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Friday, July
30, 2004 at 10:12:48 (EDT) |
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When you cycled by, here began all
my dreams
I finally talked to some guy (at the new bar Rope)
who owns a fixed-gear,
single-speed bike. I've been seeing an increasing number
of these gizmos around town over the past couple of years, and
still find it baffling it's so popular. If you haven't kept
up with important trends in the bicycle world, you might not
know that one of the more popular options these days is no options
at all.
The fixed-gear, singles speed bicycle has no derailleur,
because it only has one gear. You have a big sprocket in front,
and a smaller on on the rear wheel and that's it. Also lacking
from a standard bike is the freewheel, the device that allows
the rear wheel to spin independently from the pedals. This
means you can't "coast" on a FG/SS bicycle; the
pedals are always in motion when the rear wheel turns. Some
of these bikes have no brakes at all, but most have one brake
on the front wheel. It was suggested that these bikes are
the same as the track
bikes seen in the climactic race scene from Breaking
Away, but there are subtle differences between them.
But to us who had never ridden either type it's all pretty
much the same.
 The
guy we were talking to said the hardest part of riding a FG/SS
was getting used to not being able to coast. Initially he
got bucked off the bike when coming to a stop, as the natural
inclination is to coast to a stop. Considering how much time
I spend coasting on my Raleigh Twenty, this must be a hard
habit to break.
So why would anybody put themselves through the torture of
a bicycle that is basically the same design as bicycles
from over 100 years ago? Why deny the technological advance
in gear physics and for god's sake, why forsake the freewheel?
Who doesn't like coasting down a hill?
 The
guy at the bar said these bikes require almost no maintenance.
There's no delicate machinery to fret over, and because the
chain never leaves its two sprockets, it doesn't fall off
as easily. But obviously those can't be the only reasons.
From what I've read, FG/SS riders experience a very different
ride from us regular folk. The closest correlative I can think
of is the difference between people who drive manual transmission
cars vs. the automatic transmission people. On a FG/SS you
know that every move you make is your own, there's no feeling
of cheating by switching to a lower gear. There's only that
one gear, and you can't even take a break when you go downhill;
you gotta keep your feet moving because those pedals won't
stop moving until you fully brake. Or you crash.
I gotta admit, as long as I've been seeing these bikes I've
kind of wanted one. This goes against all my sense of self-preservation,
plus forces me to ignore that I often have trouble negotiating
the stairs in my apartment, much less a fast-moving metal
frame designed to weave in and out of automobile traffic.
But the lure is there. I guess if I can find one cheap, I
might invest. Or I could follow bike guru Sheldon Brown's
example and go for the best of both worlds, The Fixed-Gear
Single-Speed Raleigh Twenty Folding Bike:
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Thursday,
July 29, 2004 at 16:13:54 (EDT) |
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Nobody
move, nobody get herb
Here's something you don't see every day:
Somebody planted corn in a sidewalk planter on 7th Ave in
Park Slope
Speaking of oddities, I just came from another swell Metrotech
show. This week it was Yellowman,
another in the long line of venerable Jamaican acts that BAM
books every summer. I had certainly heard of him before but
I didn't know anything about his music. So he turns out to
be the guy who Eazy-E sampled on his song "Nobody
Move." You know the "nobody move, nobody get
hurt" part? That's Yellowman.
He takes his name from the fact that he's an albino, one
of only two I have ever seen (the other one being comedian
Victor
Varnado, who I think lives in Park Slope). Plus Yellowman
has fought cancer on several occasions and had to have part
of his jaw removed. But he keeps on truckin' and put on a
skankin' show. I read up on his career, and it appears he
first came to fame because his lyrics were filthier than anybody
in Jamaica had ever heard. I guess he's changed his tune somewhat,
as I didn't hear anything particularly offensive today. But
then, I'm a jaded member of Generation X.
Yellowman ran around and danced like crazy the entire 2 hours
These little kids seemed a little confused by the show
I was a little confused by these goofballs
 Then
some punk stole my folding bike and made off with it. The
brashness of these Brooklyn thieves is astounding. Cops everywhere,
the bike was snatched from my grip and I was left holding
the robber's purse.
Then with no regard for his own safety, Seamus "Buzz"
McKinnon leapt into action. He was in hot pursuit of the perp
and used all of his methods of intimidation to run her down
and liberate my stolen property.
 Or
so I thought.
 UPDATE:
Here's some exlcusive video from the show, featuring Gladys,
the 85-year old dancing wonder!
