I can hear you now...

Verizon pun intended and aside, this is an update on the iPhone 4 dropped call dilemma. As I mentioned I would, I purchased a smooth, rubber case for my iPhone. I do not know the manufacturer as there is no print or hallmark on the case, nor was there any packaging. I purchased it from a nice Russian fellow at a kiosk in the Manhattan Village Mall. While I prefer understated and low key (read as black), blue was the only color they had that I could live with.



"Well, how has it affected the phone?", you ask. Beneficially, I say. While Apple has admittedly stated their formula for discerning signal strength is faulty, I have noticed that my dropped calls have waned significantly. First and foremost, I am thankful that this little adjustment has greatly improved and enhanced my phone experience. That said, I still believe the antenna setup to be a poor design choice. Again, that the phone would be designed in such a way that the simple act of holding it in it's raw, intended form impedes proper functionality, is a major disappointment. This is Apple, after all. They have continually provided cutting edge technology in a splendiforously sleek package, however, they have finally dropped the ball on this one.

The look of the pone is nice, trim, clean, sexy. How it feels in the hand though, that is the clincher. It is unfortunate that one is remanded to forgo the tactile experience in lieu of proper performance. This aside, I love the device. I'm certain Mr. J will figure it out in the next go around.

Please do not let this deter you from getting a new iPhone! Merely purchase a case synchronously with the phone and enjoy! For anyone who may like this particular case, I found its likeness online, here, although I cannot attest to it being the same texture.

I can hear you, can you hear me???

When I was over my buddy's house the other day, he told me the story of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, fielding emails from dissatisfied owners of the new iPhone 4. I've been having my own cell reception issues and decided to look into the problem. For those of you who aren't hip, Apple released it's long anticipated iPhone 4 last week. I was one of the many eager Apple users who received their phone right away. Unbeknownst to many, there seemed to be some users who were getting poor reception from the new, integrated antenna-designed devices. In fact, several disappointed and frustrated customers barraged Apple with emails and posted internet videos about it. Mr. Jobs replied to one such person by saying , "Don't hold it that way." Now, some of the videos show a complete cupping of the iPhone and of course if you cup it, or many other cell phones with your entire hand, it will likely reduce reception. And of course, most people don't/won't actually handle a phone like that. Many of the videos, however, show the phone being held in what I think is a reasonable manner such as this one.



I think it is very cool that a CEO of an enormous company would take the time to personally answer emails, however, Mr. Jobs' response to this issue was bogus. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Apple devotee and proponent! I love the device, but it's cell reception is significantly worse than my 3G, no matter how I hold it or don't hold it. I think Jobs was and is being arrogant about the situation. This is a clear and prevalent issue that appears to be growing. There is now a class action suit against Apple & ATT for negligence, fraud, design flaws and more. It appears as though Apple knew about this issue and proceeded anyway. They are suggesting that everyone who just paid 2-600$ + for the phone, pay an additional 32$ for the bumper and the problem (self-admitted problem they are denying - see the conundrum?) will magically be fixed.

While I disagree with potentially bored and disgruntled, disillusioned masses striking up litigation for lack of individuality or anything else to do, I do believe that Apple should acknowledge rather than disavow, and make a concerted effort to rectify the problem and satisfy their clientele. After all, it is these people that continue to put money in the gigantic Apple piggy bank. Now, there are those who suggest we all return our phones and demand a refund, and that this action will provide a wake up call to Cupertino. The only problem with that is... it's such a great device, we're reluctant to give it up despite the defect with its phone. My 3G dropped calls with a frequency of about 3-4 per week, regardless of position. This one is dropping calls up to 6 per minute. It's insanely frustrating!!!! And I'm so torn, as I love the device, but I've been seriously considering reverting to 3G or 3Gs.

The aesthetic and physical design of the iPhone 4 is lovely! It is such a pleasure to hold and simply feels right in the hand, not to mention the nifty new features and the eye-gasmic screen resolution. Sadly, it is the hand that has become the enemy. I will, for sake of trying the temperate and easy solution, purchase a case for the phone merely because of added protection, but with the hopes of improving reception. Heck knows I've dropped my 3G enough times and would have been SOL if it weren't for my Agent 18 case! It is difficult to not ponder on Apple's release of a rubber "bumper" for the 4G, however. Apple didn't release similar or other protective accessories concurrently with previous device launches. And the fact that it only covers the metal band, easily lends to the notion that the bumpers are intended as a rectifier for the issue that was known by Apple preceding the launch.

When it comes down to it, this is a phone. What does one do with a phone but hold it?. This has been how people have used telephones since their inception over 130 years ago. That Apple would design and produce a phone whose reception is affected by how one holds it, is an inherent flaw. This cannot be repudiated by any casually tossed remark, internet instruction or complex legal mumbo jumbo. Up until now, I'd have said that the only problem with the iPhone is AT&T. Sadly, that is no longer the case. (Pun intended)

Until an anti gravity field is invented, capable of floating the iPhone to my ear, I will gladly accept suggestions...



