Hey, June.

No sooner had I said that Tucson might miss out on the ole' June inferno than the thermometer got stuck at 101° three afternoons in a row earlier this week. Despite having a perfectly serviceable motorcycle on standby for just this eventuality, I went ahead and bike commuted right through it, and into the sultry pre-monsoonal days that followed. You see, I've once again pledged my unwavering loyalty to my commuting statistics.

I keep saying I won't do this, that I'll back off and chillax a bit. I vow to trade the pushbike for the motorbike during the week so I can pedal harder on the weekends. I never do. I've come to the conclusion that I more or less enjoy biking back and forth to work. The rides serve as an airlock of sorts; the morning trip helping me mentally prepare for another day trapped in an office and the ride home - a climby one at that - helping me decompress a bit. Any residual job stress gets worked out on the weight bench. I've also met BeanSS for lunch several times over the past few weeks, and that's been real nice, too.

I really need to get off of the bitching about the warmth and work. There's actually a certain soul-cleansing aspect to riding in the summer afternoon heat, and it helps acclimatize me for those times when I don't manage to hit the trail before dawn or my rides run long due to a puncture or mechanical. Besides, as happened today, riding a motorcycle leaves me drenched in sweat to almost the same extent as bicycling. Sure, there's no hammering away at the pedals and more speed is just a twist of the wrist away, but straddling a scalding hot engine, pipe, and radiators while wearing long pants, boots, an armored jacket, long gloves and a full-face helmet - all with the sun beating down - isn't exactly like sitting in a tub of ice water.

New topic.

My late-onset pinkeye is behind me but my most-recent teen malady was having experienced an inexplicable bout of acne last week. WTF? Again, I am 38 years old, and this is not what I envision when I think of having a second childhood. I also journeyed back to my college (and early married) years by drinking everything in the house last Friday. It served the purpose of getting rid of a sixer of a brew I didn't quite like anyway but on the other hand, I can't say I'm dying to immediately replenish the household beer supply. I'll make the briefest mention of the 2010 Arizona Singlespeed USA event - venue TBD - and hope I have my drinking legs back in time.

Another new topic.

I've had the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Show Your Bones album and their Is Is EP playing in another window as I've typed up this post. I'd run through the album at a listening station when it came out three years ago and nothing really grabbed me. I'd never even heard about the EP. I bought copies of both at Zia Records a few weeks ago and holy smokes, there are some great tracks in there. Considered with the older and newer parts of their catalog, it's enough to get the Yeah Yeah Yeahs into a permanent position on my Desert Island Ten Best Most Favorite Bands List. And as long as I'm on the subject, here's the list as it stands today, in no particular order, and with my ill-informed one-liners tacked on.

1. Midnight Oil (excluding their final two, after-the-shark-jump albums)
2. The Pixies (still hearing their influence everywhere, even now)
3. Pop Will Eat Itself (aka PWEI, RIP in either case)
4. Sheep on Drugs (effed-up apocalyptic dance music)
5. Adorable (out-of-print but there's a recent greatest hits comp)
6. Interpol (liking them more with each album)
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Karen OMFG)

Numbers 8 through 10 remain in constant flux. Catherine Wheel and U2 are strong candidates for numbers 8 and 9. New Order, the Stone Roses, Curve, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Kings of Leon rotate in and out of the 10-slot depending on my listening preferences at the moment. Strangely, while U2 and the Chili Peppers have expansive catalogs and are still recording, the Stone Roses made the list on the strength of a single epic album (the early, self-titled full-length effort, not their absolutely unlistenable Second Coming). I'd like to have a ska or reggae outfit in there but my tastes range too widely to pick a single artist. There's no punk rock in there and that's not right, either - maybe the Hives or PIL. A new band could show up tomorrow and change everything.

Well, as much as I'd like to blog about bikes, beer, and Music I Like, BeanSS is back from work. Having brought home the bacon, she now wants to trade it for some Mexican food.

Later Schraeder.