Well, I've got another lung infection (which is just awesome... [where's that sarcasm button for the internet?]) so I decided to stay home and catch up on work to get a jumpstart on the week...
When the evening rolled around so did the indecision of whether to show up to Bad Party or not. You know when you feel sort of awful and going out to be around people can go either way - be really crap and make your life worse or completely turn your mood around? That's where I was. Feeling sort of like I was coming down with something in addition to being Dopey, Mopey and a couple other melancholy dwarves. I hummed and hawed and finally decided to go. Filled up a thermos with Neocitrine, my bag with several layers of warm clothes/gloves/buffs, my mind with happy thoughts and away I went.
This month's Bad Party went down at Andy Livingston Park with an Alley Cat called the Figure 8 of Death. A quick figure eight loop race with entry to fixed brakeless bikes only. Apparently the guy who won was on a fixed cyclocross which was a smart move on his part as it could get a little dicey and slippery...
After that was a skid contest where people hammer up to a line, lock their back wheel and try to skid as far as they can in a straight line without bailing. Impressive to watch as they all lean forward so far that their thighs are resting on their handlebars. Yeah. Sounds crazy, I know, but they look so intense:
Picture borrowed from Travis Jutson's Flickr stream of Cody from a previous Bad Party... you get the picture...
Two guys from Vancouver - Wayne Morhart and Tom Briggs - made a movie about the bike scene in several cities across North America. Really well done stuff. They had the premiere of it on Sunday night at the Rickshaw over on Hastings.
Moses ran goat sprints before with the really good idea of having grudge matches. People could call people out to race. Or people who'd never raced before could try it out no pressure with their friends.
Mitchell wanted to race someone quick but ended up racing a very courageous frou frou girl. Guess how it ended up? Haha. I challenged my friend, Sean, but he'd decided he was a little tired from some sort of sketchy flesh eating disease he got from Pub 340 at Gastowns (kidding, sorta) so he nominated a friend of his who "spent his day standing up on a BMX so go easy on me." I didn't.
After the film, they had a raffle and my karma must've been good because I won two prizes! A saddle, which I'm trying to decide whether to update the Miele or sell in order to eat for the next couple weeks. Decisions, decisions... Oh, and a stem, which I made Moses go up and get because I was a little embarrassed to go up twice. I let him keep it in exchange for a future favour that I can call in aaaanytime. Bwahaha.
Then Hooper's band, Three Inches of Blood played:
Looottta screaming. And that was about the time I went home.
Yesterday was fixie day. Brought the Green Machine in to West Point Cycle and James fix'd it for me. Then we spent twenty nerve-wracking minutes coming home downhill. Nerve wracking for me because I have to deal with feet moving all the time. Nerve wracking for James because he took his brakes off for the Figure 8 of Death race and didn't put them back on then had to go down the hill after me. Eep.
Good thing we made cake to cushion the fall. haha
It's tough to unlearn a life of freewheeling to go fixed. I think I've got the hang of starting and going... it's the stopping that I'm not quite sure about. I learned a bit on how to skid last night but with traffic... well, we'll see...
I still have both brakes attached (I know, I know, a huge faux pas...) but haven't touched the back and am trying to not use the front. I just really like my knees, y'know... :s So, the Miele, which is no longer a Green Machine as it no longer has gears... I'm thinking of renaming Danger Bay. Which makes sense as when I get on, I might die... but props for doing it to save our relationship here by changing himself to become what I want from him and keeping me from running off with the mistress - Soma (she is fast and easy... could you blame me? :p). Then there's ol' reliable Winter Bike that Andrew gave me when he and Kia moved up to the Kootenays. He's old and beasty but oh-so-sturdy, like a parent trying to keep me safe?
Anyway, getting off-track here... I really want to learn to trackstand - I obviously don't trust myself to balance, which is really frustrating. I also want to learn to do some tricks. I mean, all these videos that I keep watching about cycling, the only girl shots I've seen are girls ripping it down the streets... which is cool but what's up with that? I mean, I've seen some girls at Bad Party do some stuff, seen Claude do some stuff... why aren't they filming it and celebrating it?!
Pic du jour:
Quote du Jour:
"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it..."
Karaoke tonight but I don't know if it's a good idea to go out as I should really be sleeping and healing things. Buuuuut, it's Karaoke! Oh, also Nite Rider PK at work. :s Kinda don't want to go but I guess so...
p.s. Addicted to Mother Mother's album "O My Heart" (as obvious from my title... haha) and that song from Gossip Girl that I totally recognized but couldn't figure it out because it was being sung by a girl instead of the usual boy: Anya Marina - Whatever You Like. So good.
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