Half full of it?

Some might say, "Oh man, you're getting screwed!". And one might say, if one was me, and I am me and so in fact shall say that no, I'm not screwed, instead, its lucky I'm here now and not when it hits $1.50 or more.

Gahlic? bread?!

Suddenly it's been over a week.
Since time began to blur many events have happened including a trip to Paris, a proposal and an acceptance, a return to London, Christmas with relatives (others) and Boxing Day with still more relatives (others others) as well as the dogged continuation of a tenacious flu. As surreal as life seems right now (not medicated mind you) we have only really been in town away from Los Angeles for a week and most. It turns out that that is how long I think forever is.

Paris may not be the largest city but there is much more to be seen than in a few lucky days. It rained, it tried to snow, and all the while those lunatics continued to roll on mid to small sized bikes and scooters. Unfortunately the camera that I owned that is connected to the digital world promtly ran out of juice as we hit town (poor planning) so any and all pics were recorded via Holga (still waiting on development). I can remember that the town loves Beemers, many RT's were seen. I also saw a good handful of C1's.

Besides a very special (the most?) personal event and a meetup and dinner with some friends and new aquaintances and the standard issue metro'ing from one historic site to another, one particular bit of tourist window-shopping left a strange mark; we visited Collette. I am tempted to not link to the website of this store as on quick inspection it does not convey at all how the physical shop could have left such an awkward taste in my grill. Sitting here, in the warm and welcoming home of our hosts, I have a (thankfully) hard time conjouring up a feel for the place; so thats that, time to let it go. I will say that it got me to writing a letter to a friend in NYC while racing home on the Eurostar (did I mention that we went on a very fast train??), so perhaps that exercized the demon.

J. found a six-pence. We were at Xmas dinner at M's mother's house (sister lives here, brother in San Francisco - both home for the holidays - when it was time for the Christmas pudding. The tradition is to bake a few six-pence (vintage coins, no longer made) into the pudding and those who find them are blessed with good luck for the following year.
Bingo.

One LA habit that has gone completely out the window since we've been over here is the watching of television. I have managed to watch a bit of "football" and what seems like endlessly available Simpson's episodes, but have also laughed my self silly with that American Pie wedding movie and BBC's Little Britain and the Fast Show. Just checked Amazon.usa, no Little B dvd's for sale.

WHOA, how could I have nearly forgotten the two vids that got us laughing like fools to begin with: Peter Kay: Live At The Top Of The Tower and Jackass: The Movie (the jump into the fan, roller-disco truck and pandas).

Trip part 3 and 4

Mon. (early)

I typically know that I have some form of cold or flu when I can suddenly sense my body, whether that means a bit of an achy back or sudden sore throat or a sense of how dense my head feels. Barring any sudden very extreme physical changes, colds and flues have a good chance of sneaking up on me without my noticing what is happening. For all my paranoia I am simply not a good watchdog of health.

This is to say that travel and anticipation have brought on a mild, but irritating illness. Sunday was spent alone here at home (on the couch thank you) sleeping and sleeping. Thankfully food was not out of the question, but had become useful rather than desired (mmm, salt!). The other spent a big city Xmas day in central London (shops, crowds, pubs, large colored bags).

The day before, Saturday, I spent many hours visiting three moto-related shops, Alex Reade in Carnaby Street, Sondal Sport in Highbury and Ducati London Central in Chelsea. Alex Reade, being a book and memorabilia dealer was, out of the three by far the most interesting, but with the dollar/pound relation being what it is, I'll be damned if I was going to buy anything. Also around Carnaby I found what passes for a "Giant Robot" or "Kid Robot", even found some Tim Biskup gear. Later in the day we actually had a convo about how central London had become more and more similar to large shopping districts that one might find in any large American city - Why travel?

The other two shops were, due to expectations I had formed, a bit disappointing. On the plus side, Pro Italia looked very good relative to these joints, on the other side, I think I was looking for a bit of difference - honestly looking for something I could not see at Bert's Mega Mall. In the end, that really wasn't the case. I was extremely glad that I did not drag J. to these second few spots as they were small treks via the tube and included a bit of walking.
I did end up wandering past the massive Chelsea football stadium (massive crowd roars).

At that point in the day (grim and dark) I found myself back at the Great Western Studios typing up the entry previous to this one.

Today we travel to Paris without the real-world crutch of a powerbook to "keep me sane". It has been noticably tricky trying to truly relax while here, and, for good or bad, when I feel uncomfortable or am wide awake at 7am (11pm previous days time still?) I do not fight it; the needle goes back in - bullheaded behavior takes over. I have had a hand in creating this nature of mine, and do not want to be doomed to failure - accept, accept.

