Meeting myself on the mountain.

In line at the bike rental center at Mammoth Mountain today, I met a 22 year old English guy.  He was excited for his first day ever of biking on the mountain trails.  Young and fearless, he intended to go straight to the intermediate trails and skip the beginner runs.  A full day of pushing himself to the limit was his clear intent.  The problem was, the young man was actually the 22 year old me and I failed to adequately introduce him to the 52 year old me. It was the 22 year old me that forgot to rent the safety gear package. "Hey there are kids on the trails with no pads, we'll be fine" was his only comment when we realized we were basically riding naked.The 52 year old me did remember to buy insurance on the bikes.

Mitch and I at the TOP of the mountain 9:45am.

The 22 year old me begrudgingly joined us on the first trail of the day, an introductory bike path called Downtown.  The 52 year old me was feeling good on the Downtown trail.  Plenty of easy turns and almost no peddling.  The 22 year old me was bored and he is a very influential young man.  By the time we were riding the bus back to the trailhead he had convinced me that we needed to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain and ride the Off The Top trail.  The 19 year old that helped us rent the bikes had described it as a an "easy switch backy trail all the way down."  The 52 year old me works with a full staff of 19 year olds and I know that they must never be trusted when they are assuring me "Try it, you'll be fine."  But the 22 year old me just said "Thanks, Bro" and took off for the gondola and the ascent to 11,053 feet.

I last saw the 22 year old me about 20 seconds after we left the top of the mountain. Son of a bitch just abandoned me.  The 52 year old me was immediately terrified and regretting the whole "we don't need no stinking knee pads" fiasco.  Mammoth Mountain classifies their trails as beginner, intermediate, expert, and pro.  For future 52 year old novice riders I have renamed them.  Beginner trails are now DIHHI (Do I have health insurance?) trails, easier than the next level to be known as SDIPTLI or (Shit, did I pay the life insurance?) trails.

My first fall was entirely predictable.  Narrow, downhill, rocky trails and overweight middle aged guys on bikes for the first time have inevitable ups and downs in their relationship.  I took a banked corner too fast and coming out of the turn I couldn't keep control of the bike.  It was a pretty minor fall, a precursor to the main events.  The second and third falls involved similar lack of judgement but far superior acrobatics.

My legs at the BOTTOM of the mountain 11:00am.

As I gingerly rode the second half of the trail I was initially lamenting the fact that the 22 year old is gone forever.  He would have ridden those trails all day whooping and cheering rather than grunting and screaming as I did.  And then he would go back for more as I headed home for a long soak.  But I looked up and saw my 15 year old son Mitchell riding effortlessly ahead of me.  The 22 year old me doesn't have this awesome kid to ride with does he?  He doesn't have 2 more awesome kids waiting at home and he hasn't yet met the love of his life, the woman the 52 year old me is lucky to call my missus.

This weekend at Mammoth was a father/son trip and it was amazing.  The 52 year old me had four whole days with Mitchell and I have enjoyed every second.  Yes, even the falls, because he stopped and waited for me and helped me clean up and never laughed at his dad.  He even pretended he would also prefer an afternoon of binge Netflix watching rather than an afternoon on the trails.  So, for his benefit, we are back at the condo and I am not missing the 22 year old me at all.

Party down at the Roxy

Graham Parker and the Rumour took the stage at The Roxy Theatre on Sunset Boulevard to an enthusiastic welcome.  Their fans that had waited 30 years for this moment and we all wondered how it would go. They left the stage two hours later having entertained, enthralled, and engaged the packed audience and proved to us all that talent, and great music, is ageless.

Taking a step back to bring you quickly up to date, I drove to LA on Monday and met Mark at the airport.  We spent the next day at Universal Studios before heading to Hollywood for the big show.  This stop on the tour was a "record release party" for the soundtrack to This is 40, the movie that features Graham Parker.  The crowd was boosted by film types including producer Judd Apatow who introduced the show.  Added to the bill due to their connection with the film, were Ryan Adams (not Bryan Adams as Mark thought as he kept shouting "Go on Bryan, let's hear Summer of 69, ", very embarrassing) and Fleetwwod Mac's Lindsay Buckingham (Mark's response to this icon of rock and roll was: "Lindsay? Lindsay? I thought that was a girl's name. Isn't she the lead singer?")  I don't know much about Fleetwood Mac but this guy can play guitar.  They both did short sets and we waited for the main event.

