On Brooklyn Streets,Shopping Carts Roll In a Renegade Derby
Teams Dodge Potholes, Police
In Race to Manhattan;
Cobra's Bag of Dirty Tricks
BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Tom Grise and his team had high hopes for their shopping cart. They attached 10-foot metal bars to make it easier to pull and placed a scary plastic skull on the front. They girded it in cardboard, painted to look like a mining cart. The five members of the team decked themselves out in Indiana Jones costumes.
When they crested the hill of Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park last Saturday afternoon, they realized what they were up against: nearly 200 rival teams including a group of 7-foot bananas and a barrel full of naughty monkeys. Vampires escorted a bat with a 12-foot wingspan. An Old West saloon featured cowboys, a busty barkeep and a working keg of beer. A team from the "Mayo Clinic," dressed as doctors, smothered themselves in mayonnaise.
Mr. Grise, a 25-year-old engineering consultant, had arrived at the starting point of the third annual Idiotarod, New York's answer to Alaska's Iditarod race, with shopping carts taking the place of sleds and human beings taking the place of dogs. Instead of more than 1,000 miles of snow-covered back country, the course features about four miles of snarling traffic, crowded sidewalks, nasty potholes, stern police and a chaotic crossing of the Manhattan Bridge in which entrants sabotage one another with body checks. They also throw fruit.
Shopping-cart races are popping up in cities around the country, offering an outlet for on-the-edge creativity and urban anarchy. San Francisco will hold its 12th "Urban Iditarod" on March 4, the starting date for the real Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. Racers will leave downtown San Francisco and go a little beyond Fisherman's Wharf, about three miles away. Portland, Ore., and Ann Arbor, Mich., have similar events.
Members of the Cobra team push their cart through the streets of Manhattan.
Jeff Stark, a 33-year-old film-production worker and handyman, and Maureen Flaherty, 31, a buyer for a maker of recycled glass and concrete countertops, were looking for something fun to do at the end of a dreary January. The Brooklyn roommates are part of a loosely knit community drawn to the borough for its somewhat cheaper rents and low-budget, participatory art scene. They decided to steal the idea from the San Francisco event and import it to New York, redubbing it the Idiotarod.
"Art is one of the reasons that people will accept for doing things in New York," Mr. Stark says. "You can get away with all kinds of creative high jinks."
They promoted the event on the Web and through Nonsense NYC, an email list Mr. Stark runs highlighting "independent art" and "strange happenings." The first year drew about 150 runners pushing 30 carts. The second year, 600 runners showed up and about 1,000 turned out this year, according to Mr. Stark.
Like their counterparts in San Francisco, the New York organizers had no interest in going through official channels and getting permits to close off streets along the route. Concerned that police were onto the published starting point in an industrial section of the Williamsburg neighborhood, organizers called participants the morning of the race and told them to assemble at the top of Fort Greene Park, a steeply sloping spot with a view of the Manhattan skyline.
Racers didn't even know where they were headed. They were given one checkpoint at a time and were free to chart their own course.
Luke Stiles, 32, a Brooklyn software engineer at MTV, says his team, "Double Down -- Red Squad," acquired their cart from a store parking lot the night before the race. The morning of the event, they stenciled some white T-shirts with the logo from Mr. Stiles's bicycle-racing team. Red bandanas completed their outfits. Short a fifth person, they recruited a friend's girlfriend at the starting line.
Richard Garcia, a 38-year-old carpenter, spent six weekends building a cart with a cobra theme in his Jersey City, N.J., basement. With his girlfriend, Anne Silvernail, a 25-year-old sculptor and member of the Brooklyn Bombshells roller-derby team, Mr. Garcia enclosed the cart in plywood and installed a battery and a propane tank. The finished product had working headlights, a hot-rod paint job and a sculpted 6-foot-high, fire-breathing snake head.