Did I mention that during my Tube travels on Saturday I had a chance to read a fair bit of the Arthur Magazine that showed up in LA the day before leaving town. What did I find in it but a brief report on the London Mushroom scene. (Collect signs: skiiing, shrooming...)

In news from California, the "Dead Dad's Club" has a new member. Website added to list of things to do, right after "touch the puppet head".

Trip part deux or "The challenge lies in adapting oneself to the conditions imposed by nature and accepting them fully.

To fight against nature is to be doomed to failure."
- E. K. - Ridiculously off-the-chain Norwegian dude.

Fri.

We tried our best to jump into a sleep pattern relative to our new surroundings. A bit of tossing and turning, but for the most part we slept fairly normal hours, or so I thought.

The morning was about meeting our host's friend and the photographer he works with, R. A splendid dude, there was an hour or so spent pouring over maps of California, my home, making plans for a work related trip that R. and D. will be taking in January of 2005. R. also has the fine and distinctive love of motorcycles that I really appreciate. With the simple gift of a silk-screened t-shirt, he became one of the newest PI Riders in the world.

J. and I were dropped off in the Portobello Road market for lunch and and afternoon of wandering around, looking in vintage stalls and being a bit idle. I mention this because while we sat in a small cafe I mentioned this article to J. A day later I am still a bit puzzled, maybe even a bit concerned with the lack of ease that I am showing towards my tries at idleness. As I write this, it is Saturday at 5pm and the invisible fog of time zone travel is dragging my brain down, down, too far down. Because I feel I ought to, rather than want too, I find myself here in front of a computer: must do something, not nothing.

On Portabello Road we found the stall for the Camden Mushroom Company, who sell, openly and for the moment legally, psychoactive mushrooms and truffles, along with many other vendors, throughout England. The night before we left town, I discovered an online article (Guardian I think) about these vendors (disbelief, late night shout of "What the Hell??"). And yet, a few days later here we were, chatting with two dudes lookin' all Boards of Canada, who, demonstrating very competent customer service, walked us through the different varieties and care and expeiences. Having never tried truffles we, or rather J picked up a few, just in case.

A few hours later it had gotten dark and grim and our host took J and I back to The Cow as he had an appointment to have a drink with dude I quoted at the top of this entry, E.

E was in London for a day, giving a talk, and showed up with his friend U. who it turns out I had met very, very briefly years ago when I was just starting my adventures in Berlin. D. and E. had become friends through their shared interests in art and adventure. E. has kept his eyes on the prize for a few years now having been to the North Pole (with a friend their skis and sleds), South Pole (just him and his skis and gear) and the "third pole" of Everest (with crew). He's done plenty of other things too; amazed.

The lag from time was punishing and for the first hour of our "drink" I was confused and baffled and having a very diffcult time keeping up with conversations. Fortunately I made a dusty connection to U. and her endevors that helped snap the dome in gear. She has kept many irons in the fire for a few years now, enough that from now on, when I have some small feeling that the world is getting smaller and smaller I will think of her, and how her different worlds must seem to be continuously folding in on each other at some rate that is probably not worth the exhaustion of keeping track. (Notice quote again please.) How can I have a memory for some things and can be so completely inept at fabricating something as simple as a shopping list or daily "to-do"...???

Nostalgic and inspired. (Past. Future)

It was M.'s night to enjoy some down-time so we stopped by a gallery, met some lovely friends of D's, peeps we hope to spend New Year's with and had a bit of a drive through the London night. Later it was time for a bit of local TV and a fridge raid.

The people I meet and these experiences are all telling me something(s). Skiing alone for 50 days, being a lawyer or putting out many, many publications and negotiating dense and fluid social spaces is not me, but its the buttons that these things push or uncover. (mind moving, shape large and changing) No doubt influenced by today's view of several moto related visits.

Trip part 1

Tues.

Up until 3am the night before, but a good bit of packing and preparation taken care of before hitting it.

Wed.

A few errands in the morning until an illing S. shows up to take us to the airport. Thank you. A mild dose from Dr. K keeps the mind calmer than normal. Smaller than weekend lines, no problems whatsoever, after a few easy hours we are on the plane.
"A special trip?" the stewardess asks, before heading to first class (wide seats, lovely) to fetch us some nicer champagne and glasses. A few too many later found me thick headed and still uncomfortable while she had crashed out.

