A cat-shaped hole in our hearts

The sweet lil' putty-tat, Beast for which this blog derives its name has passed on to the giant catnip-filled field beyond. She was 18 people years and 79 cat years old. The picture above is from a few years ago when she would nightly sleep/hang out on my neck and shoulders whilst I goofed on my computer. Beast was the runt of a litter that my girlfirend's cat had just before I went off to dental school. She was probably about six weeks old when I took her off to school with me. I will never forget our first bonding experience. She fit into the palm of my hand and as I headed up to Richmond in the sweltering August heat she was panting like crazy as my car had no AC. I pulled over and filled a bottle cap with water which she lapped up and then promptly fell asleep in my lap. Another cool thing she would do was to crawl onto my knee when I would play my acoustic guitar wrapping her front paws around my knee to hold on as I created various rackets over the years. We moved all over the place to different states, cities and homes. She took a few sabaticals over the years but always came back. Beast seemed to have a good sense about people too. Those that she did not care for I ended up eventually feeling the same about. Beast lived w/ my Mom who treated her like a queen for the last couple years of her life. We all will miss her. Rest in peace sweet kitty.

Jungle Hop

Boy oh boy I sure had fun assembling the accoutrements for our lil' boy's room this weekend. Its seems like forever ago since we picked out the theme and the furniture finally arrived this weekend. Often you wonder when you buy something if you made a good choice. I now know that we did after seeing it all together in his future bedroom. Its nice stuff, super-cute and I hope that someday that if he ever reads this he'll be embarrassed-hahaha! I originally wanted to go with an outer space theme, however we were not able to readily find bedding and all the hoo-haa in that style. My wife was amused but not crazy about the idea of a wall mural that I would paint that would have among other images a UFO abducting our dogs. That did not fly (pun-intended). In the end the jungle theme Zoofari won out. I love it as I had a jungle themed room when I was a toddler and I turned out ok. I love and respect animals often more than most people. I hope our little guy will learn to love and respect animals too and deserving people.

I had a swell AM ride up at Freedom Park today. I ran into a patient and his friends and we all hit it together. I ride alone alot so this was a nice change of pace. Another thing that was great was that they were into big bikes (hell, one of 'em was on a Demo 7 with the crazy paint job like in the photo) and milking all of the technical features that the trail has to offer. Yeah man, bring it on! No offense to any of the more tame XC riders, but I just like throwing down more. Now we rode everything not just the places with jumps (although we did each of those a few times). Call it what you want; all-mountain/trail/freeriding whatever. Its just mountain biking to me and its fun. Jungle Hop as covered by my heros The Cramps. Lots of garabge, man.

Lay it on me

Assorted tales/tails. Despite having many days here of temperatures in the 90's I have done a lot of riding. Mostly commutes to and from work. In fact I have not drove to work in over two weeks. I kind of feel guilty when I drive because my commutes to either office are brief (less than five miles). Sure there are times when I have to schlep something that I would rather not stuff into my messenger bag, but its only a minor inconvenience. Previously I relegated all of my commuting duties to my speedy cyclocross bike. This is a logical choice as I have slicks on it so its basically a heavy duty roadie and I can get to any destination faster aboard it than any of my other rides. However my instinct to play never seems to go away so I rebuilt my old Surly Instigator (old picture above/new and improved below) into an urban assault vehicle. I went with a 1x9 gearing, Maxxis Holy Roller tires, a Gravity Dropper, flat pedals and a nice beefy Z1 fork. Its perfect for riding down stairs, jumping curbs/planters, riding through ragged industrial yards and general urban mayhem. It may not be as fast as the 'cross bike, but like I always say "It makes the commute an adventure". I find myself scouting lines all the time now when I am in car not unlike when I was kid with my skateboard where I would see some embankment and think how I could ride it. Now I have to use broader strokes and a larger palate. Its fun.

