From the reasoning of the Dawg name to the best comic book authors, from the history of the Hot to a timeline of industrial music, Cory has the trivia, and the opinions to mouth off about it.
I’m writing this on May 15th, Bike to Work and School Day. This is a cool day, where in towns and cities all over the nation people get on their bikes instead of in their cars and ride their bikes to work. It makes for an awesome time, seeing tons of people on bikes all over town, and having a safer than usual ride in to work. This lasts for a day, and everyone drives after that.
Yes, I am jaded.
I’ve always liked this event, but I do question how much good it actually does in the long run. After riding in this morning, I have a slightly more sanguine view of it. As I was cruising down a hill on my way in, I saw a couple of middle school aged girls riding up the hill. One looked like she knew what she was doing, and was getting up the hill at a decent pace. The other girl was suffering like a dog – but with the biggest smile I’ve seen in quite a while. This one girl made the whole day a success for me.
Martin Scorsese has shown that a song can epitomize a particular moment in a film, but real life often doesn’t work that way. Mr. Self Destruct by Nine Inch Nails was playing loudly in my right ear, but if it was a remark on anything, it’s me. She was suffering, but she was winning the fight, and having a damn good time doing it.
She may not ride to school on Monday. She may not ride to school again for quite a while, but she’s going to always remember that she had a blast doing it, and that’s going to pull at her until she does it again, and she will.
So, to everyone that rode to work or school on Bike to Work and School Day, congrats. To those that actually enjoyed themselves, double congrats! And if you’re going to do it again, you’re one of us.
Joe Schwartz ventures to the Altiplano in search of big descents and wicked Andean singletrack
In an un-edited outtake from or man h I r S c h’s blog (
Our first bike ride in Japan sucked. Drafting a semi truck in the pissing rain down a pothole strewn road at 50 kmh I began to wonder what we were attempting to accomplish, besides coating our bikes and bodies in sticky black road grime. We had set out to film a beautiful sunset ride on the Japanese coast, but it didn’t seem to be working out as planned. Our local Japanese handlers had assured us that there would be great ocean views to be had along this road, but they were failing to materialize amongst the massive oil refineries and sprawling shipyards. With the already minimal light fading as quickly as our moral, we abandoned ship and stuffed our bikes into the chase van. A quick scan of our map revealed a faint grey line of a road tracing the coast line to the north of us, a glimmer of hope in the gloomy rain soaked expedition.
