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16.10.09
Moondust, Haves&Thirds, Then And Than and Ironic Youth
P.H.O.N.Y. 25 @ Asphalt Wasteland
Tampa, Florida
It
started to rain, hard, before the sun had come up, the rain rushed
thru, on and off, during the course of the day, I stayed inside and
only went out whenever it dropped super hard with heavy winds pushing
it all around to stand under the eves of the carport and watch
it pound down. I don't mind when it rains like this, as long as I
don't have to go anywhere but tonight I wanted to ride up to the
Asphalt Wasteland for P.H.O.N.Y. 25 so I was hoping it would peter off
by nightfall. The sun set and I got some wet weather gear
together, pumped up my tires and headed out to Haves& Thirds place
to catch a ride from there to the show, it would shave about 6 miles
off my entire run and leave me with 20 miles to do on my own.
Haves& Thirds, it's true, he does drive around with the hood, which
didn't really bother me so much, what did freak me out was that he was
wearing the shades, while he drove, at night. The Wasteland has
been used a good number of times over the years for gigs, we get up
there around 10 pm and by this time all the clouds have pretty much
gone somewhere else and we're left with a beautifully clear night sky,
dry as a bone with stars winking at us from oh so high above.
People start to gather and Moondust sets up in drive-thru #2, looked
and sounded like Pserpent but apparently it wasn't, names don't matter
it's what the people behind them do that does, dialed up some backwards
beats and then
layed some fresh kick, snare, tom and cymbals on top of them, the
drive-thru added extra ampitude to it all and gave everything a deeper
bump. Haves& Thirds got his get it on in get on mode and had
a rolling bass run punctuated with shimmering guitar running in, out
and around it all, an awesome sound all the way 'round. Then And
Than walked up together from out of the moonlit river haze in the
distance,
Mr. Jeffery Ruble took the time to address all that were there and
wished our dear, sweet, Jasmine a happy birthday, she's a pip, in a
world of pits. Congratulations out of the way the drums kicked in
and got the freak dancing, dreamy synths came in and out and that's
what it was all about. What do you get when you mix two parts
Skeleton Warrior with one part Moondust? Good question, my own
personal answer is - Ironic Youth, drums, guitar and bass.
Squiggly skronking with bip bap bopping, beautifully weird all the
way. This was that and that was it. Paid respects to the
almighty poop and hit the trail back to Haves& Thirds.
17.10.09
Took a
load off and kicked back on a couch to watch "Living Hell", a film
documenting a journey
across the country
into the unknown on the Oakland bus with it's assorted cast of
characters. This is an excellent film, great music, bizarre day
in the life footage of the bus and those who filled it's innards as it
rolled, broke down and got back up to slowly wander across the
land. I shed and tear and sobbed with laughter for the mummified
squirrel, not with any malice towards the poor passed creature, it was
hard not to help it. Got to rest up a bit and have a delicious
bite or two at the CTHQ and then at around 2 o'clock got back on my
bike for the ride home, the weather had stayed calm this far into the
night so I hoped it would stay that way at least until I'd made it back
home. Every new day starts off with a brand new morning that
comes directly on the tail of each previous night, this looked to be a
good one at this point, bid my thanks to my hosts and got my wheels a
rolling. Decided not to take my usual route and took another set
of streets to make my way, rode along West Hillsborough Ave. until I
got to N. Habana Ave, hung a hard left and got the steel circles going
in a solid rotation, destination MLK, at that junction I was figuring
on veering right then eventually South again, lefting and righting
until I rolled up on my own turf. I was about halfway to MLK, I
was using the bike path that runs parallel to the road instead of
taking the sidewalk, the sidewalk has a couple of spots where there's
no in/decline to give you a smooth ride across some of the cross
streets so the smooth course would let me keep my momentum going.