No sleep, long flight. Rather not think about that any more than I have.

Thurs.

Knackered, hard to remember when I felt so completely beaten.
Heathrow (rats nest, round and round, no troubles, Dazza on the other end)
Bleary drive to The Cow, pint of prawns and a coca-cola, before arriving home. Slightly refreshed. Trip to the newsagents for the latest MCN (fresh off the vine) and then a visit to the new studio (same as the old studio) before returning home to play with C. for a bit before ordering dinner (sugar level balancing, fresh energi). At this point we had been up for over 24 hours, well, at least I had, J. snagged a fair bit of champagne induced "rest" on the big silver bird.

After dinner, which was a quite tasty take out (sorry, take-away) we screened some American cinema, a fine film entitled "Jackass". Unreal.

Re-make / pre-muddle

For pete's sake, there really is no leaving well enough alone. I suppose at this point the only real suprise here is that I actually feel a mild shock whenever I learn about filthy aberrations such as, The Producers being re-made, but without the freakish Nicole Kidman as Ulla, or that a remix of The Longest Yard is imminent, featuring Adam Sandler. I'm not even going to bother searching for a link to that nonsense.

Nicole Kidman, please. I mean, c'mon. "Ulla, go to work."

Pass.

Updated: Just a second thought - IF this really happens, I can only hope that Mel will be making the green off of it. I still won't see it, but I'd rather he get paid.

Seen this weekend

I saw, for the first time, a car on fire by the side of the freeway. I think it was a Tempo or a Topaz.

An hour before I saw a parade of old fire trucks, not two miles from the soon to be burning car.

I saw some joker riding a wheelie on his Gixxer, doing about 80 mph in the carpool lane, moving in the opposite direction from me. From a distance I thought someone was standing on the divider between the two carpool lanes.

I saw me riding around on a co-workers R1150GS Adventure. (Just around a parking lot)

I saw how the Adventure's new GPS system worked.

I just saw how the Krumpasse have captured interneters imagination in that a number of images of them have appeared on Yahoo's most popular page. They also now have their own Yahoo slide show.

Berchtesgaden

Update on the Krampusse and Buttenmandl - a quick search turned up a german site (Berchtesgaden Chamber of Commerce?) with a large collection of images of the Southern German winter Ritual.

What it stands for:

Kronreif, Trunkenpolz, Mattighofen.
History.

Updated: Despite the worst efforts of KTM's javascript heavy site navigation, I have found a real link to some company history. There is much more on the site. When there, look in the upper left-hand corner for "sitemap". Clicking this will bring up a pop-up window, within which is, among lots of other things like links to cool wear that we cannot get in the US, is a list of pages with company history complete with some cool, but small, images.

Als das Kind Kind war, wußte es nicht, daß es Kind war, alles war ihm beseelt, und alle Seelen waren eins.

A man dressed as Saint Nicholas and 20 people in traditional Bavarian attire known as 'Buttenmandl' and 'Krampusse' at a parade in the southern German town of Berchtesgaden December 6, 2004. Buttenmandl and Krampusse consist of animal skins and masks attached to large cow-bells used to make loud and frightening noises, and are worn by young single men. They follow Saint Nicholas from house to house on December 5 and 6 each year to bring luck to the good and punish the idle. REUTERS/Alexandra Winkler

1. Show up2. Learn High German

"We are not for everybody, we can't be relevent to 50 percent of the market but we will make those for whom we are relevent happy and satisfied."
-Winfried Kerschhaggl, Marketing Director, KTM motorcycles

Step 3. Figure out how to work for KTM.

IMS greys

Yesterday I spent some time at the Long Beach installment of the IMS, International Motor Show. Today, like the weather yesterday in Long Beach, it has been grey, overcast and rainy. I spent some time last night and today thinking about the bike show and for the most part, it was a lackluster, downer of an affair.

I wonder if the show could not have possibly lived up to the exhausting, but often intriquing experience that I had last year if only because last year it was all new to me. A year later, I have something to gauge the event by while at the same time have spent a bunch of my time in '04 learning about how the motorcycle industry does and doesn't work. Perhaps the honeymoon is over in some sense; I am no longer the bright-eyed zelot, easily wowed and super curious. I believe I can live with a bit of distancing that experience brings, what I dread is having to live with the mind-numbing un-enthusiasm that I saw at so many booths filled with people who, as it turns out will perhaps be travelling to up to 15 of these "International Motorcycle Shows" every weekend from around Thanksgiving time until February or March.