The Roxy is a small venue so we were up close and personal.  So close, I noticed that a number of the band got new shoes for the tour, a nice touch I thought.  For the record, Martin Belmont was sporting a pair of Chuck Taylor All Star Hi Tops, Brinsley Schwarz a nice pair of Hush Puppies and GP a pair of dress blacks.  In fact, they were looking clean and sharp all around.  I had a brief vision of Judd Apatow handing them fistfuls of cash that afternoon and saying "Go on boys, tidy yourselves up and buy yourselves something nice."  Kind of like the Julia Roberts makeover in Pretty Women. 

The crowd was made up of middle age men, many wearing ear plugs which I found disturbing as a middle aged man.  For crying out loud people, listen to the music, deal with the ringing in your ears, and shout at everyone for three days because your hearing's shot.  This is rock and roll!  A few super enthusiastic guys looked like they had spent the past 30 years in their mothers' basements listening to Graham Parker albums (on the original vinyl of course) and building life size models of the Rumour out of cheese. For the record, Mark wants me to clarify here that I am in no way describing him. He has recently moved out of his mother's basement.

Anyway, from the new songs on the "Three Chords Good" album to the stuff from the first album "Howlin' Wind" back in 1977, the show was amazing.  Graham Parker is a prodigious and talented singer songwriter and an accomplished solo artist.  But as the front man of this band, he truly is outstanding.  Singing, playing guitar, engaging in witty banter, he does it all. There was even some movement that might be called dancing. Oh, and after the show we exchanged a few pleasant words with keyboard player, Bob Andrews. 

So, a fantastic night and then.... we are now being described as superfans.  Read about it here:  Santa Cruz Sentinel.  Pictures coming soon! Onward to Santa Cruz and San Francisco.

Turning 50

I will turn 50 next year (pause for exclamations of surprise such as "No way, he looks much younger than that") and my best friend from England will also reach this milestone in 2013.  We started to discuss ways we could celebrate. We have spent very little time together since 1986, the longest, and most recent, get together in that 26 year stretch being a 2 day visit last year.  But, like all good friends, when we do get together it's like we saw each other the week before.  We just catch up and move right along.

In the midst of our thinking about plans to get together, we came across a very cool story.  Our favorite musician from our teen years was reuniting with his band after 30 plus years.  Graham Parker and the Rumor were amazing back in the 70s and 80s but never quite had the success enjoyed by other 80's Brit Wave artists.  They faded away.  I saw GP perform a few times over the years as a solo artist and it was fine.  But the Rumour were sorely missed.  It turns out movie maker Judd Apatow is also a huge Graham Parker fan and he found a role for the musician and his band in the upcoming movie, This is 40. Seeing an opportunity to be musically relevant again and relive some youthful shenanigans (as well as paying some bills I imagine or at least padding their 401Ks) Graham Parker and The Rumor reunited to release a new album and embark on a short tour that includes 3 stops in California.  Here was our opportunity.  We're getting the band back together!  Or at least we are following the band that's getting back together.

So, it's on.  Next week I will meet Mark in LA, and we'll go to the first show of the week at the famous Roxy Theater on Sunset Boulevard.  How cool is that.  We'll also squeeze in a day at Universal Studios.  Then it's a long drive to Lake Tahoe for a couple of days before hitting shows in Santa Cruz and San Francisco.

Here is my tour shirt from the last time we saw the band back in 1982. 

I sent this picture to Mark.  He said: "You're right, you haven't changed a bit!" Rude.

Check out the story of the Graham Parker reunion here:

So that's my little story, and to tell it I had to create a blog.  Maybe we'll post some updates from our epic adventure.