So after assuring you that I am officially back to tending the weedy garden that is this blog, I feel somewhat obligated to explain my rather lengthy hiatus from it with what few readers I may have left.
As I had mentioned some time ago, in an extraordinarily good turn of fortune for the firm I essentially embody one half of, we managed to finally secure paying work and as such all available time and efforts were directed at accomplishing our directive to a T.
Coupled with that daytime craziness, I also did two other things which are of some interest to this blog and pertain (at least loosely) to Cycling and/or New York City: First, I moved all of my worldly possessions out of my former residence and moved back to the ghetto.
Now don't get me wrong, Bed-Stuy has it's upsides; twenty-four hour liquor stores, bodegas-a-plenty, and
"low rent" to name a few. However, it also sucks in many other less immediately-noticeable ways, like the consistently crummy meat selection among the pitifully few choices of supermarket.
At any rate, I'm staying around the corner from a G train stop now and have had one opportunity so far to witness the hipster (read: white people) inundation of Bed-Stuy firsthand... You see, when I first moved here some eight years ago as a naive college student, most of us knew that going north of Classon Avenue by any means other than taxi or subway was a pretty bad idea. Then two years later a few friends and I moved right to the technical border between Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill (though real-estate agents like to consider it Fort Greene sometimes) and watched as we went from being an anomalie in that neighborhood to being the old hats that were 'cool' with the locals. Of course the barriers between
race,
religion, or
status of brooklyn's denizens haven't disappeared, they just moved north a ways.
So I feel strangely comforted living here again, I know the 'hood and my new house rocks: pool table, laundry in the basement, backyard, dishwasher, cool peeps; you name it.
I also have a miniature bunny bernard to keep me company:
The second thing that kept me without time for the bloggin' was an architecture/design competition I entered into with some cats from the school days. The deadline hasn't yet passed, and the work doesn't belong to me solely, but if everyone is fine with it, I might do a post later this week with some of the images and a description of the system we designed. I can, however drop something I did that didn't end up getting used in our submission booklet:
A new idea for the massive shortage of physical bike-storage infrastructure in places like Copenhagen is to merely delineate an area of sidewalk or curb-space for amorphous bike parking. Our submission proposed a lit piece of 'intelligent' infrastructure that would keep watch over bikes in it's view...
Working on the project was a lot of fun and I always enjoy getting the creative juices flowing, though I have to say, working in a group has never been my thing. I'm one of those people that wants either complete control or a minimum of responsibility. Of course, that's a secret I'll never let any of my past, present, or future employers onto.
I kind of feel like one of those dogs that keep running their legs after they've been removed from the ground; my brain still operates like there isn't a moment to lose, but my hands can't find things to work on at a complementary rate.
To fill the void I've again taken up working out a complete portfolio for professional marketing (shoot me now), and cycling.
I had felt a little miffed because along with the very-seasonal weather this autumn, my schedule prevented me from putting down the miles I normally would over the weekends and in the evenings... I think my most recent weekly total was on the order of 70 miles, due largely to the fact that my new residence is a good mile and a half closer to work, shaving three miles each day and fifteen miles a week off of that total. Now that I'm a hop, skip, and a jump away from everything I give a damn about in Brooklyn, most of my trips by bike are less than a couple of miles.
Though not all is bad on the cycling front; now that I take the Williamsburg bridge on my commute in, my legs are getting beefier and beefier from climbing the south-side ramp as a shortcut toward Manhattan each day. Also, riding that particular bridge affords me the opportunity to observe hipster 'culture' "on the ground," as they say in journalistic parlance.
But hipsters are
known to be skittish of other cyclists and bikes, particularly those with both good bike handling skills, multiple gear ratios, or uncoordinated 'colorways'; so I decided to disguise my road bike by outfitting it with this bad boy in the carbon materialway:
Yeeeeah, thats right; that's a
HED3. on
my bike. for real.
After a harrowing crash into a hasidic child last weekend, I completely cleaned and fixed the bike so it's tip-top again, and this tri-spoke looks killer on it and is the perfect addition to my ride.
I must admit that while I really wish I did, I didn't actually purchase this wheel; I'm borrowing it from a friend who seems to be delighfully unconcerned that I'm zipping around on something that costs nearly as much as the bike itself.
Maybe after a week or so of riding the HED I'll have a better idea of it's pros and cons, but after a couple hours on it so far, I can see why people drop serious cash on carbon wheels; the ride is remarkably supple and yet the steering is incredibly snappy and responsive. The only downside I have yet percieved is that the wide spoke blades catch cross breezes like theres no tomorrow and since its so damn light, a strong East River
gust could put you off course if you're not careful.
I think my favourite part of riding with this wheel is that it makes cool and intimidating noises depending on the air movement around it; in a crosswind going very fast it sounds like a muffled helicopter, though still quite audible (thp-thp-thp). With a headwind the chopping noise gets a little louder until you reach a certain speed where you can literally feel the wheel begin to knife the air in two.
Literally... that's not an exaggeration, this thing cuts the air like
marshmallows get mugged in Bed-Stuy -
fast-n-easy
