nagsheadlocal

2009-07-08T07:07:00.001-07:00

Over here

2009-02-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

I moved my journal here and forgot to post a pointer. Oops.

That certainly explains it

2008-10-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Writer apologizes to W.Va.; bigots were supposed to be from N.C.

Associated Press

Published: Thursday, October 23

Charleston, W.Va. | West Virginians from the governor on down say they're outraged by a new film that falsely depicts the state's flagship school. But the movie's screenwriter says the script he gave Universal Pictures did not mention the state or West Virginia University.

"The Express" tells the story of Ernie Davis, the first African-American winner of football's Heisman Trophy. It includes a scene in which Mountaineer fans hurl racial slurs and trash at Davis and his Syracuse University teammates during a 1959 game in Morgantown.

But screenwriter Charles Leavitt told Gov. Joe Manchin this week that the scene was supposed to depict a 1958 game at Tar Heels Stadium in North Carolina - a choice that also displayed artistic license.

"When I saw the film for the first time, I was as surprised as you were to see West Virginia inserted in place of North Carolina," Leavitt wrote Manchin in an Oct. 20 letter.

Leavitt, who also sent the governor a copy of his script, told Manchin he apologized for the depiction while noting it was "something I had no hand in."

"It is a sad fact of my business that when a screenwriter turns a script over to a studio, the studio and the filmmakers own it," wrote Leavitt, whose screenwriting credits include the Academy Award-nominated "Blood Diamond" in 2006. "They can do anything they want with it - even rewrite parts of it without consulting me and without my knowledge or consent."

Leavitt added that he is from Pittsburgh, and "I have relatives who live in West Virginia, so, believe me, I have gotten an earful from many quarters."

A publicist for Universal did not immediately comment Thursday. A spokesman for North Carolina's football program did not respond to a Thursday request for comment.

North Carolina did not play Syracuse during Davis' tenure: a review of their schedules shows they first met up in 1995. Leavitt wrote that his choice reflected research that found that North Carolina was among several southern schools known for such racist behavior. Georgia Tech was "notorious," while South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas also had incidents, he told Manchin.

"That is the way I wrote it, after my meticulous research revealed that incidents like these did, indeed, happen throughout the South in the 1950s when northern college teams with African American players traveled down there for games," Leavitt wrote.

Davis starred at Syracuse University from 1959-61. He led Syracuse to its only national championship in 1959 before winning the Heisman in 1961. He died in 1963 of leukemia.

Syracuse did not play WVU at Morgantown during the season shown in the film. Players for both teams from that era have said there was never such an incident involving WVU fans. Although the scene depicted a night game, WVU did not have stadium lights until the 1980s.

WVU spokeswoman Becky Lofstead lamented that the scene mars an otherwise "excellent" film about an admirable sports figure.

"It seems apparent that the studio took liberties with the story and deliberately disregarded fact and history," Lofstead said. "It would be the university's preference that the film's credits reflected that this scene is purely fictional."

Letting the client design the project

2008-10-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

A pretty good video that illustrates what I do with the majority of my time.

/so, how about that male secondary market?

NY Sun

2008-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

I've noticed among the obits of the NY Sun today many kind words including positive comments from those the Sun had done battle with frequently and recently. The general consensus is that they tried their damnedest to commit newspapering. The NY Observer even went to far as to note that the PBS Newshour was incorrect in giving the NYT credit for breaking the story of US troops making cross-border raids into Pakistan - the Sun had had that story a full week before the Times.

And the law professor Ann Althouse posted this photo of the newsroom:

Children, look closely: that's a newsroom. Wooden floors, desks in an open plan that puts writers within yelling distance of editors, phones buried under files and folders. It's not hard to imagine the occasional bottle of bourbon hidden in a lower drawer. As the Great Vultee liked to say - it's enough to make you volunteer for overtime.

I read the Sun obits in my usual morning round of journalism news sites, and by some evil coincidence the next item I read was about a court tossing out a case against a reporter. Good news usually, but a sad story in that it was a newspaper suing the reporter. Susan Paterno had written a fairly entertaining account of Wendy McCaw's tenure at the Santa Barbara News-Press, including MaCaw's promotion of her boyfriend from food critic to co-publisher:

Paterno wins attorney's fees, at least. But it's sad to think that idiots like McCaw are running the newspaper world these days while the NY Sun goes down despite a valiant effort.

