Jason: Podcasting by bicycle

Early this morning, I chatted with guitarist Gene Bertoncini for my weekly jazz interview show, The Jazz Session. Gene was teaching at the Tritone Jazz Camp at Nazareth College, a week-long camp for adult musicians who want to learn from the pros.

Gene Bertoncini (photo by Howard A. Gitelson)

Nazareth is about 8 miles from my house in the Ellwanger-Barry neighborhood, so I packed by Marantz PMD 660 flash recorder, headphones and two mics in one of my panniers and headed off. The clouds were very wrath-of-god, and a quick scan of the forecast showed lots of rain heading our way on the radar, so I wore my “breathable” Zephyr jacket for the trip. If by “breathable” they mean you’ll be able to expand and contract your lungs while wearing the jacket, then I agree with the description. If they mean that any air or heat can escape the jacket’s black-hole-like embrace, then I beg to differ. I was a puddle of sweat by the time I reached Nazareth. Luckily the trip took less time than I planned, so I cooled down in a coffee shop before the interview, and changed into my spare shirt.

That said, I was pleased to see that it was worth the extra money I paid for the Zephyr jacket with Full Irony Mode, which meant that wearing the jacket was the surest way to prevent rain. In fact, the only wet area was the inside of my jacket.

There’s been an interesting discussion of commuting clothes going on over at the blog Commute By Bike. I usually wear a cotton t-shirt and shorts with sandals or sneakers, but after today’s Perspire-A-Thon, I’m thinking I may pick up some sort of cheap running shirt or something like that — some material that wicks water away rather than multiplying it loaves-and-fishes style.