Turning New Pages, Part 1

à Paris

I've added a new feature to The Curious Randonneur blog: pages. Under the banner, I have added ten labeled tabs, one for each new page. The pages are:

• à Paris!
• Stanzas
• Rantings
• Captured
• Ahhh!
• Scribblings
• Heartholds
• Vintage
• One World
• Sillinesses.

Each tab is a new page for this blog, and it is focused on a distinct idea. So, for example, if you are interested in my preparations as a newbie for entering the Paris Brest Paris Randonnée, then go to the à Paris! page and you'll find links to all the relevant posts plus a few pictures.

Stanzas

Stanzas is a page devoted to art. So far, it is my handful of cycling poems and information about the artist, Aaliyah Gupta, who created the banner for this blog. It will expand as I introduce other art or artistic endeavors.

Rantings

Rantings is just what it seems: a collection of links to my occasional rants. Who doesn't love a good rant?

Captured

Captured is a page with links devoted to my latest experiment--sound recorded during rides--and a few video links. I am digging the nighttime sounds especially. Tricky business as sound pollution permeates the night just as light pollution does.





Ahhh!

Ahh! is the page that folks have been asking for. It is designed as one place for links to all my observations about my new (now a year old) custom randonneuring bicycle and other observations on what makes a comfortable performance bicycle. I still have many posts to deliver here on my promise to document the new Pereira, and they are forthcoming. Promise.


The pages will grow over time as I post about relevant topics, so I hope you'll check them out. You can also search the entire blog for any topic by keyword by using the Search engine at the top left of the blog (above the banner). Or, you can search by Topics in the sidebar to the right of the main body text.

I hope you enjoy the new pages. I like them because they pull out some arenas that either are important to me or that I think others mind find useful, and it gives them a little more attention by putting it all in one place.

I've described the final five pages in Turning New Pages, Part 2.


Keep it archived,

CurioRando

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie!

Ever get your bicycle wheel caught in the groove next to railroad tracks?

I have, and I know lots of experienced cyclists who have also even though we know better.

On a recent 300k, I saw a rider Karl who was always ahead of me by a kilometer or so for much of the day. Occassionally, I'd see him up ahead on a flatter, straighter section of road. At one point I saw him riding way ahead in the distance. Then I saw what looked like something in the middle of the road. A cow? No. It was Karl, broadside to the road.

As I got to him he was dusting himself off, inspecting his ripped clothing and taking an inventory of the condition his condition was in. He seemed OK excepting the ripped jacket and general banging up one gets from getting one's wheel stuck in the gap between the rail track and the pavement.

He said he just kept going too fast. The track also intersected the road at an oblique angle, and it required an especially cautious approach.

My fall came on a morning commute to work a few years ago. How many times had I crossed those very tracks? Countless.

One side benefit of wider tires is that they don't get caught as easily. That's a benefit I'll have with my new ride with its 650B tires.

In thinking about this post I got this old song stuck in my head: Choo Choo Ch'Boogie. Heard of it?

Written by Darling, Horton and Gabler according to Wikipedia, I first heard it at State College, Pa during my college days. It was performed by our local bar band, Tahoka Freeway. I loved the song, but never fully got the lyrics. 

The song was first performed by Louis Jordan in 1946, and it tells the tale of the returning GI's from WWII. They returned home (once they hit the coast) by train. The song recounts their high expectations for employment opportunities only to find the opportunities not so much. It tells this tale through the refrain of the clickity clacking train.

My Dad came home from the war the same way. My Mum tells the story of how she was in a cab on her way to pick up her returning GI-husband who she hadn't seen at all for the two years he'd spent in Europe. The cabbie figured out that she had asked to go to the wrong train station (imagine more than one train station in any town today!), and he told her she had it wrong! He then took her to the right one where she indeed met my Dad. 

Today, they'd have texted one another that evening and of course would have emailed all along any way. Far cry from the occassional letter over several years!

Since my Dad had worked for Westinghouse before the war and such companies were required to take back the soldiers, he returned to his old job.

