Monday, September 29, 2008

word is bond

Its been a while since I did this so I'm going to ramble.  

This weekend was awesome.  I drank lots of coffee, hung out with awesome people, enjoyed my job, ate tons, drank too much, and danced for a long time.  I had lots and lots of fun. It was a totally welcome departure from the weekdays.  With school back in action, a new job, and all the other crap to stress about I was running on empty for a while.  Nighttime phone calls from hospitals didn't help, nor does running out of money.  The weekend gave me a lot to think about.  I never really realize how lucky I am to have so many awesome people around, it's really easy to take that kind of thing for granted.  After a long night of dancing, drinking, and debauchary (and alliteration) Sunday afternoon I woke up semi-hungover, and still a little drunk.  I got in my car, turned on my walkman (my radio doesnt work) and drove back to cornell to visit my dad.  We hung out for a while, and I wandered around the house bored, then I went into town to get some groceries for dinner.  It was really weird.  Im only in Cornell once every couple months or so, and Im usually only there for 10 or 15 minutes.    When I got to town I decided to drive around for a while and check out what had changed.  Every street has memories on it.  Even the lame stuff like the parking lot where I parked my car at school.  It's just a stupid piece of blacktop, but its a stupid piece of black top that I laid on, drove on, ate on, played on, and all kinds of other things for 4 years.  I called up Miles and hung out with him for an hour or so, and remembered just how shitty this city was.  Juxtaposed against the backdrop of  fond memories that I had just gone through it was a bit of a mindfuck.   It was kind of sad realizing that the only thing that kept my friends and I sane through school was the fact that we had a group of people that was like minded, and encouraged each other to get out.  We bypassed so much stupid high school drama and bull shit just by carving out our own little place and building off of each other to do something besides off ourselves or everyone around us.  I talked to Miles about some of the shit that I went through this summer, and realized that I am really happy with my life right now.  And although that that support structure that I had established to stay sane in high  school is gone, I've kind of developed a new one.  And I like it, a lot.  Things are always going to suck sometimes.  A lot has changed, and Im dealing with a lot of shit now that I never thought I would have to deal with, or even had a concept of when I was a pissed of 18 year old.  but then I realize that I made it through those years fine, and I can probably handle these ok too.  I guess thats it, I managed to kill 20 minutes now I get to go to class.  
Top 5 memorable places in my hometown.
1. The high school(includes adjacent athletic fields)
2. Brunet Park
3. The skate park
4. townline road where I pretty much learned to drive, and spent a lot of time in ditches
5.  Supervalu  

there are a lot more(city park, ozzies house, cobbin bridge, the bike trail bridge, the bails by the paper mill, etc.) and I feel like those might have been bad picks, but whatever
Im done now



Non-whimpy stuff
Thomas and Ryans bikes are up of Fixed Gear Gallery.  EC Velo Represents. 

Friday, September 26, 2008

pictures!

These are a bunch of pictures form the alley cat. They are all done by Betty Rae, and I shamelessly stole them from her facebook. I like them all alot because I think they kind of speak to the communal aspect of what has been going on in the Eau Claire bike scene recently.










Im stressed out and I cant wait to go visit my adad in the country and shoot bb guns. Have a good weekend sunshine.



Monday, September 22, 2008

grand machine

The alleycat went off on Sat. awesome. Attendence exceeded 30 people, and the course was really fun and fast. I rode the whole ride with Adam and we came in 12. Not bad, but I was hoping for top ten. In retrospect there are a few things I know I could have done that would have helped alot (not staying up with bottles of wine untill past midnight being one) but its behind me now, and I had tons of fun anyway. Props to all the racers for being courtious and safe. I hope to see everyone next time. I will destroy you all. After the race I rushed across town and rode triple tall in the parade down town. Riding a bike three stories tall at redicoulously slow speeds with no brakes surrounded by children is really scary. Democrats like to stop in front of you and take pictures while you struggle to not run them over.
After the parade Dan and I justled back to racys where a few people were still hanging out. Then the party moved to Mt. Simon where alchoholic beverages were consumed and cliffs were jumped off of. It was lots of funn even though the late summer water was really cold. Enough was enough and we cleaned up changed and met up at mogies for burgers. Best ooptions for veggie burgers anywhere in EC. Mogies lasted for a long time when the party moved to Scotts for playing on bikes, hanging out, and drinking more. Lots of fun and good people even though I was getting super tired. The rest of the night blurred out. I remember a posse going to Hilltop, Scooters for a dance party, and ending the night with a shirtless ride around town trying to follow Chris Z. ALl in all it was a really fun night. Pretty typical of EC Velo Club nights. there are lots of pictures of the race floating around so maybe Ill post more later.

I'm really busy and hungry so Im going to go now. Listen to Scotts radio show Local Independence this Sunday on WUEC 89.7 at 7pm and I will be doing a reading from my new zine coming out soon.