Ah, genius! Thanks!!

On a side note, there is a blog I have stumbled across entitled The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. A recent post, There Is No Spoon, I found to be well written, smart and entertaining. I hope you enjoy.

A Legend Lost...

I am saddened by Mr. Hopper's passing. His filming styles changed Hollywood and I am honored to have met him. Filmmaker, artist, brilliant mind. You are a talent and will be missed. Keep your motor runnin', Dennis...

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished... er wait, What?

So I'm tooling down 190th on my way home. As I pass by How's, I see a car stranded in the middle of the street with its flashers on and no lights. I pull up next to the cockpit and ask the girl if she wants help, she agrees.

In a change of tense, I pulled my bike into the parking lot and ran back out into the street. By this time a small line of cars had formed behind the jalopy, all wanting to turn into the lot. I quickly pushed her car across one lane, to safety along the curb of the lot entry. As the car came to rest, I walked up next to her window, leaned down and asked if all was alright. She conferred and thanked me for helping. I took one small step backward, turned around and had my knee, shin and both feet greeted by a Lexus sedan's door panels and it's 2 right sided tires. Yes, that's right folks, I was run over. I couldn't believe it either. In fact, I leaned over with my hands on both knees to check myself with the exact same question, "Did that really just happen?!"

The car stopped. I mean, who wouldn't stop when your car is in a parking lot and you run over something...or someone, right? In a loud voice, but not yelling, I asked, "Seriously? I'm helping this girl out and you ran me over?!" The driver powered down the passenger window and began giving me grief because I took a step backwards. Yes, ladies and germs, the driver blamed me. Apparently if a soul is helping another, and there is an unsafe situation in a lane of traffic, the impatient driver has the right to illegally cross a double yellow line, run over a pedestrian and belay fault of any kind. Wow. And without another word, the Lexus drove off down the lot. The girl asked if I was ok. I was, just slightly disheveled.

I mounted my bike, headed down to the end of the lot and stopped behind the Lexus. An entire family of 5 exited the vehicle. I began talking to the driver, asking him if he realized what it means to run someone over. He continued to tell me he went around me and I backed up, and he was talking over me - a real no no for those of you who know me. I raised a finger and loudly proclaimed, "If both people are talking at the same time, no one is heard." He shut up. I told him that it doesn't matter that he thinks he is right. I stopped to help someone in a dangerous situation. He needs to heed the situation, stop and wait until it is safe. He was impatient, he crossed a double yellow line and broke the law, then ran me over. Again I exclaimed, "You ran me over!" I told him he is lucky nothing seems to be broken and that he needs to slow down, be patient, and obey the law, period. He said thank you and walked away. Yes l's and g's, that's right, he never even apologized or asked if I was alright. Weeee.

I took a snapshot of his license plate and swung by the girl's car. Her friends had shown up to keep her company in wait for a tow. I asked if she would mind providing her name and phone. She kindly and swiftly offered it and she and her friends eagerly volunteered to testify in court if need be. As any of my poor subscribers who torture themselves with my scrawl already know, I am not litigious. In the event that in a few days I am burdened with unignorable pain and get checked only to find something is broken, I want to have a safety net.

Anywho, that's it. Is there a lesson to be learned here? Umm... always, no wait, never... stick a piano up your nose!

Good night, and good luck.

Ode to Diazepam

The rush of tranquility, the hints of euphoria.

How I welcome the smiles that tiptoe along the corner of my lips, oh so subtly.

Limbs bearing invisible weight, slowing down every action, resolve impenetrable. Ahhhh

Del Amo Motorsports

For all you riders out there who have your bikes serviced at Del Amo Motorsports in Redondo Beach, read carefully and pay heed.

My bike was badly in need of tires. Del Amo simply has the best tire prices, period. They even match or beat internet prices, so they have become the go to place. They offer a discount on mounting when you purchase tires through them. It's 45$, ride in, ride out. Now, I've always mounted my own tires with my friends but I thought this was a really great deal. The Saturday before last, I rode up to the service bay. I spoke with John, a really nice fellow, and he informed me that he will likely get it finished, however, it may not be until close to 6pm. It was now 2. I told him that I would appreciate anything he could do and walked into the store.

I kicked around for almost 3.5 hours. They called my name over the PA and I walked back to the service bay, where my baby awaited me with new, beauteous Dunlop rubber. I rode home, showered, and headed out to meet my friends for a birthday gathering.

