the keyboard is mightier than the sword
Now Playing: joan jett you don't know what you've got til it's gone
The internet is a powerful thing. The open and instant lines of communication are amazing. A person can put forth information in a minute that is available for all to see, anywhere in the world. I learned a lesson today. Something I posted on this site came back to haunt me and more importantly, made me realize how unimportant something like this silly blog is in the grand scheme of life. Words are powerful and can effect people's lives in ways you never intend for them to. The incident and post were a long time ago and are water under the bridge at this point, but the post had repurcussions that could have easily been avoided had I not let my fingers do the talking. I am only writing about it now because I know of some other folks who have taken some heat for posts and blogs recently and I just want to remind you all that more people read this stuff than you might think....
Onto better things. The new Deliverance hats are done and I am siked on how they came out:

These are "army" hats, but instead we're going to call them "Draft Dodger" hats. Don't ask your parents about this term, kids, it might not go over very well (I'm already contridicting myself from the first part of this post!). The brown one is rip-stop cotton and the other one is tiger-stripe camo. These are sized hats and come in Small through Xtra fat head sizes like I wear. There are a couple more things that should be done soon, but in the meantime the navy Unholy tees are back, as well as the Big Bear shirt and we now have the "Dude" shirt in a short-sleeve version

Did I mention that the new Lucero is great?

nine twelve
Now Playing: Black Flag Keep Me Alive
I pre-ordered the new Lucero CD, Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers, which comes out later this month. After I placed the order, I got an e mail to a link that allowed me to download all the songs, which is so awesome. They know everyone is going to copy it and download it anyway, so they give a little bonus to people that actually buy it. I'm going to step onto my soapbox for a minute here. If you like this band, you should buy their CDs. Don't copy them and don't borrow them. I'm all for copying major label shit (I'll burn the new Slayer for you if you want--it's great), but a band like Lucero, who is so incredibly good, barely makes any money--probably barely enough to live on, deserves your hard-earned money.
The new record is just amazing. I haven't even heard the whole thing yet and it is just wonderful.
On Team Young there is a link to a Myspace page with two live Lucero songs that Joe recorded. They are good recordings and it's interesting to hear the chaos and obvious sarcasm from Ben, the singer, regarding the stage-diving and beer-throwing and shit that was going on. The song, Bikeriders, by the way, is not about BMX bike riders. It is in reference to the book, The Bikeriders, by Danny Lyon

This is a great book with some of the most amazing photos of sixties biker culture.
Since this is the CD and book review post, I've been wanting to post about this book for a while now:

Grab Onto Me Tightly As If I Knew The Way is a cynical, sharp-witted coming-of-age novel by Bryan Charles, who is a friend of mine. I'm not name-dropping or anything, this is an awesome book. It's all about the Kalamazoo, Michigan music scene in the early 90s and everything that the author went through with girls, his parents, friends and band-mates. It's "fiction", but he refers to actual places and bands by real name, while changing other people's to comically ridiculous names. "Elroy Marx" is the scene God from Kalamazoo. The real Elroy is a dude I lived with for a long time and Elroy is exactly him. Obviously, the book is great to me because I was part of the whole scene he's talking about, but it is just a really good book and an "easy read". I think anyone who reads this site would be able to relate to some part of this book. You can get it from Amazon.com or at Barnes & Nobles. An interesting note about Bryan, is that after he left Kalamazoo, he moved to New York City and worked in the World Trade Center. He was in building on September 11, 2001, but made it out...
On a seemingly trivial note, my new bike is awesome. The session at Modern tonight was heated and featured the Deliverance team roster of Dane, Hatfield, Matt Sparks and Dan Closser*. I always have to put an asterisk next to Dan's name because he rides for Lavar Clothing, but is part of Deliverance as well. Shit was going down left and right, along with plenty of near-misses. Speaking of which, FOD Jason Burton was involved in a nasty non-miss at Modern a few weeks ago, resulting in two injured hands and he isn't back yet. Get well, soon.
Here's a shot of Noah and one of his new buddies, Jayden Von Gall

They seem a little concerned right here, but they had a good time. You can see the remnants of Noah's pirate mustache. After he devoured his birthday cupcake and I wiped him down, the little pirate looked more like little Adolf, so I tried to remove it completely. Dirt-stache just like his old man, poor kid.

Here's an actual riding shot of Tyler Deshaine from the Kzoo contest. Also, check the mug shots of the team on the opening page.

