The Bicycling Guitarist

My ancestry

2011-10-22T05:02:00.001-07:00

My family tree has been traced back quite a ways, much farther than some people admit. I didn't do the genealogy work myself though. I had thousands of scientists working the past hundred fifty years or so do it all for me. Much has been learned especially the past twenty years about the cladistic relationships of my ancestors. Some of the old descriptions about my family history still often quoted (fish to amphibians, amphibians to reptiles, reptiles to mammals, etc.) are actually wrong.

I don't know too much from before my ancestors became vertebrates, but about 375 million years ago, maybe as long as 400 million years ago, some of my fishy ancestors evolved to "fishapods", perfectly intermediate between fish and tetrapods. Others of my fishy ancestors remained fish. Many died out but some evolved to become the fish of today. Relatively soon after tetrapods made their way onto land, some of them evolved to become amphibians, while others became amniotes.

Some of the amniotes became synapsids and some became sauropsids (leading to reptiles and birds). Some of the synapsids evolved to become mammals. Some of those mammals eventually became monkeys. Some of the monkeys became apes; many died out, others evolved to become the monkeys of today. Some apes became hominids, many died out, some evolved to become the modern apes other than the great apes. Most hominids died out, but some of them evolved to become the great apes of today (Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and Humans). Modern humans are a species of ape but still a highly-derived fish if you go back far enough.

Two of my most famous ancestors are Tiktaalik, one of those "fishapods" from the late Devonian period, and Australopithecus afarensis, much much much more recent (only about 3.5 million years ago). Now it may be that neither of these are actually my direct ancestors. They could have been side branches of my ancestral family tree that died out without leaving any descendants. However, they are most definitely family.

My quotation had changed!

2011-10-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

I just discovered that for some of my site's web pages and multimedia files I had accidentally written "When you run over sharps, you get flats!" instead of "When you ride over sharps, you get flats!" One little word difference. Now I can't decide if I like the changed version better. I suppose the original "ride over sharps" makes more sense to emphasize that I play guitar while riding a bicycle, instead of "run over sharps" as if one were in a car or something.

Even the title in the html code of the new album's web page had the name wrong. I changed all instances back to the original form to be consistent, but I may have missed a few places on the internet besides my web site. Oops.

Worst season for bicycle guitaring? Fall!

2011-09-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

Jest kidding. Actually Fall frequently has good weather for playing guitar while riding a bicycle. The title of this post is a bad pun. Here's another. In a songwriter's forum on the internet a few years back Mike McLaughlin quipped "What's the hardest thing about playing guitar on a bike? The pavement!" To which I replied: "Ouch, Mike. My asphalt to the ground!"

For a while recently I was posting every week about what songs I played at various public places. Even posting every week wasn't enough to describe all the places I've been playing the past seven weeks. For about six or seven weeks I have been participating every Tuesday in the open mike night at Charley's BBQ followed by the Jersey Lilly bar later that night. I haven't played the coffee shops or bookstores as much the past couple weeks as I had a few weeks further back, but I have gone to the city park more often and many people have seen me there.

I am saddened by the recent tragedy at the Reno National Championship Air Races. Last Friday one of the most awesome Unlimited racers ever built apparently suffered a mechanical failure and nose dived into the ground at high speed near VIP box seating on the tarmac. The Galloping Ghost was going nearly five hundred miles an hour just before the accident. It shattered into a million tiny pieces and a big cloud of dust. At least ten people are dead and fifty more injured (my numbers might be off a bit).

While this is a tragedy, I hope it does not lead to the end of Air Racing as we know it. Yes, the crowd fatalities are unfortunate, but that is the risk one takes when going to such an event. Also, these are the first spectator casualties in the forty-six year history of the event. A mechanical failure of a plane going five hundred miles an hour a hundred feet above the ground could result in the plane going anywhere. Odds are it would go down in the desert, but not this time. I offer my condolences and best wishes for the victims of this tragedy, including the friends and family of Jimmy Leeward, the pilot of the doomed Mustang.

Rocking the Jersey Lilly

2011-08-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

At five p.m. I started the evening at the open mike night of Charley's BBQ, as I have the past few Tuesday nights. I was first on the list because I got there early, and after the house band played a while I performed Freedom and Logger Rhythm. Later I got another turn and performed Early Morning Hours. I asked for adjustment to the sound for the last song (some distortion, less bass), and it went better than the first two, but all were good.

Afterwards I went to the Jersey Lilly for their open mike night that starts at nine p.m. I got there shortly after eight, and rode around a bit in their parking lot playing guitar on my bicycle before going inside. Again I was first on the list. I started with Legalize. A drummer joined me for that song, then I asked him to let me perform solo and he did. I played Logger Rhythm and Early Morning Hours here too, and Dust in the Wind by Kansas.

Then I got some distortion and played Long Hair (another of my originals) and closed with Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith. This was one of the best public performances of my life so far, and it was very well received.

Played two places tonight

2011-08-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

I've been playing public places several times a week the past few weeks, including a metaphysical bookstore, a coffee shop, and a bar, besides also playing for other groups of people at various locations.

Tonight from five to eight p.m. I was at Charley's BBQ again for the third week in a row (last week I played Red Baron and Prayer). My first turn at Charley's tonight I played Hot Young Blonde, Running Out of Time and the Beatles song Help! After everyone else got their turn at the open microphone night, I got another turn just before they shut down. I played Oh! Jennifer! and What Can I Say? All these songs except for the Beatles song Help! are from my new (but as yet unrecorded) album When you ride over sharps, you get flats!

Then I went to a cocktail lounge downtown and got a contact number for the man who arranges entertainment there. I will call him tomorrow. Then I went to the Jersey Lilly, a bar that also has open jam sessions on Tuesday nights starting at nine p.m. The house band played a set, then I had a turn. I played my original song Red Baron, Help! by the Beatles, and Behind Blue Eyes by The Who (actually what I play is closer to Pete Townshend's acoustic version).

Charley's BBQ open mike night

2011-08-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

I played two songs earlier tonight at Charley's BBQ on West Harvard Avenue. The first was one of mine, Early Morning Hours. Then I played the Beatles song Help! Both were well-received. A little later I rode and played in the parking lot next door while some people watched from the windows.

Last month I noticed a shimmy in the front wheel when I was going down hills, even though the tires were inflated properly. So yesterday I dropped the "Minstrel Cycle" off at the Local Bike Shop to have them true both wheels. It turns out the front axle had a little play and the rear wheel was way out of shape, so it's a good thing I had this done. I picked up the bicycle from the bike shop at 4 p.m. and the music started at the BBQ place at 5. I had to wait a while for my turn to play.

When you ride over sharps, you get flats!

2011-07-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

In 2008 I came up with that punny statement that accurately describes what can happen when one is The Bicycling Guitarist. I like it so much I plan for it to be the title of my next album, and possibly my autobiography (or should I say, bicyclebiography?)

The past few weeks besides riding and playing I've sat and played in various public places of business (two bars and a bookstore/coffee shop) an hour or two at a time. So far I have been very well-received. I recently came up with a list of twelve of my better songs from 1986 to 1995 to be included on my next album. I have at least another album's worth of works in progress where the music is there but I do not yet have lyrics for them.

I hope to record at least one album this year and get it out there. Please help spread the word about The Bicycling Guitarist. I will post updates on this blog and on my web site when the album is available.

Flat earth, anyone?

2011-06-22T01:24:00.000-07:00

Would it be prudent to take spiritual advice about the afterlife from a religion that is demonstrably out of touch with reality? For example, what if someone was telling you what you should do to get to heaven, but also insisted the earth is flat in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Wouldn't it damage that religion's credibility on spiritual matters if it can be so easily proven wrong about something that has so much physical evidence? Wouldn't you question that person's sanity or at the very least, their ability to reason clearly?

Take it further, what if that religion had a relatively large percentage of the population bamboozled into thinking the earth is really flat, and those well-meaning but misguided people heavily lobbied school boards and politicians to demand equal time for the flat earth theory, citing "academic fairness" and "teach the controversy" as their slogans?

