes music, hipsters, athletes, show bikes, so much more.
Skaters welcome.
Daley Plaza, 773/486-4861, 50 W Washington. Under the Picasso (giant rusty
bird), at Dearborn, SW of State&Lake train stop.
http://www.chicagocriticalmass.org


!!! LAST PLEA for PRESS CLIPPINGS and TV NEWS vids !!! I have almost none.
Reader? Trib? SunTimes? Fox?


QAPLA!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew / WNBR-C on National Public Radio

Interview with Andrew recorded before ride (actually on-site early on ride
day), then played as part of a larger piece on progressive energy and
transportation subjects days later on National Public Radio! I didn't know
that's where it'd play, and now I've been getting e-mails from people I
haven't seen in years from all over, so I've gotta guess it was heard by
large numbers! (WBEZ locally) Thanx Scott!
Though editing re-ordered pieces, sometimes even individual words, overall
it came across really well, and riders are quoting me from it.
The interview MP3 is linked under PRESS on our main PHOTOS page:
http://ChicagoNakedRide.com/photos
Or directly at
http://bedno.com/media/andrew/20080619-scott_iseri-smart_city_radio.mp3
Or shorter at:
http://tinyurl.com/69f9gl

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WNBR-C photos on pay-per-view website.

Andrew,
Do you know who the photographer is that calls himself Tarzan? He takes
zillions of photos at the ride and posts them on a site other than the
official one. (Actually, very excellent quality photos)

http://www.coccozella.com then click on new galleries. It is however a
membership thing.

>>> Andrew's notes:
Wow. Site appears to have Chicago 2007+2008, Credit Card required. Other
big city groups have debated this heavily in identical circumstances. I
think there are release issues where commercialization negates public place,
but too big a topic.
This, plus London's top challenge being quantity of photographers, plus our
compression at Belmon+Halsted, all confirm for me the efficacy and utility
of our endeavors towards low camera density at start.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ASANTE / MySpace comment
wow what i ride... fun time fa sho... endorphins kicked in from the moment
we took off..can't wait til next year

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AMMUNITION / MySpace comment
The pleasure is all mine. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I
am a proud bike rider and will happily burn calories instead of
oil....NAKED!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TURNTABLE / MySpace comment
wow, wow, wow, and drumming with ee..........shesh life is just amazing..!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EE (Environmental Encroachment) / MySpace comment
An Epic Ride, Life Memory! The best! Cheers ~EE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Timothy M

Congrats on putting together a great ride this year. You are the man!
Thanks for helping us get out the word that cars suck. Be free from oil and
ride a Bike!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Chicago Journal

Hi Andrew.
I AM on the yahoo group, and you may republish this. I was also on the ride
last Saturday (my first time) and it was totally Amazing. I did talk with
the writer of this article, Josh, for a little bit while we were riding, but
we were only about 1 1/2 into it and I must admit I was still a little
nervous thinking about what lie ahead.
This ride surpassed any of my wildest dreams and I thank you for it. You
and your team did a wonderful job.
See you next year.
Ed

=====================================
"Baring it all for the story"

(Andrew: See online for a couple of nice photos with the article.)
http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=169&articleID=51
72

Web Posted 6/18/2008 10:00:00 PM
By Josh Hawkins

It seemed like such a good idea at the time to suggest covering the World
Naked Bike Ride, an in-your-face protest of sorts held Saturday that sent
thousands of naked and half-naked riders out onto the streets in cities
across the globe to protest automobile use and oil consumption. I'd get to
bike around town and call it "work." I even got a good chuckle when one of
the event organizers emailed me with some suggestions for covering the
event, including, "wear few if any clothes (seriously)." Seriously, I'm
being asked to strip for work? Hey, why not?

These are easy commitments to make when the ride is a few days out and your
biggest concern is which pair of boxer briefs to wear. The ride is "bare as
you dare" and I always knew I could dare so far, but no further. That limit
was clear from the start, though one of my editors did enjoy mocking my
manhood for not baring it all.

It was the morning of the ride when things changed for me. I started out not
wanting to go. The phrase, "I probably wouldn't get fired for it" went
through my head a few times as I considered playing hooky. See, I think I'm
a reasonably attractive guy-enough women have told me so as to overwhelm my
defenses and disbelief-but there is a difference between thinking something
in your head and believing it in your heart. In my heart, I'm perfectly
comfortable in my underwear, while sitting around my house. Outside my house
I have a moderately respectable wardrobe to help out. I'm guessing this is
all pretty normal.

I reminded myself, repeatedly, that it's really no different than wearing a
swimsuit. It really isn't, except in my head. In my head, though, the
difference is profound and simple: If you're seeing me in my underwear, I
usually have a strong motivation to be in my underwear, and work ain't it.

Once I started my routine of getting my camera and bike equipment ready
things got easier. Get busy, stop thinking so much, I told myself. By the
time I was at the start point, I was committed. There was a mass of people
when I got there, maybe 300-plus, but that would grow to probably 1,000 by
the time the ride started.

I took my clothes off, leaving on my favorite boxer briefs, a pair of argyle
socks (when you aren't wearing much, socks are a key style statement) and my
biking shoes. It took a few minutes to get somewhat comfortable, but being
in a sea of people in their underwear or fully nude made it easier. It's
amazing how little clothes matter. No one seemed to care about the flesh on
display, and I didn't care all that much either.

It does help that when you're in a sea of naked people you discover all your
body flaws are really pretty common. And that whole idea of when everyone is
naked it's just the new normal, really does kind of happen, and pretty
quickly. Then when I got on my bike I really stopped worrying about looking
good. No one looks good in a biking position.

Neighborhood after neighborhood, street after street, whether it was
Michigan Avenue or Boystown, people cheered. All the bystanders I
interviewed (Yes, I interviewed people while in my underwear, I'm kind of
proud of that one actually) supported the ride and thought it was a great
idea. I'm not saying that this was a statistically sound sampling, just the
half-dozen or so people I talked to. It's easier to be brave when you can
wear the cloak of "professionalism." The interviews went something like
this: "Yes, I'm actually a journalist, not just a guy in his underwear
striking up a conversation with you, while you're having dinner with your
family at this lovely, and expensive, outdoor cafe just off the Mag Mile."

By the end, I'm not going to say I had some sort of epiphany and you'll see
me around town in my underwear, and I think my publisher is probably happy
to avoid those phone calls, but I think I'm going to be far more comfortable
in a swimsuit in the future.