My new vehicle.

I began ordering parts for this bike back in October, and it's been slowly pieced together since then. Since I'm still injured, there was no real rush on this project - just a lot of research and thought. At some point, it's going to be my main mode of transportation, and an excellent light touring bike - but for now, it's a rather expensive physical recovery tool. I've been taking it on short, slow rides around my neighborhood, which have been both exhilarating and excruciating in the restraint that I have to demonstrate to preserve my legs' wellbeing.

The other day I biked to work - a total of about 15 blocks roundtrip on the route that I take - and I woke up the next day with sore quads. I felt the burn biking less than a mile. It was wonderful feeling that again - and an alarming reminder of just how out of shape I am now. It's gonna be a good long while before I'm attempting to bike centuries again, but this bike is gonna get me there.

Potential energy.

Applying framesaver to rustproof the inside of the frame.

The crazy solid wheel build.

Non-drive side, with Ortlieb pannier.

Drive side with JANDD rear rack bag.

cherry is popped

yo nikko I'm slippin it in rite herr.

First post ever to foos, I dunno I have a bad habit of signing into shit; also I usually keep everything in my head. But thanks for using caps, it worked.

I'm drinking coffee right now in SJ, not really thinking about anything. I think about the weather a lot I guess everyday around this time 2 3 4 pm, I didn't like winter maybe because i'm so used to the winters in san jose it was just sum same shit. But maybe I'm not a winter man. I would like to be a winter man, if you have ever seen Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford, it's kind of like that. You know it, romantic winters seem cool, but real half-assed winters are pieces of shit. Dude I would really like to be in Japan for winter, despite what I think it might be like. I just have it my head that it would be dark yet gorgeous as all dark things are, I can handle the temp too. It's not the temp of winter that pisses me right off, I guess just like the hubbub of the holidays, people saying "Ohhhh I love fall, I love November, I love this season!"
I kind of fucking hated this winter --weather wise, maybe obligatory buying people presents-wise too instead of doing one thoughtful gift for a white elephant-- not in an aggressive way, but just like oh shit, not worth my time. Shit was boring, I liked the rain when we got it, but that's that. Every time I wake up, I say ugghhhhhhh, oh god, still. Not depressed dudes. It's just like boring weather, the winters here are so impotent, it's just a shadow of the year; people for some reason are larger idiots when they drive too, it's not bright enough or something. also I'm a less clothes type of guy. Going north to be a Rockies mountain man. But honestly California sun is too addicting, too hypnotic, and everyday as the clouds break farther apart, the sun (even though highly cancerous, and yes I am paranoid about spots on my skin, ie skin cancer) beaming through feels good man. I love California sun, I love California, ready to dodge some cancer. Summer is gonna be some good shit.
Dan get good for the summer, you will want to ride a lot in good weather man. Maybe consider getting wheels? Driving feels good
Hmmm...
Nyk I'm sorry to hear about your folks. That situation, in your shoes, would weird me the fuck out, but sounds like a personal bout, sounds like there are changes you are going to have reach deep to deal with. If you want to have music or beer let me know. Change against the grain is a fucking bitch man. I guess be thankful that even though your folks are splitting up, they have been able to give to you your entire life, they have not taken from you, as bad parents tend to do.
It sucks to not have a job and I sin as I write, I envy Nikko paying off your loans already, fuck man. Like I said you look strong.
To begin rambling, I'll briefly get down to the nitty gritty, I don't think about the past. It's worthless thinking. Specifically, I don't think about my dad Tim's pre-stroke form. Both physical left and right in tact, completely self-sufficient, a symmetrical man. And that's what the past is for me, having a pre-stroke father, apart from college. In fact, I don't even think about CalArts. It's a little irrelevant. Los Angeles is 400 miles south, it's not that far, but far enough to not think about it; I give it value, but not thought. I'll wrap this up because I know I can go on about it forever and I don't want to, because in 4 months it'll be 2 years worth of thinking about my father's well being, not really worth trying to put into short words you know? But it's a day at a time, here, in Oakland, in Japan. That's what I think about.
I want to get a job though (I keep blaming it on the suburbs), I think about that too, cuz as we all know you gotta get paid to get laid and a lady remedies many things. A job would also serve as the strong arms to lift me up to the clouds of my dreams which is to play and get paid for rock n roll all the time, all day everyday until I'm 40 and I get my masters in something. Rock n roll

just a couple things I listen to lately

Scientist - ghetto dub champion from 1980 that employed amazing dub. his seminal, maybe most popular record is Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires, essential

a lot of Zeppelin the past 2 weeks, they haven't been annoying for me lately, instead very pleasurable and influential

on the classic rock note, Rolling stones album Satanic Majesty, listened to it about 15 times since december, full bodied like a woman sent from satan

blues constantly: Robert Nighthawk, T bone walker, albert collins, jimi, john lee hooker, old buddy guy... a bunch of albums constantly for the past year

john bender - quoting myself from a piece I wrote a little while ago "I Don’t Remember Now Release from 1980, cincinnati, Ohio. It is some distant home-brewed obscuro shitsurf pop, really worth listening to seriously and light-mindedly. The rhythms are “urgent and dark,” also great to be hesitant about yet delve into after keeping patience; you shall be rewarded with deep atmospheric velvet."

