Archive for May, 2008

In a first move of it’s kind in the aviation industry, American Airlines announced today that with all tickets purchased after June 15, there will be an additional $15 for your checked bag. Have another bag? Pony up another $25 per.

Remember, there is only ONE carry on allowed on board.

No word yet on whether those that wear leather will be charged more for their apparel over those that wear hemp.

At Club DaDa tonite in Deep Ellum, the latest artists to participate in the Re*Cov*Er project will be announced which celebrate the truly amazing musical talent that comes out of Dallas.

Last year, the selected muralists included: Janet Antich, Jason Barnett, Ronnie Bates, Brian Crawford, Jim Cox, Jennifer D. Curtiss, Issac Davies , Josh Davies, Sergio Garcia, Robert Hamilton, David Lyles, Kayla Escobedo, Mitchell Nickell, Gilbert Oranday, Clint Ray and Tyson Summers.

Murals were painted of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Leadbelly, John Lee Hooker, Norah Jones, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Dimebag, MC 900 Ft Jesus, Hash Brown, Carter Albrecht, the New Bohemians, Gibby Hayne

You can watch the video clip below of last year’s artist’s at work and since this is an often asked question for those of us in this area, here are the lyrics to the old blues classic, “Deep Ellum Blues”:

if you go down to deep elum
E
put your money in your shoe
E
the women in deep elum
E E7
got them..deep elum blues

“chorus”
A7
oh sweet mama
E
your daddys got them deep elum blues

B
oh sweet mama
E
your daddy got them deep elum blues

once i had a girlfriend
she meant the world to me
then she went down to deep elum
she aint what she used to be

chorus

once i knew a preacher
preached the bible through and through
he went down to deep elum
now his preachin days are through

chorus

when you go down to deep elum
to have a little fun
get your ten dollars ready
when the policeman comes

chorus

when you go down to deep elum
keep your money in your pants
cause the woman in deep elum
dont give men a chance

END

The festival features kite flying and dragon boat races in the morning, cultural performances and a lantern festival in the afternoon plus traditional Asian food, arts and crafts and educational activities for children. Come enjoy a day of cultural diversity and educational activities.

This event is free to the public to attend.

Lake Carolyn, Las Colinas in Irving. Marco Polo World Foundation: 10 am - 6 pm

Tomorrow should be gorgeous so for those bikers that are also wanting to tour homes (?) on a beautiful day, meet up with the KZPS gang — the details are:

Randy James and his gang to saddle up on the bikes and ride for a great cause! Join Randy at LongHorn Harley Davidson in Grand Prairie tomorrow, May 17th between 9am-9:45am to ride for the Make A Wish Foundation.

Ride begins at 10am sharp and you’ll travel to the 2008 Parade of Homes tour in McKinney. It’s only a $20 donation for single riders and $30 for two!

This is a commentary.

Last Sunday I had an interesting situation happen. A beautiful, sunny afternoon and I was riding my Harley motorcycle northbound on Pearl Street through downtown Dallas. As I crossed over Ross Avenue, I saw a car in the southbound turn lane to go into the Meyerson Symphony Hall. He turned as there was lots of time before I was going to be at that intersection.

The next car…a woman driver. She was wearing glasses (not sunglasses) but I was wearing sunglasses. One of the cardinal rules in motorcycling is to make eye contact but that’s kind of hard to do with sunglasses. Anyway, the lady pulled up, stopped, looked right at me - not a glance - a look and as soon as I approached the corner of Flora she decided to turn.

I’ve never been hit on a bike before.

I guess I went into self-preservation mode (for me and my bike) because somehow I had the presence of mind to turn the bike just slightly at the last possible moment so she was aiming towards the Symphony Hall and the car hit my engine guard dead on.

A lot of bikers don’t have engine guards because they say it looks stupid. For me, I’d much rather have chromed steel coming out to protect my bike’s motor should it be dropped than not having it. Turns out the engine guards work equally well in certain situations when cars are aiming for you.

A fraction of a second earlier, it would have been my front wheel that took the hit; a fraction later, hit the back end which would have possible spun me slightly.

As it turns out, by hitting the engine guard, and by going at a rather low speed, the bike stalled and toppled over to it’s right. It landed at a 45 degree angle because of the engine guard.

The first thing I did was get the bike upright, get her into neutral and she fired right up. I walked her over to the sidewalk a few feet away and just let her idle. A number of people going to the Symphony came over to help and I recall one guy saying, “That was an amazing save! How did you do that?” I honestly have no idea.

By this point the lady was writing down her info. The first thing I asked her was, “Did you see me?” She said she had not - even though I know for a fact she “looked” right at me, she didn’t “see” me. To be honest, this comment didn’t surprise me. When I was editor for Thunder Roads Magazine, we did a story on safety and one of the factoids was that women drivers are not conditioned to look for bikers so there is a higher likelihood of a biker getting hit by a woman than a guy.

Kind of sucks for me being a girl and all that I have to deal with this from my own gender!

After I got her info, I took the bike a few blocks away to my friend Peter’s loft. He’s had about 140 bikes in his lifetime and used to be a motorbike courier in London for 3 years where he got hit about twice a week.

Aside from the engine guard being slightly out of whack and the handlebars just ever so slightly out of alignment, the bike looks good. Of course, I DO still have to take her by a mechanic friend of mine for a once over.

And my left leg has a nice menagerie of bruises all over it as it was caught between the car’s bumper and the portion of my bike that didn’t have an engine guard or saddle bag protecting it.

What truly amazed me were the suggestions from some of the people that found out about this. One person suggested that I claim my gas tank because of a tiny dent in it from a trip last year. Another person berated me for not going to the hospital immediately - the fact that I was alone on my bike and had no where to leave the bike and hitch a ride in an ambulance had no bearing on the situation.

But the true finale was the suggestion that I sue. On what grounds? “Intentional involuntary vehicular manslaughter”. Say what?! Sorry people, but I have a life and jacking around with attorneys and insurance companies and doctors does not fall on my top 10 list.

In fact, unless my mechanic says something different, I’m not even making a claim. It was a minor accident at a low rate of speed, my bruises will fade, and life will go on.

I would hope the lady is more aware of bikers now and that people get off this insane desire to profit from every little oops that happens in life.

Besides…now I can say for a fact that American steel trumps Japanese plastic!

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Steve Jobs
Business leader

For those of you that are serious minded, we apologize for the gossip that is placed on this site; however, the traffic stats tell us that gossip is king…especially when it comes to the likes of Jessica Simpson, Kat Von D or any type of leather & latex fetish event at the Lizard Lounge (the viewers from Austria and the middle East really like those!).

In further news on the recent Jessica Simpson / Tony Romo split, it seems that Romo couldn’t deal with the all the media attention Jessica receives and didn’t take kindly to her papa Joe’s unsolicted advice on how he should deal with his endorsement opportunities.

Supposedly they are split up for good; however, Romo is set to escort Jessica to her sister Ashlee’s marriage this weekend to Pete Wentz.