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

o yea


2 posts in one day, I am an animal.. This is actually just a call for more involvement. We need help planning this years halloween event. I would maybe also like to have this in conjunction with a Bikeec 1 year anniversery party.


Speaking of bikeec 1 year anniversery I would like to make alot of changes to this site in the year to come, one of which being an ovehaul of the design. If you have ideas, or experience with internet stuff you should contact me. Ok? ok!

Forget school

Ride a bike. Once again I have been lacking in the pictures and content I know. I have been kind of busy and dont really sit in front of computers that often anymore. But there are some exciting things going oooooon

Mainly The alleycat this Saterday.

registration begins at noon at racys.
10 bucks and your in
race begins at 1?
winner takes home a brand new bike plus other prizes being given away. Such as a set of velocity Deep vs and cycling caps. Maybe other goodies and goodness will ensue. There is only one way to know and that is by BEING THERE! Do it and bring all of your friends. HAVE FUN! youtube alleycat race for inspiration.

BIKE POLO! There has been a bit of talk about starting up a bike polo league. Eau Claire needsd to do this! Think Sunday afternoons with friends playing bike polo with a radio blaring, having fun. It will rule. All interested parties should talk to me or just show up thursday or to the race saterday with ideas/motivation.

I am looking for sticker designs for EC Velo, if you have designs shoot em my way. I havnt had much time to try to make anything up yet. These stickers will be given to thursday night riders and stuff. think "learn to hang" or "my lane"

Im working on making a messenger bag. If this sounds like fun to you and you want to start a project we can work on it together, just contact me.

Im working a bunch on my new zine and will hopefully have it done before the end of the month. Another reason why I am not doing so much here.

And as usual Thursday night ride tomorrow. It looks like the weather will be awesome, so I highly recomend hitting it up, esp. if you are a noob.

Im in a good mood today. Hugs.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Ride safe

A local cyclist got hit by car on Thursday. Hes ok from what I understand, it serves as a reminder for all of us to keep our heads up and ride safe. Be careful out there everyone. And get better soon Ryan.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Goodbye

I'm not going to be able to do thursday night rides for an indefinite period of time due to me working at my new job. I'm done at 8pm howeve so maybe some nights I'll catch the tail end.

That said Thurs. night ride tomorrow, be there or be square (like me)

Monday, September 8, 2008

Thank you

Thank you Spectator(David) for coming down last Thursday night and interviewing a bunch of us and publishing the article. O yea, an for pegging this website.

XOXO Yours truley,
David

Title..

Lots of things are going on but when I try to think of what they are and talk about them I guess the words get stuck in my teeth. Saterday Scott and I went out for a 40 mile ride to test out his new bike and the new set up on the centurion and it was really awesomely fun. It feels good to just go out on a long stretch and cruise along at a good pace for a long time. Not to mention that 20 minute hussel I had to do to get back into town in time for a job interview. It's probobly going to be an intersting week. I am trying to get back into the flow of school, while continuing the job hunt and avoiding drama.

O yea bike stuff. It's really really nice out right now. I love the brisk pre-fall weather. It's awesome to go on really long rides and just be outside to enjoy the last days before there are feet of snow on the ground. So everyone should be out taking advantage of it. Strongly encourage new people to come to Thursday night rides. You can watch certain people fall out of trees or other people eat curbs.

Giant has picked up on the fixed egar trend hard and released 4 new models of the bowry for 2009. They are all pretty neat looking, they keep the bowery styling, but the set up is pretty unique. Looka here.

My stomach is grumbling and I want to go outside.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

thorsday

DUMB
Kind of cool

But best of all is that it is Thursday night, and that means bike riding. Tonight 6:30 meet behind Racys. Bring gifts for Magyar. All you new college kids better get there.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Some places



Dont believe in bike racks. They are typically found when people in the area don't expect cyclists to come by. That or they just really dont want them to come by. These places are found all over the country and as a result great leanghts must be taken to secure your bicycle.

Fortunetly for the thirsty cyclist often times these places deal in the buisness of distributing liquor.

And provide safe haven for your gear.

Not much has been happening for the past week. Lots of running around getting ready for school to start. AKA drinking every night in a last ditch effort to prolong the summer. Witht the arrival of college students I have a renewed hope for finding my stolen bicycle in their juvinile bike theiving hands. My initiative levels peaked this morning but have dropped subsequently. Thursday night ride is in two days and I dont have a single bicycle that I could ride. It's kind of depressing going from having a nice bike that you love and then rewinding back to 2 years ago when all you rode was piles of shit. But thats life, and there isn't much I can do about it but pout. Im trying to wrap up another edition of my zine before school gets to hectic. I lost my masters for the first one and I only have 5 remining copies, after that it's toast. Im really hungry and have buisness to take care of so I will post something of significance some other time. (Or will I?)