i'm a student of human nature, and all the lessons i have learned are free

Very grumpy right now after having lost an hour's worth of writing I, like a dipshit, forgot to save before I left to go grab a coffee. It was a brief summary of the bike ride/war protest I rode on Labor Day weekend. Three days of riding and camping sandwiched by shows in Anchorage (Friday at Bitoz) and Seward (Monday at the Yukon--and, yes, another well lubricated evening there of dollar drinks for bands). I just don't have it in me right now to re-write all that I had. Know that it was a great time. I don't think anyone had a better weekend than us. At times, with support vehicles and all, we numbered around 25 or so. And when I say support vehicles, I mean that these folks prepped our campsites with firewood and set up tarps for the kitchen, fixed flats, purcahsed beer and whisky, and, of course, hauled all the dogs). Although Saturday, at times, saw 40 mph (at least that's what the radio said) headwinds and Sunday mostly rain and the formidable climb through Turnagain Pass, spirits were high. Just look at the face on Johnny-Too-Bad (pictured above) after he and Randi encoutered a momma bear and two cubs. Motorist's responses were, for the most part, positive. Lots of "hell's yeah" and folks throwing thumbs up and peace signs. Only after we gathered just outside of Seward and approached town in critical mass style (taking over the inbound traffic lane and keeping folks lined up deep behind us), did we receive any real aggresion. And that was just two crusty dudes in a very stereotypical late 70's chevy pickup (beat up and rusty, gunrack, missing tailgate, noisy exhaust, etc) that shouted predictable cusses in a very unimaginative redneck fashion. "Get out of the road you goddamn stupid motherfucking assholes" was the only discernable comment, the rest was just a bunch of unintelligible bud lite fueled aggresion. Oh well, at least they had something to talk about when nascar broke to commercial, right? Anyways, there's more to that story but as I said I don't have it in me right now to type it all out. I am, however, trying to assemble something about the trip for Insurgent 49 . You should go see what the good folks there are up to. Their first issue hit the streets of Anchorage on 1 Sept. Big ups!

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Interesting article in Newsweek: How Bush Blew It (via)

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"For a while we were actually a five piece, with Cunningham's friend Bonnie Emerson and this guy, Danny Schact. He was something else. When we decided for sanity's sake to make the group a trio, we called a meeting and broke it to Emerson and Schact. Schact's response was great, he just said, "It's OK, man, your music is ontologically unsound anyway."

-Mayo Thompson (Red Krayola, Art & Language, Pere Ubu, Saddlesore and creator of the one of my all time favorite records, Corky's Debt To His Father ) from an interview in the August issue of The Wire.

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A new one from the Dirty Three: "Doris"

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Currently enjoying Bablicon's "A Flat Inside a Fog. The Cat That Was a Dog."