First ride of fall

2008-09-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

Even though it was hot and humid yesterday morning when I went out, it really was a fall ride. You can smell the late-season flowers and bushes now and the sky is getting that washed-out look. The grass has a lot of yellow in it and the first yellow leaves are starting to show up on the sycamores.

Plus the squashed copperheads. Saw the first one of those yesterday too.

After a short stop to read the new hunter warning sign on a Duke Forest access point, I was actually a bit cool when I got back on the bike. So I guess I'll need to get the long-sleeve jerseys out of the cedar chest and ready for action.

And I ran up on some guy on a Cervelo TT bike. I suppose those handlebars are OK on smooth pavement, but on bumpy rural backroads, they look like a pain.

I suck

2008-09-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

But this guy doesn't.

An amazing collection of bike pron.

And now for something completely different

2008-09-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Japanese Bugfights!

Low sparks

2008-09-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

A nearby middle school has a quarter-mile asphalt track around the soccer/football field. Sometimes when I'm tired of dealing with traffic I'll ride up there and do laps.

Part of the zen of cycling for me is doing my own work on the bike, and the payoff for that is a perfectly silent drivetrain. Combine that with a good set of Mavic wheels and Conti tires and you have a silence that's actually preferable to listening to the iPod, which I often do when I have a music jones to cure.

Anyway, I was able to hold 22mph for about 10 minutes after I had warmed up before dropping back to my normal 18mph. A steep hillclimb on the way home finished the short workout. The days are getting shorter.

Water sports

2008-08-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

So the Austin newspaper goes looking for extravagant water users in this drought summer and finds that the top of the list is - Lance Armstrong.

"A total of 222,900 gallons of water was used at Armstrong's home, according to the most recent city records available. That's about what 26 average Austin households use in a month."

To his credit, he 'fessed up and said he'd fix it - and that he's noticed the bills had been a little high.

Oh, come now, Lance: surely you don't mind a $1,603 monthly water tab.

Like a lot of guys who come into money, he hired an architect and a designer to build him a home. And, as in almost every other similar case, it's ugly and inefficient. You can GIS for some photos. I've never understood edifice rex but it's his money.

ObRelief: At least it's not oceanfront.

Why the intratubes was invented

2008-08-13T05:50:00.001-07:00

So this guy has a hobby of collecting old 78 records. He decides he'd like to share this music so he builds a home studio, of sorts, and converts them to mp3s. He then builds a simple website to house them.

Excellent

About 4,000 so far and more to come.

You can view his system at Wired.

Bill Monroe. Merle Travis. Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, the Duke, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman. And forgotten wonders like Spade Cooley. All with scratches and pops intact.

Yes. It's hot.

2008-08-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

At this time of year people are always asking why I continue to ride in the heat. Honestly, I'd rather ride in hot weather than cold weather but I suppose that's a personal thing. Unless you are laboring up a climb you are making a pretty good breeze for yourself.

I've also lived in the South for all my years and find the heat to be comfortable. We didn't have AC in the house until I was 13 so the "three shower day" is old news.

The only thing about summer riding I don't like is the bugs. Having something rattling around the vents of your helmet is unpleasant and distracting. Having a mouthful of gnats is an experience I'd rather skip.

One thing I have learned - unless the ride is two hours or more you really don't need to put $5 worth of energy drinks in your water bottles. Eat a banana beforehand and just carry plain water if you are just going to do a quick 20 miles after work. Drinking a quart of some majickal elixir only helps you fulfill the old adage of Americans having the richest urine in the world.

Waterman

2008-04-21T11:19:00.001-07:00

Woody Brown has died at age 96 in Hawaii. He'll be unknown to the public at large but to surfers he's one of three men in a photo that defined the sport:

Woody on the left, George Downing and Buzzy Trent charge 20-ft Makaha in 1953. This chance photo was published in the Honolulu papers and for some reason the novelty caused it to be picked up by the wire services and published around the world. For most newspaper readers it was like someone cliff-diving or driving in a demolition derby: what won't those fools try next?

For surfers, it was a signal event like Babe Ruth's "called shot" to baseball fans - a corner had been turned and the game was now different. Prior to this surfing generally meant letting a wave push your board directly to shore. A few guys had learned to turn the board into the wave so you could use the slope for a longer and faster ride. But really big waves remained off limits until surfers had developed the tools and skills to deal with them. Not a few died in the process.

