Random As Rhyme

At this years X-games BMX legend Van Homan joined Matt Berringer, and Mike Aitken in the sadly growing group of riders who have suffered serious head injuries in the past two years.

All of those riders are ones I have admired my entire riding career and it’s a real bummer to know that they all might be forever changed because of their conscious choice not to wear helmet. Mikey’s life has already permanently changed but it remains to be seen what the long term effects on Matt and Van’s lives will be.

Now I am no saint, I used to ride BMX without a helmet all the time and thankfully when I did sustain my last head injury I was wearing a helmet which probably saved my life as I currently know it.

I strongly believe that when you are at the pro level you should wear a helmet all the time, no exceptions. You are lucky enough to be part of a small group of people who are fortunate enough to make a living doing what we all love and you should take the necessary precautions to do this for as long as possible.

Let’s not kid ourselves here the sport is dangerous and at the level it’s progressing it’s not going to get safer any time soon. Let’s take a look at our idols and legends; Matt Hoffman and Jay Miron. True pioneers of the sport, gladiators if you will, who gave up their bodies to push the sport as far as it could go. They wore safety equipment (for the most part) and still destroyed their bodies to the point to where Jay can’t ride at all anymore and Matt, god that he is, is somehow riding with essentially one arm and more than quadruple the amount of concussions that end a professional hockey players career.

If today’s top pros are going to keep pushing themselves day in day out they need to wear some protection, at least on their head if no where else. This is alarmingly apparent in Van’s situation where he fractured his skull in a contest environment. Contests are designed to be a place where you lay it all on the line and if you are going to lay it all out there you should be in a bucket.

‘Street’ or no street.

Morgan Wade took a ton of slams at this years X-games and thanks to his helmet (and super human pain tolerance) he was able to get right back up to take more.

If any of our (and when I say our I mean the ‘mid-school’ crowd) legends are going to make it into the ‘DMC years’ of BMX they need to start wearing proper equipment all the time, not some of the time.

If they are not ready to do it for BMX do it for your friends, do it for your family and do it for yourself. The amount of time I have spent trying to put together the pieces of just a few hours of missing memory depresses me enough, I couldn’t imagine trying to piece together weeks, months, or years.

Get well soon Van, Matt, and Mikey.

Ride safe.

I recently found out yesterday that how I left my last job might have had more behind it than I originally thought. As it would turn out my old manager and the person he hired to replace me are friends. Said manager got fired from that position and went onto a new position and low and behold my replacement has followed. Hrm…

While I am not mad about this since my current job is quite awesome I can’t help but feel tricked, and it has made me think far less of this manager than I ever did before. When I was laid off I briefly doubted myself and my skills and the fact that I did that because he wanted his friend to have a job leaves me with a pour taste in my mouth.

However everything happens for a reason and both my professional life and personal life are much better since leaving that position. I can just hope that he gets whatever the universe feels he deserves for his actions in the future.

Can’t keep a motivated person down, don’t let anyone or anything rob you of your motivation.

Remember way back when I first started this blog I wrote a complaint about bums homeless people? Well I’ve realized that as much as I hate them it seems that these days my biggest beef is with ignoring a human being. It feels wrong and if V’s really did exist they would probably think that we are not a society worth saving since we do not care for one another. The saddest part is that this activity is completely necessary to traverse everyday life.

If I took the time to stop and talk to all the people asking me for money during my travel to and from work I bet I would lose at least an hour. First there is the ‘urban music’ guy where I get on the Subway, the crazy lady right outside the subway when I get to street level, the guy who sits on the ledge in front of my office, the other crazy lady who sits at the set of doors I use to avoid the first crazy lady, and finally on some days the lady who needs change for the subway even though she is already on the subway.

That’s a damn lot of people I could potentially encounter in one day. If I have them all $2 that’s 8-10 dollars a day, 50 dollars a week, 200 bucks a month! Not to say I would but you know what I mean…

One of the worst things about it is, and I am totally going to pull out a big fat race card, is that black people asking for whatever on the street seem to think that I owe them something because we share a similar skin color. The urban music guy will skip over the next Caucasian in line just to yell at me to give him money to support urban music as though because I am black I will feel his plight.