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Wednesday,
July 28, 2004 at 12:51:28 (EDT) |
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Tell me people, am I going insane
 Egads,
I did it again. People have been having a lot of birthday parties
lately, so I've been getting a lot of Evites, which should keep
things nice and orderly. Make no mistake, it's not like I'm
getting invited to every fly party in the 5 boros. It's just
a couple. But somehow I always manage to get confused. Last
night I went all the way to the Meatpacking District for a get-together
that was not happening for another week. At least I got the
day right. confusion reigned as I worked the host staff into
a tizzy as they tried to find some evidence of a large group
reservation for the evening, but could find none (they did try,
however, to put me in with a bunch of strangers just because
they had made a big reservation, but I declined). I tried to
look on the bright side: aside from the rain it was a lovely
walk around a part of town to which I do not often go.
 Now,
who's to blame here when I try to show up for things way too
soon? Sure, it'd be easy to blame myself and say "Jeez,
just look at the damn date and you won't keep screwing up."
But I feel the problem lies in those doing the inviting. Why
start alerting people to stuff more than a week in advance?
I guess they think they're doing somebody a favor but honestly,
how many of us actually want to know about stuff that far
ahead of time? Obviously, I don't do well when information
is proffered too far in advance. Is everybody else whipping
out their dayplanners and booking themselves for the next
six months? I can barley keep track of what I'm doing tomorrow,
much less in two weeks. At my best, I can vaguely hold one
week's worth of stuff in my head, and then I could still use
some reminding. When I do have to schedule something far in
advance (like a band gig or a wedding), I write it on a calendar
that I never check and just hope somebody else brings it to
my attention before it's too late.
Maybe it's not exactly the best system, but it's as good
as it gets for me. So if I show up at your party a week in
advance, or miss it altogether, don't take it personally.
You just need to avoid telling me about it until the last
minute.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, July
27, 2004 at 12:36:01 (EDT) |
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Watch the killas drink 8 ball
 Sunday
I ventured out to Kensington for the first time ever to go to
H's party. This is the neighborhood that borders Windsor Terrace
and is south of Prospect Park. Maybe it was my imagination but
it seemed like a really 'safe' neighborhood, not too run down
but not noticeably affluent either. But then, I only saw a couple
of blocks' worth of it.
The party was to have a Hip Hop theme for some reason. This
gave me the opportunity to consume a 40 of Old English (it's
a malt
liquor! it's furniture
polish!), something I haven't done in a while. Mmmm mmm,
gotta love that stuff. I may have to get some more before
too long. I was disappointed almost nobody else was rockin'
the 40s, but at least they played some Grandmaster Flash while
I was there. I had meant to pick up some menthol cigarettes
to touch all the bases, but it slipped my mind. For the record,
it was Kool
Milds that were first first chosen cigarette. I have no
idea why now. I smoked a Newport at the party and thought
I was gonna ralph.
And here are the lovely hosts of the evening:
I was trying to figure some way to make it sound like I hang
out with these fly girls all the time, but I only know one
of them. Hey it's a start.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, July
26, 2004 at 10:21:04 (EDT) |
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This
is my only scene
 Thanks
to everybody who came out on Saturday to see Motico.
It was really good to see everybody, even if I didn't get to
talk to everybody. That Trash
place sure is a nice club. Somebody pointed out that despite
the name, and the surfeit of 'trash' decor (lights made out
of car parts, license plate wall hangings), the previous club
in that location, Luxx, was actually much trashier with its
tacky chaser lights and curvy niteclub decor. In many ways,
the new Trash feels a lot like clubs from Ohio. Perhaps that's
not such a good thing, but I feel right at home. Did everybody
remember to partake of the open bar?
 The
sound system is much better than the old club, and all the
bands sounded really good. And the soundwoman Andrya
was cute as a button, always a plus. The only downside was
the house drum set we had to use. It kept sliding all over
the place, and the kick-drum pedal kept coming undone. Buzz
had to tell me later how many things went wrong with it, I
only noticed the couple of time when he somehow seemed to
disappear behind the kit, trying to reattach some part or
other.
Note how by this point, they've piled a bunch of weights in
front of the bass drum
 But
Motico abides, and I think most of the set went really well.
We were pretty rusty at playing live (it's been over 6 weeks
since our last public performance). We spent all day Friday
trying to record some new stuff, which occupies a completely
different part of the brain from playing live. But we'll be
getting regular exercise of both parts of our brains in the
near future, as we start doing more recording and more gigs.
Our next show is at Piano's in the Lower East Side on Saturday
August 14th, and it appears we will be coming back to Trash
in the upcoming months, one way or another.
Last night I barely managed to scrape myself off the floor
to go to a party in Kensington. The whole G/F train thing
is still going on, and again I benefited: I took one G train
from my hood all the way to Kensington. Not only that, but
I had bitchin' train Karma on each trip (meaning I didn't
have to wait long for the train). This is the next best thing
to having a teleporter. On the way home I saw a fellow contractor,
who also had a busy weekend:
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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