In regards to the above image, Peter writes;

"Hey Stevil-

Was doing a SF lazy roll around town last week with a buddy from out of town. Of course, I had to offer him the quinitsential sf pedal experience of 24 glorious OZ's of PBR while chilaxing in Dolores Park. Yep nothing like Cracking a PBR with some amazing scenery."

Its like living in a world with two gigantic moons in the sky.

As you all well know, the weather isnt quite as nice in some parts of the country right now as it is in the Bay Area.

The other day I posted a flyer for The Swamp Thing alleycat race that was set to go off in Houma, Louisiana this weekend, but Stuart (who is in charge of the throwdown) emailed us Thursday morning from Houston to let us know that the race is postponed, but more importantly that he and his are all safe.
As the weather clears, Ill be sure to keep folks posted as to whatever transpires.

And it should go without saying, but were hoping that all of the good people who currently are getting sat on by hurricane Gustav, will emerge unscathed.

And just so the folks in the South know that were keeping the home fires burning, heres an offering especially for them;

Marian wrote in with the good stuff. If youre not sitting down, you maybe ought to be;

"Even if you don't speak Italian, I'm sure you can figure out the general gist of the article, eh?
Ricardo Ricco istruttore di Spinning.

Rainbows, sunshine, puppy dogs, & real bike rides,
m"

What a staggeringly brilliant fall from grace.

Speaking of humiliated bicycle superstars, though we didnt come across any on Wednesday for Danny B to insult, we had one incredibly fine evening just the same.
A small group met up including Devon, Stoner, 6'7", DB, Greg, and myself.

The best part was nobody was itching to leave because the sun went down.

Now dont get me wrong- Ive only lived in this town for a few years, so Im not entirely sure that at some point it used to not get dark at night, but Ill be damed if that during a majority of the Wednesday Night Rides, folks always seem to be surprised, and are all too eager to return to the comfort of the paved streets, telephone poles, and aggravated motorists.

Last night that wasnt the case, and we all ripped, blind as bats and beered to the gills over hill and dale, laughing manically all the way back to sea level.

Then once safely back among the good, and upstanding general population, I ate this;

When our hungers and thirts were finally were satisfied, and the bill was payed, 6'7" left the tip;

I realize it can be a dangerous activity that we engage in, and that I then expound on from week to week. We certainly wouldnt want to encourage others to travel down this path, so as such, it should be understood that I simply bring this up more rather as a series of cautionary tales.
We thank you for your time and consideration on this matter.

And for those of our friends in the restaurant industry, we left a gigantic tip in cash.
On our watch, nobody gets stiffed.
And yes, of course every single double entendre in the above report was intentional.
Remember- I have the sense of humor of a 13 year old.

Do you live within an hour of Minneapolis?
Then you should go here;

Joe promised to take me there as his date, but the punk used up all of his frequent flyer miles for one of his other girlfriends, so Im home alone this weekend.
He said that theres a few other release parties slated, the next of which I believe will be somewhere in Vegas around Interbike time, so keep your ears to the ground.

The Cat emailed us with which we can occupy our simple, simple minds;

"Stevil,

Life is good when you can design your own Mr. T!

I love it when a plan comes together!

El Gato"

It would greatly benefit us all if someone much smarter than I am added more options to that little game.
I could get lost in those eyes of Mr. Ts.

Not that Im telling you anything you dont already know, but we here at How to Avoid The Bummer Life have our fingers on the pulse of what moves you.
Case in point.. This image that I posted last summer;

Well, according to a recent report that Byron sent me on Bike Hugger, we truly were at the tip of that particular ice berg when showcasing that image.

Nothing, but nothing escapes our radar my friends.

And it sometimes its with the help of folks like Fred.
For example.... ;

"Monsieur Stevil,

Johnny Rotten has nothing on this guy, Plastic Bertrand, king of the divan:



This year marks the 30th anniversary of his seminal hit, ca plane pour moi.

