It's eighties life, But it all looks good on you

On Thursday I went on my first longish road ride in a while, and while it was threatening rain the whole time, it never materialized, and it just stayed muggy and humid. It was a nice ride though, about 60 miles, most of which was just the same route I always used when I was living in Brookline.

On Friday I was given a ticket to see a show at Club Passim in Cambridge. I had never been there, but I had nothing else to do between 8 and 10, so I went. There, I saw Robbie Fulks, who I had previously not been familiar with, and he put on a great show of excellent twangy music. He even did a special rendition of Billie Jean.

Thom's getting married, so Greg "The Leg" Montello organized a pub crawl on bicycle all over Cambridge and Boston. We started at Redbones, where I had a great big messy pulled chicken sandwich. It was quite good, especially after I was urged to close the open faced sandwich by someone who had noticed my confusion with the arragement. After that, we rode to all manners of watering hole and, had all manner of refreshment on the way, including a cocktail whos name escapes me and something that tasted just like Fresca. We finished the night at the Blue Diner, where we had breakfast food at 3am. It was a lot of fun, lots of people rode on the back of the Africabike (pictures were taken, but I'm not sure by who exactly), and even Bryan was there!

I know it's been covered, but I'm still taken aback by the number of celebrities that have been dying all over the place. Especially in the cases of Michael Jackson and Billy Mays, who strangely enough were both 50 when they went, their presences seemed like they should have just continued forever in one way or another. Arguably, given that MJ's significant work came about over 15 years ago, the full extent of his influence and significance was already out there, and his demise marks just one of the possible endings to his "whatever happened to..." story, but what of Billy Mays, who seemed like he was just hitting the prime of his career?

In honor of those simpler times, here's an ad for L.A. Gear, starring Mr. Jackson.



Given the company's affinity for almost surreally 80's ads, is it any wonder they collapsed in the 90s?

When it comes, you'll feel the weight of it

Sorry about the lateness of this update, but I've not had enough time of late to give y'alls a proper update, and after last time's somewhat half-assed effort, I wanted to give more smiles per mile this week.

Earlier this week I ordered the parts that will go into the next evolution of Africabike (see this post for the last evolution), and to start, it will include one of these, a new fork, and hopefully, room for a big honkin 2.5" slick. With luck, the thing will float around the 50lb mark, and will therefore be capable of splitting or crushing any road hazard it may come across. Bryan suggested a snare for errant marmots off the barend-mirrors. Progress updates coming soon.

Also, a big reason I have been short on time, I've finally finished moving into my new apartment, and everything's all wired up. I'm very proud of how well i've been able to hide speaker wire, and the rear channels themselves are neatly integrated into some BENNOs, with two comfy POÄNGs and a LACK. Skål!


Since last time, I also got a chance to represent the shop at a bicycle advocacy event at WGBH's studios. It was nice enough, though I was up against stacks of Solo cups, and suffice to say, I lost that battle.

Recently, I've been engaged in another battle, with AT&T and Sony Ericsson. Which is to say, apart from making unreliable devices (which, I'll say it again, makes it sexier for the same reason as an Italian car), S-E has been quite good, apart from their expectation for me to be ok without phone for 10 days (no go). AT&T just sends me through many loops and from call center to call center. Tomorrow, I'm going to one of their "authorized handset exchange and repair centers" near the Pru, and supposedly, they'll be able to tell me whether or not I should send in my phone for warranty replacement. This is important, as in the AT&T universe, the way one finds out about a denial of warranty replacement is an automated charge for a new device. Not at subsidized value, or even market value, but new replacement value, which means I would pay $160+ for my Z750a, which can be found new on eBay for south of $50. Sigh.

I saw a midnight showing of the new Transformers movie with some people from work, and I was severely disappointed with how quickly my beloved R8 was split in half (not a spoiler, it's in the ads). Otherwise, an appropriately absurd Michael Bay explosionfest. Not very much plot, some excellent robot battles, bittersweet product placement, and as much "so bad it's good" acting as one would expect from Shia the Beef, Meghan Fox, and most glaringly, Tyrese. John Turturro was good though. He's up there with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and Harry Dean Stanton in an ability to make most roles work.

Also, apologies for the non-sequitur, but I just saw a Blockbuster ad on TV. Granted it's at 00:45, but really? Blockbuster? I thought they were dead.

The weather's been miserable of late, but tomorrow, which is my day off, is finally expected to be dry, so hopefully I can get a nice long ride in between other whatnots I have to get done.