In those surfing spots around the world where big waves were possible, the bar was lifted as to what constituted the pinnacle of the sport. Even as the sport changed over the years, with rad surfers and slashers gathering the money and the magazine articles, big-wave surfers remained a class by themselves. With the exception of Laird Hamilton most big-wave surfers remain unknown outside their circle of friends. Since it's a sport that depends on unpredictable circumstances, it's doesn't lend itself to TV. Since big-wave surfing takes place off beaches that don't tend to have hotels or tourist bars, it doesn't attract a following.

Even in eastern NC, where I first saw that photo framed above the cash register in Marsh's Surf Shop sometime in the middle '70s, it was electrifying. That was something I wanted to do. And I kept trying until I finally had a chance at a 15-ft day off Kitty Hawk in 1989 with my man man, Skip, in the after throes of Hurricane Juan. What I remember best was how eerily quiet it was on the outside line-up, and the crowd of people at Station One watching us.

The photo with his obit was described as "undated" but we can assume it was taken in a time before sponsor logos made surfboards look like NASCAR racers and the smiling surfer replaced by the scowling professional.

One other thing about Woody - among his five surviving children is a 20-year old son. Do the math.

2008-04-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted a fairly funny article from the jokesters at SWOBO on the history of great moustaches in cycling. One of the "winners" in this article was Tammy Thompson, US Womens' Cycling champ:

Now I find out that she's been named in the BALCO case:

"Former cycling champion Tammy Thomas seemed to be in the midst of shaving her face when an Olympic drug tester paid her an unannounced visit in 2002, according to testimony Wednesday."

Ya just can't make this stuff up.

Because, you know, it's not really athletic

2008-03-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

Headling and sub-hed from today's BBC "Sport" section:

Sotherton keen to try cycling

Great Britain pentathlete Kelly Sotherton says she is keen to try cycling once her athletics days come to an end.

clicky

Belgian knee-warmers

2008-03-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

I went for longish rides Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's was necessarily short as I had to sandwich a ride in between rain bands moving in from the SW.

Sunday was a typical March day - big dark clouds moving across the sun and when they did the temps seemed to drop 10 degrees. The chilling NW wind didn't help. I wore a winter jersey and long tights. I've never thought that being cold improved any activity.

As I rode along I spotted the usual throng of cyclists out on a sunny weekend afternoon. Many of them were wearing shorts and short-sleeve jerseys. Made me cold to look at them, especially the woman on the tandem who practically had her nose buried in her partner's backbone as she tried to keep out of the wind. I'll bet he has trouble getting her back in the saddle next weekend.

I used to see the same thing surfing this time of year, even though March is the month of coldest water in NC. The sun would come out, the air temps would go up to the 60s, and some jackass would be sitting next to you in the line up in board shorts. I used to enjoy watching their skin turn gray as the blood and core cooled off.

Belgian cyclists used to try to out-psych their opponents by wearing shorts in cold weather. What they did was smear grease or other emollients on their knees and forearms to break the wind. This was called a Belgian knee-warmer.

Anyway, today on the way into work I came up behind a cyclist who was headed up Hwy 86 and apparently commuting. There was something about his posture that looked odd and as I went around him I saw he was wearing shorts, a short-sleeve jersey, and a fleece vest (while warm, not known for wind-blocking properties). His posture was odd because he had one hand stuck into a vest pocket in an attempt to warm it. The temp when I left the house was 36F.

I suppose there's some value in trying to appear tough, but only if you are getting paid to do it. Otherwise, relax.

2008-03-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

The crowd at Velonews spots the trends in cycling gear as witnessed at the ToC.

But claiming that the High Road jersey sports "70s surfer T-shirt lettering" indicates that someone's drawer of 70s surfer T-shirts is a lot different than mine.

Con Chrysalis, anyone?

Cold but clear

2008-03-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

After Saturday's disappointment (forecast: mid-50s, partly cloudy; reality: mid-40s, blowing rain) I managed to get in a short ride Sunday. The sky was absolutely clear but the wind was still swinging through NW/NE which means that not only was it a cold wind, but it was either a head wind or a quartering wind for much of the course.

