Badlands

The scene was Great Neck EQ. And this night hatched from Tripp’s brain was to have an all Bruce Springsteen choreography   featuring many of his signature songs. A seed of a great idea, and I am sure we will see more single artist play lists because tonight was a huge success.  Tripper can fill any room and with The Boss blaring from the speakers we had energy full tilt and one of the top Rock n Roll artists of the last 40 years in our ears.  

I can only dream that our hero might consent to an all Erasure or New Order or even those blue-eyed soul men Hall & Oates.  Well not likely but this night was a welcome alternative to the American Top 40 and a musical treat for me and judging by the three dozen riders who were lip synching most of the lyrics a good time was had by all. 

On my way out I looked in on Peter Rothermel who has this club running like a Swiss timepiece. This young man in my view is headed up the corporate ladder because his leadership skills cannot be contained on the local level and this corporation has to have their eyes glued on this man because he is a natural born executive.  

Tripper this was a stroke of genius and I am glad to call you my friend.  

Uncle Tripp

Really? Uncle Tripp?  Never in a fortnight would I have considered Tripper to be an avuncular figure. But here he was this morning putting it out there to ask Uncle Tripp. It was a gesture from him to let us know how approachable he is but we all know that there is no one that’s easier to sidle up to than Tripp Doherty.   Whether we want to ask him to raise the temp, lower the temp, play more rock less Disco (Michelle 4 names just raised her hand) he’d gladly do it for us.  

He was full of little Zen featurettes today, which I thoroughly enjoyed because he’s always accentuating the positive and downplaying any negativity. There is just no room for the word No in the Lavender Palace when he takes center stage. Just no room. We lock out the outside world in our hour and I find myself letting go easily of any thought of what might be or what has already taken place. When I walk out of the CS Tripp usually has me dancing to Que Sera Que Sera. *  

Tripp wanted us to know that in his Thursday Great Neck 6:30 PM edition the music will feature Bruce Springsteen exclusively. So if you’re an ardent fan like him bring your shoes up to the town with no soul: Great Neck. Maybe it has a soul now but 30 years ago it was the land of parking meters and parking tickets. Yours truly will be there as my assignment is  what else write a story. I happen to like Springsteen very much especially his 1980 The River. I can still hear Dennis Elsas the DJ from the now defunct  WNEW FM  uncontrollably playing one song after another like popping corn in a microwave.  

I just wanted to praise Julia and Melissa on either side of me today as they provided all the puissance this sexagenarian could handle.  And I wanted to thank Melissa publicly again for Saturday morning watching over me as I got into an A-Fib event that just wouldn’t let go.  PC (Peter Charles-love this guy) offered to drive me home but in my defiance said no. And no thanks to Sean one of our illustrious trainers asking me if I was dying, as I was prone on the stretch mat.  Just kidding Sean I know you meant well.  

Uncle Tripp? Uh yeah no.  

*Doris Day: http://www.youtube.com

The Message of Love

Okay I started to write about Tripp and ended chatting it up about my cats so here it is my entry for Friday’s Tripp and a ½.  I love Friday’s and I love Friday’s in Tripper land. How he gets so pumped up every single edition is beyond me. There are times when I see even the best of us kicking out of a sprint because it’s just too much or not being able to get up in #3 when the last hill had us sucking wind. There is no one like Tripp Doherty at least not in the Lavender Palace anyway. He is a two-time triathlon man (training for his 3rd) and there is no let up if you follow his call.  

And what’s with this 7:15 class? It’s drawing a full studio every time.  I lament about it though 45 minutes is just too short because it’s over in two shakes of a lamb’s tail and had it not been for the 30-minute stint I did in the 6 am I would have felt well cheated.  In the dawn class we had the Spiegel family with mater pater and daughter.  Lori Spiegel. You gotta love her she is one of the kindest, thoughtful woman I know and always real nothing phony about her. But more than that anyone is lucky to call her their friend. 

Tripp you gave us The Message of Love. Keep it up my friend. 

The Pretenders: Message of Love (Who are the Pretenders Jack?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LDS9L5q_G4 That’s who.  

Planet X

When Tripp referenced Close Encounters of the Third Kind this morning he asked would you go? I answered GONE!  I’m ready to blow this town and take off for another galaxy. Do they have spin classes there? If there is I can blog about aliens and ruffle their feathers if they have any. 

Today I also answered any question about Tripp’s class being any less intense than any other EQ instructor. In the most resounding way it’s as tough as you want to make it. I made up my mind that I was going all out and nothing was going to be left on the table except parsley and at rides end “Jack the River” had a puddle touching the back stanchion of the bike in front of me. If we put our minds to it the ride can be anything we want it to be. So let’s not hear any whispers that someone is tougher than anyone else.  It’s just not so.  

I took a Tripp and a ½ today and I just felt like I needed it after missing two classes in the past 7 days and it was just what the Dr. ordered as I was spent but not exhausted. I loved the tributes for Robin Gibb and Donna Summer who got taken from us at what are still tender ages. A life shortened by nature not by choice always makes me think differently than one by drugs or alcohol. And I know full well about that difference.  

Planet X might just be the place for me. 

The Personification of Energy

Although this story has been told time and again the Doherty Machine this morning had the “Danger High Voltage” sign lit up like a neon sign in Times Square. I was in bike #1 and Michelle four names 4 rows back exclaimed it was “Amazing Energy”. I had to agree and although Tripper’s gesticulations were familiar the electricity was amped up with an even higher wattage.  

