Redemption Song (happy belated birthday, Bob)

Morning weigh-in: 179.5#, 14.5% body fat

Last night's shows were great. The first one was at Which Brew, where I caught a set of "Sarah's Rhythm Recipe," a bluesy rock band featuring jazz/blues singer Sarah Ayers. Stu and Cathy were there, and I'm starting to suspect that they've taken me under their wing, the project being to set me up with one of her friends... I had one beer and -- well, not escaped, exactly, because the girl was nice, but I did have to get to Bethlehem.

It was at the Funhouse that I saw "the Fellas," a group of college kids playing a sort of jam-band jazz: guitar/bass/drums, with sax and trumpet. They played all original instrumentals, all very danceable (more like dancing for Phish or the Dead, rather than say ska or the Specials), and there were a lot of cuties dancing. I met Joe down there, then after a while I saw Doug, then a little later I saw Eric and Kris come in. I also saw Cos's brother Jake & his girlfriend, Creepy Dave, and a few others, so there were actually more people there that I knew than back at WB. Anyway, the band was awesome, but I skipped the last set to get a somewhat early start on Sunday.

Today was pretty much the first group ride of the year. Joe & Cindy, Brian, Curt's son Matt, and Rob Goody left from Curt's house and did a 23 mile road ride. Joe & Matt were on fixed gear road bikes, Brian was on his old touring bike, and Cindy and I were on mountain bikes (unlike Cindy, I was riding slick tires though), but Rob was riding his full-suspension mountain bike, with studded tires -- can you say rolling resistance? Big heavy bike, thing rides like a pig on the road and with studded tires to boot, and he was at the front the whole time. Monster of the day award.

I wasn't fully up to snuff but I felt OK, rode at my own pace. It was very windy out, and it seemed that every climb ended with a "wind-swept hilltop" -- headwinds both ways, of course. With the upright MTB position, I felt like one big sail trying to push through the air, but the mountain bike came in handy when we hit ice or other winter road hazards... long story short, it was a good ride, though a bit on the hard side, then afterwards we went to Jack Creek for a quick dinner.

Pattern Recognition: I happened to see in the paper this article about a "cool hunter," someone who goes around the world looking for trendy new cool stuff to mass market. That was Cayce Pollard's job in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, so it seemed pretty neat at first, in that postmodern hipster economy way, but it really wasn't all that cool of course, just a little more of the Great Rock And Roll Swindle... the guy was French, and I thought "where are the Situationists when you need them?" A little pie in the face could come in handy right now...

Anyway, that brought me to thinking about Bob Marley, whose birthday was Friday. Who he was, what he stood for, and fought and sang for, and how they're using him now to sell good times and time shares in Jamaica, mon. Well, after this kind of rehabilitation, maybe someday there will come true redemption. I hope so.