What if that religion ignored tons of evidence of many different types that clearly falsified its views, and denied or distorted the evidence it didn't ignore to bamboozle its followers into thinking there actually was any substance to their argument. What if there had been a dozen major court cases the past forty years where that religion could have presented evidence to support their view, or evidence to falsify the idea the earth isn't flat, yet failed to do so. What if there was actually NO scientific evidence, none at all, to support that religion's view. Does it still seem right or fair to give it "equal time" in public school science classrooms?

That is EXACTLY the situation in America today with regard to the teaching of evolution. This is not a straw man argument. To deny the overwhelming evidence for evolution is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as to insist the earth is really flat. The situation is exactly as I describe it, no exaggeration, no distortion. It would be funny if the potential negative consequences for America, humanity and the planet were not so grave. How can so many people be so ignorant in the 21st century?

Note that I am not claiming that the evidence for evolution somehow disproves God. What I am saying is that the evidence does exist; it is not as most creationists describe it, and many people are basing their opinion on faulty information. If God exists, God apparently used evolution as a tool of creation, and if it didn't happen that way, then God is apparently a trickster to plant so MUCH evidence suggesting that it did.

The Day the Red Baron Died

2011-04-21T05:51:00.000-07:00

Today is the 93rd anniversary of his death on April 21, 1918.

The science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein wrote in The Notebooks of Lazarus Long that "The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of 'loyalty' and 'duty.' Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed."

I wonder if I recognized and identified with the concepts of loyalty and duty even as a five year old boy when I first read about the World War One flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron. He was a great hunter, had keen eyesight, and what could be called situational awareness. While most men in aerial combat were lucky if they could even just look out for themselves, he was able to keep track of what all the men in his squadron were doing at all times.

After they landed, the others were amazed that von Richthofen could tell them in detail what they had done right and what they had done wrong in the previous combat. I always wanted to be like von Richthofen, somebody respected for outstanding abilities at what they do but even more, somebody that others could count on. I have always tried to be that type of friend.

As for duty, von Richthofen was seriously hurt in aerial combat on July 6, 1917 but survived to fight again. He never should have seen combat after that serious head wound, and he was urged to take a job as an instructor behind the lines. He didn't want any special treatment just because he was famous. He said that if any ordinary soldier had suffered the same wound, that soldier would have been sent back to the front to fight as soon as possible. Also, he didn't want to abandon his comrades at the front. He had a sense of obligation to his comrades and to his country. For some reason that really struck a chord with me, and he has always been one of my role models.

Yes I know there were bad things about him. He enjoyed hunting, even if the prey was other people. But he was loyal and courageous, and he exemplified almost as much as it is possible for any human to do, the twin concepts of loyalty and duty so highly praised by that popular science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.

I wrote an informative speech about the Fokker Triplane (made famous by the Red Baron) that is one of the better concise sources of information about this aircraft on the internet. I even wrote a song about the character and career of the Red Baron and posted a music video on YouTube. The song lyrics are historically accurate, focusing mainly on the day he was wounded July 6, 1917. The images used in the video are also historically accurate. Several noted aviation artists gave me permission to use images of some of their artwork in this video.

46th anniversary of the Beatles recording Help!

2011-04-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Beatles recorded the song Help! the evening of April 13, 1965, in twelve takes during a four hour recording session at Studio 2, Abbey Road Studios, London, England. The producer was George Martin. The engineer was Norman Smith.

This is one of John Lennon's favorite songs from his time with the Beatles. I like it too. I usually only play my own original songs; this is one of the few "covers" I do of songs by other artists. I have listened to it and played along to it on guitar literally thousands of times the past five or six years. I play both John's rhythm guitar parts and George's lead guitar parts in my arrangement, trying to get the sound and timing as close as possible to the original version. Sometimes I add extra verses of my own derivations of this classic song.

The last time I was recorded playing this song was in December 2009. I play and sing it much better now than then, but have not yet been re-recorded. I got most of the song the first few days of playing along to it. Sometimes months go by without my learning anything new to improve my playing of it, but once in a while my ears and brain pick up something that I hadn't heard before. Listening to the studio takes helps a lot, also the live versions. I hope to re-record this song sometime in the next few months (maybe a lot sooner). If so, it will be posted on my web site and possibly also on YouTube.

Lego my ego

2011-03-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

Compare the Lego model of me to the other photograph taken some years ago when I used to hang out with Peter Griffin of the Family Guy TV show. It's actually quite a good likeness!

U.S.S. Saratoga torpedoed on this date in 1942

2011-01-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

The U.S.S. Saratoga was one of our first fast aircraft carriers. She was converted while building from a World War I design battlecruiser under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. In the years before World War II the Saratoga was distinguished from her sister ship and class leader Lexington by a large black vertical stripe down her funnel and was known as "Stripe-Stacked Sara."

On January 11, 1942 the U.S.S. Saratoga was hit by a single torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-6. She limped into Pearl Harbor where a temporary patch was applied, then went to the U.S. West Coast for more extensive repairs and modifications. These included the replacement of the 8" guns by the more efficient 5"/38 guns that doubled as antiaircraft weapons.

Saratoga arrived at Pearl Harbor just too late for the Battle of Midway in June 1942, fought in the Solomons campaign later that year when she was torpedoed again by another Japanese submarine, helped the British Far Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in 1944, and was damaged by kamikazes off Japan in 1945. She was sunk by atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946 and today is a popular destination for scuba divers.

Merry Kitzmas!

2010-12-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

Humans share common ancestry with other living things. Overwhelming evidence of many different types clearly shows this is so, but many people have been lied to about this subject and try to say evolution doesn't happen. It's just as crazy as if half the adults in the USA were to insist the earth is flat in spite of all evidence to the contrary. It really is that obvious.

This is the fifth anniversary of the decision by Judge John E. Jones III on the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial. This 2005 trial clearly showed that so-called "intelligent design" is not a scientific idea because it is NOT supported by ANY scientific evidence in spite of claims by its advocates to the contrary. Intelligent Design as presented at that time was in fact a thinly disguised repackaging of so-called "scientific creationism" which is a religious belief and therefore has no place in a public school science classroom. In his decision, Judge Jones basically called the defendants liars and referred to the "breathtaking inanity" of those who push the teaching of intelligent design. This was a major victory of truth and reason over the forces of fear and ignorance.
Merry Kitzmas!

December 20 has more personal significance in my life. That date in 1978 is what I have traditionally observed as the first time I played guitar. I have been a guitarist ever since, but I did not start doing it while riding a bicycle until a few years later in the early 1980s.

Pearl Harbor day

2010-12-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

As I write this, America was still at peace sixty-nine years ago. Oh, we had been supplying arms to Britain for a while. Our destroyers had been escorting convoys as far as Iceland. One of them had even been sunk by a U-boat. In a few hours that would change. I don't really think Roosevelt intended two thousand Americans to die as an excuse to enter the war, but I could be wrong. Politicians can be incredibly devious.

I never read the conspiracy books about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but as a boy I did read much about the attack. I memorized incredible amounts of information about the ships, aircraft and people involved that I still remember to this day. My family went to Hawaii and visited the U.S.S. Arizona memorial (among other places).

My knowledge of military trivia helped me find a place to stay after I moved to Oregon. My friend Dana and I met an elderly man at a public dinner who joked about having drunk enough alcohol in his life to float the U.S.S. Arizona. I mentioned that she had been 608 feet long and a conversation ensued. He had been born in 1917, grew up in Hawaii, and had stood on the deck of that battleship as a civilian guest when it was actively representing the U.S. Navy.

In spite of his jocular comment Henry was not a drunk but a very intelligent and active senior citizen. He had held a position of responsibility during the war that involved the hiring of workers for the Pearl Harbor shipyard. Dana and I were allowed to stay in his barn for several months until we finally found a house to move into. So far as I know, that is the only time any of my tremendous knowledge of military trivia has been of advantage to me.

Let us remember the people who died this day sixty-nine years ago. By the way, I still can't watch the 2001 Pearl Harbor movie because it sucks so bad. I have tried more than once to watch this turkey and can never get more than twenty minutes into it before giving up in disgust. The older film Tora! Tora! Tora! is more historically accurate and in my opinion is a better movie in other ways too.

