My NYC Biking Story: Lucette Gilbert

Incredibly inspiring.

My NYC Biking Story: Lucette Gilbert

if you still have a mccain palin sticker on your truck you are basically announcing I am an idiot

What a fucking mess.

Hard to let go of a day: few enough left.

Parking lot full of pickups and sports-cars: trumpet symposium must be in town.

Hint: if you're "animal-friendly" and you're driving a vehicle that gets seven miles to the gallon, you're NOT actually "animal-friendly."

Boozing, smokin' weed, & dissing your buddy's girlfriend doesn't make you a bluesman: it makes you a fucking pussy.

CE/BE: Know where your allegiance lie. Act on that knowledge.

I would love this new phone forever if all it did was guarantee that I always had a book in my pocket.

And some days you eat the mothering bear

Jiggity-jig

What is it about known fears that nakes them more comfortable than unknwon possibilities?

Pristine weather: such a gift!

God we are a bunch of f*cking dope addicts.

Any errand using bike instead of car is a victory.

CW/BW: Performance is the crux of the biscuit.

Working for a public university in this f*ckin' state virtually mandates that we waste vast time on paperwork better spent on TEACHING!

I ain't your "bro", punk.

State lotteries: just one more oligarchic shuck to exploit poor folks with the fantasy of equal opportunity.

45d, pre-dawn darkness. Sometimes it's only the bike that keeps me sane.

I have about f*cking had it with Texas.

Here's the thing: if you spent most of your life on bandstands & job-sites, your language is prolly gonna reflect that reality.

Dr King: Ain't giving up, sir.

Lemme ask you: if a Muslim person starting praying audibly & at length in YOUR coffee shop, would you feel so sanctimonious?

One sign the idiocracy is not yet victorious: 10-year-old kid in local coffee shop avidly learning to play chess. Critical thinking matters!

First volunteer primrose, early morning in the back-yard. Spring.

Hint: the sunglasses worn inside don't make you look sophisticated; they make you look pretentious and stupid.

CW: Erudition can't substitute for execution.

CW: Pomposity doesn't get the potatoes peeled.

Some of the most important battles are the ones fought against insurmountable odds.

Certain amount of fed-up-ness with narcissistic infantile prima donnas, right 'chere.

CW: Work 5% harder & be 5% nicer. But don't take shit from anyone.

If I'd been smart, I would bought a job-lot of green bandannas about 10 days ago

CW: Shut up and listen.

CW: Don't cop attitude unless you've manifestly better chops than anybody else in the room.

Too few of these young'uns get that excellence not only defeats mediocrity--it's also EASIER.

CW: Heed your elders.

You pay for that truck yourself? Pay your school bills for yourself? Pay your own rent? No? Than get back to me when you're a man, son.

Times when I think bicycle is only thing keeping me from committing mayhem.

CW: Creativity is Not a left-brain activity. Preparation IS.

CW: get up early.

Hate $4/gal gas? Read Family of Secrets on Bush oil ties to House of Saud & then resolve to ride a bike!

Love watching fraternity guys primping: 'specially the way they blush like little girls when you catch 'em at it.

Grocery lines: Harvey Pekar had it right.

CW: learn to work with adrenaline.

CW: experience is more valuable than theory. Much more valuable.

CW: the best moment in any meal is the one just before the first: Gratitude.

Never gonna be a W Texan: insufficient tolerance for "visitin'. "

Echoes of Spring: seasonal bike-shop visit & hang. Birds singing, cold wind blowing.

Finally reading Family of Secrets (history of Bush fam secret dealings). Confirms what we all suspected: we're ruled by multi-national oil barons.

CNN talking heads on tsunami toll: to paraphrase Hannah Arendt, the is the "evil of banality."

You hang out in bars, you meet the kind of people who hang out in bars.

I would happily travel multiple hundredsof miles to find a bartender who actually pulls a competent pint of Guinness. Don't expect to find one.

Sat before Patrick's Day: Amateur Night.

NM: 400 years now, the flatboats have been fighting their way up this big old River against the current of the Spring rains.