I like urban music, but I am not just going to hand you money dude, what sort of accountability and credibility do you have? I’d rather go buy Wale’s Attention Deficit CD (or Royce 5′9s streethop) than give my money to you and have it go… somewhere.

Same deal with a dude I saw at the grocery store not too long ago, he was totally targeting other black people and trying to get them to help him because he was black. I think instead of spending his time trying to narrow down his target market he should have worked on his sales pitch. “Sir, Hey Sir, SIR” wasn’t really working and it really didn’t work when he started following me. I don’t eat lots of chocolate man, sorry, and I know it’s not your fault but $4 for a bar is pretty steep as well.

But what’s wild to think is that these same people in different situations I probably wouldn’t pretend they didn’t exist. It’s their tactics that bug me, sitting with a cup out or yelling and not being polite. I’ve stopped and talked to several sick kids street representatives and they have all been nothing but kind, happy, polite and courteous even when I used tell them I can’t right now (I donate now).

I wish all of the people who accost me in the street were as nice as the Sick Kid girls, the world would be a better place. Until then hood up, headphones in and sorry homie I just don’t see you there.

The GTA BMX scene has suffered from a tremendous blow this year with what the park formerly know as “The Warehouse” falling under new ownership. The news came down via facebook from Jamie Burke who has been down with the park from the beginning, I’ve transcript ed some of his originally message below:

“it truly hurts me to have to inform you that the warehouse is closed(to bikes) this season(or forever, who knows.)….i found out that i was in competition with some skateboarders so i was rushing to close the deal and open the park….. was dicked around with alot and he ended up renting the warehouse to the other people.”

Loosing The Warehouse is much more than just losing an indoor riding spot. There are a few other places to ride indoors in the area (with a new one on the horizon) some of which have just as many ramps (or more) than the warehouse with cleaner bathrooms and air quality. But that’s not the point, losing The Warehouse is more akin to losing a club house. This private/semi private park was the central hub for riders all over Ontario.

Every time I went to The Warehouse I knew at least 5 other riders, which is not something that I can say about the outdoor park closest to me let alone other indoor spots in the area.

For me a lot of the time going to The Warehouse wasn’t even so much about the riding as it was about being around your friends, friends you don’t really get a chance to see all summer due to conflicting schedules and different local spots. The vibes were always positive at the warehouse and I rarely witnessed any sort of beef.

The riding level was always super high but it never gave off that competitive vibe that can happen at some parks. I learned a lot of new tricks at the warehouse and have to attribute a lot of my growth as a ramp rider to that park. The Warehouse helped push our scene to notable heights. Every scene needs a place like this and now our scene is lacking it.

Rumor has it that the place that bought The Warehouse may have a bike night here and there, which while the intentions are good, probably won’t work out to well. The Warehouse being the size that it is and the setup the way it is gets crazy with high capacity. On Jam nights if you are not a local its tough to judge the flow of the place and to know when to drop in and therefore really easy to ball up the entire flow of the park. Having a solitary bike night every few weeks will draw a similar if not larger amount of riders (at first) which will just lead to frustration when dealing with the increased numbers.

The bike nights also won’t have the same atmosphere traditional Warehouse jams had myself and some of my good friends have celebrated our birthdays riding at The Warehouse, Jams were always sponsored and occasionally a few pros would stop by as well (or people from way out of town).

Our scene was lucky to have The Warehouse for as long as we did and I don’t think any of us ever took it for granted. RIP The Warehouse you will be missed.

Here are some of the videos over the past two years of past two years at The Warehouse:

From the second I woke up this morning to now I have heard from multiple sources (TV, radio, internet, people) that summer ends today. This sucks I like summer I don’t really like winter even though I play Hockey and Snowboard. Winter means ugly cars, excessive clothing, cold toes and shoveling, and even though I have lived in Canada my entire life I still never look forward to winter.

A big part of my disdain about winter coming comes with the fact that being a BMX rider I like when the weather is tolerable enough to do so outside. Riding indoors gets old fast and isn’t really the same as riding outside. It’s stuffy, smelly, and dusty and some places can never get the climate quite right so even though you are sweating your nose is running, it’s really odd.

