Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride

February 27, 2012

OPERATION RECONCILIATION Feb. 27, 2012
OCC builds a bike for Veterans Airlift Command and PJD finishes a bike for One Call Concepts. Then, more determined than ever to reconcile with Mikey and Junior, Senior invites Mikey to join him at a painting class.

Last week, Senior’s mother died and he was very upset by the lack of reaction by his sons. Vinnie was the lone person from the Paulie side of the divide to offer his condolences to Sr.

9:01- Jason walks into Senior’s office with drawings for a Veterans Airlift Command wounded warriors bike, with a Purple Heart theme. The way he explained it to Senior, it was like Sr. never heard of it before. Who is running that company? Or rather, who set up that shot for television? Anyway, I’ve said it in recent recaps, Jason is getting more and more freedom and independence in that company. That will be their downfall.

PJD is finishing up the OCC bike. No, that’s not a typo, they are building a bike for One Call Concepts. Forgive me for reusing their lame joke from last week.

9:05- we see Mikey’s Gallery of Bad Finger Paint Art. Mikey is announcing that he is losing weight to raise money for a leukemia charity. Good for him, quite honestly. Not only is he near-morbidly obese, he is 350 pounds,  but it is a good charity. Of course, does anyone believe Mikey will lose much? Anything?

So from 9:01 to 9:08 the show has focused on Jason and Mikey. Can it go anywhere but up from here?

Things take a turn for the better, when Rick, always a professional, takes us through the build of the Veterans Airlift Command bike. He certainly is not the only guy at OCC who knows bikes, but is there a better front man? Senior needs to take Rick along on some of the customer meetings to make OCC look good. I know I said Rick takes us through the build, but really, it was about 3 minutes of build. This is not much of a show about building bikes anymore. If Rick would grin like a moron, put stupid amounts of gel in his hair, act like a pampered obnoxious brat who knows nothing about bikes and insist on saying “motor-sickle” he’d get more screen time. Kissing butt should help too. (Not that I am describing any particular Jason around the shop.)

After the break, Rick took us through another couple of minutes of fabrication. From about 9:08 to 9:15, including a commercial break, the bike is nearly fabricated. And speaking of fabricating, it was pointed out that Jason’s design was nice to look at, very hard to build. The parts are heavy and hard to machine. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone who knew how to build a bike had some say in the design process?

Senior, in an attempt to reconcile, invited Mikey to come to his house and meet wounded veterans and an artist.  “I really do miss him.”

It isn’t a bad idea, they won’t be alone and there will be things going on to keep them distracted from their problems. I’m already on record as saying that Mikey is the bigger jerk here. No matter what wacko condition he put on a meeting, no matter what silly thing he had his father do, he always found a reason to chicken out. Even if the promos did not give it away, there is no way I’d believe Mikey would man up and go. He discussed it with Vinnie and of course, Mikey was suspicious and uncomfortable. (Really, anything to not go.) Vinnie advised him that it would be a strange situation and said Mikey should not go. I think Vinnie was wrong but if it was not Vinnie, it would be Paulie, or his blind assistant, or some random barking dog giving him a reason not to go. As my brother just said, Mikey refuses to get out of his own way.

And not only did he stay away, he didn’t even give his father the courtesy of a reply.

So the OCC crew set  up their easels and did their best to paint an eagle. Hey, an art project! This is perfect for Jason, the big “drawer” at OCC, right? Wrong, he wasn’t there. I guess he wouldn’t do so well without his computer.

Mikey, however, was right in his element painting in his studio with some children from the charity. If nothing else, he is great with kids. But when you consider that the kids’ art was about as good as Mikey’s, that tells the story right there.

Forty minutes in, and for a program titled “Operation Reconciliation” there has been very little attempt at reconciliation. And in teh next twenty minutes, don’t expect much more.

Just before the commercial break we saw the finished OCC Veterans Airlift Command bike and with an eagle head for the headlight and claws on the forks and a great paint job, it was a very nice bike.

The One Call Concepts also had a great paint job, by Nub as usual. Throughout the show I wasn’t too crazy about the bike but seeing it all together has started to change my mind. I like it, though I wasn’t too wild about the green.

At 9:57, we get Sad Senior, unhappy that his sons won’t talk to him. Don’t be fooled, last week he badmouthed his kids to Donald Trump and outright lied about how Paulie treated him.

For next week, Discovery has not listed a description, only a title.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior March 5th, 2012
Rick’s News

Let the rampant speculation begin.

The commercial, however, told a different story. As part of the settlement, Paulie got the Black Widow bike. Next week he takes it apart, restores it, and makes one little change. The OCC logo? Gone.

We’ll get into it next week but he is making a mistake.

Tags: American Chopper, Apprentice, black widow bike, bmj2k, Cody, Free Rick, Helen, Jason, Jr, Mike Ammirati, Mikey, Mr. Blog, Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride, Mr. BTR, Nub, OCC, One Call Concepts, Orange County choppers, Paul Jr, Paul Junior Designs, Paul Sr, PJD, Pohl, Rick, Sr, Teutul, Trump, Veterans Airlift Command, Vinnie