WHEN BICYCLE MESSENGER YIANNI PHILIPPIDES died in late June, after being struck by an SUV near Alaskan Way South, almost nobody in the local media mentioned it.
There were only a couple of brief Seattle Times stories about a rally and memorial staged by bike activists days later. And even those pieces emphasized the inconvenience commuting motorists received from the 100-plus bicyclists at the rally, not the much greater harm done by one motorist to one bicyclist.
Now, fortunately, the full tale of Philippides’ tragic end has been told in Kickstand, a messengers’ activist zine to which he’d been a contributor.
The 40-page issue #12 contains many pictures of and writings by and about Philippides. He’s shown to have been an ordinary dood; an often-smiling, beer- and beat-poetry-loving student, artist, writer and musician.
The issue also calls loudly and often for folks to see his death not as an isolated happenstance but as a call-to-arms about reckless and aggressive driving these days. As a flyer passed around at the rally stated, “Help us live to ride another day.”
(One unconfirmed rumor about the Philippides crash: The SUV driver supposedly expressed more immediate concern about the blood stains on his vehicle’s paint job than about the man he’d just sent into a coma.)
A MUCH MORE LIGHTHEARTED NOTE is taken by another new local zine, John Montonye’s Salmon, Broads & Beer: A Northwest Journal for the Salmon Sophisticate.
Montonye describes his eight-page rag’s focus as “the three key elements of the Northwest fisherman’s life triangle–calmon, chicks, and brew–I hope to help you land that monster king in your net, an Alyssa Milano lookalike in your lap, and the perfect ale in your hand.” Thusly you learn how to: troll for lingcod; offer pizza slices to women heading out of bars at closing time; and make some homebrew ale that doesn’t taste too creepy.
TOMORROW: What’s still right with Bumbershoot.
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