Hump Day

This is the Dan Bern song I was referring to in my Elk Grove write-up: "Tiger Woods". Triple X-ers: this is required Race Day listening from now on (right click and "save link as"). It's the ultimate song to psyche yourself up. Not only Race Day, but a job interview, asking a hot girl for her phone number, stealing your neighbors patio furniture, or even going shopping at Costco.

Check out the newest additions to the "Friends, Faves, and Freaks" column to the right. But first, check out these (way too many) words on G n' R's "Sweet Child o' Mine."

"[The song] narrates and enacts the latter 20th Century’s transition from myopically romantic optimism to increasingly troubling disillusion."

Uh-huh...somewhere, some morning, Slash read this, farted, had a sip of bourbon, and then farted again.

Anyways, bikesnobnyc is the website for you if you find yourself laughing, scratching your head, or ranting and frothing at the lower points of Bike Culture. The Bike Snob has a particular affinity for revealing the true (custom powder painted) colors of the current fixie movement, now on the downslope of it's trendiness curve, where Skateboarding was at the end of the 1980s.

There's really nothing to say about fixie culture that the Bike Snob hasn't already, so I'll leave it at this: the trajectory of it's trendiness in nothing new (ala my skateboarding comparison) but it's got a unique bit of sadness to it, because it evolved out of the bicycle's utilitarian side. Messengers originally started using track bikes back in the 60's and 70's because they were so cheap. Track racing was at a complete nadir from it heyday back in the early 20th century, and a messenger could buy a brand new track bike for 20 bucks. They were akin to surf and ski bums. Live to ride, ride to live, on a literal level. And as always, the essence of any culture is co-opted by others who somehow manage to glean something deeper for it, where nothing was before. But depth is certainly not to be found in custom powder painted beater frames, toptube pads, colored chains, and going brakeless on city streets overrun with impatient drivers and garbage trucks with sightlines that don't go below 6 feet. No brakes isn't art. It's stupid.