Lady, the tanning booth doesn't make you look healthy or buff: it makes you look like a bleached-blonde raccoon, complete with the dark roots.

Combine arrogance, ignorance, and fear in balanced ratio to yield = modern GOP.

Big Bill said "Fellow citizens, this is the Continental Congress of the working class." I think Madison might just be its rebirth.

Depressing to see how much certain senior scholars, decades later, remain stuck in their unselfreflective hubris.

THREE giant rolly-bags apiece? You bimbos are kidding, right?!?

Reminded of Tim Robbins line in Bull Durham: "Jesus, that was beautiful! What the hell did I do?!?"

3rd fanboy moment: Tom Riis (N CO) says "have your ears been buzzing?" & solicits minstrelsy MS for AMS monographs series.

2nd fanboy moment: Dale Cockrell (Demons of Desire) volunteers apology for missing paper, asks if we can meet later for coffee. Ummm...yes, sir?

Fanboy moment: Scott DeVeaux (Bebop, Giddins/DeVeaux history) says "Yours was the best paper I've heard this conference."

NM: leashed boxer turns corner, encounters skateboarder: mutual incomprehension.

Show-offy self-regard.

Why are so many eminent humanities academics so unconscious of their stagy nerd-dom?

Gorgeous old Steel-belt buildings. From the days when this country actually built things.

This fuckin' nation: giant tsunami throughout Pacific, USA Today headline: "Americans squeezed by gas prices."

Look, I know you're lost in your self-important walking-and-talking iPhone bubble but would you kindly get the fuck out of my way?!?

Of COURSE American "can't locate a jet-bridge driver"!

DFW

TX UIL choir competition: the big hair/big ego Matrix is upon us.

NM: mockingbird returned to front-yard maple, singing his fool head off: Spring.

Tuesday before Spring Break and the little brats are already starting to bail.

NM: mandarin-orange sun coming up through dusty eastern dawn, over cotton-field stubble.

Brock-McGuire headin' all up outta this joint.

NM: toddler waves goodbye to band as Mama leads her out of concert hall.

NM: front goin' through, weather change on the South Plains, Brock-McGuire Band floating through open church doors.

NM; buds opening on the dogwoods. Spring.

As always, damned proud of my guys.

Ain't nothin' but spoiled chirrun all up in hiyah.

NM: the pure cathartic rage of Richard Thompson's guitar--"Can't Win (Live)."

Hey, sorority bimbos: if you want to "do something for charity", try WORKING.

Vast majority of Americans don't have enough brains to walk & chew gum, much less drive & text.

Spring Break season; spoiled sorority bimboes teeter-tottering (eg having fun) for charity.

NM: no rain since October. Parched sparrows drinking from campus fountain.

Warm day on Quad: springtime wardrobes.

Dharmonia: "Damn! Singers are gone on tour; place is quiet as the grave!"

Weer in ur kids' hds, teachin critical thinkin.

NM: Grief unites. Or should.

CW: Take care of the young'uns.

Relearning the hard lessons of the First Noble Truth. http://bit.ly/elGzaT

It's not about unions or "entitlements"; it's about greedy corporate privitizaton.

TTU Jazz I on Mingus "Haitian Fight Song": do believe they could blow down the Walls of Jericho.

NM: THIS onion. THIS knife. Right now.

Ultimate overheard frat-boy convo: "Wait, uh, Gene Hackman? That's the guy in The Replacements?"

Overcast sky, cold wind, gray-green tree buds. Springtime coming.

Chills: WI firefighters & bagpipers march in solidarity into State rotunda: http://ping.fm/77mL9

There are certain kinds of infirmity I refuse to demonstrate.

This fuckin' state: hotel lobby, free carbs, cheerleader mom w/ T-shirt bearing offspring's names: "Cheyane" & "Chaylynn". Jeebus.

Just personally offered US Army band swag by former student & Pershing's Own band member. Moved & humbled.

Free terminal-carbs breakfast in hotel lobby, Fox "News" on flat-screen, trying to spin Egyptian democracy into fear.

