Corneille on Cedar Street

So I bought a bike. A rusty, thirty year old, brown bicycle.
North Berkeley -where I am residing at the moment- looks as close to a real American suburb as I've ever been. Front yards, back yards, cars in the front and Vote Obama signs everywhere. Thank god.
Right on the corner of my street, there is a small store. The entire outside of the building is painted white with blue lines, sprayed to look like clouds. Before I walked in I had no idea of the kind of store it was, but walking in made it pretty clear. The entire place was stuffed to the max with old guitars, music posters, and guitar cases on one wall. I walked in because a sign outside said 'Used bikes $50. Peddle, or you'll have to paddle!'. Apparently I hadn't even taken the time to read the fine print on the sign. The bikes were not actually sold in store, but by the owner, who was not in town. Try again tomorrow.
I walked in the next day, introduce myself to the owner, who by this time had already given me a call about my inquiry on bicycles. Whereas my name may be the equivalent of a mean pepperspray, this guy was named Fat Dog. Nice. Anyway, so we found out within minutes that I am staying with an old friend of his down the street, and that he has been to Amsterdam many times. He even had a November 2008 poster from the Bimhuis on the ceiling of his store. How weird!
An hour later, I had visited his house. The garden was the equivalent of a junkyard, and in the back was Rico. Missing several teeth, this friendly guy fixes up bikes from parts and lives in the garage. Inside the house I admired several paintings from Amsterdam (Fabrice, Corneille) and Fat Dog had told me about his summers in Holland, in a so called 'hippie sandwich' between what he called my Dutch sisters. Thanks. Aunts probably would have been a more appropriate name, dude.
But. I bought myself a bike, I only paid half up front, and Fat Dog was friendly enough to drive me into town to buy a lock.

Here she is!



And here's a link to the quirky store down the block...