Collectible DBZ Merchandise Revives Dead Blog.

I do love blogging. I think blogs are an important, relevant medium for original content. And I think the challenge that the internet represents for hard media like print and dvds is competition in the healthiest sense of the word.

If anything, the instant, fleeting nature of the internet highlights the slow, tactile pleasure of turning glossy pages with your fingers and the rich feeling of a well curated bookshelf.

It is in a similar metaphorical sense that this blog has laid dormant for the past three years, while my life has been consumed by numerous other very satisfying, damn tangible, rather long-term projects -- most notably, our second child Theo and the gut renovation of our first house.

To say that the arc of DBZ's past three years have been somewhat more tumultuous would be an understatement. But as of summer 2013, his life is approaching a level of stability that I would call borderline domestic. He's back in Portland, happily married, gainfully employed at a job he "loves," and this spring he produced two excellent zines that no bmx archivist will want to be without.

I think the term "zine" shortchanges the visual force of these staple-bound pieces, which showcase not just DBZ's obsessively refined graphic aesthetic, but also his skill for page layout. And he can write like a motherfucker.

Noumenal Room is a weighty collection of illustrated essays from DBZ's blog. Topics range from skateboarding and bmx to architecture and typography to cigarettes and pornography. 52 pages. Order here for $13.

I dogmatically believe that being "at a loss for words" is just weak writing, but hell if I can articulate what D/I/T/C/H/W/I/Z/A/R/D "is." I guess you could say it's a collection of found images, far greater than the sum of its parts. Leave it on your coffee table or toilet and see if your graphic designer friends don't ask what the hell it is and where they can get one. It's one of my prized possessions. 12 pages, includes screenprinted Raccoon patch. Order here for $5.

If you're not inclined to buy, you can still get your free daily online DBZ fix via blog, Tumblr and Twitter, none of which are safe to click at work.

You'll Never Ride It? Periodicals Rack, Free to Good Home.

Left anonymously in the laundry room a week ago. I need a bigger fingerbike.

Lists.

Found this multi-page improvised pocket journal in one of my old camera bags this weekend. It's an index of stuff I had in mind to shoot for bmx is cute and didn't want to forget--things I spotted from the highway or in strange neighborhoods that I knew my memory would have no way to catalog, as well as various other video-related creative inspirations. I think the list happened partly as a manifestation of how little time I had to ride during the last semester of my senior year of college.



For the record, St Louis has the richest, most stress-free geographical density of street terrain of any place I've ever lived or visited.

Everyone has a list like this, right?

Portland Bridges: The Web Video.

Caleb and I had a blast collaborating on this project across the span of the continent. I'd get an idea while driving to Seattle in the middle of the night and pull over at a rest stop to send him a three-page text. A couple days later, he'd email back with his responses, make some aside about feeding the sheep, and link me to a revised version of the video. That said, for all the thought and work we put into it, it's a very simple video.

Hope you enjoy.



Filmers/editors/riders: Caleb, Ben, DBZ, and myself.

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.