jeffrey + upstairsloft

Kanye’s dope. People bash him. People deny him of his brilliance. But you cannot deny that he is a genius and he’s mad skilled. I mean, he hasn’t been in the game too long and he isn’t as seasoned as the already acclaimed great hip hop artists, but he strives for it and he’s getting pretty close. Kanye stirs it up and keeps things fresh. I just had to get that out there. I’m stoked for his new album. His first two were good. There’s definite classics. Graduation was nuts. 808’s and Heartbreaks is gonna be bananas.

The economy is far from a good place right now and people are just crazy. It feels like everybody around me wants to commit suicide. Seriously. People are looking for reasons to just be angry. Who can blame them? We’re all over the edge with our next president, the economy, keeping our jobs or even looking for a job. A lot of us feel lost and unsupported by our government. But we’re not alone. We are all feeling the same shit. Taking it out on other people is counter-productive.

Everybody needs to drop whatever it is we’re doing and hug puppies. Spoon. Cuddle with a baby. Just chill out. We’re all affected.

The ones who spend the most time behind the wheel are the ones more likely to kill you. So many times I’ve almost been nicked by a taxi cab but never like today. This time the yellow death machine made contact with me while making an illegal u-turn on Market. With an island separating the two lanes, it nearly squeezed me up against the curb, which is a formula to eat dirt when fixed geared pedals mash up against the curb wall. So I leaned my weight alongside the cab and let it drag me along until I can regain my balance.

I passed up the cab and heard indistinguishable yelling. I punched the cab, rode past him and he gunned his car to catch up with me. He starts yelling. I yell back. He yelled “I wish I killed you.” Every threat he yelled, I repeated in a question. “You wish you killed meeee?!” That way passerbys could catch a glimpse of what he was saying to me. After aggressive verbal exchanges, several threats and graphic tales of what I’d do to him if he came out of his car, two cops on foot chase after the cab and he tries to shake them off. He eventually pulls over and the cops catch up to him.

Meanwhile, ten other bike commuters stop in their tracks to play witness while surrounding the cab. After the whole incident, a few bike riders lend me their support.