The Five Albums I Purchased on iTunes This Year

Occasionally I stray off course, and what is normally a cycling-related blog stumbles upon some other territory, which is usually musically related. As people are often wont to do this time of year, I am surveying the past year out of the corner of my eye. While cruising the "Purchased" playlist on my iTunes this evening I noticed that I purchased exactly five albums online during the calendar year of 2007.

The Muggs, The Muggs

Ok, lets get the embarassing, indulgent one out of the way first. Tania was gone one evening, and I found myself planted in front of the idiot box. Let me assure you, this is not my normal state unless the infernal thing is playing PBS, election night coverage, Seinfeld, The Office, or anything made before about 1990. The Next Great American Band was on some channel (it had to have been Fox), and I watched in horror as the typical talent malaise was paraded before the unsuspecting and gullible American TV market. The one bright spot that I spied during the entire debacle was The Muggs. This Detroit band has an interesting background story, and they represent Rock n' Roll better than Hugo Chavez represents Castroism. This is straightforward Rock n' Roll, people. If you don't like to listen to music loudly, this is not for you. Very much in the tradition of Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, AC/DC, and Mountain.

A Band of Bees, Octopus

The "sound caresser" of Indiana's own Umphrey's McGee, Kevin Browning, was in the shop with his bike. I respect Kevin and his work with UM very much, so I inquired about what albums he had been listening to and enjoying. He mentioned Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album and an album by the British rock group, The Bees. He explained that in America, they are known as A Band of Bees due to copyright issues. This album is a quirky frolic that is reminiscent of The Byrds or The Beatles. There are also doses of modern Brit-pop and even a touch of reggae in one track. Track #4, "Got to Let Go", has one of the greatest starts of any track of '07. With a funky, mellow groove running steadily, the heavily accented Brit singer intones, "I've got a job back in Texas...Cutting the grass before breakfast...Cleaning the park...I'm there til it's dark...and I'm saving up for a Lexus." Once I heard this chart, I was hooked, man.

Toubab Krewe, Toubab Krewe

Let's get one thing straight. I don't buy much "world music" lest I be turned into Tim Robbins' character of I. Raymond in John Cusak's masterpiece High Fidelity (see picture above). However, in 2006 I purchased Amadou and Mariam's Dimanche À Bamako, which I think just about any type of music lover would enjoy. My foray into world music for 2007 comes from Asheville, North Carolina's own Toubab Krewe. I've adopted Asheville as a sort of personal getaway over the years. With its amazing cycling destinations it is an eastern US cycling mecca. The city of Asheville is fun and quirky and has great food of all types. This band somehow embodies the spirit of the place. They sample great licks, techniques and instrumentation from all over the world, and they do it with aplomb. This is jammed-out world-influenced groove of the highest order. It would also be a great soundtrack while riding the Blue Ridge Parkway or sampling a tasty run of Pisgah singletrack.

Levon Helm and the RCO All Stars, Live at the Palladium NYC New Year's Eve 1977

As a huge fan of The Band, I've always had a fondness for Levon Helm. Most of the other members of The Band seemed somehow personally tormented, moody, or distant. Levon, by contrast, seemed gregarious, approachable, affable, and even cheerful when he was wailing the blues. This live release from Levon is absolutely top notch, and it is as likable as the drummer himself. There are big, heaping-helping portions of horns and driving blues. There is tons of energy as Levon and friends Paul Butterfield, Mac Rebennack (Dr. John), and the original Blues Brothers horn section please the enthusiastic New Year's Eve crowd. This is feel good music with absolutely sparkling musicianship. The Band favorite and Chuck Berry-penned "Back to Memphis" absolutely steamrolls with the tight horn section and Butterfield's edgy, bluesy harmonica. There is really no one out there performing music like this any more.

Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood, Out Louder

I've seen Medeski Martin and Wood at the Indy Jazzfest. I've seen John Scofield from ten feet away at The Bluebird in a haze of smoke. I've admired all of these cats for a long time. Ever since they collaborated with Scofield on his '98 effort A Go Go I've hoped for a reunion effort. Well, this is it. This is loose-groove improv jazz goodness once again. Each player roams around until the collective ultimately finds the groove with metronome-like precision. These guys embody being loose and tight all at the same time. My high school jazz band teacher would be proud.

