Washington DC, March 2004

DH: I’m a bike messenger. CYC: Is it a good job are you happy with it? DH: It’s an off again on again love affair . . . you love it and then you hate it. It’s very . . . cyclic.

CYC: I’m from Chicago and bike messengers, they get together. There’s a rapport amongst them. Like doing art shows and I dunno if you have stuff like that here. DH: It’s a world wide community actually. There’s a big annual race: the Cycle Messenger World Championship. And there’s the North American Championship and there’s the West Side Invite so we all get together .. at least once or twice a year and have art shows. This last summer it was in Seattle, but it was at this BIG. ART. GALLERY! And then about five hundred messengers raced from all over the world. CYC: Was it totally fun? DH: It was totally totally fun. CYC: Do people keep in touch on line and various ways? DH: Yeah, there’s a messenger mailing list, and so, we’re pretty much IN touch at ALL times all over the world.

CYC: Do you know people in Chicago? DH: There’s one guy that wrote a book called The Immortal Class. His name is Travis Culley. CYC: Was that the one it was kind of controversial because he hadn’t been a bike messenger that long? DH: That was it, that was it. CYC: and uh, but still, I mean that was, he got the word out to other people who may not know about . . DH: and he’s a bicycle advocate and he’s an excellent writer. So however I feel about him personally: he’s not my friend, he’s not NOT my friend, it was a well written book I think. He was like: be nice to bike messengers. Anybody that says that: be nice to cyclists: I’m in. CYC: Cool. Yeah. Some of that back lash it was a little bit like . . . I dunno it seemed unwarranted.

DH: Well it depends. Rebecca Riley has been a messenger for fifteen years and she wrote a book called Nerves to Steel. It’s by a messenger for messengers. She really didn’t get that much recognition. And then he came in and he was a rookie. There’s a very strict hierarchy in being a messenger and the first year your opinion is discounted. You’re really insulted heavily because you’re you’re taking work from other messengers and if you stick it out for two winters then you start to have a voice so . . . CYC: How is that here in DC? Chicago gets pretty harsh winters. DH: You acclimate to the weather so its not so bad. CYC: Now it’s probably a lot harder to bike here because Chicago is really flat. How . . . DH: DC is very very flat. CYC: . . . relatively . . .DH: DC is very very flat. CYC: compared to Chicago this is a mountain you know. DH: San Fransisco! CYC: San Fransisco. DH: I’m about to move to San Fransisco to be a messenger there. CYC: Really? Do San Fransisco messengers have a high regard for themselves because of the hills? DH: I would say yes. But you can’t make that good a living. DC and New York are the two places where you can make the best living.

CYC: Alright, so aside from its your job. Just personally. Do you get around on your bike? DH: I’m a cyclist. I am. I never liked riding a bike as a kid. and then about .. six years ago? I rode a bike that someone had given my best friend and then that was it! THAT WAS IT! I was a cyclist from then on and I love it . . . big truck! (LOUD HORRIBLE DROWNING NOISE of truck going by) . . . It's like flying, it's so graceful and powerful. And it has nothing to do with using resources other than food which you’re eating anyway.