...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:

... phot-o-the-day

CMWC 2009 in Tokyo by Tak of New York Bike Dreams.

On an interesting side note before I get back to slaving away on the CAD, those Livestrong bikes Lance rode this past year were up for grabs at a Sotheby's auction recently, and some of them fetched some serious dough... Of course, Damien Hirst's ridiculous pink madone topped the list at $500,000.00

Check the ending prices of the other 6 here.

...Illustrative Friday Fun

This is to give you an idea of some of the art I've been checking out recently. Good stuff for the most part...

You may have noticed that I've started to put forth at least a minimum of effort in citing images and work on this blog. While I'm personally of the mind that things like art and technology are created 'pro bono' as they say in legal parlance, and are for common benefit, credit should be given where credit is due.

I've been slow to accept the garish 'colorways' that seem to dominate contemporary painting, graphic design, and illustrative fields; but I knew one day I would chance upon something that would pique my aesthetic sensibilities more than the crap the 'stream poops out.

(image used without permission from Francoise Nielly)

(image used without permission from Matt W. Moore)

(image used without permission from Gianluca Fallone via thecoolhunter.net)

(image used without permission from Kenji Hirata)