The couple got swept into the race last summer by Oscar Owens, a 31-year-old Brooklyn music producer. He heads a 40-person "team of teams" called Cobra, or Carts of Brooklyn Racing Association. The group had five teams in the race, including Mr. Garcia's and one with "anyone who admitted to having run before," Mr. Owens says. An additional 15 team members with no carts at all were on hand simply to disrupt the other racers. Says Mr. Owens: "Our goal was a clean sweep."
At 2:30, small explosions and a rain of confetti marked the start of the race. Contestants picked up their carts and scrambled down several sets of steps before descending on the city -- taking over sidewalks on both sides of the street and dodging cars to cross.
It took only minutes for a passing patrol car to notice something amiss. Their lights flashing, police cars shadowed the racers for much of the day.
A few blocks short of the first checkpoint, Cobra laid a trap. Team members had set up a folding table with a sign that said "CHECKPOINT." Runners scrambled to hand the bogus officials their paperwork, seeking a stamp to show they'd completed that leg of the race, Mr. Owens says. Many of them didn't get the forms back, he says.
At the real checkpoint, Mr. Garcia says he tried to send flames out of the cobra's mouth, but the bumpy ride had jarred loose some wires.
Leaving the checkpoint, contestants ran a gantlet of hurled bananas, maple syrup, ketchup and other goopy stuff. "We got pelted with everything," Mr. Garcia says. "Eggs, whole fish, pudding, Silly String. I couldn't stand the smell of myself."
The tight quarters on the Manhattan Bridge walkway set up a free-for-all of cart bashing, shoving and other mischief. "It was the closest thing to 'Mad Max' I've ever experienced," says Mr. Grise, the Indiana Jones team leader.
Temple of Zoom: Maggie Grise, Lars Russell, Tom Grise, Jason Lee and Adam Duerson (left to right) at the finish line of Saturday's Idiotarod, with their Indiana Jones-themed shopping cart.
Mr. Stiles's team fell victim to a well-worn Idiotarod trick: Someone cut the ropes they used to pull the cart.
Police were waiting on the Manhattan side of the bridge, urging participants to slow down for a tight turn and handing out citations for drinking in public. The police "couldn't have been nicer about it," said one recipient, who said it carried a $25 fine.
Police later said the race caused only minor problems. "Police officers were called to marshal traffic and pedestrians," said Detective Bernard Gifford. The group really should get a street-closing permit for future races, he said.
Mr. Stiles's Double Down team picked up speed after the bridge. One of his fellow teammates knew Chinatown and the Lower East Side well, and the team reached the second checkpoint in first place.
The race ended in East River Park, just across from Brooklyn, where it all had begun. The first team to cross the finish line, "Scout Troop 666," a bunch of guys in scout uniforms, was disqualified because it hadn't stopped at any of the checkpoints, Mr. Stark says. The team did pick up a prize for best-in-sabotage. The second team to finish, "Hawaii Five-0," was penalized for being rude to the judges at one of the rest stops, he says.
That left Mr. Stiles and the Double Down squad, who crossed the finish line third, to take the first place prize by default, winning $500.
After walking the last leg of the race with all 25 of the Cobra team racers and crossing the finish line in style, Mr. Garcia finally succeeded in letting loose with a 3-foot-long blast of flames for the judges. The Cobra team was rewarded with the $500 best-in-show prize and the honor of organizing the event next year.
