Sunday, November 9, 2008

Dropping science

Jackie and I got tickets to see Henry Rollins in Boulder last night. I've been a huge Rollins fan since I listened to Blag Flag on cassette tapes. I even liked the Rollins Band and I've seen him do spoken word before in Austin when we all sat on a hard concrete floor for hours listening to him tell his stories. Jackie didn't know much about him - and when she searched for him on google, this is what kept coming up:
She was a bit scared of what the night was about to unfold - but I assured her that spoken word was not a lot of yelling into a microphone. They would likely be some, but not the whole time.
These days, this is what he looks like:
Henry talked about lots of things he disliked and lots of rather unique idiosyncrasies about himself that he's observed lately. I figured it would be a good time to see him considering the recent election - which I was sure he was happy about (he was). He told stories of TSA airport screenings, spending time with fellow grey hair Ian MacKaye and their obsession with Bad Brains, traveling to countries (like Pakistan) by himself just to throw himself in the middle of the craziest situation he could find himself in, his disdain for marriage and over population, his acting career, singing for Black Flag....and many MANY other things. He kept us entertain for almost 3 hours. Thank you Mr Rollins. Man, I'd love to sit next to you on a plane someday.

Prior to the show, I gathered a crew for a little 5-hour MTB ride. It was Heil, Picture Rock, Hall again. Jesse had never ridden the new trails so he brought out his special weapon:
Here's Jesse's special 'webbed' bike. It was one of only 4 made, specially for aquatic mountain bike racers. It's a really sweet bike. Too bad there were not more swimming sections on yesterday's ride - he would have no doubt left us in his wake if there were.
Lawyer Eric was on board his rigid 29er 1x9. I started calling him "Stiffler" since he was rocking this stiff rigid fork. Here's a view of his cockpit. He has the bell to warn fellow trail users when he's flying at them out of control on the rocky DHs. Just kidding Eric - you're smooth as a silky silk. I can't wait to see what you'll do when you have that squishy fork you've been talking about.
Brian Laiho joined on the ride. He lives down the road from me, but we've only ridden in Moab and Fruita. He decided to bring a nice big pack with him filled with sandwiches, extra layers, and plenty of confusing trail descriptions. Brian - I still don't know what 'frosting' you were talking about on the trail. Maybe next time you'll have to show the frosting so I know what the hell you're talking about.
We passed so many riders on the Picture Rock Trail that I put Jesse up to a challenge. You see, Jesse is quite possibly the friendliest pro mountain biker in the world. When he passes other trail users, he genuinely greets them, asks them questions about their day, and jumps way off the trail to make sure he does not inconvenience them. Trust me, it's a sight to see. So I put Jes up to the challenge of greeting each person differently. He was doing pretty good - he even went international and threw in some spanish and australian slang. Impressive. I kept waiting to hear "Toodles, Compadre", but that one didn't happen.

Today - on tap we have a tasty breakfast at Luciles, a hike with the dogs, and now I'm about to download some Bad Brains.

Thanks for reading!

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