Here is a translation of important lyrics:

Allez-oop! One morning
a darling came to my home,
a cellophane puppet with Chinese hair,
a plaster, a hangover,
drank my beer in a large rubber glass
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
like an Indian in his igloo

filed, ruined, drained, filled
You are the King of the divan!
she says to me in passing
Oooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!
I am the King of the divan"

That clip is confusing.. I mean.. wheres the music coming from?
Wheres his band?
Does it matter?
All of the guys in the audience that look like Freddie Mercury dont seem to care, so maybe we shouldnt either.

While were on the topic of musical stylings, Id like to mention that I listened to the new Metallica album yesterday.
It sucked balls.

In the bad way.

As opposed to this next clip for example, that sucks balls in all the good ways;

I first saw this video many years ago, and was immediately taken with it. This clip is the third of three songs 'played' by this young man in the original, but in this instance, Ill take what I can get.
At one point, there was a bit of mania surrounding this fellow in the San Francisco area and a local independent news paper actually tracked him down, much to his dismay.
The story goes like this- He makes the video tape, looses it, moves out of his house, a roommate who was booking bands at a club in Calgary finds it, plays it between acts, band from the Bay Area sees it and gets a copy, they begin selling it at underground video store, and all the while our hero is toiling away in a Canadian disco hits cover band.

The end.

Also, please notice the unprecedented 'air stick twirl' at about the 1:43 mark.

Id also like to include an email we got from another friend in a far away land that goes by the name of Maître;

"Hi Stevil !

I've been reading this thing for some time and it's the best part of my breakfast everyday - well, almost everyday. So just stay the way you are and do the things that you do so well. I know you will.
Apart from this, I'm a French guy living in Spain and we know these are two bike-aware countries. I haven't got anything that special to say about biking here except that the Spanish do not eat that much bacon…
Yet they can be quite good at avoiding the Bummer Life as these pictures will prove.
I took the first one as soon as I discovered this statue in the Retiro gardens in the center of Madrid.

It might not be that clear when seen in smaller size so I'm sending the detail of the bronze plate on the statue's base.

Yes, it is actually the lieutenant general Juan Van Halen, born in Spain and military chief for the independence of Belgium !
I'm pretty sure he must have avoided the Bummer Life too …"

The next picture I took in july, after the monthly Critical Mass here, in Madrid. The picture actually allowed me to be quite sure of what I had seen and it's the present advertising campaign of some bank that says : "there's a six for you".
What can I say ?

Well it's just in the same line as this ad for a national lottery :

I hope you'll enjoy them and if you'll excuse me, I have a Bummer Life to be avoiding (it's wednesday…).
¡ Hasta luego !

Le Maître Humoguronbuc"

I cant begin to express to you all how truly exciting it is for me to find that there is are individuals like Maître who depite the fact they live so many time zones away, share the same aesthetic and sensibilities as little old me, living here in this dank, dark cave on the Central Coast of the Republic of California.

Now to wrap another marginally exciting post up, Ill share an email that David just this very moment sent to me.
Stevil Kinevil for president.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know I can count on your votes this November.
By the way, I have a super hot, totally inexperienced middle aged running mate, if that does anything for you.

Id also like to include a comment posted anonymously Thursday evening regarding the photo at the bottom of Wednesdays post that came from the email address 'superfuckingdumb@hipster.com' which rather than including it with the other comments, Im opting to include it here because despite its utter uselessness, I think its classic enough to present front and center.

They write;

"i still can't get over the 666 thing... are you serious? that number plate is 1666 anyway... what a joke! oh, i mean, so cool!"

And there I was foolishly thinking that there was no traffic coming from the Bike Snobs world class collection of... what are they called again? Trolls?

Here I am proven wrong yet again.

But really, I love those guys. They make a public forum such as this spicy and exciting, what with all the F words and whatnot.

I really feel as though today Ive truly arrived.

Im going to get the hell out of some rad this weekend, and as Ive said before, I suspect all of you will be doing the same.
Ill see you on Monday, if you dont see me first.