The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

First Full Week Back (Week 4)

On Sunday, I tested and bought a new bike, but it was without the cyclometer, so that mileage doesn’t count.

I started back on my 3:1 25% Training Schedule. Since I’ve been off the bike almost three months since the crash, I decided to pick up the training schedule at the very beginning–week 1.

This week was scheduled for five 10-mile weekdays and one 16.67-mile Saturday. Somehow, the rain stayed away just enough for me to accomplish my mission.

My feeling? It’s good to be back on the bike. By the time I’m pulling 150+ mile weeks, the days will be longer and, perhaps, rainy season will be reliably over. I was surprised at how much of my speed I still have.

23 Jan:  10.59 mi;  0:34:20 (18.5 mph avg; 25.5 mph max)
24 Jan:  10.20 mi;  0:31:40 (19.3 mph avg; 27.0 mph max)
25 Jan:  10.21 mi;  0:32:15 (19.0 mph avg; 28.0 mph max)
26 Jan:  10.21 mi;  0:32:25 (18.9 mph avg; 25.0 mph max)
27 Jan:  10.20 mi;  0:32:42 (18.7 mph avg; 25.0 mph max)
28 Jan:  17.73 mi;  0:57:12 (18.6 mph avg; 32.0 mph max)
Total :  69.14 mi;  3:40:34 (18.8 mph avg; 32.0 mph max)

Month so far:   69.14 mi. 2006 so far :   69.14 mi (1.15% of goal).
2006 goal   : 6000.00 mi.
Remaining   : 5930.86 mi (123.56 mi / wk avg)

Returning to the Road

I headed over to the shop again today to buy blinky lights for my new bike and to get a magnet, so I could chart my first miles since my crash. I went home with my new lights and fumbled with my cyclometer mount and the lights. Finally, I got on the bike just about 15 minutes before sunset. Great going, Apollo.

I headed up the street and on to Outfitter to ask about why my seat stay’s red blinky light didn’t want to stay at the top. While I was there, the good people wrangled me a brand new pair of SPD pedals that were supposed to come with the bike, installed them, and gave me a few more tips for getting used to this light road bike. Throwing on my amber-lensed glasses, I rambled home in the increasing dark after throwing down my gauntlet and getting started on my 2006 cycling season.

This ride: 10.59 mi in 34:20 (18.5 mph avg; 25.5 mph max).

Trek 2100

Today, I went to Bicycle Outfitter to test ride a brand new Trek 1500. Since my 520 isn’t getting repaired anytime soon, my lawyer and I agreed that I should add a bike to my stable, so that I can get back on the road. Buying a hot new light road bike was the order of the day.

The 1500 was on the order of 15 pounds lighter than my 520. That’s 40% lighter. I gave it a stomp up Foothill Expressway about 11 miles down and back (in total, not each way). When I stood up to sprint, the 1500 was all over the bike lane. My legs were easily able to throw it all over the place and it really felt unstable (not even to mention the fact that this model had exposed screws on the headseat which scratched my thigh).

Mark mentioned the 2100, so I decided to take that for a spin. I was a little winded from the 11 mile sprint (after 3 months off the bike after the crash). This time, I headed up the expressway and made my U-Turn at El Monte (about 3.6 miles total). The 2100 has much better components, is another pound lighter, and feels rock solid when I stand up. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I tossed caution to the wind and said, “I’ll take it.”

After buying a new helmet (Giro Monza!), bottle mounts, and other accessories, and an extra mount for the Mity-8 cyclometer, I loaded the bike onto the bike rack and headed home. I had to steal the SPD pedals off my old hybrid, mounted the bottles, and then noticed that I don’t have a magnet that would let me use my cyclometer. So, it looks like I’ll take another trip to the shop tomorrow, to get a blinky red light and a magnet for my cyclometer.

What am I going to be able to do on this 20 pound road bike? I can’t wait to find out.

Salted

Another Saturday night, another evening on the hardwood at 119 Utah St. I got kind of a late start, but I made it shortly before midnight. Tonight’s party was Salted, my usual Saturday night shindig. Transport and LoveSlap were throwing this one.

The venue was significantly less packed than it was last weekend. An entirely different crowd showed up tonight, including a gaggle of staggering drunk dudes groping every woman within reach and hobbling around the dancefloor interrupting my groove. The music, however, was first rate. Charles Spencer, MFR, Vincent Kwok, and Mauricio Aviles traded short sets, building up the tension with fantastic vignettes of Detroit techno, deep funky house, and good stomping syncopated house music that kept a good number of us on the floor until closing time.

Is the weekend over already? Damn.

Salted

After a great New Year’s Eve, everyone was looking forward to the first Salted party of 2006. Tonight’s party was officially an “Appreciation Party”, which granted everyone free admission all night. Tonight, Mighty was packed nipples-to-shoulderblades with people.

MFR dropped a really dope set of fist-pumping house cuts. Julius Papp followed with a strong mix of funky tracks that got the crowd all hyped up and ready for Miguel Migs, who closed us out with a mind-blowing selection of music that kept a few of us on the hardwood until the lights came on.

