I Love Riding in the City

NAME: Brandon Mungal

LOCATION: Altamonte Springs, FL

OCCUPATION: Artist, musician, budding tattoo artist, and a bicycle ninja

Where do you live and what’s it like riding in your city?

I live in Altamonte Springs, FL a few miles away from Disneyland and all that other touristy trappy kind-o-stuff. I ride my bicycle because I’d rather not spend my hard earned cash on an environment harming fuel such as gasoline. I ride my bicycle because I like to see the city and all of it’s nooks. I ride my bicycle because I like seeing smiling faces on the sidewalks, roadsides and on the faces of children riding by in the backseats of their parents’ gas guzzling monstrosities. I ride my bicycle because it keeps me awake all day at work. I ride my bicycle because there’s nothing I look forward to more after a long day at work. I ride my bicycle because the night wants me to. I ride my bicycle because It’s good for my lungs and makes me sing better when I play my guitar. I ride my bicycle because I enjoy rolling through a crowded gas station and watching all the people bobbing and weaving for the next available pump. I ride my bicycle because it’s fun!

What was your favorite city to ride in, and why?

I guess I would have to say Florida because it’s the only city I’ve ridden a bicycle in, although I have taken my skateboard to Paris and a few other places!

Why do you love riding in the city?

When you are on a bicycle crusing at a reasonable speed/pace, it’s so much easier to take in the sights and to know where you are (I have a horrible sense of direction unless I’m on a bicycle). I have found more shortcuts and side streets than I’ve ever known about in my whole 25 years of living here.

Poetry anyone?

Pebbles and rocks would bounce into my socks, if I wore them. Knats on my face, the sweat glues them in place as if I meant to adorn them. The wind in my face reminds me of a place down by the beach side. The sounds in my ear make it so clear that I’d rather be outside than inside. Sometimes I fall and the pavement takes my skin away, but the scars create memories that immediately take my pain away. Scars are like tattoos, much like roadways on a map. Like bridges converging and filling in the gaps. Where will these two wheels take me in life? Anywhere I want to go if the weather is just right.

Check out myspace.com/brandonmungal

To participate, answer the following:

NAME:
LOCATION:
OCCUPATION:

Where do you live and what’s it like riding in your city?

What was your favorite city to ride in, and why?

Why do you love riding in the city?

Or just say whatever you want about riding in the city… Poetry anyone?

Email your responses (along with a high-resolution photo) to jeff@urbanvelo.org