push me pull you
July 31, 2010
disoriented
like Ladd’s Addition lost
where roses grow like weeds
I don’t know where I’m going
but I know I’ve been here before
waves of inertia break off shore
somewhere out there
it stopped pushing
and started asking questions
washed-up on boredom beach
energy is not lost it’s transformed
color sound temperature
jump on the entropy bandwagon
two days after the parade
only 363 days until next year
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what day is this?
July 29, 2010
48 hours in the Rose City
purple mountain majesty
or something like that
back in the 206
after an Amtrak attitude adjustment
even Tacoma looks better from a train
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See car go. Go cargo.
July 26, 2010
avere sale in zucca
July 25, 2010
Dear Mom & Dad
Yesterday I put my Anthropology degree to use, digging a hole in the back yard in which to put a clothes line post secured by a whole lot of cement and crushed rock. Along the way I thought of various concepts like stratigraphy and carbon dating, gently digging with gentle tools, brushing the dust away with dust brushing brushes, electronic distance meters metering and mapping artifact location and carefully sifting all the dirt for anything I missed along the way all the while keeping accurate detailed notes.
But real world things kept getting in the way like sunburn, dehydration and beer depletion and and and 29 gave me a ride to Lowe’s because riding a bike home with an 80# bag of cement sucks ass.
Oh and one more thing I’d like ya’ll to keep in mind is… that same top-10 liberal arts college is still cranking out bachelors degrees but now they cost twice as much…so I got that going for me.
Out came the sun and dried up all the laundry and none of it will be reflected on the next electric bill.
Sincerely for real,
pilderwasser
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Busman's Holiday Lite
July 24, 2010
Matt Averill photo
At this very moment on this 24th day of July, 2010 the people of the pilderwasser collective are loading up the team bus in Grinnell and getting ready for the drive to Sioux City for the beginning of RAGBRAI. However, I’m not there with them. If I was I’d be well into another can of Miller Lite and another brief reassurance to newer team members that “it’s OK, I always drink like this”
In the absence of my typical annual busman’s holiday I’ll be taking a brief cycle-tourist Amtrak-aided jaunt to Portland. A short visit to our especially gifted sister city to the south aka PDX to slowly aimlessly ride my basket bike around with no schedule and no deadlines and no dispatcher. Cruising well within the six degrees of Matt Case.
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sequential non sequitur
July 23, 2010
Hardboiled egg slicer
Antibacterial hand sanitizer
Wednesday night breathalyzer
18-wheel tractor trailer
Full-time yoga instructor
Industrial-sized bolt cutter
Anorexic Elvis impersonator
Sequential non sequitur
Ironic carbon fiber
5-pound steel riser
Top-mount thumb shifter
Humongous motorcycle lever
Schwinn grip rootbeer glitter
It’s-the-thought-that-counts fender
Platform pedal loafer
Disposable income poster
Dockers commercial commuter
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...to reach floors 37-55 please exit to the left
July 22, 2010
a real bell ringing
a donger thing dinging
a clapper clapping
heavy metal on metal
below then above
resonating right
through the threshold
of human hearing
like Little House on the Prairie
synthesized keystroke
ring-tone microchip
Casio
disco
tango
polka
push-button bossanova
one two
one two
one
two
one bell up
two bells down
wait for it
or
take the stairs
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in the name of the zip code
July 22, 2010
and or the Capitol Hill Block Party is this weekend
route re-route accordingly
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bird
July 22, 2010
Our Lady of Control Freaks
July 21, 2010
aimless
wandering
sitting
pondering
non-drowsy formula
loitering
subcutaneous
administration
appetite
suppressant
mucus
membrane
direct
transfer
snort
flush
roundtrip
beans & rice
double stacked
individual
wrapped
sliced
american
cheese-food
four and a half minutes from everything
five minutes from nothing
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The Lost Cyclist
July 18, 2010
Tuesday July 20 7:00pm at the Seattle Public Library
Historian David Herlihy presents an illustrated talk this evening, drawn from his new book, The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This story of Pittsburgh-based long-distance racer Frank Lenz, whose dream of cycling around the world in 1892 ended with his mysterious disappearance in eastern Turkey, continues long afterward with attempts to solve the mystery and bring the accused murders to justice. "Fascinating ... Herlihy combines an admirable talent for sleuthing with the narrative skills of a first-rate storyteller." - Library Journal. David Herlihy is also the author of Bicycle: The History (Yale University Press), a long-standing reader and cyclist favorite. His work has also been featured on National Public Radio, and in The New York Times and Boston Globe.
