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I recently stumbled upon a fantastic electronic magazine called Bunyan Velo.  As their website states: 

FOUNDED BY LUCAS WINZENBURG IN 2012, BUNYAN VELO IS A QUARTERLY COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS, ESSAYS, AND STORIES CELEBRATING THE SIMPLE PLEASURES OF TRAVELING BY BICYCLE. IT'S COMPLETELY FREE AND WE HOPE YOU'LL ENJOY READING IT.

If you enjoy fantastic photography, great writing of adventure riding stories, I highly recommend you skip on over to Bunyan Velo and immerse yourself in a free read!  

The first Friday of 2013 calls for a little pump & flow, does it not? It does. This 2011 video was made by Andy Tran. I need to get out on the mountain bike this weekend.

I find time lapse photography incredibly interesting. Sometimes as is the case with the video below; it truly fascinates me. This is partly because I know how difficult it can be, but also because it expresses time in a different way; at a different rate, where the mundane and ordinary become a kinetic and unstoppable force. The perpetual motion of life is made blatant, obvious. graceful. 

Alessandro Della Bella, a Swiss photographer, created the time lapse video below, which showcases the Swiss Alps and their majestic nocturnal beauty. As a photographer and outdoor enthusiast, I am inspired by, and in awe of the beauty and hard work that he has shared with the world. For more information about his project, visit the website he created for this video at: http://helvetiabynight.com
 

I've been enjoying this hunting season. It has been years since I had last been hunting. Living in big cities without a car is not conducive to getting out in the woods and chasing critters. But this season I have already been out four times. When I began gathering my gear for this season I became aware of one item I did not have; a game bag. Growing up, my father carried a game bag that once belonged to my grandfather. My grandmother had made it for my grandfather to carry sandwiches and coffee to work in. It doubled as a bag for pheasants and rabbits; and believe me when I tell you, it has seen its fair share of them. I wanted a bag identical to my father's. With that in mind, there was only one source that I knew could provide it; my mom.

I haven't posted much about my mother on this blog, though she is known as quite the quilter; quite the seamstress. She is also quite the pickler, bargain hunter, baker, and loving parent amongst other things good. The mother of nine children, some a bit more surly than others (ahem), she has a sixth sense for ways to save a nickle. She regularly clips coupons and as children, we were her army of sales receipts and Universal Product Code (UPC) scavengers. We were always on the look-out, and often returned home with receipts found in grocery store parking lots or plucked from garbage cans, as well as UPCs torn from packages of our friends' lunch snacks. She'd mail in her assembled proof of purchase and in a couple weeks would receive a unique, yet free item. One which vividly sticks out in my mind was the duffel bag she received brandished with the name Colgate across both sides. I was embarrassed to use it, but she assured me that Colgate was a fantastic college with a great basketball team. Well done mom! Her uncanny knack for coupon clipping, is only surpassed by her sewing and quilting prowess. She is a perfectionist with a needle and thread and is gifted with the artist's skill of coordinating colors and patterns in complex and intricate arrays. I don't know how many elaborate, hand made quilts she has created over the years; I don't even know if she could recall the number exactly. She has made quilts for friends, siblings and myself. One of which, she created for me with a few yards of bicycle print fabric I found at a bike swap. That's worthy of a blog post all of it's own. Needless to say, when I asked her if she could make a game bag for me, she was delighted. Using approximately the same dimensions as the bag my father caries; she created the bag shown in the pictures here. I love it. Take a look at those seems; the detail is flawless. I'll be carrying shells, water and hopefully a few critters in it this season.

Thanks Mom.

Its a beautiful Friday afternoon and as I sit in the office, devouring this tasty ham sandwich (on a sesame seed roll no less) I am exploring the skilled and creative genius of videographers at Vimeo.com. As I slouch in my seat watching this video, I imagine pumping my way through the humpy sections these riders roost. Table-topping the bike beneath me as I float through the air. I envision landing those steep transitions and G'ing out hard in the exit berms. And as I sit up straight and the sesame seeds fall from my shirt, onto my desk I am sucked back into reality.

Driving through dense fog this morning around 7:45, I was forced to pull over at the old church & cemetery on the corner of Butler & Dover roads. Heavy fog floating around the head stones and blossoming apple trees, in the adjacent field looked just too good to pass up with my camera sitting on the seat next to me. So I pulled over and took a wet walk around. Originally, my intentions were to photograph some eery tombstones, but those plans were quickly dashed when I caught site of numerous spider webs glistening with morning dew. The rising sun reflecting through the dew droplets made them pop against the landscape and so I took my time crouching down and snapping photos. In each of the little webbed dwellings was a small spider, one of which is visible in a photo below. It felt great to capture the scene and I drove off with wet sneakers and a grin on my face. I'll get a quick road ride in this morning before headed down to DC for the cherry blossom festival.

