i don't care a cockroach's antenna about "magic" but i really am curious about folks that are curious about the folks that do care. and like me, maybe you were worried that penn+teller were doing ok in sin city.

SO . . . here is a boring old text link to check out some boring old dude.

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.

David M: This is a bike and a half. It’s my old mountain bike frame with a product called the xtra cycle which allows you to extend the wheel base of the bike and makes it into a cargo vehicle. CYC: I’m gonna take a picture of this but how would you describe it? It looks like three skate boards around the back frame of a bike. DM: They they call it the SUB: the sport utility bicycle. It’s a stationwagon-bicycle with a big trunk. You can carry a second person on the back, its like a rumble seat. Or its got space for 6 or 8 really big heavily loaded grocery bags. It can carry up to 200 pounds. It’s a little slow with the extra weight, but it makes being car free . .CYC: that much easier. DM: Really easy. CYC: Yeah yeah. That’s one thing people complain about: Oh I can’t get my groceries or whatever.

DM: My big thing is reducing the barriers to getting on a bike. I work with the League of American Bicyclists and the global advocacy groups and I always wanna try and get more people on bikes. CYC: Chicago is really easy to ride cuz it’s so flat, but how bout DC? Is it hard to get around? DM: It’s a little bit hilly but you know, It’s not hard. There’s ways you can make it so you can commute to work even if you have to wear nice clothes, you can still get to work without gettin too sweaty and more and more work places have facilities to store bikes and store some clothes, take a shower. I heard a rumour that they’re trying to get a smart bike program dowtown. CYC: What’s that like? You have bikes out in the open that people can have a key to or something? DM: Yeah. There’s a docking mechanism. they have ‘em in cities in Europe and in different places. CYC: Like the famous white bikes of uh .. where’s that? DM: Amsterdam. But this is one where it’s a little more secure. So you swipe your card, pull a bike out of it’s bay.. you ride up k street to your meeting on the other side of k street. Dock into a bay there, go to your meeting, come back and ride back down. I mean how much congestion would that help downtown? CYC: I know there’s a thing like that for cars now: i-GO .. DM: zip car, flex car, you know: car sharing. Basically like progressive transportation technology. CYC: So do you think those are good ideas or are they sort of bad middle grounds? DM: Oh it’s a great idea. Anything that reduces the number of cars we have to have and makes it easier to live without owning a car.

So I finally wound up on Corbis.com. After typing Van Halen into the search box, lo and behold, 376 images pop up, most of them early shots from the good ol' Diamond Dave years. Here's a pic of Eddie. So Eddie, is that a zucchini or do you just really like having your picture taken?

RUSS: These are my kids . . . Reese and Paige. CYC: Oh yeah? What’s with the wig? (laughter) RUSS: Hey Ree .. hey Paige, what’s with the wig? PAIGE: I’m ANNIE! RUSS: She’s an Annie. CYC: Oh you’re Annie! PAIGE: Should I take it off dad? RUSS: No. CYC: It looks cool . . . uh I’m from Chicago which is a great bike town, its very flat though, so it’s sort of easy to ride around. What would you say about Washington? RUSS: It’s not flat but for me, it’s only uphill on the way home. CYC: What kind of bike do you ride? RUSS: It’s just a hybrid, you know its just something that keeps me from landing on the pavement. CYC: And you wear a helmet I see. RUSS: Actually I do. CYC: Do you always wear a helmet? RUSS: Yes . . . especially if one of my kids are watching. CYC: Are your kids bicycle riders too? PAIGE: Yeah. RUSS: Yes they are now actually, they are just learning now. CYC: Is it fun ? PAIGE+REESE: Yeah. RUSS: You guys can talk if you want. CYC: Ok what’s your name? PAIGE: Paige. CYC: And what’s your name? REESE: Reese. CYC: Nice to meet you. I’m from Chicago so I’m learning about bicycles and I’m learning about Washington DC.

CYC: In general do people get around on bikes or is it more of a leisure thing? PAIGE: Sometimes. RUSS: I would say it’s more of a leisure thing. There’s a couple of hard core people that I see that ride to work but I ride to work. It’s the only way I can get any exercise. I won’t do it unless I’m like having to have to go to someplace. CYC: So It’s a healthstyle lifestyle exercise thing. RUSS: Yes. And to avoid weighing three hundred pounds, and so I can like, you know, drink beer. CYC: Now what about traffic, how bad is car traffic around here ? RUSS: You just gotta be aggressive and assertive you can’t let ‘em push you around. Washington’s good because you can sort of hop in and out between relatively less traveled roads and bike paths, so you can kinda stay off the main drag alot.