Good ride, though. I elected to spin for much of the route. When it's cold it's hard to work up any enthusiasm for downhill runs because you know you'll just end up with tears in your ears from the frigid slipstream.

Surprise

2008-03-03T07:13:00.000-08:00

So the first weekend in March delivers not one but two days of superior cycling weather. Saturday was warm and I celebrated with a two-hour ride over one of my favorite routes. Sunday was cool but still dry and clear, so I did a one-hour ride that was much hillier.

Excellent. About the only advice I can give people in my age bracket is to find a sport they really enjoy.

Dull safety lecture

2008-01-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

I got home last night and realized I didn't have a thing worth eating in the house. So I went ahead and changed clothes and rode the trainer for a half hour to get that out of the way. Then I jumped into the car and headed back into town to buy some dinner. It was dark out but not totally nighttime.

Heading up Hwy 86 and coming into the corner at New Hope Creek, I saw an oncoming minivan swerve into my lane. Oops. So I hit the brakes and eased over a bit myself to give them as much room as possible. I figured it was just another Minivan Moron yapping on his/her cellphone or fiddling with the radio.

After they went past, in the headlights of another oncoming vehicle, I saw what caused them to swerve - a cyclist. One wearing black tights and a dark cycling jacket. At least his helmet was a light color. The bicycle was a dark color, too. After I went past him and before the next oncoming car had blocked my view, I looked into the mirror and confirmed what I suspected - no blinkie light. And sure enough, that car had to swerve left to avoid the cyclist. It's was easy to see way - the drivers were dealing with the headlights of oncoming cars like mine. A cyclist wearing dark clothes wouldn't be seen until the last seconds.

I see this all the time in the Triangle. Cyclists in dangerous situations (semi-rural roads, narrow and curvy, considerable traffic, hazy or dark skies) wearing dark clothing and not using lights. I wonder if these people have a death wish or are just stupid.

Let's get the legal stuff out of the way first: if you are on a road at night in NC, you have to have a light. Since laws seem to have little effect on peoples' behavior, let's consider the other aspects of this question:

1. Lights are cheap, they don't weigh much, and are easy to attach to the bike. No mechanic needed. And unless you are training (as in, with a coach, on a team, with corporate sponsorship) you don't need to be sweating the 3 oz light anyway.

2. Wearing bright-colored clothing when out & about at night is one of those things I thought everyone learned in 3rd grade. I sure did. If you chance getting caught by sundown, one of the things that belongs in your cycling bag is a bright-colored nylon vest of the sort sold in cycling shops as a wind vest. If that's too expensive, the same article is available in running shops at half the price. You can even buy them in WalMart in the hunting section for $1.99 - I have one rolled up in my cycling bag. I doubt it weighs more than an ounce.

3. And if all of the above fails, blinkie lights are a necessity. Just get one. If you fear it being stolen, all of the quality light makers (Cat-eye, Nite-Eyez, etc) have models with quick-release mounts so you can remove the light and stick it in your pocket. I tend to turn mine on when I am riding in the late afternoon and dodging in and out of the shadows of trees. I've noticed that when I have the light on, cars notice me much sooner judging from the fact that I see them move over to pass sooner than if I don't have a light.

If my appeals to your self-preservation have no weight, think of this: people dislike being startled. And driving home after work, coming around a curve to find a nearly-invisible cyclist in your path so that you have to slam on brakes or swerve into the other lane certainly startles most drivers. And in that respect, you are no better than the jerks on bicycles who run stop signs or ride on sidewalks. You are just contributing to the ill-will toward cyclists that a lot of people seem to harbor.

Hobos and ex-cons

2008-01-16T05:39:00.000-08:00

I went into the LBS yesterday to order a set of pedals for my sort-of cross bike. The day before I had noticed that someone had punched a hole through the laminate glass on the side door and had figured it was just some vandalism by the bums who populate downtown Chapel Hill, something that's becoming much too common. In fact, I had come to work yesterday to find a nice puddle of urine in front of our back entrance.

Asking about the door, I was told that at first the shop employees had thought it was vandalism too, since the door was still locked from the inside when they arrived that morning. They then noticed a small piece of glass on the keyboard of the register/computer. Perhaps it had been thrown the 10 or so feet by the impact? But they started looking around. The register had been opened and the counter searched, but everything on the sales counter had been carefully replaced. Then they discovered a missing $3,000 mountain bike. And a missing $3,500 mountain bike.