hugh masekela - amazing south african instrumentalist and composer who made a lot of funk, jazz, soul, beautiful beats

soundtrack to the film Liquid Sky - a beyond real film about gender transformation and UFOs and overall mind vaporizing ass shit. quoted from another blog "music for the film was composed by Brenda Hutchinson and Clive Smith using the Fairlight CMI, the first digital sampler/synthesiser. Much of it was original, while some songs were interpretations of music by Carl Orff and Baroque composer Marin Marais."

the new Broadcast & Focus Group album - I've been sorting through this, more when I'm stoned. it has incredible depth, there's a lot to digest and a lot of land to travel across, I love Broadcast

anyway I'm not looking back to proof read (I think I did good) I've let the post sit for a while and forgot what I wrote. I miss you guys lets hang whoever is not in Japan

A day off, one of many, bulletin.

You guys! I was amazed to find so much bloglove in four short days.

I'm overwhelmed by all the news. Short, hopefully not terribly cheap, responses:

1. Nyk, WHAT. Is it unnerving to not really know what's going on with your mom? I've been stunned this year, repeatedly, to see adult figures in a new light- to finally see them in a more peer-like way. It seems, for some reason, that I've caught onto this slowly. I KNEW that I was an adult, I knew they were like us or us like them, but it's so different to be there when they can't handle a situation, or when their actions and responses are not the reaction that seems the most effective, sensitive, productive, wise or...adult?

2. Nikko, your art show sounds like a success, especially cuz it got you in gear. I love to read the art-talk. I miss listening to the antics and concept analysis when art is being made around the house. I like that about you guys.
Beard. With it's own capitalization-- It suits you.
And um, girlfriend?! Can we see her?

3. Dan, I want to come to Actual Cafe! I see it on my way home all the time, while I suffer in San Pablo rush hour stoplight mayhem. I should just stop and wait out the storm with a chai...how's the chai?

4. All, I so appreciate the inspirational reading/listening lists.


ME:

Work: Is slow as fuck. I've been reduced to on-call status, which has got me craigslisting like a maniac looking for part-time work. The most frustrating thing is that Edition One is where I want to work. I want to feel like this tiny business has turned into something in the time that I've worked there. We are going to a trade show in LA at the end of the month and hopefully that will help, our marketing is just so minimal.

Swatch-Swap: This has turned into more of my blog than I had hoped for. There are plenty of followers, but I am the only one who posts, which is disappointing. You guys should post something.

Obsessions: Alphabet stamps. Oogling over fonts and kinds--hoping to order some band stamps, which mysteriously have become an antique notion. I found this cheesy website called StampChamp.com which sells awesome individual small letter sets that snap together vertically and horizontally. Also, stumbled upon this:
http://www.stampxpress.com/category.aspx?categoryID=63
Which appears totally normal, but when it says custom, it means that you can actually put in each letter by hand (with tweezers) out of these tiny little alphabet trays that come with it. The font is SO good and plain. The letters are about 1/16" at the smallest.
Japan, which is monumental in stationary supplies, has so many good options in this area that I can't seem to get my hands on. Nikko, you should look into this prospect for me if it doesn't bore you to death (which I wouldn't take personally if it did.)

Loneliness: What is your take on the differences between isolation and loneliness? I feel isolated more often than I feel lonely. I like the time that I spend alone, but extroversion is hard.

Trips: I am desperate to go on a trip. I have the travel bug like crazy. I took the train to Colorado in December, which was a bizarre experience. (Picture above from ride through Utah). Factoid: Did you know that there is an Amtrak subculture of obese passengers? It is cheaper and more spacious to take the train than to fly, so long Amtrak trips are FULL of enormous people.
It goes without saying, perhaps, that trains in the US are very different than trains in Europe. The ride back, which was scheduled to take 24 hours ended up lasting for 36. I became homicidal after the 30-hour mark. It was excruciating. (Suggestion: do not try the veggie burger, just settle for sketchy meat options.)
However, the scenery was spectacular. I am a huge fan of the Western US and it's expansive terrain.

Reads and Listens:
People of the Book: Historical Fiction involving museum book archival/repair interlaced w the story of a lost haggadah and it's history. Written by the same woman who wrote one of my favorites (Year of Wonders, about the plague in England).
Pillars of the Earth: THIS BOOK FUCKING SUCKED. It is everywhere, especially popular as vacation reading (which should have been a huge red light, but I was craving escapist reading). I literally stopped 10 pages before the end and couldn't bring myself to finish for the longest time because I knew that all the revenge and payback that NEEDED to happen to the loathsome characters wasn't possible in ten pages. I finished it, finally, but still felt wrathful with vengeance for all those medieval assholes gnawing away in my brain.

Robert Plant and Allison Kraus- Raising Sand
Robert Palmer- Clues (specifically Johnny and Mary)
XTC- English Settlement
China Crisis- Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms

And um, Shakira- She Wolf (Catchy, so catchy...)