CYC: So you guys just started to ride? PAIGE+REESE: Yeah! REESE: Summer! CYC: Have you fallen or hurt yourself yet? PAIGE: no. REESE. not too much. CYC: You gotta be careful when you ride you know. PAIGE: It’s just that nobody pays attention to us when we’re trying to ride. CYC: yeah yeah . . . cuz its fun and you can forget you can still kind of hurt yourself. REESE: yeah. PAIGE: right. RUSS: We try to be careful. We do most of our family riding in places like the beach where there is not a whole lot of traffic. PAIGE: But (name?) almost got run over by a car. CYC: Really? . . . you gotta watch out for car doors even if you’re on the side walk you gotta watch out for doors. RUSS: Right . . . and pot holes. CYC: and pot holes, there’s all kind of things. PAIGE: OOOH. RUSS: and especially pot holes that . . .PAIGE: NO. Man holes. Open man holes. RUSS: Squirrels. CYC: Killer squirrels. PAIGE: and snakes ! RUSS: I’ve run over a squirrel. PAIGE: Snakes ! CYC: Did you run over a squirrel? RUSS: I did once. PAIGE: SNAKES ! RUSS: and snakes . . . well I never ran over a snake. PAIGE: Well mom did! (laughter) RUSS: Mom ran over a snake on the bicycle? PAIGE: Yeah she did. (laughter) CYC: Did it get split in half? RUSS: I think it was already dead. REESE: I dunno . . I thought it was moving. CYC: So it was probably gross either way. PAIGE: Oooh ! And you gotta watch out for the pine cones. CYC: Pine cones?! PAIGE: Uh huh. CYC: Cuz they’re big.

PAIGE: We’re going to our vacation place on friday. RUSS: Right . . .we’re going to South Carolina. We’re riding on the beach there. CYC: You’re riding your bicycles all the way to South Carolina? PAIGE: . . from Washington . . . that would be cool! REESE: Yeah . . . and it would also take a hundred years. PAIGE: Not a hundred ! RUSS: There’s a couple of places here that are good for riding, there’s rock creek park, where you see a lot of bikers, and then there’s the crescent trail which is all the way down. You kind of have to zig zag to get there but it goes all the way to Georgetown. It’s an old railroad that they paved. CYC: How about the weather here in the winter. RUSS: It’s great, I ride all but the very coldest days no problem. CYC: Are you worried about being like sweaty when you get to work and do you change clothes or . . RUSS: I don’t worry about it but my neighbors do. (laughter) As you can see we’re up on a hill, I don’t sweat that much really . . . but on the way home. Yeah, but the only people that smell me then are these two. REESE: Oh boy yuuch! CYC: Why do you have a Hershey’s chocolate hat? REESE: We went there last weekend. CYC: Oh yeah? That’s where I grew up . . . in Pennsylvania. PAIGE: wha? yay! where? CYC: I was born in Philadelphia . ::. . . . .: . .:::::

Soon after I began working on that image, I got a little loopy and improvised a bit more...

Last night we played a background-music type gig at the South Shore Cultural Center for the re-release of a movie:

From Monarch Home Video comes the first release in the new Obsidian Gold series devoted to forgotten black movie classics, "The Spook Who Sat by the Door." The film was mysteriously pulled from distribution after its release in 1973, and has only been available on bootleg video until the filmmakers gave Obsidian Home Entertainment permission to digitally restore the film from the original camera negative, hidden in a vault in Hollywood for more than 30 years. In this political thriller, the CIA is forced by public pressure to hire black agents. Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook) survives a bogus recruiting process and becomes the first black agent. After five years of mistreatment and menial work as the token minority employee, he resigns to his native Chicago, supposedly to become a social worker. In reality, Freeman uses his expertise in espionage to train street gangs in urban guerilla warfare to launch a war against the white power structure. Was the film too hot for Hollywood? Features a slick musical score by Herbie Hancock.

Four white guys and a Spaniard playing jazz for a roomful of black folks - a little awkward at first considering the "black pride" and "oppression" topics of the evening. We felt a little more like "Cracker Conspiracy." But after all was said and done, things were cool, and they treated us to some gourmet South Side spicey chicken & rice, and jambalaya - Yum!

On my way home from Dad's tonight, I caught Q101's top 5 at nine, or maybe it was top 10. Anyways, I heard the top 3 while in the car. Number 3 was some stupid Offspring song. Number 2 was a very melodic and thoughtful Blink 182 tune (say what you will about these guys...). And Number One just goes to show that 80's music is making a major comeback - Darknesss with "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" (you simply must watch this video). They have a guitar falling into rock-ready arms, glass breaking screams, and 2, count 'em TWO shreddin' guitar solos. My 80's metal detecter was on fire. In the video, the sets, clothes, hair - 80's. There's even cheap, fake fire and lightening, along with the over the top ending. They have a spaceship - it seems to turn up in all their videos. And while I did not think it possible, this singer pouts more than Punky Meadows. He seems to take his pouting quite seriously...

In other news, hat tip to Dad for this Bush-bashing NY Times article.

Another interesting note was the anti-marijuana commercials, your typical worst case scenarios of kids puking their guts out because they smoked too much pot, and since pot is a gateway drug, they go on to drink like fish, thus causing kids to pray to the porcelain god. Thus pot=puke. (Interestingly enough, marijuana has strong anti-nausea benefits.) But one particular Pepsi commercial features a young Jimi Hendrix seeking refreshment. He must choose between a Pepsi and Coke machine. After buying a Pepsi and taking a drink, Hendrix has a revelation, buys a guitar, and a music legend is born. What they leave out is that he smoked enough pot to supply a large college campus.

By the way, here's the MoveOn.org add that CBS refused to air.