It was a recent goal to ride to the Laverne United Methodist Church that was used in the movie The Graduate. I plotted out a route on Google Maps and I took off. Following the Los Angeles River east as I rode through Compton, Glendora, San Dimas, Azusa, Covina, San Gabriel, Pasadena, El Sereno, Los Angeles and Carson.
It was great to look at the snow capped San Gabriel Mountains. The Rio Hondo Bike Path is great. It’s not so easy with a strong head wind but it allows you to keep a good pace. It gives you a possible glimpse of what a past Los Angeles might have looked like, less developed until you leave that vast ness and approach more urban landscapes. I saw men on horseback and another man riding his bicycle in the river. The rains washed sediment near the Whittier Narrows section but I made it through.
The path I was desperately trying to stay on it. The monsoon like rainstorm that descended upon Los Angeles put a cramp in my riding Maybe it was the break I needed. Pretty much most of what I do is ride my bike with a few exceptions. Filtering through all the crap on Instagram are gems of inspiration and art and more. Getting inspired by Groggins I have to, “stay hard,” though I have been so soft. Yet it gets me motivated and so I go outside and ride, even if I start late. It’s just important to do it and have a good time.
So, crossing all of those landscapes was a great feeling of freedom from all of the misinformation, commercialism, oppression and euphoria of modern life to somehow stay in touch with myself as much as possible. At home I realized that I had cracked my right foot, road cycling shoes. Those Shoes were the first cycling shoes I bought. It meant something but I just wasn’t sure what, but I knew that I had reached an important stage.
When I entered San Diego State I was in a program to help minority students get prerequisites done and get help getting use to college. It was in the summer and I was dating this girl I had met in the program. We were told by the program director, who was African American not to go see Mo Better Blues on campus, which was showing for free!
Having seen Do the Right Thing at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, which was so packed I had to sit in the isle, I went anyway with my girlfriend. Some other female student ratted on us and we got caught. The director scolded me and I told him to, “go fuck yourself!” Then I walked to my room. It felt like the end. I started to pack my stuff. A lot of my cohorts thought it was fucked up.
Somehow I was able to make up and say I was sorry, keeping myself from being expelled from the program as well as my girlfriend who didn’t get kicked out either. We had to clean up some rank dishes in the kitchen but it felt like a triumphant moment anyway. But that’s how much it meant to me.
So going to see Spike at the Colburn Theater across from the Disney Hall, in downtown Los Angeles was great. I had to go because I wasn’t sure if I would ever have a chance to meeting either one of them at the same time in the same place. It was inspiring and cool and down to earth. I was also able to give each of them a copy of my novel and I got a pound from Spike.
The cool part was learning about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of two of the most important African American artists in the 20th and 21st Century. It seems to always be true that to succeed one has to take risks or else forever not know what is on the other side of the door of possibilities. Like Lee’s grandmother saving up social security checks so that he could have the opportunity to be educated twice, as an undergrad at Morehouse and as a film student at NYU. It likes there’s nothing we can’t do, if we strive hard enough and are willing to risk failure to satisfy our artistic goals. There has to be a family that supports those aspirations, something Spike made clear. He’s an institution, a marketer and creator of Cinema, a consummate artists. It costs money to make films and art and he will be the fist one to tell you. That’s what makes him such a great mentor. His directness and real politic expression of New York, African American life – the African American Experience as a whole.
It was fitting to walk up to the stage by hook or by crook and take a chance and hand him my art and for him to take it into his hands and look me in the eye. That’s all that I needed. It was like destiny. I know about taking risks. I’ve been doing it my whole life. A a lot of us have and we are the better for it creatively.
I haven’t written in a long time. I’ve bee studying for finals. This semester crushed me. It took something from me an exposed me. Well I don’t handle pressure so well. I had to make an experiment and it didn’t go to well. I’m learning on line and I don’t really like it though I had to do it also as teacher. I had a long term assignment teaching kindergarten and it ripped me apart because of all the ups and downs and successes and failures while trying to study linguistics, which is already difficult. There’s things I want to do with my MA Program but like a lot of students with dreams and desires I might not get to do them all and now I’m starting to face that reality. What I’m learning is great but I’m not satisfied with the process. I want more. So, a professor referred me to a real writer and hopefully we can meet and another mentorship will begin or not. Maybe I’ll be more educated but back where I started again with new challenges and more unanswered questions. I wanted to publish in the school literacy gallery but it’s rated G and my writing is rated R. My publisher said my second book is too misogynistic. I understand. But I want the freedom to write as an artist. I submitted my novel to other publishers that claim that they are cutting edge and they also said no so that leaves it up to me to find another way.
