Shoving off.

[Mael Cormac]

Slowly gearing up for the show....May 9. Charlotte. Bike. Thoughts. Vacation. Current events..Things here, proto-turbulent with almost runaway fuel prices and the constant paranoa-o hammering of shortages proffered as "news" by the "news". Hard to believe this is 21st. Century America. Part of me boils with the idea that its just the begining. Never thought the future would be half as stupid as this current one seems to be.Enough! Slowly getting my bike ready. Just fired in a new set of front brake pads. If nothing else, the engineering on the bike, makes for almost endearing rapport. (I love working on my vehicles). The other big concern is always weather. For me the ride to Charlotte will run between 12-15 hours, barreing time to piss, get gas, inhale a coffee and a few smokes. What always makes long rides good are the unexpected things that can and sometimes do happen on the road. Kerouac I am not, nor even interested.But still and all. Tearing up the super-slab can at times suck but its never boring.As for the show, I have good thoughts. This will be my second time before 'the boy's". I caught them at Giant's Stadium in N.J. back in May of '03. Myself as well as thousands of others spent the day in a total down-pour. 10+ hours. Radiohead came on and rocked. I was blown away. They were actually better live. I originally went to see that dickhead Beck, but he bowed out for some feigned injury. The Beastie boys were ok, but they've become....? To each their own I guess.For me this Is my first vacation in about a year. Along with this show, I'm liking the idea of traveling into the South. Aside from Florida, I've never traveled in these areas. So there will surely be observable cultural differences, possibly ?shock? Not that I'm really all to worried. Not being arrogant. I like going to places. Grabbing a coffee and a smoke and just taking in scenes of parking lots, gas stations and etc. day or night. Try to get a sense of the area, The flow. Shoot the shit with the locals and pass on a laugh or two if I can.Since this is an election year folks seem a little less reluctant to talk politics. Still there's an odd taboo on this everywhere i've been. Few exceptions but overall, political ignorance stands at times as a heinous crime in its own right. Sometimes even to me a mortal one. I get lost at times in or with the idea that life on this 3rd rock is stalled, doomed. That in the end there are few if any real solutions. Or that anything good or beneficial get bought up and destroyed rather than utilized to create anything remote to "progress". At best these are super-subjective. Another weakness of the language or one's economy of conveyance?