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Brooklyn%u2019s Own Mardi Gras Gets Under WayBY JEANNETTE WALLSNew Orleans is noted for two things: It was the birth place of jazz and it is the home of the fabulous Mardi Gras. Though Brooklyn can%u2019t do anything about her southern counsin%u2019s claim on jazz, she certainly is doing her best to rival the famed festival of the Mardi Gras. Slated for the Labor Day weekend, a four-day explosion, the Annual Brooklyn Labor Day Weekend Extravaganza is going to sweep Eastern Parkway off its feet.Sponsored by the Western Indian American Day Carnival Association, well over 2 million people take part in this celebration. The eleventh of its kind, these festivities have a strong slant towards the Western Indian culture. %u201c Most street festivals are sort of impersonal and sometimes blaze,%u201d commented a Boerum Hill resident, who claims that she%u2019ll never forget the %u201977 event. %u201cThis fair is really incredible. There are people just as far as the eye can see%u2014further%u2014and they%u2019re celebrating in the true sense of the word, with costumes, live music, shouting, and the crowd never fails to get in on the action.%u201dThe people who are working with the weekend%u2019s activities all agree that the event is unforgettable. Plans for the next festival begin the day after one carnival ends. Charlene Victor, who has worked with the festival planning for the last nine years, is still always %u201c up in the air%u201d during those few days before the festival.The weekend%u2019s excitement is kicked off on Friday, September 1. \of the carnival,%u201d said Victor, who explained that this Ole Mas began long ago when the slaves would ceremoniously mock their masters. %u201cThe Ole Mas exhibitions are always done with sharp wit and satire.%u201d Admission to this evening is $5, which includes the emceeing of %u2018The Mighty Panther%u2019 and such %u201c show stopping%u201d performances and events as Jab Malasie%u2019s limbo dancing, bottle dancing, steel bands and the Islanders Dance Troupe. All this will take place at the Brooklyn Museum%u2019s Theaterin-the-Back setting.Special free Kiddies%u2019 CarnivalsBIRDS, BONES, BAUBBLES AND BEADS: West American Indian Labor Day Festivities.will be held at the T-Back site on Saturday and Sunday, September 2 and 3, from 1 to 4 p.m. Various activities will be interspersed throughout the day including the official Calypso Elimination, slated for Saturday.The festival %u201c Steel Bank Panorama%u201d takes over on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. There will be a beauty competition, Panorama Dance Troupe, Queens of the Band Contest, iimbo dancing, fire eating, Islanders dancing, and much more at the Brooklyn Museum for a $6admission.The gala %u201c Dimanche G ras%u201d starts at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday and the admission fee is $8. %u201cThis music is infectuous.%u201d Victor, who adds that everyone, herself included, gets into the fun as the numerous presentations of Ole Mas, Reggae Contest, La Tropical Dance Company, Kings of the Bands, Queen of the Bands, the Mighty Panther, Calypso Rose, Ken Chandler, Calypso contests and, of course, the grand finale %u201c Jump Up,%u201d an event that BACA calls %u201cone of the happiest momentsofthe weekend.%u201dThen, of course, there is the mammoth day-long carnivalparade on Labor Day, September 4. %u201c If you were to see any other parade, you%u2019d see people stand by and watch the floats go by and it might all take about three hours%u2014that%u2019s for a long parade,%u201d says Victor. %u201c Here, in this celebration, one single group can include a couple of hundred people, because the onlookers always join in with the floats. But they%u2019re not really floats%u2014they%u2019re groups of people, whose costumes sometimes get asbig as 30 or more feet across. And it takes about 45 minutes for one group to go by; they don%u2019t %u201c pass%u201d like in a parade%u2014they stop and perform for the audience, which is usually dressed like the crowd.%u201d Eastern Parkway will be shut off to traffic for the event, which lasts, roughly, from 11 a.m. till 11 p.m., starting at Albany Avenue and going to Washington Avenue.%u201c The W estern Indians are beautiful, happy, emotional, industrious people, and this celebration shows every bit of it,%u201d Victor said.Brooklyn On Two Wheels-And by the Light of the Silvery MoonBY JEANNETTE WALLSWhatever desire motivates it, there%u2019s a certain pleasure derived from participating in the unusual. And especially with New Yorkers, %u201cthe crazier, the better.