Nothing fires up the machinery of reflection like loss and grief.
If you identify as a human being, and not simply a driver trying to rip through Cambridge as fast as possible to claim your next parking spot, then you feel something like loss and grief at news of the death of John Corcoran on Sept. 23.
The Newton resident was a husband, father of two Harvard students, and at that time was a cyclist who was killed by the driver of black Mercedes SUV along Memorial Drive. Killed on a sidewalk, of all places.
You feel grief with greater or lesser intensity in proportion to your powers of empathy and social proximity to the space of loss. Maybe you knew John Corcoran personally. Maybe you know his family from time spent together at school, at the office or church. Or maybe, like me, you have no point of contact other than being a local and understanding the paradoxical allure of cycling.
I’m a cyclist. “Avid,” as they say. Not enough free time to be the spandex-and-shades variety. I’m more like the lunch pail contingent, who depend on transportation by two wheels to get a job done.
What I was thinking in my moment of grief, feeling for a fellow cyclist, is the following: This job I do at Cambridge Day, writing up a weekly music column, would be impossible without a bicycle.
How do I get to the vast majority of the music shows I cover? By bike. For at least three reasons: time, expense and joie de vivre.
In short, I get where I’m going faster, cheaper and with greater joy by bike than any other form of transport, be it car, train or bus. Stand on the sidewalk along Massachusetts Avenue during rush hour as $250 bicycles whiz past $75,000 oversized luxury cars and trucks stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and you’ll see what I mean.
As long as this column relies on firsthand observation of the local music scene (and I can’t imagine any other way to write it), I’ll be relying on my two-wheel transport.
I am acutely aware of the dangers that come with sharing the road with car and truck drivers who don’t want to share the road with you and let you know as much through constant verbal abuse, aggravated honking, parking in the bike lane and roadway tactics that serve no other purpose than to bully, harass and endanger cyclists.
All that and I still want to get on my bike to see a show? It must be true what they say: “Bicycles deliver the freedom that auto ads promise.”
I do love riding my bicycle through the streets of Cambridge. But if a driver hits me one of these days and I go the way of John Corcoran, or Kim Staley, or Minh-Thi Nguyen, please don’t say “he died doing what he loved.” Say he died “needlessly.” Don’t use the passive voice or euphemisms to describe how reckless drivers murder cyclists and pedestrians. Put the murderers in jail. And use your political voice to build a future without predictable and preventable traffic deaths.
Hit this
Friday: Flake, Perfect Saturday, Dan Flashes, Regal Seagull (The Rockwell, Somerville)
Get To The Gig Boston presents an emo, emo rock and rock bill at The Rockwell, headlined by Wichita’s Flake. Blake Loggans is the bedraggled impresario steering this ship. Don’t be distracted by the goofball Instagram antics, Loggans is a canny composer with a great ear for ritual gestures of the genre. Flake’s released a string of singles in the past two years with flawless studio production, so let’s see how the sausage gets made live. Opener Regal Seagull brings a melodic hard rock inflection to the night.
Friday to Sunday: Honk! (Cambridge, Somerville)
You don’t need me to let you know Honk! is coming to town. You’ll find out for yourself when the sound of some 30 marching street bands comes floating through your window with the autumn breeze. The free-to-attend annual event attracts honkers from all over the world, celebrating their music and politics. Interactive activist activities will fill the Honk! schedule. Learn new ways to make art amplify your political voice. And don’t forget the parades, parades, parades, including the Sunday capper from Davis Square to Harvard Square. “Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes and Feet” from noon to 2 p.m.
Oct. 10: Joel Ross (Regattabar, Cambridge)
What is a vibraphone? Or what jazz vibraphonist Joel Ross dubs “vibes” for short? A percussion instrument with a series of tuned metal bars, played with mallets. Close cousins with the xylophone and marimba. When the bars are struck, they make a pleasant, fat-edged, spacey sound, like the sound of a teardrop falling into a secret Fremen water reservoir on the desert planet Arrakis. Very popular with the Space Age Bachelor set in the mid-20th century, and a staple in expanded contemporary jazz groups. Joel Ross will put the spotlight on this special instrument, no doubt highlighting tracks off his forthcoming album “Nublues.”
Live: Deerhoof and a thousand ukuleles
The veteran “boxy and harsh” indie rockers out of San Francisco landed at everyone’s favorite former army barracks on Wednesday for an evening’s entertainment. At this point in their 30-year career the veteran outfit doesn’t have much else to prove other than how much they rock. And they rock a lot.
The crowd was a mix of ages, with the meaty middle of the bell curve captured mostly by elder millennials. Deerhoof are legends, but they have not quite broken through generational barriers to the point that Gen Alphas, who might have never held a physical copy of music in their life, nonironically wear Deerhoof T-shirts the way they wear Nirvana, Metallica and Korn T-shirts. Give it 10 years.
A band with a 30-year discography can pull all sorts of rabbit out of the hat when it comes to constructing setlists. Obscure juvenilia? Classic hits? Newly released singles? Deerhoof’s most recent release “The Free Triple Live Album,” which includes hits from all throughout the discography, speaks to a Deerhoof that is eager to please – as long as what pleases you is Deerhoof. The set on Wednesday night was a medley of new and old, showcasing songs from their most recent studio album “Miracle-Level” along with classic throwbacks.
Washington, D.C.’s Ekko Astral opened the bill with a postpunk grind that sounds like it cut its teeth at hardcore shows before finding its artcore edge.
One final word about Arts at the Armory: On the fourth Wednesday of every month the Strummerville Ukulele Club (“where all are welcome”) sets up shop in the Rooted Cafe. Enter from the main lobby to discover a magical world of four-stringers leaning over their sheet music as the emcee leads the assembled faithful through selections from songbooks by the Beatles and sundry folk legends. The club was strumming away with the rock bands in the other room.
How about a Deerhoof cover? Seems like the opportunity for an unforgettable, one-night-only collaboration slipped through our fingers …
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
A stronger
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It’s sad that people have to worry about surviving trips through our area. Lives matter more than parking convenience or saving a few minutes.
We need safer streets—not just for cyclists, but for pedestrians too. The recent death of John Corcoran and the SUV hitting three pedestrians in Boston show that even walking on the sidewalk is dangerous.
Enough is enough. Driving convenience is not more important than people’s lives.
Bikers need to be more conscious of the roads laws. They ride fast thru red lights while pedestrians have a green light. Almost hitting pedestrians walking. Then they yell at walkers. There on the phone, ear buds, smoking plus scooters, skateboards, etc. Bikers need to b more respectful. And follow the rules! Bikers need to Look where there going. Not all but most ride fast and don’t pat attention!
Victim blaming is disgusting, @pmadey.
John Corcoran was a beloved father and husband. He was riding on the sidewalk and doing nothing wrong. Show some respect.
@pmadey Let me fix your comment:
*Drivers* need to be more conscious of the roads laws. They ride fast thru red lights while pedestrians have a green light. Almost hitting pedestrians walking. Then they yell at walkers.
Research shows that drivers break the rules *more often* than cyclists. The consequences are clear: Motor vehicles are hurting and killing people, not cyclists.
Motor vehicles kill about 5000 pedestrians in the US every year. Cyclists kill virtually no one.
John Cochran did nothing wrong. A car jumped onto the sidewalk and killed him.
Your response is that cyclists should be more careful???
@pmadey Last week in Boston, an SUV jumped the curb, hitting 3 pedestrians on the sidewalk and then smashing into a restaurant.
Do you think those pedestrians were at fault for not paying attention? What about the restaurant?
The intro is beautiful, thank you.