dream police
Now Playing: cheap trick dream police
Dreams can be really weird. I've had a few dreams over the last year with Kelly Baker. I guess he's "dreamy". In my latest dream, he jumped all the way over a skatepark. There were a crowd of photographers trying to hone in on our session. I was trying to get a good photo of it but he was so high that he was on his way down when I finally got the shot. It looked a lot like this in my dream...

Man Bags are officially in production, along with belts!

Hard times and Hondas
Now Playing: Lucero The Mountain
Nanu, nanu. Mork calling Orson, come in Orson. Don't remember Mork and Mindy? Shoulda been born sooner, I guess.

I was born a long time ago, but I was still just a youngin' when my Honda was made. Although I've been thinking "Harley" for the last couple of years, my budget has been saying "old Honda". I've had this bike for a long time and it's a good one. I've been tinkering with it and making some mods that will streamline it, make it lighter, tighter and cooler. I put a 21 inch front wheel on and switched from a disc brake to a drum brake. That's like taking off your 990s and putting on a sidepull caliper, but it looks cool. Kind of a 70s flat-tracker influence. Flat track racing used to be on Wide World of Sports on Sunday. Mork and Mindy was on Thursday.
Hatfield, Fro Ardelean, Solan SF Foster and myself made a pilgrimage south yesterday to ride the cement outdoor park in Toledo. On the way, we decided to make a pit stop at the Monroe park. I rode this park last month without incident and Chris (that's Hatfield) and his boys have ridden it a few times without a problem, although it is posted as "No Bikes Allowed". We were there less than ten minutes when Johnny Law rolls up and saunters his mustachioed mug into the park. "How would you guys like $100 fines for riding your bikes in here?" Sweet. My go-to response to this age-old predicament is simply "okay thanks" and quietly leave. It doesn't do any good to protest. That's what the insecure, poor self-esteem having cop with the authority trip and Daddy issues wants. He wants to have a reason to be a dick and I find a certain pleasure in the let down of non-resistance. Chris, on the other hand, decided to take "one last run" across the park on his way out. I could have written a script for how the next fifteen minutes would go down. Cop calls Chris over, makes him go to his car, checks his ID, doesn't give him a ticket but gives a lecture and a hard time. Just to waste time. What a waste of time. I know all cops aren't like this but it seems like the ones we encounter always are.
After breaking out of there, we made it to the hood of Toledo for the cement park. It was awesome. "Can you hit a tailwhip?" Trash-talking kids always. Rats on scooters. Rats on bikes. Rats in the hallway, rats in the sewer. What are you gonna do? I'll take rats over cops any day...
Road Fools 15 is out and awesome. Crandall is rocking the Deliverance 77 sweatshirt multiple times and thank you for that. Sparks and Dane both make cameos as well. Props for the props in Props, ya'll.

Wages Of Sin
This is a photo from the Modern park, taken a couple weeks ago by Jeff Tabb.

Every couple sessions there is that kid that is there for the first time and going back and forth across the park, perpindicular to the flow. Everyone swerves and brakes to avoid him and ultimately, someone takes him out. On this night it was me. I felt really bad. The kid was shaken up and it just bummed me out. I even went and talked to his mom. Thanks Jeff, for reminding me of how awesome the incident was.
This photo was taken by the legendary Chris Hallman at Chenga one a few years ago. It makes me feel better about myself to post this...

This is a photo of me and the guy that pretty much invented BMX, Scot Breithaupt. He has fallen on hard times and I wish him the best.

Here's a couple shots of my old ass bikes:

and another one of my old school heroes, Greg Grubbs...

• Sean Rakos started tattooing himself at the age of 11. It's kind of a long story that involves Sony Walkmans, his sister's guitar and older kids who are a bad influence. To celebrate a life-time of tattoos (and Friday the 13th), Sean will be tattooing the #13 on anyone who wants one for 13 bucks!! Email Sean if you need any info.
seanrakos@sbcglobal.net The shop where Sean works is called N2SKIN
and it's in Farmington Hills on the east side of 12 mile off of
orchard lake from 696. Shitty tattoos are funny (let me tell you)...

Out in New York, FOD Kelly Baker has been going back to the Future on a bike from 1985.

Kelly rules it.

falling up
Now Playing: Elton John Spirit In the Sky
1300 miles in three days. Hammer down. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is magically beautiful this time of year and at the same time, mostly devoid of activity. The towns are few and far between and the roads are mellow. It would have been great had I not been sick (and getting sicker). I've been laid out all weekend and it sucks because it was beautiful here as well. The last time I rode was Tuesday morning for a bit at the outdoor park in Gaylord. It's a fun park and was a nice mid-drive break. I took Brodie with me again and though she didn't poop at the skatepark, she almost pooped in one of the shops I was at. I couldn't believe it--this dog has never once pooped in the house. I think she was confused. It was a close one. Here she is on the beach, looking pretty stoked.

I wish I had something more to report but I haven't spoken to anyone or done anything after my being on the road last week and being asleep most of the weekend. Here's me, ruining what could have otherwise been a postcard:

Brodie took that shot. If you ever find yourself complaining about a lack of spots or that your skatepark sucks, don't move to Norway, Michigan...

test pattern
new tees!

