Did I tell you about this already?

That would be one Shane MacGowan sitting on a rolling equipment case at the Pogues show last month. After falling on his arse three times, they finally rolled out the case so Shane could sit and finish the show. He couldn't however make it to the final encore. His legs are old and weak my friends. Plus he had a few to drink too, I'm sure.

I’m due for a rant like this

Monday night I watched this documentary on the Fuse channel called "Punk's Not Dead." It started out well but about an hour in to the 2-hour program, it took a fatal dive at the mention of Green Day, Nirvana & the Offspring. From there it only got worse.

Here's the thing, those that know don't feel like punk rock really has much to do with the style of music you play. It has more to do with your general overall package - the way you live your life, the decisions you make, what you feel & believe, in addition to the style of music you do or do not play. It doesn't have to be about just the way you dress, or just the way you think & believe. It's a package deal.

I can spend way more time on this subject (and I have in the past) than I should. The bottom line is that as a performer when you start negotiating with corporate America (MTV, Target, etc.) you automatically give up your punk rock card. Period.

The only exception is when you've hit middle age. If you've made it all the way to middle age purely by just kicking out the jams and touring for all those years, it doesn't get much more punk rock than that. You deserve to treat yourself a little for your dedication.

All these other post pubescent prima donnas prancing around for MTV should be happy with the fact that they're millionaires and quit trying to label themselves something they are not, never have been, or never will be.

As for the N-word (Nirvana), if Kurt Cobain wouldn't have cowardly blown his head off, he could probably tell MTV in person all about how his over-rated band ripped off the well cemented sound of another band called Mudhoney. Nevermind. Nirvana isn't worth my time. As a "punk" band neither are pop sensations Green Day and the Offspring.

I guess I'll just sit back for the rest of my life, smile, and snicker (that was not meant as a candy bar product placement), all along knowing that I'm aware of something that THEY (sorry, but that means 99% of those reading this) will never know of. The whole world could be deaf and mute and there would still be punk rocker. It's not a sound, or an outfit, but a state of mind. I never want to live in any other state.

*This blog was typed on my BlackBerry. How un-punk rock is that?

Maybe instead of cross practice, I should practice caring.

This Wednesday morning cyclocross practice thing isn't going so well. Last week it was just me and Haglund. Steve was in Kansas for a bar mitzvah or a quinceañera or something. Neither one of us felt like riding hard so we skipped the practice part of things and just went for a lazy spin.

The Wednesday before that, I woke up to a cold windy morning so I laid on the couch in the fetal position, taking sips of coffee, and watching the morning news as Steve was busy trying to track down the rat(s) who broke into his garage and jacked his MTB and PowerTap wheel. Meanwhile, the guy who is not currently racing, but is the only one to have religiously shown up to "cross practice" week after week, rode alone. That would be Haglund. He wins by default.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to turn over a new leaf and actually practice my dismounts, remounts, accelerating out of corners, etc., etc.

I'm thinking one of the reasons why I can't buy a top-ten finish at a cross race may have something to do with my lack of practice. That and the fact that 15 minutes in, I stop caring. The race in Bakersfield this weekend was no different. It had all the potential to be a good race for me – with its mountain bike-like descents, loose sandy corners, and general hilly lay-out. But I failed to get clipped in at the start and played catch up for the first couple of laps before I just stopped caring. At that point I rode around for 45 minutes trying to look pretty and not get lapped. Mission accomplished.

The Legend Continues

It's about a minute-thirty in:


Find more videos like this on Cycling Is Not A Crime

But, there’s always next Wednesday

If I wasn't the assistant coach of Ryder's soccer team, the Jedis, I'd actually have a photo of him playing soccer. Instead I pace the sideline and the practice field like Vince Lombardi yelling orders to a half dozen 4- and 5-year olds. Being an assistant coach comes with some serious responsibilities and taking photos isn't one of them. Maybe I'll use my authority to designate a team photographer.

