Melena Ryzik covers the Oscars and other movie awards on the New York Times Carpetbagger Blog. In addition to covering the red carpet beat, Melena is a general assignment culture reporter, covering film, music, theater, television, visual art, and dance.

The cool thing about her, though: her mini bio says: “She enjoys riding her bicycle to black tie events.”

H/T to Rick Vosper via Twitter.

If you’re looking for a gift for the cyclist in your life, here’s are the lights I’ve been using this year that have worked out well.

Lights

• I really like the NiteRider Minewt Mini USB headlight. 110 lumens for 3 hours at under $100. You charge with any powered USB connection, the flexible band mount works, and the light has been rugged after nearly two years of use. the Minewt Mini is Nite Rider’s best selling light ever: in their first year, this light outsold all of NiteRider’s other lights combined. Drawbacks: No blink mode, and no battery charge indication, so plug it in each night to ensure a full charge because otherwise the light might stop shining with no warning.
• If you want more light, battery indicator, and blink modes, I like NiteRider’s MiNewt X2 Dual. $280 for 300 lumens of illumination. A friend owns this light and it’s pretty blazingly bright.
• For a taillight, I like both the Princeton Tec Swerve and Planet Bike’s popular Superflash light. Both lights retail for about $30.

  I love the fast flashing pattern of the Planet Bike Superflash, which has a single half-watt red LED and two smaller LEDs. The apparent brightness up close is more impressive, but Princeton Tec’s Swerve with its two half watt LEDs is more visible from a distance. Because I ride multiple bikes, I also prefer the Swerve’s more flexible mounting over the screw mounted bracket required for the Superflash. I think side visibility is better with the Swerve over the Superflash.

  Early production of the Swerve apparently had some cold solder problems — after enough jolts the light just stops working. Princeton Tec tells me the issue has been resolved, and my replacement light is still going.

  Princeton Tec started as a dive light company, so presumably they know how to make waterproof lights. I haven’t put a working Swerve light through a California rainy season yet.

  I’m currently on about my fourth Superflash, two of which failed after water exposure and one that I lost when it bounced out of its bracket. That’s over $100 out of my pocket for me 🙁

Disclosure: I paid for the Superflash and Minewt USB myself. Princeton Tec provided a review sample of the Swerve for me to evaluate. I’ve also used lights from Cateye, Blackburn, Serfas, Knog and others. Cateye are solid and dependable but a little behind the curve in current LED technology. Serfas lights fall apart and stop working after only a few weeks.

Tell me: What are your favorite lights? I’m impressed with Dinotte’s offerings, though I’ve never used them myself. I’ve also seen some interesting homebrew setups while biking around Silicon Valley.

Coming up: Bike Apparel.

During the Momentum Magazine Bike Style fashion show in San Francisco a couple of weekends ago, sound for the show was powered by these three people pedaling their bikes on “The Biker Bar.”

Paul Freedman’s “Biker Bar” is a series of bikes mounted on rollers connected to a generator to provide 200 watts of clean AC power that can peak to over 500 watts.

Because of the ‘spiky’ nature of dance music, it turns out this is enough juice to run mains, monitor, and mixers for a respectable volume of sound. Paul and his Rock the Bike crew tows the “Biker Bar” around San Francisco on a bike trailer for music festivals and bike fashion shows. The “Biker Bar” is also available for sale either as a DIY kit or fully assembled.

Because festival participants use their own bikes on the biker bar, Rock The Bike calls this “the most democratic, grassroots way to power your event.” People mount their own bikes to the biker bar to power the sound equipment.

Read more –> Rock The Bike / Biker Bar.

Behold, the death dealing MINI Cooper!

Steven Culbertson of Lakeport, CA took his own life as well as the life of a family of four when he ran a red light in his Mini Cooper at 100 MPH over the Thanksgiving weekend near Novato, CA.

Culbertson, who was not wearing a helmet, struck a Honda stopped at the light before smashing into a minivan where Lakeville Highway crosses Highway 37 in Sonoma County. The occupants of the minivan — John Maloney, his wife Susan, and their children Aiden (age 8) and Grace (age 5) — were declared dead at the scene.

If motorists want the right to use the road, they should follow the rules of the road. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration surveys show that motorists obey the law at about the same rate that cyclists do. Red light running by motorists seems to be on the rise. Motorists roll through stop signs and fail to yield the right of way as blatantly as anybody else.

In other news, the Philadelphia city council introduced a bill for a $1000 fine for cyclists who ride brakeless.

Murph also weighs in on the MINI Cooper wreck as the City of Brotherly Love ponders confiscating brakeless bikes and wonders why vehicles capable of breaking the speed law in the entire nation are even allowed on the public roads? How often are cars confiscated because of a broken headlight or missing bumper? Dan Connelly left a comment reminding us that California law already mandates speed limits on electric motor bicycles.

The 4th Annual Supermarket Street Sweep takes place this Saturday, December 5. This bike race combines fun with charity as hundreds of racers zip around San Francisco to local supermarkets, bringing back thousands of pounds of food to donate to the San Francisco Food Bank.

The race begins at noon at Cupid’s Span on the Embarcadero.

Xtracycle wants Bay Area Xtracyclists to join their team and collectively haul one ton of groceries. Last year, these two guys managed to haul in 500 lbs for the food bank on their bike and trailers, so 2,000 pounds is certainly achievable.

Details –> Supermarket Street Sweep.

Beauty and the Bike chronicles two groups of teenage girls and young women who bike around their cities. Here’s an 8 minute preview of the 55 minute video that will premier in the UK and Germany later this week.

Mentioned at Copenhagenize, Cenas a Pedal, London Cyclist, and Riding Pretty (among other places, I’m sure).