The Mad Bull’s Blog, Version 3

It might not be way up there in “The Incredibles”/”Finding Nemo”/”Toy Story” stratosphere, but the charming “Cars” is nevertheless a thoroughly pleasant way to mark Pixar Animation Studios’ 20th anniversary.

I took MBJr to see ‘Cars’ last night and I have to agree with the sentiments of the reviewer. It was a great movie! Might not displace Shrek, but it was great. Its good for adults too, so even if you don’t have a little nipper who is twisting your arm to take them to it, do go see it.

By the way, the town in which most of the action in the movie is set, Radiator Springs, seems to be in Arizona, right there by the Grand Canyon. Whooiee, even in the cartoon the scenery is breathtaking, much less what it would be in real life.

I saw a little thing on the Travel Channel recently which featured the Grand Canyon! Seems that there are a lot of things to do there too, not just look at the scenery. For instance, you can get involved in all of the same watersports there that you can do here! Who would have thought, huh?

Now, I was sent to Arizona on business once, Phoenix to be exact and I didn’t go check out the Grand Canyon that time, but one of these fine days, I would like to go there! Wanna come?

Speaking of ‘Cars’ and car racing, over this weekend I watched a motorbike race. I was waiting on a football match on ESPN and the bike race was on, so I said, “I think I will watch it.”. People, bike racing is more exciting to watch than car racing! I think so anyway. Why is that? Because it is so effing dangerous! It seems to me that they have crashes in almost every race, man! Excitement galore! This race I watched was no exception! First of all they had this small winding road as a track, one where it was a major feat just to get by another bike, and remember, these were bikes! They don’t take up a lot of space!

Anyway, one guy who was way back in the pack crashed early in the race, but also, the guy who was leading had some issues. He lead the race, most of the way, then he went off the track and the bike slid with him, etc…. he got back up really quickly and got back into the race, and he fought his way back past the two bikes that had passed him. He was now on the final lap, and the guy in second place started to press up on him from behind. In his effort to hold the guy off, he made a mistake and he and the bike went kin-poop-a-lick! (he and the bike somersaulted, over and over…

The guy in second place won the race, and the guy who had led it all the way, he didn’t finish. Luckily, he didn’t hurt himself too much, (He got up and walked away from the crash, though his bike wasn’t so lucky). Very exciting stuff though! Personally, I think those bike racers are very brave and a little bit insane! You have to be courageous and / or insane to be putting your knees down to the tarmac like this guy does below:

Also, it takes bravery to continue when you see other riders wiping out around you, IMHO. (click here to see some crash pictures to get an idea of what I mean.) At the same time, I think that there must be different types of courage.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. Back when I was about twenty two or so, Natty went to Florida to school. I had to entertaim myself alone in Jamaica for a year! I started to tour the streets with my high school bredrin, Crazy Eddie. One night, he and I decided to link up with some of his bredrins from work for a drink at the Grogge Shoppe, by Devon House. Including Crazy Eddie and I, there were six guys and one girl at our table. All of these guys worked for a place that taught student pilots to fly. The girl also worked there, and she was the girlfriend of one of the guys, lets call him Mike. I didn’t much like Mike, he was a bit of an asshole, but prior to that night, I never knew how much! Click the link below to read the rest of this post nuh?

So we were sitting there having drinks. Suddenly we saw two guys and a girl passing our table on the way out. The girl with these two guys was beautiful! (she came in second or third in a past Miss Jamaica competition, only I can’t remember if she was in the Miss Jamaica Universe or the Miss Jamaica World competitions). Of course, we all knew who she was, and though the guys at my table didn’t know the guys she was with, I knew one of them. I used to play football with him in Aylsham every Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, as they approached, one of the guys at my table said jokingly (to the people at my table), “Whats a pretty girl like that doing walking with two such ugly dudes when so many eligible, single guys are sitting at this table?”. He was really joking, because her boyfriend, who was one of the guys she was with, was quite a handsome fellow, and his family was pretty well off, to boot! He was ‘more eligible’ than any of us at our table!

Anyway, you know how it is when assholes and alcohol are joined! Asshole Mike waited until the two guys and the girl were right by our table and Mike said something about the girl being a whore because she was with two guys. He said it quite loudly too, so that the three of them could hear. They continued walking past and I said to Mike, “What the fuck is that in aid of! If it was my girlfriend you had said that about, I woulda bruck up your ra$$!”. I guess he felt that there was safety in numbers so he could be as crass as he wanted to be.

Anyway, after taking a few steps past us, the two guys turned back. They realised the number differential between our two groups but they decided that they had to do something about this unprovoked slight to the girl they were with.

The guy I knew spoke to me first as they approached the table. “Mad Bull, what are you doing hanging out with such a bunch of pussies?”. I replied, “Vaughn, I had nothing to do with what this asshole said, and if you decide that you have to bruck up his ra$$, I won’t take any part to help him out. As far as I am concerned, he is on his own!”.

Vaughn and his friend had reached right up to our table at this point. Vaughn said, ” And what do the rest of you say?”. One by one, the other men at the table said that they didn’t agree with what Mike had said, and they backed out of any fight that might take place because of what he said. As they spoke, Mike began to look like a cornered rat! He was in a panic.

After everyone had abandoned Mike, Vaughn turned to him and said, “So, pussyhole, how you coulda say such a thing to a lady! If you don’t apologise to her immediately, we are going to beat the shit out of you!”. Mike said, “I wasn’t talking to her!”. Vaughn said, “So who were you talking to? It could only be this woman sitting at the table with you then, because there are no more women anywhere around!”. Mike said, “Yes, I was talking to her!”.

We all stared at him, aghast! This was his woman he was talking about, you know!

Vaughn said, “So you were calling this woman sitting at your table a whore then?“. Mike said, “Yes.”. Vaughn said, “Alright.”. Then he turned to the girl at our table and said, “You look like you are keeping the wrong company, you know. If I were you, I would stay as far away from this idiot as I could.”. He and the other guy then walked off, rejoined the soon-to-be beauty queen and they left.

Mike’s girlfriend said, “Goodnight guys, I think I am going home.”, and she got up and left. Shortly after, Mike got up and left as well… I don’t think their relationship lasted longer than two weeks after that incident!

The rest of us, we went to a night club and got wasted and had fun.

What an asshole Mike was though? He was so scared of getting beat up that he dissed his own girlfriend! If I had painted myself into the same corner, I would have apologised to the girl or I would have taken my licks like a man! At least, I think I would have…

The thing is, Mike, though cowardly in that instance, is quite courageous in others! As I said earlier, it takes a brave man to ride those super bikes at such high speeds, in such close proximity to other bikes! It takes courage to corner so fast, and to be putting your knees so close to the road. It takes courage to be whizzing along in races like that, with accidents happening all around you! About a year after that incident, Mike started to race his bike at Dover. He was fearless and he was also quite skillful, and in no time at all, he moved through the ranks, quickly becoming the champion rider in his class! I remember watching a race he took part in, and when he was coming up behind a rider to lap him, the rider took a bad spill! Mike had to throw his bike to one side, and he barely missed crashing into the downed rider and wiping out himself! You’d think that would put the fear of God into him, wouldn’t you? Not one rass! Mike kept the throttle twisted all the way back and he went on to win that race!

After the race was over, I can remember thinking to myself, “How does a guy who was so afraid to get beat up put his life on the line in these bike races?”. Thats why I say that there must be different types of bravery! What do you all think?

Tags: General //