I love a jammed packed CS and the Lavender Palace at 7:15 am on Friday carries us into the weekend like no other day of the week and with Tripp steering the episode rockets by faster than we rotate our Schwinn magnetic wheel. He was as per usual cranked and the cacophony of studio voices echoed symmetry of intensity. 

Tripp asked me to remind you that at 11 am every Tuesday that he leads a running expedition on the Greenbelt Trail on Jericho Turnpike of various distances. All are welcome regardless of your experience whether you are just starting out or are training for a marathon or triathlon. 

Controversy

In over 1600 posts in the last two years spread over my 11 blogs I have rarely stirred controversy like I have now done twice here. Some might remember my entry titled: My Wood Was Wet.  I almost didn’t hear the end of that because some thought that I was making a sexual reference and those that whined about it apparently didn’t read the story because there was nothing suggestive in that post except the ones in their own imaginations.  

I had some people that told me to take the previous post down and by 2-1 who   said leave it up. I don’t cater to popularity polls nor do I ever say anything negative about anyone I write about. If I had a negative thought I just keep it to myself.  Some said this week I was mean spirited others said it was authentic others were simply nonplussed. I write from my heart and if someone wants to view what I write as hurtful don’t read. No one is forcing you to come here.  Tripp is my friend (that was the title of the post-duh) and I have answered his call many many times over the past two years when he has summoned me. I did those things because I wanted to and there is no one that wants to see him succeed more (outside of woman #1) than me, Jack.  If you can’t see that well I’m sorry you feel that way. 

So controversy has a silver lining it gets people talking and for me I have found out who is a friend and who is just an acquaintance. A most valuable lesson learned. 

P.S. My apologies to Carol Silva I can’t write ten times better than she.  

My Friend Tripp Doherty

I have been remiss in not posting in Tripp’s blog of late the main reason being is I guess I am just running out of fresh ideas to try and captivate you my readers. When I think about spin now in the quiet of my mind I confess to still be enchanted with Kristen’s class because it’s filled with didacticisms I love. I don’t know her intimately I don’t have her cell phone I don’t text her but I don’t need to she is someone I respect and is a woman that takes extreme pride in what she does and she loves what she does because let’s face it she’d be out of here by now if she didn’t really love it.  

Tripp however is my friend that I have grown to love over these past two years. He is like the brother I never had. I also will admit that he’s pissed me off at times like when he handed me what Carol Silva wrote about him. My ego tells me I write ten times better than Carol Silva for Chrissakes.  And I know that it’s the recognition he craves God no one knows that better than I do as I often daydream that a magazine editor will discover me and ask me to write for them or my biggest fantasy that Kelly Ripa walks in the Lavender Palace one day and asks: Where’s Jack?  

Frank loves what he does too but I think for him it’s the love he feels people have for him in the rooms that drives him. Its great fuel too because the more love he feels the greater the energy and the greater the energy the more excitement everyone feels. And excitement inspires us to do things we never thought we could and that to me is Tripp’s greatest gift making people believe that they can do anything they set their minds to.  

And I love Tripp because he makes me feel like he needs me and there isn’t a better thing a friend can do than make them feel needed.  I love the fuss he makes over me whenever I take his class and I also know that I am going to catch hell fire from him about this post. 

Coming Together

Any controversy that may have existed as to the most emotional spin class that I have ever taken in my short tenure was ended today in the 8:30.  The pulse at the outset was high I could feel it and if there was a meter to measure Human Energy it would have hit TILT.  Some of my favorites were in attendance: Mary McCann, The Twins, Lisa, Marcy, Maureen and Randi in the back row. These friends can be counted on to lift our spirits no matter what the day has brought us.  

The class was full at 55 and about 10 minutes in the whole course of the ride changed and brought us together in unison like I have never experienced before. Jessica had taken her place on an empty bike because of the 5-minute rule, which states that if you are not on your Schwinn 5 minutes before class commences you will forfeit your bike. It was now ten minutes in and a young woman and let me just call her “Big Brazil” by the detail on her tights started a confab with Jessica and we all knew what was happening and the net of it was that Jessica being the good sport she was got off and gave her bike to the late comer. Now it’s easy to lay judgment on someone we don’t know and call them egocentric and selfish but far be it for us to sit in the court of public opinion. Let’s focus instead on the fact that throughout the confab while the music played Jessica never changed her countenance, which was a broad smile. Some of us like me for instance might not have taken too kindly to be summarily unseated and I know personally since I had lost a bike under similar circumstances about a month prior. Jessica took it without so much as a shrug of her shoulders and as she started her exit the CS erupted with a sigh of indignation. However all was not lost Tripper to the rescue as he gave up his bike to Dr. Jessica. Pandemonium broke loose and he lifted the room single handedly. We have come together before but not like this. Just like Mary McCann from a week ago Jessica displayed the élan of yet another you want in that foxhole should the need arise. This is no act lady and gents this is authentic and the 8:30 will always carry a memory I shall not forget. 

More on this story here:

http://jackbriant.blogspot.com/2011/05/dark-side.html

P.S.

Projection is no more than speculation guessing with invisible ink. 

http://innerknockings.blogspot.com/