Luddites Beware

In the famous words of Lili Von Schtupp in Blazing Saddles, "I'm tired!". I'm tired of convincing people that technology advancements in bicycles is normal, beneficial, and a good thing to embrace. In today's modern world, consumers happily lap-up technological gadgets at astonishing rates. People everywhere are willing to wait overnight in lines for the latest gadgets. While cruise control used to be a luxury feature on expensive vehicles, now GPS navigation systems appear on $15,000 economy sedans as standard equipment. People are ever-increasingly tied to techno-gadgets in astonishingly dependent ways.

And this is the world in which I find myself in a particularly annoying dilemma. I am constantly surrounded by techno-hipocrates. While I relish and enjoy almost every interaction I have with someone about bicycles, I bemoan talking to the guy with the Blue Tooth embedded in his ear and his iPhone in his belt holster about whether disc brakes are "really necessary" or whether carbon fiber is really "a safe choice" for a bicycle frame material. Meanwhile, his car is sitting out front communicating with a satellite so the OnStar advisor will know just where he is when Fifi-the-microchipped-labra-doodle jumps on the button and locks him out.

What is it about the bicycle that makes people resist advancements in technology that would otherwise be adopted without question in other forms? Perhaps it is the long history or the pure, simple mechanical nature of it. If that is so, then how do you account for the automobile. It's been around almost as long, and when you get down to it, it's not really that much more mechanically complicated. Yet it becomes increasingly garish and techno-loaded with each passing year. Meanwhile, I hear absolutely no one exclaiming that cars would be so much more enjoyable if they would just do away with silly things like gears, powerful brakes, and suspension. In fact, most people wouldn't even give up that 9th cup holder or those heated seats that warm their tushy on chilly mornings. It's in this world where I find myself.

"But sir, these tubeless tires and wheels are really fantastic. They hardly ever go flat. We have lots of customers that have been running them for years flat-free. You can run them at much lower pressures for greater traction. It's impossible to get a pinch-flat with them." That's when they giggle under their breath and look at me like I'm a naive little puppy and say "I hardly think that's necessary. I think I'll be perfectly happy with the way things have always been. I'll take the model with those good-ol' tubes in the tires. Those things have always worked and never let me down." Should I remind him about the 82 times that he has changed a flat bicycle tire in his life? Should I remind him that his Subaru has a sensor on each wheel that monitors air pressure in his tires and a little light on his dash that reassures him as he drives that his tire pressure if safe.

Bicycle techno-hating is not just in the realm of the suburbanite blue-toother. Everyone from mod-styled fixie riders to hippie mountain bikers takes their turn. The fixie rider loves the "pure" sensation of no brakes and gears while toting their 17" laptop to the coffee shop for their half-caf-mocha-latte-low-fat-whip-cream while being serenaded by the tunes from their iPod nano that is conspicuously attached to their limited edition high-fashion messenger bag. The hippie mountain biker says that gears and suspension are superfluos. They then return home in their hybrid SUV whilst listening to Sirius satellite radio. They relax that evening by downloading a lossless format, non-compressed Dead show to their external hard drive for their weekly home-spun podcast. Ahh, so pure. So simple.

This May Help Explain My Lack of Blogs Lately, I've Been in The Video Realm...

B Double E Double R U N...Beer Run

Some people say, "If you are going to do something, do it right." I say, "If you are going to do something, do it right AND have fun doing it."

People talk about all kinds of cycling. Through various publications, web sites, and other mediums you can find out everything about long-distance touring or bicycle polo. Unfortunately, one of my favorite types of cycling is virtually ignored and receives none of the glory it deserves. You might call it task-specific adventure cycling. There are many bike rides that fall into this category such as The Milk Run, The Post Office Run, The Coffee Run, The Grocery Run, The "Insert Any Noun Here" Run, and, of course, the aforementioned Beer Run. Most people here in America (and even cyclists) don't even do this kind of riding. Even when they do, they see it as an irksome, unfashionable activity. They couldn't be more wrong. These types of rides are just dying to be infused with a sense of flair and style. For proof, see how many smiles you get when you make your next trip to the pharmacy on your cruiser bike with your dog in the front basket, your flip-flops and shades on, and an attitude that says, "I even know how to have fun while running errands."