At the moment I feel better but at the same time I feel like I’m not out of the valley yet. I’m not over the mountain. I had to realize to that some people don’t see the past or the present the way that I do and I can’t go lifting up every rock to see what is underneath. That’s a little hard to except sometimes but sometimes you have to do it. There’s things that I had to purge. The experience was like having a good time at a party and then get sick and having to vomit. It’s painful but in the end you feel better. In the end it all comes down to riding away on my bicycle.
I like riding through cities. Riding through Los Angeles is fun put peril-less. There is a lot to see and look out for. Though I always have a story in my mind. I decided that I would ride up Crenshaw Blvd, which has long stretches with no bike lanes and guys racing by Dodge Challenger RTs and Chargers. I’m ok but wary.
On the way after riding for blocks that I saw dozens of yard sale signs and. its cool sometimes to look and see what people are selling and also to hunt for records, which I like to do a lot. I encountered Khalid, who was jovial, with a gift of gab and according to him the best point guard in Los Angels if not the Untied States. I didn’t see anything that I liked but Khalid, seemed anxious and was also a rapper. There were excursions to Leimert Park. A place I once got a big story about the park that was undergoing renovations and how there was some sort of labor dispute. That was long ago. Someone came around to buy a fan and that was my break to keep on the path towards the L.P.
I was excited and it was a little hot but it was a good ride. I thought afterwards and I would go to the beach. I knew that the rapper Common would be at Harun Coffee. Equally as famous and support of African American culture. An oasis of Blackness, amidst a sea of hostility. It meant freedom. I was late. It started at 11 a.m. I was on CPT. I scanned the place. There was always something going on.
Common stood out on the side walk, outside the cafe. He was relaxed and calm and at ease with the people, the proletariat. There was a great vibe. I could feel the energy reverberations throughout the street. A large cool crowd had gathered around the entrance to the cafe. The dj was working hard and fans milled about getting autographs and stirring up conversation. Book and record hawkers and food was plentiful and the Black women were beautiful.
The record sellers were playing chess with clocks. I saw some sides I wanted. but I felt a vibe pulling me in another direction. This was after talking for a long time and avid chess player whose opens he says was Roy Ayers occasionally. I was taking it all in. Ride On Bike shop was closed and Museum in Black had since been gone. A one time pillar of the LP.
Finally I was able to get close enough for a picture but Common seemed weary and rightfully so because it looked like he needed a break but he was gracious and his presence was well received. He was one of our most vibrant voices for hip hop culture, rapping, and African liberation. I realized later that I had arrived empty handed. It would have been cool to give him a copy of my book, or anyone around there for that matter but I was trying to be in the moment. I thought that’s why I listen to Hip Hop music and I know rapping is a fine art.
Mission accomplished I rode to Venice Beach by way of Exposition Blvd, the bike road and on to Jefferson and then down Washington Blvd. It’s a well known bicycle route to take to get to the ocean but you have to pass through downtown Culver City and the streets are coordinated in such way that it looks like fucked up krit racing course.
I did make it to Venice Beach and it was a beautiful day. It was a day after the anniversary of 9/11. It cast a certain vibe on the whole day. The vibe was rich. LP has the vibe. Common has the vibe, if I was to put it in A Tribe Called Quest parlance. It was a great day. The vibrations carried me all the way to the ocean. I had another motive for being there too because I was working on another story idea.
Biz Markie was a great rapper and beat boxer and influenced a generation of rappers and hip hop lovers. He was also an avid record collector. His style was unique and often humorous but he was serious about his craft. As for my cycling he is in heavy rotation as I ride around Saitama and Tokyo prefectures thinking about his influence on hip hop culture.
The rain has gone but the heat has replaced it. In about a month I’ll be back home. Just trying to savor the time I have left with my family. I finally got some new bar tape. My rear tire was rubbing on my frame. A shop mechanic realized that my tires which were 25s were too large for my narrow frame and so he suggested 23s. He was right and so now I will be much faster minus the friction. It probably cost me in a few epic encounters I had out on the Arakawa River but you live and you learn and adapt.
The more you ride, the more you learn and the better you get. That has been my experience. The Biz had a song called the Vapors about starting out as a rapper and people not taking him and his friends getting dissed. It’s a classic rap song and something a lot of us can relate to. I’m kind of in that mood now. People will diss you in life and then try and come back and patch things up. You know your value but they try and tell you have none. With cycling life has become more clear, I guess you can say the same thing about rapping or anything else you do. The better you become at something and the more centered you become, things get clearer and so you start to feel a new inner strength and that might mean you leave certain people or situations behind.
These are challenging times for all of us. The Olympics here in Japan are filled with problems but for some people the show must go on. Climate change is real and the world is feeling it though some are denying it as well as the fact that the pandemic is real too. I will get vaccinated when I return home. When one of your favorite rapper dies and he is not much older than myself, it really hits home how important health is. I’m at that age when things start to happen physically and so that is why cycling is so important.
