Mooseknuckler Cycling Alliance

Alley Cat races tonight. Be there.

Just in case you don’t already know, 10:30 p.m. @ Sunrise Cyclery

People across the country are building a wall to stop the FCC’s plan to let Big Media swallow up more local stations.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin refuses to listen to the public, but Congress is starting to pay attention. This week, the House announced a formal investigation into the way the FCC conducts business. And yesterday, during a House oversight hearing, Congress scolded the FCC for a “short-circuited decision-making process” and “abuse of power.”

Our campaign is gaining momentum, but we need you to join us in our stand against Big Media.

Tell Congress: Stop FCC Chairman Martin & Big Media

In response to a growing public outcry, the Senate Commerce Committee this week passed the Media Ownership Act of 2007 (S. 2332). This crucial legislation would force Martin to slow down, give the public more time to comment, and address the negative impact of media consolidation on minority and female ownership.

Help us get 10 more co-sponsors by Friday.

Ask Your Senators to Co-Sponsor the Media Ownership Act

Chairman Martin hopes you aren’t paying attention. He wants to vote on his proposal to let Big Media get even bigger on Dec. 18. If you think we need more local, diverse, and democratic media, now is the time to act.

Congress is taking action, but we need to show that this isn’t just another inside-the-Beltway issue. Too much is at stake, and they need to see the faces of the millions of Americans who are fed up with another massive giveaway to Big Media.

Build the Wall: Ask Your Senators to Co-sponsor the Media Ownership Act

In 2003, nearly 3 million citizens like you stood up to the FCC and put a stop to media consolidation. We can do it again. But we need to put a public face on the resistance to media consolidation.

Write Your Senators. Add Your Picture to the Wall. Stop Big Media.

Onward,

Alexandra Russell
Program Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net
www.stopbigmedia.com

P.S. To fully understand what Chairman Martin doesn’t want you to know about his new ownership rules, read our new report: Devil the Details

View more information about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/ownership

Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net/campaign/ownership/forward

I’m sitting here staring at a blank screen. It’s the last day of the semester and my final paper is due. I have my sources, all the info, quotes, all the journalist shit I could muster in a week and now I can’t decide how to start writing it. Figures the hardest part is always the lead. At least after today I get to relax for a while. No school just work, cold, and no riding that’s what I need more laziness.

I’m listening to Propaghandi right now. Yes still great music with an uplifting message. I have about a million different lyrics and verses of poetry bouncing around in my head. I’ve memorized Neruda. Yes I’ve taken my addiction to the next level and starting learning his poetry entirely by heart. Don’t ask me why I just decided I wanted to and I did. I would have to say that “Less Talk, More Rock” is still, hands down, the best album Propaghandi put out, the lyrics are off the wall and they get better with time. I wouldn’t want to down grade anything else they’ve done but that album rocks with all of its talk.

It’s raining. No no new snow so far this week, it got warm again, too warm to snow at least. They had forecast snow for last night but all it did was rain. This warm weather is insane. Think about it, December, in Logan, and we don’t have any snow on the ground, we did but it melted quite quickly after the week of falling that took place. I predict that all the ski resorts go out of business in the next decade. It’s tough enough to run a business when you only make money through one quarter, lose that quarter and your done. Bye Bye big ugly chairlifts and rich assholes barreling down them on ski and boards and stuff. In another 20 years we can go reclaim them as wilderness preserves. Picture it, big chairlifts completely covered in rust and moss and other wild stuff that would have been unheard of in their hay days.

Anyways… back to work on my paper.

I’m gettin’ stoked for the races this weekend. First off, they were a lot of fun last time so I figure they will be a lot of fun this time. It’s my logic. Don’t worry about it. Second, I just made the switch to the track bike I originally wanted but wasn’t available. In my humble, yes Mr. Gurr, humble opinion, these are the best track bikes you can buy right off the floor of a bike shop. And we just received a shipment. I popped off the wheels and replaced them with my Phil Woods and swapped out the cranks. I’m ready for this weekend. I’m taking the cup, hands down. Even if I have to cheat my name is going on the cup.
Life goes on. Ride it on a bike.

The race is on.

Saturday Dec. 8th, meet @ 10:30 pm @ Sunrise Cyclery

This time around we will have separate divisions for geared people and single people, and maybe even for swingers.

Be there or get fixed.

