Dear Friends,

It's spring and so, in spite of it all, I feel ebullient and optimistic. The news is of course an onslaught of cruelty and idiocy, but right now the air in L.A. smells like jasmine and orange blossoms and everything is verdant and lush. Let us have this, it’ll be fire season again in a month or two.

March brought the return of weekly social bike rides, and it's a delight to pedal around with friendly folks at dusk. It's been a couple of years since I first checked out The Cub House's weekly basket bike ride, a mellow jaunt ending with a hang on the Flat Top, an important pseudo-public space in Montecito Heights (under development threat, of course). I met people on that ride that I'm good friends with now, and it was a big part of turning my cycling from a solitary activity to a social one. Now there's another ride that starts roughly from my neighborhood–slightly different crowd, more variety in the route–and I've been alternating between the two most Wednesday nights.

Links and Recs

• I missed the protests last week (my mom didn't!), but I'm excited to see Bernie and AOC this Saturday.

• RIP Michael Hurley. Pals Emily and Justin interviewed him a few years ago about food.

• Cory Doctorow writes about Tarrifs, but what I really like here is his explanation of the trap of schizmogenesis that liberals keep falling into.

• I like this Bertolt Brecht Poem, which feels apt. (via Andrew Dana Hudson)

• Malcolm Harris' critique of Ezra Klein's Abundance feels spot on.

Pics