Breaking Into Heaven

I finally got something done that I've been planning on doing for a long, long time. If you click on this link, you'll be taken to my YouTube page. There you'll find the first series of what will hopefully be several riding videos that will feature Indiana mountain bike trails as well as trails in Idaho, Colorado, North Carolina, and more. The "Mountain Biking Brown County" videos feature the mountain bike trail system at Brown County State Park in Nashville, Indiana. Choosing a trail to use as my first subject was an easy choice. Brown County State Park is home to some of the finest trails in the Eastern United States, and it is poised to have much more growth in the next few years. With the trail inventory being doubled in the next calendar year, BCSP will become a regional and national destination for mountain bikers. Each foot of the BCSP trail has been built by mountain bikers with mountain bikers in mind. I think that the video really highlights the incredible terrain, feautres, and flow of this very unique trail system. Over the next few months, I hope to create more videos for other Indiana riding destinations. Videos such as these will hopefully inspire more people to get outside on a bike and enjoy our wonderful selection of Hoosier singletrack. Sit back and enjoy the ride!

Back Home Again (Mountain Biking) In Indiana

I put together this short video last night using some snippets that were "laying on the cutting room floor", so to speak. As I was cruising through my files and files of photos and videos, I realized that I had all of these video clip "orphans". I figured that they weren't very useful sitting around on my hard drive, so I pieced them together in a rough fashion to make a little piece that showcases something that is very near and dear to my heart...Indiana mountain biking. Indiana mountain biking is enjoying an amazing boom right now. That might come as a surprise to some, but to those of us that have worked to gain momentum for off-road riding in Indiana it is the inevitable payoff for some really hard work over many years. But alas, the best is yet to come! As you read this, the HMBA is building new mountain bike trails and planning for much more. Now is a good time to be a mountain biker in or around our fine state. Get out and enjoy it when you can. For now, just hit "play", sit back, and enjoy the ride.

Also, who can be the first person to tell me who is the artist behind the rendition of "Back Home Again in Indiana"?

Crash, Burn

Sometimes when you are realing flying high and feeling good but then you get a "correction". You are flowing like water one moment, and then the next...you're lying on the ground wondering what just happened. These are definitely some of those moments.

Zoom Flume

One of my favorite rides this winter was one of those that didn't even seem to have much potential when it was conceived or as it began. Like so many things in life, you don't know until you go. Ron and I parked at the east end of Hickory Ridge Trail #19, also known as the Nathan Avery Trail. The trails were soaked with a combination of snow melt and late winter rain. Only the truly ambitious (or completely insane) were out on bicycles on this particular evening. It could be said with certainty and fortitude that we were most likely the only souls on two-wheeled human propulsion machines within the National Forest boundaries. The solitude lent to the different feeling of this ride. On rides like these, you feel something deep, something good. Something that just might separate you from those poor saps sitting at home. The tires made that soft rush of sound that can only be created by large, knobby tires on a cold, lonely gravel road. After a few miles the sound begins to lull you to sleep. No other noises exist in the trees on a wintry night such as this. We traversed west on Tower Ridge Road. When we reached 446 we headed north down to Lake Monroe. This was not a planned diversion, but it seems as if we decided to do it without speech or discussion. Sometimes decisions are made on a ride through an unspoken telepathy. The decision is so obvious it just presents itself. We made our way to the lake, and the water had a consistency of chrome. Not an imperfection could be seen across the huge expanse of its volume. As we made our way back up the road climb to retrace our steps, Ron turned immediately in front of me and dodged down an abandoned driveway of some sort. All the while exclaiming, "Zoom Flume, Zoom Flume!" In my morbid curiousity I followed him, and we came upon a relic of Indiana summers past. It was a dilapidated, extinct water slide that ran in a meandering fashion towards the shore of the lake. Ron had spent days there with his brother many years ago, and the rememberance had injected itself into his brain at the moment we rode by. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied the run-down ticket booth just off to the side of the road amidst the dumped appliances and underbrush. I hope that someday, a long time from now I will struggle up that climb again. My legs may tremble a bit, not quite so strong as they were that evening long ago. I'll meander by that long-forgotten relic, and I'll remember Ron and his stories of the place. I'll also remember that night where we shared memories without even knowing that we were creating new ones.