Before I veer off further from the subject of getting thrown by the tracks, here is a link to Louis Jordan's version. I prefer the Tahoka Freeway version, a little wilder and with slide steel guitar and beer. Here are the lyrics of Choo Choo Ch'Boogie:

Choo Choo Ch'Boogie

Headin' for the station with a pack on my back

I'm tired of transportation in the back of my hack

I love to hear the rhythm of the clickety clack

And hear the lonesome whistle see the smoke from the stack to pal around

With democratic fellow named mac

So take me right back to the track, jack

Choo-choo, choo-choo, ch'boogie, woo-woo

Woo-woo, ch'boogie, choo-choo, choo-choo, ch'boogie

Take me right back to the track, jack

You reach your destination but you don't go back

You need some compensation to get back in the black

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

But the only job that's open needs a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack, jack

Choo-choo, choo-choo, ch'boogie, woo-woo

Woo-woo, ch'boogie, choo-choo, choo-choo, ch'boogie

Take me right back to the track, jack

Gonna settle down by the railroad track

Live the life o'riley in the beat down shack

When i hear a whistle i can peep thru the crack

Watch the train rollin' when it's ballin' the jack

Love to hear the rhythm of the clickety clack

So take me right back to the track, jack

Choo-choo, choo-choo, ch'boogie, woo-woo

Woo-woo, ch'boogie, choo-choo, choo-choo, ch'boogie

Take me right back to the track, jack

Take me right back to the track, jack

Keep it right back to the track,

CurioRando

unabashedly

the wheels run round
and the world unfurls
new energy is found
from muscles and whirls


why don't bicycles
unabashedly  
earnestly
abound?






amid squirrels that chatter
the wind sweeps away strife
old priorities scatter
on wheels a new life


ought not bicycles
unabashedly 
seriously
matter?






down hills with great glee
uphill sweat soaking shirt
once more learning to see
that all growth starts with hurt


don't bicycles
unabashedly
teach us
to be?






we are challenging old forms
while some still charading
creating new storms
yet environment degrading


can't bicycling
unabashedly
model
new norms?






i'm cycling through time
and realizing i'm changing
can i help ring the chime
for priority rearranging?


on bicycles
can't we  
unabashedly
climb?






in the end it's the feeling
of our hard-pounding hearts
at our community's reeling
we can each do our part


doesn't bicycling
unabashedly 
help us 
with healing?

liquid cycling

cyclist pours self into pedals

wheels flow forward

world spills out all over

Cycling Poetry in Motion

                                       up
                                            down                       
                                  mountain
                                                 down                      
                              the
                                                    down
                        cyclist
                                                          she
                    the
                                                          slides
                ratchets
                                                                 on
            heartbeats
                                                      exhilaration's
        of
                                                                    goofy
   thumping
                                                                         grin
A
.......................................................................Yippee!                                                  

Green Frankensteen Crashes the Pumpkin Push!

A few weeks ago it was Purple King Kong who terrorized the Kitsap Color Classic.

It must be the season, but yet another colorful horror figure attacked a Fall celebration. This time it was Green Frankensteen and the Pumpkin Push in Seward Park. Right after I paused briefly to snap this photo (and the other dozen or so I deleted that weren't up to my high quality standards) I rushed over and tackled Green Frankensteen. I spun his dorky, little, orange bowtie; wiped that crooked smirk of his envious face; and rescued poor DartreDame from his chartreuse clutches.

Fortunately for DartreDame, I've been diligently engaged in weight training ever since I got Cycling Anatomy, and I was able to muscle Green Frankensteen to the ground in time for Dartre to wriggle out.

Later, as Dartre recovered on a park bench--you can see she's not quite regained consciousness here--I  was able finally to assess the extent of my injuries. Looks like I'll still be able to do my R-12 200k for November if I wait till mid-month or so. Pheew!

After Dartre was able to walk we stumbled onto the Pumpkin Push 5k Run finish line, and we spotted Underdog and an escaped prisoner. Lots of characters.

Inspired by the 5k'ers, we took a stroll around the park.

   

On returning, the Pumpkin Pushers had gathered around a bunch of what looked like dead humans on the ground. Huh?

The music cued, and Michael Jackson's Thriller came alive--or came dead--or came zombied, and the show began. About 30 or so Zombies did their thing to the Thriller soundtrack.

You can see a little video I shot of the Thriller Zombies here.

Very spooky! Later that night with their many Zombie friends they attempted to break the world record for folks dancing to Thriller. This all took place at Seattle's Occidental Park and in cities worldwide, but I don't know who won. Do you?

What's this got to do with cycling? Very little, except there were cyclists all around. The picture below shows how we cyclists often get the short end of the stick. Here, this young cyclist's father isn't just drafting behind his son on the three-wheeler. He's on his in-line skates forcing his young son to pull him around Seward Park! I called Child Cyclist Protective Services on him. Harrumph.