For this week's video, some remarkably familiar scenes, courtesy of Nintendo of America

Good morning lethargy (drink Pepsi, good for energy)

Not a whole lot to talk about this week, but I am past due for an update.

I'm pretty much moved into the new place, though I still haven't solved my speaker wire routing issue.

There's also some sort of surge and hiss being created when I connect my laptop's port replicator to my receiver, and the DVI-HDMI connection is scaling all wrong, so there's still fettling to be done. On the plus side, I didn't realize how well the silver R8 from my desk fits in with all the Panasonic silver. Sadly in all this setup time, I didn't get to take any new pictures of Bryan (so I'm using one of Jason's).

I had some pain from my lower right abdomen a few mornings ago, so I decided to go on an XC ride on my full-rigid singlespeed. It did not go well. I went to the hospital the next day and they did a whole bunch of tests, though the findings were somewhat inconclusive. I'll keep people posted...

As something of a follow-up to last week's late-night TV talk, I've been very impressed with The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (which still feels weird to say). As a taste of that (and my first Hulu embed-yay!), today's video is a bit from the show, where Conan goes to a Foley stage at Universal Studios. Thanks to Jason for pointing me toward this one.





Sorry about the short post, my head hurts.

A Thousand Years Away

I saw UP on its opening night with Jason, and it was brilliant, I've got no other way to put it. The visuals, characters, story, timing, and pretty much everything else was phenomenal. I saw it in Digital 3D, and as in most recent cases, this tech really works well, and it really is a vast improvement over the old approaches. I heard and read a number of interviews with Pete Docter where it sounded like the 3D here was an afterthought, and while the use of it here was much more subtle than, say Monsters v. Aliens, it was used where appropriate, and in some scenes, really added to the aesthetic considerably. The important thing is that, this being Pixar, the 3D is not a crutch, it really is just icing on the cake. I'm not sure the same could be said of the most recent Dreamworks offering. Check out some development art on Lou Romano's blog (on the blogroll) and if you want to see more, I highly recommend the Art of Up book, as well as the rest of the development art books if you're so inclined.

It's a box-office success, but I still think it will be a merchandising nightmare. That said, I'll just say that there is definitely at least one character that could prove me wrong.

I was let down that Pete Sohn's short "Partly Cloudy" was not shown at my screening but I hear that's been a common issue, and I'm definitely seeing at again, hopefully with the short attached next time.
In other fun news, I found a 1st generation (slot-loading) iMac on the side of the road, in grape, I think. It's got OS X on it, but otherwise seems totally stock, with no new files on it of any kind. I'll find a use for it somewhere.

As will tend to happen in the respite between finishing school and starting work again, I've grown reacquainted with late night lineups. The TV I'm using at this point is not connected to cable, and doesn't have a DTV converter, so I'm limited to terrestrial analog OTA channels (which doesn't include Fox). Given that WLVI (CW, formerly WB) and WSBK (38, formerly UPN) are formulaic sitcom graveyards late at night (and arguably during most of the day as well), I'm left with the classic ABC, CBS, and NBC. It's like 1949 all over again.

I've always relied on NBC for my late night TV (after 12:30), but the NBCUni higher ups have thrown their strength out the window. While I am all for Brookliner Conan O'Brien taking Jay Leno's former 11:35-12:30 slot and making NBC entertaining again in that timeslot, everything thereafter is pretty dismal. Backing up Carson Daly's monumental mediocrity (at best), Conan's slot has been taken by Jimmy Fallon, posterboy for SNL degrading into what it is now. His interview style is extremely awkward, his bits generally aren't funny, and he doesn't have the charisma to get away with the show's failings. Maybe it's the early teething troubles, but I don't remember any other host being this bad at the gig (yet still get garner such high ratings).

I wandered around a bit which leads to this week's pleasant surprise, the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Craig's show works on many levels, with funny bits, good interviews (with interesting guests), new perspectives, and a very nice atmosphere. Honestly, it's as good as the best of Conan, which is really saying something. I'm sorry I said you're just for old people, CBS.

I spent 6 hours at IKEA yesterday, and tomorrow I'm moving into the new place, so that will probably be on the next post.

Also, Bryan was sick this week, probably with the swine flu. Don't die, Bryan!

For this week's video, we have the video for Tel Aviv native Oren Lavie's song "Her Morning Elegance." I totally missed the boat on this one, but it's still very impressive stop-motion magic.



Thanks to Winson for showing me it for the first time.

what's UP this week?