"Remember Dane, it's there forever."
I started getting tattoo's about a year ago this week. I thought long and hard about mine, since i was 15 or so. I finally got it, then i just started building on and on. I now have 5 tattoo's.(four on my bicep/shoulder area and one on my right side) I recently got a tattoo that was dedacated to my dad, who had passed away when i was 13. He was trying to restore a car before he passed, it was a 1964 Mercury Comet. He bought it and drove it home from Reno, Nevada. He was pretty close to finishing it, but never did. So i took it apon myself to finish it, on my arm. The tattoo is located on the "Detroit" side of my tattoo of Michigan. It also includes the street signs of which cross roads i grew up on, and my dads stamp, which he had on everything he owned, from tools to shovels. Which is "R Wild." So, without further delay, here is the latest on my arm.

Along with Scott, i also get my work done at Division Tattoo. And i must say, Rich does an amazing job with everythings hes done with me, and will do in the future.

I recently stripped the paint off of my bike, and whatever else, so here is my bike check as of recent.

frame: FBM Capone, 20.5 with a 75 degree headtube, no mounts.
fork: Odyssey Dirt 14mm
stem: FBM Crown Royal 47mm.
bars: Four Piece Dinner Box. 9 sweep trans black.
grips: T-1 Joe Rich.
bar ends: FBM Blue
lever: none.
cables: none.
headset:integrated
cranks: Profile 170mm black.
bottom bracket: FBM mid.
pedals: Odyssey JC Mag.
sprocket: FBM Race 30t
brakes: none.
detangler: none.
post: FBM Pivitol.
seat: FBM Pivitol.
clamp: FBM Hose Clamp.
chain: Drop Buster.
front tire: Animal GLH
back tire: Animal ASM
front wheel: Profile 14mm ti mini hub, hazzard lite rim. 36hole
back wheel: Profile 14mm mini casstte, 11t driver, Mid-way rim. 36hole

Mods: Normal stuff, cut bars and seat post. Stuff like that.

But moving on, Today is my moms birthday, as well as Kase Filipowicz(sp?) birthday, which is Flip @ Albe's son. Along with parties today, i believe Scott's kids birthday party is today, but from my window i can see rain, i should be stopping by. And tomorrow is Rich from Division's daughters birthday party, i heard of a moon walk and a really fast go-kart. So, i hope ya'll enjoy the evening, and ill be back off to Binghamton within this week sometime. Love Life.

-Dane Wild

Wile E. Coyote
Now Playing: Against Me! Problems

So I went to Modern tonight and when I got home, I realized I had locked myself out of the house. Not cool when the wife, baby and three dogs are all asleep inside....(edited for security purposes)....I'm trying to quietly move this table with all these plants and pictures on it so I can crawl in. One plant starts to fall and naturally, I try to grab it before it hits the ground. I fumbled and it hit the ground scattering dirt everywhere and making a giant mess, but not too much noise. My hands really were really hurting and I realized the plant was a cactus. A fucking cactus. I felt like Wile E. Coyote. Nobody woke up though, so I was stoked.
I built up a new bike:

It's a 21" FBM Stairmaster. The bike I was riding before was too short and quirky and I was having a hard time jumping and airing and stuff. I thought old age was catching up with me but my bike was just too steep and deep. Awesome for street riding, but I'm just too big and goofy for it in the air.
Here's the parts breakdown:
FBM Chopper forks (raw and waxed, but starting to rust)
Mutiny stem (this is old and I forgot I had it--it's pretty sweet).
FBM Ape Hanger bars, chrome (cut down to 27" wide)
Shadow Lil' Dirty grips (the gum colored ones last a long time)
Dia-Compe Dirty Harry lever
FBM Chanticlear bar ends
Primo Balance front rim
MacNeil front hub (I had to make a washer from a pop can to make it tight, which is ridiculous considering it is brand new).
Primo Dirt Monster front tire 2.20
We The People chromoly cranks, 175mm (that is the stock color, too)
MacNeil 30T guard sprocket (scotch-brited)
Mid, press-fit bottom bracket
Welgo sealed magnesium pedals
KMC half-link chain
Fly brakes
Mosh brake pads
Odyssey linear cable for tailwhips
Odyssey Mike Aitkin seat
Odyssey Jim's Beam seatpost (scotch-brited and cut down)
Primo seat post clamp
Odyssey Hazard Lite rear rim
Mosh cassette hub, 10T with Premium axle with Allen-bolt on non-peg side.
Animal GLH rear tire 1.95
Animal Lite pegs
It works out that a 30-10 gear is the same as the 39-13 I was running (Hatfield runs a 33-11, which is the same as well). Tall boys.
When I got my last bike, Hatfield said to me "You'd think by now you would know what size bike you like." and of course he was right. As soon as I starting riding this new bike, I instantly felt more comfortable in the air. I have been struggling with tabletops all summer, which has been very depressing considering it's normally my "go to" trick. They came right back to me with a little room to move and a more stable wheelbase. I'm siked.
Jeff Tabb and Dave Patterson are also siked to be aboard new Stairmaster frames that Dane brought them straight from the source (don't worry, he's not back-dooring them, they were paid for). The Modern session was roughly 56% FBM equipped tonight. Crandall is siked.
Today was Noah's first birthday, which is insane. I can't believe he's already a year old. He's pretty cool...