It was now dark and I was traveling up the 405 towards Culver City. I signaled and moved from the carpool lane, across each lane to my exit. This particular exit has a very sharp, 90˚+ turn that culminates at a traffic light. Before I entered the curve, I broke to slow myself from highway speed; approximately 70mph. As I squeezed the front brake lever, it collapsed to the handlebar, void of any resistance and, oh by the way, any braking! I feverishly squeezed the lever over and again to no avail. I immediately began stomping the rear brake pedal, again, nothing! Before my mouth could utter the 4 letter word my brain had conjured the nanosecond previous, my left hand engaged the clutch and I downshifted the bike into 5th, 4th, 3rd. She lurched forward as I hit the curve, I threw her down into the turn and as I exited, slammed her down into 2nd then 1st gear. I managed to stop the bike with sliding feet before blowing the red light into oncoming traffic. PHEW!

While I awaited the green light, I could not, for the life of me, figure out why or how the brakes would suddenly lose pressure! When I initially got on the bike at the dealer, I noticed that they had not fully pressurized the brakes. I thought, "lazy follow through on their part," but simply pumped the lever until all was solid and it rode fine. Now that I had brake pressure, I decided to proceed cautiously and see what happened. As I progressed down Washington Bvd, I suddenly heard a KLANK, KLANK, KLANK-ing. What the hell was that? It stopped. I continued and then heard the noise again. I immediately pulled over onto the sidewalk. As I de-saddled from my horse in shining scarlet, I suddenly noticed that the entire front, left brake caliper was hanging by the hose. I was furious! I was stupefied, astounded and completely in disbelief! That a mechanic could be so thoughtless, so irresponsible, so utterly incompetent to not have replaced or tightened the bolts on a brake caliper, is completely unacceptable! Needless to say, I called up Del Amo then and there and left my piece of mind on their voice mail, and demanded they call me in the morning.

Did they call? Of course not. I had to have the bike towed home and then to the dealer in the morning. If the caliper had somehow managed to wedge in the wheel while on the freeway, or if I had not maintained and gotten myself out of the exit, or there were a car in front of me or blew through the light...man! I am thankful that I am alive, that I had the skills I needed despite not being conscious of them, and that I am sharing this with you now. Yes, I am thankful...and they, are lucky! I know that I have grounds for a gross negligence case, however, I am not a litigious person. I have met with the service director, the tech foreman and the mechanic. While I do not wish ill of anyone, this is without doubt, a terminating offense. The mechanic, still works there. For anyone who has their bike serviced at Del Amo, request Mauro or Pablo to work on your bike, no one else! I, will never bring a bike there again.

I presented a list of demands, NONE of them involve service of the bike! They are repairing and painting both wheels to match, gave me a new battery, are reimbursing me for the labor and towing, and providing a loner for the duration of the downtime. We'll see where it goes from there. I do not wish or intend to abuse the situation, but considering they put my life in jeopardy, what would you do?

Bah Humbug!

Why do I hate Christmas? Is it the rampant commercialism? Yes. Is it the boorishness and disregard for human beings that exponentially increases this time of year? Yes. Is it the ridiculous traffic that turns even the simplest of tasks into a taxing hair puller? Yes. Is it about people's pilfering of the planet by killing hundreds of thousands of life-giving trees for the sake of decoration and then irresponsibly discarding them without care? YES!

So last Tuesday, I left work around 7:30PM. I'm traveling south on La Cienega Bvd, which is 3 lanes in either direction and just crossed over Rodeo Drive in Culver City. I attain 60mph and am in the left lane with a van in front of me, a taxi to my right, another car in the right lane and a guardrail to my left. As we begin entering the curve, the van, without braking or swerving, runs over an obstacle in the road - of which I cannot see as the van is blocking its view. The van flung out the obstacle, which turned out to be a 7 foot tall f*#@ing Christmas tree that some gentle soul was so kind enough to discard/drop in the middle of the street, at night. This tree spun out from under the van, directly into my bike. With a guardrail to my left and car to my right, I had nowhere to go.

During what must have been nanoseconds, I, completely unknown to myself, surveyed the dismal situation, braced the tank with my legs, rose from the seat and pulled back. I have to say, hitting that tree at 60mph felt like I hit a wall! The front tire blew out instantly. I came to rest on the overpass leading to Kenneth Hahn park, under the street lamp. Clarity hadn't set in for a few more moments. I put the bike on the center stand and walked around her. The body all seemed alright. I couldn't tell if the suspension was damaged, but the front wheel was destroyed. I immediately called the local PD to remove the tree. Unfortunately it took them over 30 minutes to respond. Once I realized what had happened, i.e., what I had accomplished, I was rather surprised. Amazingly, I was able to keep the bike upright, cross 3 lanes of traffic, avoid being hit by cars 2 & 3 and pull the bike to safety. I am a decent rider, but this showed me that my skill level is beyond what I realized, and thankfully so.