I hear some cars coming up from behind me, I take a look back and see
the lights of three cars, all one behind the other, in the short
distance, I turn back around and keep pushing pedals, I'm moving at a
pretty good clip but not pushing myself too hard, it's a good
ride. The first car passes me in the lane next to the bike path,
I can hear the second of the three following closely behind it, time
stopped for a split second, I swear I briefly stepped into my own
future before I was back in the present, in the present I could see the
front right side of the second car coming into my side vision,
something was wrong, way wrong, it wasn't where it was supposed to be,
it was close, way too close to me, a sliver of a fraction of a second
later and I knew I was right because I was taking a hard hit on my left
elbow and left haunch, oh shit, oh holy fucking shit, this car is
rubbing up against me as it's trying to pass, I can feel the metal
panel press in as the car runs up against me for it's remaining length,
I don't know I how I managed it but I didn't lose control and kept the
bike going straight, I'm screaming, at times like this it's all you can
do, it's not like it helps in much of anyway but there's really nothing
else to do, the car completes it's pass and weaves off side to side,
the third car comes up behind it and thankfully doesn't finish me
off, I scream some more, this time I know what to say - "HEY! YOU
JUST FUCKING HIT ME! WHAT THE FUCK?", I take a quick look behind
me, the road is clear, I pull my bike out in the middle of the road and
push those fucking pedals with all the weight and force I can muster,
I'm determined to catch up to this car, it's what I've got to do.
The first of the three cars makes a right turn into an apartment
complex a couple of 100 meters ahead of me, pump, pump, pump, pump, I'm
still screaming, standing up and pumping as hard as I can, the car that
hit me turns into the same complex, the third car follows the second
and first, I get up to the entrance a couple of seconds behind them,
the gates open so I roll on in, the third car has pulled over to the
side, the car that hit me has pulled into a spot in front of the first
lengthwise unit on the left, I ride up to the third car, the driver's
window is down and there's a guy sitting inside, "Hey! Do you know the
person in that car?" I ask the driver, "Yeah.", "Well your friend
just fucking hit me back there, they could have fucking killed
me!", "They didn't hit you, you don't know what you're talking
about.", "The fuck I don't know what I'm talking about that fucker just
hit me and kept on going.", I ride over to the parked car, there's a
woman inside, mid-30's maybe, I can tell she's fucked up without even
seeing her face, her body is moving around like a wet noodle, she opens
the drivers door and with her back still to me I say to her "Hey, what
the fuck? You just hit me back there on the road, you could have
fucking killed me, what's your fucking problem?", the woman turns
around and she's in automatic upset mode, I can tell she's fucked up
and I can tell she's scared, it's in her eyes, it's in the quivering of
her mouth, "What? I hit you? Oh no, I'm so sorry.", the driver of
car number three has gotten out and walked over, "Hey man, she
didn't hit you, why don't you just leave?", I turn to the guy, he's no
threat to me, at all, he doesn't realize that his trying to bullshit me
at this point is not a wise thing to do, "Don't you fucking try to tell
me that this lady didn't hit me.", I turn back to the woman, she's
fully gotten out of her car by this point and is standing there with a
drunken weepy look, she keeps on saying "Oh my god, I'm so
sorry.", I tell her that it's ok, I don't think I'm hurt, I'm
lucky that I didn't get swept under her back wheels or lose control of
my bike otherwise I'd be in some state of serious fuckedupness on the
side of the road, the other driver is getting pissed, at me, "Hey
man, she didn't hit you, you better calm down and leave.", I turn back
to this jerk and tell him "Don't you fucking dare to try to tell
me what's what and don't you dare fucking try to tell me to calm
down. Your fucking friend here damn near killed me and I'm
actually being as cool as I can about this, I came up her to let her
know that she almost wiped me off the face of the earth so maybe she'd
be a little more careful.", "You need to leave her alone and you
need to get out of here, you understand what I'm telling you?",
"Fuck what you're telling me, your friend almost killed me and I've
got every fucking right to speak my mind.", I turn back to the woman
and I see another guy walking up, he's big, twice and a half as big as
I am, he's bald, he's got a beard, he's like a big, bald, bearded biker
dude without the bike, he's carrying a soft briefcase, he walks up and
puts the case on the back of the woman's car, he looks at me and
doesn't say a word, he opens the passenger door of the woman's car and
starts to gather stuff up, I figure that this guy was the driver of the
first car, he'd parked and walked back here, I don't want to fuck with
this guy, no way, he could crush me between his thumb and forefinger, I
