talk about talking

More stuff on the V1 website about bikes. Yay!
Tour d'Eau Claire shit is coming together. If you are not aware of this big deal then you are living under a rock. Come out from under and look here.
We are having a party/fundraiser for Magyar on Sunday. Details as follows

I'm in love with hyper links, photocopiers,and suprisingly more and more the new Modest Mouse album today.

easy lucky free

Yesterday I learned a bunch about lumberjacks and automated telephone systems that demand extensions. I took the best nap I've had in a long time and when I woke up it was officially a Thursday night.

Last night we rode out to the beer-a-mid and sat around eating bannanas, twizzlers, doughnuts, and drinking beer for a couple hours. We watched the sun go down earlier than it did the day before and saw the mall parking lot empty and the traffic on the highway slow to a trickle.

White cars gave us trouble and almost got smashed because they trusted us when they shouldn't have.

I went to a party and danced when no one else was, talked to friends, and adopted another animal. Got very very drunk and rode my bike home in the dark cool night.

Some times you don't really realize how good a day was untill its long gone.

End of story

Volume One has two bike related articles. One on North of Ten. Here
And one on biking in general here.

Last night was a total bust. No Thursday night ride and the bike polo thing in Menomonie fell through. So Damian Jake and I ended up riding around Menomonie for a while and coming back to EC.

Magyar is having surgery to become part robot today. Wish him luck.

Im super bummed out and I feel like everyone is taking bikes way to serious and quit having fun. I'm sure a lot of people think the opposite and wish having fun wasn't taken so seriously.
I will blame the problems with me on the weather.

No clever titles. Ever.

Yes, I kicked did kick Magyar in the head while doing a cartwheel. Yes, there was a sizable dent in his head. Yes, I am sorry.

Now that that is out of the way let's move on.
Last Thursday we rode to the drive in . It rained. A lot. We battened the hatches and watched GI Joe through gale force winds. Well for a while. Then the tarp was sabotaged at which time we made a mad dash for indoors and tried to watch from there. Everyone got soaked and it was absolutely fucking amazing. After waiting for a lull in the rain Brian, canyon and I rode back into town along the North Crossing. It was incredible.

I've also come to the conclusion that I have the best friends in the world. I'm a pretty cynical person. I have a lot of little unreasonable prejudices based on asinine shit like what lines of longitude you are from, what beer you drink, where you buy your groceries, and what Asian food restaurants you frequent. And for some reason I have met a group of people that are for the most part willing to overlook these stupid things, or at least call me out on my shit. But more importantly they are ok with letting me drink beer in their cars and eat pounds of greasy food at run down drive-in's in Durand. They do cool things. Like make their own jam and salsa and beer, and share it with each other. The go neat places and pick up funny accents that they can't notice. And share their entrees and their company. And they offer advice on what to do when your cell phone quits working or what to do if you are stuck in a forest in the dead of winter by yourself. They ride bikes with me and walk with me and talk and act like 14 year olds climbing trees in parks. Really guys. Pretty fucking awesome. There is no point to this, just that I feel lucky to have awesome people around me at an arms reach.

No more sappy stuff. Everyone should check out the Tour d'Eau Claire coming up in October. It is going to be fucking huge and awesome. Zacher, OJ, Shawn Brunner, and myself are organizing it. It is more than a race and is suppose to bring in all kind of people from all kinds of riding to one place to really show the strength of the cycling community in Eau Claire. Volunteer or at least show up and race. There will be tons of prizes and fun. Check it out here

I know that there are a bagillion fixed gear videos out there right now, but I thought this one looked interesting. Check it out.

fixed city Trailer [subtitled] from fixed city on Vimeo.

I think I'm going to go check out Bike Polo in Menomonie tomorrow. Call me if you are in. I'm leaving at 5ish.

I'm here to pimp myself on the internet. Besides this website you can also find me on the internet at V1 for the Local independence Podcast. Here It is a podcast of my real radio show which I am up for the best of 09 this summer. So long story short. Vote for me here and put stupid corporate rock djs to shame.

