Back From The Dead

So I'm finally back from battling death. Was couch ridden for the past two days. Congested, coughing, puking, sweating. All the fun stuff. My lady helped take care of me yesterday. Slept a lot. Ate very little. Drank lots of liquid. Looking forward to spending time with her tomorrow for the new year. Hope that all of you have a good new years celebration as well.
Peace

Sick again?!

Want to ride. Face running. Sick again. Arrrg!

SO Goddamn Sexy!!!!!

Check it!





Daaaaamn!

New Photos

Here are a few new photos that I've had time to scan and tweak:





I dig the way the warm tone makes this look.


A rarely captured 'tweaked Bungle'.

Went up to Okemo with the lady today. Amazing day for sure. Epic. Sunshine all day long with little to no wind. Soft snow. Poaching powder under the ropes. Midweek riding. No people. Epic.

New Adventures!

Been busy lately....lots of stuff to cover so let's get down to it!
Went to an artsy fartsy art show @ UConn on Sat night with G-Rock and her boyfriend B-Money. Got to see some DJ's and some shitty hardcore bands. Shot some photos of stuff. I did see one great band though. For as young as they were they rocked! They call themselves White Mountain and rock instrumental stuff. A trio composed of 2 guitarists, and a drummer. Kinda had elements of Hot Water Music and Fugazi with a lot of originality. Crazy time changes and really, really good tempo shifts along with a great sense of dynamics too. In short, they rocked the fuckin hizouse!!! And they were so damn young too! If you ever get the chance to check these dudes out, please do. You won't be disappointed!

Enter Sunday. My first day out snowboarding this season. Decided to go with a couple of bros from work. Joe, Pat and Clark were in for the day as well. I was threatened by Joe and Pat that they would show up at my apartment @ 3AM totally hammered and cause a ruckus. I didn't really take it seriously but was kinda afraid. I went to the friendly neighborhood supermarket and purchased 30 eggos, eggs, and juice to tame a couple of druken snowboarders half hoping they weren't really serious. The other half really wanted to see what would happen.

....the clock ticks to 1AM.....

My cel phone rings and I groggily answer. "Thank you for calling, this is Matt speaking", comes from the other end. I pause for a second recognizing Joe's voice. But sounding strangely sober. "Dude, which one are you in? I've been knocking on your neighbor's windows but I can't find your apartment!" I bolt up to the door and let them in as they laugh hysterically at the circumstances. After loudly discussing why they weren't drunk and sorting out the sleeping arrangements, everyone falls asleep. I get up at 3:30AM and start making everyone breakfast. I decide that @ 4AM they've slept long enough. Disco lights and screaming is an awesome way to wake up. After eggos, facon, and eggs, Joe proclaims that I've won Den Mother of the year award, we split to the local 7-11 for coffee, scare the cashier, and meet up with Clark. Props to Pat for driving and putting up with all of us acting like 6 year-olds singing the whole way.

We get up to Slo-kemo, unload, and unleash. Riding highlights include the guest services guy saying to me 'You have work with those guys everyday?', all of us acting 7 for the entire day, me falling off the chair while unloading for the first run, Clark stabbing Joe's board and foot EVERY time he got off a lift, Pat and I getting yelled at for 'jumping' (ollies) in 'no-jumping zones' by ski patrol, Clarking taking me out from behind, lunchtime baffoonary, me holding onto Pat for dear life while unloading to keep from getting dropped again, burying my nose at least 5x, Clark and Pat doing their 'antler approach', me clearing a 3-4 foot mud gap to icy face plant right under the lift and bleeding from the nose and lip last run. All in all it was a great day. We drove home listening to some old-school hip-hop that I hadn't heard in ages. Stopped in Amherst [sp?] at Newbury Comics to do a bit of rummaging. If you don't have Nighthawks At The Diner by Tom Waits I highly suggest that you pick it up. Got some burritos @ the Cha's in Northhampton. I think that's the last time that I dine there. It used to be super cool but every since they sold out the quality and atmosphere has gone down. Jacked their prices up again (I think). Then headed home. Good times. Can't wait to ride with my lady on Thursday. Hoping to commute to work tomorrow even though I need to get up early.
Stumbled upon a great website this morning. Check it: gobybicycle.com. That's it! Should have some new photos up in the next couple of days as soon as I get some of the negatives scanned and prep'd. Let me know what you're all up to. Peace!

Humor....

