 Last night I joined Critical Mass for its annual New Year's Eve bike ride from Union Square to Belvedere Castle in Central Park. With a large enough group of riders (60-75) you pretty much rule the road, and this crowd was noisy--hooting, blowing off noisemakers, and imitating car alarms. I enjoyed riding through the tunnel under Park Avenue (in the dark), skirting Grand Central on the elevated ramp, and even crossing the post-Giuliani Gestapo cattle chutes they set up at Times Square every year to keep revelers under strict government control. (That sounds harsh, I guess, but the cops used the same techniques to corral Iraq War protesters last February, and no doubt this year's New Year's is more practice for the coming Republican Convention debacle.) At Belvedere Castle we had an excellent vantage point for the fireworks that blew off when '03 changed to '04. The police helicopters keeping us all safe from terror had an even better view of the show. After the Castle several of us rode down the newly-completed bike path that runs along the Hudson, and watched the moon set over New Jersey. Great night. Happy New Year to all.
UPDATE: An animated .GIF with pics of the event, by Kristin Lucas, is in the comments to this post.
tom, how wretchedly vigorous. what were you thinking?
I had to get out. I mean really had to get out.
I'm jealous, that sounds amazing. I was on my bike at midnight, crossing town from one party to another. Nice to be out on the streets with everyone yelling happy new year and honking.
What a nice picture. Kind of picture you could send to mom and say "see, I really am an artist!"
For more pictures of the evening go to www169.pair.com/klucas/newyears2003/
For some reason I'm not seeing the .GIF at that URL. [Okay, fixed now.] The pictures are from Kristin's Lucas's "drumcam," in animated .GIF format. (She has a snare drum and cymbal mounted on the front of her bike.) I also uploaded it here: it's about 1 MB so may take a few secs to load. 
Tom, your photo of the fireworks explosion behind the tree has so much detail and depth that I dare use the expression precious to describe it. But I'm going to have to call you out on this one. I don't remember seeing the fireworks through that tree and I was standing 3 feet away from you. Are you sure you didn't Photoshop this? hmm?
I was actually mad that the tree was blocking a clear shot of the fireworks. I swear it was there. (I have a love/hate reaction to the picture itself.)
I like the way your gazebo shots caught the feeling of being at the top of the park. Also the chaos of the bike ride.
nice gif, those shots of the drum in the tunnel are great.
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At Belvedere Castle we had an excellent vantage point for the fireworks that blew off when '03 changed to '04. The police helicopters keeping us all safe from terror had an even better view of the show. After the Castle several of us rode down the newly-completed bike path that runs along the Hudson, and watched the moon set over New Jersey. Great night. Happy New Year to all.
UPDATE: An animated .GIF with pics of the event, by Kristin Lucas, is in the comments to this post.
- tom moody 1-01-2004 5:51 pm
tom, how wretchedly vigorous. what were you thinking?
- dave 1-01-2004 6:00 pm
I had to get out. I mean really had to get out.
- tom moody 1-01-2004 7:00 pm
I'm jealous, that sounds amazing. I was on my bike at midnight, crossing town from one party to another. Nice to be out on the streets with everyone yelling happy new year and honking.
- sally mckay 1-01-2004 8:29 pm
What a nice picture. Kind of picture you could send to mom and say "see, I really am an artist!"
For more pictures of the evening go to www169.pair.com/klucas/newyears2003/
- joester (guest) 1-01-2004 9:28 pm
For some reason I'm not seeing the .GIF at that URL. [Okay, fixed now.] The pictures are from Kristin's Lucas's "drumcam," in animated .GIF format. (She has a snare drum and cymbal mounted on the front of her bike.) I also uploaded it here: it's about 1 MB so may take a few secs to load.
- tom moody 1-01-2004 10:24 pm
Tom, your photo of the fireworks explosion behind the tree has so much detail and depth that I dare use the expression precious to describe it. But I'm going to have to call you out on this one. I don't remember seeing the fireworks through that tree and I was standing 3 feet away from you. Are you sure you didn't Photoshop this? hmm?
- kristin (guest) 1-02-2004 2:46 am
I was actually mad that the tree was blocking a clear shot of the fireworks. I swear it was there. (I have a love/hate reaction to the picture itself.)
I like the way your gazebo shots caught the feeling of being at the top of the park. Also the chaos of the bike ride.
- tom moody 1-02-2004 3:04 am
nice gif, those shots of the drum in the tunnel are great.
- steve 1-02-2004 10:04 am