Now and then I miss working in a newsroom. This is not one of those times.
Most days, daily journalism is like any other gig, only more so. Hours of tedium interrupted by moments of pandemonium.
But news in the era of what Charlie Pierce calls He, Trump, is a whole other ballgame. It’s like trying to sip delicately from a fire hose hooked to a septic tank. It can’t be done, and nobody should have to try, not even for money.
And certainly not for free.
Instead I’ve been trying — and mostly succeeding — in paying attention to the bicycle, may God save her and all who sail in her.
There’s Bicycle Retailer‘s big 25th-anniversary celebration, for example. I need to dash off a column and cartoon on that topic, which shouldn’t be too much of a stretch, seeing as I’ve had 25 years of practice.
And I’ve ridden four different bikes in four days — Sam Hillborne, Steelman Eurocross, Soma Saga, Jones Steel Diamond — and loved every minute of it. Well, not every minute — the Steelman’s low end of 36×26 is a tad tall on steep, sandy single-track for an auld fella — but still, it beats perching in front of the Mac, letting the shit monsoon wash over me.
This morning I got up, grabbed some coffee, and when Herself went out to walk The Boo, I shut off NPR’s “Morning Edition” and started playing some John Prine instead. Sometimes a fella needs a little country to restore his faith in a bigger one.
Tags: Charles P. Pierce, Jeff Jones Steel Diamond, John Prine, Morning Edition, NPR, Sam Hillborne, Soma Saga, Steelman Eurocross
Mad Blog Media 
August 19, 2016 at 8:40 am |
John Prine, always a pleasure to listen to!
August 19, 2016 at 8:49 am |
Indeed, Randy. I’ve been listening to him since 1974, I think. I wish Steve Goodman had been with us a little longer. What a pair to draw to.
August 19, 2016 at 8:42 am |
Good way to start a weekend. My crutch-sprinting is improving.
August 19, 2016 at 8:48 am |
Aha! It lives! OK, ‘fess up: How’d you break your foot? Trying to roundhouse kick someone in a “Hillary for Prison” T-shirt? Incidentally, I saw one of those in the Whole Paycheck the other day. True fact.
August 19, 2016 at 10:01 am |
Nothing so exciting. I stepped off the left edge of a sidewalk that had a three inch drop to the dirt and twisted the living fuck out of my foot.
August 19, 2016 at 10:51 am |
Oh, man, I have done that more times than I care to count. Not sure why, but I suffered from weak ankles for a whole lot of years as a younger version of whatever it is I am now. I could sprain an ankle walking down a perfectly flat, brand-new sidewalk.
August 19, 2016 at 11:00 am |
Khal, are you twisted but not broken? Wait, let me rephrase that……
August 19, 2016 at 11:32 am |
Jones fracture. Fortunately, it is in zone I.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jones_fracture
August 19, 2016 at 11:43 am |
Or more precisely.
http://www.footeducation.com/foot-and-ankle-conditions/dancers-fracture-5th-metatarsal-avulsion-fracture/
August 19, 2016 at 12:14 pm |
Ouch! Six to eight weeks of light duty is a booger.
August 19, 2016 at 1:49 pm |
Ow, wow, yow, zow. No dancing for you for a spell.
August 19, 2016 at 5:28 pm |
Yeah. No chasing girls….not that I remember how to do that.
August 19, 2016 at 9:04 am |
/* Sometimes a fella needs a little country to restore his faith in a bigger one. */
I know some guys in Nashville that will pay you to let them put that on a t-shirt.
August 19, 2016 at 9:19 am |
Whaddaya wanna bet the Chinese have beat ’em to it?
August 19, 2016 at 7:27 pm |
Yea, they can steal and copy it, but they didn’t write it.
August 19, 2016 at 9:05 am |
for 20 years i used to wake up to npr, before that it was some stupid rock morning show station (wdiz in orlando). now i wake up to the chill/lounge station on pandora. i now have a much better outlook on the day. it’s hard to get that morning music right though. what sounds great while being awake is not so much when getting awake.
we discovered john prine back in the mid 80’s, about the same time we discovered the violent femmes. i’ve seen them both a couple of times. john prine is always a great show. the femmes, not so much any more. the guy can certainly put some words together with music.
August 19, 2016 at 9:23 am |
I’ve felt the same way about waking up to NPR lately. I got in the habit back in 1981, I think, when I was working for an afternoon paper. I wanted some idea of what was going on in the world before I clocked in at 4 a.m.
Now I think I’d like a little less of that sort of thing. A fella can always catch up later in the day.
I usually turn on KUNM-FM at 9 a.m. to catch “Performance Today,” which helps. Mostly country music from someone else’s country, don’t you know.
August 19, 2016 at 11:07 am |
Well said and well done! We are riding to Brown Canyon ranch tomorrow. Sitting at a picnic table under a big ole cottonwood there for a few minutes will quickly blow the bullshit out of the brain pan.
“Angel From Montgomery” is one of my favorites. Still can’t believe the first time I heard it was in a grocery store.
Now, in the “got to have one” category, especially for you and Khal, check this out.
http://www.walzcaps.com/collections/new/products/new-mexico-state-cap
August 20, 2016 at 8:42 am |
Kool kaps. I have trouble with most cycling caps, suffering as I do from Giant Head Syndrome. To make ’em work I have to snip the elastic, and sometimes that doesn’t even help.
August 20, 2016 at 12:10 pm |
I have had that problem with other brand caps, but the L/XL size in Walz caps works for me.
August 20, 2016 at 12:47 pm |
Do they make a peg leg? We could hook Khal up. (I keed, I keed.)
August 20, 2016 at 1:12 pm |
Khal needs two or three of these. That will moderate the pain.
http://www.hsbeer.com/brews
August 19, 2016 at 12:45 pm |
Love John Prine, the old stuff and the Missing Years. Saw him open for Avett Brothers at Red Rocks last year. He’s amazing still, despite some health challenges.
August 19, 2016 at 1:27 pm |
He is indeed. Wish I’d been a little less medicated when I met him, but I seem to have misplaced my time machine, so I’ll just have to learn to live with myself.
Speaking of John, he and Tom Waits are to be honored for their lyrics today in Boston. Well done indeed.
August 19, 2016 at 3:58 pm |
I got a little country dose last Saturday night. Dwight Yoakam came to town and played in the backyard of the HardRock Casino downtown. I popped down on my shopping bike and took up a free spot where I could enjoy a beer and see the big screen image of the show. Sound was a little screwed up, but since I didn’t pay I can’t complain. I also didn’t have to pay $7 for a beer! My only real complaint was he didn’t play enough Buck Owens tunes.
August 20, 2016 at 8:11 am |
I haven’t heard Dwight in quite a while. I recall him being something of a breath of fresh air when “country” music was in the process of becoming an uninteresting blend of watered-down soft-rock booshwah boosheeyit and neo-fascist chest-thumping.
August 20, 2016 at 3:55 pm |
funny, i just put him on the ipod this week. tears of a clown.