Co-Conspirators

August 24, 2007

The Sinking Ship cont...

So I finished The Sinking Ship tonight...stayed late at work to get the last few details right. Here she is in all her cold, steel glory....







Went together great! The only exception being that the canti tabs that I had welded on the seat stays were tacked on too high...so the brake pads are at their maximum lowest point in the caliper arms...meaning that they'll never be perfectly adjusted until they wear in. Other than that, it seems to run great! Here's the simplified bike check:
-Surly Cross fork
-Avid Shorty 6 cant brakes
-53 x 21 drivetrain
-Surly Singulator
-Mavic Open Pro's laced to Ultegra hubs
-Crank Bros Egg Beater pedals
-Custom Ghostship stem
-Custom Ghostship 'Indy' down tube decals
-19lbs and change (with pedals for all the weight geeks/snob/weenies who're keeping track....oh yeah! almost forgot, I weighed in at around 206lbs this morning but that was before I took a shit...and I was wearing socks. Tally that up you elitist bitches.)
Hopefully she'll stay in one piece for my first race this weekend up in Agawam, MA. Wish us luck and terror this weekend (as well as no mechanicals, lots of mud and no crashes!)!

August 17, 2007

Thank God For Cigarettes pt 2

So the show....holy shit! Dean and I left CT @ 2pm, had some good conversation and music on the way up, beating out the rush-hour traffic. We wandered around the city for a bit while waiting for friends to show up. Walked through Northeastern, down to Copley Square. Stopping into and Irish pub for a pint is where things began to get interesting.

No sooner do we sit down at the bar than this shit-housed, weird east islander looking dude starts trying to make conversation. After making small talk and pointing out my trucker hat, he states, "White trash from CT, huh?". What the fuck?! Then he backed off, did his little drunk apology. Dean talked him up a bit and found out about another bar further up the street. So we pound our pints and get the fuck out of the twilight zone episode our experience has become. Up the street, we go to the Pour House.

Damn, what a great bar! Cheap PBR on tap, cheap (good!) food, friendly bar-tenders, good music. A win-win situation. We definitely found the silver-lining to the cloud looming a bar back. We ate, drank and generally had a good time. On the way back we hit one last irish pub in Dean's buddy's neighborhood while we wait for them to call us. Hit the packy, pick up some Sparks and head to their house. We pre-game a bit and then take the T over the Roxy for the show.

Get up to the doormen at the entrance at which time we're told that the show is sold out. WTF!!!!! We start chatting with them a little and 2 of our crew zip right in and get to the floor. Fuck! So we back off around the corner and I check out what the hand stamps look like at the door. Our brains start going into overdrive about what we can do to get in. There are four of us at this point w/ two inside. No one has a black marker, is there a back entrance? Let's go buy a scalped ticket....The 2 come out and spin some ideas with us. I spy a cigarette butt on the ground and try to ash the back of my hand. Nothing. Dean puts out his cigarette and ashes my hand for me, then himself. One of our four decide he's not getting in and leaves. Time to give it a shot.

We walk up to the door like we own the place, breeze past the two guys at the door (who are stamping hands and have no idea what's going on). We go up the stairs, and are asked for ticket stubs or hand stamps. We show 'em the "stamps" and they ask where the 'Over 21' is. Ummmm, must have rubbed off, it's hot as fuck out! We're told to go back downstairs and get restamped. We get the same questions at the door by the guy we breezed past minutes earlier. Dean and I tag-teamed the dude with answers to his questions...'yeah, we've been here for like 15-20mins...it's super humid out, the stamps rubbed right off, the guys upstairs told us to come back down.' Aparantly, it worked, cause next thing we know, he's asking if we're with the band (we are if it gets us in!), and we're back in getting wristbands and are on the floor!

We run around a bit, checking out the floor. I randomly run into my friends Jay and Natalie. Haven't seen them in about 3 years! They're getting married, and life is great. Now I'm on cloud-fucking-nine, getting into a sold-out show using the oldest trick in the book, running into friends who are great, my brain is exploding!

I get up front for the last few songs of Lifetime's set, and wait for the Souls. They played great, I got a couple of Ghostship stickers up to the band, just awesome. There was a ton of crowd surfing going on. I didn't catch too many boots to the head. The worst part was some dude stage diving and gouging me in the eye. When you're jumping into a sea of people, keep your goddamned hands up! I was literally cross-eyed for about 3 songs! It must have been bad cause 2 guys in front of me were asking if I was alright.

An awesome show. Great night out, nice and cool. We grabbed some pizza on the way out and headed back to CT. An amazing evening if there ever was one. Good times!

THE BOUNCING SOULS (or Thank God for Cigarettes!)

The. Bouncing. Fucking. Souls. This show was possibly the best concert experience I've EVER HAD! How should we say.....Epic? Yes. Epic. Details tomorrow.....

August 15, 2007

Oleee, Ole Ole Oleee, Ohleeeeee, O-Oleeeee.....