%u201d Perhaps that%u2019s why I got such a kick out of cycling down the center of Fulton Street%u2019s busiest area, ignoring all traffic signals, at 2:45 in the morning. And perhaps that%u2019s why over a hundred others were doing the same crazy things.Regardless of what possessed us to take this untimely trip, there was a companion-like comfort in that so many were along. It was 2:30 a.m. Sunday, August 20, when we met. iThe crowd began forming at approximately 1:30 a.m. at the steps of Boro Hall. Under the dim glare of the street lights, the ever increasing crowd chatted excitedly about everything from %u201c shop talk%u201d to the flowers that were growing in the Plaza. After meeting our guides, Richard and Marilyn Lenat (who insist that they don%u2019t know why they chose the route that they did), and getting a brief history of the Boro Hall building by Bob Macknel, President of the Friends of the Parks (the organizationsponsoring the tour), we began the long procession.This is the tour that everyone hasbeen buzzing about. The fabulous diligent and ingenious were two %u201c Insomniacs Bicycle Tour of Brook- %u201chandicapped%u201d cyclists who delyn,%u201d where, for a donation of a termined not to be left at home mere dollar (which goes towards while the neighborhood goes biksaving the trees), anyone willing ing, rigged up contraptions thatThe 67-year-old man lookedas if h e%u2019d been ridingmost of his life,and so did his hike!and able can take a guided tour of several highlights of the borough. The trip was supposed to run 14 miles, but was later measured at just under 20.Cyclists came, not only from all over the city, but even from out-ofstate. Bikes of every make were there; from tall sleek racing bikes with pencil-thin tires to dwarfed European touring bikes, like the Peugeot, with its tiny wheels and high seat. The cyclists varied even more than their vehicles. The nine year-old kept up with the best, just as Tne 6/-year-om man who looked as if he%u2019d been riding most of his life, commented a fellow cyclist, and so did his bike!Of the whole crew, the mostraised more than a few eyebrows. Marty Mauler, who is totally blind, had welded two bikes together so that he could pedal and his partner, with total vision, could steer. His partner on this trip was a friend, though he in general rides along with his wife. %u201c She%u2019s pretty small so I pedal, and she steers,%u201d he explained. %u201c It%u2019s the story of our life.%u201dThe fact that he can%u2019t walk didn%u2019t stop another man from coming all the way from Boston with a rig that looked like a cross between a bike and a wheel chair. The pedals on this 10-speed three-wheeler were in the front and operated by the cyclist%u2019s hands. Though the cycling looked like quite a chore, the riderkept up with the rest and insisted that %u201c it%u2019s not too hard.%u201dSpokes sparkled and chrome fenders and handle bars glistened as the four block procession made its way down Fulton Street and onto Myrtle Avenue. There wasn%u2019t a person on the street who didn%u2019t gape at the two-wheeled parade. %u201c There%u2019s too many of them ,%u201d laughed one frustrated spectator, who had been trying to count the bikers.In Fort Greene we received a touch of local history via bullhorn as well as a local opinion, when some bleary-eyed resident leaned from the top floor of a brownstone and, seeing the bicycle invasion, yelled, \morning. Go take your picnic somewhere else.%u201d After that the guides tried to be quieter, especially in the residential areas.Next stop was Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park. The cyclists rode into the park and stopped at Prospect Park Lake, which was a gorgeous rippling mirror under the 3 a.m. sky. Bob Macknel recalled the lake%u2019s history while the bikers skimmed rocks across the lake.Leaving the brownstone belt and going into what the guides called %u201c a land of bird baths and water sprinklers,%u201d we went to ProspectPark South and headed towards Flatbush. it was about 4 a.m. when we arrived at the site where Washington led his armies, along with other notable historical highlights.As we traveled along the ocean%u2019s edge where the men who work the boats start their days, the sky was beginning to show the first hints of daylight.We stopped at the Gateway National Recreation Area for a breather and then it was over the Marine Parkway Bridge and into Queens. At about 6:45 a.m. we reached our destination: Riis Park. It provided a warranted opportunity for everyone to soothe their sore feet in the cool, moist sand. The sun was rising with reddish glow and reflecting pink ripples on the Atlantic.The trip had been very successful. It was well organized and the %u201ccasualty%u201d list consisted of oniy four or five flats and one broken sproket chain. Breakfast was short because we had to catch a subway that was arranged to take us backto R nm R a il a t R a msame spirit that initiated the trip, several of the cyclists insisted on biking it back to Boro Hall. As for me? Well, no thanks, maybe next time.August 29,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 9