The Test Pattern tees came out real well. I know the "all over" print is the trendy right now, but I don't give no fucks. My printer wanted to kick my ass as I stood over his shoulder with "suggestions", but I don't care because they came out awesome.
We had a Cobras Local 77 reunion last night at TRP with Solan, Phil Rase, Sean Rakos and a few others. Sparks showed up later on, which is always a treat.

That's Sparks in the background and Sean looking intimidating in the front. Yeah dogs.

FOD Feature: Kelly Baker
Now Playing: 2 Live Crew Face Down, Ass Up
Here's the next installment of FOD spotlight, straight from the keyboard and mind of Newark Valley, New York's Kelly Baker:

My bike is a FBM pw moto with mostly FBM and profile parts. a couple
different things about it are a sealed suzue front hub on a old araya rim
that is painted bright orange. Marvin guts that I have had for like 7 years
(he asked for like 3 dollars for them to cover materials). A mirra seat
which is something different nowadays (soon to be a FBM seat). Always a
comp 3 on the front. Thats about it for the whip, nothing too special.
As for riding stories, It seems like I have a endless supply. Meeting
new people going new places, going to your favorite places with your
favorite people and so on. I want to tell about yesterday 9-27-06. We have
had a ton of rain this summer so trail sessions haven't been enough.
Yesterday was a beautiful day outside. I was at work and my wife (laura)
called and said "honey it is a nice day out I bet the trails are dry . You
should ride." So instantly I started emailing and calling my buds that I
knew were around and that would probably be down for riding. Some said they
had stuff to do so I laid the old "hey it is close to the end of the
season. It may be our last session". My brother, Kim and tomcat came with
me and about 5 others met us up at the acres. We raked all the leaves and
rocks off the trails. This time of year is great because it isn't too hot,
the leaves act like little tarps and keep the perfect moisture in the
trails. The trails were perfect smooth and after a bit they got blue
grooves. Everyone there gives everyone props when riding. We lit the piles
of leaves on fire (I love the smell of the burning leaves).We had the tunes
cranking. All the lines were going and we rode untill we could see anymore
(because it was dark). The special thing about this story is the simple
beauty of the session. Just riding awsome trails with awsome friends and
having a awsome time doing it. That is one of my favorite things about
riding, nothing has to be too fancy to have the best time riding. Sessions
like last night will keep me riding my bike forever.
Some things I like are my family (love), my friends, our home, BMX,
MX, Benny Baker is my favorite rider (my 5 year old son who rips), going
camping, playing with my children, waking up thinking I'm late for work and
realizing its saturday and I don't have work,old BMX bikes, and I guess
just plain old realizing how good my life really is.
Some of the things I dislike are getting flat tires, breaking
chains, rained out sessions, being arrested, paying fines, going to jail,
riding with dudes that talk about themselves and the tricks they are doing
constantly, making my wife upset, seeing any of my family sad, pork brains
and milk gravy, stepping in dog shit at the trails, crashing hard,
skateparks closing forever, and throttle grip. I'm sure there are more but
that is some that comes to mind now.
Things that scare me are anything bad happening to my family, nose
casing big landings,hurting my back, drowning in flooded rivers, almost
being kidnapped when I was a kid, snakes,heights, and zipping my dick up in
my zipper. Not being able to ride BMX scares me because I seriously don't
know what I would do with myself to take its place.I have been riding for
2/3's of my life, I'm 40. It is without a doubt part of who and what I am.
Kelly

it could be worse
Now Playing: Built To Spill The Plan
If you're ever feeling oppressed for being a lowly bike rider, just know that it could always be worse. Built to Spill is playing tonight in Detroit and Hatfield and his crew went to see them. I really dig this band and would have loved to have seen them play, but I just couldn't. I wanted to see my family tonight and I have work stuff early in the AM. I did ride Modern for an hour and it was fun. I also rode the new public park in Holt, Michigan this morning for a bit. This may be the most dangerous park I've ever been to. Don't get me wrong, it is a good park and it was fun with lots of obstacles, big boxes, subs, weird rails and nice quarters. Some of the layout was kind of funky. For example, it was hard to get speed for the boxes. The sketchy parts were all the sharp metal edges and super narrow ramps and a full staircase off the deck of the mini and man, a bunch of stuff. I can't imagine how many little beginner kids have been hurt at the place by rolling off the side of ramps or falling off the decks or cutting themselves on the edges of the boxes. They are the same pre-fab ramps as the Wyandotte park, but at least there the design of the park makes more sense. I had a good time riding it and if it were closer I would ride it all the time, it's real good, just super sketchy. I know there were some photos of it on Veteran BMX but I couldn't find them just now. I need some pix. Anyone reading this, feel free to send photos over....

The Man Bags are finally in production...

Possessed to Skate
Now Playing: Suicidal Tendencies
In 1984, when MTV was only a couple years old, someone told me that they had seen a video for Suicidal Tendencies' "Possessed to Skate". I remember watching MTV for like two days straight at a friends house (we couldn't get cable where I lived--not, "we didn't have it", we couldn't get it) hoping to see this video. Instead, Tina Turner, INXS, Big Country, Madonna and Men At Work were in heavy rotation. I never got to see that stupid video, until now. God bless the internet.