Read a great joke:

Juan comes up to the Mexican border on his bicycle. He's got two large bags over his shoulders. The guard stops him and says, "What's in the bags?" "Sand," answered Juan. The guard says, "We'll just see about that - get off the bike!" The guard takes the bags and rips them apart; he empties them out and finds nothing in them but sand. He detains Juan overnight and has the sand analysed, only to discover that there is nothing but pure sand in the bags. The guard releases Juan, puts the sand into new bags, hefts them onto the man's shoulders, and lets him cross the border.

The next day, the same thing happens. The guard asks, "What have you got?" "Sand," says Juan. The guard does his thorough examination and discovers that the bags contain nothing but sand. He gives the sand back to Juan, and Juan crosses the border on his bicycle.

This sequence of events is repeated every day for a year. Finally, Juan doesn't show up one day and the guard runs into him in a Cantina in Mexico.

"Hey, Buddy," says the guard, "I know you are smuggling something. It's driving me crazy. It's all I think about... I can't sleep. Just between you and me, what are you smuggling?" Juan sips his beer and says, "Bicycles."

Discovered how cool puddle water sounds when it's running through fenders....keep riding!

WTF!!!!!!!!!

Dave sent me this:
Dimebag Darrell's murder last night.
This is no joke. I'm not fucking around. Check this out too: another news article
Play some fuckin Pantera today. We love you Dime!

Behold! I Am The Human Icicle!!!

It started with yesterday's forecast. Just like that. Nothing complicated. Snow. I got super excited at the thought of riding through, and with all of the gently falling snowflakes on the way home from work. So I strapped my non-working fenders to my bag and pedaled into work in a chilly haze. I never thought that I'd be stopped in traffic while commuting by bicycle. But I was. There was a huge flatbed trailer delivering steel girders to a job site. It wound up blocking both lanes of traffic while they tried to maneuver the beast to its drop off destination. There was no way that I was going to sneak past this truck and risk getting squashed. So I waited patiently....and waited.....waited. I observed an irrate motorist almost mow down several of the construction workers who were handling traffic just because where ever he had to be was way more important than the safety of others around him. Nice. They unsuccessfully backed the trailer into the construction area twice, and I saw my opening as they schlepped around trying to position everything for the third go. I sprinted up to the sidewalk, passed the trailer, and headed into work.

Now the forecast called for snow. Approx two inches. Then it was supposed to change over to freezing rain and sleet around midnight. 'SUPPOSED'. It wound up doing this earlier, of course. So I got the rear fender to work with a bit of zip-tie ingenuity and got the front to work with some creative thinking and a dremel tool. Everyone who found out that I was riding said the same thing 'You're riding your bike?! Home? In that! [the bad weather]' Haasenstuffins had the best response. 'Lolli, you're a madman.' My lady almost begged me to catch a ride home with someone. At that point I reconsidered for a second.

So I start my ride home. It's not too bad to begin with. It's only a seven mile ride one way. Pretty short. But there are a few good sized hills on the way. They were the things that I was most concerned about. I was only running slicks. I found only one place online that carries 27" tires with knobs and haven't had a chance to order yet. I went easy and took my time to keep from washing out all over the place. Found it eaiser to stay waaay inside the shoulder where there were no tire tracks. I found that any tracks that had been made wound up freezing after a period of time and were difficult to navigate. The only other thing that made the ride difficult was that the rain kept freezing on my glasses making things difficult to see. I pocketed them eventually and sight was returned. I found myself riding on sidewalks at certain points so I could relax and not have to worry about cars passing too close to me. And that brings me to my last point.

Autos. They suck in general but suck even more when there's any kind of precipitation. People freak the fuck out and do stupid shit anytime there's water on the ground in any state. I have a theory that as precipitation increases, people's IQ decreases proportionally. I have no idea why there were so many cars out tonight. I never see that many around on any other Monday night commute. Especially taking the poor weather into account. I was worried that people were going to do dumb stuff to put me in danger and that kept me from completely relaxing. But I made it home alright. Stayed dry, warm, etc. I'm just not sure that I would want to commute in the same situation again. The slick tires made it a definite exercise in bike handling. I feel like I'm a bit of a better rider than I was before, because I know how to ride around in the stuff now but knobbies would have been preferable. The amount of cars that were out bothered me as well. If there were less, it would have been a much better experience.
What I've learned: Slush is actually better to ride through, waterproof socks and NikWax'ing my shoes the night before make a HUGE difference, weathermen lie (I'll be using my magic eight ball to forecast my weather needs for the future). The highlight of the commute?....finally acknowledging my body's requests for hydration, going to take a swig from my bottle only to find that the spout had frozen in the cold.

