Saturday, October 11, 2008

K-9 Possee... Campy Only???




There has of course been a long history of cycling caps turning up in black culture Spike Lee/Brooklyn, Wesley Snipes/Colnago, Mariah Carey/Vitalicio Seguras. So I shouldn't have been too surprised to see the K-9 Posse sporting matching Campagnolo caps on the picture sleeve to this record.
I didn't even notice at first as I was too busy grabbing every hip hop 45 with a picture sleeve in what was the illest score of the fall record collecting season thus far. 12 James Brown 45s, 4 LL Cool Js, 2 Beastie Boys, 3 Fat Boys, get serious. 40 records later as I am looking them over in my car, the K-9 Record catches my eye. Campy hats? Only the best for the K-9 Possee! Outside of this odd cycling tie in, the record is not so good.
Either way it just goes to show you, start a record about collecting records and cycling and who knows what will fall into your lap.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

more kickboy face


With headgear that would give Keith Richards a run for his money watch Claude Bessey run down the Factory labels roster.

Life of Crime



I heard this for the first time on the Laughing Hyenas record of the same name. Wasn't a huge fan of early LA punk. Too arty for my tastes, and anyway the Weirdos were dropping Condor in 1990 which was competing with too much crucial music to get a lot of spins. Fugazi Repeater for example. Thankfully some cheap bootlegs introduced me to the brilliance that is the early Weirdos. Life of Crime, Neutron Bomb, Solitary Confinement Destroy all Music. These are fucking classics. Unlike a lot of the more arty shit their contemporaries were playing, elements of the Weirdos sound were pretty much Incorporated into the classic Cali punk sound.
And by more arty shit, I of course mean this....


I never would have checked for this video if I hadn't namechecked Kickboy Face in the last post about economics.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Non Cycling Odds and Ends

60 minutes was a home run this week. One segment on a Delta Force soldier that was hunting Bin Laden and has a book coming out and a second segment bringing another financial time bomb too light. Sub-prime mortgages might be bad but credit debt swaps are worse. More interviews with Jim Grant who seems to be an economist I can appreciate. Grant seems like a less partisan Thomas Franks, but I really am not familiar enough with him to say that for sure. His book will most likely be on my xmas list. I would get a subscription to his magazine, but I already read too much that I barely understand. I need the Lester Bangs or Kickboy Face of economic journalism.

This is a pretty crucial article. Sobering in light of where Bush's exhortations for the average American to fight terrorism by shopping and traveling and spending have gotten us.

Third up is a movie review. Streetfight is a documentary about the race to be Mayor of Newark NJ. Wire fanatics should do themselves a favor and rent this. So much of the Carcetti vs Royce action seems lifted almost directly from this.

Roller-rama. Winter is coming



Took the rollers out of cold storage last night. Forgot how much fun they are to ride. You can zone out on a trainer, but rollers require you to pay a little more attention. Maybe not as "intense" as a rear wheel trainer, but time flies and you use your brain more. I think I will do most of my indoor training this year on rollers rather than a trainer.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Sombra -good shit that won't get you busted


Sombra is some kind of company that makes products for physcical therapy pros. This "original warm therapy" pain relieving gel is like some hippie'd out flexall or ben gay. It is a good rub for aches and pains. It is less gross and vaseline like than the main steam products.
Since it falls into some embrocation like category, it benefits from having a superior smell than FlexAll or IcyHot. The temperature is not as high as IcyHot, but it works just as well. It is a little more expensive than your current drugstore favorite, but the only real drawback is having to most likely mail order it if you want to test it out.
If you are going to rub ridiculous underground euro juice on your legs before you ride, why not go with some underground shit after you ride? Your legs are worth it.

Het dopingmonster van Loch Ness


The Doping Monster of Loch Ness.... This was the headline to a Het Volk article last Friday or so. Schelck managing to drag most of CSC back into the doping spotlight was bad, the 14 or so bad tests from the Tour that are lurking was worse, but Vino's announcement of an attempt to come back was the worst. Vino? Are you fucking kidding? It was bad enough to watch Frigo and Cassagrande drag their tainted asses around long after they were welcome. There is nothing quite as sad as the last couple years of Cassagrande's career. He labored over the bike like some sad past his prime porn star, propelled by whatever chemicals he could get away with on whatever team would take him. The thrill and joy was gone. All that was left was a sad, scared dude doing the only thing he knew how to.
So much for the new clean era. Its not so much the loch ness as the revolving door or groundhog day of doping. Maybe longer bans will be necessary until the tests are better.
And before I could even post this Schumacher gets a positive for CERA. Awesome. The Brad Test-Does the guy have male pattern baldness in his late 20s/early 30s? seems to be pretty accurate. After Schumacher, we still have a dozen more riders whose tests are getting redone. Ouch. Will any of the top ten still be there by the time you watch the race video?
So maybe in the end it isn't the loch ness, but a pit full of quicksand.