Rosetucky on hold

2010-11-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

My new band that started in the summer of 2009 is on hold for now. I'm not sure if the bass player Rocky and I will get back together or not. We haven't practiced regularly for some time now. The band's name Rosetucky was Rocky's idea, as he grew up in Roseburg, Oregon. More than half our songs were his original tunes. We also did a few of my originals and a couple of songs from my days with R Band back in the early 1990s. It looks like The Bicycling Guitarist is going to have to be a solo act and not part of a band, at least for now. Best wishes for Rocky.

It's too cold and wet these days for me to ride and play much. Cold and wet weather is not good for the wood of the guitar. The cold isn't too good for my fingers either. Also, when the pavement is wet the skinny tires of my vintage ten-speed bicycle can slip and skid, and braking is more difficult too when the rims are wet. At least now I have alloy rims on my Schwinn instead of slick chrome steel. It used to be I couldn't stop at all when the rims were wet!

Local folks cheer me

2010-11-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

I just rode my bicycle to the local convenience market, playing guitar while I ride as I am famous for. There were many people out in front of their houses because the weather is fairly nice today, and I was cheered by many people and groups of people as I rode by them.

Some people hadn't seen me before. I heard one guy say that to his companions with a big grin on his face. Other people were smiling and laughing because they had seen me before. Either way, I cheer them even as they cheer me. One of the best things about bicycle guitaring is bringing smiles to people's faces.

Encouraged, I went back out a short time later along the same route but this time with my battery-powered Pignose amplifier attached to the rear rack of the bicycle. As I passed one of the groups of people a woman said "Groovy." I said, "I haven't heard that for a while," and circled back around to chat with these people. Then she said, "Psychedelic."

I asked them if they wouldn't mind my playing a song for them, and they didn't. In keeping with the theme of the woman's remarks, I played the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. A younger woman there sang along, then asked me if I could play any Pink Floyd, specifically asking for Wish You Were Here (the title track of their 1975 album).

I happen to know that song at least well enough to fake it, and played that while she sang along to that one too. Then I played an original instrumental tune of mine for them, and finished by playing my Evolution song.

I hope I made new friends: Taylor, Melinda ("Groovy") and Alexa ("Wish You Were Here").

R.I.P. Werner Voss

2010-09-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

I think of Werner Voss every September 23. Werner Voss was one of the greatest of the World War One German flying aces. He was a better pilot than the Red Baron even though the Red Baron was a better leader and teacher. On this date in 1917, Werner Voss was killed in one of the epic dogfights of that war when he fought alone against a flight of some of the best pilots in the British Royal Flying Corps.

Voss was in one of the prototype Fokker triplanes with a whimsical face painted on the engine cowling. He could have gotten away more than once in the prolonged combat, but always dove back in to engage them. All the British machines were damaged, but eventually something happened where Voss's triplane flew straight long enough for Lieutenant Rhys-Davids to shoot it down.

According to the Wikipedia article on Werner Voss, after a head on pass against the British ace McCudden, the side of Voss's triplane was hit by a machine-gun burst by Hoidge and Voss took a bullet in his lungs before Rhys-Davids came in from behind and below him. I just read this a few minutes ago and it is the first time I heard these details of the end. I will do some checking to see what sources they found that I hadn't seen before.

What evolution does not explain (and what it does explain)

2010-08-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Asking evolution to explain the origin of life or the origin of the universe shows gross misunderstanding of what evolution is and what it does explain.

For explaining the diversity of life on this planet and its geographical distribution now and in the past, evolution does quite well. All the evidence we can observe on this subject supports evolution, none of it falsifies evolution, and no evidence supports a literal reading of Genesis. That’s just the way it is. If you don’t like reality, take it up with your God.

Evolution was a fact before Darwin recognized it and proposed his theory of natural selection to explain that fact. It is just as much a fact of nature as gravity is, and we actually understand much more about the mechanisms of evolution than we do about those for gravity.

That we share common ancestry with other apes is at least as certain as the earth going around the sun instead of vice versa as Christians used to insist. Most of those who argue against evolution are sincerely unaware of how much evidence there is of so many different types that all point to this reality. They have been LIED to by sources they trust.

50 years old today: still fighting for truth, justice and the American way

2010-07-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

It's been one month since I last posted to this blog. Today (July 23, 2010) is my fiftieth birthday. I celebrated by posting a response about the facts of evolution to a creationist blog (that I will not name here) whose owner continually flaunts his ignorance while pretending to be wise.

Contrary to what that creationist claims, it isn’t blind faith that sees a tree of life. It is what the data from many different measurements all show. Nested hierarchies of data are what are expected and predicted by evolutionary theory, and that the nested hierarchies of different types of measurements produce the same tree of life is yet another proof.

He also claims that the fossil record only shows separate kinds without macroevolution taking place; again he is wrong. The fossil record shows transitions from fish to land animals, from dinosaurs to birds, from land animals to whales, and from apes to humans with clear transitional forms found in the fossil record where genetic and other evidence predicts they should be found.

IF his arguments were based on facts, then I could respect them more. His sources are wrong and so naturally his conclusions are wrong. According to some polls nearly half of adult Americans don't accept the fact evolution happens. This is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as if half of adult Americans insisted the earth is flat in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

Telling lies in the name of God is a surefire way to turn people away from Christ, especially when it is something that is as easily checked as the evidence for evolution. Certain denominations of Christianity and other religions still insist that evolution must be false. I have an open mind to truth, whether or not it agrees with what I want to believe. I hate lies, which is why so many creationists piss me off. To their credit, many of them mean well. It's just that they are basing their opinions on lies they have been told by sources they trust.

Good news from Texas

2010-06-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

There IS some good news about the anti-evolution insanity rampant in this country. A Federal court in Texas slammed the Institute for Creation Research. ICR had whined because the state had denied them the certificate they need to issue a master's degree in science education from their graduate school. In the decision, Dr. Gerald Skoog is quoted as saying that the proposed ICR Master of Science program “integrates selective scientific data that gives credence to [the framework of Biblical creationism], but ignores, or circumvents, a large body of scientific data that erodes and shatters the foundation of this framework.”

For those of you who insist the Bible is literally true on every subject, read this again: "a large body of scientific data that erodes and shatters the foundation of this framework." Get it? Your viewpoint is NOT supported by the evidence of the world. Either your interpretation is wrong, or the whole Bible is wrong, or your God is a trickster to plant so much evidence that contradicts a literal interpretation of His Book.

The court also says: "It appears that although the Court has twice required Plaintiff to re-plead and set forth a short and plain statement of the relief requested, Plaintiff is entirely unable to file a complaint which is not overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering, and full of irrelevant information."

Well, if they could reason clearly they wouldn't be creationists, so this description of their statement is not a surprise. By the way, to make myself clear, I am not saying that creationism per se, the belief in a higher power or consciousness that created or manifests this universe, is wrong. I do insist that a literal reading of the Bible's book of Genesis is NOT supported by the evidence of the world and is in fact FALSIFIED by it. That's just the way it is, like it or not, make of it what you will.

Awe-tograph

2010-06-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

As I reported back in February, a famous author contacted me about a page I have on my web site about the Red Baron's Fokker Triplane. I corresponded with Dale Titler, author of The Day the Red Baron Died, and eventually asked if he would autograph a copy of his book to me. There were some delays from my end, but I finally received it yesterday.

Rosetucky is rehearsing again

2010-05-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks since Rocky and I practiced our music regularly, but last night we jammed for an hour and tonight for an hour and a half. Last night we played and sang some songs better than when we had been rehearsing several nights a week, and tonight's session was even better although a little rough in places. Overall, the songs are getting tighter and smoother.

Are Republicans getting stupider nationwide?

2010-05-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

Any candidate for public office who is so out of touch with reality as to deny the fact that evolution happens should be disqualified. Anyone that ignorant and that gullible should not be in any position of authority. I am amazed we are having this debate in the 21st century. It shames America that nearly half of its adults are so misinformed on this matter. It is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as if half the adults thought the earth is flat.

In a governor's race going on in Alabama, one Republican candidate accused the other of daring to teach science in science classrooms instead of teaching religion in science classrooms. In his reply to this attack, the accused Republican said he is just as much of a moron as the other guy attacking him for allegedly being sane.

