too legit to quit
Now Playing: minutemen the cheerleader
We're coming up on four years of the Deliverance Clothing Co., which is pretty remarkable considering everything that has gone down since the inception of this project. I've come real close to shutting things down a couple times. It just seemed like it wasn't worth the hassle. This "company" started as kind of an art project for me. I never intended for it to grow to be anything very big, I just wanted it to support itself. It has, kind of, but really it has served its purpose for me, personally. I like designing stuff, whether it's borrowing (stealing?) the logo from an obscure malt liquor or coming up with something late at night after drinking malt liquor, I get a kick out of this gig. Unfortunately, I also have a very full time job and a family and I like to actually ride my bike and skateboard when I can schedule it in. Believe me when I say that any time on my bike is scheduled into that day. I know, to read this blog it seems like I just cruise around and go to skateparks, but the reality is that I am on the road, working and if I'm lucky, I get to ride at the end of the day or maybe in the morning for a bit. The last trip took me all the way down to the bottom of Ohio and you can read all about that in the post below if you wish. I got to ride Athens the next morning after that last post and it was awesome. I got there and only one dude was skating. I was skating the park and let Brodie, pictured below, run around while I did so. She's a really well behaved dog and my only concern was that she would hurt herself trying to run up and down the walls of the park. Brodie had knee surgery for a blown MCL a couple years ago so we have to keep her under control. So I'm skating around, loosening up before switching to my bike and Brodie's having a great old time. Then, I see her from the corner of my eye, kind of frozen in the middle of the park. "Oh crap, she's hurt" was my first thought. No, she was actually taking a giant-sized poop right square in the middle of the park. I couldn't believe it. I cleaned up like nothing happened and tied her up, where she chilled while I rode my bike. Athens always makes me feel like kind of a wimp, but I had a great time regardless and I pulled a couple things I hadn't done before.
Getting back to Deliverance. I think I have this mental thing that keeps me from going all out with it. Like I so badly don't want it to fail that I only put half effort into it or something. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. I don't know who "they" are though and I've never been a very good listener. Part of what seems like a half-assed effort is that my printer also has a real job besides printing shirts so he takes kind of a long time as well.
That being said, tomorrow (Monday) marks a new beginning for Deliverance Clothing. Both Dan's Comp and Last Call Distribution (finally!) will have new product on hand and hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have news regarding even more distribution. There is a new catalog in the works as well. Here's a peek at the new button packs...

Also, make sure you check this out, as well as this.

Road Dogs
Now Playing: Lucero 1979

About once I year I decide that while I'm out on the road for work, I'm going to camp out instead of staying in a hotel. The weather has cooled off, so I brought our dog Brodie with me. She has to hang out in the van while I'm in some of my shops so the weather has to be cool. She's great in the car and a real chill companion. As always happens when I have this great idea to camp, I didn't make it to the campground until it was pitch-black darkness. For your camping reference, Deer Creek State Park in Southern Ohio looks easy on the map, but it's really hard to find. Setting up the tent with a flashlight dangling from a pole is an aggravating event. After I fumbled around with the tent it was time to build a fire. Brodie hates fire for some neurotic reason so I have to set up the tent first so she can get away from the demonic flames. I had kindling, dry firewood, some paper and nice wooden matches. Should have been easy, right? I started working on the fire before nine and ate my swoth* after eleven PM. It was ridiculous, but I wasn't bored. Cutting up tempeh and vegetables on a box with a cheap hunting knife I use to open boxes in the dark is a clumsy, dangerous experience. I managed to not cut any fingers off, which was awesome. I got this aluminum mesh thing to put the swoth on and it melted in the fire, causing the foil to break open and half my food to dump out on the ground. The potatoes and carrots weren't cooked all the way (how F-ing long do they have to cook for?), but it was some good eats.

