When the first Academy Awards were held, did they ever think it would become such a big event?

The first gala was held in 1929 at the Roosevelt Hotel and felt a lot more loose like the Golden Globes than the hard to meet expectations of the Oscars today.

This is a brave new world for me launching these awards because I don’t have a clear direction of where this is headed.

All I know is that I have a camera and I record stuff.

Pretty much, I have plenty of misgivings from bad drivers to post every time I ride.

 

This lady was a late entry.

 

Of course, do enough of it and somethings will stick out more than others, even if that isn’t your goal.

The toughest part of starting a new tradition was actually choosing a name.

“Douchebag Award” seemed simple and straightforward, but anyone could have come up with that, which is why I kept returning to it.

I decided to look outward to at least have some linkage with LA even though it might involve some level of obscurity.

CiclaValley was not a large fan of Michael Douglass, as most of his movies had a “Why Me?” plot that he would work his way out of.

 

 

 

That’s why I was initially against seeing Falling Down back in 1992, but it seemed like a much different role for him and plot was even more of a departure.

Frustrated by traffic, his character (who never had a name) flips out in heavy traffic and leaves his car parked on the freeway deciding to walk across LA to his ex-wife’s place.

Longing for a return to mid-century values (which is still a problem here), he takes his anger out on all types of factions while somehow coming upon armaments along the way.

One of the most memorable scenes is when he tries ordering breakfast from a fast food place that just switched to the lunch menu:

 

 

I love the Whammy Burger scene so much that I’m calling this the Whammy Awards, although I could be enticed to call it the Whammy Burger Awards too.

So for my inaugural Whammy, there was no shortage of entries.

A couple of weeks ago, my riding group was heading up to Franklin Canyon out of Beverly Hills when we got buzzed by an eager driver.

This video isn’t extraordinary in the fact that this happened, because a number of drivers ignore the three foot rule.

 

 

Now this is not the most egregious thing to happen to me on the road, but stay with me…

This clip doesn’t show how the riders behind men were also taking the lane like me (perfectly legal) here.

Needless to say, the driver didn’t care about checking if there was enough room to pass because he came dangerously close to colliding with the oncoming car.

Once again, we see drivers pushing the envelope of safety in many situations like these whether involving bicycles or not.

What set this driver apart was the most douchebaggery of a vanity license plate you could possibly think of:

 

 

“TXT MSG”

Take a second.

Think about what it would take for you to get a vanity plate.

Since picking this is an active choice, this is making some form of an expression.

Along with the tinted windows, this doesn’t display that street safety is a high priority to this driver and unfortunately, it doesn’t stand out from the messaging from many others.

When we passed this driver parked inside of Franklin Canyon, all he could do was keep his head down because obviously, this was a Whammy type of move.

So Congratulations Mr. TXT MSG!

You’re the first and I pray that you’re the last.