good.

I know a lot of the squad is involved one way or the other with giro, and I mean no disrespect to anyone, we all need to get paid.

It’s hard to turn down money. It’s hard to have to consider the ethical implications of where money comes from, especially when you are on the edge of slightly fringe industry trying to get your work or your art or your personality to more people.

But…

this needs to happen. Our (corrupt) government will not move on these issues. We can not rely on them to protect our children or us.

Consumer action is the only way to move things forward.

It’s a problem with bike stuff. There’s so much corny shit and barely anyone to pay for cool shit and one of the main companies that tries to reach out to the fringe happens to be owned by something shitty.

IDK , what do you do?

For Landlords it’s never really been an issue because we exist past the fringe of the fringe but for people involved in more mainstream/popular/normal aspects of cycling I understand the issue.

Sidenote:

Growing up in the hardcore/punk scene you learn a general distrust of anything from the mainstream.

Everything was made by the kids for the kids. Anytime slimy club owners or record execs got involved shit went south.

You want a pertinent example of this:

Jawbreaker.

The band everyone and their mom is fawning over right now.

In 1995 things were different.

It took them over 20 years to lose the baggage they acquired when signing to a major record label.

I can’t even remember what record label now. Like it matters…Or like it mattered back then really.

But I can tell you it killed the band. It lost them the support of many fans. It put them under a microscope.

And I love jawbreaker. Bivouac was/is one of my favorite records of that era.

The scene as a whole was not forgiving.

The post-nirvana audience they hoped to attract wasn’t having it either.

They got put into purgatory…until people remembered the music mattered more than the vehicle it was distributed through.

Maybe.

And I want to put up a Morrissey video right here, and then I know people hate Morrissey now more than they did in 1989.

and maybe rightfully so. He does say some dumb ass shit, but does that change the quality of the music?

Anyway fuck it it’s relevant.

If you went into REI or Performance bikes or something and saw some Landlords shit would that ruin Landlords for you?

If you opened a magazine you can get in Barnes and Noble and saw a Landlords article in it would you be bummed?

Would I be selling out?

These are questions I’ve tackled throughout the years.

We’re a crew right?

Landlords is some street shit. That’s where we live, that’s where we grew, that’s where we exist.

We’re mostly like minded individuals and I don’t want to let the crew down.

On the other hand it’s always been hard to keep this running as a labor of love.

Recently I’ve had to reorganize aspects of my life so that I can make money outside of this.

And I guess in the end all I really want to do is ride bikes and have fun.

Whatever notoriety we have has been enough to keep things going.

I can’t see the point in trying to make things for a larger group of people when I can’t even understand how most people live.

Knowing we have crew on the streets all over the world was enough for me.

Me and Dan did shut it down one time before.

When the blog reached an end.

When we pulled the book out of print.

Now:

When the magazine is done at issue 13 is that the end of this?

I really can’t say.