I think, though, that I’m glad every weekend isn’t the Appreciation Party. There were way too many people tonight.

Food At Last

This afternoon, I went to the office of my surgeon at Stanford University. After the x-rays, we talked about the possibility of my needing more surgeries in the future, the likelihood of future issues with the TMJ, and what the orthodontists/oral surgeons in my future are likely to want to do about my new malocclusion. Then, he casually nodded at the chair and said, “In the meantime, why don’t we go ahead and get those arch bars off.”

When he performed my corrective surgery two months ago, he installed maxillomandibular arch bars. They’re metal bars with hooks, secured to the top and bottom jaw with wires, which are used to fix the upper and lower jaws securely together with rubber bands. After 10 days, he cut the rubber bands and I had to wear two rubber bands on each side to guide my healing jaw into alignment (I was still on a liquid “soft foods” diet at this point). Last month, he told me I didn’t have to wear the rubber bands anymore.

Today, his resident and he removed my arch bars. It was a painful, grimacing process, but afterwards, I was left with no metal in my mouth. “So, what kind of diet am I on now?” “Whatever you want to eat, you can. You’re as healed up as you’re going to get for now.”

So, I called up our hero, Emmett, and proposed dinner. He agreed. So, after doing more at work, I zipped down to Tandoori Cafe at the western edge of San José to join him.

This was my first unrestricted meal since October 29, 2005. I ordered Aloo Gobi (or whatever their terminology for it is) and some Pakoras. Oh, my goodness, is that good. The fried bread was the best—partially because I haven’t had anything resembling bread in 67 days.

At last, at long last, I can eat again.

40 things in 2005

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before? I rode over 6500 miles (out of a goal of only 5000) on my bicycle, broke some bones in my face, and had major surgery to repair them.
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions and will you make more for next year? I blew away my cycling goal by more than 30% and stayed employed.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My cousin and his wife had a baby girl in November.
4. Did anyone close to you die? No.
5. What countries did you visit? I did not leave the United States.
6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? Increasing musical skill, guitar lessons, piano lessons, the discipline to podcast regularly.
7. What dates from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory? January 19 (hot new Powerbook), February 25 (first CMS on this site since 1996), July 1 – 3 (Jay visited), August 12 (the last Dubtribe Sound System performance in Northern California), August 20 (reaching my yearly cycling goal), September 3 (writing a complete track for the first time in 7 years), September 30 (Serenity premier), October 29 (crash), November 8 (surgery)
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I set a goal on January 1 to ride 5000 miles in 2005 on my bicycle. I went over by 1,720.84 miles by the time I crashed into the ground just before Hallowe’en.
9. What was your biggest failure? I really should have responded to your signals. You and you and you and especially you. We’d have had a good time, I’m sure.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Yes. Please wear your helmet whenever you ride a bike. And when you’re driving, you need to watch the bike lanes before you turn across them. I suffered an orbital fracture (right eye), bilateral condylar fracture at the TMJ, and some broken teeth. My last totally solid meal was on October 29. There is an inch-long dent in my helmet and a bicycle with a bent front rim at the bike shop to be repaired whenever the lawyers green light it.
11. What was the best thing you bought? 12″ PowerBook G4 (1.33 GHz), Reason 3.0, 60 GB video iPod, and M-Audio Oxygen 8
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Emmett came through once again, this time calling to inform my family about my crash, wrangling doctors and nurses to get me released from Stanford Hospital, and generally being my hero. You are a prince, Emmett. I don’t even have words strong enough to express my appreciation and affection for you.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The dude in the car that hit me.
14. Where did most of your money go? Food, cycling, hospital bills, and dancing.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Wayfaring, writing music again, cycling, dancing all night at lots of clubs with oodles of beautiful strangers.
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2005? Sunshine Jones broke a five-year rut with a spectacular marathon of musical exploration, entitled “Seven Tracks in Seven Days.”
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    1. happier or sadder? happier
    2. thinner or fatter? thinner
    3. richer or poorer? richer
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I should have spent more time wrecking hardwood in the city.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worry. Procrastinate. Stay home on Friday and Saturday nights.
20. How did you spend Christmas? I visited my family in Idaho. I got to hang out with my brother, my sister, my four nephews and nieces, my children, my grandmother, and my musical collaborator and designated ass-kicker, Jay.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My kids.
22. Did you fall in love in 2005? Yes. Let’s sing it again, “House music all night long.”
23. How many one night stands in this last year? None.
24. What was your favorite TV program? Extinct: Firefly, Wonderfalls, Undeclared. Drama: Battlestar Galactica, The 4400, The West Wing. Nonfiction: Globe Trekker, Mythbusters. Animated: The Simpsons, The Boondocks, Family Guy.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No.
26. What was the best book(s) you read? American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? That you can use classical theory in house music.
28. What did you want and get? My PowerBook, my iPod, my Oxygen, and some software.
29. What did you want and not get? Miles in my stats for November and December.
30. What were your favorite films of this year? Serenity, The Station Agent, Cinema Paradiso, Monsieur Ibrahim, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? On my 34th birthday, I went to work, but on the weekend, I danced all night on a dancefloor in San Francisco.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Interacting more with people at the clubs where I get down. It’s not only about the music.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005? What?
34. What kept you sane? My bicycle. The music.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Female: Jewel Staite (Firefly), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Carla Gallo (Undeclared), Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls). Male: Lance Armstrong — cancer to seven wins in the Tour de France? You are the most magnificent example of what a man can do.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? I was generally pissed off by everything the government did.
37. Who did you miss? My friends in Idaho, Greg, Jonathan, Daniel, my family, a social circle.
38. Who was the best new person you met? I’m not sure. There were a couple of friendly new people at work (one of whom is also stupefyingly adorable), but I don’t think I really met anybody new this year — other than the ones I shared the dancefloor with.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005. I have the power to do anything I want. I wasn’t trained as an athlete, but I still rode over 6700 miles on a bicycle. If I can do that with my body, there’s no reason I can’t do the same with my music. Consistency is key. Don’t wait. Do it now.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? “For there’s no yes in yesterday. And who knows what tomorrow brings or takes away? As long as I’m still in the game, I want to play for laughs, for life, for love. So here’s to life. And every joy it brings. So here’s to life. For dreamers and their dreams. May your storms be weathered and all that’s good get better. Here’s to life. Here’s to love. Here’s to you.” – Here’s to Life by Shirley Horn (May 1, 1934 – October 20, 2005).

