Budapestain

Further pursuing obscure film viewing amidst this despotic and horrific pandemic, can’t help but notice how truth takes a beating. Literary and litter seem to have same root, bits or memes strewn carelessly, stuff to which you can never lend your faith. Photographs were admissible in court until Photoshop began to falsify. Film or video evidence was beyond doubt until viewers learned about special effects. Few things are as completely genuine as a kiss on your lips or slap across your ass. Spinning along on a steed of steel will always be credibly real. Meaningful, small, unexpected references give 21st Century cinema inspirational appeal.

Beginning with The Year of The Bike, 2009, and proceeding by date of release, in television program Law & Order Criminal Intent, “Legion”, Season 2, Episode 18, major case detectives Eames & Goren (Kathryn Erbe & Vincent D’Onofrio) expose a cult where adolescents must steal bicycles or wind up dead under an authoritarian ring leader.

Documentary called A Murder of Couriers (Neil Brill, Tom MacLeod, dirs., 2012) chronicles culture and lives of Vancouver bicycle messengers. Not to be confused with 1998 crime thriller called A Murder of Crows, title comes from a 15th Century term of venery, developed by witty hunters, to which ornithologists object, who call any group of birds a “flock”. Deadsoul Tribe’s like named album coincidently features a track, The Messenger. Coincidence echoes pestilence while surrounded by sickness born from premeditated malice and sociopathic avarice.

White God (Kornél Mondruczó, dir., 2014) has preteen protagonist Zsófia Psotta discovering how music soothes the savage beast. When her mongrel pet is tossed aside because of an excessive tax on dogs that aren’t pure breeds, she defies family and looks relentlessly for her beloved Hagen, during which her own bicycle is stolen. Meanwhile, Hagen leads a canine revolt against blood sport organizers and petty animal controllers who’ve mistreated him. A hundred dogs escape pound and race through streets of Budapest terrorizing residents.

Zsófia borrows a bike to outrun them so she can go home, but gets knocked down, then plays Liszt on her trumpet to quell their wilding. This allegory about Nazi and Soviet occupation of Hungary won an award.

While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach, dir., 2015) explains why middle aged hipsters Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts befriend bicycling twentysomethings Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried on their quest for authentic lifestyles. “Ride on the street, man!” screams Driver.

Stiller’s stride into cool cyclist gets tripped up when his bike less its front wheel is stolen. Driver disappoints cyclist Stiller, naturally, in a vignette of how privileged millennials mash up culture instead of invent their own. A generation ago horizons were devoid of textural complexity offered over today’s internet, much of it as phony as Wikipedia entries spawned by propagandists and publicists that researchers and xennials take as gospel. Nonfiction is now in question, truth on trial, for every documentarian. Intimacy and spontaneity can only survive when you feel alive.

The Sweet Life (Rob Spera, dir., 2016) tells how bicycling ice cream vendor Chris Messina meets likewise despondent Abigail Spencer. They make a suicide pact to cross America and throw themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge. After several awkward adventures including boosting cars and robbing convenience stores, he steals a bike to rush and save her.

Life can be sweet if you have someone with whom to share your journey.

Last time guardian Alison (Dianna Agron) sees her teenage brother Darryl (Shawn Ashmore), he’s taking off with his BMX bike and friends to hang and party. She spends rest of Hollow in the Land (Scooter Corkle, dir., 2017) looking for him, as does town’s vindictive police chief (Michael Rogers) who holds them both responsible for their dad’s traffic accident, which killed his son who was riding on a bicycle.

Brazilian drama Arábia (João Dumans, dir., 2017) opens with teen protagonist riding his bicycle alongside a valley vista, only to discover diary of an itinerant worker whose life was even harder than his.

Mail Order Monster (Paulina Lagudi Ulrich dir., 2018) spins an awkward yarn of a gifted and resourceful teen (Madison Horcher) with family and friend issues, shown bicycling away from high school bullies and intended harm. She orders an overprotective robot from a comic book ad. Mayhem ensues, but scenario ends well for Sam and her stepmom.