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.
I finally completed a century while here in Japan. It was on my half-bucket list. I’ve done it before but it wasn’t recorded. Now it’s official.
My goal was Sekiyako Castle and a reservoir but I made a wrong turn.
It was good to go up the river and give off the regular circuit. There were a lot of strong cyclist and the distance to the castle is a lot longer than my usual river routes. I attempted it earlier but I kept getting flat tires. I turns out my rip tape was not done well and so I had the rear and front rims re taped.
After that I was good to go. This time of year in Japan, it’s the rainy season and the weather is crappy. When the weather is good you have to go or you just won’t be able too. I bonked part of the way back and wasn’t able to take on a challenge but I realized that I need those Gatorade type drinks that I didn’t want to try before but they hooked me up and I was able to perform the rest of the way home. With every ride there is a message. A rider approached me after I reached the castle. He wanted to know what type of frame I have. We were racing but I stayed in my heavy chain ring and prevailed. He was fast too.
It’s good to go off our regular routes to see what else is out there. You just don’t know until you do it. There is always more. Well, I’m not an Instagram, KOM king just a regular guy with a bike he managed to get built after his other one was stolen two years ago and so I appreciate every moment I have and that’s what is important right now.
Well, my book, … what can I say. So far it’s slow, slow going but I came to Japan to be with my family. I have one more month and then it’s time to go home. For now I just appreciate what I have and do the best that I can.
Sometimes it’s tough. As always there is so much happening. No matter what, just trying to make the most of the moment.
The pandemic has been difficult for us all but it has also created some opportunities for much needed change. If you’re creative you have time to create like never before but you still have to eat. It has been complicated to find that right balance of economics and creativity but you have to be focused and support yourself and others and stick to the courses you have laid out but flexible enough adapt when you need to.
It has been a dream come true to publish a book but after the initial awe of being a self published author things get slow. Of course I want to get paid but I also wanted to publish a book and I did. Now I’m dealing with the realities of what that means. I have a second book that is done and I want to publish it and I have another story I’m working on now.
For the moment I’m in Japan and doing what I can until I go home. If you have important people in your life spend time with them and make the most of those moments you have with them. That’s what I’m trying to do now with my kids because most of the time I’m away from them but at the same time I have to deal with myself. So, you find the power inside to do all of it. As much as I like to follow other artists I like and support I have to remember me, and being a supporter of myself. I’m not famous with a crazy fan base and my book is not published with some fancy publishing house. What I’ve done artistically has always been way underground.
I’ve been trying to get back into cycling. Working remotely and bad weather prevented me from exercising. I was exhausted mainly because of the time difference. There is hope because the weather is improving but I noticed I was way out of shape and also I need to upgrade to a more modern bike. I just don’t have the money to really do it but I love my bike and I make it work for me. It could always be worse.
It appears we are edging are way back to some type of normalcy but we are still not out of danger. So many people are disenfranchised by the pandemic and economies have changed and not everyone is included. The gaps between rich and poor have grown so huge. You can see and if you read about it you know more of course.
I’m always hopeful but I’ve learned to be more realistic. Music also keeps me sane. I don’t play any instruments but I like to collect music. I just try to balance my passions but also having a family, they come first. Somehow I’ve managed to keep m small collection of music going. The. cool think now is that I can follow my favorite artists and learn about music and music production. I feel the same way about cycling. Being so connected to people is also challenging and takes a lot strength to balance oneself in such a connected world. Some people I know have opted to disconnect from the internet in dramatic ways. Others seem to thrive off of the connectivity.
In the end I have to ride my bike and figure it all out. Somewhere out on the road there are answers. Sometimes they come in dreams or sometimes when I write. Sometimes from when I hear a song. Then I know I have to do something. I have to act and try to find a way to make it all work out. In everything there is a lesson.
It’s cold. I’m in grad school and an internship to teach community college. I want to ride but I’m so tired because of the time differences but it’s what I want to do. It could always be worse. Life moves on and won’t wait. I feel good but I need to rife my bike. I can’t afford disc brakes so I’m with Froome.
I want to be a Strava king but I’m limited because of all the stuff I have to do. I usually ride alone here. I don’t speak Japanese. It’s hard. When I do have time I’m with my family and trying to get my book sold and finish my grad studies.
There is only now as they say, though I admit dwelling in the past but where will that get me. I have to think about my goals and I have many. I feel I’m making progress and things look better back home. Will I return home in September as planned? I don’t know. It all depends on the roll out of the vaccine and more. For now I just go with the flow and write and try to get a few good rides in when I can. I miss home sometimes but at the same time this is where I need to be. Nothing is perfect things have been working out. I just have to trust the process. That’s what the little voice in my head keeps telling me to do.
