Huge Congratulations!

A huge congratualtions goes out to my lady (who is ridiculously smart. Waaaay smarter than I). If you see or talk with her, make sure to congratulate her because she will be attending the Yale School of Nursing in the fall. I always knew you were brilliant Kami!

Craziness at the Pan!

Lots of great stuff happening lately....Went up to Stratton on Thur with my Lady. Had a great time riding around in the crusty, icy, corn snow of lower VT. Watched some kid do an impressive air-to-rib cage on one of the little jumps in the kiddy park. If you can't get up after you hit, you should probably seek some kind of medical attention. Kami rocked some rails. We cruised around enjoying the sunny, bluebird skies. Took a few laps through the bigger park to mess around in the super-pipe. I've never ridden in anything so huge before. There was a lot of over-vert at the lip of most of pipe. Kindy scary. After falling a few times I started to wish that it was March and that the snow was softer.

Today we just hung around the house and relaxed. A couple of the stiffs at work got me sick so I've been popping my Wellness Formula every few hours. The stuff works remarkably well! Decided around 5:30 or so that we should get out and around. Went to the mall to check out the Mac store and drool over all of the cool, expensive shit. I'm in love with the flat screen monitors. The 22" would be perfect for what I'm doing. Looking at the ridiculous 30" cinema screen made me laugh. Both of us thought that it would be better suited for watching TV than working on computer stuff. Went and made a LONG overdue visit to the Pan. Rocked out to some triple shreds in garlic sauce and tried their vegan barbeque spare ribs. If you've never tried them before, 'You've really got to get off your ass." Amazing! Ran into Metal Steve enjoying his meal with his folks. Cool people. He's turning 27 on Tuesday so if you see him, give him his birthday shots. Went to the bookstore afterward. Settled down to catch up on all the latest BMX hype and in walks Steve and his folks. Talked a bit more about stuff in general. According to Steve, the new High on Fire will 'Make you poop yourself'. Now that sounds like a good record investment! Steve!....You need to write some music reviews for my zine! Whip some stuff up and send it to me with those photos you were talking about!

Speaking zines, if anyone has short (short) stories you've written, photos you've taken, or pictures you've drawn and want to see it in print, let me know! I don't have any sort of a timeline for the completion of this project but the more interest that I get, the quicker it may come into fruition. I can't offer you any money either (unfortunately) but I can offer my eternal friendship and comradery [sp?]. Black and white only. We goin' old school wit dis shit yo!
Ride Fast! Ride Hard!

Welcome to the Ice Coast!

Went riding after work tonight. We knew it would be fast. With all of the warm weather, people skiing and riding, and then the freezing temps @ night, it makes for damn fast conditions. Pat and I took a few warm up runs before the rail carnage ensued. I'm amazed that he can ride so fast on such a buttery board. On the first run I look up to see him straight-lining the whole damn trail, just fucking mach-ing it. Sick! We take a couple of runs on the 'park' trail. Checking out the iced up landings. Then we headed over to the box section to mix it up a bit. One of the rails claimed Pat's knee. I flopped all over the damn things not feeling comfortable at all with the iced up landings and run-ups. On the last run while riding switch, I caught an edge and got a good hard body-jar to the ribs while trying to keep my arms pasted to my sides (to avoid wrist damage). That was about all she wrote. Packed it in and headed home.

I'm thinking about getting a zine together. Seriously this time. If anyone is interested in contributing to it with original stories or written work, original photos or artwork please let me know. I don't have any kind of time frame at the moment. I've been messing with a couple of things in photoshop playing with my photos and layouts. Just an idea that's been thrown around the backshop for so long that it needs to be physically realized. Cool. Gonna do some laundry and read Fast Food Nation.
Ride Fast Ride Hard!

The Monkey Sleeps at Midnight!

So here is the overdue but promised art update. Karp gave me this great idea that I should post a piece in stages from start to finish so you can see everything along the way. So here is the whole thing. I kind of rushed it along so I could see teh finished product, hence, everything is very loose and sketchy (please bear with it). Comments and constructive criticism are both welcomed so bring it fo'!








And there you have it. From sketch stage to 'finished' piece complete with cartoony palm fronds swaying gently with the warm jungle breeze. Makes me want to go pass out. Late!

Snowbooze Industry....

I'm back from the 'On-Snow Demo' which is, exactly as the name pertains, a demo that is held on the snow. Being a member of the 'Snowsport Industry' I and many others get the unique opportunity to try next year's equipment now. This is great for the buyers who haven't quite made up their mind yet as to what pieces of equipment they want to purchase for their shop for the coming season because they get real world experience in trying the stuff out 'on the snow'. It's also a great opportunity for a shop schlep like myself and many others to try the stuff so we know how it rides and can more accurately describe it's handling characteristics to a potential customer. Sadly, most shopfolk see this as an opportunity to get fucking smashed and act like retards for three days. It's mostly a posturing contest. See who can look cooler that the next guy and hit on any girl within a 100 feet. I had a kind of epiphany while I was there (some big words for this blog...I apologize....easy, stay with me. Promise it won't happen again anytime soon!). It occured to me that most of these shop owners and buyers don't want to grow up. Not that wanting to stay young is a bad or negative concept, but trying to act like you're 18 when you're 30, 40 plus years old is just fucking lame. You work in a shop. Or were asked to work for a rep. Big fucking deal. Argh. Now I'm rambling. Fuck it.

