WNBR Madison Notes

The 8th annual Madison World Naked Bike Ride is now in the history books.  It started out cloudy but once the sun came out I got burnt to a crisp riding the 12 mile bike route through Madison and the usual twice around the Capitol. I'm guessing the turn out was slightly less than the 160 bikers that was with us last year.  It was also the first time I rode a bike since last year's WNBR.  But on sight there was about 40 people that returned, including the crazy skating woman and the other one, I'm terrible with names but if you google WNBR Madison, you would see her face.  But for the most part guys outnumber the girls about 2 to 1.

On the plus side, I didn't cramp up.  Last year, my downfall was doing a 10 mile bike ride before the main event.  While I went full frontal last year, I opted for having silk boxers and a floppy hat.  While there was reports of people getting offended when some of the bikers shouted out "join us and go naked" but the only thing I saw was some girl covering her eyes and looking downward on her bike as everybody passed on by.   Like last year, the meeting place was the UW parking lot and the staging place the co operate house near the hotel that I stayed at.  Elijan, who was one of the folks living there said that anybody can live there for 515 dollars a month. You get room and board, all things paid, and it's like living in a commute. If I was younger I would considered moving there.

Once again plenty of road construction everywhere and the road that had The Graduate Hotel was tore up.  For 183 dollars a night, I decided to park the car there. There's not too many parking spots down in the basement and I didn't care about parking a block away. I think I stayed at the same room last year, room 202.  But any hotel in downtown Madison is going to pricey, but The Graduate is two blocks from the staging area.  Perfect place to hang out.

I have to say that giving up TV has been the best thing for me.  I tried my best to watch something but ended up watching old Gomer Pyle reruns and Turner Classic Movies.  The Big Pharma monopoly of drug commercials is epidemic, 8 out of 10 spots were drug related, for your pets and for your limp dick.  I never thought I've seen TV go this far down the shitter.  You get tired of it, I know I do, thank the Cialis and Viagra stiff necks for forever keeping the TV off over here. Don't need it anymore.

Once the bike ride was done, I stayed around looking bored for about 15 minutes and then made my way back to the hotel, took a nap, then tried a Five Guys Cheeseburger (overrated), then rented a bike to do another 15 miles ride.  The change chasers all over the place.  I don't think I ever seen so many beggers on State Street shaking their cups and asking for spare change.  Plenty of people sleeping on the side walks and in front of closed businesses   And there was a few musicians playing for change as well, one woman was playing her violin for a good eight hours Saturday.  That's dedication. But there was a great Chinese place upstairs across the street from a convenience store, and they were real Chinese food all the way down to the chopsticks at hand.  For Saturday, I managed to do plenty of walking up and down State Street all the way to the hotel by Lake Monona to which a massive sinkhole started after all the heavy rain Friday Night.  Of course on the Terrance, plenty of people getting married and taking plenty of photos, even had a couple dancing on M L King Street in front of the capitol and then somebody rented the Orpheum  Theater for their own wedding reception. Good luck to them.

The bargains this time out was pretty good for 45s, but there were a few museum 45s as well. One was King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King (Part 1 and 2) to which I would have loved to hear how Atlantic chopped that 9 and half minute song into a 4 and half minute edited 45, but that sold for 25 dollars.  The other was Frank Zappa Tell Me You Love Me on Bizarre for 40 dollars (a steal) and they were sold at the new location of Mad City Music Exchange which moved from Williamson Street to Atwood Drive close to the Majestic theater.  While the new location is more roomy than the old place, I like the old location due to its closeness to Lake Monona.  Despite the high prices of both 45s, both were gone the next day I return back there.  While I didn't get those two museum pieces, I did managed to find 10 other 45s of more sentimental value, including Crow's Something In Your Blood, which I have been searching for, for many many years.  I will have to compile that later for a Singles Going Steady blog. I did also find some decent CDs too.   Pawn America was a bust, either they are remodeling or ready to close up shop.  They finally threw out the crappy CDs that they couldn't sell.   Strange when they opened up, I found 100 cds in the first three years.  Now they simply don't sell CDs.  Even Half Priced Books East Side chopped their CD bins in half.   Ain't gonna be much for CDs anymore.  LPs, I didn't find anything and although I did find a good copy of Black Oak Arkansas' Keep The Faith, I forgot all about it while 45 crate digging and left it behind.  When I realized what I've done, Mad City was closed.

The way it goes.

Gas prices averaged 2.17 a gallon.  Most of Verona road going out of Madison still had road construction but over all it wasn't that bad getting through it.   On the west side of Madison, Copps closed their grocery store, so the only thing around was Big Lots and they didn't have shit either.  They're becoming a disappointment.  

So that's the WNBR Madison 2017 story in a nutshell. People riding nude and not much came from it.  Nothing to see.

The Video.  I appear at the 1:23 mark.  I'm wearing the silk boxes as promised. ;)
Too bad you can't see it, it's been removed due to decency rules here :(
But I'm sure it's out on You Tube if you look hard enough.