Archive for March, 2007
Friday, March 30th, 2007
Another Post in a Vaguely Modern Style…
Wednesday the 28th. 10:30pm. Me and Mrs. H are driving down to the TLA to see Ted Leo. Yes, my wife is 38 weeks pregnant. It was her idea. She insisted. Philebrity came thru with some guest list spots.
On Spruce street, right before 33rd street, at the light before Franklin Field and Penn’s Museum, there is a parking lot on the right. We are stuck at the light. Something is moving around in the corner of my eye. I look over to see the biggest raccoon I have ever seen. And definitely the wildest animal I’ve ever seen in West Philly…It tries to run out into the street but Mrs H rolls down the window and yells at it. Sends it scurring back onto the sidewalk, then the flower bed behind it.
I spend the rest of the drive to the venue thinking ‘What the hell was that thing doing in the middle of University City?’ and ‘I hope its not dead now…’
Ted Leo does not disappoint. Although, part of his set sounds a bit like the Cro-Mags. And thenin one of his interludes between songs, he starts talking about ‘hawdcoor’(thats my spelling of the thick n. jersey accent he used.) how he’s been ripping all his vinyl to hard drive so he can put it his ipod. And then he goes there and name drops Pagen Babies. Whoah.
Flashback: Summertime. late 80s. skateboarding around Frankford, looking for something to jump off of or grind.
There is Tweet. Tweet seemed impossibly old when he would show up at the ramps we’d set up on the basketball court at Simpson playground. He was in his 20s, and I was not quite a teen yet. He was rumored to have been flagged from the bar up the street for glassing someone in a fight.
There is Tweet, in an alley. With some other guy, at a van, loading it up for a tour. Tweet was also the guitar tech for Pagen babies.
Back to present day: So our baby was very active. The show was very loud. Mrs H was not as comfortable as she would have liked. After they did biomusicology, I leaned over and said ‘Well, its not going to get any better then that, we should probably go before it gets ruined…’ That song just gets better and better.
Perfect last show for what will likely be a fairly long time.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
My Commute Smells
Morning. Chesnut street. Somewhere around 34th street, I’m overcome with the smell of urine. It follows me like a cloud. A block later or two later, in front of Drexel, it dissipates, only to be replaced with the smell of burnt rubber.
This lasts until the river. Again with the urine. It may have been all in my head.
Evening. The commute home. I ride w BL out to Fishtown, just to get my legs working. On the way back up Frankford ave, towards Northern Liberties, I smell bbq. Time for a phone call:
“Can I use the grill tonight?”
“I don’t really care. Whatever’s defrosted.”
15 minutes later, I’m on Walnut in the 40s flying out to Cobbs Creek Parkway. More BBQ.
BBQ and pot smoke.
Spring in Philadelphia.
Finally.
Epilogue: I’ve lost my grilling legs. I burn the hell out of the pork chops.
Pork…Its not the other white meat when its the first thing you’ve grilled in 4 months.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
Tivo or unbox this: Klute
Mrs. H picked this one. Extremely suspenseful, well paced, well shot, and well acted. Jane Fonda won the oscar for best actress for this film in 1971.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007
Results - Strasborg 3/24
I was in the second group of Cat 5s. I was doing pretty well until the end of lap 3. (ie Good positioning in the front. Doing as little work as possible. ) Then, on the descent coming out of the second climb, I got spit out the back, and couldn’t hop back on. Caught up with another dumped rider and took turns pulling thru the 4th lap. I got 19th out of maybe 40-45 starters.
Better then I did in the Phlyer, but I would have preferred to make it to the mass finish. Maybe next time.
Couple things I learned:
#1)Using the google maps pedometer with elevation really helps with scoping out the climbs. Specifically, I knew before I even went on the course that there would be a long gradual climb with a slight uptick at the end between miles 1 and 2. Very useful. Probably should do one for Kirkwood this weekend.
#2)The pacing, at least for the time I was on the front, was not too bad. It seemed like folks were extremely reluctant to drive the pace in the first lap and a half. Except for these two guys from Guy’s Bikes who complained to me that ‘no one in these cat 5s wants to work…’ I agreed with them. But not in a ‘Yeah, I know” kind of way, but in a ‘Yeah, I don’t want to work either” kind of way…heh.
They did apparently attack in lap 4…and then took 3rd and 7th respectively. Just makes me wonder if they had been less eager if they would have placed higher…
#3)I need to do hills.
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
More of the Thursday Night Points Racing
Did some more points racing last night. I hung in for the first set. Second set, I got to lap 4 and pulled off. 3rd set it started raining. Everything broke up then. I was about to leave. Then it stopped raining. People lapped aorund for a while, and then tried regrouping and doing another set or two. Both times, I didn’t finish. It was a little bit messy. Much faster then last time.
Then at the end, it really started raining. It made for quite a commute home.