Wow, I know this is wishful thinking but I will be gunning for this print tonight around 3:00am. This is Shepard Fairey's latest work. There are 450 of these signed and numbered prints going up for sale at his website tomorrow around 1:00pm (US Eastern Time). I haven't been able to score the last few released prints but perhaps my luck will change tonight. Twittle-fingers, don't fail me now! This print has especially specific meaning to me, as my little brother just joined the US Marines. I'm supportive and proud of him, though I tried to dissuade him for the past several years. See Metallica's Disposable Heroes lyrics here.

These are Shepard Fairey’s latest two prints. I like them, though don’t find them as cool as his Lotus Diamond prints! I think they look a little flat without any shading. They are scheduled to drop for sale this Tuesday (1/31) at an undisclosed time at the Obey Giant website. I’ll be in Japan but will definitely be gunning for at least one of these prints. I had no luck trying to score the Occupy Protester print that he released a couple of weeks ago. Although my awesome sister, Mary, did snag me a copy of Time Magazine which featured Fairey’s print of Sarah Mason (occupy protestor) as person of the year. Thanks Mare!

I got home from work this evening around 5:30 and was surprised to find a large first-class mail envelope in my box. When I sat down on the couch and opened it up I was totally jazzed to find this small painting inside! I had forgotten that Georges asked me for my snail mail address a couple of weeks ago. I was really happy to receive this "card" from Georges and Rebecca. Georges is a great guy. I know him from his blog, where he posts cycling-based inspiration on a daily basis, and from racing in his ridiculously fun Bottle Ride (Race) he has organized and held for the past two years at en epic riding park just north of the city. He's an allstar-biker-artist-coolcat. I'll be framing this great Eddy Merckx painting and it'll be hung somewhere special here at phattire headquarters. Thanks for the card Georges!

I found this video over at Prolly's site. I think it's a fantastic short film and does capture the feeling you get when your bike is stolen. I can't imagine having my fixed gear stolen. Yowza. Enjoy.

Yesterday I met my sister Mary at her frame shop in Summit, NJ so we could drive down to Asbury Park and see Shepard Fairey's album cover art show: Revolutions. Asbury Park itself is an odd, sleepy little town. Ocean Ave is the main drag along the shore with a boardwalk on the ocean side and all sorts of odd sights along the inland side. It reminded me of Cherynoble: old funky hotels, half built structures with concrete pillars sprouting rebar high into the air and several empty parking lots. Still, the boardwalk seemed to have a some energy to it and when you glanced around the entire scene, giant Shepard Fairy murals popped out at you in the distance. We walked around the area taking pictures of the art Fairey had posted here and there and then popped into the gallery to see his Revolutions show. I have to say, seeing his work full size and up close was really amazing. The detail he puts into the pieces and his seemingly endless creativity continue to impress me. Mary and I both bought the latest edition of his book Supply & Demand and even got it for about $15 cheaper than it sells for at the Obey Giant website; sweet! Below are a few images from the day and here is a gallery of all the images.

I scored this sweet new Shepard Fairey print while riding the crosstown bus through Central Park last night. Fairey was asked by ATP, to create this poster to help publicize this weekend's music festival: I'll Be Your Mirror. This print was released for sale yesterday but it had sold out immediately. However, there must have been a glitch in the Obey Giant website because when I checked back yesterday evening I was delighted to find it was still available! *Snag!* I think its pretty cool that Fairey incorporated the old Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, into the print. Side note: I love the fact that I was able to buy this print using my iPhone; so convenient. Every second counts when trying to buy new Fairey pieces; they usually sell out in a matter of minutes!

Rather than describe the print myself, I'm going to cut & paste Mr.Fairey's own words here:

All Tomorrow’s Parties is a great independent music festival that does events around the world. I attended one in LA a few years ago to catch great shows by Iggy and the Stooges and Mission of Burma. ATP has a great concept of asking people or bands to curate the festival. They have asked people like Jim Jarmusch, Matt Groening, Thurston Moore, The Melvins, and for this year’s festival, Portishead. I love Portishead, so I was happy to be asked to create the poster this year. The festival is happening in an amazing building on the boardwalk in Asbury Park NJ, so I incorporated the building into the design of the poster. I’ll be doing murals, an art show, and DJ’ing as part of the ATP festival, so I’m getting to indulge all my passions in a concentrated way this week. Oh, Public Enemy is performing their classic sonic thunderstorm of an album “Fear of a Black Planet”… shake your rump and pump your fist!!!! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, improve your life immediately and get that record. Or, get to Asbury Park and check it out.

My sister Mary and I are heading over to Asbury Park, NJ this Sunday to check out Fairey's album art show titled Revolutions during this ATP event. He's created a lot of excellent album covers over the years, for some really great bands, to include the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Idol, Tom Petty, and 311. I don't think we'll take in any of the shows but I'm sure we'll be able to hear them jamming out. We're more interested in seeing the Revolutions show; it's going to be fantastic and I'm pretty stoked to check it out!