Creativity Time

So I'm thinking of repainting my fixed.....The 'Mega-Miyata'....the '27-Inches of Fury'....I'm thinking of sticking with the black and red theme that I've kinda got goin' on.....or maybe all flat-black? What do you think?....Looking forward to commuting home in some softly falling snow tomorrow night.
Ahhhhhh.

Hessians Galore

I love people watching. People are weird and do the craziest shit when they aren't making a conscious [sp?] effort to pay attention to what's going on around them. Went to the Shadow's Fall show this past Friday and the hessians were out in FORCE! Concerts (particularly metal and punk) are interesting because there is a section of the population that you only see at shows. So I wound up taking in much heavy music, long hair, and more than a few mullets during the evening's festivities. Ran into a friend that I hadn't seen since he moved out of my buddy's house about a year ago. Hung out with Metal Steve and my old roommate Eric. I forgot what a good time I have hanging with those two and quickly realized that I don't do it nearly enough. It seems like the only times I see them are at shows that come through here and there a couple of times a year.
So the show....yeah. It rocked! I missed The Haunted so I was a bit pissed. It's my own damn fault for not leaving my house early enough. Damage Plan was pretty good. I never had a chance to see Pantera when they were together so seeing Vinne Paul and Dimebag was cool. Dime is a RIDICULOUS guitar player. SOOOO many good chops. I'm amazed that his liver has lasted as long as it has the way those guys party. I had never heard Shadow's Fall so seeing them for the first time was pretty damn cool. The singer has these unbelievably long dreads. Like, to his knees. Insane. If he whipped em' around any faster I swear that he would have taken off the stage and been able to float around the place. Amazing stage presence! Super technical metal riffs traded between the two guitarists. I was pretty impressed.
My one complaint was the audience. So damn lame. When the singer has to tell you to start a pit or has to ask you multiple times to move around, or even threatens to leave the stage, you know that audience is just super lame. Too many young kids that don't know what goes on at shows or how to show their love.
I heard a great show story from Eric about one of our old roommates. They went to see Madball back in the day and the dude ends up in the pit for a part of the show. Someone elbows him in the face and breaks his glasses into pieces. So for the rest of the show, he watches from the bar while using one lens as a monocle [sp?]. Turns out his funds were so low that he couldn't get his glasses fixed right away so he had to wait for two weeks til he could afford the repairs. Wound up using the monocle during classes and when he took notes. If you ever talk to Eric, have him tell you the story. Between him acting out the physical parts, and the way he gets into it, it's damn funny. I was laughing so hard that I was tearing at the bar.
Headed to my ladies' after the show and relaxed for a bit while watching the tube.
Woke up today and think that I bruised my heel while I was leaning on the bar from the show the previous night. Not sure how that happened. Picked up some water-proof socks for commuting and built up a bike for a customer @ work. Hopefully we'll start seeing some snow soon or it looks like the snowboard season might suck. Hope everyone's weekends are going well. Peace!

Ever Wonder......

what I think about when no one's around? Well, wonder no more....

Ancient Mysticism?

I love it when my friends speak in tongues:

'blue skies and pumpkin pies.  sorry about the pictures but they only lie any way, hey play on brother sing on drummer.  bummer or no bummer bout half way to summer half in a house and an ancient dividend, quid pro sports and Egyptian ports, don't forget to turn off the solar shift, I want to get off this ride and fly.
-Elijah'

Mounting Madness....

So I decided to stay late and mount up some new rental skis. Joe and Pat heartily agreed to that which would become Ski Slaying Armageddon [sp?]!!!! We shut the shop down, cleaned everything up and then ran across the street to the burger joint to get our grub on before we partook in our collective insanity.
Our waiter sucked! Big time. After talking about 300 words per second and mumbling half the time, he took our drink orders and ran off. We waited....and waited....and waited. He finally returned, took our dinner order and then out of nowwhere, I see a hand snap past my face and toss straws on the table. Nothing like, 'Oh here, I forgot to give you your straws'. No gentle placement of the drinking apparati on our dining table. More like a casual flick of a used tissue into the trash. Past my face. Joe retorted with a dirty sneer and an angry toss of said straws to the floor. 1 for Us, 0 for shit waiter.
Dinner was served and I had to ASK for a refill on their supposed 'bottomless drinks'. If they're bottomless, they should be refilled when empty. Or almost empty (like every other restaurant that I've been to). I understand that when it's busy, these things sometimes take a bit longer. But it was a Monday night @ 9:30 PM! I think he was more interested in watching the game instead of waiting on his tables.
I like it when the waitstaff comes around and checks on how your meal is going. I actually look forward to this as it speaks volumes to me that the eating establishment in question actually cares that its food and eating experience is pleasing to its patrons. The guy never came back. We had to track him down to get the check. I actually had to get up, walk across the joint, and ask him for the check. I should have snagged the manager and had a little talk but the task that was about to be at hand was occuping my mind more than the shit service we experienced. Tip you ask? Of course not.

