Brooklyn,

Boise,

Seattle,

Birmingham,

San Francisco,

Lansing,

Fort Collins,

Santa Cruz,

Brooklyn,

St. Petersburg,

New York,

Oklahoma City,

Santa Cruz,

Minneapolis,

New York,

Philly,

San Francisco,

Chicago,

and Vancouver...

..For which this awesome promo clip was made;

And though it wasnt an alley cat, our pal Ken put together what for all intent and purposes was like the Super Bowl of bike polo events, and had one of our favorite posters thus far;

Anyway, he wrote in to give us the lowdown on what transpired;

"Hey Stevil,

Thanks again for sponsoring Los Marcos Madness. It was another huge success for the inexplicable Los Marcos phenomenon. I gave out the most decent Swobo gear to our "MVP's": one girl from Chicago who wore two different costumes (one of which was a ball gown), bribed us a lot, and stenciled her CAR with our LOS MARCOS tags. First, Second, and third place teams all also got some of your gear:

I'm stoked to have you as one of our sponsors. Next year, our tournament should be even bigger and more ridiculous. The Los Marcos thing is getting really big. A reporter from HDNet and another guy from the AP were documenting the weekend. I'll let you know when their reports are scheduled
to air/go to print. We will be back in touch for LOS MARCOS MELEE in 2009.

Also, what's your shipping address? I've got a tshirt to send to you.
(What's your size?)

Ken

PS: Here’s a long list of some of my favorite photos from the weekend. Most of them are from different people’s flickr accounts, so feel free to peruse them for more examples of the weekend’s mayhem.

Los Marcos Winners, with their prize belts and bags:

Our Carbon-Fiber Piñata:

Utter Chaos. Since there were no "rules", as many people could get on the court at one time as possible:

Our stencils:

Alexander. Our favorite vagrant. (He often helps us sweep up the court). Behind him is a photographer from the AP:

And then there was Fiona

and Jav..."

That was a whole lot of cutting, pasting and linking that I just did on behalf of Ken and his band of mallet wielding miscreants, and truth be told, it was a pleasure.

And while were still sort of on the topic of alleycat races, even though its not a Halloween race, our pal Ryan in Seattle emailed us and asked us to post this flyer for an event thats coming up directly;

By the way Ryan, I ended up with a second copy of The Night Marchers 'See You in Magic', and Ill leave it to your desecration to choose who in your race this ends up with.
Best dressed, most spectacular crash, most assless chaps.. You name it, and the CD is theirs.

There recently was some confusion relayed to me concerning the difference between El Corpo and CFO. CFO generally refers to the 'chief financial officer', which I guess would be our main man Nate, but within the confines of How to Avoid The Bummer Life, CFO does and will always refer to 'Cody Fu*cking Oats', who is a regular contributer to this blog with little snippets like this one;

"We are entrenched in a intense game of “Get Cookie Monster” here at (will remain unnamed) School…It’s a politically correcter version of “Smear the Queer”…It’s like giving a pack of monkey’s straight razors….or dumping a gallon of gas on a pile of balsa wood….call it what you will but the queer gets it in the end….just like back in our day!!

CFO"

The minds of the future rest comfortable in Codys capable hands, and if that doesnt keep you up at night, then I suppose nothing will.

CFO isnt the only one that sends randomness every now and again, but Barry does as well;

"A couple for today"

Its only a matter of time before those images become alleycat flyers as well, I suspect.

You all know George too, right? Hes another one of our Colorado connection that will occasionally fire off emails chock-full of the high life;

"hey brother,

long time eh? anyhow the summer was hell of a blur and now fall is coming to a end; we'll be snowed in here soon for good with only trips to the desert to get our fill of 2 wheeledness.

But the fall does make the trail awesome with tacky moist dirt and a golden leaves allover the place that like to fling water on your face as you ride over them. and you get to try out new kick ass arm and knee warmers - (thanks for making them!)

last weekend was quite a hoot with the Deaddeer Bike gang (deaddeer.blogspot.com) AlleyDeer race in Fort Collins. It was a killer time and it went off without a hitch thanks to many awesome people like New Belgium (free keg and fat tire cans for the chugging checkpoint) and the dudes at Road34 bike bar.

Plus the next day we went on a deathmarch of an XC ride where everyone in the group cramped or wanted to puke the whole time, but killer singletrack and it was quite bromantic to be reunited with good friends.

check out some random pics from the past couple weeks and we'll make sure to ride extra hard in the desert this weekend.

How are Michael Jackson and McDonalds alike?

Both put 50 yr old pieces of meat between little white buns!

its gonna be gross!

And how about a shoutout to Seatle's own Craig Etheridge for killing the Rapha cross sprints in Portland! yeah craig, fastest nicest dude ever.

BTW the pic is stolen from Pilderwasser.

thanks for nothin!
George"

I like that George. As I perviously mentioned when I was back East, I met up with a whole slew of internet friends, but my life still wont seem quite complete until the George and I cross paths.

Our own 6'7" is a master at his craft and aside from trimming all of the Swobo bikes, and going over the brass tacks on the regular with Sky, he owns and operates his own design house called FRP.
Thats Fu*ko Racing Products for those not in the know, and with his sprawling machine shop he creates such master pieces as these;

All of those holes mean speed.

Wednesday has come and gone, and this one was a beaut for me, though punctuated with tragedy for others. I took off on my own and rode a myriad of trails in the opposite direction as I always do, flowing through the trees, my bike and me acting as one fluid unit, finding lovely little secret spots such as this tree tunnel;

I opted out of the beer drinking, and socializing portion of the evening as I have thrown myself firmly onto the wagon for the time being, however I ran into Retodded, 6'7", and newcomer Pecos on their way out, and slapped some skin in passing.
It wasnt until this morning that I was told Pecos headlonged into a tree and broke his neck.
Fortunately he has movement in his extremities, and went into surgery today.
In three years of doing Wednesday rides, thats two broken necks that have been incurred, and if I was a more superstitious man, Id say some epic amount of bad juju was afoot.
Were keeping a candle lit for his speedy recovery, and for the hope that this will be the last of our camps epic injuries.

In parting, Ill now show off my newest gift that just showed up from Handlebar Hats.

I took my helmet off and momentarily risked life and limb to snap this shot. For my sake, as well as the sake of the man behind the sewing machine, why dont you order yourselves one right now?

Oh yeah, and just so I can continue to maintain the high quality lifestyle Ive become accustomed to, over the course of the weekend, dont forget to spend some time here.

Thats it for me. The weekends just about upon us. Theres gonna be some cross racing and some breakfast eating and some beer drinking... Uh.. I mean I guess theyll be beer drinking for you.
For that matter, why dont you hoist one in the name of my temporary sobriety?
My sobriety and I would both appreciate that.