Ups & Downs

True story.

So I'm riding up Rhode Island today past the Mt. Ranier traffic circle. I decided to make the ride into work and back into an interval workout, hitting each hill as hard as possible, then riding tempo in between. Most of the way to the top of this particular hill, I'm in full rigor mortis, cranking for all I'm worth and about to blow up, right as I crest the hill. It's a long, steady grind up that gets a little steeper near the top. But I rocked it today and I was so self-impressed that I kept the effort on for a bit over the crest. Just then this pickup truck with two black girls in it pulls up next to me, matches speed, and the passenger says, "you got great legs, baby." Then they do a couple cat calls and drive off.

At that point, I'm so thrilled I could just turn around and go home. The day isn't going to get any better than that.

All the way in from there, I'm thinking about what Harshman said on FB about how he still had it, after drawing a nice compliment the other week - one of the better things that can happen to a masters racer. Yeah! It's a real morale booster.

So it's off down the hill onto Montana and through Northeast D.C. toward the office. Heading down to turn onto M, this car pulls up to me with two black dudes in it. The one guy, who looks like an African-American version of Little Man from Jackass, leans out and says, "you got a great ass, man." They drive off giggling and I notice the rainbow sticker on the back bumper.

At this point I'm utterly baffled. I'm still chuckling about the two girls, and vaguely disconcerted about the two guys...

Then it hits me.

*Of course* I'm popular in Northeast. Let's just say a lot of the folks living up that way like 'em thick.

Forthwith... my tribute to Clydesdales and Athenas. You may not always be first up the hill, but you'll definitely have the longest ride.



That's alright for modern soul. But the classics are good too.



For a mockumentary, it's pretty hard to beat "This is Spinal Tap." The film dominates so hard that VH1's "Behind the Music" appears to have been unironically based on the format.

A band that never achieved classic status, or for that matter topped the charts, was the Rainmakers. They had a number of really great songs, usually with smart lyrics. Sometimes though...



Awesome. The Rainmakers deserve a brief aside for wonkiness. They had a great song called "Government Cheese." Used to be, you could get these big blocks of free cheddar if you were on welfare. The government would pay dairy farmers a subsidy to produce more cheese. The cheese would glut the market, so the government had to buy the cheese, otherwise prices would slump and they'd have to pay the dairy farmers more money, in order to keep the price of cheese propped up and the farmers in business. So it got to a point in the mid-80's where the government had all this cheese and didn't know what to do with it. So they gave it away. And sold it for maybe $1.50 a pound in military commissaries. It was damn fine cheese... just probably cost the taxpayer $20/pound to produce. Check out the song - seems timely.



That's probably enough brainy for one Friday. Check out some Nine Inch Nails, "Big Man With a Gun".



And while we're on the topic of bein' thick... I know this one's been posted before but it merits being posted again, Black Keys' "Thickfreakness."



Okay, time for one final shoutout for all my big bike riding friends...