Mass it up.

The Critical Mass bike ride is one of my favorite things to do in the city. For those who aren't savvy to Critical Mass, in just about every major city in the world on the last Friday of the month the bicycle community meets in the town square (in my case Daley Plaza) at 5:30pm and by 6:30pm we all begin to ride around the city for about 3 hours. I began attending this ride when I was new to the city and it was a perfect way to learn the city and meet other bicycle people. The ride has been pretty crappy since Chicago's 10th anniversary of the ride about 2 years ago. However last Friday's ride was stellar. We had well over a thousand people on the ride, great weather, and the police were more agreeable than they have been in recent months. Check it out in your city.

The One Tank Trip: MIdwest Mountain Bike Fest

I'm coming to understand the Midwest really loves bicycles. It makes sense, the terrain is mostly flat which is conducive to human power. After all this is the home of Schwinn and SRAM. Mountain biking though? Well you have to be dedicated and that dedication can really pay off as it did this weekend. My buddy Chris and I went to the Midwest MTB Fest held in Grand Rapids Michigan. 160 miles away in the trails behind Cannonsburg ski area winding trails with great elevation oh yeah and pollen. The trails are unique in that they are sandy. When the glaciers melted and gave us the Great Lakes they left lots of sand and Michigan is already known for the sand dunes. Well even as far inland as Grand Rapids the soil content is mostly sand. I thought initially all that sand was kicking up into my eyes until I realized it was pollen making my eyes dry and itchy. I also learned that with sand comes erosion The Michigan Mountain Bike Association really has a nonstop job keeping up with both mother nature and a thriving MTB community. We rode the group ride on Sat. and got to know the trails and some other riders. We were told that we had to ride Yankee Springs before we left so we hit that trail the next day. The pollen wasn't nearly as bad and the trails were top notch. The flow was stellar and the elevation was tough complete with hair pin turns and steep drop offs. The single track took us though a pine forest that might as well have been out west somewhere. It was really impressive. Chris got to be Johnny on the spot with an air pump for some fellow riders and with a mile left in the 14 mile loop I broke a chain and had to hike out the remainder. But look on the bright side the last time I hiked out of a trail with my bike I had a mangled arm. It was a great weekend trip that took exactly one tank of gas and figured 22.3 mpg isn't horrible for a 17 year old truck.

I love loading up the bikes and gear.

Our bikes.

This is Chris pointing to where his head smacked the trail.

Yankee Springs Trail

Pines

Now I'm cookin with gas

I've been busy workin lately. The fun must come back soon. With a possibility of rain this weekend my climbing plans might get squashed. I have been making due with bicycle action though. I threw a rack on my touring bike and it has been a real mule for me lately.
After a the inaugural ride to the grocery store.

I am really enjoying the rack. I hope I freaked out some drivers.

The summer plans are coming up soon. I have found a route for a dinner/night ride. Super stoked to bring this ride to my Chicagoans from Denver.

View Night Ride in a larger map
I bought some panniers for my bike ride to Indiana Dunes and then off to Warren Dunes in Michigan. I'm still looking for takers on any of these rides. The one Im most psyked for is the Midwest Mountain Bike Fest in Grand Rapids Michigan on the 30th and 31st. And baseball lots of baseball. Let the action start.

More Concert Action

I caught The Boss on Tuesday. Yes Bruce Springsteen along with his E-street band. I've never been an arena concert goer. So seeing Springsteen was never super high on my list, although my parents' stories of his concerts really made the idea appealing. I can honestly say that there was not a ounce of disappointment for the entire show. Bruce came out on stage and I thought out loud "thats him" The man the Boss I had no idea I'd be so impressed. He started right in to "Badlands" and for the next three hours I could not stop moving. He played a lot of recent cuts and a pretty sweet cover of "Mony Mony" that seemed unrehearsed along with a completely rockin' "Ghost of Tom Joad". Half way through the show Max Weinberg, the best drummer in rock, (my opinion) leaves the stage so his son could take over. By the end of the tour his son will take over full time so Max can go to The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brian in LA. Let me say the apple did not fall far from the tree 'cause that kid killed it, he was awesome. The band played "Born to Run" as a final song, before the encores, and the United Center went ape shit. It was the Coolest show I have ever been to. Kudos to Janine for knowing how sweet the Boss is in person.