In a governor's race in Maine, seven Republican candidates were asked if they thought intelligent design or creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public school science classrooms. Three said yes, and one (Matt Jacobson) said to teach evolution in philosophy class and teach science in science class.

For candidates in Alabama to make such a big deal about being fundamentalist Christians is no surprise, but Maine too? Are Republicans around the country brain-dead idiots out of touch with what is real? Why is fundamentalist evangelical Christianity doing this to America, to humanity? Do they think they bring honor to God or Christ by spreading lies that are easily shown to be false by anyone who honestly examines the evidence for evolution and the age of the earth?

Victory Through Air Power

2010-05-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Alexander P. de Seversky came from Russia to the United States after World War I. His airplane company made the first metal monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear for the United States Army Air Corps in the mid-1930s. He was a better pilot than he was a businessman though, and by the end of the decade the board of his own company replaced him.

In 1942, just a few months after Pearl Harbor, Seversky's book Victory Through Air Power was published. It was a best seller and made some impact on the American public concerning air power. I first read this book when I was a young boy. I have read it again several times since then, or at least portions of it.

Recently I started taking notes of specific claims made in the book about specific aircraft, ships and historical events. I checked some of these out according to modern sources and wrote an essay about it that I posted today on my web site as My thoughts on Seversky's book Victory Through Air Power. This is the first new post to the Studies section of my web site since 2004! This essay may be modified in days or weeks to come, but I posted what I have now as it is for what it's worth.

My Schwinn is tuned up

2010-04-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

The weather lately has been perfect for bicycle guitaring: slightly cool but not cold, warm in the afternoons but not hot, little wind. A couple days ago I left my Schwinn at the local bicycle shop for its annual tune-up and for them to check how true the recently-built new wheels are. I just picked it up today, and it is sweet. All the cables are adjusted for smooth and easy shifting and braking. The chain was cleaned and lubricated. My Super Sportabout tracks straight and true when I ride "no hands" playing guitar on it.

Last night I played solo guitar at my bass player's house. Rocky had a few of his friends and family over, and a good time was had by all.

Applauded by many today

2010-04-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

A few hours ago I rode my bicycle while playing guitar to the local convenience mart to pick up some groceries. I was recognized and applauded by several individuals and groups of people on the way there and back. I answered some questions about details of my bicycle, guitar and musical equipment. Word of "The Bicycling Guitarist" is spreading! I offer a sincere thank you to all my fans. It is nice to be recognized and to be appreciated for being oneself.

Texas school board rewrites history

2010-03-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

It's bad enough that the idiots on the Texas school board want to redefine science and ignore the evidence for common ancestry and evolution, now they are rewriting American history too.

Last week they passed new standards that downplay the role of Thomas Jefferson and also imply that our Founding Fathers were mainly strict Christians. There is much evidence that this just ain't so, but they want to rewrite history to suit their agenda.

Last month The New York Times published a good article about How Christian Were the Founders? that also describes the incompetence of the Texas school board in making decisions on subjects they know nothing about.

Because of the way the market works, since Texas is so big (as they are so proud of) the textbooks made to Texan standards end up being used by schoolchildren in other states too. Shame on Texas for dumbing down America!

A famous author contacted me

2010-02-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

Dale M. Titler, author of The Day the Red Baron Died and other books about aviation, recently sent me an email complimenting me about one of the pages I have up about the Red Baron's Fokker Triplane. We have exchanged a couple emails each since then.

The Day the Red Baron Died is a very good read, one of my all-time favorite books. It was published in 1970. Mr. Titler had personally interviewed many of the surviving participants in doing research for that book. His conclusion is that it was the gunners Buie and Evans who shot down the Red Baron.

However the 2003 PBS NOVA documentary Who Killed the Red Baron? presents a case that it was Popkin instead, based on the firing angle and the distance. A long range shot would account for the supposed fact that the fatal bullet was recovered from the clothing of the Baron's body. Buie and Evans fired from point-blank range and the bullet would have probably kept on going if it was one of their bullets that got him.

I mentioned this to Mr. Titler in my first reply to him, after praising him for his work and telling him he is one of my all-time favorite authors. Mr. Titler assures me that he is still personally convinced it was Buie and Evans who shot the Red Baron. Buie was one of the people Mr. Titler corresponded with about this incident. One thing we do agree on is that it was NOT the Canadian pilot Roy Brown. I am still very disappointed that the 2008 German film about the Red Baron made Brown such a major part of the story and gave him credit for the kill.

Before any Canadians start yelling at me, let me make clear that if it hadn't been for the Canadian pilots involved, the Australian troops on the ground wouldn't have had a shot at the Baron. Also, even though Brown's high-speed dive and attack probably didn't achieve the results he was credited with, it may have distracted Richthofen enough to save Lieutenant May's life (the other Canadian pilot who was being chased by von Richthofen). These were brave young men in an awful situation doing the best they could under the circumstances.

Rosetucky did not play at a Superbowl party after all

2010-02-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

The tentative halftime jam scheduled for a house party didn't happen. I went with the bass player to watch the Superbowl at the person's house anyway. My favorite part was the short commercial with David Letterman and Jay Leno sitting on a couch watching the Superbowl with Oprah Winfrey between them trying to make peace.

I played guitar and sang solo today at an outpatient house. Besides doing The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again and Pinball Wizard (two songs they played during the official Superbowl halftime show), I also did Boston's More Than A Feeling, The Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Help!, and several of my original songs including What Can I Say?, History, Running out of Time, Freedom, and Early Morning Hours.

practicing for Superbowl halftime

2010-02-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Rocky and I had another music rehearsal tonight, and Rocky informed me that we might be playing during the Superbowl halftime next Sunday. It might not count as a public performance because it will probably be at one of his friend's houses or possibly at a friend of a friend's house. Still, I'm sure we can easily put on a pretty good show for ten or fifteen minutes. We have much more material than that, but of course we have some songs down stronger than others.

Some songs can be played as is but are being improved upon and will (hopefully) be even better in the future. For example, we are working on Rocky singing some background vocals on my Evolution song and for him to switch off on lead vocals and add some background support to my Red Baron song. I have a part to sing to Rocky's Shit fuck shit song (formerly known as Suicide Doors). Tonight we worked the most on that song because Rocky has added some more lyrics to it. We also played Legalize (one of my songs) and Infection (one of Rocky's, well-played tonight), and worked on the Al Gore Rhythm / Logger Rhythm song that I've been playing since the late 1980s.

Happy new year

2010-01-16T01:37:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights I had excellent rehearsal sessions with my bass player Rocky. We've been practicing almost every week the past seven months, usually two or three nights a week an hour or two each night. Our band "Rosetucky" will almost certainly play in public sometime this year, or at least record some of our new material and post it online.

Late last month (December 27, 2009) I posted a video clip on YouTube of The Beatles Help! done by The Bicycling Guitarist that I had recorded a couple weeks before that. As I type this, that clip has 222 views in the 20 days since I posted it.

I play that song even better now than I did when I recorded that a month ago. In general, my guitar playing is crisper, sharper, faster, smoother than ever before. It is my singing though that has improved the most compared to my days with R Band in the early 1990s. I am not known as "The Bicycling Singer." Enough said, okay?

Better version of my cover of Help!

2009-12-13T05:12:00.000-08:00

In the wee hours of this morning I recorded yet ANOTHER version of my cover of this famous song. It took ten takes before I was satisfied with the guitar track, then the second vocal take is what I added to that.

I have listened to this song a LOT and have played guitar and (sometimes) sang to it literally thousands of times the past few years. I really like the guitar playing of this version better than my earlier efforts, and while I most certainly ain't no Beatle, my singing has improved considerably compared to my R Band days of the early 1990s.

The earlier instrumental version of Help! I was so excited about in the previous post to this blog is still online, but it's place on the home page of my web site has been replaced by this version.

Here is a direct link to my latest cover version of Help!

been cold around here past few days

2009-12-09T16:48:00.000-08:00

It's been way too cold here lately for me to ride the bicycle and play guitar. It's not good for the wood of the guitar when it's this cold, and not good for my fingers or hands either!

I charged the battery of my 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero yesterday. Tomorrow I will get a couple gallons of gasoline into it and try to start the engine again. If it doesn't work, then I'll ask for help from people who know more about mechanics than I do.