(*swoth is Derek Girard speak for a bunch of food cut up and cooked in a tin-foil envelope). I only had a real thin sleeping bag and a sweatshirt, along with a small blanket that I put under the bag to pad the rocks the tent was on. I went right to sleep but woke up in the middle of the night freezing my ass off. There was no warming up, so flopping over from side to side kept me entertained. I fell back asleep but woke up to some mysterious sounds. I put all of my food in the van or in the tent, but Brodie's food was outside the tent in a plastic tub with a tight-fitting lid. There was a racoon (I assume) trying to rangle her food. I didn't want to send Brodie out for fear of her getting roughed up by a rabid coon and I sure as hell wasn't going out there, so I just let it go on. What seemed like days later I woke up to the sun shining and emerged from the tent to find Brodie's food tub about 50 feet away with the lid right next to it. So the coon must have carried it away, using its thumbs, then managed to get the lid off. The weird thing was that most of the food was still there. Brodie was stoked and I was just shaking my head at my cartoon-like life. I guess I set myself up for this shit.
We stopped to check out the Deer Creek damn and took the above pic. It was a big damned dam.
Back on the road, I'm cruising down these crazy country roads with literally no shoulder whatsoever. I'm an allergy sufferer and I sneezed. The next thing I know, we are off the road, straddling the shoulder 50/50 with the ditch trying to drag us in at 60 mph. If you've ever driven in deep snow and had the shoulder try to suck you in, where you can't steer back onto the road--it just won't go back, it was like that. This went on for what seemed like an eternity. Long enough for me to think "We are going to roll this fucker". I finally got the bus back on the road and I was pouring sweat with my heart pounding. I drive all the time and lots of sketchy stuff happens, but this was really scary. I always think something like that will happen when I'm fiddling with my Ipod or looking for my phone or the map, but a frigging sneeze almost did Brodie and I in.
I'm went way south in Ohio, right at the "tri-state" point where Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia all meet. It's the hillbilly south. Broken down trailers, houses that look like they haven't been inhabited for twenty years, cars on blocks, dogs on chains, stray dogs (it just kills me to see neglected dogs), rebel flags and the most racist, un-PC of all lawn decor, the Lawn Jockey. I couldn't believe someone actually had one of those fucking things in their yard.
The road north from the sad south was even sketchier than the one that almost took us out earlier, but it was so winding, hilly and narrow that I drove at "10 & 2" the entire way. I also spotted this

. I actually turned around, found a spot to park, got my bike out and rode up to check it out. It was big enough to ride, but it had a bunch of crap in the bottom and it just didn't seem like a good idea to climb the barbed wire fence to try to ride it. Images from the movie that shares the name of this clothing company came to mind.
I got to the awesome Athens park with some time to ride before the sun went down. I let Brodie run around while I skated for a bit and she was barking at dudes and running around the park. It was funny, but I didn't want her to get hurt or cause an accident. I tied her to a tree and she was real good while I rode. There were a few skaters, a couple roller bladers (people still roller blade down south, I guess), an older kid on a Razor scooter and a couple dudes on bikes. It was real chill and a good time. This one skater looked real familiar. I've been to Athens a couple times a year since it opened so recognizing someone isn't really odd, but with this dude it was bugging me, like I knew I recognized him for a reason. We had spoken for a minute about Dinosaur Jr. because of the shirt he was wearing, so for me to ask the following wasn't too awkward: "Uh, a couple years ago, did a dude on a bike run into you in that bowl over there, making you fall really hard and hit your head in that bowl there?", I said, pointing to the location of the incident. "Yeah, that sucked". I recognized him because I almost killed him in '04 when Sean Rakos, Hatfield and I were at the park. It was horrible. He hit his head really hard and was obviously hurting. It was really both are faults and the collsion happened in a total blindspot, but I felt like a real dick for being "that guy" on a bike that takes out the skater. He was cool about it when it happened and he was still cool about it when I brought it up, but I still feel real bad about it....

FOD Feature
I want to start doing periodic features on FODs (Friends Of Deliverance). First up is Jason Burton, who is an engineer and father of two. He's a quiet, un-assuming guy with smooth style and lots of bike control. Here's a shot of his custom-made bike and the specs, straight from Jason:

Frame: I designed the frame and built it at Brew Bikes in North Carolina. I picked the tube sizes/thickness, set up the jig how I wanted it, cut the tubes and fitted them, and cut the dropouts. They did all the welding on it. It's got a 74.5? head tube , 21" top tube, 13.75" rear end, and weighs 4.6 lbs. There are more specs on it in one of the older blogs on this site.