I've managed to hold off till now, but at this point, there's only 3 days until UP comes up and I have proof that the Pixar Touch has not faded post merger (though the impending sequel-fest doesn't thrill me). I've done a pretty good job of avoiding spoilers, so it will be pretty fresh to me. The Art of UP book came in the mail today, but I've left it in the shipping box, just to have fresh eyes on Friday. Super-excited.

In a seismic shift from work all the time to party all the time (not really, just wanted to put that in there), I caught up on my sleep, and got some good riding in. I went on a last ride up Mt. Holyoke, which was fun, and proved to me my earlier hypothesis that I'm faster on heavier, more-aero wheels, even uphill. I should get some Cosmic Carbones. This week I finally cleaned up drivetrains, and thanks again to Bryan for answering all my stupid questions.

Due to the big time gap since the last post (sorry), a bunch of stuff has happened that hasn't been covered. Mike B had his birthday party at the crapshack, and it was lots of fun. It was a sort of sendoff too, as a bunch of people were graduating and Mike is studying abroad next semester. I think it's best summed up by this picture.

I also graduated on Saturday, and the ceremony was shorter than I expected, given the sea of people there. All of the speeches mentioned the poor state of the economy in some diplomatic way, and wished us the best of luck, kind of a strange parting shot.

Over the course of last week, I did the Boston-Amherst/Amherst-Boston drive no less than 6 times, moving stuff back and forth from the shack to my parents house for temporary storage. That means a lot of road time, and in that time, I devised a cool handsfree phone setup, which involved connecting the phone to one of these, and connecting it to the head unit's aux-in port. I expected a killer feedback loop, but it actually hasn't been a problem. Another little victory.

Finally, I'm moving into my new place in Brighton next week. I'll say more about that then.

For this week's video, it's one Seth showed me on his buddy's blog and I think it speaks for itself.



Happy birthday Thom P.!

update coming

Sorry about the late post again, I will get to updating in the next few days...much to discuss...

Didn't they teach you anything, except how to be cruel, in that charm school?

First, anyone who knows what song this week's title comes from wins something, don't know what yet.

I was just looking for a song with "school" in it, and that's the first one that comes to mind, because on Tuesday, I finished school (mostly. Still have an exam on Thursday). I'll try to avoid getting too schmaltzy or predictable, but it still feels weird to be a real world person.

This past weekend UMBRC organized the Orchard Assault XC race. The weatherman was way off for much of the day, as the climate was downright schizophrenic. Kim brought her dogs, which were christened Hank and Robert.

It was misting all morning, followed by rain, followed by big humidity, then big heat, then nice, then thunderstorms. It made for a slippery course, and my rear tire, which is designed for the dry, didn't hook up very well. This meant a pretty low placing for me (this being my second MTB ride of the season didn't help either) but it was fun.

Tim Durrin (Cap'n Jeremy's brother) won the 3 race, his first MTB race ever, and Jeff Cronin took 2nd.

Our own Sean Kennedy won the 2 race in very convincing fashion, arms aloft across the line.

Thom Parsons, Mike Bartlett, Jeff Elie, Tom Sampson, and a whole slew of other superstars brought the fire to the 1 and Pro races.
Good times were had by all, and the turnout was pretty impressive, especially given the weather. Thanks to everyone who came out. While we were all out XCin, Bryan did a sweet backflip.

Seth finally came out to see the house (a week before I move out, natch), but it was good timing, because he had came just in time for the UMBRC after party. It was a fun night of music, can/bottle towers, chips, and a-a-aaa-aaa-alcohol. The next day I worked in the library from 11 am to midnight, which makes it the weekend I figure I should have been having every week at Umass. Oh well.

Jesse and the UVM/Mt. Holyoke kids couldn't make it, so it was a largely Umass affair, but we had laughs nonetheless. Bikeregger Jeff Elie and Jenna came over, as well as alums AW and Duggan, and even bike-coopers Brian, Marisa and Miguel popped in for a bit.

Some other stuff happened this week. There was a showing of the animation classes' work, which was fun, and I got to meet one of the people working on Jet Set Zero which is a great concept with super stylish production. Check it out.

Finally, I saw the most unimaginable thing in a parking lot near the ROTC building....It's Duster! An honest to god Plymouth Duster, in period correct cocaine white, no less. I have to assume it appeared there because of last week's blogpost, I didn't know I held such power...

Mindful of that, this week's video is Top Gear's Audi R8 review.



There. Maybe now it will appear.