Co-Conspirators

March 24, 2005

Photo Experimentation

So here's some shutter and apeture experimentation that I've been experimenting with lately. Hope you dig these.










Enjoying watching the snow fall. Went out and bombed the nearby hills on my squirrley snowskate. Was fun for about 15 mins. Felt good to get some exercise. Couple of upcoming shows to put into your calendars...
-Henry Rollins spoken word this Monday the 28th @ Toads in New Haven. $20
-Flogging Molly @ the Webster on April 18th
-Alkaline Trio @ the Webster May 4th
-Testament @ the Webster July 28th
So spread the word, free up you plans and let's go to some shows! Let me know what's up!

March 22, 2005

Slopestyle Pt II

So here's the rest of the slopestyle shots I promised a while back. There are the best of the best. All of the others really aren't worth mentioning so they'll stay on a disc somewhere. Enjoy!




-sick lipslide-


cool. ready for some hot rainbow action? here we go!





And there you have it! Hope you all enjoyed the photos as much as we enjoyed the sun.
Peace!

testing...testing...

don't mind me. just wanted to see how these would look. trying a new save process in photoshop. more from the slopestly contest.





more to follow. peace.

Bikes rule.

Was surfing around some bike sites just before bedtime and finally got to check out Matt Chester's site. He builds simple, beautiful, ti single speed frames. While checking out his blog, I found this story and wanted to share it with all of you. Head on over to check out the rest of his site and blog. Enjoy!

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Mike Ferrentino

Well, looky here. This issue is one of those "buyer's guides," pages full of shiny new products aimed at boosting the ever-spreading flag of consumerism up the flagpole of our general consciousness. So it seems appropriate to spend a few minutes talking about Cory Cuthbertson's bike. If there's a solid counterweight to the force-fed perversity of rampant buy-new-stuff now marketing pap that's shoved down our throats by an industry hell-bent on not only just its own survival but on expansion, ever bigger and better, then that counterweight is Cory's bike. A bike, which, for lack of any better fitting description, is known far and wide as a dangerous, rolling shitbox.

It's a classic shitbox though. A fillet-brazed steel Bontrager cyclocross frame heated together in Santa Cruz during the prehistory of mountain biking by Keith himself. A bike ridden by Daryl Price to the national junior cyclocross championship back at the down of our sport. Or maybe 1987, but don't quote me. A bike inherited by Cory when he was a tender lad of 13. A bike upon which he won his age group in that year's district 'cross championships, garnering a natty kid-size California bear-flag skin suit.

A bike that he loved and rode for the next decade, all the while folding his ever-growing body into a too-small skin suit - which many of his friends suspect for the noticeable slouch that out boy Cory exhibits - riding and racing with a grace that many aspire to but few can match. A bike that never saw a wrench in the five or six years that I knew it.

Five-speed freewheel, non-index Suntour bar-end shifters. A worn out chain running on worn out cogs and worn out chainrings, skipping like a fairy at Christmas time in every gear when pedaled forcefully. Death-defying Lilliputian drop bars, probably 40 centimeters wide, drooping narrower at their bottoms after a decade of landing jumps, wrapped in faded pink Benotto ribbon. Old non-aero plastic Modolo brake levers, pulling Mafac cantilevers sporting original pads weathered to the consistency of teak and offering the same lack of stopping power that any flimsy piece of aluminum pushing tiny blocks of wood into dented rims would be expected to generate.

Saaverda cranks, an Argentinian company that spent the '70's manufacturing knock-off Campagnolo componentry (no joke), with visible cracks at both spindle ends and which creaked with protest at any attempt to pedal with conviction. Worn out bottom bracket with bearings most likely shaped like tiny metal footballs. Worn out and old KKT Lightning pedals with half-severed nylon toe straps. Hubs that were all crunchy. As previously noted: a classic shitbox. Everyone in the county deemed it unrideable. Everyone but Cory, that is.

He rode it on group road rides. He rode it in 'cross races. He converted it to a one-speed and entered it in a 50-mile mountain bike race. He rode it in the dirt, often preferring it to the feel of his mountain bike. He rode it well and he rode it fast. Once we were floating downhill on pavement, rolling about 25 miles an hour, and Cory on his shitbox drifted casually up onto a sidewalk, bunny-hopped a nearly 2-foot-high picket fence onto a lawn before wheelie-ing down the driveway and back onto the road, all the while slouched in on himself like some skinny cartoon character.