A few days ago I recorded yet another version of my cover of the Beatles song Help! and posted it to my web site. I've been practicing this song literally thousands of times the past few years, and my playing is getting smoother and smoother. My latest insight about the song came about a week ago and involves the spiraling arpeggio riff played by George Harrison at the end of the intro, each chorus, and the outro.

There are many groups of three in this song, three evenly spaced bass notes between chord changes, three verses, etc. However, that spiraling arpeggio riff consists of sixteen evenly-spaced evenly-stressed notes. It is played by picking four strings of a hand position then moving that same hand position down three more times one fret at a time, in other words, four groups of four notes! Not only that, but that riff is played four times during the song. How much more "fourness" can you get? Well, okay, I see that a riff of four groups of four notes being played four times only references the number four three times! But then, that reinforces the "threeness" in this song.

Blustery Day

2009-11-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

I was riding yesterday afternoon and found that the gusts of wind were pushing the front wheel of my Schwinn around so much it was not safe to play guitar as I rode on a busy street in town doing errands. I grew up next to Travis A.F.B. where the biggest cargo planes in the USAF are based because of the winds there, and I was used to riding in wind with the steel wheels, handlebar and stem my bike used to have. I live in Oregon now and just switched to aluminum wheels, handlebar and stem last month.

I definitely noticed a big difference yesterday from the wind pushing the front wheel around. I could see the wheel turn as a gust of wind hit it, necessitating my stopping playing guitar to grab the handlebars for safety. I guess the difference in weight of all those aluminum parts compared to steel is significant for the front wheel's stability in wind when riding with no hands. I hadn't really noticed much of a difference until yesterday. On the good side, there is also a noticable difference in how much easier it is now to go UP hills! My bike is about eight percent lighter than it was before the upgrades.

Upgrades to my Schwinn in 2009

2009-10-14T21:20:00.001-07:00

On October 6, 2009 my Schwinn ten-speed was greatly improved by the replacement of its steel wheels, handlebar and stem with aluminum parts. It is now a "Super Sportabout" (read that page for an explanation of that name).

The new wheels deserved their own page, as did the better handlebar. These and other changes this year are summarized on Upgrades to my Schwinn in 2009.

I am sad that my 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero is still sitting out of commission in the driveway. It hasn't moved since the summer of 2007. The improvements to my bicycle are nice, but I can't ride it in wet or cold conditions (not good for the guitar, the bicycle or ME!). Even when the weather permits bicycle riding, I can't carry very many groceries on it, especially heavy things like kitty litter or pet food.

The new bass player Rocky and I haven't rehearsed as much the past couple weeks, but last night's session was quite good. He learned some more of my Evolution song, and I learned more of what he calls his "G Boogie" song. So far we have neither recorded together nor performed any live shows for the public, but some of my guitar playing the past couple weeks has been the best I have ever played.

My bicycle will have a good home when I die

2009-09-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Since the early 1980s I have ridden the same Schwinn ten-speed bicycle many thousands of miles while simultaneously playing a Fender Stratocaster guitar, sometimes with a small battery-powered amplifier clamped to the seat post or carried on a rack over the rear wheel. I'm pushing fifty years old now, and thought to contact The Bicycle Museum of America yesterday to see if they would be interested in preserving or even displaying my bicycle after I die.

To quote the Wikipedia article about this place:

The Bicycle Museum of America is a small museum nested inside the village of New Bremen, Ohio, United States. The museum, one of the largest private collections of bicycles in the world, is located at 7 West Monroe Street.

I was delighted when Annette Thompson of the museum wrote me back within a couple of hours. She said:

This would make an interesting story for our museum. Yes, we would enjoy having the bike.

I forwarded her email to one of my sisters and I am posting this blog entry as well to make my wishes known. Of course, this assumes I don't die ON the bicycle. If I do, it might not be a pretty museum display! I am locally famous, but if my fame ever spreads my bicycle may end up in the Smithsonian or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Even if that doesn't happen though, I rest easier knowing my bicycle will be well taken care of after I am gone.

We're getting good!

2009-09-02T01:53:00.000-07:00

The last two nights my new bass player Rocky and I sounded really good in our jam sessions. Several of his songs are coming together nicely, and he is getting better at playing bass to some of my songs too.

This reminds me of the time I was hanging out with Peter Griffin of the Family Guy cartoon television series:

Stll riding and playing

2009-08-15T13:06:00.001-07:00

The weather has been great lately for Bicycle Guitaring. My bicycle just had some replacement parts installed by the Local Bike Shop so it is running smoother than before. Rocky (the bass player) and I practiced three or four nights this past week. We're sounding better than before.

The "Minstrel Cycle" of The Bicycling Guitarist

2009-07-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I joined "velospace, the place for bikes" and posted some photographs of the Schwinn I have ridden for decades now while playing guitar. Details of my ride are online at The "Minstrel Cycle" of The Bicycling Guitarist. I edited the description on that page today, giving more information about the specifications of Schwinn Sportabouts compared to the better-known Varsity and Continental bicycles.

I don't actually call my bicycle "The Minstrel Cycle." If I refer to it at all by any name, I just call it Schwinn. I made this pun decades ago. It was a natural joke to make considering I have been called a traveling minstrel and the bicycle is red. Okay, I will make no more jokes about menstruation, period! The joke is even funnier since someone called Lijemtu added "only if you play ragtime" (May 21, 2009 at 11:01 a.m. in the Welcome Wagon thread of Tunesmith songwriting forums).

Plans for my Schwinn ten-speed bicycle

2009-07-13T14:52:00.001-07:00

When I upgraded my 1977 Schwinn Sportabout to a "Sportinental" by converting to quick release wheels and centerpull brakes from the fancier Schwinn Continental model, I didn't change to the Continental's aluminum stem and handlebar but kept the steel stem and handlebar of the Sportabout. In the Suggestions to upgrade my Schwinn Sportabout page, Raleigh D. says that would have been the very first change he would have done to save pounds of weight. I hope to do this someday, but I don't have a Continental stem and handlebar yet. Raleigh D. also suggested I change from steel to aluminum wheel rims.

For several years 27" bicycle wheels were out of fashion, but apparently they are being made again. I hope someday to get a pair of Sun CR-18 27" rims and have this pair of vintage Schwinn-Approved Quick Release hubs from a Continental laced to them with brand-new spokes. These came from Craig Morrow who runs an online store on eBay specializing in vintage Schwinns.

Lots of practice

2009-06-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier tonight I played guitar a couple of hours with a bass player who lives nearby. Yesterday we practiced three hours. We've been jamming for a couple of weeks now, more and more frequently, and already have nearly thirty songs we're working on together. About half of them are Rocky's and the other half are a mix of my originals and some cover tunes I know quite well.

It's been a long time since I've had another musician to jam with regularly. It's been even longer since I've met anyone who is willing to practice several times a week.

Rocky has several arranged songs with interesting original bass guitar riffs. I am having great success in playing rhythm chords and lead guitar riffs to his bass lines. I hope to have some new material to post on my web site soon, maybe even music videos for YouTube and such.

Local fans

2009-06-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

With nice weather here, I am riding and playing more often. I have also found a couple of places to jam with other musicians and artists. A woman recently told me to keep doing what I do because I make a lot of people happy. The sight of a bicycling guitarist readily brings a smile to people's faces. Nearly all the responses I notice from other people are positive ones. Yesterday I was actually cheered by more than one group of people who saw me. One guy in a group of teenagers walking nearby raised his arms up high and yelled "The Bicycling Guitarist!"

I can handle fame in small doses like this. It's a nice feeling to be appreciated and to realize one is making the world a more fun place for others just by being who you are.

What's going on

2009-05-07T12:03:00.001-07:00

It's been more than a month since my last posting. In mid-April I received a series of emails from a bicycle enthusiast who offered more information about the history of Schwinn lightweight bicycles and suggestions for how to improve my ride. With his permission, I edited and posted his content on my web site. The new pages are

Schwinn lightweight bicycles history

Suggestions to upgrade my Schwinn Sportabout

My 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero is still sitting in the driveway with a bent driveshaft as it has since the summer of 2007, but last month I got a replacement tailgate skin for it (not yet installed) and this month I got a spare hood. Both parts were very reasonably priced from a local man who had them left over from his own ranchero restoration project.