Cycling to The Top of The World

Some people just have a drive. A drive that pushes them onward towards goals that others would find impossible or insane. These are my kind of people. One of the most rewarding things that I do at my job is to help these kind of people achieve their goals and dreams. You can imagine my reaction the morning that I received an email from my good friend Alex that had this picture attached to it (click on the picture to view the gorgeous, full size version). The sign says, "Thanks Nebo Ridge Bicycles" and in small print at the bottom it says "Everest Base Camp 2006". There are moments in life when your choice of vocation is vindicated. This was one of those moments for me. We had helped two human beings achieve one of the greatest feats of their lives. You can follow their ongoing adventures at www.wonderide.com. Please consider sending them an email or donating some money to them via the link on their website. They have no real destination or schedule. They aren't riding for a charity or a cause. They are simply on the adventure of a lifetime. Ride on, gentemen.

Present, Tense?

It's funny how the rememberance of things past morphs with the passing of time. What you experienced, and what you remember are not necessarily always congruent. I've been spending the morning trying to digest this past summer and pondering the upcoming slumber of winter. It's got me thinking that our past is best viewed with a quick smile and a fond rememberance. It also has me thinking that contemplating the future is a fruitless task.

I've recently been re-reading Steinbeck's masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath". I last read it in high school. Although I remember enjoying the book, it was utterly dissected, discussed, and thoroughly ravaged in the hands of my motivated english teacher. My reading of it now, over fifteen years later, is so amazingly different and fresh, that I wonder if it is at all the same book. Which also begs the question, "Am I the same person?"

In the book, as the Joad's chaotically catapult towards the moment that they are to leave their Oklahoma roots and head to California, Ma says, "Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes, it'll on'y be one."

As I continue to read the book, the theme of living in the present crops up recurrently. Even though we probably discussed this theme to the point of nausea in my high school classroom, I don't remember it. I'm sure it didn't register with me then as it does now. I was looking forward then, now I look around me a lot more. Our perception and experience in the moment is all that really ever ads up to anything.

Oh Idaho

I can't believe that Charles, Kado, and I are only two weeks away from our annual Idaho trip. The summer has absolutely flown by. As I talk about the trip to friends and customers, a lot of them have wondered why in the world we choose Stanley, Idaho as our destination. Most people ask why we're not going to Moab, Denver, Telluride, Fruita, Lake Tahoe, or one of the other various wildly popular mountain bike destinations. Mountain bike destinations are not unlike restaurants. Sometimes the best ones are little known, hard to find joints. Sure, you can get a great dinner at a national chain, but your experience is hardly unique or solitary. When we go to Stanley we literally have the whole place to ourselves, and the beauty is second to none. Mountain bike meccas have fancy burrito joints and bike shops that sell as many t-shirts as they do innertubes, but that's not what we're looking for. We're in search of great trails and great scenery in a solitary, serene location. On our way back home we will stop in Fruita to sample the trails there for a couple of days. We'll probably even stop in town for a burrito and a t-shirt, but I guarantee you that those won't be the things we'll remember years from now as we reminisce about our journey.

League Night

It's Tuesday, and the trails are soaked. It's hot, dark, humid, wet, and windy. Those just happen to be terrific ingredients for a gigantic city ride. Grab the bike with the fenders and a bell, strap on the lights, and grab a rain jacket. Pack tons of food and drink. Stir and bake for four hours. Whoila! The recipe for an urban classique. We started downtown, headed through Fountain Square, took a fast lap around Garfield Park, and then took the Pleasant Run through Irvington. We headed northeast and rode counterclockwise around the outside of Ft. Ben and grabbed a cup of Fourbucks at 56th and Emerson. Then we took Fall Creek to the Monon and back downtown for a couple of laps around the circle and a post-ride beer on the river. Whoosh. We rode all types of surfaces; pavement, concrete, brick, gravel, packed gravel, grass, mud, slurry, deep water, and pothole minefields that made me appreciate my sturdy steel bike with durable tires. What a fantastic ride. We worked like dogs, mixed it up with traffic, and had an absolute blast. Not bad for a league night trail substitute.