Amidst factory lofts Evalena Marie awaits entry into the secluded world of pharmacologist Joey Klein in Painless (Jordan Horowitz, dir., 2018). Klein portrays a person with rare congenital disorder CIP, insensitive to pain, thus often repeatedly suffers inadvertent injuries. When you are unlike others, you choose between letting your desire to conform destroy you, or maximizing whatever skills you have to play hand you’re dealt. Other directions sit on your doorstep, if you make a choice and take a chance.

Hope may not be rational, but not one life is futile. For the first time in its 50 year history Earth Day 2020 sees planet recovering from mankind’s influence. Woodstock Nation, who instigated this annual commemoration, responded to threats of pollution and waste, none of which have been abated to date or addressed in haste. Reports from everywhere describe a resurgence in bicycling as a way to be green, maintain personal distance, move about cleanly and effectively, and stay healthy. Who knew?

But for Messiaen

Heading out into prevailing breeze in order to return with ease, a bicyclist might contemplate disease. When traffic is heavy, too much roadkill in gutter is what one sees, but lately notice few new. Squirrels, safe only when up in trees, must view motoring as a pandemic, what bicyclists begrudge as expediently politic. Apex predators, bears, coyotes, mountain lions and wolves have rebounded to relative degrees. Despite nearly empty pavement, you still must pick distances and routes using your psychogeographical expertise.

Despite wrong terminology tossed carelessly around, today’s contagion is not plague (a now rare but specific disease spread by flea bites from rats), unforeseen, or unprecedented. COVID-19 is a mutant form of same influenza that causes SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which presents real danger, as lung inflammation can suffocate victims. So far globally, less than 0.01% of people have contracted. Prognoses aren't encouraging, though epidemiologists predict improving outcomes overall. Cleaning diligently and distancing self from coughs and sneezes seem effective. Statistics indicate case counting has begun to catch up and coronavirus has shortened its reach. Labann along with many writers warned of dangers from bacteria, fungi, and viruses; has been a common literary theme for decades.

A century ago, related and so called Spanish Flu killed up to forty million people, about 2% of planet’s then two billion population. During the 15th Century, The Black Death, traveling between North Atlantic and Pacific Rim along the Silk Road, wiped out half of Europeans. Spanish conquest of The Americas and subsequent Columbian exchange represented history’s worst instance of biological warfare; diseases for which natives had no immunities killed 90% of indigenous survivors who weren’t otherwise slaughtered. Then as today, commerce and trade filled coffers and coffins. Until 20th Century, nobody knew how to stay healthy, how to stop diseases from spreading through quarantine and sanitation, what even caused illness. They blamed demons, mistrals, possessions or vampires. Mechanisms understood, nowadays you look for who’s responsible and try to make some sense of what’s happening.

If you carefully assess COVID-19 cases, non-Asians were hardest hit, particularly Italian and Spanish among American, Middle Eastern and Scandinavian afflicted. Global outcomes, excluding those still sick, are about four recovered versus one who died. If you can believe numbers out of Beijing (no reason to after so many misinformation campaigns), Chinese recovery rate is radically superior, 50:1, though Hubei province had been in total lockdown. This could also be due to better immunity after having to deal daily with contagions and crowds. More Indians than not also seem likewise immune. Indonesians and Japanese appear similarly spared. Reporters say they traced COVID-19 to wet markets in Wuhan, and would have you believe it began with pangolins eating bats, thereby transmitted to humans who consider these scaly anteaters a delicacy. Some say Chinese devour just about anything that squirms in a land with limited resources and widespread hunger. Inadvertent leaks from research facilities into unsuspecting populations have occurred everywhere, but was this what happened here? Beijing already stated their goal to dominate microbial sciences, but to what end? They'd be ashamed to admit stupidly infecting entire planet. Lack of transparency instigates suspicions.

