Pillow Warfare with the Midnight Ridazz

Around 8:30pm, Mike and I bike about 7 miles into Echo Park in well, Echo Park. There are signs of fellow riders with overstuffed messenger bags and blinking red lights along Sunset Blvd. We circle the lake to find hundreds of other blinking lights and bicycles resting on a grassy knoll just east of the lake. Resting for the battle...the Midnight Ridazz pillow fight!

We were greeted with the familiar faces of Jason and Meespace, first time Midnight Ridazz riders. After an hour of sipping on Tecate and building excitement, the sprinklers went off. Might as well start riding to the first battle: Sears Tower. (An old Sears building in downtown LA) 

11:30pm: A few miles in, we arrive at the abandoned parking lot. Bikes are abandoned and people just began to charge the group swinging in any which direction possible. After being bludgeoned several times, I take a time out to check out the action: Mike is charging the crowd (his height was an advantage), Jason's pillow had evolved into a "ball and chain" sort of weapon swinging one handed into the mass, and Meespace hit me. The "music bike" played great songs for us to get excited.  

Next stop: LA Memorial Stadium. At 12:30am, there under the Olympic logo we then again began violently swinging our bedding with laughs and smiles. An appropriate way to celebrate the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing games because this was where the 1984 games' opening ceremony was held. Filled with Olympic spirit, I think people were hitting harder this time. "What is that?! A sack of flour?!" I yell as I get beaned right in the face.

We then take our bicycle group of at least 600 - 700 riders to the streets of downtown LA. We take a detour to an empty parking lot. Destroying any sort of caution tape barriers for our bicycles to get a clear view of the Gehry Disney Music Hall. It was graceful with clear skies behind it.

Last stop: Los Angeles' most architecturally advanced building: the CalTrans building. 1:45am: Bikers climbed on walls, took water breaks, and we watched as the flatland bikers began to do tricks under the red and blue flourescent lights of the building. Kids did all the bike tricks that made your jaw drop. 

Mike and I decided to head back to Echo Park around 2:30am. We had just rode about 20 miles and weren't quite ready to return to Hollywood to meet with the drunk drivers that just left Cahuenga Blvd. Soup at the Brite Spot. 

Near 4am, we ride back. Running red lights all the way home. No cars. We enjoyed the silence and calmness of a perfect climate that we never experience in Hollywood. Sleep happily at 4:30am.