I’m working as fast as I can.


Am I on a roll, or am I stuck in a ditch?

I can’t even tell anymore.

One thing I know for certain is that I have been shaking the sheets and digging hand over first to the very bottom of the internet to turn out gems such as this clip of The Cure fronted by a young John Cusack, sounding an awful lot like Robert Smith;

Nineteen.

Seventy.

Nine…

It’s only when I find clips like this, or if you will, old footage of The Birthday Party do I realize how profound their influence actually was;

I’ve spoken a great deal about a theory I have regarding what I call ‘the four pillars of rock and roll’. This is basically the four artists in history who made something from nothing, and changed everything that existed afterwords. In no particular order, it’s The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Black Sabbath, and The Stooges.

You can challenge me on this if you like, but I’ll go ahead and say right now that you’re wrong.

If there were additional legs on say, an adjoining coffee table for example, I would be foolish not to include The Cure in there somewhere.

Indeed, what a time it is, and was, to be alive.

Really, from that point, we have nowhere to go but straight down.

Or at the very least, laterally.

An old Bay Area chum of mine named Dayton reached out with some info that I might like to spread around here though, not unlike a bed of soft and comfy leaves;

Hey Stevil –
Just a note here, as I still, after 10 years away from full time Bay Area residency, part time Soil Saloon buffoonery, I have not quit enjoying your ascerbic writings and exposition of the (non-bummer) life out on the interwebs. Keep it up.

I now live in a vastly different place, called Logan Utah, which is an incredibly beautiful valley to the north of the state, with a little university, a few towns, and 80% of residents who only miss church on sunday if its a Saturday.

There’s also nice trail network that I have the pleasure of working full time to try to move forward and expand with partners in the community, the forest service, and local ski mountains. I also work now as the de-facto ‘Active Transportation Guy’ in the area, battling stodgy public works engineers as professionally as I know how.

Part (the best?) of that is putting on Bike to Work Week. I wanted to share our promotional poster with you, partially because I’m real proud of my GIS savvy friend figuring out a custom python script to make my dream of imitating Joy Division’s cover but utilizing our mountain terrain real;

And, I also wanted to know if I could use your blog to see if anyone else in this odd little corner of the woods reads your blog – if someone in this valley does, I’ll know I’ve found a riding (and tomfoolery) partner. So if you post this, and someone comes to these events because they saw it on your site, they should tell me so. Then we could really cause a ruckus.

Hooray bikes, hooray riding them instead of driving. Also, come visit if you need to get away from it all.

-Dayton.

So there you have it. One part notification to any and all who might reside in Logan who also looks at this site, and one part plea for a compatriot in shenanigans for Dayton.

If that sounds of interest, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let’s get the AHTBM lonely hearts club sorted out.

In other news of bikecycle related events where people might find their soulmates, it was through Benjamin that I came to find out about an alleycat race happening in The City by The Bay® on the 15th of this month;

Next Saturday!!!
Reg: 11
Start: noon
$10 reg fee
1st men and 1st WTF split the cash.
BBQ after-party.


I’m not sure what ‘WTF split the cash’ means, but obviously, the more people who show up, the bigger the purse will be, so come one and all, and spend the day playing in traffic, if that’s your idea of a good time.

Then, from Kyle I got a shout regarding an enterprise he’s just launched out there in my home state of Colorado;

Hey Stevil,

I am starting my own suspension service business to compete for that ever thinning slice o’ the pie, and because working for other people generally isn’t as fun and stressful. Anyway, I am running a fundraiser / jersey sale to start the season off right. The pre-order store closes in a few days and I’d like to get some more people going on it if there is time.

About the jersey: It has pink flamingos on it cause John Waters, and COLD PIZZA WARM BEER down the arms cause drinkin’ and screwing around. It’s a 3/4 sleeve MTB “Freeride” jersey from Podium Wear but shouldn’t fit like a total bro hamster Limp Bizkit tour shirt or anything. Jerseys are $90 shipped to continental US;



A jersey purchase also gets you 20% your suspension services for the season, IE include your receipt and your RP23 shock overhaul is cheaper. Booya! Hoping to be out at a few races this year for NRS too. Anyway I can get a shout out for this? Thanks.

Kyle @ Oil Path

So make a note of that. Assuming you’re not one of those fully rigid luddite kooks, and you want to get your boinger parts freshed out, give Kyle a shout.

For no reason at all, this reminds me that it was just on Wednesday when I was monkeying around in my own shop, I stumbled across a box of Dank cüzies that were made for me for an art show we had back in 2014;


If you might like to procure one of the numbers for yourself, all you have to do is head to the store and drop six measly dollars.

Lastly, as I pull up my stakes, and blow out the candles here on today’s effort, I’d like to finally let folks know that as you read these words, I’m on my way to San Francisco to pick up the order of our Respect Women/Worship Satan goods;

I’ve scheduled a date with my post office ladies at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow morning, and will be getting them out, and the confirmation emails off by then.

It might seem like an easy gig from the outside, but like a frog named Kermit franticly bangs on his old-timey typewriter, I’ve got my nose to the grindstone, and am working as fast as my little, spindly green fingers will allow.

Spread this like it's sick

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10 Responses to “I’m working as fast as I can.”

  1. Paul Edmunds May 4, 2018 at 6:53 am #

    Stevil – Yours about the 4 pillars etc is a good argument and I won’t disagree. There are others though, and when I’m feeling naughty, I like to say it all comes down to the Velvet Underground and The Byrds. It’s not perfect, but it’s an argument.

    • Stevil May 4, 2018 at 8:19 am #

      Like I said, there are additional coffee tables, footstools, and so forth. The primary table however, is unwavering.

  2. John D May 4, 2018 at 8:14 am #

    Roast Beef has opinions on The Cure. They are silly.

    http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06262002

  3. N/A May 4, 2018 at 9:33 am #

    Music is a living thing, man. I think it’s wicked hard to try to pin down anybody who “who made something from nothing” ’cause everybody is influenced by something. Perhaps it’s fair to suggest that they took an influence and made something utterly unique and their own? Any of the awesomest artists do that, I guess. I accept the fact that I’m wrong about all of this.
    Definately a fun topic for some barstool philosophizing.

    I will have to go exploring some old tunes on the Youtube this weekend. Find some MC5 and see where it takes me.

    • Stevil May 4, 2018 at 10:07 am #

      At the tip of The MC5’s root, you will find The Stooges.:)

      • N/A May 4, 2018 at 10:19 am #

        That’s what made me think of it.

        I’m prone to falling down rabbit holes. Wikipedia, Youtube, etc. That’s what makes this subject fun for me.
        After that last post, I was thinking about Sabbath songs to listen to, and that leads to Dio, then Rainbow, then Whitesnake, and next thing you know I’m buying acid-washed jeans on ebay and my wife is yelling at me to turn the damn speakers down!

  4. JP May 4, 2018 at 10:55 am #

    I needed that Cure video as I wash away a little sadness with whiskey just now. Damn they were good.

  5. Sniff May 4, 2018 at 1:00 pm #

    But we all know Sabbath is #1

  6. Rick May 5, 2018 at 4:10 am #

    Your four pillars are solid, but none of them would exist without the blues. After all, the blues had a baby, and they named it rock and roll.

  7. devo May 5, 2018 at 3:20 pm #

    I don’t know if you meant for this to happen, Stevil, but when things really get cooking in The Cure song scroll back up and watch Kermit just give’er, in time, on the typewriter. Beauty.