I Love A Little Pussy, Ride A Cock Horse
Originally uploaded by Jory .
I am not so mature that I don’t enjoy a little Mother Goose.
I Love A Little Pussy, Ride A Cock Horse
Tofu Pho Fantasy
Tofu Pho Fantasy
Originally uploaded by Jory .
Tofu not content just being Tofu, takes on many forms, most delicious.
The Inevitable Fixed Gear
Originally uploaded by Jory .
Well, there you have it. The wheel of my bike with a fixed gear attached.
It all seems so inevitable now. The stages of adoption of any trend are as follows.
1. Awareness: In this stage the subject becomes aware that a trend exists. I was aware of fixed gear bikes in the 90s due to Sheldon Brown’s website but I never knew it was a trend until I returned to researching bikes online in the last few years. At that point I felt surrounded by the fixed gear trend in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.
2. Fascination: “Whoa! Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Bikes So Different, So Appealing, So Chic and Unique?”
3. Distain: “This has nothing to do with me. Hi, I’m a narcissist.”
4. Mockery: Fear sets in (see 3 above) and the resulting urge to ridicule. “Check out that hipster with no breaks on his bike! Gimmie a break! HA HA! Get it?”
5. Adoption: Fascination wins out over fear. Wisdom over narcissism. “This vehicle has a compelling feature set which pairs nicely with MY lifestyle and personality.”
6. Promotion: The trends continues to expand. “I am blogging about my bicycle.”
Munny, Munny, Munny, Mun-ny!
It took my coworker Brian, entering a Munny contest to get me to finally customize a vinyl toy.
Here’s the concept so far. Heart shapes make up the facial features, eyes, nose, mouth and ears.
The back of the head is decorated with an image of a rotary telephone. The back of the torso becomes a ‘Snoopy’ face.
Stay tuned for more updates – I am working to get this finished in a week or so.
Posted in Happy
Speed Racer
I suppose it was just a matter of time. After mocking anyone riding a fixed gear bike for some time now, my curiosity verging on obsession has me in the process of building my own.
Happy Birthday Happy Birthday
I was floored the other day when watching this record covered by the Ting Tings on Yo Gabba Gabba. I loved Altered Images back in the day. This album was in heavy rotation on my portable cassette tape player.
Check the YouTube. Happy, indeed.
Posted in Happy
New Sporty Saddle from Coco’s Variety
Happy New Year! Now, check this out:
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome good. I don’t know much about bikes but I know what I like. This is a white – kinda beat up – seat for my Raleigh Sports 3-speed.
It even comes with it’s own padlock which I am going to have to cut off with bolt cutters.
Coco’s Variety Store in Elysian Valley has really good stuff right now. They always have really good stuff but now they have even more, especially of the Bicycle variety. They had a vintage Brooks Saddle – the pro kind with the big copper rivets – for cheap (around 60 bucks) but this beauty caught my eye for cheaper (just 6 bucks). You can’t front on that.
New Years resolution, finish (or start) a new bike project and know that you will find help at Coco’s – they do repair work, too.
Posted in Happy
Behold the Buddha Machine
This just arrived in the mail from Insound, a record store located New York. It is a music player created by the ambient music artists Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, known collectively as FM3. It plays 9 ambient music loops, making this a Nine-Track Player (one more than eight.)
About the size of a deck of cards, or say, one of those iPod things, it is a joy to hold, and to behold. Yes, the music is very beautiful coming out of the tiny speaker (I’ll have more to say about the music after a listen for a few days) but the thrill comes from the matching of the aural experience with the physical experience of the small device which seems to have come from some other time and place. There is no USB port. You can’t add or remove content. Instead the music stays locked in, incased and inseparable from the object that contains it. This is the part that floors me.
