How to Avoid the Bummer Life
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« July 2009 | Main

August 27, 2009

Heading Out On Tour...

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Have you missed me? I've missed you..
I kinda locked myself out of the house with a pan of beans on the stove and no one to help me but a wide eyed cat with no opposable digits.

As has been said time and time again, all good things must come to an end, and it's with a heavy heart that I officially announce my departure from all things Swobo.
It's not for any cool reasons like El Corpo and I got into a drunken knock-down, drag out brawl (again) or that I got busted xeroxing my ass on the copy machine (again). No, I'm afraid the main crux behind my departure (aside the office not being nearly big enough to contain all of the sexiness that is me) is that I long for a life filled with soft pellet guns and plasma screen televisions to shoot them at, but that aside I got an itch to stretch my legs, and see what out there the great blue marble has to offer a ner-do-well such as myself, and really as far as that's concerned, my departure here might very well be the open door that one of you has been waiting for..

This was by no means an easy decision, as I have been hand in hand with Swobo since very nearly the beginning, back in our lord's decade of the 90s. (Insert fuzzy day dream sequence here, with a sound track by Miles Davis, if you please,) but moreover I hold very closely to my heart the constant communication with people, and the actual real, live connection that I've developed with so many of you during my time here.

Rest assured however, with a mouth this big I have no plans to stay quiet for long, and have a few newly purchased irons in the fire, so keep your ear to the ground, or to the train rail, or to Twitter, or Facebook, or however it is you kids exchange information, and know that this is by no means a goodbye forever, but rather a goodbye for a few weeks, or until I need to borrow some money... Whichever comes first.

I love you guys. I really do.

Stevil M. Kinevil

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August 04, 2009

It's like that one movie when sombody's eyes get transplanted into someone else, and forever after they still have glimpses of what the donor saw...

Or rather I suppose it's nothing at all like that, but the fact of the matter is, whether you're aware of it or not, you know exactly what Morgan Meredith has seen.

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His name is synonymous with action photography and besides having as sharp an eye as they come, he knows exactly what it takes to convey the hope and 'hell yeah' of the most epic of bicycle riding experiences.

The reason I bring him up is because he has recently sullied my domain with his presence, and allowed me the honor of snapping a couple of less-than-world class photos of him in the process;

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He will rest easy tonight, safe with the thought that I in no way pose a threat to his position as one of the most talented photographers in the biz.

Anyway, aside from the standard array of two wheeled nonsense, we've done our best to put the fear of god into the hearts of many cans of beer, and at least one bottle of tequila.
I know it's the work week, but we're professionals.. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this lifestyle to the common man.

If you look towards our burgh these days, you might very well see the shine off of Mr. Blacksocks new bike wood;

Hey, you probably haven’t seen my new whip…Ahhh, who needs a 5th road bike anyway? Apparently, I did…."

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I was recently having an email conversation with an old friend of mine in which I relayed the notion of anytime a fella shows up with a pink bike that it becomes common knowledge that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Of course while we're on the topic of forces to be reckoned with I can't neglect to include a link that was left in the comments on Monday's post from one who goes as 'Back in The Day'.

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Rob Warner and The (Stink) Palm go toe to toe in this no holds barred interview.
Reader be warned however.. Things get a little racy.

Oohhh, and speaking of racy, let's talk about racing..
You know I've got a knack for the words..

Many times I've mentioned a fellow by the name of GeneO here before. Well M.B.S. just sent in this piece that's pretty interesting, but obviously the following quote from the comments is what stuck in my place where things get stuck;

“I can top that with an eye-witness account of Gene’s style. Picture the start to a typical mountain bike race in the early 90s. Lots of lycra. A few rock-shox (maybe), and a couple of guys locked-in to their Look road pedals (I was one of them), teetering at the start and waiting for the gun to go off. A cloud of dust in the distance is followed by a car that pulls up to the start line. Out comes some dude in a white t-shirt and jeans, appearing to be in no hurry. He opens the trunk, pulls out his MBzip, and slowly puts on his jersey and those sweet original Oakleys. Rides up right to the very front of the start line just as the gun goes off and proceeds to win the race easily.”

It's true. It's all true..

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What was neglected to be mentioned however is that Gene is a leap year baby, and as such, this coming February will be turning 13 years old.

That explains alot.

Now, this has nothing to do with GeneO, but here is one is for the ladies... The dreamboat hath arrived.

I hear the panties dropping the world over.

If anybody knows Dimitri, would you have him give me a call, cause I wanna know if the guy is for real.

In closing, here is a submission from Jason;

"Gotta love the John Travolta picture postcard book and an issue of CRACKED wrapped in protective plastic. "

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Ordinarily I would respond with "sir, I don't 'gotta' do anything."
However in this case he is absolutely correct.

Happy whatever day it is.

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August 02, 2009

May be time for an inspiration-vacation.

I've recently found myself in the throws of yet another mind bind, and what better to resolve such a thing then to cry on the shoulder of a far away friend? The far away friend in this case was none other than everybody's favorite mystery bluger, and master of all things pizza, The Snob, pictured here attempting to retrieve an abandoned piece of gum without the use of his hands;

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Though it's been some time since our romantic interlude in Napa, we still keep in touch from time to time, if only with emails containing photos of Joan Jett in darker days, so I thought it only fitting to let the tears flow intercontinentally and see what insight he might have to offer. What transpired was enough to fill me with hope, and a renewed sense of vigor.

We tentatively agreed that perhaps at a point we might should think about a possible collaboration of some sort, which then transpired into talk of a reality show, the only stipulation for which we both agreed needed to include a hot tub. From there the banter eventually devolved into a discussion of a road trip pod cast. It was then that I found the destination that would ultimately be responsible for making everyone's dreams come true.