Given numbers reported, what makes the most sense is a premeditated biological attack specifically against the West. After bribing a Harvard virologist for vials of deadly viruses, and a WHO Director with aid to Ethiopia to silence warnings, China’s Biolake laboratories in Wuhan secretly acted. Suspect they used genetic engineering to target races other than own. Why use weapons of mass destruction if you want to seize minerals and treasures from rivals? Genetic bioweapons were developed decades ago, and have been successfully deployed on several occasions. This pandemic is what WWIII will look like, less damage, more deaths, not the nuclear holocaust you expected.

“Taken together with the fact that influenza virus is readily accessible and may be causing more deaths than previously suspected, the possibility for genetic engineering and aerosol transmission suggests an enormous potential for bioterrorism.” Mohammad Madjid, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2003

What sort of leaders resort to genocide? Well, communist totalitarians and conscienceless sociopaths. Emboldened by corrupt and inane European and US officials, China figured now’s the best time to get away with it including plausible denial due of domestic deaths. Ready for next release, their only problem is timing, though 5 and 10 year plans have been diligently pursued. Trump’s response was all about himself, how pandemic and press made him look bad. How moronic does worrying about legacy sound while citizens are dying for want of decisive policies? Maybe what capitalists really needed was a time out to reevaluate how they treat others, and who they elect.

A persistent belief repeated in Bike&Chain was Nature’s growing resentment of mankind’s stewardship. “You’re fired!” could she be saying? If anything, Nature has been proven to retaliate against betrayers and transgressors with wrath of God vengeance. Climate catastrophes now appear linked to carbon crimes and resource depletion. Modern humans get more diseases than any other creature, followed by their domestic livestock and pets. Creatures in tune with nature consume scavenged flesh that would make a dog gag, drink water that pigs would find poisonous, fit nicely into climate and ecology as long as people don’t destroy habitats or outright exterminate species, and would get by fine without mankind. War is no cure for overpopulation. Aggression ultimately consumes aggressors and victims alike. What’s enviable about America is that Americans work. Otherwise, it’s just concrete jungles, crumbling roads, empty grasslands, garbage dumps, rocky mountains, and strip malls. Its treasures include know how, product turnover, and work ethic, whole lot of which has long been in irrevocable decline following similarly inept policies in Europe. Why do Chinese think manufacturers increasingly rely on their workforce? Certainly not because it is better, rather carefree and cheaper, until now. You can keep pollution, sickness, and stink, what all of industrial world already knows too well.

Had a Hannity breakfast of hardboiled egg on anguish muffin while hearing him excoriate The New York Times for their reportage of pandemic related layoffs after corporations pledged to be kinder to stakeholders. “Capitalism isn’t nice... companies must profit despite price,” says a greedy investor never employed in any value adding industry. Layoffs have hidden but huge costs in company reputation, customer loyalty, employee morale, and replacement training. Might as well chuck current innovation and viable future out with the bathwater, since parasites dump nonperforming stocks every quarter. Jump starting jobs just to take a free ride on worker backs will exacerbate contagion and massacre millions. No worries. Allegedly, “free” Miracle Spring Water will fix any disorder. Conservative mania, intense sociopathy, led to cult devotion, Great Depression, media scams, rise of Hitler, and warfare ever since, all under Republican administrations. Who wants this kind of world?

Society abides snap decisions without full awareness of consequences. Vast numbers are woefully ignorant. Complaints of forfeiting of basic rights, such as freedom to roam about by car during quarantines and race to reopen businesses, outnumber concerns over attempted genocide. During world wars they imposed curfews and rationed food, and how is this not equally dire? Life could certainly be livable without exporting and importing durable good and food stuffs. Local farm-to-table initiatives already supplement groceries from industrial corn, rice and wheat fields. But East Coast urban sprawl claimed a lot of failing farms for housing tracts due to developer greed and state overtaxation. Fields left fallow for recovery over several years represent irresistible temptations for opportunists. First thing construction crews do is fell forests so heavy equipment can dig foundations. Without trees branches upon which to roost, bird migrations are disrupted. Barriers kill beneficial animals and insects. Ecosphere collapse can be avoided with zoning codes and enforcement, but money grubbers push back with bribes and campaign contributions toward an ever bleaker future. Eliminating restrictions does nothing to expedite recovery; in fact, regulations create jobs and safeguard return to previous standard of living.

