LATEST ADDITIONS

Brahms loved making jokes. "And if a good one doesn't occur to me, then [I'll make] a bad one."

What chapter comes after Chapter 11? The final chapter, of course. Looks like Tower Records has reached it.

Huckleberry pays particular attention to his scratching post technique.

There are a lot artists who try as you and they might, never really grab ya. Then there are those who made one single that for some odd reason touched you. No, not there! In the heart or the head or some combination of both. Most are pop artists. And most of these one track wonders fall into the category of the "guilty pleasure."

I love rules of thumb, deep wisdom that can be sketched in verbal shorthand. The website <I>Painter Creativity</I> offers 10 rules for naive artists and designers, but they could very easily apply to any freelancer. Most of these are pretty obvious, but when you're hustling for work and worried about that monthly rent bill, you can panic sometimes and fall for the old "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday" line.

Riders, or the contracts laying out what rock groups require for their performances, can range from straight ahead to the ridiculous&mdash;as in Van Halen's famous "no brown M&Ms" clause. Iggy Pop's backline rider is <I>intentionally</I> hilarious.

On our daily rides, Jeff Wong and I have watched a few of these abandoned bikes disassembled part by part as they serve as donor bikes for urban scavengers. Ultimately, all that's left is a lock and a frame&mdash;or, sometimes, just part of a frame.