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What might initially appear to be a gigantic boil on the landscape on Mother Nature's posterior, as it turns out is not only that, but so much more. Open up your fantasy vault, and prepare to take on all of the riches that is Tropical Islands.

Copulation in an indoor jungle? Defecation in the pool? Fights? Water slides? Fake sunsets? Limitless alcohol? Y-fronts?

If you don't think between the two of us, a couple thousand Euros, and this utopia on earth, that it would be absolutely possible to make God shudder with envy, then you my friend are sorely mistaken.

At post time, the concept has as of yet to be agreed upon, but I suspect it is only because The Snob has fallen back in his chair and is paralyzed in pleasure at the thought of such an endeavor. As always, I will keep you all posted on the developments.

So, like.. What did you all get into this weekend? Did you listen to a bunch of Girls Against Boys?

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(Who it should be noted, according to their website have emerged "out of the ashes of dc punk rock dischord band soulside, moved up to new york, put out a ton of records since 1990, have 2 bass players, did a bunch of stuff with a bunch of people and we eat, drink, sleep and walk around." If that isn't enough to make you rush to your local record store and buy everything they've ever done, then I don't know what is.)

Well I did, but besides that, I spent a portion of time with F.P and Joe, who from this point forward will be referred to 'Doom Joe', or perhaps 'The Artist Formerly Known As Doom Joe' within the confines of the great outdoors while atop bicycles.
A portion of the portion of time we spent outdoors was not just spent on bicycles however, but instead propped up behind open cans of beer, with drive sides down and a general gaze of goof-offedness spread across our faces;

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It is after all, what we're best at, and with a strangle hold, grab every opportunity to show it off to whomever we can.

To prove that other metals (mettles) aside from aluminum were involved in our adventure, I was able to snap a shot from whatever bush I happened to be laying behind;

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An interesting side note to our ride was that Joe is relatively new to the world of skinny tires in the dirt, and is still wet behind the ears in terms of hours spent wrestling a bike of this sort over roots, log piles, and bermed embankments, but regardless of this fact he kept his head down and his thoughts pure and held his own with the best of them, with the exception of an OTB/dirt nap, but who among us hasn't gotten sleepy while riding bikes once in a while?

You you say you haven't, then I say, you're a damn liar.

In somewhat random other information-stimulation, Robert sent me an email, the subject line for which was simply filled with 'Steve'. The email only said 'Need some?'

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And he continued- 'The kid on the right is named Steve too..'

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Ordinarily I would hope that I was all the Steve you needed, but upon receiving Robert's email I realized that this is a foolish and egotistical thought to maintain. Especially with a couple of picture perfect examples of humanity like this who have at one time or another graced our presence.

I am but a small fish in a bad ass pond.

Loudass is working over time on the Swobo T-shirt idea vault, and has got his stethoscope pressed firmly against the combination lock's dial, as has been proven with his second submission from the file;

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As I was relating to FP and Doom Joe this weekend, the reverse of a hog attack is what I once witnessed with Loudass and Sasha the giant drunk Russian at the Circus Circus breakfast buffet when they engaged in a pork eating competition of such grandeur that it would have made Caligula blush with embarrassment.

I mean to say that they both had plates piled high with such an astonishing array of pink that the rest of us nearly laid down from cardiac arrest right there on the spot, and if the carpet beneath the table was more comfortable we just may have.

I can't remember who won, but I can say with certainty that those of us who bore witness to the feat most definitely did not.

Are you guys in to a trial run of a 'blog of the day' feature? You may be, or perhaps you don't care.
Either way, it doesn't really matter to me cause I'm driving this big broken boat and you have to go where I say.

She's sassy, she dresses sharp, she likes bikes, isn't afraid of mainlining coffee, and as near as I can surmise, doesn't give a fig about what you think of her.

She's Meligrosa;

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Photo lifted from Busbozo.

Another dame in our midst who you could try and match in class and wit is a gal named Kim Dow. Now if you've been racing mountain bikes for any length of time this name would mean something to you as she was one of the original superstars from the Retrotec team of old. Well she sent me an email that was probably far more cryptic than it should have been;

"Did you just see a huge traffic spike from levi's tweet of your most recent HTATBL post?"

To her I responded with "what the hell does that mean?"

Truth be told, I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter, but I'd be lying if I said it was anything other than hate.
I am of the committed opinion that human being's ability to communicate is at an all time low, and to shave away all but 140 characters is truly an affront to the art of language, but with that being said, our dear friend Zoltron, who I'd like to add is increasingly becoming one of my favorite people, wrapped my arm behind my back some time ago and convinced me that I too needed to sign up for the blasted thing, if only to secure my name so that if at some point I have some idea to convey, I could do so.

But my caving aside, I would like to offer my humble thanks to Levi for the recognition and to also say he needs to spend his time healing his wing doing other things more productive than reading The Bummer Life.

I mean there is so much porn on the internet. Why on earth would he be down here with us?

Regardless, I am honored and if anyone would like to get aboard my Twitter train, you can find it here.

I also feel the need to mention that I have refused to follow anyone on Twitter, except for Danzig.

We're tight like that.

In closing, and as usual, with nothing that has to do with anything, Danny B recently turned me on to the following site that although may be considered by some to be far dumber than Twitter, still has filled me with hope and humor, and some days that is all you can ask for.

Don't Even Reply(dot)com.

Nowhere to go from here but away, so that is what I'm gonna do.

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August 01, 2009

One for the weekend, via Erik M.

And it is with the utmost sincerity I tell Erik M. that in one fell swoop he successfully ruined farms, grey hair, tight pants, breathing, wind, singing, yoga, cows with long eyelashes, mullets, multicultural children, karate Gis, colorful unitards, and rastafarian chickens for me forever.

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