While I am grateful I wasn't hurt, my disappointment with people and the situation had the better of me for quite a while. I now had no working transportation. I limped the bike back down to Rodeo and attempted filling it with air. It wouldn't hold anything over 25Lbs and only for a few moments. (As a reference, tires are rated for about 42Lbs). I then limped it to the next station whereupon I filled up the tire again, and so on and so forth until I got her back to the gallery.

I managed to find a wheel on Craigslist, picked it up, and with the help of a great friend, slapped on a new tire, balanced it and brought it back to the gallery to install. While it may be a different color, I'm back on the road within a couple of days. The Universe is a funny place...



While the photo does it a great injustice, this tree was 7 feet tall and about 8 inches in diameter at the trunk.


My baby in pieces at work.

With his pony pal Pokey, too...

Do you remember those old Zenith TV's; the ones where the tube was only 25 inches, but was housed in a GIANT wood console that took up half the room, had the dials you had to turn by hand - which, consequently, turned us children into human remotes - and would kill a man if dropped or attempted to be moved?

The year was 1978. The place was Somerville, NJ - my grandparents' house on North Clark Ave. I was sitting on the floor in the living room, shrouded in what seemed like green astroturf, on which I was always skinning some extremity on a regular basis. Glued to the tube, I experienced Gumby for the first time. It was instant love. That this being could walk through walls and into books and their stories, was fascinating! To this day, some 30 + years later, I can still remember the song: "Gumby, doo doo doo doo doo doo, Gumby, doo doo doo doo doo doo..." Throughout the years of my childhood, I watched countless reruns of Gumby and Davey and Goliath. I still catch myself throwing references to my friends named Dave, "Hey Daaaaaavey," that get lost in the abyss. The show's severe religious undertones were lost on my 3 year-old noggin, but the animation was the lure.

Art Clokey, the mind and hands behind the iconic master of clay, died yesterday. It is a sad loss of a good-hearted and talented man. He had so much love for what he did, that he refused to allow merchandising of any kind for 7 years after the initial release of Gumby, for fear that the parents might feel exploited. That's a far cry from today's biz.

Anywho, without further ado, a small tribute to Mr. Clokey. Thank you for your contribution, Gumby's definitely a part of many of us!

The right thing?

This weekend I was at the local motorbike haunt with my bud. We were picking up some parts and I was felicitously perusing the fare as a child might meander through a toy store. As I was ogling, I heard children laughing, playing. In the next moment I heard, "suck my dick" over the speaker system and suddenly became aware of the music playing, a song by Kid Rock.

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a music lover. I'm also a proponent of free speech and anti-censorship. I'm rather liberal, I am by no means religious, nor do I have children of my own. Perhaps I'm getting curmudgeonly in my older age, but this struck me as entirely inappropriate. If the kids were in their teens, yeah, I suppose you could let it slide as I'm sure they've been exposed to quite a bit more at that age. If the parents had put this music on during a picnic or something, well then that's their choice, but this was a public setting. The children in the store were maybe between 6 and 9 years old and I felt responsible. While I was compelled to say something, in the back of my mind I could hear a little voice saying, "Really?! Are you really going up to bat with this, 'cause you're just gonna swing into nothin' but air and nobody cares."

After coming to fisticuffs with the little voice and laying him out in the corner with a black eye, I hesitantly approached one of the sales staff; someone I've seen there many times before and who knew my face. In as respectful and humble a tone as I could muster, I began explaining the situation to him. He immediately said, "Hold that thought, I want you to speak to someone! Follow me," and with near joy in his voice, introduced me to, whom I believe, was a manager. I told the manager that I was sorry to make a fuss, that I get that it's a bike shop - which has a certain vibe, shall we say, that goes with it - but that there are also families with kids walking around. I asked if I may make a suggestion, to which he urged yes, that they simply consider the music they play before airing it over the speaker system. The manager listened intently, told me that I was completely correct and thanked me for my input. My friend, on the other hand, lightly admonished me and stated that kids these days are conditioned already by such things.

So my question goes out to you, my exiguous and sparse readers. In my extant journey to be a better human being, was this the right thing to do? Or did I overstep my bounds and make a mountain out of a mole hill?

Pee Arr Eye Oh Arr Eye Tee Eye Eee Esssss...

We can successfully hurtle 2 infinitesimally small particles of matter, protons, into each other to create a mind boggling scientific explosion (very cool) and yet we're unable to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize climate decline...

Hey everybody, we've created a black hole and unveiled all the secrets of the known Universe! Yaaaaaay! Of course, the ice caps are going to melt soon, thousands will die and the planet will change as we know it! Boooooo! It's clear where priorities lie. Very sad.