MIssed Connections: A Tale of Brooklyn...

Ecuador Earrings - w4w

Date: 2010-06-29, 10:02PMThis is going out into the netherworld so I can let go of it. I can't get the thought out of my head that I should have gotten a name, made more convo, not ran away with my water. But how do you talk to someone who is with someone without them feeling protective? Honestly, I just want to know more people like the both of you. It's like I felt this crazy energy from you, so much so that I went upstairs and had what felt like an anxiety attack! Then I attracted a person to me who told me to send my overwhelming vibes to the sun. I felt like a chain of events happened the minute you appeared at the bar next to me, like you were meant to be there, and even weirder that you used to live very close to where I live now in a different state. It would be one thing if it was in NY. Of all the people in that club...how did I run into you? Maybe we were fated to be friends and I totally bungled that by getting shy and running away. This is totally gay I know. Wish I hadn't acted so weird.

• Location: City Saturday
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Original URL: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mis/1818278658.html 


(the underlining is my "poche" as they say in so called "intellectual circles"...as are parenthetical citations, apparently...)

sorry, that's a lame ass post... here, press command and click this...



and now look at this:

...new toys, necessary delays, and a peek under the drop cloth

Given the amount of time, effort and money (gathered through time and effort) I've invested in making a legitimate racing machine out of the Allez, I think it's only right that I resist the temptation to let it "drop" until it's complete...completely complete.

After having the most crucial components installed and taking it for a few quick spins to get accustomed with the new gear, I realized that it was missing a few finishing touches.

So tomorrow evening I will take delivery of this...

 

...and this...

 

...from the good folks at NYC Velo (anyone who supplies me with "free" espresso while placing orders qualifies as good people).

I hope to find the time to install these guys on the bike prior to the phryday festivities, after which I will get the whole set up cleaned to a sparkle and go at it with a camera and tripod for the purposes of posterity and gloating (mostly gloating).

Anyways, here are a few spy photos of the build thus far...

 

 

Ok enough titillation for one day...

RIP Alexander McQueen, Franco Ballerini, and Lino Gastaldello.

and I'm out...

Update: Sorry about the shitty formatting; blogger has this new post-composing interface that is excruciatingly inconsistent... all those photos are supposed to line up vertically, though don't worry, I'll hopefully have it resolved soon.

...the weekend madness (installment 11)

I'm not going to lie; aside from a swingin' good time at a friend's birthday party and ten token laps around Prospect Park, I really didn't do any good cycling this weekend...

Bike racers call all time on the bike not in a race or race-pace setting "junk miles". This apparently includes commuting, pleasure riding, running errands, etc... That in mind, I'm bummed to learn that about 70% of the miles I clock every week are "junk."

Of course, I take issue with the idea that any time spent on a bicycle could be junk - and by extension, worthless - especially when I'm enjoying a nice ride through previously unknown locales. That's why news like this makes my heart split in two:

Photo: Tom Reel, San Antonio Express News.

This is Kylie Bruehler, 7, at a memorial service for her parents. One day recently, they went out for a nice ride together on their tandem bike in Bexar Co. when they were struck from behind by a pickup truck and killed. The mother, Alexandra, died at the scene; and her husband, Gregory, died an hour after being airlifted to a hospital.

Ehh, I'm already getting a little choked up here.... read the "news story" about it here.

If you didn't bother to click that link you were about to miss the best part, but no worries, I'll relate it to you now:

Investigators say there are no charges on the driver. They believe this was an accident and that somehow the driver lost control of his truck.

One more time for impact "NO CHARGES ON THE DRIVER"

That's just salt on the emotional wounds this poor girl will carry for the rest of her life... Add insult to injury and this is what you get.

I'm not entirely sure how someone can either intentionally or unintentionally run down two people, drag them for over 200 feet, killing them, and get off totally free. 100 fucking percent blameless right? Maybe it's a Texas thing, though I'm not certain 'cause I'm from texas and I remember it to be a place fairly crawling with police, itching to issue citations for the most minor of infractions.

Maybe when it comes to something big or important they're left dumbstruck about what to do since they're too busy eating fucking donuts under overpasses waiting for someone to do 56 in a 55 on "their highway".

But of course, when the law abiding citizenry tries to curtail needlesss motorist/cyclist altercations by proposing a "safe passing distance law", and it passes both the house and senate with flying colors, you get dickheads like Rick Perry that'll just veto it because it's "unnecessary."

Score one for rednecks, now you can actually go all the way in running me off the road and not have to stop at screaming "faggot!" as you drive by... Don't worry, It'll be my fault that I was on the road you and only you pay taxes for, right?

Ignorance makes the bile flow upstream, like a salmon...

... keeping it real Thursdays

I was dismayed to read that a new ghost bike has been chained to a signpost at Fulton and Washington where Julian Miller was fatally struck by a motorcyclist on September 18.


I really don't feel like getting into a road rules debate right now, but this article about what supposedly lead to her and the motorcyclist's death kind of got under my skin...

The article even relates one person's corroboration of reports of two guys on crotch-rockets racing up and down Greene Ave before the incident. I've got nothing wrong with clubs, or even gangs, that center around a particular vehicle, hobby, or sport; but I'm pretty sure everyone in Brooklyn is intimately familiar with the growing popularity of driving a motorcycle like a goddamn maniac in the middle of the night. So why aren't we doing something about the ones who are flagrantly disobeying both common sense and local law; and instead pleading with cyclists to be more "defensive," "watchful," and "vigilant" of them?

Since when is it the duty of the law-abiding citizen to accommodate the transgressions of the law-breaking citizen? All this mentality does for us is perpetuate this disgusting culture of fear we've submitted to both consciously and unconsciously.

