One of the best things about membership in the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America is the Anonymous Book.
It's a state-by-state, city-by-city listing of phone numbers of BMW MOA members who stand ready to greet/rescue/help/advise/shelter you as you travel. It also has some foreign listings, as well as contact information for all of the BMW motorcycle dealers and MOA-chartered clubs. In short, it's a safety net for the touring BMW rider.
I never leave home without the most recent Anonymous Book in my tank bag.
And it always has an interesting BMW motorcycle-related photo on the cover.
Until this year.
My 2009 Anonymous Book showed up in our mailbox this morning and I almost threw it away, mistaking if for unsolicited junk mail.
The choice of cover art is, well, perplexing.
As you can see, it's a murky nighttime shot of a guy with a helmet reaching for a cup of something being offered by a woman standing in her front door. She has a banister sticking out of her head like an Indian feather - something that should have been Photoshopped away. The only BMW motorcycle-specific thing in the picture is a copy of the BMW MOA Owners News in the mailbox.
It's supposed to convey the idea that MOA members are hospitable to each other, but at first glance it looks like a Halloween trick-or-treat scene. It is, as we photographers say, hard to read. You have to study it for a moment to get the idea the photographer wanted to communicate.
That said, the Anonymous Book is an essential part of my touring kit and no matter how goofy the cover, I'll carry it on my rides for the next year.
But I'm looking forward to a cover next year that instantly says "BMW motorcycle" to me.
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