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a clean well lighted place for everything and everything in its place
July 17, 2010
that's the way you need it
July 17, 2010
It’s not always a smooth fresh ribbon of tarmac with a gentle tailwind and attractive scenery. It’s a journey pocked with destinations. Pass-through towns one-horse towns over-night towns. Travelers face a seemingly endless series of difficult questions. Is this real life? Why is this happening to me? I feel funny. Is this forever? However a useful coping strategy is to narrow the scope to a more manageable focus. What’s this town called? What’s for lunch? How far is the next beer store? Repeat as needed. And don’t forget lip balm spf 15+
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I have two fingers
July 16, 2010
without sufficient information
blanks fill in dots connect
the mind makes it make sense
smoothes juxtaposition
correlates causation
jumps to conclusion
ambiguity don’t sit so good
on the ignorance fence
I reckon
it’s bound to fall
one way or the other
into tall-tale gray area
two-story-tall low-calorie beers
dancing kittens cottered cranks
sesame noodle escalator calendars
now okay now
they’re all related
in your mind somehow
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and when you smile for the camera
July 15, 2010
drinking the Kool-Aid since 1972
July 14, 2010
Wearing a uniform is kind of fun when it’s optional. A regimented dress code is not so fun. A seating chart makes the kids grumble, but given the choice they’ll sit in the same seats everyday anyway. People like to feel like they can keep their options open even though they’re most comfortable on the same old habit trails. Ordering the usual. Drinking the drink they drank yesterday and the 364 days before that.
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Miniature Schnauzers
July 13, 2010
you know what hard work gets you?
more hard work punctuated
by a 29 minute lunch break
it’s all just a tax write-off
for the real money business
plastic spoons forks & knives
styrofoam bowls from China
Logan Deli ladies from Korea
single serving Siracha from California
off-gassing ABC gum stands by
irradiated by cell phone signals
poked in the eye by wi-fi devices
the Miniature Schnauzer theme song
plays
in the space between ads
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taken out of context, it stands alone
July 12, 2010
chiaroscuro
July 10, 2010
you say dark I say light
you say chiaroscuro I say tomato
you say scientific evidence I say gut feeling
The art historian Bernard Berenson described his talent as a “sixth sense.” “It is very largely a question of accumulated experience upon which your spirit sets unconsciously,” he said. “When I see a picture, in most cases, I recognize it at once as being or not being by the master it is ascribed to; the rest is merely a question of how to fish out the evidence that will make the conviction as plain to others as it is to me.” Berenson recalled that once, upon seeing a fake, he had felt an immediate discomfort in his stomach .
--The New Yorker
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Capitol Hills 98122
July 9, 2010
wafting on a gentle breeze
warming well before noon
fermenting dumpster juices
leaking in the alley
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from Pike to Pine in a matter of minutes
July 8, 2010
Fuzzy Pumper Barbershop
July 7, 2010
the brown note radiates like ripples on a pond
pumped from an old Oldsmobile subwoofer
deep within a subterranean parking garage
freshly painted lane lines line up the same way
traffic signals timed in sequence for a weekday
same street signs same streets same day
when it's OK to drive on one-ways the wrong way
Korean Canadian tourists in German sedans
South African visitors in Japanese SUVs
Idaho plates seeking sweet sales at REI
Oregon plates weaseling sales tax exemption
my way your way either way any way
pick up next-days and do them right away
"OK whatever you say" Mister Dispatcher
making up the rules as you go along
it’s all part of the little games you play
4-square
in a round room
righty tighty but lefty righty tighty too
can I get Italian cups on a 115 spindle
with a side of loose balls to go? please
give me your tired your huddled masses
your poorly adjusted cantilever brakes
singing squealing squawking screaming
Edvard Munch descending Seneca
Kool-Stop resonance harmonic dissonance
all you haters keep your distance
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bloody knuckle bike mechanics
July 5, 2010
it was a quality of life weekend in which I was able to spend less time at this keyboard and more time outside outdoors out in the open getting my hands dirty and bloody and chocolaty and greasy in both bottom brackets Italian threaded and bratwurst Italian sausaged and so and then dipped in $14 jars of Williams-Sonoma pickles using the slope guide to eyeball the yard between World Cup matches on the telly wearing two sweaters and a jacket and two hats standing in the rain for hours that fourth day of July blowing up beer bottles with expired fireworks watching a beercan chicken slow roast on the grill while soaked Seattle style because it is Seattle
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slippery slopes
July 2, 2010
Bimbos Bikesnob Burritos
July 1, 2010
there are no burritos in this photo
that Blu took about two months ago
where $5 pitchers of Rainier flow
and Bikesnob was so two weeks ago
one photo often leads to another
and it’s the same as it ever was
Thursday at the Storeroom
twelve years ago or so
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