heavy rotation
Now Playing: Agent Orange A Cry for Help in a World Gone Mad

A friend asked what I've been listening to lately and I kind of went into detail about some bands that I've been into, so I thought I would post it here...
Lucero "alt-country" band that is awesome. I hate that term, but it is
whatever. punk-ish country like Uncle Tupelo, who were super great.
Slayer. that new album is great. sounds like South of Heaven.
Avail. Richmond, Virginia punk band that was pretty big in the 90s. super
good after not listening to them for awhile.
Minutemen: 3 way tie for last. such a good album. I last owned it on
cassette and decided it was up for renewal.
Shellac: Terraform. another "revisted" album. super good, technical
"post-hardcore". man, I'm dropping all the shitting terms.
Big Black: Songs About Fucking. I bought a Big Black record a few weeks
ago and put it in a box with some catalogs, then proceeded to put the box in
my storage unit, along with that record and a used Neil Young record. I
knew I was going to do that. Big Black was Steve Albini's band before
Shellac. Dude at the record store was so stoked that I was buying a Big
Black record and told me about a reunion show coming up in Chicago.
Neil Young. obvious earlier songs but that newer song "it's a dream" is
really good.
Against Me! rad newer punk band.
Paint it Black. newer band with kind of an 80s punk style.
The Sword/Early Man/Wolfmother all three of these are like desert stoner
rock that is really good, esp. the Sword. If you ever heard Kyuss, they are
like that.
Monorchid. this was a 90s DC band that was really good. the singer later
formed Skull Kontrol, which was more goofy, but still really good. the
dude's voice (Chris Thompson) is awesome.
The Damned. I bought some "singles and rarities" CD that is good.
The Clash. I was too punk for the Clash when I was younger but I have been
really into them lately.
I have some early Rolling Stones records that I play a lot, along with a
Stooges record, a Byrds greatest hits record and a Supersuckers live double
LP that are literally in "heavy rotation" on the turntable.
Also, I bought, on Ebay, a Black Flag bootleg CD of some really early demos
from 1978. It's all the same great songs, Nervous Breakdown, etc., just
poorly recorded. I forgot to mention Agent Orange in my e mail. Think 80s surf-punks in matching leather outfits. I saw them once in '87 and they seriously had fucking leather outfits. One dude had red boots, jacket and pants and the other guy had all white. Leather. No shit.

do what you did
Now Playing: avail pink houses
A good friend of mine once told me "if you do what you did, you'll be where you were". I try to remember that, but I sometimes end up in the same broken record mode in both bike riding and every day life. Lately I've been taking in-roads to better bike riding and it makes me happy. I don't really like riding without brakes, but I know when I put brakes back on I'm going to be siked. I also decided that I'm not spelling "psyched" correctly anymore. It requires me to stop and really concentrate on how it is spelled and it bogs me down. Strictly siked from now on. So yeah, trying to learn new things on my bike and not make the same dumb mistakes in my every day life. I know that sounds cryptic but it isn't really. Although there are some pretty major things going on in my non-Deliverance/BMX life right now. Now I am being cryptic. Sorry.
Sean Rakos made it back to Michigan, just in time for the weather that he always cursed when he lived here. We rode TRP on Sunday and it was super fun and just like the old days, Sean really motivated me to make some shit happen. I will add that riding TRP without brakes is pretty hairball. Sean will be working as a tattoo artist in Farmington Hills. I'll post the name of it when I get it. In the meantime, don't forget about Division Tattoo. I need to see Rich about some more work myself.
Sean's old partner in crime, Davey Cooperwasser, is home from his travels abroad and was at Modern tonight. He was blasting high as hell and ripping like always. There are some good photos of him on Team Young Matt Sparks was at Modern tonight as well, which is always a treat. I'm siked that Sparks is on the team.
I know Solan Foster went to the NBL Grands race this past weekend, but he and I have been playing phone tag for two days, so I don't know how he did. Solan, like Hatfield and several other people I know, has "one way" e mail. You know, you e mail someone but they never reply, as if they can only receive e mails but not compose them. Ball buster.
Dane Wild, meanwhile, is good about e mailing, as well as driving back and forth from Binghampton, New York to Detroit (about ten hours each way). He's on his way home to Detroit again right now, which is insane.
shakka.

tick, tick, boom
Now Playing: Agent Orange Everything Turns Grey
I came on here to post and saw that Dane made his first blog entry. I'm stoked.