What I am probably the last person to figure out is that this show is, and I am still just guessing here, not quite the same as the shows I read about in foreign magazines - Intermot in Germany, the Bologna show in Italy and I am sure there is a real whizz-banger in Japan. Several months ago the internets and my BMW and Ducati email lists were filled with links and copied text and pics of the new bikes that had been displayed by BMW, Ducati, KTM, Triumph and even oddballs like Bimota at the Intermot show. BMW even pulled out a freaky bike (the k1200R) that noone even really saw coming, unvieled it for a few hours and then took it away! BIKE (UK) magazine felt strongly that Europe had really taken it to the Japanese manufacturers, while at the same time the Japs showcased some fancy new ish.

Cut to months later and consider the example of the new BMW K1200S, a new model, redesigned with fancy gear with strong, strong sporting leanings - the fastest bike BMW has ever made aimed at the super tourers of Japan. It has an all new engine, an all new freaky front end; it's a big deal for the marquee.
Presently there are customers who are test driving this bike over in England, even though I may not be just quite on sale just yet.
One might think that this bike would be on display here at the show, even if it was a slightly pre-produced one, it wouldn't even have to run if it is up on a small podium. All it has to do is sit and look cool and say "Coming in '05, call your dealers now."

All the rather large BMW area had was a video of it. There has been videos for months and months online.
Strike one.

I work for a Ducati shop and so was at the show to perhaps work the booth, as Ducati North America allows its dealers to stock the booth, to meet potential customers. Our shop had some other reps there so I spent what I thought was more valuable time checking out the other areas and making sure our shop's Christmas card was represented over at the MV Agusta booth.
New for 2005, Ducati will be selling its 999 superbike in, what looks like from photos, a super beautiful gloss black. I had high hopes to see this bike, but it was not in attendance. They had the various versions of this model represented, all in traditional Ducati red, but for the life of me I can't understand how the new black one could not be shown.

Last year when I worked the Ducati booth for the dealer I work for, I stood next to a 749 Dark for most of the time. "Dark" is a designation that Ducati uses for an "affordable" version of a particular model; Monster 620 Dark is another one. What this means is that maybe the suspension is a step down and/or some other piece of fancy kit has been removed, thus the price is a bit lower. The Dark versions also have a nice looking matte(ish) dark slate color.
LOTS of Jap bike dudes were into the 749 Dark; fools thought it looked bad-ass. Whether they ended up buying it or not, they walked away shaking their heads thinking "Man!".

I am certain that the gloss black 999 would have acted like a sleek, pricey human earth magnet; compelling all in attendance to at least stop by and gaze upon its lovely V-Twin exotic foreigness.
Shit wasn't even there.
Strike two.

KTM is an Austrian company that is synonymous with off-road and moto-cross. For a few years now they have made enduro type bikes as well as a number of supermotards; basically a dirt bike with street suspension, tires and brakes. This year, in the European shows, they introduced several very exciting true street bikes - one of them, the SuperDuke, a powerful, "naked", V-twin.
They didn't even bother to attend this show. Did the same last year. Their website has their cool new street machines listed as: Not in USA.
Done.

Ultimately I have learned that the IMS is more like a regional dealer showcase than a design, brand show. The shows I read about in Europe and Japan are events where the newest and the coolest, the weirdest and the oddest and the freshened up versions of all brands, big and small are shown for the world to see - with plenty of brolly girls t'boot.

I might guess that one reason for this is that Harley-Davidson, who up until last year is only showing gussied up 30 year old designs, is the only major manufacturer based in the US so it would probably make little sense for the foreign companies to unveil their newest products here. At the same time, the American market is a large and valuable one, even if half the dudes ride rice rockets and the other half ride cruisers, and if someone like BMW is concerned about losing market share they sure don't seem like they are doing all they can to end that by NOT showing their newest most exciting new product.
I would wager that even though none of these bikes I've just mentioned are made in England, that the MCN bike show in Birmingham has all of the models listed above on view, if not available for a sit-on, and that is going on right about now.

On top of it all, why I can't find/buy a shirt that says Valentino Rossi or "46" or something similar is completely baffling. Can you imagine going to some car show, where racing is strongly tied and referred to and not being able to buy all sorts of Nascar or Formula 1 gear? Rossi is the MotoGP multiple champion, he rides for Yamaha and used to ride for Honda. The Yamaha pavilion even had one of his bikes for show - why the f can't I buy an official shirt??? For that matter why can't I buy a shirt that says Mladin, the AMA superbike champion - the first A standing for American.

Annoying.