Bouncing Souls tonight!!!!! So. Fucking. Excited!!!! Watch out Boston! Here's a photo of Pete I took the last time I saw them in New Haven:

August 13, 2007

New Art

I've been getting 'back to my roots' so to speak lately and doing more art. This should be the way that things have always been, but shit happens, you know? So here're two pieces that I've been working on lately.



-This is the painting that everyone's been asking about. It's still in process but I wanted to share where it is so far. Who doesn't love battling kites?



-Another piece that's kinda mid-process. I say 'kinda' because I've started doing these larger drawing pieces (like this one), kinda treating it like a big sketchbook. Total stream-of-consciousness type trip, naimean? They're super fun cause I get to be so loose and not worry too much if things are a little 'offy' (yep, it's a word now!). Oh yeah! Flickr gave me a pro account, so I was sorting through some OLD photos. As long as we're on the subject of art, here's a piece I did for my friend's old band Indian Chief Headdress:



One last thing! If you like reading about relationship advice (and wish that someone like myself or my boy Wolf wrote the answers) go check out this blog. Enjoy!

August 08, 2007

Sinking Ship (or Everything Was Going According To Plan When...)

I've dubbed it 'The Sinking Ship'...the rear tire clearance looks more like a track frame, seatpost size should be 27.2, but seems a bit smaller, issues with the Singulator....I've started putting together a single-speed cyclocross bike for the upcoming season. Had Jimmy from Black Magic Bikes retro an old road frame that I have to work as a cross rig. Started hanging parts on it tonight. The bb / cranks went smooth as snot. For all the road rides I did in the rain on my old road bike, the bb has little to no corrosion and is still smooth. Super stoked. Then I tried to hang the Surly Singulator...that's when things went wrong.

After fucking with the Singulator's return spring (swapped out the 'pushing down' spring for the 'pushing up' spring) for a good 30mins (I had to actually bend the spring end so it would match up with the hole it seats in...what a bitch!) I hung the part on the frame only to discover that the clamp bolt that adjusts the chainline position of the jockey wheel was stripped! Fuck! I pulled it off the frame and took the bolt out to see how bad the threads were. I could only laugh out loud when all the threads removed themselves along with the bolt. Spare fucking parts. If only I knew where my digital camera was, I could take a picture of all the carnage to share. Good thing my other parts order goes in tomorrow so I can slap another Singulator on there. Then I get to stay after work to disassemble my rear Campy shifter to figure out what the fuck isn't fully engaging and making shifting downright inaccurate and miserable. Maybe I should sell off a few bikes and alleviate some of the issues.....hmmmm. (Of course I'm joking!)

July 13, 2007

Help Me to Understand...

I'm pretty confused...I'll be straight out with it. I was seeing this girl...this amazing, beautiful, sweet, intelligent girl. Things were going great, so I thought. Then it all seemed to change up, like the flip of a switch. Suddenly, she decides that "she's not in the right mind frame for a relationship." This comes out after telling me how she told all her friends about me, told her Mom about me, sent me emails about how wonderful being around me seems...The reason I'm confused is because I shared all the same sentiments and actions. Being told one thing, being drawn in closer and closer, then being shut out for no apparent reason. Now I'm not the kind of guy who hates on women. In fact, I love you ladies, for real! The fairer sex, for sure. But come on, help me out here a bit. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but sometimes I really don't understand why or what you're thinking, and sometimes I don't think I ever will. So what's the deal ladies?

June 21, 2007

Finally Healed...

My piece has finally healed and I've finally taken the time to shoot decent photos of it.

June 13, 2007

Wednesdays Project...

Among getting a bunch of stuff crossed off the list of things I had to get finished, I still had some time to build up a couple of mallets for bike polo. These suckas are tall-boys! Standing at a towering 3 and a half feet tall, they should fit taller riders like myself fairly well. No more having to lean waaaaay over to try and strip the ball from opposing players! Can't wait to try 'em out on Sunday.

Farewell!

Last Sat night I got up with the Tyrant crew to wish amazing artist/human being Shawn Hebrank and his wife Merril farewell good luck in their new adventures out in Minneapolis. We swung by Bar to get the fun started, then headed over to Rudy's for the festivities. Highlights include, hanging with great friends, the frite Nazi, randomly running into Drew and some of the EC Scorchers, the class of 60-something reunion???!!!, Tony going bonkers...


-Jason at Bar.


-Merril, Shawn on the far right. (I forget the name of the guy in the middle).


-A study in focus...


-The drink of choice for the evening...

After this, it suddenly became the Tony Tyrant show...bonkers is a good word to describe it all. I think we thought we were going to get the boot at one point in the evening.


-Tony playing the ATM?!?...


-...Doing his monkey impression....


-...ummmmmm...yep.


-...getting ready to rumble with the dip-shit who was trying to lay claim to the pool table...fisticuffs were almost thrown...


-...we just about ended the night here...there's video of Tony doing some kind of weird, interpretive dance with a crazy light show in the booth here...

May 28, 2007

Fresh Ink...