Dane is an integral part of Deliverance and is kind of my polar opposite in terms of age and such things. Thanks Dane.
I swear sometimes I hear the clock ticking aloud. Days like today where every time I sat down for more than a minute I had a hard time standing back up and a bent-over old man posture every time I did. At the same time, I've been on the road a ton lately (hence the lack of posts) and I've been riding a lot of different parks, even though sometimes it's only for a short time. I'm on kind of a mission right now. I've been trying real hard to learn new stuff and kind of break out from where I've been for the last while, riding-wise. I realized a bit ago that the bike I was riding was simply too much for me. The rear end is so short and the head tube is so steep that it made jumping and airs and such kind of awkward and not comfortable for me. The front brake experiment just added to the situation, but again, I'm taking a lot from these trials. It's like an accelerated learning process, sort of. I've been riding my old PW Moto for the last couple weeks and feeling very liberated. In fact, right now it has no brakes at all it feels great. I saw a sticker on the Port-O-John in Florence, Kentucky last week that read "Do You Believe In Liberation?" That's from a Lungfish song and really, the genesis for my "Liberation" tattoo. The sticker was advertising for a sticker "company" of some sort and I attempted to peel it off to re-stick it on my bike. As I did, the tell-tale lameness of paper sticker disintigration became apparent. Whatever that company is, I wouldn't have any stickers done by them. But no brakes, big bars and a 39-13 are very liberating.
All the parks I've ridden lately have had a really high participant level of ratty, dirty kids. I'm no elitist, but shitty kids running around the park, throwing rocks, getting in the way, not skating or riding or even riding scooters...I don't know. Don't you have anything else to do? Where are your parents? I guess I think about such things as a parent myself. Check out Noah's old man steez on this one. I love how he's looking at the camera as he bashes into everything in his path. Noah is the best.
I got the new Props today and it is really good. I skipped the first segment and watched everything after and it is awesome. I think Props should be owed a debt of gratitude for contributing to the progression of BMX. Personally, I know I would still probably be riding Tuff Wheels and doing one handers without it (I know, that's not far off). Both Dane and Matt Sparks had various clips, so that is radical, bro.
The first segment that I went back to was the FBM trip from a few months ago that I've mentioned about a hundred times on here. I couldn't wait to watch it, but I had to be ready, you know? I wasn't let down. It wasn't just me that had an awesome time on that trip. Everything I've read and every person interviewed in this Props talked about it being the most fun trip ever. The hijinx were not down-played. This shot of Kelly Baker (in the Deliverance Big Bear shirt, no less) exemplifies the fun factor

. When you see the video, note Kelly's ahead-of-the-trend-curve orange front wheel. My life changed for the better the minute I met up with those guys.
The new Deliverance goods should be on the scene very soon. New tees and some hats that I'm very excited about are all in production. Here's a shot of Hatfield and Shannon, his girlfriend and the only kind-of employee of Deliverance, in the limited tye-dye shirts at the Kzoo comp.

Those shirts are even more limited now that a bunch of people bought them, but the new logo will be used on several new items, including the hats. Chris looks like a big, happy, bear in this photo...
Sean Rakos is headed back to Michigan to work in a tattoo shop here, so we're all looking forward to riding with him. Solan Foster is down in Louisville this weekend, racing the NBL grands and in contention for a top National Number. I'm stoked for Solan. Every year since I've lived in Detroit, he always tries to get me to go to races, which I rarely do, but I know how much he loves racing and I'm happy that he's been getting to the races and he has been kicking ass.

Finding a new home.
So this is my first post, Scott has allowed me to throw my two cents into this Deliverance blog. I'll start off with whats been up with me lately. I recently moved out of my lovely home in Livonia, Michigan, and struck new ground here in Binghamton, New York. It's been pretty good, i got my own room. Pictured below.

