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GOING THE DISTANCE

"SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL"

by Genghis


PHOTO BY GENGHIS








"Dont tell me about the pain, show me the baby."


BILL PARCELLS



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".....GTP is just a scooter tramp. a very talented painter, but none the less a scooter tramp in the vein of dayz gone by.
get one thing right folks, GTP IS NO SHEEP!

the guy at this momment cant ride. his back is so bad he can barely walk. this is a guy that for years as criss crossed the country on his shovelhead. thats his life.
he put longer shocks on his bike because he was in pain, and wanted to keep riding. which he did. across the country once more. when i saw him last, he was hurtin' for certain. but he kept riding. finally he gave out. they shipped him back to AZ. and his bike is somewhere between there and the east coast.

this guy is a die hard shovelhead man. if he is whinning, he does so because he is facing the end of his life as he knows it. and quite frankly, his "appology" was in house. much as genghis rants here on seedy. there obviously are many more horsemen than goons, so a wider audience makes it seem less intimate, but the point is geo. is a rider. he put more miles on his shovelhead in the last year than most of us have in the past 10 or 20.

one may not like his writing, or his painting, or his lifestyle, but any true biker should respect GTPs love for the road and his shovelhead....."


HACKSAW AT THE SEEDY X-BAR & GRILL



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We have seven cats in the house. That's because my old lady Patty loves animals, and regularly infuses our humble home in the Lower Beast Side of NYC with stray cats that she brings in, out of the goodness of her heart. Through the years, this good samaritan practice has offset in terms of feline volume, cats we've lost through attrition. That's fine with me. I dig our cats, and our dog Wolfie loves the cats. As a matter of fact, he treats 'em like small dogs. This ain't a case of unrequited love, though. The cats love Wolfie (short for "Wolfgang"---Wolfie's a Husky) too. This brings me to my main point: Patty feels a deep sorrow for each and every cat that she spots on the mean streets of NYC, and if possible, she'd bring 'em all in if they would just acquiesce. Patty is always shocked, even after almost three deacdes of marriage, when I don't exhibit the same sympathy for these animals. Now, don't get me wrong. I dig cats, but there are too many out in the streets for me to stretch my feelings for.

There are thousands of bikers out there who had poor fortune with their health, and subsequently had to stop riding---either temporarily or forever. I happen to know a few of 'em. Steve Yee, one of a few Chinese American Hell's Angels--is doing a life term, and can't ride anymore. Mitch Diamond, a dedicated biker and good bud, was murdered. He can't ride anymore. There are a number others I know who can't ride anymore, but I see no point in hoisting their names on you, since you don't know 'em. Since you don't know 'em, I can't expect you to have any appreciable sympathy for their unlucky circumstances. You can feel a certain amount of empathy for these strangers borne of the "...there but the the Grace of God, Go I...." principle, but beyond that---nada. Similarly, while I or any of the Goons at The Seedy can feel some sorrowful emotion about GTP's condition and circumstances, these feelings would be for the most part, superficial. This is simply human nature at its most honest. Anyone who doesn't know GTP personally who professes a deep sorrow over GTP's predicament, would not be entirely truthful, in my humble opinion.

Does anyone seriously think that GTP would give a ratbike's ass about any of the Goons losing the ability to ride, no matter how much we "loved our Shovelheads" if he heard our sad tales? I doubt it. Why? Because he doesn't know us. It would be unrealistic in the extreme for us to hope for a crying session from any stranger, due to our misfortune in life. That's just the way it is. Life is cruel, and nobody cares, if the victim is someone outside of our personal circles. If someone fakes deep emotion regarding someone he or she doesn't know, then give that person a crying towel and a cup of hot chocolate.

Magazine personalities do engender a feeling among readers, that the readers know the writer. I can tell you that based on my own experiences. I can dig that. Similarly, even though I never met any of the Goons that frequent The Seedy, I feel like I know 'em from years of internet communication. In this case, I do care about their lives and how they are doing. I hope that I'm not betraying a confidence of SI's, but he too suffered an extremely serious injury some time back, that almost ended his riding days. Yet, he never played for sympathy at The Seedy. Dig it. I can cite a couple of cases where I was on the other end, when I felt deep sorrow and grief for people dying, that I did not personally know, but felt that I knew. One was Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the other was Jerry Garcia. In Dale's case, I had been a loyal fan of his for years. In Jerry's case, he had always been there for me, since the late '60s. However, I'm not a regular reader of THBC and don't go the their message board. That's the difference. Later.

FINITO