Stompy + Sunset New Years Day Jam

After sleeping until about three this afternoon, I got up, had some food, stocked my cargo pockets with Clif Shots, and headed out again. This time, I headed up to the 13th Annual Stompy/Sunset New Years Jam. The rain was really coming down in sheets, so it took a little longer to get to the venue than I originally planned on. Still, I arrived at the door five minutes before the cover charge rose to $20.

Solar was on the tables when I arrived, playing acid jazz, techno, breakbeats, and his usual eclectic mix of goodies to a very appreciative crowd of partiers. J-Bird brought us back into house territory with a banging set that frenzied the dancefloor and gave us all a reason to be sore tomorrow. Tasho let the lid off his bag in grand style. There wasn’t nearly enough room on the dancefloor for that set. Jonene was next with a classic set that made everyone remember why this party has been going strong for 13 years. Sean Dimitrie came on that with some funky jams as Tim Fuller added his vocal stylings on a quiet microphone in a cramped corner. Finally, Galen closed it out with a set of house tracks that kept the dancefloor full until they kicked us all out.

During the course of the party, I ran into old friends galore, including Corey, Alison, Krista, GlitterGirl (whom I haven’t seen in five years), Jay Allen, and others. I danced with lots of hot people and closed out out my New Year’s weekend in style.

The final tally over the last three days is nineteen hours on the hardwood. I’m sore, exhausted, deaf, and I cannot wait until next weekend.

Salted New Year

Well, it’s New Year’s Eve, my favorite holiday. After last night’s shindig, I was really amped up and ready to get my boogie on. So, about 9:30 this evening, I made my way northwards toward San Francisco.

Since I arrived shortly after 10, there was no line to get in. I met up with Kai, who came to check out the scene, and Patrick & Gigi — without whom there would be no party. Julius Papp was thumping the speakers hard and the crowd was gearing up and starting to grow. Vocalist Morrison added his smooth R&B vibe to Julius’ tracks. Jay-J followed, turning the faucet on all the way, with a ridiculously perfect set of house tracks that caused the crowd to swell to capacity.

David Harness followed up last night’s set with a mix of songs that made everybody flip completely out. By the end of David’s set, I was trying to figure out a way to dry out. My long lost friend, Ernie, turned up (let’s hang out more often, man). The music kept getting sweeter and sweeter, I kept getting sweatier and sweatier, and the countdown came and went. Frankie Feliciano closed us out with an absolutely fist-pumping set of beats that will echo in my ears until next New Year’s Eve.

Exhausted, I climbed into my car just this side of 5 am. 2006 is off to a good start!

Remedy

A few months ago, Remedy moved from DNA Lounge to Ruby Skye. I haven’t had a chance to check it out at the new venue, so I thought I’d close out 2005 with a three-day party weekend that includes Remedy.

A tropical winter storm has slammed into the Bay Area and dumped six inches of rain on us, so US 101 was treacherous this evening. I got to the venue, found the parking garage nearby full, and headed to another one about six blocks away. It was raining as I walked to the club, but it was unusually warm.

Joey Webb was spinning when I arrived. The sparse crowd hung back from the smallish dancefloor. David Harness followed him, playing the most mind-blowing set of Latin-flavored house music that I’ve heard in a long time. His mixing was flawless and his track selection fresh and energetic. Wow. With a full dancefloor, Paolo Dava erupted with a magnificent mix of house music that churned the dancers to a frenzy. It was a great time.

I’m not sure how often I’ll return to the parties at Ruby Skye. The dancefloor is fairly small, the only bottled water they sell is $5, and the sound system is incredibly loud. If you go, take ear plugs, because I didn’t. Still, the crowd was pretty, although a little more touristy than the ones at Mighty. I had a great time.