Its pretty nice, its up on the third story, in the attic, i bought an a/c so its nice and chilly at night. Theres also some nice add-on's in the room. Albe's sent me this phone:

Along with some porn, hense the end of the note. Just this week i got a chance to do some bitch work at FBM for a few bucks, which was nice. I got to put together bar-ends and package them as well as hubguards, i need money. I do actually ride my bike once in a while, and i got to check out Penn-Skate, which is a pretty fun park, but i had a few run in's with a local super hero, who made sure he one upped me on every trick i tried. I even tried to do a table like Scott's, but it was no wear close to his perfection:

It's alright, someday, it'll get there. But thats all the news i have from the hole i call home here in Binghamton, Scroll down and check out the video Tyler posted of the K-Zoo Jam, and have fun.

-Dane Wild

Video Daze....
Kzoo video That there's a link to a Kzoo video that Tyler Deshaine put together. I want to once again thank Tyler

(seen here with like-wise awesome supporter, Joe Gall) for his enthusiasm and dedication to the Kzoo events for the last few years. More later...

meet the street
Now Playing: This Bike is a Pipe BombBoard of Tourism
Hopefully you checked out Team Young and Veteran BMX for more pix and info on the Kzoo comp. I simply didn't have a chance to post any more about it. I want to give a shout out to all the sponsors again, because the prizes were off the charts

DK bikes, Terrible One, Albes, Dan's Comp, Empire BMX, Vclub Clothing, Etnies, FBM, Animal and Dave Davenport really hooked it up. Here's another shot of the White Lotus, Luke McGarry, who is the captain of the style council

Also thanks to Chris Hatfield, who took a lot of the photos in the slideshow (I took this one, though). I forgot to mention that Jason Suchen

won the best trick with a 360-whip over the Pizza Hut box and the $200 Division Tattoo gift certificate that went with it. Rich from Division was the head judge even (he qualified as "head judge" because he added up the scores and told me who the winners were).
Since my last post I've driven over a thousand miles, but I did get to ride the Louisville park three times, which was awesome. One late-night session was with Ernesto from Dan's Comp, which was super fun. I also rode the cement park in Florence early one morning, which was great as well. I don't know if I'm just getting up earlier in my old age or what, but the morning session at Louisville and most of my time at the Florence park, I was the only person in the whole place. It's weird to see the giant Louisville park with no one else there. Of course it was fun but it's kind of scary being there by yourself, you know? I'm back on the road later this morning again, so hopefully I'll get some more time in the saddle.
I've recently discovered Vital BMX and created a Deliverance profile. It's like the Myspace of BMX minus the creepiness (so far). Check out my cool friends. Ha ha.
I kind of blindly paid for these DVDs that this guy I don't know said he was going to put tother on Vintage BMX He listed a whole bunch of 80s videos that he was going to transfer from VHS to DVD and I sent him the money for copies of them, hoping they would show up and be legit. It was a couple months ago and I had pretty much forgotten about it, but they were here when I got home from the road. The first one I watched was the 1988 2-Hip series. Ron Wilkerson was the man in charge of 2-Hip and developed the first half-pipe vert contests and the very first "street" contests for BMX. Before Ron it was the American Freestyle Association and their flatland/quarterpipe contests and a few concrete skatepark contests earlier on (when there were still concrete skateparks in the early 80s). I was at most of the 2-Hip contests and it was funny to see myself standing on the decks, shooting photos and such. Much like now, I usually had some kooky get up going. In the very first shot I had a jean jacket and a head band holding back my long skater-bangs. That wasn't so bad, but later in the video it is revealed that I have that upper torso steez going with a pair of above-the-knee shorts. So horrible.
Then we got to the Meet The Street event. This was the very first street contest, almost comperable to the FBM Ghetto Comps of a couple years ago. It was launch ramps and an old car and a dirt bank to wall-ride. It was one of the most fun BMX events of my life and I am proud to say I took second in the "Good" (expert) class with moves like
It's crazy to think that was almost twenty years ago....
The really embarrassing video is called "Freestylin' USA". I've seen it before, but my wife was
absolutely amazed that I appeared in this "music video" for the Metal MCs.
It was this wanna-be beastie boys band and they filmed a video at this event
in Huntington Beach in a parking lot near the beach. The GT "stonehenge" box jump was
there, which was a McGoo creation that rivals the best box jumps at parks
today. I remember it well, Not-that-hot bikini clad babes and these
absolute kooks, lip-synching and rolling around playing unplugged guitars to
their never-gonna-be-a-hit song "Born to Party" (which was a weak attempt at the Beasties "Fight for your right to party"). I appear with
badly-bleached surfer hair and a couple tricks (that I'm honestly not
embarrassed by) 2/3s of the way through the video. I actually saw this video
on TV one time after I had moved back to Michigan. It is so punishing to watch and it makes me thankful that the 80s are long over with.