While I was standing there agog over the idea of a $3,500 mountain bike, the shop owner noted that he was happy they had overlooked the $6,000 mountain bike. That certainly raised my eyebrows.

So we agreed it had been a professional job: they punched a hole just big enough to reach through and unlock the door, but not enough to shatter the whole door and attract attention. They took what they wanted but left nothing disturbed, and locked the door on leaving. That way, should a patrolling cop check out the situation it would look like vandalism, not grand theft.

Kinda scarey to think that cycling has reached a point where professional thieves are marking targets at bike shops. I was accustomed to the idea of pros stealing bikes on campus - that's been happening since the early 70s, at least, and stealing anything on campus is pretty easy. But punching a hole in laminate glass on a door not 50 feet from a busy street (although on the side of the building) and lifting $6,000+ worth of bikes is pretty crazy. Pretty soon bike shop owners will have to secure their goods at night, similar to what jewelry and gun shop owners have to do.

Pause a moment - Walter Bowart

2008-01-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

Walter Bowart, founder and publisher of the East Village Other, est mort.

For me, one of the great things about going to kollidge was visiting the periodical room of Joyner Library every Tuesday evening. There, in a pile awaiting me courtesy of my aunt the librarian, were the recently arrived editions of the EVO, the Village Voice, the Great Speckled Bird, the Berkeley Barb, the Rat, and the Oracle. I'd prop up with a Coke and a pack of nabs, and read until the room closed at 11.

If you had grown up in the rural South, you were vaguely aware that things were going on elsewhere. The occasional story on Huntley & Brinkley, cover pieces in Life magazine, listening to WABC out of NYC late at night after the local stations had gone off the air - in the age of Teh Intratubes it's almost hard to imagine the work that was involved in gathering news other than the farm report on WITN, Channel 7. I had seen the papers before, usually being sold out of the back of a van in the parking lots of concert venues. Having them delivered and gathered - for free - was a luxury beyond belief and the start of my absolute devotion to a free and unfettered press.

But noble sentiments aside, the papers were also vastly entertaining: concert reviews in a snarky tone unknown to Ralph Gleason of Rolling Stone (as slavish to the almighty dollar then as now); political ranting from the likes of Abbie Hoffman, Paul Krassner, and Eldridge Cleaver; photography and artwork from R. Crumb, Annie Leibovitz, Art Speigleman - usually involving naked people; and first-person accounts of random events like the Levitation of the Pentagon.

And the ads were entertaining as well: head shops, "art" movie houses, psychedelic clothing stores, whole food eateries. These were usually beautifully drawn and reproduced. Imagine my surprise at finding out last year that a prominent gallery in San Francisco was mounting an exhibit of the ads done by Rick Griffin. Plus a cartoon page featuring The Fabulous Furry Freak Bros, Fritz the Cat, Hungry Chuck Biscuits, and other malcontents.

The back pages were my introduction to the swamp of human desire. From the ads for strip clubs and dance joints to the personals column with topic headers like "other scenes," they were revelatory. It was one things to see the all-black-clad dominatrix in an R. Crumb strip, it was another to see a photo of one in an ad for the Kitty Kat Klub. Or Tom Wolfe's eye-injuring illustration of Carol Doda. It was no secret that the papers survived on the sex ads. When the Barb famously declared they would no longer run them in the late 70s (because they were degrading to women) the paper lasted less than a year. The fellow who had been managing the sex ads for the paper set up a separate publication to carry the ads and remained in business until 2005, when free internet ads killed it.

So for a while the likes of Bowart kept us informed and entertained (Bowart most famously suggesting to a Congressional committee that they drop LSD if they wanted to understand Today's Yoof, a suggestion usually attributed to Hoffman or Jerry Rubin) and, mostly, vanished off the stage when the Age of Hippie passed. Bowart's last job was editing a lifestyle magazine in Palm Springs that catered to the celebrity/golf set.

Not a great idea

2008-01-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

The bike I'm building as a sort-of cross bike (essentially a road bike with wider, softer tires) wasn't ready Sunday (I bone-headedly picked up the wrong derailer adapter at the LBS) so I set out on a long route on my usual ride. Clear skies and an air temp of 70 degrees - that's what I like about the South.