Another part comes with shoveling snow, it’s a huge inconvenience and last winter it never snowed at the right time to become a snow day. If we are going to get lots of snow it should come right at rush hour so I can work from home instead of waking up, shoveling, then coming home and shoveling again, that’s wack.

Also due to the fact I drive a lowered car its crucial I get my car out after the plows pass which means I have to wait until the plow passes which means lifting that heavy icy watery snow at the end of the drive way, ugh, this is my own fault though I suppose.

Really though as much as I don’t like winter I live with it since I am a Canadian but a lot of my disappointment at this summers ending is that it was such a mediocre one. I like HOT weather the days when the breeze is warm, ya I like a few of those, the days when I am outside thinking damn its kinda warm out today. The type of days where in one BMX session I sweat through 3 shirts and might consider an ice cream after (I don’t eat ice cream often). I like the days when you can go to a water park and not have to dry off the second you get our of the water to avoid being cold.  This summer had like two of those and never really when I needed them who needs a hot Wednesday? Bah

Summer next year bring your A game.

Before a lot of people come down on me for writing this blog I think I should explain a few things right off the bat. 1. I love animals, I have 2 cats and have nothing against dogs. 2. I am probably grossly misinformed, everything I know about the situation has come in 30 second chunks from breakfast TV or the radio, really if I had a reputable blog I would do some more research 3. I enjoy playing Devils Advocate. If you can accept these 3 facts then please click forward into this post. If not then this is not for you.

Now that all that is out of the way on to business, as we all know Mike Vick is not very smart and while enjoying an illustrious and promising football career for reasons known only to him he was also heavy into dog fighting. Which is inhumane and illegal. He got thrown into jail and served his debt to society and was also rehabilitated. That is one of the purposes of of jail time is it not? To repay your debt to society, be punished, and come out rehabilitated?

If the above are indeed the reasons why someone serves a jail sentence than why can’t he, provided he is physically able, play football again? He has done everything required by the law to make amends for what he did. It does not matter whether he is sorry for committing the crime or sorry he got caught. What matters is that he served the time for the crime that he did and therefore deserves the opportunity to continue his career. Sure it can be argued that the amount of time he received for his crimes was a slap on the wrist for what he did but that issue should be taken up with the US legal system and not the National Football league.

Football is his lively hood and as long as his employer (the NFL) thinks he is fit to be their employee than he should be able to play. It is not Mike Vick’s fault that football players are held in such high regard in our society. Once the light goes off and whatever hot shot football player of the moment is removed from their pedestal they are normal people who make mistakes. I could understand peoples objections to him becoming a veterinarian but he is not trying to become one, besides football is an incredibly dangerous sport. For those of you wishing bodily harm against Mike what better way for it to happen then a 300lb line backer trying to shove his spine out his ass?

Let the man return to his profession and make a living, because really would you want to see him working at your local McDonalds? Really?

On the weekend my girlfriend got a flat on her new car, I won’t say how, but she got one. She has road side assistance so someone could have come to change it but it was much easier for me to just do it rather than waiting around for someone to come help. This got me thinking should Auto shop be a mandatory course in high school?

I know there are probably quite a few people driving out there who have no idea how to put their spare tire on, change or even check their own oil, change or check their own brake pads, or even change their own wiper blades. To me these are all basic necessities of owning and operating a vehicle. Driving a car without at least having some of an idea how these things are done can not only leave you stranded on the side of the road but also leave you at the mercy of mechanics everywhere.

In high school I took as much Auto shop (Transportation Technologies) as possible. Not only because I love cars and loved the class (shout outs to Mr Dinner for making it great) but also because I saw the skills I learned as important to my future. I have used the skills I learned in this class much more than I have my french or geometry. Some of it is due to the fact that I like to modify my cars and some of them just due to the fact that shit likes to happen to me and my vehicles. Knowing these skills has saved me a considerable amount of money in both modification and maintenance bills.

If you think of all the things that you learned in high school that you have not used at all in your adult life would sneaking in a month or even two weeks of basic automotive knowledge really have been that bad? It could mean the difference between talking 15 minutes to do it yourself on snowy day and waiting in the ditch for someone to slide into it and hit you. Just saying…

Girls who can work on their own car are also hotter, again, just saying.

I know for a fact I could have used a few wood shop classes as I am not very good with a saw. Not terrible but not great. I have an upcoming project though that should change all that.