CW: when arriving at crowded restaurant, smile & move slowly: "mandatory wait" may shrink from 15-30 minutes down to 3.

Weer in ur TMEA, subvertin' the dominant paradigm.

Giant macho pickup, short guy gets out: "friend, six inches IS average."

After 40 years as a working musician, I can say w/ some authority that if it don't groove it ain't shit.

CW: direct equation +# homecooked meals = + % happiness & health.

& you T.P.-es with your "Don't tread on me" tags? My ancestors FOUGHT in that Revolution and would have spat in your faces.

Once again, upon exiting a classical-world rehearsal: "I hate privilege" (James Gandolfini)

NM: frigid & still azure sunset, geese call, V-shaped flight passing overhead. Brigid's Day.

CW: To a true cook, every meal served represents a temporary victory over death.

For a population claiming "frontier toughness," they're pants-wetting little girls about terrorists and weather.

As an 8th-generation scion of the tribe, I can acknowledge that WASP Yankees will *never* be comfortable with Texans' projectile honesty.

Palin's continued viability as a commentator on anything is a lasting confirmation of Americans' terminal ignorance.

After being ID'd at airport Chili's, waitress says "You look good for your age." Ouch.

NM: silvery crescent moon against a cold blue paling dawn sky.

NM: low, bright mid-winter sunrise strikes bare trees' branches--luminous.

Obscene--Kristallnacht returns: http://ping.fm/PLOSd

If she's lost TX...hope she's their candidate! http://ping.fm/ZimjS

Fat Tony takes Tea: http://ping.fm/pKubG

Hospira opts out of state-sponsored killing business: http://ping.fm/3sWpB

Vote. Organize. Donate. Phone-bank. Volunteer. Teach. Converse. RESIST. Thomas Paine said: "Lead, follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY."

Just as glad that the musics I play don't require poncing-up in some silly-ass costume.

The highest Court is for sale to the highest bidder: http://ping.fm/BGBKC

Perry choices will cost Texans 100K jobs: http://ping.fm/MRdDq

Nutshell: "Throughout the Cold War, we never much cared what people were for, we only cared what they were against." http://ping.fm/KC9Cr

LA Times: "On most important...issues...our two parties don't merely lay out competing arguments; they inhabit alternative realities."

Philly deserves a more admirable leader than Roethlisberger; great QB, but pretty much a dick as a person. & I ADMIRE Tomlin hugely. Still.

Excuse me, Universe? Is there some way you could ensure that BOTH Roethlisberger AND Flacco get the shit kicked out of them? kthxbai

Cowards, cowards, cowards. "We'll foreclose on you but we won't face you". http://ping.fm/kKRWE

Steve Cohen (D-TN): "It was a lie, and...if you repeat a lie over & over again it doesn't make it the truth...that's what Goebbels did."

Kasich's (OH-Gov) Cabinet reflects his vision for OH: 22 white folks. http://ping.fm/4RCKi

Tucson: Judge Roll died because he chose to take a bullet for another. http://ping.fm/0SJkF Nine bows.

Palin: "Those on the Left, if they didn't have their double standards, they wouldn't have any standards."

Please, Sarah, PUH-LEEZ "bounce back": http://ping.fm/TVyCf

In other news, Steve King (R-NY) is a stupid fucking bigot: http://ping.fm/0nOUs

NM: coming home, safe, to a favorite teacup. Equals gratitude.

Re/ "Sons of Anarchy": good casting, direction, locations, CA/Ulster connection. But no Hollywood writer will ever get outlaw bikers right.

Good riddance, Joe--you worthless hack. Too bad we won't have you to kick around any more.

GOP "could be" hypocrites for repealing public health care, but keeping their own? http://ping.fm/ZHOVd

Glen Beck, like his audience, is a pants-wetting coward: http://ping.fm/b4TZW

Paul LePage, grandstanding asshole. Also already-burnt toast. http://ping.fm/I237a

Santorum: "It's been the same in every single race I've ever run. People underestimate me." That's impossible: NO estimate is too low.

And in other news: Newt Gingrich is a pompous lying shithead; HE tells PALIN "she needs to be more careful." Riiggggghhhht.