He was also fond of doing this flying crucifix move. He'd get going fast downhill, preferably on dirt, then stand up and lean all the way forward, thighs pushing into the handlebars, arms outstretched, grinning into the wind. This, on a bike that most of us had a tough time riding in a straight line on perfectly smooth and level ground. He and that bike had an understanding. It never creaked or skipped gears when he rode it. They were like an old couple, fully in tune with each other. And they were magic to watch. There was a grace and smoothness about them that was beautiful to see. No waste. Just this pure and fluid motion.

Nobody else could do that. If anyone had tried to ride that bike even half as fast as Cory, they'd have killed themselves and the bike would have died beneath them. Cory and that bike were like a fragile ecosystem. Everything in perfect harmony with everything else, all quirks and weirdness accounted for. There's a term called dynamic homeostasis. It basically means that a systemic stability, a status quo, is maintained in spite of constantly changing input. Most of nature exists in this state, at least when we aren't around to mess it all up. That's how I like to think of Cory and that thrashed old Bontrager. They are in a state of dynamic homeostasis, adapting and adjusting to each other's ever changing composition.

That is a rare and beautiful thing. It can only come about over time, massive amounts of time. Cory spent his teenage years on that bike. He knew every little thing wrong with it; he worked around every one of those jagged and potentially flesh-rending future failure points until they became part of this intuitive map that he and the bike shared like a fingerprint. And he used that bike with every shred of his and its potential. That shitbox was perfect for him and he never wanted anything more.

We should all dream about and hope for that. Because that's what riding and life is all about. It's not about buying next year's shiny new stuff. That all tarnishes soon enough. It's not about buying new technology to overcome your shortcomings. There will always be new technology and you will always have shortcomings and some punk kid like Cory on a thrashed old bike will always be better/faster/smoother than you. Sorry, but it's true.

And it's not about buying new, expensive toys to prove your commitment to the sort of to justify your ego to you id. That's just kind of sad. Once, during one of our marketing hype-ups that happen in Corpoland, we tried defining what this magazine is supposedly all about. Someone tossed out the line: "BIKE - Enjoy the ride." Whether that fits or not, here, amidst the new and shiny sandwiched between pages of expensive glossy advertisements, it becomes a matter of conjecture. But that sentiment, "Enjoy The Ride," that's what I hope all of you are here to do. It's what Cory does.

March 17, 2005

Motorhead!! Good Goddamn! T1! Sweet!

So a few things have been goin on lately. First and foremost, I got to check out Motorhead the other night when they played at the Webster. GREAT fucking show. For the 30 years they've been around I have to say that they are probably to rock'nest band that I've seen live. Amazing show. That's the abridged version of the story. It gets a bit more interesting when told in detail....I get a phone call from my lady asking me if I wanted to go to the show. I thought about it for half a second and said sure. My only concern was ticket pricing and availability. That's when she said that she could get us in for free. Turns out that Lemmy was in the club where she waitresses and told mgt that he'd set up a guest list for anyone that wanted to go to the show. I jumped at the chance and got the details. She calls me back a couple of hours later and says that she can't make it because of homework and such but that I should still go.

So I head out to the Webster with instructions on how to get passes. Joe and crew were meeting me there. I go up to the ticket window, ask if this is where they do the guest list. Yup. I hand over my ID and wait while the girl goes and checks the list. I get a bit apprehensive when she returns with just my ID and no passes. She asks if I'm expecting anyone else. Blah Blah Blah. She disappears and returns, stamps my hand and hands me something. Then she tells me that someone will be out in a second to escort me downstairs. I nod in understanding (but am thoroughly confused. Downstairs?). Then I look down at my hand to check out what she gave me:



Yes. If you just said 'Holy Shit!!!' you're stating the exact phrase that escaped from my mouth upon the realization of what I've just been handed. So I get escorted downstairs and get to stand around with all of the other bands. I felt like a fish out of water. It was all hessians, leather jackets, torn jeans, motorcycle boots, long hair and haggard war stories. Then there's me. The tall-ass skinny kid wearing dickies, skate shoes and a warm-up jacket fleece thing. Everyone was super nice though. Real mellow atmosphere. I met the guys from Corrosion of Conformity for about 30 seconds while waiting for the bathroom. I hung around for about another 15 mins (that seemed like an eternity) for Joe....no Joe. So I head up to the stage to check out COC's show and wind up watching from behind the onstage mixer. I decide that I should head out to find my buddies. As I'm walking out into the crowd, this guy stops me and asks if I have any extra guitar picks. I tell him no and laugh to myself as I realize that he thinks I'm a roadie. I find Joe, have a drink, run into Jarrett, people watch, mullet count and just generally enjoy myself. Great show. I hung out with my lady today and she loaned this to me so I could post it here. This is one of the many reasons why she's the coolest girl in the world!