I went and sat for some ink today with the infamous Shawn Hebrank. After about four hours, we were done. My only regret is that I hadn't sat with Shawn earlier. There's definitely something to be said for a guy who can make you laugh so hard you cry while he's drilling you with a tattoo gun! I'm super stoked on the finished piece! Here're some photos of the process...Oh yeah! Went to the Hartford Crit on Sat. El Bobo raced...came in second in his Jr's race and then hung with the big boys in the Elite Men's race...Adam Meyerson killed it! Check it:


-Peleton


-I think Aidan's in this photo...


-One of the NERAC boys d-ing up on the competition.


-Shawn deep in concentration...


-Finished outline.


-Dropping in the color...telling me some ridiculously funny story, I'm sure...


-The bloody, swollen, finished version...I'll have better photos when the swelling subsides....

May 07, 2007

T-Town Swap...

Went to T-Town on Sat for the Spring Bike Swap. Had a great time and awesome weather...the swap was standard swap fare...meaning that folks had loads of cash and didn't want to spend it. Saw plenty of crap...a few cool things. Took some photos. Had some bets going about hip-packs so I thought it'd be appropriate to share some photos...


-80's shirt? Check. Dungarees? Check. Hip-Pouch? You better fuck'n believe it.


-Utility belts aren't just for super-heros anymore! They're also for hipster, messenger wannabes. Bathing is out this year too, ditto for laundry....wait a second....is she wearing fucking gaiters??!!!!


-You can kinda see the hip-pouch on this one....you can also kinda see 'Brodie' across the way. Brodie was in the space next to us and he was heavily rep'n everything that is so very wrong with the bike industry today. I think he was pissed that he was missing his frat brother's drunken-sororoity-molesting-barbituate-induced-barbeque. So he made up for it by getting pissed by 9:30 AM, wrestling with his co-workers, and taking a piss in broad daylight in the 1.5' tall bushes behind up. Keep up the good work douchbag!


-Check out the pouch on this fella. It's kinda like a kangaroo or marsupial....radness....king of the pouches. Can't mess...


-It's not a pouch...but when was the last time you've seen a sock for your dreads? Me neither.


-When you're crammed into a 2x4 space for 6 hours on the road, you've got to find creative ways to sleep. Hans, gett'n his snooze on....or vainly trying to end his life because he's had enough hanging out with these dirtbags......

May 04, 2007

T-Town...

Going to T-Town tomorrow for the annual bike swap...should be a good time. Heading down with Karp and Hans...the last time the 3 of us teamed up, there was non-stop laughing for the whole trip (except when we were eating...too hungry to talk!). Should be a good time. Photos and stories to come soon....Oh yeah! This is pretty late, but congrats to Ken and Dana who now have a beautiful baby girl to add to the mayhem on the homefront!

April 26, 2007

Damn Kids!

Went out and shot some vid / photos with Tony T and Pete K. Pete's come a long way from the kid who was asking me how to do skids to throwing over-the-bar-cross-foot 360 skids....fuckin' kids....shown' up an old man! I sucked ass, but had fun. Tony'll probably have some photos and maybe a video up on his blog. Check it out!

April 24, 2007

eh?

This is what happens when bike punks show up to the prom...


-photo by Kelly Jensen

April 22, 2007

'What'd You Do Last Night?..."

...is commonly overheard at the shop in the mornings. This is what a couple beers and some time on your hands yields...with the added reward of a falafal at the end. Enjoy.

April 10, 2007

cold weather sucks...

I think I'm having a bout with 'Seasonal-Affective Disorder" or whatever the heck it's called. Every morning I ride to work leaves me in a sour, bitter, cursing mood when I arrive. It's almost mid-April...time for this ridiculous cold weather to fucking end so we can ride in shorts when we get out of work! I'm fucking moving to Cali....BWAAAHHHHHHH!

April 07, 2007

Mellow Night Out...

Because tomorrow is Easter, a few of us decided we wanted a nice low-key evening out. I met up with Tony, Tina and Shawn and headed down to the Elm City for some Falafel and a few beers @ Rudys. We were back before midnight....plenty of time to sleep before heading to see family for Easter tomorrow.


-Tony Tyrant.


-Tina.


-Shawn.


-Almost finished...


-Freshly devoured.

April 05, 2007

Photo Dump....

Here are the photos I've been meaning to put up over the past few weeks....enjoy!

UConn B-Boy Battle:








NY trip:
-Went to NY last weekend to hang out w/ Ma Dukes and relax a bit. Random snaps I took...most whilst driving...






-I remember when this used to be forest....


-On the way to Ma Duke's house...






-The road I used to live on...






-Heading back home....






-this is one of my favorites...

After getting back to homebase, I screened up a couple of limited edition Ghostship bandanas. One for myself, and one for the winner of the New Haven April Fool's Day Alleycat. Bandanas are made from scratch on a heavier cloth than what you'd normally find (bandana-wise). Excellent for keeping the cold out of your lungs during a ride. If you're interested in one, let me know. I don't have much material left. The next batch will be a larger run and probably be a little different.