Speaking of soccer, or should I say, football, a co-worker just emailed me this info: Bars in the Veltins-Arena, a major football ground in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are interconnected by a 5 km long beer pipeline. It is the favorite method for distributing beer in such large stadiums, because the bars have to overcome big differences between demands during various stages of a match; this allows them to be supplied by a central tank. Brilliant. The Germans get it right occasionally.

Speaking of beer, I've arranged a weekly cyclocross practice on Wednesday mornings at Prospect Park in Redlands from 7 to 8 AM, or whenever you puke. The course is about a mile and takes about 4 painful minutes to complete a lap. It's also a good course for a mountain bike, so if you don't own a CX bike, you have no good excuse for not coming out. We've done it two weeks in a row already and including dog walkers no one has died yet.

Finding the time to blog has been hard to come by lately. Sure, I could just spew out any mundane info about life, but I try not to do that. I've got some blogtistic integrity to uphold here. And besides, isn't that what Face Book is for anyway? Instead of writing about nothing or about my somewhat pathetic attempts at mountain bike and cyclocross racing at the elite level, I spend my time writing about hard-hitting issues such as

• Wimmera Mallee Pipeline Project
  
• Copenhagen's public transport agency
  
• Successful Integration of Survey and GIS Produces Accurate, Enriched Data for Less
  
• Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority
  
• Libyan Land Registry
  
• Etc.
  
• Etc.
  

It pays the bills. But don't lose hope. When I have good photos to post, it inspires me to blog and Trish has been taking tons of photos with her new fancy shmancy camera. Maybe if I can steal them from her it will light a fire under my arse and I'll be back up and running again soon.

Speaking of running, at last Sunday's cross race I punctured the front tire just past the wheel pit so I had to run the remaining 2.5 K of the course before I reached the pit and could get a new wheel. Then a few laps later the casing gave out on my rear tire so I pulled the plug on the entire race all together. Pathetic? Yes, I told you so. Mundane? Not so much. Thankfully there's nothing mundane about ruining two tubular CX tires within the period of one hour and having to run a couple K in cycling shoes while pushing your bike. I wonder if Trish got a picture of that?

The highlight of the day was getting to see Ryder do the kid's race. It was carnage out on the course, but he soldiered through, kept air in his tires, and came away with a medal. I think he's almost ready to remove the training wheels…

Some of my favorite Tweets from the last couple of months

lancearmstrong In my garage setting up new shoes, cleats, and pedals. Not many things I can't stand more.

michael_creed awesome, zirbel starts behind me. awesome. totally pumped. awesome

neilroad How the hell did the "Dixie Chicks" get onto my iTunes! This makes a man reevaluate everything he's ever done in his life.

Michael_Creed if this nation cared about honesty in the slightest, we'd kill all magicians.

Michael_Creed The walk of shame is far, far worse on crutches.

Slctbird Seen: A guy on a motorcycle being towed by a car at 25 mph, no lights on the Interstate late at night. Brilliant. #DarwinAwards

andyguptill In today's stage, Tyler Wren asked Jens Voigt if he was a terminator "because when you crashed in the Tour, sparks flew from your face."

andyguptill Jens answered "Yes, thank you. When I am done racing, I don't eat or sleep, I just plug myself in." !!!

slctbird It's amazing what one can accomplish when not beat-down from riding a bike all day.. Cleaned house, garage, car, myself. In that order.

johnswah Perfect example of why USA Today is a POS: http://twitpic.com/hbon1

slctbird Overheard a few weeks ago: "Bike racing is not about having fun. It's about crushing the dreams of others". Discuss amongst yourselves.

yotwells Big Congrats to the Dart taking his first World Cup win 1 week after winning U23 World Champs. Sure he will win many more.

freddreier Cadel Evans blames his loss on someone other than himself? Stop the presses on that.

neilroad Started to watch but it was so bad I turned it off. Painful RT @pjrabice: Jay Leno's monologue and jokes are killing me. Its just not funny

JeremiahBishop Kenda Booth sighning sweet new autograph cards!! Colin and Andy are here too people are taking pics of tinker as if he was a purple

Michael_Creed if @rockracing wants to shock people, they should try paying their riders. that would be nuts

velonews CrossVegas: The ProTour comes to Sin City http://tinyurl.com/y93udau%20

Michael_Creed Sometimes I like to play a little game called "Crazy or Bluetooth"

yotwells Run/hike, dirt jumps, cut down some trees, gym, driving range and now pizza, that's a good day

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mattfreemanrace

Friday’s 9.25 mile run

Game On

It's time to pick up a gun and start shooting.

