Ch- ch- ch- changes.

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We all go through them. Except for me. I’m a Virgo, and my people don’t care for change. As such, I’m exactly the same person I was the day I moonwalked out of the womb, save for lack of tolerance of egomaniacal sociopaths.

First up- I may have made mention of this previously, but some time ago after looking at a piece of artwork made by local cyclist Crizzle Wells (that didn’t have anything to do with bikes, by the way), Bay Area photo queen Pamela Palma declared that a group show should happen. Agreeing with her, I told her to make it so. Longish story short, she partnered with Jeff Hantman and Lost And Foundry and actually turned her vision into a reality;
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The artists that will be involved in the show are Alexis Arnold, Bridget May, Chris Mcnally, Kim Miskowicz, Mansur Nurullah, Chris Wells, Erik Zo, the previously mentioned Pamela Palma, and Jeff Hantman, and myself, if I in fact could be considered an ‘artist‘. Which I don’t think I would be.

Anyway, if you happen to be compelled to make your way to the shady part of town, we’ll be there slapping hands, and partaking in a pile of refreshments that was very generously provided by none other than Olympia Beer, which I am mightily happy to resume a relationship with since the change of leadership, wherein they finally rid themselves of the previous kook owners, and that wretched poison of which, I dare not speak;
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Bless their bubbly, golden souls.

If you think the artwork sucks, just drink until it’s good.

In other news of events that you can’t live without attending, Benjamin from Seattle’s Back Alley Bike Repair got in touch with a bash he’ll have to answer for that’s going down in a week;
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There will be prizes and hi-jinx galore, so if you can extract yourself from your mossy hollow long enough, (I assume anyone who lives in Seattle resides in a mossy hollow), make a note to attend. It promises to be a soggy good time.

As a staunch proponent of independently owned and operated bike shops, it does my heart good to see Benjamin killing it. Conversely, it kills me to get an email like the following one I received from Dave Q Pryor regarding some nefarious nonsense out there in Philly;

Stevil,

Speaking of needing better days ahead, our mutual friend Simon’s shop got heisted over the weekend

That there’s some fucked up shit.

You can bet there will be a special place in H-E double hockey sticks for that individual.

And furthermore, Dave Q Pryor prefaced that email, with another one that was a bit of a black cloud on an otherwise sunny day;

If you’d like credit for ruining Bilenky Junkyard ‘Cross with your crass-commercializationing, well better you’re than me…

“The 10th Anniversary of Bilenky Junkyard ‘Cross is on hold for a year. Venue rental and insurance costs have skyrocketed out of range. We’ll start saving our nickels & dollar handups, shop around for other potential junkyards, and continue to look for a generous sponsor for 2016.
“Maybe Bilenky Junkyard ‘Cross is the victim of its own success — but it definitely wasn’t suffocated by your love. Or Steve Bilenky’s. In fact, if you see Stephen give him a hug. He worked really hard to keep this from happening

-Dave Pryor, Junkyard CX Race Promoter.

Not sure you wanna publish the bad news on AHTBM, but it’s really the only forum worthy of an “official announcement.” And sorry I didn’t send you that Friday, but I’ve had a LOT of beers drowning my sorrow that pulling off the impossible sometimes is impossible.

Plus I was watching this about a jizzilion times…

Then this feature film, which is so classy I opened up a jug of wine…

A lot of amazing crazy shit’s gone done over the 9 years. Broken bones, toes broken clean off, dignities destroyed, but probably the most amazing is when the race happened through 22″ of snow…

The 2013 edition, which together with SSCXWC13Philly made the most deranged weekend in cyclocross history…

This is also the year Junkyard ‘Cross might’ve jumped the shark (“LeSabre” is French for “the shark” right?)…

And finally, “Recycle-ing”…

Anyhoo, that’s enough looking back. Hopefully you can fly out next year for the 10th Bilenky Junkyard ‘Cross — Aged 11 Years in Bourbon Barrels. We’ll pick you up at the airport in a sweet LeSabre.

Ok, enough pseudo-officiallness. Glad your knee is doing better, that both your middle fingers still work well enough to type out your blog goodness, and hope you have a fucktastic holidays and ’16.

Clink.

I’ve only ever attended any of these debacles in spirit, and I look forward to taking advantage of Dave Q Pryor’s very generous offer. That is, assuming Simon will allow a corpo-scourge like me to attend.

As I said in the introduction of today’s post, I don’t care for change, these developments certainly being of the variety that is especially unsavory.
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One Response to “Ch- ch- ch- changes.”

  1. simon December 12, 2015 at 1:44 pm #

    Funny story, I was at the dog park this morning & got in to a conversation about the junkyard X, as you do, & this dude Joe tells me he has some awesome videos on youtube, one of a guy falling off the ramp in 2010. The dude who gave me the dog I was walking is Varun & that is also the guy falling off the ramp & the ramp is what the huge piece of steel fell off the day before the race & resulted in my toe getting amputated. anyways, get well soon ya corpo-scourge
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb5VuXhE6D4