Getting up on the good foot.

Good morning from yet another day in upside down world where nothing makes sense, and everything’s broken, but at least we still have bikes to ride, and the freedom to bury cans of beer in the woods.

Anyhü, be all of that as it may, I have a few items of note this week, the first being of the heart-wrenching kind, but as long as we’re here together, we might as well delve into the hard stuff first. I caught wind after last week’s Homie Fall Fest, that news had come out that fierce AHTBM booster, and all around Minneapolis miscreant Rick Parsons was killed in a house fire early Saturday morning;

He’s been a regular fixture here for years, and has been incredibly supportive of my shenanigans since I had even a twinkle of shenanigans to be supportive of.

I don’t have many details other than what I’ve shared. To say that I’m sorry this happened doesn’t begin to touch the surface. I’m crushed for his friends, family, and bandmates, and it’s my singular hope for them that they find some peace, and that Rick’s spirit, wherever it is, makes some periodic visits back to say hello.

I thank him for his years of support, and kindness, and hope that in some form or fashion, eventually, we can find the time to tape up a wizard staff together again.

Rest easy, you beautiful dirtbag;

Photo by Murray McSchuetski.

With that squarely on our minds, I’d like to segue into other considerably happier topics.

The first being that after a considerable absence, Mission Workshop has returned to their perch amidst the kind folks who choose to advertise here on the AHTBM web project.

So, it was a marginally interesting turn of events that saw this to becoming a reality.

Some of y’all might remember the saga of an ill-fated bike packing trip a bunch of us went on through California’s Siskiyou Mountains a number of years ago;

Well, it was with cooperation with Mission’s imprint Acre Supply that we embarked on this fool’s errand.

Among the loot I returned with (besides a renewed fear of dying of exposure in the middle of hundreds of thousands of acres of desolate forest), I wound up with a pair of the Stahl shorts. I’ve worn them on every mountain bike ride I’ve been on since. They’ve traveled with me for thousands of miles, and have not even ripped a single stitch.

However, all of this high praise isn’t to say that they are fire proof, and after some hot coals popped into my lap this past spring, I ended up with a few unfortunately placed holes.

While the shorts’ integrity isn’t compromised in the least, I figured I’d reach out to MWS’ big boss Bart and see if I couldn’t finagle a back up from him. Not only was he agreeable to that idea, but he signed up for another round of advertising to boot.

So this is me saying that Mission rules, Acre rules, Bart rules, and I thank them all for the continued support.

And if a pair of the Stalls strikes your fancy, but your size isn’t available, keep your eyes peeled, as I understand their entire stock will be re-upped towards the end of the month;

Also, as a side note, if by chance you might have an eye on a belt like the one that I’m wearing, but of your very own, (this style), as well as many others can be snagged from the Soulrun site, as well as their Etsy page;

To Paraphrase my friend Bill Lindsey- “Belts are like friends. Your can’t have too many nice ones.”

Hey, have I mentioned recently that a fella called Robot and I have a podcast?

It’s true. Would you like to listen to the newest episode?

It’s right here.

It’s a pretty good one I think.

They just get worse than here.

Moving on- So here’s a thing- I was real close to flying down to Long Beach this past weekend, because it was going to be my first and potentially only opportunity to see (for the foreseeable future, anyway) what will soon-be-recognized as 2022’s supergroup playing what will soon-be-recognized as 2022’s record of the year;

RFTC’s Atom Willard and John Reis, Jordan Clark from Mrs. Magician!, and Pinback’s Rob Crow?

Oh damn.

Alas, I didn’t take that flight, and planned to cry myself to sleep. Thankfully, Bill from O ZORN! lives in LB, and I shot him a message, anticipating a blow by blow. “WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW? I MEAN, BESIDES AT ALEX’S WATCHING THE FIRST EVER PLOSIVS SHOW” I texted him excitedly.

“I’m on my sofa.” he texted back.

“WHAT?!” I texted back.

Already these PNW winters are killing me, and watching Bill not walk his handsome ass fifteen minutes to the bar to see this band I want to so badly is akin to throwing food into the trash in front of a person who’s starving.

I shan’t make this same mistake again.

Finally, to loosely circle back around to the topic of hot shit products, while rummaging around my studio yesterday, I stumbled across the two remaining XS pairs of AHTBM X Giro (g)loves;

Do you or someone you know have small hands?

Well, get cracking and order them up.

I have a new batch complete with a spanky new design ordered, which will eventually be en route, but who knows when they might land;

Ten days? 90 days? 200 days? Only The Shadow knows for sure. In the mean time, all you can do is prepare yourself to uh, I suppose, get on the good hand.