Profiteers recoil from whatever they can’t comprehend. Kept at arm’s length is no longer far enough. What you seek to escape relentlessly hunts you down. Artists embrace what’s unknown, predicted viral apocalypse in hundreds of films, but they were deemed irrelevant when everything seemed tolerable with technology prevalent. Dread, horror, and slasher films harden viewers to what they’ll have to taste, sequelae of ignorance and waste. Einstein said science is no savior, may even be tool of choice for enemies. With billions under house arrest, and too many dead and dying, spirituality becomes a beacon of hope in chaos. Recalls such cacophonic and desperate musical expressions as Quartet for the End of Time, composed and first performed by Olivier Messiaen while interred in a WWII concentration camp in 1941, where he felt he belonged after society’s excesses sent him there. But for the grace of God, so go you, too. Evil may provoke a good response, but isn’t required for selfless creativity and social justice. Given selfish appeals and thickheaded responses so far, don’t see how this will end well.

“The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite to Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.” - Olivier Messiaen, POW, 1941

"Do we seek to transform whatever forms of violence we experience into something creative and relational, or do we spit them out and perpetuate the cycle?" Stephen Osborne, virtuoso performer, for The Guardian, 2016.

Quarantine Deign

“Thanksgiving: Excellent day to join group bike rides... Call own 'The Impossible Ride' since always route it along roads bicyclists can't otherwise use because of relentless traffic. On this holiday morning with most businesses closed, traffic is as light as it will be all year, beyond martial law or unforeseen catastrophes.” Dates Contain, 2016

Went for a Palm Sunday spin amidst foreseen plague surrounded by one percent of population infected with COVID-19 (COrona VIrus DIsease). Found atypical quiet, lack of traffic, no martial lockdown, with occasional motorists overtaking and passing on roads otherwise never attempted. Saw a disproportionate number emergency and tradesman trucks, highway construction equipment, and landscaper rigs hurrying between commercial contracts, not very many passenger cars. Why are beggars still stationed at intersections despite executive orders to stay home? Hardly seems worth standing around waiting for so few to pester. Was hailed by a hitchhiking guy, who everyone flew by with a blind eye, and wondered why anyone would try to defy decrees and scrounge a ride from which both might die. Prefer personal distancing, please. Social distancing precisely describes alienation, just what tyrants want: you isolated and vulnerable. Until now, reckoned lonesome routes weren’t as safe.

Public “servants” leapt at chance to exploit this pandemic. Any relief will go directly into paying mortgages and taxes, two things you can't skip, or supporting vices: alcohol, casinos, drugs, joneses you can't quit. So, benefits only bankers and criminals, funnels cash into pockets of wealthiest, and perpetuates same old zero sum game. All do best when everyone profits equally. Panama Papers, biggest exposé to date of fiscal corruption, money laundering, and offshoring funds to shell corporations and tax havens, showed how privileged could collectively "loan" themselves trillions and raid national treasuries. Why grow, manufacture or mine anything with concomitant agony and anxiety when you can steal from unsuspecting taxpayers with near impunity? They mention Trump 3,450 times. Heads of state and other power brokers cited less often either resigned or were deposed or impeached. Consortium of a hundred journalists who published this wrongdoing won a Pulitzer Prize; one so far has been murdered.