A fully recovered Dartre poses next to the Pumpkin Push placard.

All those Punkins got us in the mood...for our very own punkin. No, despite appearances, he ain't heavy, he's my brother. Leastwise, he feels like it 'cause I LOVE Halloween and the Autumn season!

Keep 'em away from Green Frankensteen,

CurioRando

Bicycle Film Festival: Scraper Bikes and Trini's with BIG SOUND Bikes

The Bicycle Film Festival came to Seattle and it was a fun event with a stoked crowd full of messengers and other young-to-my-fifty-plus-self folks. Crowd reactions to the dozen or so short films was an integral part of the show.

Call me a curmudgeon, but I had very mixed feelings to one theme. There were ALOT of shots (in several of the films) of cyclists on fixies blasting through traffic--day and night--and barely running over pedestrians as they snuck through seams in the traffic. Don't get me wrong: it was beautiful, almost like watching a corpuscle squeeze through a narrow vein under a microscope. But it was dangerous to the public too. I admire the skill even as I cringed with concern and delighted in the drama. Very mixed. Also, just too much of the same thing.

Here's the Seattle Times' take. When it comes to bicycling, Seattle has so much P-envy (Portland envy as the emcee told us), that it makes a Seattlite like me want to groan.

The show stealers for me were the kids. Not just any kids. Kids of color and immigrant kids in tough neighborhoods. Bicycles and their imaginations and their sticking together are probably saving their lives.

Check out these Scraper Bikes. These kids (10 - 15 years old?) modify old hand-me-downs and turn themselves into a colorful tribe with a wonderful spirit of adventure and kid-fun. One the one hand, they are as unselfconscious as kids playing anywhere. On the other, their fun is a political refutation of the kinds of things kids in their circumstances get lost in, and they know it. It is intentional and prophylactic fun. Bittersweet, but better than bitter only.

Check out Scraper Bikes and a YouTube here.

Like Bicycles? Love loud music? Wanna be outrageous? Cool. Let's add HIGHpowered speakers and island music right onto our bicycles--even if it then weighs 300 pounds--and go cruisin'.

And who better than the young immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago? Trinidad and Tobago (two islands as one nation just off the coast of Venezuela) is where steelpan, calypso, soca, and limbo were invented. Quite a musical pedigree.

Here are the stars of that film, Made in Queens. I loved their understated yet very loud love of music and bicycles.

Again, they found one another and formed a tribe. Very endearing.

I visited Trinidad and Tobago a while back, but unfortunately not during Carnival. It's a fascinating place. According to Wikipedia, the largest ethnic group are the Indo-Trinidadians who were Indians brought to the islands as indentured workers to replace the freed slaves who refused to work any longer on the sugar plantations.

Tourism is big now, and the Scarlet Ibises returning to roost every evening at sunset is one of the world's wonders. Go here for one take on that.

Queens is a long way from Trinidad and Tobago, but the young men and women in the film remind us about our tribes and tribal music.

Keep it close,

CurioRando

If I were the Bike Czar! Hear the song!

Note: be sure to listen to the song: If I Were the Bike Czar to the tune of If I Were a Rich Man. You'll find the link in green below.

Here's the cyclist-in-chief (actually taken by Brandon of the AP last July just after Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination) leading by example.

President Obama is a cyclist it seems, and we know he's been putting his cabinet together so I got to wondering. He just appointed Gil Kerlikowske as the new Drug Czar. I know Gil--former Seattle Police Chief--so I thought if Gil could be our nation's Drug Czar why couldn't I be appointed by President Obama...to be the Bike Czar.

Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if I were the Cycling Czar?

If you want to hear what it would be like if I were the Bike Czar, listen here! Hint: if you minimize the audio player and go back to this page you can read along as you listen.

Follow the Bouncing Ball:

If I were the Bike Czar
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum
All day long I’d biddy biddy bum
If I were the Cycling Czar.
We wouldn’t have to drive cars
Ya da deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum
If I were the biddy biddy Bike
Yidle-diddle-didle-didle Czar.

I’d build a wide highway for bikes by the millions,
Just for (the) cyclists of the town.
Fine smooth lanes, no chip seal, glass or nails
There would be ten long bikeways just going up
And ten even longer going down
And singletracks for cyclists of the trail.

I’d set up shops with tubes and patches and glue
And pumps for folks to use for free
Cycling without flats, the wheels just whirl.
With each loud “ooh” and “mmm” and “ah” and “yeah”
We’d show how the cycle gives us glee
As if to say “We are a cycling world.”

