The question of “why we do it” often comes up in every genre of music. I like to believe is what defines the listening experience. There’s an interesting excerpt from Basquiat’s quasi-fictional film where a certain New York luminary laments about the pitfalls of being a musician and the bleak, nihilistic attitude he has aquired over time.

He gets to the gig super early so no one sees him lugging his gear up the stairs. He argues with promoters and club owners over their shrewd observations. After all, if he is having fun on stage, why should he be getting paid in the first place. And he muses in his closet studio why he doesn’t have more time to paint when he consistently has to rehearse for critics who will ultimately say he obviously didn’t practice enough in the first place.

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I don a helmet and mount my steed, then head up a short rise onto the lawn. Moving out to a broad lawn, which plays host to the occasional concert, we find the machines waiting for us. Each is a surprisingly simple device, just a platform with two wheels and a long central shaft with handlebars on top. If you lean forward, it moves forward. We eight, however, are learning the fine points of how to ride the off-road version of the Segway, the distinctive "personal transporter" with a high-tech gyroscopic system working to always keep the rider upright. It seems easy enough on lawn but then Smit leads us down a roadway to a large cleared area of gravel and coarser grass. 'There are the four Cs," a tour leader with Segway Victoria, Terry Smit, says. Giving us our final instructions, Smit points out that although it has similarities to other vehicles such as bicycles, it works quite differently. Once on level ground, it is evident how easy a Segway is to use. We're also taken off training mode so we can potentially reach the Segway's top speed of 20kmh.

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