布鲁克林上演购物车大战
他们在车上系了一个10英尺的金属棒，便于拉车，并在车前端放了一个吓人的塑料骷髅，然后用纸板围起来，外面再涂上颜色，使购物车看上去像一个采矿车。这个小组的五名成员还套上了《夺宝奇兵》(Indiana Jones)里的行头。
前不久的一个周六下午，当这个小组到达纽约市布鲁克林区的格林堡公园(Fort Greene Park)时，他们才意识到自己即将遭遇怎样的对手：参赛小组接近200只，而参赛的购物车中包括一个有7英尺长的香蕉车和一个装满调皮猴子的桶。人物造型中有可怖的吸血鬼，一旁跟著翅膀长达12英尺的蝙蝠；昔日西部牛仔、性感的酒吧招待以及一个活动的啤酒小桶。有个小组好像来自约梅约医学中心(Mayo Clinic)的，他们装扮成医生，再涂抹上蛋黄酱。
现年25岁的工程顾问克雷斯也来到了纽约市第三届年度爱迪欧塔罗德大赛(Idiotarod)的出发点，这项赛事是模仿阿拉斯加州的爱迪塔罗德雪橇大赛(Iditarod)，只是雪橇变成了购物车，参赛选手也从狗变成了人。比赛线路则从绵延一千多英里的冰天雪地变成了长约4英里的熙熙攘攘的人行道、坑坑洼洼的肮脏道路，还有严厉的警察以及曼哈顿桥上一个嘈杂的交叉路口。参赛选手们可以互相推搡，把别人淘汰出局。他们还可以投掷水果。
时下，购物车比赛正在美国城市悄然兴起，它为具有独特创造力的人们和随心所欲的城市人群提供了一个宣泄渠道。旧金山将在3月4日举办第十二届“城市爱迪塔罗德大赛”(Urban Iditarod)，这一天也是阿拉斯加州真正的爱迪塔罗德雪橇大赛正式开始的日子，比赛的起点是安克雷奇(Anchorage)，终点是诺母(Nome)。选手们从旧金山市区出发，经过渔人码头(Fisherman's Wharf)，再走三英里就达到了终点。俄勒冈州的波特兰(Portland, Ore.)和密歇根州的安娜堡(Ann Arbor, Mich.)也有类似比赛。
33岁的杰夫?斯塔克(Jeff Stark)是电影制片厂的杂工，而31岁的莫林?弗拉赫蒂(Maureen Flaherty)是一家生产回收玻璃和水泥厨房台面企业的采购员。他们都想为沉闷阴郁的一月找点乐趣。他们在布鲁克林区合租了一套房子，因为这里的房租和生活费用相对便宜，而且人们喜欢参与艺术活动。两人决定把旧金山的城市爱迪塔罗德大赛搬到纽约，更名为爱迪欧塔罗德大赛。
“艺术是纽约人搞活动的动力之一，”斯塔克说，“你可以在这里举办各种各样的富有创意的活动，尽情欢乐。”
他们在互联网上通过Nonsense NYC的邮件名单发送电子邮件来宣传这项比赛，并强调活动要突出“独创艺术”和“古怪创意”。斯塔克说，该赛事第一年举办时吸引了约150名选手，参赛的购物车有30辆。第二年的选手数量增至600名，到了今年选手人数达到了1,000名左右。
与旧金山赛事的举办者一样，纽约赛事的组织者们并没有兴趣向官方申请，以获得封锁道路的许可。由于担心已公布的比赛出发地点会让警察知道，纽约的组织者们在比赛当天早上才通知参赛选手在格林堡公园的最高点集合，那是个陡峭的斜坡，可以俯瞰曼哈顿的全景。
选手们当时甚至不知道比赛线路。比赛途中他们会经过几个比赛检查站，而中间的路线则可以自由选择。
32岁的卢克?斯塔尔(Luke Stiles)是布鲁克林MTV的软件工程师。他说自己所在的参赛队Double Down--Red Squad是在比赛前一天晚上从一家商店的停车场里弄到购物车的。第二天一早，他们在白色T恤衫上印上了斯塔尔所在的自行车赛队的标志图案，再加上红色丝绸质大手帕就构成了他们的全部装备。他们还在比赛出发点临时拽上朋友的女朋友，这样就凑足了五名队员。