Namaste TBG

Don McLeroy betrays America and Christ

2009-03-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

Mr. McLeroy is the chair of the Texas State Board of Education. There was a vote yesterday about the standards for students in that state. Since Texas is such a big customer of textbook publishers, the standards for Texas affect the quality of textbooks for the rest of America.

I just read that in Friday's testimony, Mr. McLeroy said: "I disagree with these experts. Someone has got to stand up to experts." This is right up there on the stupid scale with the quote by Ray Mummert, a pastor from Dover PA who said in 2005: "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture."

So Mr. McLeroy figures that, as a dentist, he is as much of an authority on scientific matters as the experts... I also read that even though the main weasel words were voted down some amendments were passed with weasel words in them so expect some lawsuits folks!

Thank Mr. McLeroy for adding to the financial hardships of Texans in these hard times, as well as for succeeding in at least part of his evil plot to DUMB DOWN our schoolchildren. Does this clown have ANY integrity? He should resign if he isn't fired. Some people are PROUD of being stupid and insist their stupidity is just as valid as someone else's smarts. I don't mind that normally, unless they insist their stupidity is MORE valid and insist that everyone be just as stupid as they are.

so-called "Intelligent Design" is NOT science

2009-03-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

In online forums wherever evolution is being debated, some people still claim that intelligent design is a scientific alternative to evolution. I have one word in reply: BULLSHIT!

Okay, I'll say a few more words. The Kitzmiller v. Dover trial in 2005 made it clear beyond any doubt that ID is not science. It was also established beyond any doubt that intelligent design IS religion, although those who advocate it emphatically deny this is the case.

So-called intelligent design is so-called scientific creationism renamed to try to slip past the courts into public school science classrooms, and so-called scientific creationism is nothing more than a literal fundamentalist interpretation of the Book of Genesis of the Christian Bible.

People can believe whatever they want, but a fundamentalist interpretation is not supported by the evidence of the world God created. There have been at least a dozen court cases challenging the teaching of evolution the past forty years, and the creationists lost EVERY TIME. It isn't a conspiracy; it's not the devil. It is simply that the evidence supports evolution and falsifies a literal reading of Genesis.

Some people who used to believe the earth is flat (maybe some still do) would use a fundamentalist interpretation of Bible verses to "prove" it. Churches and people who are in denial of the fact of evolution are modern-day flat-earthers.

Like I said, believe what you want, but don't try to legislate ignorance in the teaching of American children in public schools. Home school your kids or send them to a private school that doesn't conflict with your beliefs if you want them to think the earth is flat.

Bicycling Guitarist jokes thread on BikeForums.net

2009-02-26T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hi all.
Last night I saw a headline on MSNBC that said "After pullout, some will stay." To my disappointment, it was about Iraq.

Oh, and the other day I was posting to a science news group and neglected to give a reference link to the source (they get really annoyed at that). So I posted another with the link and said "A Cite for Sore I's."

These and more jokes by me and by other people can be found in the Bicycling Guitarist jokes thread at Bike Forums.

Polishing a brick

2009-02-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

No matter how much you polish a brick, it won't become shiny enough to be a mirror. I sometimes think of that when working on my web site. Lately I have been promoting my site and making slight improvements to the HTML code. I don't know exactly how much time I have spent on my web site the past ten years, but it is probably many thousands of hours by now.

For what it's worth, I publish my original songs and essays to share with the world.

Baaaa..d Jokes

2009-01-17T23:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, I was being sheepish with the title of this post.

Anyway...

The late actor Patrick McGoohan (see my previous post in this blog) at the Pearly Gates, refusing to conform:
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My afterlife is my own...I am not a number; I am a dead man!"

Years ago I had a great marketing idea for a movie merchandising connection with the Harry Potter series: Chia pets! They could have a line of chia pets as the characters in the books and movies and call them "Hairy Pottery."

Yesterday I added to that thought. See the chia pets sprout growth (or grow sprouts) in new places as the characters enter puberty!

Okay, I'll shut up now.

Be Seeing You?

2009-01-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

I just learned on MSNBC.com that the star of my all-time favorite television series died yesterday. Patrick McGoohan starred in "The Prisoner," a surreal sci-fi spy story that has impressed me from the first time I watched it more than thirty years ago.

KTEH Channel 54 in San Jose, California, a PBS station of that time (if I recall the name and number correctly) would broadcast an episode every week, followed by a discussion of the episode and the series by some philosophers and theologians.

The series raises questions of the relationship of the individual to society, of the individual to God, and the individual to his or herself. This is much like the question asked by Ramana Maharshi, "Who Am I?"

R.I.P. Patrick, you touched my heart and my mind.

What is REALLY weird is that last night I had a craving to watch the last two episodes of "The Prisoner" (a two-parter finale). I watched the next to last episode last night and the final one this afternoon, just before learning of McGoohan's death. It had been a long time since I had watched any episodes of the series. Cue the music from The Twilight Zone please.

Download DEATH for the Holidays!

2008-12-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

Death now has an optional free mp3 download, just in time for Christmas!

Rest in peace, Pandora Kitty

2008-11-24T17:37:00.000-08:00

I just learned today that Pandora Kitty was put down. She hadn't been doing well for some time. For those who don't know who Pandora Kitty is, I offer "The Sneaking Straw Stealer" photo story from 1998. I guess that made her about ten and a half years old. Goodbye kitty. I'm glad I knew you.

Today I started making a video for my Red Baron song (see the previous blog entry of November 16, 2008).

New recording of RED BARON song

2008-11-16T04:46:00.000-08:00

I wrote this song back in 1995, but only got a decent recording of it the day before yesterday (on November 14, 2008).

The lyrics describe an actual incident in the life of the Red Baron, when he was seriously wounded by a bullet that grazed his skull when he was attacking a group of British aircraft on July 6, 1917.

Red Baron is the page for the lyrics. There is a link to a free mp3 of the latest recording of this song immediately after the song title near the top of that page.

I used Audacity sound recording software to produce three tracks (guitar rhythm, guitar lead, and vocals). I hope you enjoy it! I am quite pleased with the results from this free recording software, although there is much room for improvement in the hardware I am using to record with. Someday I hope to add some sound effects to the song (aircraft engines, machine gun sounds, etc.), and produce a video for YouTube.

Sarah Palin is a nut job

2008-09-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

The world is in danger if fundamentalists of any religion have access to "the button" to end the world. Words are tools used to communicate meaning, but sometimes groups of words are not meant to be taken literally but instead are used to communicate images or metaphors. Fundamentalists don't seem to understand this. Not only that, but generally fundamentalism is the most ignorant, arrogant and intolerant form of religious interpretation. Fundamentalist Hindus, Jews and Moslems cause problems elsewhere in the world, but the biggest problem facing the United States of America today is the appalling ignorance, arrogance and intolerance of fundamentalist Christians.

Roy Brown probably did NOT kill the Red Baron

2008-08-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well I had high hopes when I heard of a recent German movie about the Red Baron. So far as I know it has not yet been released in English language (perhaps subtitles are available for the German version). I really hoped this movie would not have too many historical inaccuracies, but according to Wikipedia this movie indicates that the Canadian pilot Roy Brown is the one who finally kills the Red Baron.

I mean no disrespect to Roy Brown or to Canada, but there is a LOT of evidence that Roy Brown did not fire the shot that killed Manfred von Richthofen. For one thing, the path of the bullet through his body shows that the bullet came from the ground. For another, the wound that killed Richthofen was such that he may have lived for about twenty seconds after being shot. Since the Red Baron was in control of his airplane for a minute or two AFTER Brown fired and banked away, it isn't likely that Brown did it.

Added Dec. 2, 2008: I recently learned that some say depending on the exact path of the fatal bullet, von Richthofen could have lived anywhere from twenty seconds to two minutes after being shot, possibly without an awareness of pain for a short while. This does increase the likelihood somewhat of Brown being the one who killed the Red Baron, but in my opinion this still doesn't make it the most likely scenario.