Rock N Roll weekend

Neko Case

The weekend passed with much fan fare. Friday my insatiable appetite for Neko Case was fed at the Chicago Theater. Truly an elegant setting for for a woman of such punk rock roots. Gone are the days of the intimate settings of Shubas (seating around 500?) and possibly the mid sized venue too as she sold out the cavernous auditorium. She played through her new album Middle Cyclone and mixed in some previous singles too. Kelly Hogan kept the banter coming while Neko kept uncharacteristically quiet for the majority of the show. However along with Jon Rauhous on steel pedal and the rest of the band Neko sounded the best I've ever heard. The only issue I had was my confinement to my seat but I know Ill be dancing when I see her in Grant Park this summer.

M Ward

On to show number two on Sunday. M Ward a singer Nick turned me on to last year when he made me a CD for my 18 hour drive across the heartland. Since then yet another Nick that I work with has been playing the man nonstop here at work so we all caught him at the Vic. The show had some high energy mixed with slow deep rhythms. In the middle he donned a harmonica sans band and did his best Bob Dylan. He ended his set with a rockabilly feel and had the story ended there it would have been fine. However the Rock N Roller that she is Janine took us all to the only decent dive bar in the area for PBR's and in walks the opening band, The Watson Twins. Upon realizing this we notice that we were sitting nixt to M Ward at the bar the entire time. Janine splits to talk to the Watson Twins and leaves me to buy M Ward a beer and have a good long conversation with the man. To top it off when I tell him I work at the Art Insitiute he introduces me to his friends as such "this is Tommy he works at the Art Museum" I had to reply "hey man you make great music, your job is way cooler". If that is not a Rock N Roll weekend I don't know what is.

March right into April

Denver Art Museum

March turned out to be a fantastic month. I took a few days off and got out to the city I cheat on Chicago with. Denver. Make no bones about it its a great city. I get the local treatment every time I'm there thanks to Nick and his crew. I got to drop in on former ski bum Amy and talk about the old times. Then who would have thought that snow would put a damper on a Colorado vacation. It dumped like 17" in the front range and kept us from climbing and some mountain biking. Oh well we'll hit it next time. I did get to socialize at St.Marks Coffee House and have a drink at the Thin Man. Two primo spots for good culture. We hit up some thrift stores for wacky 70's garb to sport at some clubs. The Denver Art Museum was also visited. Finally it was all toped off with a night ride out to Morrison. This was truly the tops of the trip. We took the Platte River bike trail out 20 miles at about 7pm and leisurely rolled into the Morrison Inn for chow at 10:30 pm. We were 6 deep with tunes commin from Josh's ghetto blaster and blinky lights all around. We got back into Denver about 1am and it couldnt have been more fun.

The Crew at Cheeseman Park.

Josh's ghetto blaster ipod rig.

Chowin' down at Morrison Inn.

The Crew half way home.

Parade Day, March 15th

The time is upon us to celebrate Ol' St Patrick. Chicago does this the best of any town I have ever lived in. This is truly my favorite thing to do in this city. I grew up in the south burbs and was extremely surprised when I went to High School in the heart of the South Side Irish and realized what an Irish last name got you. Truth be told I held reservation to a lot of it but I did take a healthy understanding of what it meant to be Irish in Chicago. I had classmates that were first generation and two that were off the boat. Heritage was held in high regard. All month long my friends would come to school and share the mother's soda bread, one cafeteria lady made enough to pass out for here entire shift. The culmination of all this pride was the South Side Irish Parade. Know affectionately as "Parade day", as if there are no other parades all year long not to mention the "official" St. Patrick's day parade donwtown.
As a young adult I ended up on the south side to finish up college and reintroduced my self to the culture that some of the Irish exchange students found amusing. I drank on Western Ave. and still do. I can't order a Guinness with out wanting "Irish Steve" to be siting across from me. I've had an honest to goodness "tru a lou a lou" night with an Irishman named Marty after the pub closed and the barkeep just didn't want to go home.

Into adulthood Irish Chicago has put its mark on me I attended the Young Irish Fellowship Ball this year, I'm a regular at Old St. Pat's Parish, and I now run into my kid sister at my old watering holes and tell her stories about the pubs that have closed down. I had know idea how deep in this culture I had become until the local PBS station did a story on Irish Chicago this month. I recognized or talked to just about everyone of the people they had interviewed. Every year the parade means something different to me. Last year was the first year I was able to go in a long time so there was nostalgic feel to it and this year I think it will be a nice celebration. So make your plans and come on out for all the good fun next year I haven't shown off the parade to an out of towner in a long time.