Heres some more fun. Recently our local paper reported on a proposed "cycling loop" in Virginia Beach. I am very happy that that any effort is being made for the benefit of cyclists in this area, however I think this proposal is a poor choice. It will not be sustainable because at its core it will be boring. It will take even the most novice rider only a brief period of time to circle a 2.4 km paved path. Then what? Keep going around like a hamster in a treadmill? If thats the effect you want go spin at the multitude of gyms around. Paved path? How about the boardwalk? Its longer and far more interesting. No serious rider is going to go there for training because a. It will not provide any challenge and b. Aforementioned novices will be in the way. What really kills me is the cost to taxpayers of $3.9 million. I will not sit here and badmouth without a solution. I say take the 25 acres of land (or find another park or two) and allow a series of multi-use trails to be built for cyclists (mountain bikers), hikers and possibly equestrians. Does this seem self-serving? You bet it is, as there is a single city park on the south side of the bay that has legal mountain bike trails (First Landing does not count; the trails are too wide). However, there are amazing successful examples of this throughout the nation. Heres the black and white: It can be done at a fraction of the proposed sum. It will bring interest to the area, revenue to local vendors and provide a project that can be sustained for years by local groups (civic, cycling clubs, scouts, etc.) Amazing examples of these kind of projects be found in Fort Lauderdale (similarly flat), New York City, Seattle and Woodstock, Georgia (Atlanta suburb). The last one I have personally rode many times and help maintain at some their work parties. It is incredible that a community would come together to make something like this happen. It has drawn people to the area increased the local business revenues and given the area national recognition. Picnic Areas, Frisbee golf, dog parks, nature paths all could be included. Bottom line is that it could be fun.

My "punk" pages

Yet another old crazy jew hit it right on head in summing up how I view these couple of nuggets that were recently sent to me.
Thats me on the far right hunched over my guitar some twenty-three years ago. I am kinda psyched seeing this not only for nostalgic reasons, but the crowd seem to dig it and we actually sounded pretty solid and thunderous for barely knowing how to play our instruments. Classic sounding metallic hardcore punk that was being pedaled around the US in 100's of shitty venues by 1000's of similar bands. I'm younger than that now.

HijinX!

Damn, its been nearly a month since my last transmission, but I have been crazy-busy. I apologize to all 1.5 of you that have anxiously awaited my return to cyberspace with baited breath. Believe it or not I have not been sitting on my ass so here is a quick re-cap of the past several weeks activities: We purchased and moved into our new home; we opened our second office at work and my band moved into our new practice space. That is a lot of crap to go through, boxes to pack then unpack, and stuff to organize. My better half wisely anticipated that a break would be much needed and booked us a brief time away over the Memorial Day weekend so I am happily decompressing on our balcony over-looking a quiet beach in the outer banks of NC. The last time I was here was nearly five years ago, however that was a far less relaxing time for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed not having any schedule to adhere to and I have had a lot of fun cruising around the bike paths here on our cruisers and goofing on the beach.

I know a thing or two about goofing on the beach. As a kid I grew up only a block from the beach. Today that would seem pretty privileged, but my parents both worked and we were squarely in the middle class. We rented a downstairs apartment in a duplex that I do not think was zoned legally, but my mom knew that it would keep my brother and I around our group of friends whom were all from well-to-do-families and in a good school district. Although I know now that this was a tough decision for my folks financially, I am very thankful. It was around this time (6-7th grade) that I first started to become what I thought was "cool". This was being part of a group kids who were generally smart and well-mannered yet very mischievous. Surfing culture was king for us despite our beach not really being known for good waves. Spring, summer and early fall were all about checking surf for that one day there was something to ride. If we weren't surfing we were finding ways to get into trouble or find the next rush. This included a multitude of questionable activities from hassling tourists/neighbors, underage drinking, terrorizing country club golfers on our bikes and generally being lil' smartasses to anyone and everyone. Surfing as a sport was no where near as mainstream as it is today and skateboarding had taken a dive from its day in the seventies disco ball glow thus becoming the bastion of miscreants across the globe. Initially, I was drawn to these sports because thats what the "cool" kids did, however I came to realize that I liked the fact that I did not need a team, an opponent, or with skateboarding really anything other pavement. It was not football, baseball or basketball and there were no little leagues and my angry ass self was glad. Mountain biking fell under the same umbrella. It is intense, a huge rush and requires no teams, specific fields or rules. The same underground non-mainstream vibe.

Yesterday, I picked up a current issue of Surfer magazine. I was amazed at how huge it is. Pretty mainstream. It is part of the Action Sports media conglomerate that also publishes one of my favorite cycling magazines Bike. It is easily 3-4 times the size of Bike. I recently lamented the lack of riders out on my favorite local trail on a nice day. I realize that mountain biking will never reach the kind of appeal that surfing has. There are no hot chicks in bikinis chilling at the trailhead nor the nice smell of saltwater in yr hair at the end of the ride. Our tans are pretty goofy too. Most people will never get it. But ya know what? Good. Long before Oakleys made the glasses that adorn many a surfer they made bike grips. Love those kind of Hijinx.