We had a pretty good time. Rode some great new stuff and talked to some super cool folks. I'll take any bluebird, mild, windless day of riding over most anything. Looking at getting a crew together for a little Letdown action this Sunday. Got my confidence up and gonna try some backsides on the box. If you wanna see me get worked, you should come out! Shouldn't be too many people cause of the game and all. Congrats, by the way, to our friend Haasenstuffins who now works for Mercedes Benz in Hartford! If anyone's roll'n on a busted Benzy, he's the man to see to make it all better. I promise that the art update is coming! Really! Patience. That's all she wrote!

Disappearing act....again!

I'm disappearing again for a few days. Heading up north to go check out the annual industry demo where I get to try all of next years snowboarding equipment. I think it's going to be sunny the whole time so that should be sweet. Counting down the weeks til our inventory day...cause after that we start our summer business. Shorter hours, shorter weeks, bikes! I can't wait to be able to ride in everyday and not have to worry about what the windchill is going to be like. Don't get me wrong, riding in and of itself is great and I'm lucky to be able to do so, but not stressing ice patches and poor drivers at the same time will be kinda nice. Almost ready to post some artwork that I've been cleaning up in photoshop. For a quick sketch it's not too bad in its finished form. I'm gonna go pack my crap for the demo. Late!

Another Year Older...

Yup....another year older. Yesterday was one of the best birthdays in many a year. Got to ride in fresh snow with a bunch of good friends in the morning. At least 6 inches of snow. Probably closer to something like 8. Tried the new Venue out. It rocks! So much fun for just messing around on. I can nose press forever! Dropped Joe off at work on the way home. Showered, changed and went to my ladies. She made me this ROCK'N cappellini with sauted [sp?] zucchini, portobellos and marinated artichoke hearts (my favorite). Then I was surprised when she brought out the Italian birthday cake complete with ridiculously sweet frosting and filled with strawberries and peaches. Amazing. Definitely a full day. Slept like a rock. Then I found two grey hairs this morning. Almost like it was planned. Odd. Yeah. Fun.

Back From Hiding!

What's up? Been a while since we've visited. Let's get caught up. My Lady and I went up to Sugar Loaf, ME for a few days a couple of weeks ago. It snowed all day the first day so we had some nice powdery stuff to ride in. Lift access about 200 feet out the back door of our hotel. Second day was much colder and windier [sp?] than the first. Still had a great time and rode a lot. Ate some really good food. Drove home in shitty weather that extended our 5 hour trip into a 7 hour one. Was good to take some time off from the shop so I could just relax and breathe. I feel like it has definitely restored my vigor at work. Should try to get out to Letdown some night this week and rock some rails. The work-load has slowed down a bit and allowed my cohorts and I to actually clean the place up. We cleaned out Big Green (our beloved tuning machine) swept the floors and did a general mass cleaning of epic proportions.

Remember that huge artwork post I promised a few weeks ago? Well, here it is. Maybe not as huge as you would think, but big nontheless. It's all quick sketchbook stuff that I've been pounding out after work. Experimenting with some concentrated watercolors that I've had for a while. Enjoy!





Someone asked if I had been watching the Faith No More video 'Epic'....not recently. Hadn't even thought of it til they mentioned it.


-figure studies with a random foot study.


-was super tired when I drew this so I figured that I'd work with what I knew.


And finally, the last in the 'Foggy Night' series.

I think that's about it. Commuted one day last week through the slush, ice, salt and sand. Going to try and keep the momentum up. I'll let you know how it's going. Let me know how you are and what you've been up to. Be good!

Rainy, Cold, Icy, WTF Old Man Winter?!

S'bout time that I post something new. Haven't really been thinking of posting anything new as of late. Getting rid of this sickness has been the number one priority lately. So let's get caught up on what's been going down. Been working a lot. The holidaze have passed and the steady flow of equipment coming through the shop has slowed a bit. Instead of taking in massive amounts of shit, we now take in things that needed to be done yesterday. So the stress level is still just as high. The weather sucks. No two ways about it. Lots of rain. Not cold enough to snow. Cold sets in AFTER it rains and turns everything to ice. I think it's time to have a chat with old man winter and tell him to get his shit together or get the hell out of Dodge. Because there's only ice and water here, I'm heading north to Maine for the next four days or so where they know how to do winter right. Hopefully there'll be lots of fresh stuff to slide around on.

Picked up two new musical things of interest. The new 311 dvd: Live in New Orleans on 311 Day. Two discs of great music. Over 4 hours. The show they played was over 5 hours long. Holy crap. I don't think I could have stood around for 5 hours. Also coped the new Anthrax disc. Not too bad. Some really good tunes. Some ok tunes. Good to hear Scott Ian's still rock'n. That guy rules. That's about all I got. Will hopefully be posting some new artwork sometime soon. Oh yeah! I just remembered. Here's a piece that I never posted:


From my 'Totem' design stuff. I drew the original and then tweaked it in Illustrator. Hope you dig it.
Later!

Happy New Year and such.....

What's up? Hope that all your New Smears' festivities went off without a hitch and that the drunken antics will provide you with much laughter for the next 12 months. I will hopefully kick the remnants of this cold that are still lurking inside me. My olfactory senses are still muffled (which I'm really pissed about), sinus' still clogged and still have congestion in the chestal areas. Did I ride on the beautiful 50 degree day that was New Year's day? Nope. I stayed couch-ridden @ my ladies' crib and stayed glued to the tube watching the coolest crap on the Food Network. Did I want to ride? Oh my hellsyeah! I'm trying to let things get better and less 'mucousey' before I put my body though more strain and stress. Hopefully things will pass soon. Let me know how things went for all of you. Big shout-out to my man the Fuse for the hook-up with the 'Red Tide' disc. Those dudes rock! Been listening to it non-stop. Thanks!

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!