Now it might not have happened the way it did if Brown hadn't at least attacked the Red Baron. Perhaps this attack, even though unsuccessful, distracted von Richthofen enough to spoil his aim or otherwise keep him from downing Lieutenant May before he himself was shot by the Australian troops on the ground. In my opinion it was a team effort. Richthofen was chasing one Canadian pilot (May), was shot at by another Canadian pilot (Brown), but it was the Australian troops on the ground who brought him down. The point is that von Richthofen wouldn't have been close enough for the Australian troops to shoot him if it hadn't been for the Canadian pilots involved.

I am HIGHLY disappointed in the German director of the film to allow such inaccuracy when the scholarly consensus of World War One aviation historians has been for some time that Richthofen was killed by a bullet fired from the ground by an Australian soldier (probably Popkin, possibly Evans or another whose identity is unknown).

The movie trailer I've seen looks wonderful. I immediately recognized Fokker Triplane 586/17 shown in the trailer, the "optical illusion" triplane flown by Kirschstein of Jasta 6 and later by Ernst Udet of Jasta 4. The markings looked correct, and seeing a known historical aircraft depicted in the proper markings gave me hope that this movie paid attention to historical fact. I can't believe how STUPID the film's makers were to show Roy Brown as the one who killed von Richthofen! If I ever get really rich, perhaps I can finance a movie about von Richthofen that will do justice to his legendary character and be as historically accurate as possible.

New Front Derailleur on my Schwinn

2008-06-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

It really is new too, still in the original package. Of course the package is more than thirty years old, but it had never been opened. On June 11, 2008 the old Shimano Positron front derailleur on my 1977 Schwinn Sportabout was replaced by this NOS (new old stock) SunTour "Spirt" front derailleur. The clamp was a bit too big around and needed a shim to fit my seat post.

I have also polished the metal parts of my bicycle the past few days so everything is very shiny. I will put a web page up eventually to show this, hopefully not before all the shininess fades.

new lights for my Schwinn ten-speed bicycle

2008-05-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Cateye EL530 headlight and LD1100 taillight are the brightest battery-powered bicycle lights available. The EL530 is 1500 candlepower (50% brighter than the 2005 model). The LD1100 (new for 2008) is 100% brighter than the 2007 model. I placed a special order for them today from the local bicycle store. I also ordered a cam lock mount for the headlight, because I read of many complaints about the stock mount being flimsy.

These will be a vast improvement over the Cateye lights I bought five years ago that are currently mounted on my Schwinn. Bicycle light technology has advanced considerably in the past five years.

New favicon.ico file for my web site

2008-04-30T04:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all.
For those unfamiliar with favicons, they are the little graphic images before the URL text in the address box of an internet browser. I created one some years ago, working pixel by pixel. The result wasn't too bad for my limited abilities, but the past few days I took a little time to improve the image. I also scaled it down from 35 pixels wide to the 32 pixel size that is commonly used for favicons. Compare the two images above. The biggest changes are to the handlebars and below (including my legs), my hair color, and the glasses on my face. I also changed the shape of my head and hair a little bit and removed the black border box surrounding the image. These images are stretched 200% to make them easier to see (favicons are tiny little images; they have to be in order to fit in the address bar of the browser).

Spring Cleaning

2008-04-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

I've been busy doing Spring Cleaning lately. Once the springs are clean, then I'll start on cleaning the house.

Thank God for Evolution!

2008-04-10T05:19:00.001-07:00

I just saw Michael Dowd speak about evolutionary theology at a local church. He is the author of Thank God for Evolution! and other works. I was leery of his ideas at first, but what he said for the most part agrees with what I know to be true.

While walking to the church (a few blocks from my house), I passed an elderly couple who were walking to their church, a fundamentalist evangelical Christian one. The subject of evolution came up, and the old man said it is a lie. He said the final result will be who gets to go to heaven. I said that the Bible teaches God made man from dust and science says much the same thing. My final words to him were to ask if he also believed the earth was flat, because that is what a literal reading of the Bible indicates. I said if you're going to insist on fundamentalism, you might as well go all the way.

I went up to see Michael Dowd after his presentation. I commented that I recognized he was familiar with Alan Watts, since he had used the analogy of people coming out of the universe the same way apples come out of apple trees, one that Alan Watts used in many of his talks. Michael Dowd did not remember where he had heard it, but thanked me for giving him the source. The subject of plagiarism came up, and I mentioned the famous case of George Harrison. I was surprised nobody knew about it, so I explained how My Sweet Lord used the same chords and melody as the Chiffons' He's So Fine.

I waited a bit and then offered to play my evolution song for Mr. Dowd and those standing around. Nobody minded, so I played it. The television reporter asked if I had written it, and I said it was one of hundreds of songs I had written playing guitar while riding a bicycle for tens of thousands of miles. Mr. Dowd expressed surprise at that, and the television reporter assured him that it was true, that he (the reporter) had seen me himself and I had been in the local newspaper.

Later a woman came up and asked Mr. Dowd to explain how free will exists. He said we have a choice to decide which of the many conflicting drives within us we will follow. I mentioned the episode of The Changeling from the original Star Trek television series, where a robot spacecraft absorbed the contents of Lieutenant Uhura's mind and described it as "a mass of conflicting impulses."

I could have stayed longer but it was getting late so I left.

Converting to Drupal

2008-03-04T04:42:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of converting my existing web site from static HTML/CSS pages to Drupal, a content management system that stores content in a database and dynamically generates pages on demand. This will allow my web site to be more interactive, more "Web 2.0"

It might take a while yet...Stay tuned.

Here are a few gratuitous links to some pages of my web site as it exists now. The URLs are not going to change for existing content.

The Bicycling Guitarist

Help as metaphysics

Spank the Naughty Blonde

A Sunny Day

2008-02-11T17:31:00.001-08:00

After weeks of cold and wet, today was really nice outside. My bicycle had its chain cleaned and lubed for a quite noticeable improvement in performance. I am amazed at how much easier it is to pedal the bicycle afterwards compared to before the chain was cleaned and lubed. Some people in passing cars waved and honked at me when they saw me riding the bicycle while playing guitar.

I rode to the store to get something. First a little dog chased me and tried to bite me. I kicked at it, twice, then turned the bicycle and chased the little dog back to its yard. A few blocks on, a little kid (about ten years old) chased me yelling "Give me that guitar" and "I want to kill you." As before, I turned and rode back towards him. He and his friends gathered around and I played a couple of riffs on the guitar for them. He said he wanted to steal the guitar. I told him I hope he gets one someday. He might be a great rocker.

Big changes may be ahead for my web site!

2008-02-05T23:45:00.000-08:00

I'm not absolutely sure yet, but I may soon be migrating my web site to Drupal (a "Content Management System" or CMS) in order to make my web site more interactive. Instead of static HTML/CSS pages, the content is stored in a database and pages are dynamically generated by the software. This is the type of software used for blogs and will allow visitors to leave comments on individual song and essay pages.

I don't want my site to look like every other site that uses Drupal, but on the other hand, there is something to be said for consistency in terms of user friendliness. The current form of my web site is good, I dare say better than most personal web sites out there today, but I think it is time for a change.

Hopefully my web presence will help my professional life. For some reason there doesn't seem to be much demand for Bicycling Guitarists yet. Hmmm...

Metaphysical analysis of the lyrics to the Beatles song Help!

2008-01-29T10:08:00.001-08:00

This analysis copyright 2008 to The Bicycling Guitarist.

Here's a wee bit more about John Lennon's song Help! by the Beatles.

It struck me the other day that the lyrics of Help! can be interpreted in a Christian way. Let me be plain that I do not consider myself a Christian, at least not the way that most Christian denominations define themselves. When I say "Christ" in the following paragraphs, one can substitute "awareness of divine consciousness" and be closer to what I understand.

So John sings "When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way." Okay. Not strictly true. We humans are social animals, and even those who live alone by choice rely on help from the environment if nothing else to provide food and such. I see each of us as an incarnation of God, and the environment as an incarnation of God, and each of us not truly separate from the environment. This is obviously quite different from mainstream Christian theology where only Jesus is begotten, not made, and where the Creation is separate from the Creator.

"But now these days are gone..." Notice John says these days, not those days. Some philosophers say that only now is real, that all time (past, present and future) is a field of now-moments. When John says these days, it implies the present or recent past. While the recent past can be considered "gone" in a sense, how can one consider the present to be gone? The present isn't gone of course, but the idea of time does not apply to the eternal now.

