Charlie Varrick

Previous movie reviews here have set the bar pretty high, so a movie has to be pretty special to get a mention. Walter Matthau as the star is always a good first step.
1973 was the year when they cast Matthau as a crop duster turned bank robber. After a heist in which he steals the Mob's money, he has to face off with hitman Jo Don Baker. If you liked the dude in No Country for Old Men, you will love JDB's character.
As if all this wasn't enough, when was the last time you saw a car vs biplane chase?
Directed by the same guy that did Dirty Harry so it has a similar vibe and some of the same actors.

Do Something

Think about this. Then read a book. Maybe Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill or Wrecking Crew by Thomas Franks.
Ghost War by Steve Coll is a true classic if you want some context and history.
Fiasco collects and expands on Thomas Ricks excellent Atlantic articles.
Either way figure it out.
You could maybe even buy one of these at a local bookstore or try an amazon alternative.



It is not too hard to believe that the Republican convention came with a hearty helping of police oppression, but rather than shrug it off like I did, Ted Leo got together and recorded a benefit 4 song ep that you can download on the Touch and Go site.
Includes Amebix and Cocksparrer covers. "Rapid Response" indeed. "I got your number" comes off as more Undertones than Trouble on the Terraces but is still rad. Amebix? They have not stood the test of time for me, but this is a solid solo rework. Read a couple of the books above and you will agree that "Paranoia(is never enough)"!


So in conclussion, it feels like we are ready for the curtain call of the 2nd gilded age and its hard to believe so many were so asleep at the switch that it happened again.

The joy of the 5K

Last year I ran a bunch of 5Ks anc Cross country races through the fall and winter. It was fun and pretty effective cross-training. I am really looking forward to hitting some of these races again this year!
The 5K is like the everyman's chance to shine event. A relatively pain free way to test yourself and push for PRs. You can stick a toe in the pain cave or cannonball in, but either way it's over in around 20 minutes. They are also fun and usually have beer and food at the end.
If there was a cycling equivalent of the 5K you might see way more people getting involved and maybe even having fun.
Rolling up to the weekend oval crit and negotiating the long silences, hard looks, and pre race rituals of mega-competitors can get old fast. Maybe I am not type A enough, but racing should be fun first.

I guess I need to just start racing cross and get it over with

Road to Roubaix DVD

Road to Roubaix. This DVD ably checks off all the requirements for a Roubaix related item. Testimonials to its epic nature, close ups of the cobbles, historical footage, and of course, another Hincapie interview. Roubaix is such a monument and its fans such rabid obsessed geeks that it is hard to come up with a new angle on it. This DVDis well done and heads into an artier rouleur style with some B/W action. Regardless, if there is Roubaix footage, there is a hardcore group of super fans that will buy it. I am one of them for sure(even if Flanders is becoming by favorite Spring Classic)It all started with Mapei's dominance in the 90s. Tchmil in 94.(on VHS well after the fact) 2001-2003 Roubaix were unreal. So many key moments from Knaven, Musseew,etc. Epic mud covered solo attacks and counter attacks. Now we are in the dusty years, but back to the feature presentation.

A few things that stood out....
The commonly held "fact" is that "heavier" riders do better at Roubaix. Cancellara and Boonen may be heavier than a pint sized climber, but this film catches them looking super gaunt. When you seem them next to regular humans you realize they are only "heavy" compared to emanuelle sella or something. PVP looks like a corpse and Boonen is super gaunt.
Training footage is always cool. Ditto for the brief mechanics coverage(especially the deja vu footage of the mechanic lubing the cassette with a brush a la A Sunday In Hell) Some of the race footage really captures how fast they are going-better than WCP footage. The Lars Michelson crash is super gnarly.

PVP talking about "loving the stones" is a rad moment.

Post Race and shower footage is pretty rad. (do I have to say "no homo"?) 06 was super dusty so dudes look wasted and covered in filth.

As always Sean Kelly is amazing-he needs subtitles more than Oasis.

I would have been stoked if the interviews with non-Roubaix guys like Lance, Levi, or Basso were more confrontational. I would have loved to see Levi being like "are you serious? Roubaix? Me? Fuck that" instead of being all reverential. Were Tafi,Ballerini,Tchmil, Backstedt, Hammond,Peeters,Knaaven, etc not available? Never Mind Museew,De Vlaeminck, or Merckx. Too much Disco training camp footage.

Overall a good film, but like Julien DeVriese, I might be over it. Way better than "cobbles baby" and nice accompaniment to watching the 06 O'Grady win
Came is very "green" dvd case and minimal shipping packaging. Also got a poster with mine. Nice. Masterlink films. Go get it.

