How about we start the week with a visual tale of contrasts?:

Seb kemp, the Englishman who is not a New Zealander, seen here having some downright summery looking fun on the Tallboy he has absconded with, somewhere down in Mexico. Kemp's being tight lipped about all the trail building he's been doing there, and won't spill the where or who of it, but we're working on plying some hard truths out of him sooner or later...

This, meanwhile, was the view from my handlebars yesterday, getting roosted by the dog on a ride that devoured a whole set of brakes and a chain and a cassette in less than two hours. The dog also picked up about 20 ticks, as of my last count this morning when we found a tick on the bed. Ahhh, winter. At least the weathermen weren't having us on this time.

Still, complaining about the weather is pretty light duty. It could be way worse. It could be Haiti.

Speaking of which, way to go, Pat Asshat Robertson:

As much as we try to avoid politickin’ here, ol’ Pat deserves a swift kick in his wizened old nutsack for that pile of spew. As it is, people with bigger brains and better senses of humor are making lemonade from his dipshittery (yes, I just made that word up). It would behoove the astute reader to not only click on that link, but to scroll down and read the entire list of questions and answers in order to brighten his or her day, and then forward that there ebay auction as far and wide as possible.

Tuesday update time – it appears that the charity previously associated with the link above (which no longer works, by the way) asked that they be dis-associated from said auction, which made the auction get taken down off ebay. But, like an good perseverant practitioners of voodoo, they bounced back with a new auction. Let’s have a big round of applause for the Pat Robertson Voodoo Doll! We’ll see how long this one lasts…

Back on the home front, word is out concerning registration for the 2010 Downieville Classic. February 19th, folks, 8.p.m sharp. The race to get into the race is becoming more exciting than the race itself. Expect a massive outpouring of virtual sour grapes on mtbr.com immediately follow the near-instant filling up of the All-Mountain race. You can please some of the people some of the time… We’re stoked regardless, since the 2010 event marks the return of Santa Cruz bikes to the role of title sponsor. Gotta say, it felt pretty damn strange being away from our home away from home for a year.

Amazing what an hour or two can do. First pic, everything nice and mellow, looks like good people having a good time. Then there's the next one, several beers later, as Hightower comes undone. All fun and games until the beercase hat comes out... photos courtesy of the strangest angel of all

We’ll wrap this up with a trio of not so related video moments of zen. First, some more lucid dreaming from Chris Duncan. We do not know what the map inside his mind looks like, but it’s probably not anything like yours or mine:

Then, there’s this. We are not worthy:

And finally, this. When hipsters commit, they mean it, man: