...Happy Thanksgiving to All or A Tribute to Curious Fishes

Since today is the national day for recalling why we're more fortunate than we would readily admit on "normal" days and food, I thought I'd regale you with a list of things I'm particularly thankful for in the past year...

1. My folks, The best parents a son could ask for! I have them to thank for just about everything, including, but not limited to: my love of bad jokes and even worse puns, an analytic frame of mind, putting up with flighty teenagers for fifteen years, paying for college, and having faith in me to pursue my own interests and convictions.

2. Mr. Bernard B. Bunn. Partner in crime and co-contributor to this blog, me and mr. B are tight like that... This little guy has been inked up since day one, that's how hardcore he is. But he's shy at times too, so I'll tell you what he's thankful for: pets on his nose and stick.

3. Friends. All of 'em. Sorry guys but y'all deserve a shout out as long as it's going: The whole houston crew; Mpshl, Tavern, David, James Bus, Jeff, Rowan, Erika, John Martin, Pillsfuck, "Cole", and all the cool kids from high school. The Brooklyn crew; Ica, Mo, Button, Walker, Heath, the new roomies, the Brooklyn Kubb League, Tina, Dylan, Benjy, Grambo, Mon, Nick, Chris, Brandon, Kenya, Serb, Jimmay, Eric, Nathan "El Maestro" Rodriguez, Chris (diff one), Phil, Marc, Josh, Emily, Jamie, Matt, Zach, Philip, Duffy, and everyone else I missed.

4. My trusty steed: El Diablo Negro

5. NYC, the Imperial City.

6. Architecture, for giving me something to obsess over. And Mexico...

7. Chance encounters with stunning beauty.

8. The Brooklyn Brewery, Frank Lloyd Wright coasters, and cycling caps (white-guy fro is pretty unattractive).

8. The Beach (and beer and Mexico again)

9. Prospect Park. I'm in the best shape of my life largely thanks to the existence of this awesome place. Never gets old.

10. Art, the Met, and Shenanigans (those silly greeks, always playing "got your head, whatcha gonna do about it?")

Lastly I thought it appropriate to thank those adversaries that stir me to action, namely, salmon. Here is a tribute to the salmon I've caught on camera in the past year. In some the salmoning is more difficult to notice than others but all are egregious infractions of directionality:

Sidewalk Salmon, king of morons.

Crippled Djembe Salmon

The elusive musical San Juan Salmon

Dolly salmon (and bike-salmon, if you look close)

Dismounting Salmon

Pedestrian Salmon (this is almost acceptible because only an idiot would use Times Square as the a quick way to go south by bike, and space is limited there to begin with)

Salmon morphing into regular cyclist at 29th and 6th.

Leatherhead Salmon

Legal Salmoning.

Well friends, I'm going to go figure out who's Thanksgiving I'm going to crash, and maybe settle on a turkey sandwich and a couple bottles of vino. Enjoy the grub today and ride safe, turkey is known for breeding lazy peddlers!

Also enjoy this submission to the "Biking Rules" PSA contest:

... colorway me a dork disc

This weekend I didn't do any spectacular or inspiring cycling to which a lengthy and abounding write-up would be appropriate. With the exception of some high-pace laps around Prospect Park, I pedaled softly from place to place with the girls, just enjoying the sunshine and pleasant company.


We spent a while at Outpost, a new-to-me cafe x bar collabo on Fulton St. between Grand and Classon Aves. A few of my close friends frequent this establishment on a regular basis and attested to it's quality. I must say, any place where Brooklyn Lager is rightly considered domestic beer (and $4 a bottle) gets a thumbs up from me... too often I go to bars in this city where it certainly isn't the most expensive beer on tap, but it's strangely priced similarly to big-name imports like Stella, Heineken, and Dos Equis.

Seriously though, they brew that shit in Utica (no, not the storied Utica of ancient-times notariety).


However, many things are produced here in the city, such as "custom" machines by Bespoke Bicycles, above.

I went over to check out this store on Lafayette Ave. while the ladies were recuperating from the temptations of expensive clothing across the street. Though they seemed to have quite a few things for sale and the employees seemed nice enough, I didn't actually see any truly bespoke bikes. sure many were be-spoked with shiny new wheels and they all boasted beautiful paintjobs, but I didn't notice any frames that looked custom welded, nor did the telling stench of ozone greet my nose when I went in (a sure sign that someone is, or has been, welding nearby).

I didn't stick around for long so I can't concievably turn this experience into a LBSR, but I must say that I hope they do well and are a permanent fixture in Fort Greene, and I sincerely hope they do actually build custom frames and can find a market for them.

Unfortunately, for people who can afford them, a 'bespoke' bicycle is often more fashion accessory than serious transportation. I'm not saying that I want everyone to be ascetic and discard all but the most fundamentally useful bicycles, but I would like to see reason and utility inform thier purchases, as opposed to 'colorway' coordination and subcultural branding that dominates the bike scene here.

Hipsterdom started the colorway-ing of bicycles a few years back, branching off from the catch moniker of beautiful simplicity and transforming itself into a grotesque industrial behemoth bent on catering to the weens and wans of the wandering and lost youth of Williamsburg.

I suppose there's nothing wrong with wanting your bicycle to be unique or readily identifiable among others; though as I noted before, the fixie scene here has passed the inflection point whereby the exception has become the norm. Like the be-plaided, be-booted, psuedo-anarchy of punks in the nineties, 'deep-vee' rims and miniature handlebars are now the uniform of the urban (and at times, suburban) hip.

That glimmer of rationality in fixed-gear culture that shunned the unnecessary and embraced the minimal has been subverted by people of all entrepeneur-ways. Like so much else in life that derives it's beauty and appeal from it's purity, it has been raped by the long cock of capitalism and public misunderstanding.

One of the products that I find metaphorically apt here is the oft-overlooked dork disk - the thin metal or plastic disk that comes on all new geared-bicycles regardless of price or intended use. It is called the dork disk because if you maintain your derailleur even a little, you have absolutely no need for it.


Similarly, if your bike lacks the ability to shift gears, the dork disk does nothing for you except provide added wieght and possibly another site for colorway-ing your ride. One would then think that this would be a rare sight, but alas, it is not.


Take the above example from fixed gear gallery; this disk must have been intentionally added. I have circled the offending part in colorway BADA55 and likened it to another popular "dork disk" to elucidate my meaning.

Though this bike hasn't maximized it's colorway potential by using a stock-metal disk, it's safe to assume that this trend will likely yeild lots of 'hard-anodized' dork disks in a multitude of styles. Then again, hipsters are known for palping useless appendages for unknown reasons (like beavertail fenders to presumably keep road grime from soiling their threadbare hanes which are undoubtedly already dingy from being exposed to the grimy hipster buttocks upon which they rest).

I don't know if this represents an invasion into bicycle culture by yet another product-way, but if my recent odometer sighting is any indication, the apcalypse seems to be nigh.


Rock on, lock on, SATAN! (to be pronounced SAY-tawn)

...prunings and eye candy

• The Big Picture is an awesome photo-journalism arm of Boston.com where you can waste hours flipping through large format pictures of excellent composition on a smattering of subjects. My current favorite, of course: 2009 Tour de France. (forwarded by a reader)
  

• Sashae's Flickr photostream of cyclists and their bikes. It seems primed to become (gasp) another Cycle-Chic blog though of the fixed gear and grungy urban-chic, not the 'artistically' monochromed and leather saddled-chic to which we have become accustomed. (via Prolly)
  

• This prototype tail-light that paints colored lines on the road with lasers to help drivers be aware of clearances you require when they pass. I thought that this was just another product enabling hipsters to further customize their fixed-gear bikes until I saw this video. Considering that the lines don't fade under headlights and ambient light, I will definitely get one of these if they decide to make them in multiple 'colorways'. (via altitude)
  

• Students at MIT are developing batteries for electric cars that can be fully recharged in 10 minutes flat! Let's see if the government squashes this as quietly and efficiently as they did the EV1. (via Inhabitat)

• Using Wiimotes as tracking devices, Japanese researchers have figured out how to create touchable holograms utilizing a "phenomena called acoustic radiation pressure" to create sensations in a user's hand. I wonder how long it'll take for this to turn into hyper-realistic, interactive porn... (via physorg.com)

• The great hipster silk route has widened to accomodate a new watering hole in the form of Der Schwarze Kölner, a new beer garden that has just opened on Fulton and S. Oxford St. Considering they offer liter mugs, I may have to stop in tonight for a cold one or three. (via NYTimes: Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill blog)
  

...a good day for a brewski

Since around 9000 BC, man (and occasionally woman) has imbibed himself with grain-based alcohols, arguably the most popular of which is beer. Being the third most popular drink in the world (behind water and tea, apparently), beers are numerous in kind and vary widely in flavor and content, yielding very specific tastes and preferences amongst those that enjoy the foamy beverage.

This was evidenced yesterday, when our man Bam shared a chat over a cold one with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge police officer that arrested him for disorderly conduct, Sargent James Crowley. Also in attendance was VP Joe Biden, but he had a non alcoholic brew (either he previously had problems with drinking, or he needed to drive somewhere later), so he can't really claim participation in the 'Beer Summit'.


Gates and Crowley were in good form, choosing Sam Adams Light and Blue Moon, respectively; though Obama once again donned his 'everyman' persona opting for Bud Light of all things... Biden drank an ironic brew called Bucklers.

I must tip my hat to Obama... It's no secret that I'm a fan of his, but a chat over a beer to cool the hot hearts of those at the center of a media-hyped 'controversy' on a beautiful summer evening seems to me to be a great way to make amends and quell animosities. I have rarely been in the mood to start shit with people while drinking beer, and can attest to it's friendliness-inducing nature.

Speaking of how yummy and awesome beer is, It is important to note how nutritious it is and its recognized usefulness to athletes; cyclists in particular. One 12 oz bottle of beer typically contains about 150 calories, 13 grams of carbohydrates, and a gram of protein. It's also is chock full of vitamins and minerals essential to bodies taxed by exercise, they include impressive amounts of B3 (niacin), and B9 (folate), to name a few, and being about 90% water, beer also makes it an excellent beverage for re-hydrating oneself after sweating profusely.

This interesting 1962 Tour de France documentary, forwarded to me by a reader, is testament to this. Note the "pub raids" about halfway through.



I wondered if the fans of a given cyclist would try to bar his rival from raiding their pub in hopes of giving their man a lead...

I really admire the cyclists who competed in the tour prior to the advent of race radios, team cars, air-conditioned lodging, and high tech sports drinks. It took true grit to complete the tour back then, and doping was done more so to dull the pain than it was to increase performance. In fact, it was a generally accepted fact that professional cyclists pulled a Tom Boonen every now and again to keep going under such strenuous conditions.

After I go riding tomorrow, I can guarantee I'll recuperate with a frosty friend or two... you should too!