A cyclocross video sent out by Ira Tibbits,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuxnUZyzs30

I realize the hypocrisy of my position in life. I work in retail. I sell things everyday to make a living. Being anti-capitalist this puts my in a rather distinct place. I hate the concept of my job but I love what I do. I love what I do because I get to be around the greatest invention humanity has ever come up with, the bicycle. Plus I get to be a part of a community of people that are trying to better their surroundings and themselves. And of course, I get to bring happiness to people because I get to fix their broken down love-machines. But this is about Paul…

Paul is one of our own. I don’t feel right calling him a customer because the relationship he has with the shop is more than a dollar and cents type of a deal. I get to see Paul almost every day.

I first met Paul about two years ago, in passing. My first impression of him was much like a lot of people who come to see my boss, Jeff Keller. They don’t seem to care much about the rest of us and I am better off not getting involved. I felt this way about Paul until about four months ago. He came in looking for Keller and started talking bikes. Up to this point I had no idea he even owned a bicycle. I had never seen him with one. He started talking about old Masi’s and the new fix gear trend that we all love to hate. Paul didn’t just talk about old bikes, he knew old bikes.

Paul is from Boston. He has more stories than a bar on a Saturday night and is more than willing to share. From what we can gather, he is better connected than any crack dealer and he has no problem dropping names. Now I say “from what we can gather” for a couple of reasons. First, Paul likes to talk and likes to tell stories. Second, we have no proof of said affiliations beyond that of his own assurance.

Paul loves old Masi bikes. He talks almost exclusively of them, especially those made before the master moved to California and sold part of the company. In regular Paul fashion, he has claimed to own anywhere from 50 to 100 different bikes over the years and he says he has many of those in his possession. Which begs the question, why haven’t I ever seen him with a bike? I started to give Paul shit about a month ago for said reason. Also, I wanted to see the bikes and I wanted to know if he was legit or not.

Saturday morning, I’m in the shop just after opening. It’s cold. There isn’t alot going on. I’m at the back computer checking email and doing the stuff I do in the morning. The bell rings and I look up to see who it is. No one seems to be coming through the door. The bell rings again and I can tell someone is having trouble getting through the door. This is typical when someone tries to bring a bike in with them. The bell rings again and then I see the giant front wheel of a Penny Farthing pop into the store. Then Paul comes gandering in behind it. It was obvious I had just been trumped. I could no longer give him shit because he just walked through my front door with a bike that was well over 100 years old. I walked up to help him out and we placed the Penny Farthing in the shop. He then proceeded back out of the shop and told me to come check out his Masi.

We walked out into the cold to the back of his truck and there it was, a Masi Nuova Strada complete and hand made in Italy. He was excited to say the least. This was a new addition to his collection and it had just arrived. We brought it in and hung it in the stand as the newest ornament for the shop. We awed and oh-ed for a while. And then Paul spent the rest of the day cleaning and tuning his bike. He was the personfication of the cliche, “as happy as a kid on Christmas morning.”

And all of that to tell you why I love my job. Bicycles can change the world, but most importantly they make people happy. Working in the shop allows me to be part of that connection, to be part of the community of people out there to change something, to make things better for all of us. Yeah, I sell stuff and that is Capitalism, but much more importantly I get to meet people and connect with them, all because of bikes.

Life goes on. Ride it on a bike.

P.S. I will post pictures of both the Penny Farthing that now resides in our shop and Paul and his Masi as soon as I get Photoshop working. Until then…

I subscribe to Ironweed. Yeah, shuv it, I know you already know. There is a reason I repeat myself, it’s so you all don’t forget.

I’ve been recieving their documentaries for a few months now, some of you have had the pleasure of viewing them as well. Which is kind of the idea of being a subscriber, so if you want to borrow one drop me an email.

Now for the real reason I bring this up. The last documentary I got disturbed me and so many different levels. More importantly it was one of the few documentaries that I’ve watched that I hadn’t ever researched out for myself. I guess what I’m saying is that I was informed about something that deeply bothered me. And to sum it up, I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I know by now you are dieing to know what this is all about. I don’t know enough about it to do the subject justice so check out this website to figure it out on your own.

www.thefutureoffood.com

Well, my Adobe Photoshop took a turn for the worst. Otherwise there would be pics of snow, mass and a few other things I’ve been waiting to post in the image dept.

The Critical Mass seemed to go off without a hitch yesterday. There were 20-30 hipsters out front with their fixies and old tandems. I was impressed to see so many people out when it was so damn cold.

It started snowing just as we were closing up last night and I think it snowed all night. We even had a snowball fight. Hoorah!

Anyways, maybe I’ll go do something productive….

Viva. Viva. Viva la Revolucion.