About 10 miles in, I threw caution to the wind and started down a gravel road that runs through some very pretty horse-farm country. The whole reason for building the sort-of cross bike is to be able to use these roads, which are hard-pan clay with crusher-run granite gravel.

For the first couple of miles it was OK - just learn to keep the speed down as the gravel really is like small ball bearings. Then I ran into a section that was badly potholed. After dodging around those I found myself on a really long climb that revealed a new distraction - trying to stand while on gravel is like trying to balance on a pole that's on rollerskates. The hard, narrow road tires kept slipping sideways, and the rear wheel spun on every downstroke as it had no traction. I gave up and eventually dismounted, walking the last 100 yards up the hill. A small defeat, but better than crying over scratched paint if I had laid the bike down. The last couple of miles on gravel were relatively easy after that.

When I again hit pavement, it was smooth sailing. Not only was the asphalt a welcome change but I had turned so I had a tailwind.

It's not the heat

2008-01-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

Darkness is the biggest enemy for riding in winter. If I lived in a town with lighted streets, I'd probably feel comfortable riding at night. But out in a rural area where many of the roads are apparently used as (high-speed) connector routes, I'd rather skip it.

And around this time of year, you have to deal with an extreme lack of time. The horridays are just one thing after another. So I'll ride the trainer again tonight but I'm going to hold the weatherman to his promise of a fair weekend. I can deal with the cold as long as the sun is out.

I heard this morning that Paris is the most bike-friendly town in Europe. I'd always heard that was Amsterdam so it might be worth looking into.

N.B. - usually the LBS is having a sale about now. For some reason, not a single shop in the Triangle is having a sale on parts and such. I need a few odds and ends and would like to pick up a few things on the cheap, being an economical bastard.

Business math

2007-12-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

Performance carries Campagnolo, believe it or not. And they regularly put it on sale. So whenever their email arrived with a sale on Campy stuff I usually ordered via the web and had it delivered to their local store, which is a 5-min walk to my office. They offered free shipping to their stores as a way to get you into the place - which I thought was good business sense.

Anyway, they stopped doing that. I found it out when ordering a clamp-on ring for a braze-on derailer. Half price? Excellent. But what's this: shipping that's more than 50% of the price of what I ordered? Five dollars and 63 cents on a ten-dollar order? No thanks. Cancel.

I know they've been bought out but, jeeze, I've never understood the logic of screwing over long-term customers. That's MBA thinking, the kind that had Ford losing Volvo customers after Ford canceled many (if not all) outstanding Volvo warranties after acquiring the makers of the Swedish brick. Let's face it - Volvo used to be known as a expensive, but reliable, auto. Now it's just expensive.

A slight breeze

2007-12-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

One drawback to flat-bladed spokes: in a 40-kt quartering wind, it turns your wheels into wind vanes.

There was exactly one hour of riding yesterday in between the rain stopping and the wind starting. I called it correctly and got in a quick ride, doing the last mile or so headed west as a hellacious NW wind came on.

The Dawn Patrol

2007-12-13T05:49:00.000-08:00

Usually I ride after work. I like to save the best part of the day for last and besides I can usually score a nice sunset most days. In the winter I usually ride the trainer after I get home. With the horridays upon us, an accumulation of chores and duties has tied up my evenings.

So I got up at 5 this morning to ride the trainer before work. The dawn patrol is nothing new to me, it's a staple of the surfing life. What's weird is that you get all pumped up and then you get a big mental letdown when you realize that the best part of the day is over and all you have to look forward to is eight hours or so of staring into a monitor.

I need a new hobby. Heroin looks good.

The Val Kilmer film festival

2007-12-12T10:52:00.001-08:00

My friend Catherine hipped me to the fact that Val Kilmer didn't vanish off the face of the earth after his much-ballyhooed attempt at superstardom. Apparently he settled back into making some very nice indy movies in between the usual Hollywood fare like Heat and Red Planet (although I liked both of those). He's a much better actor than I previously thought. Here's a few I've been watching while riding the trainer. They are all interesting enough to keep you from thinking about how nice it would be if you were riding outside.

The Salton Sea - Kilmer is Danny Parker, meth head. Or is he Thomas Van Allen, jazz musician? A twisted plot and some fine performances by Peter Sarsgaard, BD Wong and Adam Goldberg.