So we got back to the shop and unleased a mounting fury the likes of which has not been seen in many moons. We blasted through about 64 pairs of skis in about two and a half hours or so. Mounting only, not tested yet. And there are still more. Trying to put the experience into words would not do justice. I'm surprised that our screwdrivers and hands didn't catch fire. I bet that the drill is STILL cooling down. And there're still more left. That's the sickest part. And everything still needs to be tested and recorded. Fun fun fun!

Once our mounting fun had ended, I saddled up and rode home. If I could ride home @ 1AM every time I biked to work, I would gladly do it. There are so few people out on the roads. Way less morons to have to deal with. I think that half of the cars that passed me were police cruisers. It was definitely a crisp, cool night with a little wind blowing. Just the kind of weather to keep you from getting too overheated. Good commuting weather. On the cycling tip, I'm pretty pissed that the fenders I bought off my friend don't fit my rig. Not enough tire clearance. I might need to break out some tools and do some modification work. We'll see what I can whip up. That's about it. Gonna sleep in tomorrow and clean like a fiend. Late!
Ride Fast Ride Hard!

You dig bikes?

Course you do! Then check out this badass site!!: bicycle kitchen. These guys and gals are based in LA and have got the right idea!

Thanks fo' Giving!

So....another holiday passes and I find myself gorged on good food and good people. I spent the holiday with family as we tend to do each year. We take my Grandfather out to this diner each year for Thanksgiving. I know, it's supposed to be home-cooked and all. However, everyone heads in from different parts of surrounding states and needs to head home afterwards so it's too difficult to arrange kitchen time anywhere. The food is alright. The damn waitress seemed like she was trying to rush us out though. Said peace to the fam and headed to my ladies' family's spot for round two of eating madness, plus dessert. Had a great time just relaxing and gorging. Went back to her place, shot some photos of the cats, watched TV (a rare luxury) and slept in late.
Got to work and dealt with a busy Black Friday. Now working in retail, you know that this particular Friday is the busiest one during the year. It goes without saying. So to come into work and bitch about being tired and how busy it is just does not sit well with me. It seems like more of the employees are complaining about having to work this year. Come on! You work in a Ski shop. It's not a particularly difficult job. I can think of worse places to work: Wal Mart, any store in the mall, any fast food joint. Especially during this time of year. If they think that it's so busy and difficult right now, I've got news!....It's not even December yet! The busiest times are well on their way.
Trying to find some time to post some more of the photos that I took on that foggy night. Just waiting on myself to finish out one last roll of film that has a couple of exposures left before I can get it developed and then scan away! I'm may try and put an online slideshow together if anyone is interested in checking it out. Well, I've got just enough time left to go to sleep and do it all over again tomorrow. Peace!

Froggy

A quick couple of shots of post dinner amblings from the other night....more to follow.


-snapped this whilst driving....I'm a trained professional....don't try that at home.