You know, for an older rock star, he looks damn good! And this was taken with a shitty polaroid. Today I hung around Middlenoun and just relaxed. Delivered a boxed bike to one of my customers who's moving back to Puerto Rico and wants to take his ride back with him. Now I've got a contact in PR if anyone's heading down there. Kami and I rode around town for a bit. She took the Silver Bullet (the commuter that I put together for her for Xmas) and I rocked the fixed. We ran some errands, stopped for coffee (bikes and coffee go hand in hand. Two beatifully simple {yet very complex} creations), and swung into Pedal Power so I could drop my carbon road fork off for inspection. I (unknowingly) got a bit overzealous with the torque on my stem and slightly ovalized the steerer tube in one spot. It's so slight that I could probably still ride it (who knows how long it's been like that. I've had it on the bike for 2 years) but the way carbon fails I figured that getting a couple of opinions would be a good idea. Getting a torque wrench this summer is priority. My buddy Mike who works there really dug my fixed. Checked out the ghetto duct-tape pockets on the cages and thought it was pretty rad. Then he turned around, scoped Kami's ride and said "WOW! This bike is even cooler!" Kinda swelled my ego a bit to get such a reaction on something that I put together.
Anyway, twas a great day off and a great week. Gonna try and ride some more tomorrow. Hope that everyone is trying to get out with the weather being pretty nice and cool.

Oh yeah! Almost forgot. I got two of my photos published in the new Terrible One zine. It should be coming out in the next couple of weeks. I submitted four but I'm not sure which two they selected. S'cool. I like being surprised. I should have my copy in the next week or so and I'll let you know how they look. When they become available for purchase I'll drop the address here so ya'll can head over and cop yo'selves yo very own. It's being printed too (not xeroxed like traditional zines) so it should be pretty high class!
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

March 09, 2005

Slopestyle Pt I

Here's a quick taste of some of the stuff that went down at the Slopestyle contest that I helped judge last weekend:

frontside boardslide on the c-box....


backside lipslide on the flat to down box.

Some good stuff. I'll have a bunch more in the near future. Let me know what you think.
Late!

March 06, 2005

Trees, Monsters, and Contests.....

Kami and I made our weekly riding trip up to Stratton last Thursday. After getting 12+ inches the day prior the snow was amazing to say the least. It was cold enough to keep it all powdery too. It was a bit windy but the bluebird conditions more than made up for it. Went into the trees for the first time too. All I can say is if you've never been riding through the trees you're really missing out. Definitely reminded me of whipping through tight single-track on a mountain bike. Except that you're more like floating and gliding. My favorite part was just sitting under a canopy of pines where all of the branches were filled with snow. It was like being in your own little snowy world. Hearing faint sounds of people skiing or riding by on the trails that flanked the trees. Another aspect that I really dug was the fact that you could take your own lines. Ride where ever you're so inclined. Just because someone else blazed a path doesn't mean that you have to follow. And there was so much snow (knee to waist deep in some spots) that there were many untouched lines. Just an unbelievable experience. Which brings me to my next story. Just as we were saddling up to head home, I snapped a photo of Kami:

Then we found we had a stowaway hiding in the car!!!



He turned out to be pretty friendly....


Now we have a new pet.


On a different note, there's been some weird stuff going on around the shop lately. Weird noises coming from the back room, things disappear when you know you put them somewhere, strange smells. All kinds of weirdness. I happened to bring my camera into work one day hoping I might shoot some interesting stuff when I caught this guy.....



I got kinda scared when I first encountered him not knowing what to expect. But then he did something completely unexpected:


Checked his watch! Wanted to know what time it was!
Then he tried to pick me up...

Told him I had a girlfriend and then hired him to tune skis in the back. I think it's a pretty good arrangement.

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to head over to Sundown and judge the slopestyle contest that out shop put together. The level of talent was so really good. Those guys and gals seriously threw down! I'll have some photos up in the near future once I get them scanned and touched up. More details to follow was well. Hope that everyone is doing well. By the way, the new bicycle buyers guides are out. Have you picked out your new ride yet? Check it! Peace!
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!