Is everybody ok?


Well, January 17th has come and gone, and as near as I can tell, and as it’s ever been, the world’s still turning. If you weren’t aware, the 17th was the day that state governments were supposed to be toppled by people who think that they’re saving society from a well organized group of lizard people child traffickers or whatever, offer yourself a favor and do no hunting for information on it. It will only cause your face to bunch up in such a way that will harken echos of your mom saying “if you keep making that face, it’ll stay that way“.

And speaking of twisting one’s face into knots, that has certainly been my sport of choice the last couple of months, as it would seem the final minutes on the clock of my existence here in Oakland are running out. I haven’t made my requests so specific, but I figure after pouring over various real estate listings both locally and across the country, I might make a public pitch here as well just simply in order to have more eyeballs peeled. In my head I’ve been running down a list of necessary components I’d be looking for in as far as a new place of residence.

I’m not terribly picky, but I need a place to run my business, and set up a studio/shop. Since weed was legalized in California, and especially since the Ghostship fire, shop space is impossible to come across. There certainly are less expensive places in this great nation of ours to live than the Bay Area, and I’m not opposed to pulling up stakes and heading there, (wherever ‘there’ is), but ideally I’d have a space in which to fall into. Because the All Hail The Black Market web project would be my primary source of income should I leave Oakland, I think it would be important to hit the ground running as it were, so I can’t exactly couch surf for a couple of months while I look for a new spot to hang the proverbial shingle.

Like my old place? Which in the time since I’ve been gone has gotten polished to a blinding sheen;

God knows that spot no longer goes for six hundred and fifty American bucks a month.

I tell you what, friends- This entire process, all ten months of it, coupled with the fact that I’ve been attempting to do it in the midst of the pandemic has brought me to my already battered knees.

This plea is a hail Mary, in the hopes that it might find its way into someone’s radar who, I don’t know- maybe happens to have a line on a small empty store front in which a broken 50 year old developmentally arrested man-child can begin to reestablish his life after getting the carpet pulled out of underneath what he’d blindly thought was going to be his forever.

I understand that these days folks have much more important battles to wage than this. I just ask that folks keep their ears to the ground, and reach out if something crosses their radar.

As always, I thank you for your time and consideration on this matter.

Moving on from my imminent residence in a ditch to a throwback from BIKE Magazine that I’ve kept on hand in the event that anyone ever needed a reminder about just why we do what we do;


For the sake of full disclosure, I have no idea what year that article came out, but I still think about The Leveler a lot.

Like, a real lot…

Like, every time I ride the right bike on the wrong terrain, or vice versa, which is nearly every time I ride a bike.

What’s he doing these days, and I wonder if he knows that people still think about him? Does he know he helped color the reality of people he’ll never meet, or that he was the unwitting architect of legions of people’s mode of operation? I’d say it a better than likely bet that he doesn’t, and maybe it’s better that way.

Not that expect most folks have, but has anyone read the story about a typewriter I turned into a zine a bunch of years ago?;

Of the things I’ve written in my life, I think I’m most proud of this.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make as it relates to both stories is about normal human beings living their normal human being lives, while (unbeknownst to them), coloring the lives of people in a very positive way. I mean, it seems perfectly logical to me that affecting people positively would be the reasonable go-to, but based on literally everything that’s happening outside of my front door these days, my perspective isn’t shared by most.

I mean, we certainly are in a place in history when we need as much of that as we can possibly get our hands on, you know?

It won’t save the world, but at the very least, it’ll help us be ok.

Spread this like it's sick

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4 Responses to “Is everybody ok?”

  1. Steve January 19, 2021 at 8:41 am #

    I remember that article well, in fact just the other day I was considering what to do with the fifteen or so years of Bike magazine as we are starting to think about moving house, my conclusion was that I should read them again, I might eventually remove the hand drawn trail maps to keep forever as they were my favourite part and recycle the rest.

  2. Momsue January 19, 2021 at 6:50 pm #

    Reread the bit about coloring the lives of people you’ll never meet. That is what, among other things, you do. Just sayin’.

    • Mr Anderson January 19, 2021 at 10:03 pm #

      Momsue just called it.

      And The Leveler looks like Neil Peart (May he rest in peace).

      Good luck on the hunt for a new lair.

      Peace from NZ

  3. Kiko January 24, 2021 at 6:04 am #

    calumet in michigan’s copper country. look it up; 49913. mother jones walked here. woody guthrie sang about it.

    one of the best trails system in the country for biking and cc skiing. yeah, SSUSA visited copper harbor which is only 30 mins north; and there is no more after that – we are in michigan’s top of the world.

    instead of renting, which is cheap, you can just buy. for $1 at times even.

    go west young man? stop looking for the fix outside… the peace is inside; be at a place where you don’t worry about cost… and with that have the chance to actually work on yourself by tossing the excuse of ‘the cost of just being’ out the window.

    i don’t lock my car, my house, my kids… and two universities 15 miles south in houghton/hancock; yep, birthplace of professional hockey.

    i ain’t shamming, i am just sharing a jewel. get a hold of me if you want to know more.