Boston PT 2

So I went to Boston yesterday for the hell that is the ski sale. It actually wasn't as bad as I had presumed. The ride up was fairly uneventful, little traffic, and included no wrong turns. A good start. After arriving, we had our little pep talk and split up to our regular locations (ie:snowboards for myself). The pace was steady all day long with a few rushes here and there promptly followed by a few lulls. The reps were tollerable for the most part and I even wound up getting to know a few guys that I hadn't talked to before. I do have to raise my glass to the fine folks who were down from the Latham, NY store! They were motivated, friendly folk who seemed to be in good spirits all show long. Definitely helped me keep my sanity and provided many laughs throughout the day. Sold many a snowboard boot. I think that everyone that I helped walked out with something (most were even stoked!). Saddled up around 8:45PM and headed home. The biggest bummer of the night was when we got super pumped to rock some burritos at Fresh City on the pike while heading home. The first one was closed so we hightailed it to the next. When the next one was closing as we walked in, Pat suggested bum rushing the counter and making our own. Not wanting to make a scene and knowing full well that our legs weren't up to the task of running from the authorities, we settled for sketchy TigerMart sandwiches. Went straight to my lady's, watched back-to-back Chappelle [sp?] Shows, laughed my ass off, and fell asleep with the cats.
Today's breakfast debacle should have been the clue in for the rest of the day. We opened 15 minutes early, everything seemed mellow so I went across the street to score some food and coffee to kickstart what was going to be a ripp'n busy day. After waiting in line for a good 10 minutes behind only TWO people, the red flags should have been raised to my attention. After getting my food, I walked back, avoiding bleary-eyed chuch going folk as they paraded to Wal-Mart. I got back inside the safety of the shop and had been there no longer than 2 minutes when I put Haasenstuff'ns X-LRG coffee down right on top of an anti-theft pin. Pulling the pin from the coffee was akin to that of pulling the pin on a grenade. (It hit the fan!) As I did so, the shop flooded with customers, I got pulled in several directions at once while a stream of scalding hot coffee violated my hands, pants and shoes. ALL AT ONCE! T'was sweet. Once that happened, it never let up. I had to duck off the floor around 2 PM just so I could consume something to avoid hitting the floor. What about the faulted coffee you ask? Well I'm glad you did. I jumped into backshop-mode immediately! Grabbing a handful a paper towels and a large roll of duct tape I constructed a dam that rivaled that of the Hoover....not really. Coffee was still dripping out and was divied between two coffee mugs. Haasenfluff'ns went double fisted for a bit to knock the hang-over, casino-losing, get home at 5AM spin out of his head. He pulled through like a champ.
Once we wrapped up @ 5, went to rock some Indian food for dinner with friends (who happen to be coworkers). With a belly full of Vindaloo Chicken among other goodies, I got all artsy fartsy with my camera around town. The way that the fog had settled made the best lighting I'd seen in a while. Ripped through half of a roll to finish that one off, came back home, changed film and shot some stuff around the apartments. I love shooting when there's fog out at night. There's such a mysterious, gentle vibe that goes with it. I can't really put it into words. I wound up experimenting with shutter speed and exposure time so hopefully some of the shots will come out. May even be a few worthwhile to post. If you're not riding right now cause of the wet weather, get yourself some fenders and raingear and charge hard damnit! Enjoy the mild stuff before old dude winter bites our asses with all of his windchill craziness and sticks you on your trainer in front of the evil TV! You do have a trainer right?

More goodies...

Almost forgot to list some awesome music to get ramped up for riding:
-AC/DC (rocked in the shop prior to riding)
-The Living End (in the car on the way there)
-The Bouncing Souls
pounding my sugary fru-fu coffee drink til I got a ripp'n brain-freeze helped a bit too.
And another ROCK! photo for ya'll:

Don't just talk about it...DO IT!

BMX, Beer, Bastards, Boston....

BMX, Beer......
The BMX is in the corner, sweaty pads are air-ating, socks are off and the beer is flowing. Just got back from blowing off some steam on a BMX sesh'. Couldn't clear the sidewalk gap for the life of me. The transition felt soooo bumpy and off kilter to me that I couldn't get comfy with it. Was fun trying though. Tried this little, weird, landscaped gaped-bank thing. Pedal up an inclined parking lot and jump over a curb to this steep-assed bank with dirt/mulch on top. The dirt wound up being a bit softer than I expected but I rolled away unscathed. While rolling away, I noticed a cool sidewalk gap. A bit of construction going on + missing part of the sidewalk where two parts are supposed to connect= fun gap! Rolled around a bit and practiced roll-backs and 180 bunny hops. Raced to beat game traffic and made it home....'sigh'. It's official...BMX rules.
Bastards.....
So I may be preaching to the choir on this one but stick with me. I work at a shop that operates seasonally. Being said, we are busier during certain seasons than others. Working in a SKI shop, it stands to reason that we are in a busy period NOW. I also understand that we all have bad and or trying days. It's just human nature. I also understand that you have things to do and places to be. So do I. But when we give you a slip of paper and tell you not to lose it because you will need it to claim your skis (and to expedite [sp?] that claim) when you return to pick them up, it makes sense that you should not lose it. Put it in a safe place. Apparently, this guy tonight didn't understand our simple directions.
When I go into a store and don't get the service that I am expecting, my first reaction is to stay calm and examine the situation. Acting like a prick and being rude to the employees who are there to help won't get you anywhere. Especially if that place of business is busy. If I went into an ice cream shop in the dead of July, I wouln't get pissy that they're busy. It's seasonal! (Like I said, probably preaching to the choir but stick with me). Follow this conversation. First the customer (we'll call him FF, for Fat Fuck because I don't think that he knows about salad being a meal item) then myself:

FF: has been waiting for about 2 mins for his equipment because we have to sort through a fucking MOUNTAIN of skis to find his 'I don't understand why it's so hard to find these skis. They're this big!'-makes a motion to gesture small skis I presume.

