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Photographs: Eric Harvey Brown
We’re not sure that real pirates would cruise through the streets of NYC on bikes for fun—they’d probably be too busy plundering and pillaging to learn how to cycle. But no matter: local environmental activists Time’s Up! organized a special pirate bike ride yesterday, in honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. In additional to donning piratical costumes (with, yes, a few wenches), some folks tricked out their rides to actually look like pirate ships. We give that level of dedication a hearty arrrr!
Cycling
Time’s Up Critical Mass: Manhattan
Stick it to the Man by hopping on your ten-speeder and having the best two-hour ride of your life with like-minded souls.
Clubs
Wang Dang Doodle: Summer Twist Party
As the name suggests, WFMU’s Gaylord Fields and Hullabaloo’s Charles Gaskins know how to spin the crazy stuff.
Music
Polvo + Obits
Polvo’s first full length in ten years, In Prism, is thankfully as compellingly weird as its back catalog.
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The Atlantic Gallery (135 W 29th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves; 212-219-3183, antlanticgallery.org) is hosting a free summer panel event tonight at 6pm: “Re-inventing the Wheel” will coincide with the gallery’s transit-themed summer group art exhibit, “Sic Transit Gloria: The End of the Road,” which is on view through July 23 and includes work by 59 artists, among them Meridith McNeal’s Brooklyn Day Dress (pictured).
The evening begins with a screening of Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken’s Feitsen (”cyclists”), on special loan by the Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam. The 1965 footage captures Dutch cyclists moving serenely over canals and bridges to the harmonies of Vivaldi’s “Spring.” Stick around for a discussion with the executive director of Transportation Alternatives Paul Steely White, who will lay down the law on biking rules; followed by a video presentation about street safety with Times Up! board member Steve McMaster. “Critical Mass is a worldwide movement that is not owned or created by any one group,” he says of the bike-group-cum-political-organization’s monthly rides through the city. “It’s just a citizen-led celebration of street life.”—Sophie Gore Browne

Coney Island's fireworks begin tonight (Photo by Linus Z. Gelber).
It may be too wet to enjoy the Bicycle Film Festival’s street festival on Saturday and Polo Jam on Sunday, so take advantage of the lack of precipitation tonight and strap on your helmet. Time’s Up is hosting the Coney Island Cyclone Ride, a casual pedal from Manhattan to Coney Island to enjoy the rides, boardwalk and, most importantly, this summer’s inaugural Coney Island Firework’s Display, held every Friday.
If you can’t make the 7pm start at southwest corner of Chambers and Centre Sts, there are two more pick-up stops for you to join the posse: Carroll Street Drawbridge between Bond and Nevins Streets in Gowanus, Brooklyn, at 7:25pm or the 69th Street Pier at Shore Parkway in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, at 7:50pm.
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Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson
Over the weekend, a gaggle of bike enthusiasts from Time’s Up met at South 6th St and Broadway in Williamsburg for a 15-mile spin. The point? To take in the latest and greatest graffiti this side of the Billyburg Bridge. We sent a photographer to ride along—see what they saw in this street-arty slide show.