"...I'm not so self-assured." Self-assured: assured of the self as being a separate ego? If I'm not so self-assured, that might be considered good even though the statement is phrased as a negative. Most if not all spiritual teachings say to let go and let God, to surrender one's will or ego to direction by a higher power.

"Now I find, I've changed my mind and opened up the doors." I had a eureka moment (find), and I've changed my mind from the little mind of the ego-self to what the Buddhists call the Big Mind. I opened up the doors, opening the boundaries so there is no separation. I am reminded of the way Christians describe Jesus knocking at the "door" of your heart, and so on.

"Help me if you can I'm feeling down..." Down can be good. Sometimes you have to hit bottom to realize you are in a bad lifestyle, i.e., thinking you are a separate ego self "poor me" with the universe against you.

"..., and I do appreciate your being 'round." I appreciate that the divine consciousness that is our ground of being is always present. To put it in Christian terms, Christ is always there.

"Help me get my feet back on the ground." I am most struck here that one is NOT asking God to carry you as in the popular story of footprints in the sand where sometimes you only see one set of footprints, etc. Instead, one is asking God (or your own awareness of divine consciousness within yourself) to help you get your feet back on the ground, perhaps so YOU can carry others. Infinite compassion.

"Won't you please, please help me?" Who is asking? Who is being asked? Is there really a difference if you're talking to yourself? Who are you, really, if not an expression of what the entire cosmos is doing at a point called here and now.

"And now my life has changed in oh so many ways." Change is the only constant in the universe. "My independence seems to vanish in the haze." Independence again as a sense of being separate? So this sense seems to vanish? Good!

"But every now and then I feel so insecure. I know that I just need you like I never done before." Now is mentioned in every verse of this song. As for "like I never done before," awareness of the higher power within is not something you get or achieve: it is always there. It is here and now. You don't need to do anything.

The third verse has the same lyrics as the first verse. Then the song ends: "Help me if you can I'm feeling down, and I do appreciate your being 'round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me...oh." Well I don't know if I can help you, John, but you have helped me with your gift of song. Thank you, wherever you are.

playing HELP! by The Beatles

2008-01-24T06:32:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to the Beatles' song Help! a lot lately and playing to it on my guitar.

I adjusted the graphic equalizer of Windows Media Player to emphasize the frequencies of the guitar sounds, and also moved the balance more to the right side where the guitar sound is so I could better hear what parts I play.

Then as if by magic since it had what I had been hoping to find, I found an internet site that is a Tribute to the Beatles film "Help!" This site had free downloads of all twelve studio takes of the title song from April 13, 1965 at Abbey Road. These made it even easier for me to learn the guitar parts played by John Lennon and George Harrison.

Another internet site describes the Help! Recording Sessions. In take 4, George complains that the song is too fast. This was also something John felt according to later interviews. John really liked this song and considered it one of his favorites done with the Beatles. It was a personal cry for Help during what he called his "fat Elvis" period. Apparently the song was written on a dare from a journalist for John to write a song that had words longer than one or two syllables.

I found take 7 best for learning the rhythm of John's guitar part. After take 4, the spiraling arpeggio played by George during the "please, please Help me" part was not played, the time being marked by tapping on the guitar body. There are no vocals in take 7 either. This makes learning the rhythm guitar part much easier. However, take 7 falls apart at the beginning of the third verse.

Take 12 is the version that was used for all the mixdowns of the final song. George Harrison's spiraling arpeggio is more distinct in the studio take than it is in the final mixdown. My fingers get a thrill when they are able to match his notes pluck for pluck in this arpeggio. I can't really explain why I can sit listening to this track over and over again playing along to it on my guitar, except that there is something magical about when what my ears hear matches what my fingers play.

The studio takes are all about a half step down in tuning. Take 7 begins with a guitar being tuned. For playing along, I adjust the graphic equalizer to emphasize the guitar frequencies, move the balance to the right, and keep the headphones slightly off my left ear so I can hear my guitar play along to the song.

For those wishing to learn the song, it is in the key of A. The intro starts with B minor, goes to G (with the D note on 3rd fret of the 2nd string), then to E7, then the spiraling arpeggio played by George Harrison down to A. This is also the chord progression used in the refrain. The verses use an Asus2 as part of the rhythm when playing A, go to C sharp minor, then F sharp minor, then D to G to A.

In the Beatles song, John Lennon's rhythm guitar stops playing while George Harrison plays the arpeggio at the end of the intro and each refrain. When I play the song on my guitar, I play both John's rhythm parts and George Harrison's spiraling arpeggios. I notice that some cover versions of the song, notably by Deep Purple and Oasis, do not include the spiraling arpeggio in their version. To me, this riff is one of the melodic "hooks" of the song. It doesn't sound as good when played at a slower tempo though. Part of its charm is the speed with which the notes flow. What's especially important is the smoothness of the playing.

Deep Purple's version, released in 1968, is in the key of G and is much slower than the original. Noel Gallagher of Oasis also plays Help! much slower. Noel uses the Asus2 exclusively and plays the C sharp minor on the second fret instead of the fourth fret. Noel's voicing of the C sharp minor may be more familiar to some as an A major 7 chord. This voicing sounds "warmer" to me than the way the Beatles played it, and is also easier to play on an acoustic guitar.

Alan W. Pollack analyzes the song Help! as part of his "Notes on..." series on the Beatles songs. All the Beatles shine musically in this song: Paul's bass playing, Ringo's drumming etc. The backup vocals sometimes lead, sometimes follow the lead vocals. There are subtle changes in arrangement for different verse parts. Help! is a good song.

This isn't just my opinion. Granted the Beatles may be overrated as musicians, but the fact is they were the most successful musical group in pop history. As a songwriter myself, I really admire that they helped break ground for musicians to perform their own compositions instead of just playing songs other people wrote as had been the norm in American pop music. The song Help! is number 29 in Rolling Stone's 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs.

I hope you can hear me play this song sometime. I plan to record my own cover version of it. Namaste

Four short essays

2008-01-21T04:49:00.000-08:00

These are some of my best academic work, written for various classes at Sonoma State University when I was living in California.

Media Portrayal and Anthropologists' Treatment of Ishi, the Last Yahi is about the last wild Native American, Ishi.

The Choctaw Trail of Tears describes the history of the Choctaw trail of tears, which predated and was a trial run for the more famous Cherokee trail of tears.

Cultural Analysis of Ernest K. Gann's In the Company of Eagles looks at a famous novel about World War One aviation from a cultural perspective.

It's the Same Thing describes the "base metaphor" of the Mescalero Apache people.

Evolution happens

2008-01-19T04:59:00.000-08:00

Some people don't like to accept that evolution is as much a fact of nature as gravity is. Usually their opinion is based on misinformation. Even disregarding the overwhelming scientific evidence of the physical world, all one has to do is compare what creationists say evolutionists say to what evolutionists actually say and it is easy to see that creationists are liars. I am especially pleased at the 2005 ruling in the Dover case about teaching "intelligent design" in Pennsylvania, where the judge basically called the creationists liars in his decision. The truth will come out in the end, and eventually the general public will realize they are being LIED to from the pulpits of certain denominations of fundamentalist Christianity.

I wrote a song about evolution some years ago, and an essay about the teaching of evolution in public schools. I have probably received more emails about that essay than all other pages of my web site combined. To answer some of those emails, on the tenth anniversary of having the essay online (1997-2007) I published a page of rebuttals to the most common objections of Christian fundamentalists.

Here are links to the relevant sections of my web site:
The song I wrote is called Evolution.
The essay is Teaching Evolution.
The page of rebuttals is Reply to Christian Fundamentalists.

I have collected many pages of news stories relating to the science of evolution and the controversy about teaching it. I hope to include these links in future posts. Enjoy!

The Bicycling Guitarist

2008-01-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2008!

It's been a few years since I've blogged. So much has happened I am in a much better place to share what interests me. Expect comments on science, religion, politics (and where they all meet as in creationism vs. evolution), updates on my living situation, current musical and other projects, and anything else.

My home page is The Bicycling Guitarist. Namaste.