During a pandemic, a slight misstep might summon a death sentence or dire consequence. During such times especially don’t want to crash, flat, get sick, or wind up in a hospital. Have been covering ears, eyes, mouth and nose with balaclava, fleece head tube, and M-frame glasses. Can’t trust gyms; could spin at home. What happens once temperatures rise? Chances of dying from virus do not surpass dangers from lack of exercise; unreasonable fear will always be your worst enemy. After furtive short rides avoiding crowds, dumps, hospitals and sewer plants, strip all outdoor clothing, toss in wash, and totally shower as if scrubbing down after radiation exposure. Wipe every surface including groceries with bleach wipes disposed in garbage, not toilet, which might back up sewerage, then let dry while washings hands with soap for 40 seconds. People who forget to rinse thoroughly and wipe dry won’t live to regret it.

What should industrial countries expect after months of shutdown? National statistics already show an uptick in domestic violence, though thefts have declined. Who wants to steal contaminated stuff? Traffic stops are at historic lows with fewer motorists plying highways. Empty roads temp speeders, but patrols are reluctant to pull them over. Will businesses begin to break down as irreplaceable employees die? What about medicines that keep people alive? After all, individual health relies on clean water, contagion control, public safety, waste management, and whatnot. First responders are first domino to fall with nurses and other members of society in a row. If farms fail, stores will deplete. With libraries closed, what will you do if internet crashes? Eventually, empty bellies will seek neighbor’s pantries, want will beget widespread evil, and who isn’t thinking how China has been complicit in one pandemic too many without retaliation or sanction? Rumors suspect weaponized viruses from Wuhan laboratories that target blacks and caucasians. If numbers out of Beijing are to be believed, Chinese seem more immune and survive at a higher rate. Occidental outcomes are only four recovered for every one who died, with prognoses of those sick still unknown. Whoever might profit will urge a war of the worlds with victors decided by a disease for which combatants have no immunities.

Bicyclists find a forest for rest it affords, good of the wood, nobody who’ll sneeze, shade from trees, and shelter from breeze. Labann always recommended exercising outdoors, something Britain is threatening to prohibit if everyone doesn’t keep their distance, and New Zealand already has, thereby contained spread of COVID-19. States say they’ll track you through camera and smartphone surveillance, but they’re bluffing since they don’t even have enough employees to ensure normal business stays on track. Science is scant on topic, though doctors have always encouraged fresh air and sunshine. Vaccines work on the principle of patient being slightly infected with dead viruses gathered from previously recovered hosts in order to build antibodies. So a little contagion could be a cure, much like a mithridate, though such a theriac comprised of many herbs, resins, roots and spices that supposedly protects user from plague and poisons may only be a myth. “All things in moderation,” but what’s the right measure? No doubt, right now charlatans are concocting snake oils and directors organizing relief funds planning to cheat rubes who know no better. It’s called disaster capitalism. An anti-inflammatory medication might keep your lungs open, but it’s no cure, only a last ditch, short term treatment.

Stuck as if a prisoner indoors, read books and review movies. Might focus on scores of doomsday flicks that depict viral apocalypse, such as I Am Legend, The Omega Man, or Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, dir., 1995), in which a bio-terrorist releases a devastating plague. Vampires and zombies dominate imaginations for billions of viewers. But what about none too exciting prevention and quarantine? Maintaining health is today's desperate quest and true adventure.

Reclusive author Tate Donovan, who has writer’s block, gets barista/bicyclist/house-keeper Katie Cassidy, who inspires him to inscribe a new novel, Grace (Devin Zimmerman, dir., 2018). Both navigating trust issues, never wanting to grow past damaged backstories, then nervous denial when a confidante pockets proceeds, sassy lass gets to be the only one to read it, and learns it is based upon her, before it winds up burnt and gone forever. But his tattooed muse doesn’t only inspire a subsequent book, she writes one of her own. Pretty obvious why this film appeals to Labann, right down to Boston baseball and Grateful Dead references.

Just when a road trip appeals after months or years trapped in an office or withdrawn from society is when going elsewhere, of course, becomes so problematic. Might as well head indoors and hunker down. First world inconveniences pale when compared to third world tragedies, someone dying every three seconds from poverty and starvation. Middle class Americans and Europeans have enjoyed high lives for decades, so never anticipated to what depths things could revert.