Media media

Hell yes.

http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/daniel-johnston-sxsw-session-fleeting-moments-of-true-love-and-human-transcendence-concert/20030677-3737979.html


Hell yes

The bottoms of tops.

I'm scared of the next couple of weeks. Summer is quickly approaching an end and all of the things I said I would do before it was over are coming back to haunt me. And those are only the things that I remember saying I would get done, not to mention the things that I pushed out of my mind a week into June and have yet to surface. Anxiety aside, however, I am pretty damn happy about the way the summer has gone. Yes there are things I didnt get to do but I also did a lot of things I never thought I would do. (don't you wish you knew what they are...)

Last week was a shit load of work and stress starting with a shitty apointment with the dentist flat tires cold rainy nights, getting my credit card ripped off , and general high strung grumpiness. But I also got to go out dancing with friends, go swimming in the rain, stay up late and spoil my liver every day. So I guess it balances out. Thursday I spent a bunch of time pouting about getting my debit card information stolen by some asshole in Ireland who charged a $330 plane ticket to it. Eventually it got on everbodys nerves and they told me to shut the fuck up. Which I'm gratefull for. Money is money and it comes and goes. It's kind of like all the shit I said I would get done and spend time beating myself up for. Yes, it is irresponsible of me to not commit to some of these obligations, but it also nothing I can change now. So I might as well ride my bike to Chippewa and have a fire in the woods and eat pizza in a parking lot at 3 in the morning.

I know it is kind of a twisted logic but it makes sense to me. If I am going to be up untill 10 I might as well be up until 3 and I might as well go to the Brat and ride bike around town in the rain in my underwear. And I can totally blame it on the fact that the days are noticably shorter and responsibility is coming at me like a bullet from a gun, but as true as those things are I like to say that more than anything it is because I am lucky enough to have awesome people around me and live in an awesome place where I am afforeded those options.

So the point of all this is that I am selfish, and irresponsible, and regretful, and anxious about the future. But I love every second of it.

Good fortune cookie

So there is this story I kept hearing a couple weeks back about some older roadie who was going out for his daily ride out by Lowes Creek and when he didnt return after a couple of hours his wife started to get worried. Apparently she called the police and they found his body a little bit later. Apparently he was still slipped into his pedals and had suffered a massive heart attack that killed him before he even hit the ground. I used to think that I wanted to die jumping the Grand Canyon in an 18 wheeler pulling a load of fireworks and being hit by a bolt of lightining halfway across the jump. But the more I think about it the more the sudden death while doing something that you absolutly love to do sounds a little better. Sure, there are not going to be any massive explosions played on the 10pm news across the country and blooper shows for years to come. But I think that we like to think that death will somehow be a validating experience. And that for that split second before it happens we will get to see our lifes net worth and go out with a smile or a grimace. And i have very little doubt that this guy was probably not only smiling when he went down, but thinking about all of the other shit he had planned to do or not to do that day. I think that is what makes riding bikes kind of special and important. If you were to have a massive heart attack on a bike and keel over you are dying an infinetly more socailly responsible death than crashing into school kids while trying to take a bite out of your Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger. But on top of that it is kind of a "piece de resistance" of a life that is more centered around living than just bouncing back and forth between obligations.
On that note. I have been having an awesome action packed super fun end of summer. A lot of nights have ended in me drinking more than I should have, and riding/crashing my bike late at night. I feel like people are starting to get the warnings nature is sending about summer winding down and as a result we have all started to kick it up a notch and get the maximum amount of summer time fun in while we can. Which is awesome, because we are experts.
I guess thats all I really have to say. I am in a good mood even though I have to go to the dentist which says alot. I am feeling realy ambitious and I can't wait to hang out with all of my friends and ride bikes tomorrow. So be there. Ok?

Also, I think this is kind of interesting. It's pretty much just a ego stroking hipster style guide,but it's kind of cool. http://hurr.wentworthless.net/NACCC_2009_Web/

Get rad

2 new awesome videos. First is the new NO10 edit




Second is an awesome old school videop stolen from Urban Velo featuring the likes of Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, Dave Nourie, Mat Hoffman, Bob Haro and Kevin Martin.

BMX WORLDS 2009 VIDEO from woozybmx.com on Vimeo.