Barter Allain

Authors can mash nearly any random handful into a coherent epistle. Proves nothing, resembles any spoken conversation that meanders among many momentary interests, and says more about personal choices than subject matter. Audiences prefer big lettered memes that encapsulate what one should know about some narrow topic. Well, reality vigorously disagrees, makes dummies who won't investigate points from many topics suffer. As always, just as bad can be opposite extreme, becoming paralyzed by overthinking everything one might encounter on one’s spirit crusade. Sometimes you’ve got to try it all on your own ride, though guidance often shoves grief aside.

Allain (means figuratively harmonious rockstar or holy knight) di Gros (means The Fat) was said to be first of the Fisher Kings, mortally maimed nobles for whom asking right question may have prevented misfortune for all involved. Grail quests were among earliest of published stories that tried to apply biblical morality to medieval mortality, pretty much only amusement then available apart from backbreaking labor, continual battles, daily hunger, and intermittent plagues, when a pen, once used as an instrument of peace, was said to have been mightier than a sword. Then an arms escalation began, computers now in pen’s corner, and long range missiles in sword’s. Information Age commenced, and words became the war with bloody carnage and collateral damage. Today threats of death for treason are being bandied about as if lives in service to society were impolitically expendable. Such outrageous attitudes extend to entire world, not just Pendragon or Perceval, and you personally. Crass broadcasts provoked terror attacks in Gilliam’s award winning, prescient, 1991 filmic retelling; over last two decades many nations including USA have borne a chain reaction of senseless mass killings. A congressional bill, executive edict, or news exposé may be all that stands in annihilation’s way.

A century ago in his novel A Nest of Spies (Brentano, New York,1917) Marcel Allain portrays Colonel Vinson telling how, out on a recuperative bike ride, he met another rider, who overpaid to buy his local map, suckered him into a compromising situation, and turned out to be criminal mastermind Fantomas trying to steal military secrets for Germany. Eternally hunted and ever elusive, Fantomas is probably the first pulp superstar from a popular franchise coauthored with Pierre Souvestre. Later comic book and radio play creations Phantom and The Shadow, and thereby masked vigilante Batman, were thus derived from this sinister representation for what one doesn’t know and therefore fears, though literature provides a safe unveil and vicarious thrill. Downtrodden only wish they could be so ruthless, but usually submit to compromises, deals, and trade-offs. Tyrants barter billions of bodies for bricks of bullion, immortal souls for intemperate power, unwanted surpluses for yearned scarcities.

Credit this candid colorful closeup that plops you into criterium action to New Orleans commercial photographer Jonathan Allain. Wonder if he is at all related to Alexander Peter Allain, among 20th century’s most influential one hundred, associated with Loyola University, cofounder of Freedom to Read Foundation, and tireless advocate of first amendment freedom of speech at a time when pinko peril had library staffs and town officials burning books. Lately, POTUS seems to be making hit lists of prominent Americans who disagree with him; couldn’t be bothered with vast majority who also despises, since they can easily be silenced. Leaders to whom you grant power supposed to answer to you and be incorruptible, though slightest chance to capitalize pushes sociopaths into depravity.

Rhett Allain’s article in Wired (2008), Teach Your Child to Ride a Bike, concludes, “Good luck and good riding. Oh, and wear a helmet. Oh, and don't do drugs.“ Finishing touch is his link in homage to fixie guru Sheldon Brown’s Teaching Kids to Ride. Irreverent wrench master Brown died before his time of a heart attack at age 63 only 10 months earlier. Refreshing to see a blogger credit source. Such old school courtesy seems remarkably absent a decade later. Browbeating, finger pointing, invention theft, name calling, and screaming lunacy form information’s legacy. But was America greater when impersonal privacy surrounded, pederasts played out fantasies, and scandals never surfaced?

Having traveled every road of tiny Ile de Bréhat, Côtes-d’Armor, France for more than 25 years on her bicycle, postal worker Line Allain retired this year. From summers sorting mail since age 17, Line was promoted in 1993 to year-round mail carrier. Toting parcels up to 30 kg in panniers, she furrowed paths and knows them all. One half of island is separated from other at high tide, which must have accounted for some delivery difficulties. Because she rode on average 30 km per week, Islanders say, ”Line Allain has had to cycle around the world several times.” Define several; more likely once. Labann has done it [~40k km] at least 6, not without scores of shady incidents, while fulfilling full time uninterrupted sedentary jobs. Any knight of the round wheel tables every tale of insecurity for noble scrutiny. More surprising is how those who go by bike get by and slip through a lot easier and safer than motorists ever do.

“Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise. Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies... And if, you don't love me now you will never love me again. I can still hear you saying you would never break The Chain... Break the silence... Chain keep us together.” Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (1977), Guardians of the Galaxy 2 soundtrack (2017). Universal appeal of haunting darkness and tense cadence from insecure egomaniacs sounds like a morning bike commute. Artists ought to feel blessed anyone hears them at all given evil competing to dominate universe and snare everyone's soul, and vast internet data pool buried under bedrock that exact a temporal toll when you just want to roll.