ME: 'Did you bring your tag? That will expedite the pick up*'-cut off by FF

FF: 'No! That guy's looking for it. How hard can it be'...blah blah.

ME: 'Well, we currently have about 500 pairs of skis back there so it may take a bit of time if you don't have your tag. We need to sort through each one*' cut off again...anger lever rising several more points.

FF: 'My patience is wearing thin. Why don't you run back there and help that guy look!?'-turns his back on me and walks away.
At this point it took much strength and resolve to keep from insulting him. I mean, there was soooo much material to work with: the overweight waddle, the lazy eye, the baldness and not to mention his rudeness. Since it seemed that life had already delt this guy a winning hand, I kept my mouth shut. Then he asked me to have my boss call his cel phone (so he could presumably bitch her out about our 'incompetence'). Fat, angry fuck, go have another doughnut and a coronary. Can't wait to see how many people jump to help his fat ass the next time he comes into the store. This is the second time I've delt with the rude bastard. The first time he gave me grief about paying our fee for the adjustment of his daughter's ski bindings.
'It costs 30 bucks to make the boot fit in the binders and turn a few screws?' Ahh, but if it was only that easy you rotund little man! Hopefully he'll have such a fit that my boss didn't give him a call that he'll come in screaming and cursing at me and I can kindly kick his fat ass to the curb and politely ask him never to return. So what did we learn boys and girls? Rudeness is more likely to get you fat, bloated and red faced like a Kennedy; whereas kindness will get you much more help and a lower blood pressure.
Boston......
Round two. Bring it! I'm ready. Ready for the long trip. Ready for the surge of customers. Ready for the assinine questions. Ready for the overbearing reps. Today Joe related a story of a rep selling this guy a board that he was going to hate @ the show yesterday. When he (Joe) went to the wall and sold the guy a much better board for his riding style, the rep went over, played stupid ('Oh, I completely forgot to ask him his boot size.' He sold a guy with a size 10 a super-wide freestyle board when the dude wanted a ripp'n freeride stick. Great job rep! Anything to make a sale!) and then gave Joe the evil eye for 10 mins cause he sold the dude the competition's product. When did snowboarding become based on the bottom line and how many boards you can sell to people instead of getting someone something that they'll be stoked on for a bunch of seasons? It makes me sick. You put people on the wrong shit, they wind up hating snowboarding, quit, and then you lose customers. It's such a negative spiral for the industry. Just so you can sell a few more units you pad you pockets. Everyone wants quick cash I guess. No looking to the long term.
Well, the Guinness is dry, the peanut-butter cookies are merely crumbs, and I'm out of words. Thanks for check'n in. Round 2 update in a few.
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

By The Way.....

.....peanut butter cookies fucking rule!

Boston and Bitch'n

So Round 1 of the Boston show is over, and if it continues to be consistant, then Round 2'll be more of me busting my ass and getting rip-shit pissed at the other cats who sit around and do nothing. Highlights of the day include my boss driving (a million thanks!), getting coffee and a danish (cherry!), almost getting cut while waiting for said coffee and danish, exerting my presence in line, (it was a good thing it was so early or I'd would've had to bust a cap!), making fun of people on the drive in, tomato, spinach, and feta pizza for lunch, driving home. Low points include about 30 miles of bumper to bumper traffic on the way there, slack-ass mother-f'ers who would rather talk than work (and actually carry through with that plan), the corporate dick who just runs around to make sure that everyone is working (if he actually did something we could get out of there faster), watching this huffed out guy pass out all over the place. This dude wandered into the expo center and was totally messed up on something (definitely higher powered than weed or alcohol). Swaying around, not responding to people, wandering around and passing out, hitting the floor in a few different places. Now we're all big boys and girls, we all make our own decisions in life but I can't help feel a bit sorry for this guy. It's sad that you feel compelled to do this garbage in public around other people. Anyway, once it wore off, he climbed into his car and drove off. Sweet. Can't even stand up on his own and he drives off. Hopefully he didn't kill anyone. The drive on Saturday shouldn't be as bad. No rush hour traffic to deal with. Long show hours, but all I'm doing is selling stuff. Not hard.