I hate 5" records

The 45 or 7" or whatever you want to call it is the perfect musical delivery system. Whether it is classic soul or 14 songs of the rawest hardcore, the format keeps it short and sweet. No time for any double LP foolishness. Shorter isn't always better though. Case in point, the 5". Where novelty and collectiblity collide and no one is the winner. Big Black did one with the pigpile VHS. I remember it was almost impossible to play since most turntables with the automatic arm return pick up before the track starts. Great.
RFTC did one which figured prominently in a previous post and not in a good way. I am sure I have a few others (slap a ham maybe?)and I know I have some 60s/70s novelty jingles on 5"s. Do I play them? No. I can't even seem to remember them.
The format sucks. It is too short. Sound quality seems shoddy and you can't really file them with your other singles.
Record collectors are pretentious assholes said someone smarter than me and this format proves the point. Get less for more.
Never mind the fact that the existence of the stupid RFTC one woke me up out of a deep sleep and ruined an uber-nerd theory I was developing. So ruining my day alone, 5"s are on my shit list but there is more.
A format that sucks almost as bad as flexis(flexis will always be cooler) and is almost as a big a pain as 78s, but holds less music and is harder to play.
What is the upside?

RFTC ASGIII

RFTC were one of my favorite bands. Sick live show, tons of merch, and hard to get records. Like Kiss only for people with taste. Their "all systems go" comps compiled there singles and hard to find tracks. Volumes one and two were cool, since it saved me having to transfer all the vinyl to digital, but V3 really is a keeper.
The holy grail to any record nerd are lost tapes-whether it is unreleased tracks, false starts, alternate takes, etc-doesn't matter. 4CD boxsets have been built on false starts cause record nerds are nerds first. So this 20 tracks of practice space 8 track recordings including alternate takes, instros, and unreleased was something really special and if we are lucky will have endless follow up volumes(like Dylan and the Bands Basement Tapes only good....)

As I was listening to this driving home an odd thought hit me. I couldn't name a cover song that RFTC had played or recorded. Weird for a group of dudes totally obsessed with music. I wracked my brain from 128 to 24 to 495 to 6 and still couldn't come up with an answer. Google was my obvious destination since I was moving in the opposite direction of my record collection, but why use the anonymous google when you could use the anonymous "contact" feature on most websites? So around inning eleven of the Soxs vs Rays, I wandered over to the computer and sent Swami Records my question,and went to bed.
Around 2:30 I woke up in a cold record nerd sweat, mumbling"plays the music machine". Shit, they did that stupid fucking 5" covering the music machine. So much for my grandiose conspiracy theory of them not recording covers.
To add insult to injury as I was drinking my morning coffee, I had time to read the ASGIII liner notes, and "this way out" is a wall of voodoo cover. Another head shot to my theory. A 5" full of failure was tough to take, but then a wall of voodoo cover? Fuck. That is a low blow. So now instead of waiting anxiously for a reply email that is full of "you figured it out...". I am waiting for something along the lines of "try again retard". And the Sox lost in 12 innings. Perfect
And finally as I type this, I am remembering that they did do one double thumbs up cover. Red C "pressure's on". Nothing like some harDCore to make it all all right.
So yes RFTC recorded some covers, but more importantly ASGIII is killer, the demo versions of "dick on a dog" and "when in rome" are great and most of the unreleased stuff holds up real well. Best comp yet from the RIP RFTC.
My anger towards the 5" format is only growing.

Odds and Ends

GreaseMonkey hit Euro-Bike. Two cool sets of photos on his flicker site. DeRosas looked cool. Another must have beer/axle nut wrench. New Fondriests are not working for me.

Onion. Ouch.

Mussewes flax bikes are looking Colnago cool here. But he also making wheels that would like sweet on your fixed gear??? I guess if you can't afford custom airbrushed Lightweights this might be an OK compromise.


So much racing it's hard to keep track of. Some frenzied activity has teams fade away. Cavendish is a fucking beast. Vuelta has another transitional stage before the Sat showdown on Angliru! Followed by 2 more tough mountain stages. Contador better win all he can before Lance rolls back in.
Tour of Britan is always special for me as I get to track the performance of the Plowman Craven RT team. I love that name. Plowman Craven sounds like some pissed off medievel serf or a bad FC. They keep it real with "Race Clean" right on the arm of their stunning pink and blue kits.

US if kicking but in Tour D'Avenir with Peter Stetina in the lead by 2:27. Always good to see youngsters making it happen. And Garmin forming a Rabobank like web of up and comers with their VMG/Felt squad.

5K running season is in full effect, how did the summer blow by so fast?