"A great book is a pain in the ass more often than not." http://ping.fm/N2dbh

This, ladies & gentlemen, is a public intellectual: http://ping.fm/GM3VZ

MLK: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on social programs is approaching spiritual death."

First Read: "The president’s speech made Palin look very small...Is this what happens when you live in a bubble?" Um, yes.

Boehner went to an RNC cocktail party/fundraiser, instead of the Arizona memorial service. Guess he felt he had better things to do. Scum.

A Tale of Two Speeches

NYT:

At sunrise in the east on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest -- or capacity -- in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the west, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of reconciliation.

Sarah Palin will never again hold elected office. Guaranteed.

Told ya, you right-wing nutjobs: the man is an ORATOR...and he reveals you for the mindless screeching fanatics you are.

No matter what they say, to an artist, the beginning, not the end, of a project is the most excited time.

Because your stupid fucking ugly penis-substitute pickup ruins the view off my front porch, asshole. That's why.

The more tortured their arguments disavowing responsibility, the more isolated they become. Soon, no one but the fringe will them: a losing strategy.

The infinite beauty of the universe: Carino Nebula http://ping.fm/6gizc

WaPo: "Right-wing political discourse...implants and reinforces paranoid fears about the government & conservatism's domestic adversaries."

Tea Party "freedom": AZ GOP resigns after too many TP threats: "I love the Republican Party but I don't want to take a bullet for anyone."

Narcissistic bimbos. Must be a new semester.

Teaching history, in a political system that depends upon amnesia, is a revolutionary act. That's why I do it.

I have huge beefs w/ current President, but right-wing nutjobs will be lambasted when he speaks tonight. You assholes: this is an ORATOR.

Clyburn: "I have some experiences that she does not have. When I hear things today that are reminiscent of that time, I know what it led to"

Retired Army Col. who helped take down Loughner explains why gun control is essential: http://ping.fm/811Pl

Art heals people: http://ping.fm/sjata

"No one could ever have predicted"...

...that unbalanced right-wingers might think guns were the answer:

Tea Party rhetoric: "Desperately protecting your special privilege" sounds less inspiring than "defeating tyranny." Sam Adams woulda puked.

Intern may have saved Giffords' life--and he ran *toward* the gunfire: http://ping.fm/UBJNB

One benefit to horror of Giffords shooting: Palin will never again hold elected office.

Muslims (incl movie stars, Presidents' sons, imams & the rich) serving as human shields for Egypt's Coptic Christian community: http://ping.fm/4doLH

Only thing weirder than Kilmore Rangerette uniforms are A&M band uniforms. Like some parallel universe where nothing's happened since 1962.

"For Shame of Doing Wrong"

Dharmonia & I saw this tour. It was terrifying--they were in the midst of an acrimonious divorce--but it was also transcendent.

"I wish I was a fool for you again..."

A population of timid sheep: "Florida Professor Arrested for Having a "Suspicious" Bagel on a Plane": http://ping.fm/gcD6U

"Just swim. Just swim. Go on with your story." --Dainin Katagiri Roshi

Boarded--but a million gate-checks (folks coming backv from holidays) so may be a late departure.

I forgot about satellite terminals--reminds me of the Bad Old Days in Big Flat Place.

Re/ free upgrades when they're trying to open up Coach: my Presbyterian ancestors love the "free extras" aspect--like winning a gamble against airline greed.

EWR-IAH

NYC skyline glimpsed from plane: still noticing absence of Towers reminds me: the Nation's founders would never have cowered before terror--foreign OR domestic.

Jiggity-jig. SNN-EWR.

Leg 3: EWR-SNN.

EWR.

Re/ earlier Texanas: unless it's a pushy New Yorker out of her element, Donny.

Leg 2: IAH-EWR.

There's not much more loud & abrasive than a rhinestoned Texas Rich Lady.

Missin' Dharmonia already, dammit.

One more once: LBB-SNN.

http://ping.fm/5MnMZ

The streets belong to the People: http://ping.fm/qyHjs