So Karp came up with a brilliant idea (as he is prone to do). I won't divulge too much info right now, but a hint in the form of a question: does anyone know of any local (CT, MA) galleries that will exhibit unknown artist's works? More on this to come as events unfold. So here's another original photo. Definitely one of the more badass cats that I know:

Get out and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather! Go for a ripp'n ride!

Music is Key....

Mike Patton has recently resurfaced in my listening rotation both at work and at home. If you're not familiar with his music and pride yourself on listening to non-mainstream music, you really need to check it! Mr Bungle, Tomahawk, fantomas are probably the best places to start and kind of progress from tweaked to strange to weird in their respective order.
Check out this line-up December 3rd @ the Webster: Shadows Fall, Damageplan, The Haunted....sick show. Any takers? Let me know who's interested....The Haunted...sick. Oh yeah! Another band worth checking out if thrash is more your style: Dimension Zero. My buddy Metal Steve turned me on to them. Definitely fast and thrashy. Karp checked it out and gave it two devil horns up! Almost too much metal for one hand!
Some stuff to check out according to The Pirate: Sleepytime Gorrilla Museum is apparently great and creepy. If I'm misquoting you please correct me. Haven't had a chance to check it yet. And the new Bjork album is supposedly pretty cool. No instruments (except people's voices) were used in the creation of the record....Sounds interesting.
Albums currently in heavy rotation in the shop:
Hot Water Music-The New What Now
Frank Sinatra-His Early Years
David Bowie-Greatest Hits
Alkaline Trio-From Here to Infirmary
AC/DC-Volts
Jimmy Smith-The Definitive Jimmy Smith
The Bouncing Souls-The Bouncing Souls
If you haven't heard of any of these cats, check em out. You might find something new that you dig! Have fun!
Ride Fast, Ride Hard!

Fiberglass shavings

Damnit how I wish I had full fenders for the fixed! (A little automatapia (is that spelled right?) for your aural appreciation). I like riding @ night while it's snowing. It's really peaceful and beautiful. Should have planned ahead this past summer for all of my commuting needs when we weren't on credit hold with our big distributor. Hopefully that will clear soon so I's can gets what I's needs! I've had a few requests for more original pieces of art so here's one that I did for one of my friend's bands: Indian Chief Headdress. It was near completion when he moved to South Carolina and led to the demise of the group (and the finish of the piece). I did get the chance to see them live once and they rocked-the-fucking-house!!!!! Hopefully I'll get to finishing it at some point but you should get the general idea.

I forgot how fiberglass shavings in your arms felt, but after mounting skis for seven hours I now am back at full realization.
Peace!

MADNESS!!!!

Hoi, Hoi!
I can't believe how many skis are back there! It seems as though for every pair I finish, they get replaced by three more! I could start making my own fort out of the binding boxes alone. When Joe hits the shop tomorrow morning I think he's going to have a mild heart attack. Did my first day of cold weather commuting. Slow by some commuter's standards but fending off a cold, working at the ski show.....yeah, who am I kidding, I slacked off. But it's good to be back! Nice brisk weather to keep you going. Cool during the start of the ride and then sweating bullets by the time I walk in the door. Broke out the fixed-gear again. I replaced the old side-pull brake with a newer long-reach type that I've had sitting in my parts bin for a couple of years at least. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Cause it's new, the spring is much stronger (by design as well). Smoother and more powerful braking for when my legs are too tired to back-pedal down hills. By the way, if you have never ridden a fixed or track bike before I seriously recommend that you do. It's super fun and addicting. And if you've never commuted to work, then get to it! And if you're not listening to Scissorfight then crank em up already! Stoner rock at it's best! And they're from New Hampshire (as far as I can tell). If you mix The Four Tops with Megadeth then you get something that sounds nothing like this band. But if you mix Clutch with Fu Manchu then you get some sort of idea of their sound. With songs like 'New Hampshire's Alright if You Like Fighting', 'Granite State Destroyer', and 'Planet of Ass' they'll be the next big hit at your bridge game or tupperware party. Well, I gotta go eat something, shower and shave the legs before I get thrown out of the 'Go Fast Club'. S'ok. I like the Fixed Gear Hooligans and 20inch Terrors better!
Ride Fast, Ride Hard!

Bikes, Booze, Nooze

You like drink'n and ride'n? Course you do. Who doesn't? If you're a winter commuter maybe you need a nipper to keep warm on the way to work. Those kids gotta get to school! And maybe if you work for the postal service or as a teacher you need to relax on the ride home. This handy little piece will help you relax and spin your troubles away. Don't ask me how to explain it to the cops though.

