Maurice Ali
Joined: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 7699 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:50 pm Post subject: World Naked Bike Ride! - Part 1 |
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World Naked Bike Ride! - Part 1
By Maurice Ali, Journalist
Far shot of a naked guy on a bike!
Toronto, Canada - Today was the World Naked Bike Ride. An international event held world wide: Brazil, Canada, Germany, Britain, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Scotland, New Zealand and the United States. The cause for the event was: "Protest oil dependency and celebrate the power and individuality of our bodies. Naked Bicycle People Power!"
Web site photo of the event - your experience may differ.....
All very well and good; the type of gathering we document. So it was with some anticipation I decided to document the event being held in Toronto. The location was billed as being held at Grange Park, downtown Toronto at twelve noon. The park is a bit of a secluded one hiding behind the Art Gallery here in Toronto. Anyway, I made my way downtown and parked my car many blocks away in a residential area and still had to pay for parking! Then the long walk to the event though a busy part of the downtown Chinese district.....and there it was Grange Park!
It was pretty barren but I saw a small gathering with what looked to be a couple of reporters; so I headed there. Turned out to be one amateur reporter, but this was the place and he was talking to a couple of the participants. I wasted no time in securing a quick interview:
Click Here For An Audio Interview
I found it surprising that this one person forgot about the oil companies and concentrated on the naturalist lifestyle. Were the oil companies simple a rouse to attract the press to an naturalist event? We then notice a group stripping down for the occasion.
A group a nudists.
To my heterosexual chagrin, they were all men..... however, we moved toward them and one completely naked man came toward us wearing nothing other than sunglasses and shook my hand. He even told us some disappointing news.....that they were to have a lunch (in the nude) and then bike around the place at approximately two o'clock! I told them that we were busy people and could not stick around that long. So one of the group decided to take a token spin around the park for us and I snapped these photos of nudity on the bicycle.
Letting it all hang out?
Actually a naked guy on a bicycle did not attract too much attention from anyone around there.....strange.....
The safer view from behind.....
So what are we of the general population to make of this? Well I guess first and foremost they are naturalists showing their love of going naked. A distant second is the bike riding to show alternatives to the gas guzzling car. Fair enough and that is why we reported the event.....nuff said! |
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