Bike Stuff -- Big Surprise

Yesterday The Illustrious One, Magoo and I attended the International Motorcycle Show in Ft. Worth. Made a few good contacts.

Today I ventured out to Terrell to assist with the packaging of care packs that are being shipped out to the service men & women serving overseas in battle zones. A group called Soldier Angels was organizing it.

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There's a new amusing video from Harley that you can see here:

Posers & Users

This afternoon Magoo and I were at a meeting that quasi-had to do with the show. Afterwards we went to get some dinner and about mid-way through he mentioned how he seemed to have fallen off of a certain someone's radar. Even though Magoo considered this guy a friend, once he was no longer in a position to pony up tickets he suddenly was treated as persona non grata.

Since the topic had been placed on the table I told him my experiences with this guy, The Illustrious One and Teri's experiences. Suffice to say that all 4 of us have come to the same independent conclusion on this wannabe.

It never fails -- if anyone has anything remotely to do with the entertainment world, you somehow end up on the fast dial of any poser that doesn't want to pony up an admission price. What these posers fail to realize is that for those of us on the giving side, this ain't exactly our first rodeo. We know you're using us and we will oblidge you if it's not too much of an inconvenience.

And what would really go far is if there was some sort of reciprication in return. Someone comps you $140 in concert tickets -- get them a token gift. And at the very least your happy ass should say "Thank you."

Also, if you do a "favor" for someone in the entertainment world, don't assume that your favor was nothing more than an advance payment for several hundred dollars worth of tickets. I saw this poser first hand, loan a portable cooling fan to the promotions director of a radio station so the PD could use it for his daughter's outdoor birthday party. When the fan was returned, the poser hit up the PD for a Santa-Claus-is-coming-to-town wish list of tickets he "needed in return".

Now keep in mind this is after this poser had hit the PD up for additional tickets to a gig just the week before.

So rude.

And what is sad in a twisted way is that this poser probably hasn't even put the pieces of the puzzle together yet -- "Let's see, 2 months and the clique of people I used to speak to on an almost daily basis are all still really tight but I have no part any longer. Nope...couldn't be me." And the poser is off to cultivate a new clique of people to try to use.

All I have to say in closing to that is that kharma is a bitch.



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Idle Ramblings....

Yesterday I finally took some time to myself after 2 weeks of non-stop motorcycle stuff. I went to go see A Good Year starring Russell Crowe. I went because one of my favourite authors, Peter Mayle, wrote the book. Usually I am hesitatnt about seeing films from books I like -- several years later and I am still horribly disappointed that Clint Eastwood did such a lousy job with In The Garden of Good & Evil -- what a fantastic book that was!

Anyway, so the general storyline was maintained and the cinematography was fabulous. Provence was just a visual dream. I recommend it.

I still want to see Borat -- it looks silly funny.

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Today I went to Chiliepepperama which is held at Old Town (Greenville @ Lovers) that my friend Marsha is the event director for. I thought I was just stopping by for an hour or so - ended up staying 5 hours. I guess one of the challenges of knowing a little bit about the events business is that others in that world know it also so you get wrangled into service.

I kept receiving swag, tequilla shots and margaritas and I also tried various chilies -- though one was like a meat wasabi...hot! The boys at KZPS were all over me like bees on honey - I've protested attending their events due to the Magoo situation. Landon took me on at Atari Pong -- one of the original machines from God only knows how long ago! He won -- but in my defense the damn paddle could have been a bit more receptive and quicker!

Lots of people kept coming up to me complimenting the article in the Dallas Business Journal. Since I was out of town the weeks it was on the stands, this was the first time I was confronted by so many people that had read it.

One odd thing is that some people kept looking at me like they knew me - but I don't know why because I didn't recognize them. And I doubt it was my bike jacket because other people on bikes were there.

I did have an amusing conversation with one of the guys there -- he asked if I listened to Steppenwolf and I told him him I was more likely to be listening to Scissor Sisters' Filthy/Gorgeous than Born to be Wild.

And that made me think -- I would really like to see 2 Wheel Passport convey more about today's bikers. I certainly can't be the only person bored to tears with the same music playlist at bike events or shows -- Steppenwolf, Molly Hatchet, ZZ Top, etc. Nothing against those bands - it's just so expected. But as luck would have it, 2WP has someone very dynamic in place to handle the music.


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