Spartan - It wasn't until the third time I watched this that I figured out what was going on. Script and direction by David Mamet, which explains the complexity. Contains one of my favorite quotes: "You've had all your life to prepare for this moment. Why aren't you ready?"

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - A fun movie with a non-sequential storyline. Very entertaining with a cynical take on the Hollywood experience.

Wonderland Sort of a murder mystery, sort of a view into the porn industry with Kilmer as porn star John Holmes, and his alleged part in a notorious drug murder.

OK, I know that Kilmer sucked in Alexander but everyone sucked in Alexander.

Score

2007-12-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

A Campy Daytona group was advertised on Craigslist for $150. Fully expecting to find a handful of worn-out junk, I was surprised that it was in excellent condition. And not only did it come with the shifters and derailers, but it came with a crank, BB, cables, chain, and cassette.

Yay!

Missed it by this >< much

2007-12-07T13:59:00.001-08:00

So I get an email today inviting me to join a Critical Mass ride.

The ride was last night.

But I'll mark next month's on the iCal.

Join.

Riding the trainer

2007-12-07T10:02:00.001-08:00

Yeah, it's not so much the cold but the dark. That's where winter really bites it for the cyclist.

So I've set up the CAAD 3 bike on a trainer. Now, what's the worst thing about training? Yep, it's boring. Boring. Boring. To relieve this I had been sitting the trainer in front of the TV. But, honestly, TV has gotten boring. Boring. Boring.

In a fit of inspiration I got an old laptop out of the closet. I set it up on a barstool in front of the bike. I've set it up with a copy of the excellent multi-media software VLC and loaded the laptop with AVIs of movies, documentaries, and other items downloaded from teh Intrawebs.

Man, that's the ticket. I've found I stretch my time on the trainer if I get really involved with what I'm watching.

The search for sort-of cross tires

2007-12-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

I have a C-dale CAAD-3 frameset I'm building up as a winter bike. I got the frame off Craigslist a few months back, everything else I need I had lying around the shop. Mission - a bike I don't mind riding over roads that are wet and/or muddy.

And, incidentally, I want to add a few gravel roads to my list of local routes. These are county roads, not rocky driveways, but they are indeed paved with "crusher run" pea gravel. This has the combo effect of riding on a road covered in ball bearings, and some of those bearings have edges sharp enough to cut my regular road tires. The trick is that I have to ride several miles of regular paved road to get to the gravel roads.

So I need something with a bit of tread, but not so much tread it's like riding on a vibrating bed at a cheap motel. Plus the CAAD frames are kinda narrow where the chainstays meet the BB, so I'll guess that 30 is the max width.

Suggestions gratefully welcome.

Dealing with the weather

2007-11-27T07:02:00.000-08:00

I finally have an excuse for owning two bikes: one stays on the trainer and keeps me from having to spend that entire minute or so taking it off or putting it on the trainer when the weather allows for outdoor riding.

And so far this has been a truly strange fall/winter. Last Wednesday I rode in mid-60s temps under a clear sky. Thursday was a bit cooler but still a great day to be outside on two wheels. Friday brought a screaming wind out of the NW that made me find excuses not to ride - I really hate having the front wheel jerked around by a quartering wind. Saturday was clear and cold, meaning a heavy jersey and a vest. Sunday was cold enough to graduate to a winter jacket and windfront bibs - but no face mask. Yet. But I was amazed to see a steady stream of riders past the farm around 11 a.m. I'm guessing it was an event of some sort, the riders seemed a notch above duffers and all the bikes were in the range of a month's salary.

Yesterday was dark and wet, heavy mist/drizzle most of the day. Enough to keep me inside but not enough to relieve the drought.

Today is warm and sunny. I guess I'll try to abandon the office early. Otherwise it will be an hour on the trainer while watching Family Guy reruns.

Actually, Saturday I did a new route that takes in a few miles on a gravel road. I did this on the second bike with new, cross-style tires. Very enjoyable. The cross bike is on the trainer. Which I suppose gives me a reason for a third bike: one built only for the trainer. That leaves the cross bike and the road bike ready in case the weather allows a ride.

Yeah, that's it.

Metro life

2007-11-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I learned that a cyclist (slightly known to me) routinely pays a homeless guy a few bucks to watch his bike while he eats in a restaurant. I think he does lock the bike to a rack with one of those thin chains-with-lock-attached, similar to those used by kids, to keep the homeless guy honest. But, seriously.