38岁的木匠理查德?加西亚(Richard Garcia)则花了六个周末，在新泽西州泽西市(Jersey City, N.J.)住所的地下室里组装了一辆以眼镜蛇为主题的购物车。他的女朋友安妮?斯利弗纳尔(Anne Silvernail)现年25岁，是位雕刻师，同时还是Brooklyn Bombshells滚轴溜冰赛队的成员。加西亚用胶合板将购物车围上，并安装了电池和一个丙烷罐。最终完成的作品上还有工作前灯，车身喷涂成改装车的样子，并有一个6英尺高的吐著火舌的蛇头雕像。
这对情侣是去年夏天受奥斯卡?欧文斯(Oscar Owens)的影响而加入这一赛事的，31岁的欧文斯是布鲁克林的音乐制作人。他领导著一支由40人组成的“组群”，全名是布鲁克林购物车比赛协会(Carts of Brooklyn Racing Association)，简称Cobra。欧文斯说，该协会有5个小组参加了比赛，其中就包括加西亚一组和另一个“自称是有参赛经验的”小组。该组织还有15名没有购物车的成员，他们的任务就是随时准备著干扰其他参赛选手。欧文斯表示：“我们的目标是全面获胜。”
2:30分，伴随著数声轰响和一阵五彩纸屑，纽约市爱迪欧塔罗德大赛正式开始。选手们推著各自的购物车，争先恐后地走下几级台阶，开始向市区进发。他们在街道两边的人行道上前行，不时避开街上的车辆。
几分钟后，一辆路过的巡警车就注意到街上有些不对劲。接下来的大部份时间里，警灯闪烁不停的警车就一直尾随著参赛选手们。
欧文斯透露说，在离第一个检查站只有几个街区的地方，Cobra设置了一个陷阱。他们的成员架起了一个折叠式小桌子，桌上的牌子写著“检查站”。于是选手们忙不迭地把手中的表格递给那些冒充的组织者，让他们敲章以证明自己已经完成了第一段赛程。结果呢，许多选手根本没拿回自己的表格。
而在真正的检查站那一头，加西亚回忆说自己当时试图让眼镜蛇嘴里喷出火焰来，但一路的颠簸震松了一些电线。
离开第一个检查站之后，选手们又遭遇了一阵狂轰滥炸，有香蕉、枫蜜、 番茄酱以及其他黏黏糊糊的东西。“扔过来的东西是什么都有，”加西亚说。“鸡蛋、整条鱼、布丁等等。我简直都受不了自己身上的味道。”
在曼哈顿桥上的狭窄走道上又有一场自由混战，参赛的购物车可以互相冲撞、推挤或是干点别的恶作剧。“这是我经历过的最类似于《疯狂的麦克斯》(Mad Max)的场景了，”打扮成《夺宝奇兵》角色的参赛小组的组长克雷斯说。
斯塔尔的小组不幸中了该赛事的常见圈套：有人砍断了他们用来拉车的绳子。
警察则守在桥那头的曼哈顿一侧，要求选手们在狭窄的拐弯处放慢速度，同时给他们开出了在公共场合饮酒的处罚单。他们“实在是好得不能再好了”，一位参赛选手说。一张罚单的金额是25美元。
警方后来表示，这次比赛只造成了一点小问题。“警察被召集过来疏导周围的交通和行人，”警探伯纳德?吉福德(Bernard Gifford)说。他指出比赛组织者日后确实应该申请封路的许可。
过了桥之后，斯塔尔的Double Down小组开始加速。有位组员对唐人街(Chinatown)和Lower East Side特别熟悉，因此他们第一个达到了第二个检查站。
比赛在离布鲁克林不远的East River公园结束。第一个冲过终点的小组是Scout Troop 666，可这伙穿著童子军制服的小伙子却不符合参赛标准，因为他们根本没有在检查站停下来过，斯塔克说。该小组倒是获得了另一个奖项：“最佳破坏奖”。第二个抵达终点的是Hawaii Five-0，不过却遭到处罚，原因是他们在一个检查点对裁判很无礼。
这样一来就轮到了第三个达到终点的斯塔尔的Double Down小组，他们荣等榜首，赢得了500美元的奖金。
在与Cobra的25名参赛选手一起很有风度地走完了最后一段赛程后，加西亚终于成功地为裁判们释放了3英尺的焰火。Cobra小组获得了价值500美元的“最佳表演奖”，并获得了举办下届比赛的殊荣。
