11/1/10.

The Silent Web Video.

I already have one, two, three active blogs in addition to this one, and it's a daily struggle not to start more. One idea that I've so far resisted would be a dump archive of web videos featuring the sounds of riding -- the single most important choice made by an editor in my opinion.

The soundtrack-less "718trailer," embedded below, would be filed under "very well done."

As seen on the Holeshot blog (and a lot of other places, too). DVD available at Dan's.



Of course, I'd like to add that bmx is cute. did it three years ago (to less impressive effect).

Stranger than...

On the Burnside drawbridge, waiting for a passing tugboat, observed this fellow bicycle commuter talking to the air. BMXers will immediately identify the clear Odyssey Twisteds.

Point and Shoot: Nick Morris.

Lateral gap to handrail, care of Nick Morris, two Thursdays ago. (Caleb Evenson raccoon eyes in the background.)



Is it any wonder that Nick's broken wrist has yet to heal?

Improving on Perfection: Breakfast on the Bridges adds Bacon.

It just seemed like the right thing, to inaugurate Ben's first day back at work since the birth of his beautiful son Gus with donut holes and coffee on the Steel bridge. The sizzlin' fresh pancakes, sausage patties, and non-vegan bacon were an unfathomable surprise quickly embraced.

All props to the profitless BonB crew.



We loitered for a half hour or so, discussing work and bikes: Caleb is happily unemployed again, and assembling a touring bike for a winter voyage; Ben complained about commuting via bmx ("It's half the speed, and twice the work!") and resolved to get his road bike functional before Monday; and I smugly called attention to my new collapsible metal pannier basket, a twenty-dollar purchase which keeps the messenger bag off my back and doubles my investment in the sixteen-inch machine.

We finally parted ways for what I assume were excellent Fridays all around.

Point and Shoot: Portland Summer Thursdays...

Summer street rides have been going well for over a month now, but this was the first night of the season that the camera left my jeans pocket. Two shots:


Allen Burger, smith up the Lincoln High driveway ledge, bar height and then some. Good grief.


Visiting from Philly, Dan Bob, nose-to-180, waterfront warmup.
...

Portland summers start late but go forever. Check the Thursday night photos from late August and September of last year.

See you at Lovejoy Fountain, 9 o'clock, Thursday!

Chest hair like a lumberjack.

Re-blog this:



deebodude, via the 217.

Moose carcass. Bears. Trails at midnight.

It was almost two years ago to the day that I first voiced my appreciation of the Alaska riding blog No Bikes, in a parenthetical side note to a post about the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat.

The frequent anecdotes and photos offered glimpses of a tight-knit bmx scene in the midst of mountains, wilderness, wildlife, and frontier culture, and always left me hungering for more. With the release of No Bikes' seventh video, Burn This, that hunger has been finally, finally satisfied.

In addition to the full length video, rider / filmer / editor / photographer / blogger / husband / financial actuary Aaron Gates found the time to re-edit the footage into a surprisingly legitimate documentary, called The Hinterland, offered as a bonus item on the dvd. My recommendation: buy this $5 dvd right now, and watch the documentary immediately. Give that time to settle, and then watch Burn This.

Offered online are two standout scenes from The Hinterland. Enjoy.

T minus:

Worst-Organized Bike Rally on the Planet--Right Here, Thursday.

Let there be no confusion.

If you came out for the street ride any of the last three weeks, you probably scratched your head, doubted you were in the right place, and eventually went back home, disappointed.

Our apologies. We can all explore the miscommunications in person, in depth, this Thursday, at the first successful street ride of the Summer.

This oughta be the one.

The Google aerial.

STREET THIS THURSDAY. FORECAST IS CLEAR.

You'll Never Intern It: Ian Moult Drops Science.

Alleged Norco factory pro Ian Moult bomb-dropping the [world-destroying] Large Hadron Collider, where he is, according to the always blogworthy Gnarwhale, a summer intern:

Heck of a bullet point for your CV.

SUMMER THURSDAYS ARE BACK.

DBZ and I have some stuff planned for the season. Stay tuned...

Ben Piff Spring iPhone Dose.

I feel like Ben calls me with a trick-by-trick report every time he gets back from riding, but this video came as a total surprise. Following up on last year's excellent Summer/Fall edit, Ben brings his usual mix of clever spots and trick-list bike-control jibbery. Bonus points for the super filthy lens.

Micro-slantpad.

As the clouds pass: Memorial Day weekend solo sesh in Medford, Oregon; shot w/digital point&shoot and pocket tripod; edited w/Windows Movie Maker on Mother-in-law Jane's laptop.

Sacred Spots Revisited: David Joy Clears the Pizza Fence.

Ten years after Jeremy Davis called out the line, David Joy makes it count.

Matt Reckless photo.

As seen in the opening clip of Pizza's ./blueprint part, if you need a reminder...

Nice work, David.

...

June 6th edit: I thought it relevant to add that Joy cleaned the "triple-life rail" (aka the "longest rail in Oregon", and seen bucking a number of pros in the ./blueprint credits) in a web edit from last year:

Celluloid Dump.

Been sitting on this for a while, gathering, scanning, and uploading a small pile of non-digital media for what appears to be April's only blog post.

Presented in reverse chronological order:

Shot by TJ Henderson, circa 2006:

Bottom bracket grind at my alma mater, Washington University in St Louis.

Bros.

Canadian nosepick by TJ Henderson in Des Moines, Iowa. Shot by Bobby Altiser.

...

These black & whites came off a roll of film that sat undeveloped in my glove box for four years. Shot with my Pentax Spotmatic.

Young wives Tika and Jaime, with the Nikon D50 and Sony TRV950, respectively.

Huge sub box, huge film grain, Ben gets first marks in Clayton, Missouri, Summer 2006. Sorry for the faulty exposure, expired film, and/or bad Costco processing, Ben. This would've been a great shot.

...

Shad shot this Reed College tree-ride-to-fence-grind for Dig just before I left Portland in early 2003. (The photos never ran.) Double hoodies and massive cuffs date the pics, but the bike itself would see few updates over the next seven years.

Regular.

Opposite.

...

Lastly, another b&w shot of Ben from my Pentax, late 2001. That's our old backyard in Everett. Ben reps an o.g. Kink tee shirt, DK SOB, and 45t Threshold sprocket.

...

Off the topic of film photography, but still on the nostalgic tip, is the first video I ever made (with editing assistance from Cousin Paul), shot in October of 2001. If anyone is aware of it intact online somewhere, I'd love to know.

Almost nine years later, pegless and brakeless, I still feel pretty well represented by it.