If I were the Bike Czar,
Randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneur
All day long I’d pedal pedal pum
If I were the Cycling Czar
We wouldn’t have to drive cars
Randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneur
If I were the pedal pedal Bike
Pumping, pumping, pedal pumping Czar.

I see my bike, my Fuji, looking like a Bike Czar’s ride,
With a proper leather seat
Randonneuring dream, she’s my heart’s delight
I see her putting on airs and racing for the town signs
Oy, how the other bikes she’d beat
Riding all the brevets day and night.

The most important folk in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them
Like Velocio the Wise
“If you please, CurioRando…”
“Pardon me, CurioRando…”
Seeking cycles to return us to blue skies.
And it won’t make one bit of difference
If they’ve driven all their lives
When you’re Czar they get out of their cars!

If I were Czar we’d have the things that we need
To wash in the office place each day
We’d surely have some soap in the shower stalls.
And we’d slow down global warming with our pedaling
Getting stronger every way,
That would be the sweetest thing of all!

If I were the Bike Czar,
Randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneur
All day long I’d pedal pedal pump
If I were the Cycling Czar
We wouldn’t have to drive cars
Randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneuring, randonneur

Barack, who is our Prez and is our star
Why subsidize what is only just for cars?
Bicycles would really go so far
If I were the Cycling Czar!

Performed by Janak Jayapal Preston and DartreDame. Engineered and produced by Janak. Lyrics by CurioRando in collaboration with Janak and DartreDame. If you enjoyed their performance, please let them know by commenting. They'd be grateful.





Keep your fantasies alive,
CurioRando

This land is your land. Happy July 4th!

What a land in which we live! Who knows better than the randonneurs who tour it?

The only one I can think of is Woody Guthrie, seen here on YouTube singing his This Land is Your Land love song. He gets us pretty good. Here's my favorite stanza:

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

In honor of the 4th, here are a few ride reports--many with fabulous photos--about our land:

Pennsylvania: New Jersey Randonneurs progress and ride reports of the PA 1000k

Alaska: Alaska Randonneurs on the Alaska 600k

Washington State: Rando(m) Adventures on the SIR Spring 600k

Utah: The Utah Randonneur Zion Canyon 200k

Oregon: Oregon Randonneurs Mark Janeba's Covered Bridges pre-ride 2009

Colorado: Colorado Brevets Lyons-Berthoud Populaire

Georgia: Research Trailer Park Audax Atlanta Summer Solstice 300k Brevet
California: MAXP.net San Francisco 300k Brevet
Minnesota: http://www.biketcbc.org/randonneur/ portal to several Minnesota ride reports
Keep it free,
CurioRando

Swing Wide, Sweet Chariot!

Here is my ride report from my very first brevet, the Tahuya Hills 200k. It is renowned for its hills. I rode it without any idea what I was getting myself into; it was sponsored by the Seattle International Randonneurs, my (now) home club. Hint: RUSA is the national organization for randonneuring, Randonneurs USA.

Swing Wide, Sweet Chariot!

Out of the pasture
And into the lane,
A small herd of horses
Toward our peloton came.

Eight horses galloping,
They wheeled into our way,
Is this randonneuring?
But it’s my first brevet!!

Nostrils flaring,
Eyes glaring,
It’s just the first turn,
And already quite daring!

I’d figured on dogs,
(We had them too!)
But unbridled horses…
I hadn’t a clue.

They swung wide to miss us,
“Good horsies”, I said,
That’s just what you say
When you’re glad you’re not dead!

As quickly as that
They’re behind us, and I
Am randonneuring again,
To the Hills…Oh My!

They’d declared at departure:
“There are plenty of hills,
Eight thousand feet climbing”,
My blood took a chill.

Uphill and then down,
Seems more of the up,
Anderson Hill…One-Mile Hill,
So darn much up!

The route was well laid,
Controls: organized;
I got into my rhythm,
Perhaps I’d win my prize?

I finished in time,
“Where’s my medal?” I asked.
“See RUSA” they told me,
“You’ve completed your task.”

But this one’s not past,
It’ll stay with me till
Sweet Chariot carries me home,
Up that biggest of hills.

For I’ll remember that look
Till my dying day,
In the lead horse’s eye,
“Let them live,” it did say.

Swing wide, Sweet Chariot,
So I can cycle lots more,
Randonneuring’s exhilarating,
To enjoy: endure!

Keep it rhymin'

CurioRando