My friend Travis tells me that you're involved with the dreaded Hanx. I'm putting together some info about the illustrious C.H.U.N.K. 666 in Portland (excerpt from the rough draft enclosed), as well as other bike gangs. I'd like to be able to warn the world about Hanx, as well as inspire the next generation of bike hooligans. So maybe you or someone you know wants to contribute something? Loose pictures or words would be fine, whole articles or rants or ultimatums, great. Maybe write a letter if you need time. Hope to hear about you all in any case.
Megulon 5
PO Box 20654
Seattle WA 98102
America
You asked for feedback... that I can do:
1. It would be good for business if you included subscription
information in your address box inside the front cover. (Why is
the address in Bicycling different from the one in your
issue #3?
2. The first article I read was "San Francisco Messengers
Lost..." I was appalled. Having spent a lifetime in the life
insurance business, I say down and did some quick math:
39% drug overdoses
29% fire, accident, motor vehicle
11% suicide
11% AIDS
5% murdered
5% heart attack/stroke.
This among a population I'd judge to be under the age of 40.
It was all far beyond my experience and comprehension. I did not
understand. Then I read every word in the entire issue. Now maybe
I understand... just a little. Yours is a different world than
mine.
3. The only song title I recognized was "Ghost Riders in
the Sky" by Vaughn Monroe, popular when I was a senior in
high school in Minnesota in 1949.
4. Your audience speaks a language different than mine. I needed
a translation guide. Some of the slang/idiom I could deduce, some
I never did get.
5. I thought cycling is unfriendly in Santa Fe. My SF, however,
is child's play compared to your SF. I ride 5000+ miles per year,
and have occasionally been harassed wherever I've lived, but never
with the frequency and severity you all seem to face daily.
Next time I'm in your town, I'll look you up and we'll have a beer and talk it all over. If you ever get back this way, do the same. God bless!
George
You are doing a fabulous job. There were three things in there that I have really been needing the codes, the 'zine addresses, and the labor stuff by Troublemaker. Not to mention I was greatly entertained and moved by everything else. Wonderful! I read it cover to cover in one sitting and I wasn't even on standby.
You are going to be an important woman in the mess world in the next few years should you decide to keep Da going. Is there any subscription deal you might work out? Name the price and I'll get you subscribers. I tried to do the same for Iron Lung out of Seattle, but he's been crapping out lately. He has a fine mag but I think he might let it die. He's sick of it.
Just think, America, the kind of mess networking you could get if you go national! This is how we start an uprising. This is how we get a "critical mass" to draw the world's attention to our dismal working conditions.
Love, Lambchop
Here is the most recent issue of "The Iron Lung," Seattle's messenger paper. It's our hope that we can swap future issues regularly and start to get a good pool of news and ideas for everyone to read or reprint. I think as long as each piece is fairly credited to its "home paper" and its creator, the benefits are pretty awesome, from gaining a wider audience for our contributors and distribution for our papers on down the line to having something to pad out the occasional wimpier issue. Hope you enjoy the "lung." Drop us a line and tell us what you think of the mag and the above ideas. Peace to you and yours.
The Iron Lung