My plan to bike across the country.

Cycles. Rhythm is first and cycles are second. On one of the Ramones live CDs, every song starts the same, “1,2,3,4”. Getting that cadence out, so others can join in and you can better communicate within the song. Changes of key, tempo and chord will invariably end at the end of one of those four counts, unless it’s classical music, and there’s a “rest”. But for traditional music, blues, rock and roll, funk and others, a few sentences at the beginning of a song will communicate the coming formation. Musicians will anticipate hints which direct them into the next change in the song. I think that’s what I’m doing here with my words, communicating the upcoming changes.

Since January of ’08, I’ve been working on seasonal changes of four months or less, then living somewhere else or doing something completely different. For the first time since then, I’ve committed myself to eight months of the same city, not necessary the same house, in order to complete my university degree. Monday marked the end of the first semester, the sudden coming of winter and the end of another cycle. Toward the end it had many qualities of something dying and waiting to be reborn. On the school front, I haven’t been doing much, but I spoke to my profs about my musical ambitions, so they’re cool with that. The relationship with Chelsea is officially over but were still frequently hanging out. We’re still quite fond of each other but we’re still doing something we did too much of before we broke up, that’s talk about the breakup.

The positive thing is that, as when I broke up with my highschool girlfriend, mentioned two updates ago, I grew spiritually. Since the breakup I’ve kept my room clean for going on a week ( a new record) and I’ve been maintaining my practices of meditation, yoga and breakdancing. I’m starting to build new relationships with people on the internet, getting back into longboarding and have been formulating my plan to cross the country on a bicycle.

I view this trip as my official coming out in terms of media and national attention. I’ve know for ages that I’m destined to be a shining star of some sort, the last cross country tour confirmed it and now I’m raising the bar. Bicycle awareness will be the banner under which I’ll ride this year. The song “I like my bike” was one of the best received of late and is something I can stand behind. It’s fun to write and perform songs with messages that come from the heart. A few weeks ago, I was commissioned to record a version of “solidarity forever” to be played and sang along to at the health and safety conference of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. I didn’t go, but three hundred people sang along to my recorded words. I’m going to carry that same vibe across the country.

The details are starting to come together in my mind. I hope to gather a decent sized crew, hopefully growing as we go. We’ll camp out in forests, fields and parking lots, locking our bikes together at night. I’ll organize concerts to expose our message to as many people as possible and help fund the trip. We’ll play fairs and markets and gatherings all the way across. Yes, it sounds idealistic and vague, but all it really takes is a bike, trailer and will to do it. I’ve hauled multiple instruments and amps behind a bike and there’s no reason a tent, stove and hatchet won’t fit in as well. The next step is to gather the crew and organize or locate the shows and places to sleep. Then comes the media blitz, which I’ll promote with all my heart. The press loves a good story, and this writes itself. I’d like to extend this invitation to anyone who wants to do something amazing and utterly positive during these up coming summer months. There are many way’s to support oneself on the road, check the blog entry about eating for free, but saving money now is a good way to make a safety net. The stopping points will probably be fairly close together, in order to accommodate a leisurely pace and any young folks that might be a bit slower.

A traveling bike fair would be a pretty cool thing. Carry around a makeshift stage and sound system, have bike fixing and chopping workshops, arts and crafts for sale, a bike orchestra, trike racing, jousting, drama, clowns, music lessons, face painting ect.. Making the project self-sustainable and eco friendly is an obvious.

I think this project is worth while and I’m going to start putting the wheels in motion. How pun!

-M