Now get on yr knees and worship:

Cars Suck/Cars Rule Conundrum

Riding in my car or on my bike in traffic has re-enforced my utter contempt for humanity countless times. Motorized transportation that you are responsible for seems to bring out the worst in just about everyone who drives, myself included. I hate it. You are hurtling along in yr self-contained internal combustion travesty generally paying attention to anything except actually driving said vehicle. Everyone that drives faster than you is a maniac and everyone that drives slower is an idiot. Whilst you are fiddling with yr radio/make-up (not me usually)/ ac/heater/phone/gps everyone behind you is subject to yr random swerving, speeding up and slowing down. Oh and heaven forbid someone is pulled to the side of the road with a breakdown or fender bender as this demands slowing down to a crawl so quality rubber-necking can ensue. The same ridiculous speed decreases apply in tunnels, on bridges and if a spritz of rain appears.

I do not live near any mountain biking trails. The closest mountains are at least three to four hours away. The closest park to my house that has legit single track is a fifteen to twenty minute drive. There are no subways or light rail (yet) anywhere nearby and taking a series of buses to get there would be too time prohibitive. I must drive to get to any real off road riding I wish to do. The best trail systems around here are all across the Chesapeake Bay scattered up the I64 corridor on the way to Richmond with the closest one to me being about twenty-five + minutes w/o any traffic. However, I must navigate one of the two bridge tunnel systems to get there and that invariably leads to those aforementioned ridiculous slow downs.

I would love for there to be an extensive public transportation system linking all points of this region and others, but I have my doubts that I will see anything like that in my lifetime. The MARTA lines in Atlanta, although limited at least let me take adventures with my bike around town to some of the small in town rides and bigger urban rides to play and shop. So my disdain for cars is tempered by my inherent dependence on them. It is nice to go shop, run errands, get meals, etc. whenever you want while be able to transport others, but I try to limit my use of my vehicle as much as I can. As the price of gas climbs nearly everyday, I know that I am very fortunate to be able to commute via bike to work and live close to my offices as such to minimize my fuel consumption. Fuel costs in Europe are already at least a dollar more than the US average cost per gallon. The shit is gonna hit the fan for many if we continue down our current path. I would love to see the US infrastructure become more like Europe with vast public transportation options and a plethora of energy efficient vehicles available. Maybe H2's could be melted down to rebuild the bridges that are failing around the country. I admit I am a junkie too thats gonna kick tomorrow.

I went to the PSP fest yesterday and had real cool time. I did a group ride that encompassed all of the Lakeview trails and was a blast. I got back to the staging area in time to catch the Huffy toss and run into DJ with whom I did a short loop with before I split. It seems that everyone had fun and there was a solid turnout. I understand that it started to rain up there later so the night activities and todays events were canceled, but at least yesterday was good. I must thank my car for getting me up there and back. I will get over it. I mean anything is possible and maybe world peace and understanding are not far off if a big monster truck bike riding creep and a skinny single speeding 29'er pilot can enjoy a ride together...

Total Passover!!!

Total Passover indeed, but I will excuse Tom for not mentioning playing with moi on the page of his old band. Then again since we never released anything it doesn't really matter, but Thunderball 3 did manage to play some fun shows in our brief existence and I am glad it helped catapult those guys into other gigs.

Passover has always been my favorite Jewish holiday by a long shot. The meals are interesting, educational, and generally pretty dang tasty. It was always a great time with lots of family and usually some non-family guests with all kibitzing, noshing, wine drinking, and of course as kid having the potential to win cash for finding the Afikomen. Tonight was no different with great time had by all over at my uncle's house. This video sums up the fun and hilarity of the season.

I re-acquainted myself with some older recordings this week including The Fluid's Glue/Roadmouth The Mummies Never Been Caught and Jack O' Fire's The Destruction of Squaresville. All of this stuff kicks some serious butt and probably is not for the faint of heart. I never did see the later two, but I did catch The Fluid in Richmond around the time their album Purplemetalflakemusic came out. They rocked hard and have to be one of my favorite Denver exports musically along with the Hillbilly Hellcats. I was never blown away by The Mummies back when I first heard them in the early '90's. Their sound was ultra lo-fi and sounded primitive even by most simplistic garage bands' outputs at the time. However, listening to this stuff again has given me a new appreciation for their trashy style. There are some real gems in their musical toilet. Again, not for the faint of heart as they can be obscene and the music at times is pretty annoying in how shoddy it sounds, yet there is some bang-on playing in there. Jack O' Fire on the other hand were amazing and put a vast array of covers through their punk/blues meat grinder with stellar results. The harmonica playing and distorted vocals will cut you in half as you are pummeled by Tim Kerr's fuzzed-out guitar wailing and their stomping rhythm section. Their take on Joy Division's No Love Lost is other worldly. Remember to call yr Mummie! Mazel Tov! Don't forget to check out my new linkages. PSP festival is this coming weekend and its should be a blast. Lotsa potential there for some sweet air.