Though after reading the "account" of what transpired, it seems that Ms. Miller was salmoning up Greene or riding off the sidewalk between cars in the dark of night.

If you'll recall, I recently be-frogged my bike in a clever lightway that helps me and my penchant for dark clothing stay visible when riding after hours, and as a result I've become keenly aware of many bikes' extreme lack of illumination. I don't want to encourage people to bedazzle their bikes with those stupid peel-n-stick neon green reflectors, but some lights or reflectors are always a good thing (bear in mind, if you have lights theres really no point in having reflectors too, since the light should outshine the light bouncing off the reflector; if it doesn't, you need new batteries for your lights).


I've also started riding around Prospect Park on Tuesday and Thursday evenings since I'm somewhat unhappy with the speed my fitness allows me to ride at. In doing so I notice an irritatingly common problem with bicycle traffic at this time of day: people salmoning, lightless, through the pitch-dark park to (I assume) save a few seconds on their evening commute.


But recently I haven't been vocalizing my disdain for bike salmon, and instead have adopted a live-and-let-live policy, only saying something when they directly affect my safety or path of travel. I figure nobody wants to get lectured at anyway, and hopefully one day they'll realize that riding with traffic is far less scary than the opposite by their own volition.

Then again, the Police certainly aren't helping the situation (that is assuming they lead by example, which we all know, they don't), as evidenced by this occurence I was fortunate enough to capture this morning as I walked my bike to the service entrance of my office building:


Yes, thoust eyes dostn't decieve thee; that is indeed a Cop-salmon. I thought i was going to catch him sidewalk-salmoning, but right as I managed to free my camera from my bag, he rode into the new protected bike lane on Broadway... Oh well, this just as bad if not worse in my opinion.

Not to leave you with a sour taste for cycling, I was heartened to see that the Bergen St. 2,3 station in Brooklyn now boasts bike racks for commuters to use.


I only wish we could see this at every train station instead of having people to resort to vertical locking jobs on scarce bike racks, fences and signposts... But it's nice to see people are at least riding part of the way to work...

...keepin it real Thursdays (late ed.)

Fortunately for this blog, there have been lots of crashes, smashes and bucket kicking of late and I am proud to commence this edition of KIRT with a tribute to the unforgettable Taco Bell bitch (yes, turns out it is a female... who knew?), Gidget the Chihuahua, who is now dead.


I'm sure that while Mexicans the world over are throwing lavish fiestas now that the poster-dog for the bastardization of the Spanish language is dead, Americans are feeling a little bummed about the loss of yet another icon of tasteless advertising.

In the Tour de France this Tuesday past, Jens Voigt crashed at extremely high speed while descending the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard, resulting in a fractured cheekbone and a concussion. Unfortunately for him, he's being kept at a hospital in Grenoble and will no longer be able to contest the remaining stages of the tour (not that he really had a chance at GC contention, but still). Velonews reports:

Voigt apparently hit a dip on the road to knock his equilibrium off as he rode at the tail of the group of GC riders. His front wheel violently jolted and the veteran German landed hard on his face and chest as speeds topped 70kph.

Ouch... all face. Now, I couldn't help but notice that not only did that look fairly painful, the part of his head 'protected' by his helmet never really came into contact with the pavement; as usual, the skull's fall was cushioned by his chest, face, and shoulders hitting first. Don't believe me? watch it a few more times.

This further supports my opinion that cycling helmets are simply what non-cycling legislators have latched onto as something that 'saves lives' though they are rarely (if ever) the focal point of impacts.

The fearmongering our government (and many others) utilizes in effort to be absolved of wrongdoing has very lasting and negative effects on our society. For example, isn't it strange that when you tell someone about a cycling accident where someone broke their leg (just pulling them out of the air here) the first thing they'll ask is "well, were they wearing a helmet?" as though a styrofoam basket on your head will prevent taxis from merging into you or will somehow make concrete easier on the knees.

Yo Quiero menos restricciónes.

update: real sorry about that video being gone... This always happens with late-breaking video from eurosport, versus, and universal sports. look forward to a curt tirade about copyrighting and other affronts to the freedom of knowledge.

...the weekend madness (installment 3)

Well-known people have been dropping like flies this past weekend; aside from MJ and FF dying last week, Billy Mays, the boisterous infomercial king died on Sunday, much to the dismay of couch potatoes, budding entrepreneurs, and television execs everywhere.


Also newly dead is the former women's road racing world champion and frequent olympian, Zinauda Stagurskaya. She was hit by a truck riding on a highway in her native Belarus, training for the national road championships slated to take place later this week. I think it is simultaneously ironic and fitting that a road racing world champion dies on their bike, though the fact that it was due to the carelessnes of a motorist and not the result of an epic battle between professional cyclists pushin' it to the limit.

Of course nothing is going to change with traffic-law enforcement because bicycles are viewed as toys by the government, not as viable alternatives to gas-powered transportation. You could rest assured that if some fat-ass was horsin' around in a pool and accidentally drowned Michael Phelps, the ratio of fat-people-per-pool (FPPP) would decrease significantly from the perceived threat of a blubbery, bubbling demise.


Anyway, not all news from this weekend is so depressing; Gothamist has been tracking a pod of dolphins swimming around in long island sound! Apparently they're going to be here for a while hunting for herring in New York's tidal estuaries, and have already broken off into two gangs; the "City Island crew" and the "Long Island Sound crew" to take control of the herring game up north. Local fisherman have understandibly kept their distance from the pod, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of a maritime version of New Jack City.