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Two
wheels
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This is just about the
worst example of credible journalism. Matt Seaton decides couriers are
disappearing on a whim. How many years of articles on the same topic
does it take before journalists try to dig deeper?
He also makes it sound like Bufflao Bill is angrily opposed to the
fakenger phenonmenon but Bill is one of the few who defend them. Read
for yourself here.
By Matt Seaton
The Guardian, July 5, 2007
It used to be said that the largest political party anywhere was made
up of former communists, as membership seemed at one time to have been
a rite of passage for so many. No longer, of course. But the same could
perhaps be said of couriers, for if you hang out in cycling circles,
you will soon find yourself talking to a former bike messenger.
It is a trade with a high turnover. Not surprisingly since, for all the
romance, it is a dirty, dangerous and ill-paid way to make a living.
But - let's be honest - who among us after a particularly dreary day at
work has not cast an envious eye over the implied lifestyle of those
seemingly footloose riders.
The courier has always been cool. Sure, riding all day must be hard
graft, but then there is all the hanging out in city squares, shooting
the breeze with comrades. OK, they are slaves to their controllers, but
still they have the freedom of the road. Riding the wrong way up
one-way streets, fearless of cabs and vans, they are hip modern
highwaymen.
In Boston, New York and London, they pioneered the art of riding
fixed-wheel bicycles in city traffic. Trend-setters, they led where
others have followed. Not only are single-speed bikes a booming
sideline in bike shops, but a whole subculture of courier admiration
has grown up - the "fakenger", or fake messenger. These are
ride-alikes, dress-alikes, even go-to-the-same-pub-alikes - people who
are not couriers, but have bought into the look.
Imitation may be flattery, but not in the eyes of many bona-fide
couriers. The legendary "Buffalo" Bill Chidley has blogged angrily on
his courier scene-zine Moving Target about the phony messenger
phenomenon.
But the irony of all this may be, as my ex-messenger friend Paul was
telling me is that "it's a dying industry". More and more of the stuff
they used to deliver is now sent down cables digitally. What messengers
remain are increasingly from eastern Europe, willing to work on the
lower wages afforded by scarcer jobs.
So at the very moment courier culture reaches the apotheosis of its
expression, its reality is swept away by the remorseless churn of
technological and economic change. What was substance becomes mere
style. It is just as Karl Marx wrote: "All that is solid melts into
air." That would be the ex-communist talking.
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