Anyway, given a $5,000 bike and the sort of thievery that goes on around here, I suppose that's good insurance. Is valet parking next?

Weekend festivities

2007-11-19T09:56:00.001-08:00

Two gorgeous rides over the weekend. Nothing like temps in the 60s and fall colors in the trees to make life wonderful. Saturday I used the road bike for a tour of the roads in the western part of the county. Sunday was an ATB ride to test out some of the new paths around town. I found you could ride almost completely around Chapel Hill/Carrboro on trails and paths with just a minimal exposure to the idiots who clog up the local roadways in their SUVs.

The Employee Transportation Forum

2007-11-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

So I went to last year's Employee Transportation Forum which allegedly promotes walking, cycling, inter-modal, etc. Someone of my experience should have realized that it's just one of those dog-and-pony shows that organizations have to put on to ticket-punch their requirements for state or federal funding.

See also: diversity in hiring.

Anyway, I had discovered that my building had not one but two of the most-sought-after requirements for cycling to work - showers. And they were nice showers, too - not those cheap metal stalls that factories use for decontaminating someone after they have been sprayed with toxic materials or subjected to a speech from Dear Leader. But actual enclosed stalls within a nice room with a bench for changing.

Too bad they were both filled up with old files and other assorted junk.

I asked several people why we couldn't clean out at least one of those showers for the use of the cyclists (there are several in my building). Never got a straight answer. As usual in a bureaucracy, no one wants to rock the boat.

Incoming in (winter)

2007-11-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

I put the cross bike on the trainer over the weekend and rode it for the first time last night. It's always discouraging to admit winter is here and there's no longer enough daylight to ride. Sadder still when the weather is otherwise perfect - crisp air and afternoon temps in the 60s.

In the spirit of BikeSnob - Best of Raleigh Craigslist

2007-11-13T06:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, want a Fuji 54cm? Well, that's all the info given on the ad - it's a Fuji and it's 54cm. Oh, and they want $900 for it. For that kind of jack perhaps a photo will help your decision. Here's one:

Looks like he/she used a camera phone with some nose oil liberally smeared on the lens. Uh, do I get the wheels for $900? Sure, and here they are:

Looks like they are sneaking out the door the morning after a wild night and they woke up next to a Triax bike that still had the WalMart sticker on the seatpost.

Still interested? Here's another look at the deal of the day:

I can only suppose they are selling the bike to afford some furniture. Perhaps a rug or two. With the windows painted over they don't need any curtains. Nice floor, though. Don't let the front chainring scratch that wood.

2007-11-05T05:24:00.000-08:00

Apparently, Portland is the place:

Clicky

I cringe when they compare cycling to indie rock. But otherwise it's somewhat heartening to see that their bike paths are well developed.

2007-05-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

One of my faves.

Not only did this appear in the daily edition, it was never corrected: this image comes from the N&O archive.

FXBRD!

2007-03-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

Quick ride after work to celebrate DST and a healing leg. 10 miles on the Cannondale under gray skies and temps in the low 60s, average 15.1 MPH.

2007-03-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

Did two rides this weekend on steel - the old mid-60s Carleton bike I found at the dump a year or so ago. About all that's left of the bike is the frame, but I read in several places that these hand-made frames - with nice lugs and butting - were good candidates for upgrades. So I had some Araya 700c wheels and a fairly modern Shimano crank. All I really needed was the brifters and derailers, those I found at a jumble sale sponsored by a bike club. Everything else I needed was in the spares bin. Oh, I did pick up a set of Continental racing slicks at that same sale. The tan sidewalls go well with the antique vibe.

Anyway, I built it up a year or so ago and other than a few test rides, never did much with it except mount it on a spare Vetta trainer. So I dusted it off and made a few adjustments just for the hell of it. It's a nice ride, very smooth. Adjusting to the klunky Shimano 7-speed from my usual Campy 10-speed was quicker than expected. And, actually, riding on the track was just a case of finding the gear for the speed I wanted and leaving it there.

Good rides, some wind challenges. My hamstring continues to heal. It throbs a bit but is no longer painful. Today my bum is a bit stiff, always a sign of a good long ride.

2006-12-04T11:50:00.000-08:00