know that, for some reason he doesn't say shit, just goes about his
business, the driver of the third car is still standing there, telling
me that I need to leave, right now, unless I want some trouble, the
woman is babbling and crying, I turn back to the other driver and
tell him "Look man, I'm being totally fucking cool about all this, if I
was a dick I'd be calling 911 and having someone else talk to this
gal.", "You want to call 911? Is that what you really want to
do?", how fucking stupid can this asshole get, if he thinks that he's
going to somehow stop me from saying and doing what I'm going to say
and do without killing me with his bare hands he's fucking nuts, big
boy is standing there now, still silent, I don't like the look in his
eyes, "Look lady I just want to let you know that you almost
killed me tonight, I'm not married, I don't have any kids, I do have a
mother, and a father, and a brother, and a sister, a niece and a
nephew, you almost took me away from all of them, I just want you to
realize that maybe you should leave your car wherever it is the next
time you get too fucked up to drive and let someone like this guy
(pointing to the mouthy little jerk) drive you home instead, you really
don't want to kill someone trying to get home, it's not fucking worth
it, you know what I'm saying?", she's still sobbing but I think I've
gotten thru the booze soaked brain that's sloshing around her melon,
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I won't do this again, I'm so sorry, what I can do
for you?", "What you can do for me is the next time just be more
careful, don't drive if you're fucked up, I don't know how I kept my
balance and didn't wipe out but you came as close as you could get to
killing me back there, fucking think about it ok?", the third driver
gets back into the "You need to leave, right now." bullshit, wow, this
guy is pissing me off more than the stinking drunk, "Hey man, get the
fuck off my back, you need to get your shit together and put way more
thought into your actions yourself unless you want your friend here to
rack up a vehicular homicide rap, what makes you think you can give me
any kind of shit, you don't have any fucking right, do you get
that?", this has gone on for a couple minutes, I'm still amazed
the big guy hasn't cleaned my clock so I decide to cut out on the whole
scene, I tell the lady, for fucks sake, be more careful, please don't
kill anyone, ok? I ride back out to the road with the guy
flapping his jaws behind me, fucking hell, I almost died tonight, I
just wanted to go see some bands and have a nice ride back and forth
across town, I almost fucking died, I don't know how I managed to keep
it together off that hit, the only thing I can think of is that the
speeds that the car and I were going when she hit me were the only
things that kept this from going in the total wrong direction, she was
going about 30 mph, I was doing a good 13 mph, if I'd been going half
as
fast, or if she'd just swerved a couple of inches more to her right,
shit, I wouldn't be putting all of this down, I would have been serious
jacked up, things worked out, this time, my wristwatch was halfway torn
from it's strap and I my left elbow and upper thigh was sore as all
hell but aside from that I wasn't hurt, the bike didn't seem to be
messed up either, I don't know how or why it turned out that way, I'm
not even going to question it, I'm just thankful that's the way it
played out. I get out of the complex and pull over off the road,
I'm shaking and trembling involuntarily, I pull a camera out of my
backpack and put it in video mode, I tell the camera what just
happened, I couldn't pull the camera out when all this was going on,
shit would have definitely hit a number of fans if I had, I don't want
to watch or listen to what I said into it, I was pissed, I was shook
up, I caught my breath enough to get back on the road, I still had a
ways to go, getting home safe and sound is all I want to do. I
pass St. Joe's and turn onto MLK, I make it down to Himes and before I
get to the turn where I'll be heading South I look over to the side and
the mouthy, pushy dickhead has pulled up and is stopped at the light, I
guess he left the complex shortly after I did and had caught up to me,
his window is still down, I'm on the other side of the road and as I'm
making my turn I ride up and alongside him, the median is the only
thing between us, I stretch my right arm out and point my finger at
him, I'm wishing I could just shoot it off, right between his fucking
eyes, "You don't ever want to fuck with me you little fucking
bitch!" I bellow as I make my turn, I don't use words like bitch unless
I'm torqued, he looks over and weakly mumbles
something, as I make the turn I look back, if he's got the balls to
make the turn and follow me to try and set me straight then I'm all for
it, he doesn't turn, the light changes and he keeps on down MLK, guess
he ran out of toughness. I make my way home, I actually end up
enjoying the rest of the ride, it is a beautiful night and I feel good
to be alive. It's all just another night, in Tampa, Florida.
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