Professional racers on grand tours do consume berries, carbs, fats, fruits, and meats, along with caffeine gels boosting performance without chancing disqualification. Less obsessed bicyclists count down weekdays as Mount-day, Too-Tired, Wield-Dream, Thigh-Burn, Fried Legs, Sat-Down-to-Stay, Sun-Dazed, all the while hungry and unsatisfied.
In 2018 United Nations General Assembly recognized historic and persistent benefits and sustainability of bicycling by naming June 3rd annual World Bicycle Day. International Year of the Bicycle occurred a decade and a half ago in 2009. US Congress issued Codes of Federal Regulations 35 years ago in 1990 mandating infrastructure improvements to accommodate bicyclists everywhere. Yet too little has been done in compliance.
America’s coverage of 111th Tour de France was underwhelming with broadcasts only accessible from costly streaming services. Had to get condensed summaries of each stage from official Le Tour site, hours later, not live. Wondering whether that was because automotive and oil interests don't want Americans noticing how hundreds of athletes racing over 2,100 miles in 3 weeks in slightly over 83 hours proved faster than motoring at nation’s de facto 25 mph speed limit, unless otherwise marked, on bubblegum paved, pothole pocked, speed bumped secondary streets resembling over-chomped licorice.
Grateful lately that bipartisan Build Back Better Bill provided so many statewide segments of newly resurfaced roads to enjoy, one way to dispose of refinery sludge after America ramped up oil drilling in 2020 while eliminating economic and environmental safeguards long held with historic consequences in devastating hurricanes. But smooth stretches mean motorists react with ever more impatience and menace toward cyclists, increasing paranoia and phobia while going nowhere in particular.
USDOE policy used to be to import oil for as long as possible, let other nations drain their own wells, only produce enough for a strategic reserve to ensure availability and lower prices, seek alternatives while subsidizing producers, then wean off imports altogether when time was right. Dwindling resources incite diplomatic and geopolitical disagreements, instigate wars, and invite destruction only reparable through more costly efforts than fuel conveniences were intended to avoid. Peace requires balanced and cooperative approaches. If you settle on only one, you write your own death scenario.
Beginning in 1960’s, in collusion with Big Oil, NRA, and other mega-donors, Republican minority applied economic terrorism and regressive propaganda to test how public would tolerate food shortages, rights infringements, school shootings, and social subjugation, thereby signaling advent of authoritarianism. They artificially and intentionally create unreal perceptions of crises and force fed them to gullible citizens.
Real consequences for everyone come from ill advised right wing policies designed to crush middle class wage earners, a zero sum game where losers and perps alike all die or suffer, even trillionaire beneficiaries of society’s largess. Appeals to outrage?
When pump prices rise through greedy schemes and refinery closings, all necessities being transported follow suit: food, goods, heat, and services. Americans bounced back from a pandemic better than most other industrial countries, where inflation remains worse. Nevertheless, premium markets including Whole Foods are crowded with folks spending whole paychecks on weekly groceries because Amazon owns them and gouges customers buying same food in different supermarket packaging.
Presidents don't directly affect pricing, but congressional policies do indirectly. Inflation began under Trump after he botched COVID response, disrupted supply chains, embezzled $8 trillion from treasury, and tanked stock markets. Despite fierce Republican opposition, Biden-Harris did as well as they could to deport a million illegal immigrants, mitigate migration issues, put people back to work, raise equity exchanges to historic highs, reduce deficit by half, and restore economy, so GOP can plan to steal more. Democrats clean up after Republican messes and recessions, indisputable under Reagan, Bush, Bush and Trump administrations. Each time GOP regains control of congress, courts, or executive branch, they accuse other party for disasters they routinely cause, then lie outright and rig situation to look as if they were saviors.
Boomers who aren’t already senile are the only generation of voters who notice this repeating pattern. Some voters seem convinced they were better off 5 years ago with body bag and toilet tissue shortages amidst chaos, consistent fears, frequent funerals, and self imposed isolation. Voters might recall best moments and suppress painful memories, but too often attribute both to wrong causes or timelines.
Don-Old Trump belongs to WWII generation, now running as the oldest presidential candidate in nation’s history, a fact that convinced Biden to drop his bid voluntarily, having already vowed he’d serve as a transition to future, younger leadership. It's not being ageist to expect The Leader of Free World to be healthy enough to fulfill demands of office, especially when his henchmen raided doctor's practice so his records could be hidden. With hundreds of psychiatrists warning of his dementia and physical decline, voters need to know who they are hiring to represent them.
Has Labann ensured his voice is heard through written word? Being on internet and list servers for 3 decades, blogging for 2, capturing zeitgeist, demonstrating facts, and exposing deceits counts for naught. Peeps seem to read social feed to exclusion of blogs and other outdated media such as chapter books and newspapers. Truth has been under attack for decades. Vacuous podcasts do exist to stumble upon, but long messages have no chance against delicious soundbites and pithy slogans among average audiences. Too many leave in-depth analyses to infotainment liars paid handsomely to deceive voters.
You can’t demand to be seen, but why not always wear bright clothing? Could visibility be improved by wearing jockey silks? Maybe cyclists should choose giant red and white checks, or Mondrian rectilinear blue, white, and yellow patterns. Unfortunately, during an election year you might be mistaken for one of countless campaign signs posted alongside streets in so many homeowners' yards, and wind up just as ignored until under some vehicle's wheels.
Ethnologist and Technographist Dr. R Niranjchanadevi Nirvvi expertly collected over 50 classic Hindi and Tamil film clips and songs directly connected to bicycling never before cited here. Distance and time beget obliviousness. South Asian bicyclists of that era appear to have endured little pressure from motorists, and enjoyed tree lined lanes lightly trafficked on their romantic liaisons.
Here are 15 more likewise overlooked songs:
Bicycle, Love of the Wheel, Wheels, Ted M Clements, 2020
Bicycles, Beach Youth, Second, self, 2019
Buppa, Cycle Banditos Illegal [Hungarian hip-hop], Royal Fixi Club, self, 2011
Buppa, Royal Fixi Club Pt 1 [Hungarian hip-hop], Royal Fixi Club, self, 2011
Buppa, Royal Fixi Club Pt 2 [Hungarian hip-hop], Royal Fixi Club, self, 2011
Early B, Wheely Wheely [reggae], single, Tuff Gong Music, 1984
Elliot Park, Bicycle, Just Be, self, 2018
Janek Gwizdala, Bicycles [guitar jazz instrumental], Motion Picture, Second, self, 2014
Jared Minetola, Handlebars, single, self, 2023
Johnny and the Raindrops, Life Is Better on a Bicycle, Swinging in Harmony, Raindrops Rec., 2017
Nikki Forova, Bicycles, single, self, 2022: “There was a girl with the red bicycle... a boy with the yellow bicycle... Living in the now. Oooh! Adrenaline was pumping through their veins, all swept away, they were riding.”
Pense-Bete, Le Roi de la Bicyclette, Lune sans Nuit, self, 2015
Suspicious Jazz Roll-Ups, Bicycle Song (feat. Angela Chan), single, self, 2022
Thelma Plum, Baby Blue Bicycle, Meanjin EP, self, 2022: “I wish I had a baby blue bicycle and I’d ride it back to you.”
Tony Green Orchestra, The Bicycle Song, My Sweetheart, 3861577 Records DK, 2024
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