Kenda Cup Unification Race, CrossVegas, & State Finals all within one week. And a little soccer too.

Of course, an office window might make me feel otherwise

I don't remember how, but I ran across this booked called, Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia clothing. Even though I'm fascinated with the life aquatic, I'm not one for surfing and as far as I know, I've never owned a thread of Patagonia clothing. It was actually the subtitle of the book, the education of a reluctant businessman that sparked my interest. I don't consider myself a businessman either, but I have always thought seriously of owning my own magazine, advertising or PR agency, but have been too reluctant to do much more than just think about it.

There was that time that I tried making a go of it purely on freelance writing, but I was young, my list of clients was too small, and I spent too much time riding moto and bicycles when I should have been at home writing. Maybe that makes me the ultimate reluctant businessman.

I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book and I'm already impressed with Patagonia's business philosophy and practices. Owner, Chouinard says he's always had a problem with authority and the traditional ways of doing business, which is why he started his own company in the first place. Being his own boss allowed him the time to climb, surf, and ski – all the while testing the hardware and clothing his company would eventually sell.

I too have always had a problem with authority and societal expectations. From inside my own body and mind, I know wrong from right. I don't need someone else translating it for me. That's how or why I became a writer in the first place. It allowed me to express my own thoughts in most anyway I wanted to, just as long as it followed the rules of the English language. That kind of authority I could live with. But just as man has evolved into a TV watching, fast food eating, video game playing, lazy sports fan lump, I let my guard down and my labor of love was extinguished and pried away from me by one with more expensive tastes and stronger convictions than I. One of my life's few regrets so far.

I guess the difference between myself and Chouinard is that he likes authority even less than I do and he's also less reluctant than I am. That's why he took the risk and I haven't. As far back as I can remember everything I've ever enjoyed doing involved taking sizable physical risks, but when it comes to taking a financial risk, I guess I'm a coward. I'm only willing to sacrifice so much apparently.

My longtime struggle with authority and societal expectations only gets worse as I get older and find myself with less time to do the things that I really enjoy. Through my dealings with foreign colleagues who are constantly on holiday, one thing is apparent; this country works too much. It may be the land of the free, but it's certainly not the land of the free time.

So what are my options? What is the alternative? Maybe Chouinard's book will help me figure it out. Or maybe I should write my own damn book.

At least he didn’t say basketball

Tonight at 7 pm I'm going to a kick-off meeting for Ryder's soccer team. He's only 4, so this is his first year of soccer. He recently said that he can kick further than any of his friends, and that could be because we've been practicing lately and he can put the thing pretty far. Or at least he does when his foot and the ball make the right connection. Still, I'm nervous for him. I realize that they're only 4-year-olds and there probably won't be a lot of soccer, by actual definition, being played, but I want him to feel as though he's good at it. If, for some reason, his teammates can kick further or are faster, or are more aggressive, I don't want him to get discouraged. It's easy to get discouraged at his age. Unfortunately he doesn't have the luxury yet of spending hours on his bicycle pedaling away the despair. That's probably a moot point anyway. Yesterday I asked him a simple question. "What do you like better, running or riding your bike?" He answered with, "Swimming."

Please consider history before not printing this blog

I realize that the practice may not be completely dead, but you never hear about someone having a pen pal anymore. Like milk men, pen pals have pretty much fallen by the wayside. Email, Facebook, etc. can be blamed for putting an end to pen pals. Because of the World Wide Web, its seems everyone has become everyone else's superficial pen pal. In the future, actual hard copy letters from one person to another are bound to be scarce. No longer will we get to watch a Ken Burns documentary on PBS where the narrator recites a heartfelt letter penned in actual hand writing on aged paper that reads:

My Dearest Loretta,

This may be the last letter I write to you. Cholera has spread throughout our office and I fear I have drunken from the contaminated water cooler from which it lives. As I write this letter my breathing is faint, my skin blue, and hand shaky. If this is my last letter yada, yada, yada...

