Vindication and revelation is sweet!
I say this because sooner or later the truth always comes out and it only makes you feel that you were doing what was right and your detractors – haters – were wrong – maybe just fucked up.
If you like music you might have read recently about Dave Grohl, former drummer of Nirvana and lead linger of the Foo Fighters revealing that he copied disco drumming for Nirvana drum beats. I mention this not only because I like music but because I drummed in a band with my friends and was ridiculed for lacking ability and talent. Well, when I drummed I came from the same cannon as Grohl- I had good music taste, and listened to a variety of music. Valuable resources, compared to my mates in the band, who may resent me for saying this but I don’t care.
I mean it’s strange when you educate someone about a particular group like Chic and then they try and come back to you and ask if you know about this particular artist and you’re the one that turned them onto the music they’re asking you about or they’re afraid to sing or they take your lyrics – bullocks.
In my opinion, it’s not about how complicated you can be or how you can some how not be copied but about making the music go. Keeping a good steady beat, like a cycling cadence. Actually a lot of music, especially in the 80’s, was done by drum machines in the studio for recording and had live drummers, of course for concerts and Quest Love of the Roots has discussed this many times. Like Grohl (who can’t read music), drummers have to be good listeners of music- students , and practitioners, especially of the best, like Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie, Tony Thomson, Billy Cobham, Lenny White. Alphonse Mouzon and others.
Thanks Mr. Grohl!
Back to cycling.
When I’m not being a dad and have time to ride I do. As of late I’m still in Japan and head to the Arakawa river and I race anyone, so I can to keep my chops up. Which is cool because you encounter all kinds of cyclists on all kinds of bikes and it just keeps you sharp and at the end of every sprint you learn something about yourself and you feel good. There is always room for improvement what ever you do. I’m humble about what ever I do but that doesn’t mean I’m not competitive or have any pride, it just means I’m not an asshole.
I sit tall on my vintage Litespeed frame but I lowered my seat a little to be more aerodynamic to deal with the menacing headwinds. It came in handy yesterday when I ran into a Velominati who commented on my seat being crooked but hey, he had electronic shifters, a carbon frame and disc brakes. In any case he couldn’t drop me but I couldn’t shake him. Also, I had to return home to pick up my son and so I had to depart.
I’m having a lot of fun but I’m on a time schedule and so I can’t really do it up like I would really like too but you take your wins when you can and you have fun until you have to return back to reality. When I get back home to Los Angeles it will be a whole different ball game. I’ll have to focus on climbing and not sprinting and then commuting to the climbs way across town unless I go into the South Bay and go through San Pedro and do Palos Verdes climbs.
Right now I feel good.
Having had to relocate back to California, then back to Southern California, publishing a book during the pandemic and all of the chaos that resulted, back to Japan and then next month back to California, along with dealing with all the crazy people in between, rebuilding another bike after having one stolen in 2018 in Oakland, I do feel great and I do feel vindicated and cycling has given me a balance that I never had before and it’s just one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Also all the cool people I have met along the way. Thank you!
Cycling has given me a new self esteem and the space and freedom I have yearned for so long and made me realize what I had inside of me, what I always needed – to believe in myself more, drop the baggage, negative people, situations and keep a steady cadence and forge ahead.