Dear Diary, I've got the overcoat on and I'm feelin' Fellini! The creative juices are flowing again. Since the holidays began back in October, I've been feeling a tad flat. However, after seeing the incredible wares of local filmmakers last night, I am back on track. I think it is time for something different in "cinema delle biciclette". (I wonder if they have bike valets at Sundance?)
Alas, whatever project I think may best speed my convalescence, it will undoubtedly be eclipsed by one proportionately mundane from Sir Sizeable. I should never have accepted the "custom" library chair, or at least should have been wary of its antennae, and that strange, new watch Gravity's Proof has been wearing.
First up on my ever-lengthening "action list" was the review of BustedSpoke.com's Movie Night. Although I speak for myself, I'm positive The Crew was blown away by the turnout. The joke going around was how to split up the booty if nobody showed up for the raffle? In the end, there was absolutely nothing left to give out! I had to settle for a Sinister Bikes sticker un-stuck from the carpet. It won't stay on the fridge without a magnet.
Blessed be the day I get a BustedSpoke.com "Prototype" T-shirt. I've got a Sinister sticker for anyone who can identify the "design flaw" which somehow managed to get passed our "strict quality controls". I'll even throw in the magnet.
In a strange twist of fate, I was assigned the opportunity to interview one of mountain biking's newest heroes - Philip Keyes, executive director at NEMBA. The twist is that seven years ago he stood in my shop in Charlestown interviewing me for Dirt Rag.
The bastard never ran the story, so I suggested to the Brass at BS.com Headquarters that this recent interview I had conducted with Philip be run on some obscure page embedded deeply within the site. Jabba insisted it be run on the front page, and seeing little difference, I agreed.
(In all fairness, it was not Philip who neglected to run the piece but the Dirt Rag editors.)
This whole interview thing is getting a little bit incestuous. No sooner than setting up the Q&A with Philip, did Krisztina Holly from Singletracks contact me for an interview. I have a sneaky suspicion that one won't run either. Philip could just be dangling the carrot so I may portray him in a favorable light. Right! He may be one of the sports leading advocates heading the charge to ensure the survival of mountain biking into the next century, but I would never sacrifice journalistic integrity in exchange for editorial favors.
Well, Diary, it seems that I will have to go underground to produce my vision of the future of bike film. I can't seem to wiggle from beneath Poobah's gigantic thumb. He sees no worth in the pursuit of art, especially if it takes away from my duties to the website.
Just last week, when he visited me in my palatial residential suite, he caught sight of my copy of Vittorio De Sica's cinematic masterpiece, "The Bicycle Thief". I assured him I only watched it when the Library closed and that it was quite relevant to my current predicament as it is a film about a man who needs a job. His rant about me eating, drinking and sleeping the website proved he wasn't a man to be taken lightly.
Let the truth be told.
This movie has everything a bike movie should have. Action, drama, wine. It goes like this - Ricci is out of work, standing in the work queue, gets a job for a man with a bicycle by proclaiming he has a bike, when he clearly doesn't. He and his wife sell the bed sheets to buy a bike and he spends the days pasting up movie posters. Then his bike gets stolen. He sees the thief and chases him into a brothel, but alas is not able to keep the bike. At one point he laments to his son, "You live, you suffer. You want a pizza?".
Most heartwarming.