Fork: Hoffman Bikes Flash Race Fork (Used off and on since about 1998. Even though it's a race fork, this fork is probably beefier than some of the lightweight forks built these days such as Pitchfork XLT's or Odyssey race forks.)
Stem: Cardboard Lords (small rider owned company from OKC that made number plates primarily. They also made frames, forks, and stems for a little while. This is one of them from around 1994)
Bars: S&M Dive Bars (circa 1998, cut down to about 25 inches)
Grips: Eastern O.G. (I got them because they're dark blue and remind me of DK Vice Grips, which I like)
Bar Ends: Plastic
Brakes: None
Headset: Kink Integrated
Cranks: Profile Race 177mm (I'm wanted to drop down from riding 180mm's and couldn't commit to going to 175mm)
Sprocket: FBM 6013 33 tooth
Bottom Bracket: Eastern euro
Spindle: Profile Titanium
Pedals: XS (Shimano DX copies made by Schwinn's parts company XS around 1998. The spindles have been replaced when they've gotten bent. The reason I keep using these pedals is they've got a small raised ridge in between the pins that allows my feet to move around easily with light pressure but they still grip well with heavy pressure)
Chain: KMC 410 (red box)
Front Tire: Tioga Comp III 2.125
Front Rim: Araya 7B (circa 1978, 7B's remind me of motorcycle rims)
Front Hub: Shimano DX (loose ball bearing, circa 1978)
Rear Tire: Primo Dirt Monster 1.95
Rear Rim: Araya 7B (circa 1978)
Rear Hub: Shimano DX cassette w/ 12 t Odyssey cog (hub is loose ball bearing circa 1978)
Spokes: DT Swiss (I'm guessing they're 14 gauge. Again circa 1978)
Seat: Selle Italia Flite (I got it because I like racing saddles and it's blue, but I think I need to get in line with modern bmx seats that are shorter don't get in the way as much)
Post: Generic micro-adjust from Nashbar (Like a poor man's Thomson but only cost $20 back in 2003)
Clamp: Integrated with frame (I'd always wanted this feature on a frame but heard that it doesn't work well. It didn't at first but I took care of that. See mods below)

Mods: Seat post is cut. Bars are cut. A little bit cut off the outer flange on the grips near the bar ends. The front axle is 5/16" so I made spacers to locate it in the fork dropout. Primo Andy's Nuts hold the rear wheel in place in the 14 mm dropout slot. The integrated seat post clamp just wanted to pinch as I tightened it and didn't hold real well when I first built up the frame. I added some real small shims just behind the allen bolt where it pinches and now it holds much better; on par with the single clamps around today. Almost everything is painted dark blue except for the wheels.

I think that the bike weighs around 23 pounds. I like the way it rides and it holds up well to my wimpy riding.

I realize this bike check is insanely long and detailed, but I can't ride right now due to injury so typing this is my BMX fix for now.
Look for more of this kind of thing in the near-future. There are a couple more posts below...

full circle
Now Playing: Lucero Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers LP
Chris Hatfield got hit by a car last night.

Now, here's the good part. It was about 3am and he, Ted Van Orman and Dan Closser were riding some banks at an undisclosed location after spending some time at a local drinking establishment. According to Chris, he was doing a rollback on his bike (which features a freecoaster and no brakes), when a cop-car came flying through the parking lot and directly into Chris' drunken, backward path. He hit the car and flipped over, smacking his head on the ground, as well as breaking off a mirror and denting the door of the cop car. He said Dan and Ted, as well as the cop, were freaking out, thinking he was really hurt. Chris said he was okay, but kept calling the cop "dude". They made him take a breath-alyzer, but let him off, probably due to the liability factor of the cop almost running him over. Getting a DUI on your bike would suck, wouldn't it? I'm glad Chris is okay. At the same time, I would pay money to see a video clip of the entire incident.
We had a little session at TRP tonight that was supposed to be with Sean Rakos, but he got held up at the tattoo shop inking a Tazmanian devil smoking a doobie for a kid's 18th birthday present. Davey Coop and Evan Malburg were in action when I showed up, followed by Chris K. and Stewie. Lots of good stuff went down.

Chris K goes so high and does such weird, unique tricks. Nothing weird about this one except his lack of clothing.

Here's where the photo "theme" starts. What Brian Stewart is doing here is a super cool nose-pick on this quarter, but it is essentially a "curb endo", albeit an extremely difficult version of one. The curb endo dates back to the late 70s and is one of the oldest freestyle tricks there are.

Next, we have Davey Cooperwasser with a Lawn-mower tire tap on the big ledge in the "street" room. Again, an insanely tough trick to pull on this obstacle, but the basis of the Lawnmower (it's a "Powermower", technically) can be traced to early-80s intermediate-level flatland.

Lastly, Evan Malburg is more-or-less performing what was known as a "Miami Hopper" in the mid-80s. Evan was referring to it as a "toboggan" foot-jam, but the Miami Hopper came first. A lot of broken Tuff Wheels and bent forks came from Miami Hoppers attempts in '84, but Evan's technique is artfully agile.
I enjoyed taking photos but at the end of the session I realized I had spent more time behind the lens than behind my handlebars. I needed some action shots! Action, action, action! The "Draft Dodger" hats are getting lots of attention already. Siked.

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.