Since most communication between people today is through email and other forms of electronic media that gets deleted, it means we'll lack the history and record of many personal relationships. It's kind of a double-edged sword. People want to save the environment by not printing emails, but what about saving memories. For almost the same reasons, the world is going to have a serious lack of printed photographs too.

So what's worse - a lack of trees or a lack of history?

 

"Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you." - Bookends

 

This just gave me a great name for my next punk band; The Dead Pen Pals.

Dear Loyal Reader (Reader, singular)

It seems that work, Face Book, and Twitter have taken away my will to blog. But, I'm getting increasingly bored of Face Book and all its invitations, games, quizzes, etc. In my opinion Twitter is where it's at, but it can only survive if people are creating content on the web to link to their tweets. With that said, I plan to start blogging again (when time and inspiration permit). That would be considered "creating content," wouldn't it? Whether anyone will actually read it; now that's a different story.

In the meantime, follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MattFreemanRace

I promise I'm not one of those twits who tweets about every mundane action throughout their day.

I'm posting this from my phone

Is it too soon to point out that MJ and Farrah had the same nose job?

It seems these days I can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some NKOTB who is bringing something new to the table. One of these new additions, specifically the new Very Unofficial Team Redlands Blog I welcome with open arms. I mean, in this high tech era of Face Book and Twitter, at least someone out there is still apt to picking up the feather quill pen in order to knit a roaring good yarn of a blog.

Since someone else has all the bike stuff well handled, I’ll concentrate my efforts on something that interests everyone. No, not Seven Civil War stories your teach never told you. I’m talking about show biz, celebrity gossip, and entertainment news.

I work with Matt DeMeritt, who is one of 3 people to wear the ET suit during the filming of ET. He was 12 years old when the movie was filmed, but time has not been kind to Matt. Now 39, he is a writer at ESRI and for fun he plays and records music. He has no home studio so all his recordings sound pretty bad. If you think that’s a sob story, Robert MacNaughton, the kid who played the eldest brother on ET is now a mail man. Aren’t those the guys that always go crazy and come back with a gun and shoot everybody?

Anyway, I sat down with Matt a few days ago to talk about work and instead we talked about ET.

Were you aware of all the blatant product placement of Reese’s Pieces that was going on during the filming of ET?

No. I was too busy eating them to even notice. There was an inexhaustible supply, and that's all that mattered to me.

Could you tell if Drew Barrymore was drunk during the filming of the movie?

No. I was too busy getting drunk myself. There was an inexhaustible supply of beer (from the scene where ET gets drunk), and that's all that mattered to me.

Speaking of Drew Barrymore, how did you escape the demons that usually haunt most child actors?

Demons are slow. I out-maneuvered them with my special ET powers.

Can’t you ever be serious?

I don't answer questions framed in the negative.

How many girls did you get because of your role in ET?

Surprisingly, none at all. Chicks just aren't that impressed by a runt stuffed into a latex suit.

After directing Jaws, Close Encounters, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. seemed like a directorial disappointment for Spielberg. What was the morale like on the set like during the filming of ET?

It was jovial and positive, fueled mainly by an inexhaustible supply of Reese's Pieces and beer.

In 1985 Spielberg bounced back with accolades as the executive producer of The Goonies. Are you bitter for not getting the opportunity to work on that project?

I DID work on that project. I played the mutant's (Chunk) son, but ended up on the cutting room floor.

You don’t expect me to believe that, do you? I’ve told people the same thing about my deleted scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Tell me about the ET 20-year reunion cast party that took place in 2002.

There was a 20-year reunion cast party that took place in 2002?

How did you go from “acting” to becoming one of America’s leading writers on the topics of caves, karst, and coal?

A Faustian bargain facilitated that leap.

You’re going to Hell, you know that right?

I went to the Lavendar Festival. Hell couldn't be much worse than that?

You've obviously never sat through the 100 Greatest Family Films TV show or the movie Cyborg 2.