I must give credit where credit is due. Check out ahearnescycles.com to cop one of these bad boys. If this little guy's got backing from the boys at Surly you know that it rocks! (I did pirate this photo from their site....I told you to be afraid!)
So why are there no cool places to go in Hartford? Joe and I had this discussion today at work over the screeching of the tuning machine and the blasting of various rock (and not so rock) music on our ghetto blaster. Why are there no smokey, dimly lit, little bars where you can go and hear some good, live jazz music, sip a coffee, sip a beer, (sip both at the same time?), read a paper, or trade war stories with the old guy on the end stool? Why is Hartford teeming with white-hat frat boys, yuppies, and thugs? Wanna go to the Dickyard and check out some white-hats gett'n their mack on with dumb blonde sorority chicks? How bout The Bar With No Name? (just make sure you're wearing the right colors so you don't get capped) Tsanes? Only if you like trendy snobs. Why aren't there any low-key places to just chill? Leave your attitude at the door kind of thing. So here's our plan: We're gonna open a skate park and run that by day. Ride, skate, whatever all day long. Close that down in the evening, shower, and open the jazz club. Not a bad way to live, eh? As long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a mini-ramp, a house in Spain, a monkey and a milkshake. Who's with me?

AVAST!

be afraid........

Bouncing Souls Rule!

Just playing around a bit with photo-ing. Pete rocks!

"I'm learnding supernintendo chalmers!"

More of the same

Ridiculous amounts of skis to mount and tune. Between Joe and I we punched out a large bunch but have soooo much more to do. Needless to say, work was busy but time flew past as it tends to do when I work in the back. The worst thing is that they want me to drive out to Boston to work the Bayside show on a Thursday, drive back to CT and then drive back out on Saturday to work the show AGAIN! WTF??!! Why have me travel 2 round-trips to Boston on days that aren't back to back? Cause I only get paid for 40hrs no matter how many I work. So corporate can use my labor however they please without having to pay anything extra (overtime and such). If I don't have to drive it won't be so bad. The thing I hate about these shows are not the customers that come in...it's actually dealing with the reps. There are a few reps that I don't mind talking to. They are down to earth and can carry conversations. Some of the other guys have inflated heads mostly because some shop rat is stroking their egos broing down on 'how rad their product is'. I want to slap the bitches and tell them to back off. Reping is a job just like any other. Just cause you work for snowboard company doesn't make you cool. It also doesn't give you the right to railroad me when I'm selling some kid your competition's product. I had a guy last year tell me that there weren't any boards in his size when I was looking directly at one that was perfect for him. Thanks rep! The best part is that they're supposed to be there to help us out and give us support. Not shit-talk another brand. At least they didn't put me in skis like they did for Hartford.
Enough bitching. It's cold! Rock'n a fleece hoodie to keep warm and drinking some hot tea. It's amazing how quick the temp dropped last night to today. Hopefully there'll be some snow soon. A couple of customers told me that it was flurrying in the eastern part of the state. Can't wait to snowboard this year. This is the year for progression. Joe's stated that he's hitting the ER at least once. Hopefully I won't have to drive him. Anyone who wants to join our gang should let us know. Our initiation is reasonable with only minor cuts and abrasions and minimal bruising to be expected.
I'm checking out all of the info for this site (there's a lot of great stuff) and hopefully I'll be able to post a few photos of random stuff in the next couple of updates. Tomorrow will consist of a relaxing day to recoup from clocking almost 60 hours last week. Things I have in order, laundry, eat, maybe draw a bit, and relax.
Peace!

Or I may post a photo now! I took this in Hartford after a surprise party for my dear friend Chris. There were a couple of us hanging out after the festivities: My lady, Chris and his lady, Elijah B Rutherford and The Pirate. Word!

1st posting

Thought that it would be interesting to start posting on this blog thing so here we go! Went for a rip tonight around the local college campus and had some fun. Finally cleared this cool sidewalk gap that a couple of local kids built. It was so mild and warm for a November night that I would have really felt terrible had I not taken advantage of the weather. Considering all the hours that I worked this week it was a good release to rip around for a while. Hopefully we'll be able to get the crew together and get a BMX track or park session together this weekend. Oh yeah! If you like great music go out and get the new Hot Water Music album "The New What Next". It rules! It's been the only thing in my CD player for the past week. I guess that's about it for the first posting.
Ride Fast and Hard!