Those of you following a long might have heard me speak previously on the fact that I started eating better since a bout with the stomach flu this new years. Aside from not gaining any unwanted weight and feeling generally better physically and better about myself I didn’t really expect any other effects. However last Saturday I realized my assumptions were wrong.

I love hot dogs that you get from street vendors, be it out front of Canadian Tire, or on the street corner in Toronto. In the summers of the past I used eat more than my fair share of the random meat concoction that make up hot dogs and sausages. However since my ‘health kick’ most of this ’summer’ (booo 22 degrees) has gone by without me eating any.

When you are out riding street with your homies stopping at a hot dog cart is par for the course and since I had not had one in awhile I decided to treat my self to the real deal, a honey garlic sausage, why not?

Well had I known that about an hour later I would be holding vomit in my mouth until the car came to a stop (I have done the puke out of a moving car thing before and it is not pretty) I never would have got that sausage.

I have been noticing lately that my stomach seems to know throw temper tantrums at my old favorites. Harveys sits like a brick, Manchu Wok honey garlic chicken makes me gassy, and street meat sausages make me puke. I blame this solely on eating better and not the questionable food preparation techniques of these more than qualified chefs.

It’s not fair I didn’t want to make it so that I couldn’t eat my favorites every once and awhile I just didn’t want to look like this guy!

Someone pass the broccoli.

For those of you hoping this would be about me wearing heels sorry to disappoint, this post is about women wearing heels to events that don’t require them and thus looking silly as a result. The past two weekends in a row I have been at out door events, Rock The Bells and Tuners Against Street racing. Both of these venues were outdoors on fairly uneven ground and standing for pro longed periods of time was the norm. So why would anyone in their right mind decide it’s a good idea to wear heels to an event like this?

In my opinion all signs point to vanity. I find feet very unattractive so I don’t really pay much attention to woman’s fashion but My friend Grant once told me that  heels are basically a  push up  bra for a woman’s butt so I assume all of the women at these venues thought their butts needed an extra lift. However any attractiveness gained by the but lift is instantly lost and then some when I am watching these women precariously teeter totter around the venue things like a toddler taking their first steps.

Not to mention some of the heels just looked down right uncomfortable not as bad as these:

But bad enough that I knew the wearer would be feeling the pain the next day. High heels have there place, sure, but not on grass. I get that some people always want to be the center of attention but is attention like press? You can’t get any bad attention? I doubt it.

Besides these woman didn’t need the heels to draw attention to themselves the tops they had on were cut so low that even Mr Mcgoo could have seen the mole on the left breast of the one with pink hair and a miniskirt.

Now here are some woman learning the hard way heels are impractical, hopefully no one broke an ankle.

and this was in flip flops but a disaster waiting to happen regardless

The first hip hop album that I ever listened to was the Bullworth Soundtrack and while it wasn’t your average starting point but it served as a great way to get introduced to a variety of different to shelf hip hop artists as well as a few unknown ones. One of the lesser know artists on the CD were the Black Eyed Peas at this point they had a nice underground head nodding style and I dug it.

The song was called Joints and Jams and sounds way different than the crap, excuse me, music they put out today.

After hearing this song I searched out more music by BEP and was greeted by some genuine treats, amazing fun and funky hip hop tracks. For example the track below,Bridging The Gap is another favorite of mine

Listening to the sound they had before in comparison to what they have now one can easily conclude why they switched.  Their old style appeal to real hip hop heads and back packers where as their new sound has a more mass, mainstream, pop appeal. More appeal equals more units sold which leads to more money in the pockets of will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo and Fergie.  Some people don’t like to point fingers at exactly who killed the old sound but I am going to go ahead and point mine.

Who would have figured such a sometimes attractive sometimes not package such as Fergie could be the harbinger of death to what was once a great hip hop group? I am not sure how much influence she had over the groups new direction but things started changing around the time she arrived, actually I suppose one could also blame Justin Timberlake for lending his vocals on Where is the love, but I would rather blame and post pictures of her.

I wish the old BEP would come back and the new one would vanish but until that happens (never) there is youtube:
Fallin up
Weekends
BEP Empire – Produced by DJ Premiere bet he won’t fuck with them now