First off, can I say that Nigel Sylvester was wearing possibly the single most inappropriate piece of headgear ever in the history of man?

The Mama of Mama’s B&B talking to Mssr. Sylvester

It’s JULY, in GEORGIA and dude’s wearing a BLACK LEATHER BASEBALL CAP.  It could only be more weather inappropriate if it were an Elmer Fudd style hunting cap. Still, it’s easy to see why people are standing in line to give Nigel money.  Kid is the definition of hustle and he presents himself as both professional and relateable to his target audience.  The old saying is that “it’s called the music BUSINESS for a reason, a lot of people forget that.”  That goes for BMX, too.  A lot of people ride well enough to be “pro,” not nearly as many can sell themselves.

Other than that, some quick hits.

• At 4:55 everyone started asking “where are they?”  Beat me, but I pointed out that you were dealing with a group of BMXers, at least one who was Black.  So, you had BMXers legendary punctuality, mixed with the possibility of CP Time.  Then I had to explain to Chuck what “CP Time” is.
• Ratkid was rechristened Ratman at some point.  He does not own a VCR and yet had to buy Head First (I think) on VHS, because it was there.  Vern Smillie then spent like 20 minutes trying to get him into the system.  You can tell she doesn’t spend much time in the store anymore.  Also, I think Ratkid was flirting with her.  Ratkid also broke his chain after his first hit.  I did offer to buy him a new one as he was having a bit of a breakdown, but he said he had a spare, he mostly just hated his bad luck.  Oh yeah, dude was a block from a bike shop fixing his bike by slamming it into stuff.  Old habits die hard.
• Dave Belcher cannot ride a unicycle.
• The cops were confused
  
  No, seriously cop rolled by at like 3 miles an hour looked at the set up, looked at the crowd.  Looked at the setup again.  Looked at the crowd again.  Drove away.
• This is where I note that it is, in fact, illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in Buford, GA and that the owner of the barber shop next door to Mama’s hates, with an undying passion, the fact that people test ride their bikes past his shop, occasionally on the sidewalk.  He probably would have been even less happy that there was a bike demo set up in the parking spaces in front of his shop.
• The demo did seem to do it’s job as I saw several kids leave with new parts on their bikes.  Devon should get an extra sheckle in his allowance this week for setting this up.
• The box was built to specs, the specs where just a little…ambitious.  It took a while for everyone to get used to it, but once they did (and once they put a kicker in front of it, it was all good.)
  (This shot, pre-kicker)
• No, he really does talk like that, but he’s also a nice guy.
  
  I just spent a second talking to Glenn about Factory (I love Factory, but for the love of all that’s holy, can someone film something some place else.  Just once) and the half gajillion skateparks in Gwinnett County and how that’s getting a lot of old people back into riding and skating just as weekend warriors.
• The line of the day, “I just went to Best Buy yesterday and said ‘give me one of those digital joints.’”
• 
  This is a smith to table.  I managed not to capture the smith or the table.  I think it takes talent to do that.
• Wait, Vern has a tattoo?
• “Doesn’t Devon have an exploded knee?” Yes, he also managed to win the impromptu long jump competition with an ACL that’s more “ACL pieces.” It’s notable that in this picture, the ramp you see is not the kicker he hit, which was about three feet to the right of it and that, had he gone in a straight line…
  Also, maybe I shouldn’t have shot this from behind a stop sign.  Either way, a dude in the crowed walked it off, 28 feet.
• You know, you’d think that a Chocolate would be brown….
  That would be Ride Bikes’ Robert Ashton pointing and shooting at Nigel’s double peg to 180 bar.
• You know how I complained about DJ Metrognome at Twilight a couple of years ago?  If not, it went something like this.  After showing up late (due to traffic) there was a miscommunication as to what he was supposed to do, so after packing up his gear Mister Metrognome found out that he was being paid to still DJ, so he did what any self respecting DJ would do.  He connected his iPod to the PA and blasted a series of songs who’s lyrical content was “Nigganigganigganigganigganiggafuckshitfuckfuckdamnshitnigganigga” to an audience filled with 3 year olds.Today, realizing that music might help the demo, Katy grabbed the Mama’s PA and Eric Miller volunteered his iPhone after everyone else basically was like “nahhh” when asked to pull out their iPods  Eric then gave me his iPhone and said, “here, pick some rap.”  This was like giving a three year old a loaded .45.  The hell do I know about rap?  I know, I know, it’s hard to believe, but as a Black man I have absolutely, positively no interest in hip-hop.  Still, going through Eric’s iPhone I saw Birdman & Lil’ Wayne, which I figured was probably not a good choice.  Then I saw Jay-Z, which I was rolling the dice on.  On the one hand probably bad, on the other hand enough radio hits that it’s possible that Eric, who I think works or worked at a church, might have the clean version.

  “Nigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigganigga.”

  I was in Buford, GA.  Someone was screaming the “n” word over a P.A.  I should have been mortified, and I was, for exactly the opposite reasons.  I’m pretty sure I saw a 7 year old, White girl burst into flames.  The Mrs. was like “can’t you change that?”  No, I live an “i” free life, even touching an iPhone made my skin crawl, I have no idea how to use it and no desire to learn.  So, yeah at some point “Let Me Feel Your Tounge Ring” came on, but that was NOT my fault.

Anyway, it is late and I have a long day of something or other tomorrow.  More pictures coming soon.

Mama’s is at
123 W. Main St.
Buford, GA 30518

I may be able to pull myself away from buying tile long enough to stop by.