This is the bike Daniel rides in Karate Kid. If I watched it in 1984, I didn’t pay much attention. But last night as Junior Junior was watching it, I was too and I noticed the Mongoose Daniel's mom hauled all the way from New Jersey to Reseda, on top of her sweet station wagon.
I also noticed when he rode to school, he locked only the front wheel with a crap cable lock.
whatever happened to be lying around the house paired perhaps with a random scrap of packing foam that was blowing down the alley one windy garbage day
in situ resource utilization
ISRU fucking kidding me?
The captain of this ship wasn’t dissuaded by his Schwinn’s wishbone seat stay. He used it to his advantage to support the ass shield.
I’ve been paying attention to the NFL since 1977. But the more I watch it, the more it starts to look like Rollerball, the 1975 movie. In my mind I’ve blended the story line of Rollerball into the story of the NFL:
In a futuristic society where corporations have replaced countries, the violent game of Football is used to control the populace by demonstrating the futility of individuality. However, one player, Colin Kaepernick, rises to the top, fights for his personal freedom, and threatens corporate control.
Perhaps it’s my superbowl hangover talking. I’m still a football fan, but an aging, skeptical, cynical, father of two, who wakes up with random aches and pains in the morning. I am fully aware that these guys are killing each other on the field. All the while the NFL makes billions of dollars and hopes that the broken retired players quietly fade away.
The NFL is so good at what it does, that we’ll talk way more about Dr Dre and Snoop Dog than we ever will about Adrian Peterson, Frank Clark, Tyreek Hill, Ray Rice or whatever domestic violence case du jour swept under the rug. The countless unflattering issues the PR hacks put their spin on, have a way of disappearing quickly.
I’m not going to stop watching football, but I’m watching less and less. I have to look away from all the slow motion injury replays and the helmet to helmet hits.
I do not look away from the stories of retired players unable to function on a basic level in their daily lives because of multiple head injuries they sustained in their playing days from Pop Warner on up to the NFL.
The game of Rollerball was so realistic that the cast, extras, and stunt personnel played it between takes on the set. At the time of the film's release, Howard Cosell interviewed Norman Jewison (Director & Producer) and James Caan on ABC’s Wide World of Sports showing clips from the film and with the two of them explaining the rules of the game. Audiences who saw the film so loved the action of the game that Jewison was contacted multiple times by promoters, requesting that the "rights to the game" be sold so that real Rollerball leagues might be formed. Jewison was outraged, as the entire point of the movie was to show the "sickness and insanity of contact sports and their allure." –from the Wiki
Cannot say I knew anything about VanMoof bikes until I spotted one outside my local independent bookstore yesterday. I didn’t get too close but I did take a picture. Only because it was screaming out “ultimate urban utility” just like all the bikes in that cute little contest 8 years back where groups of hipsters from five cities submitted their design proposals for a city bike. The winning team’s idea would be sent to production by Fuji. Or so they said. Fuji never followed through. The best thing to come out of all that was the signage. My old lady walked out with this example that we still have on the wall at HQ.
Looking at the VanMoof site makes me think maybe some of those hipsters found some investors and a factory in China to produce their version of the ultimate urban utility bike. 8 years later it’s e-assist bro and chock full of widgets, gadgets, doohickies and doodads integrated all up in the frame wherever you look as well as places you wouldn’t think to look. And all that is cool, until it isn’t, then it’s not cool. What I’m saying is, very specialized, proprietary, unique electronic horseshit breaks down and then you have a heavy $3000 single speed.
I prefer to unlock my lock with a key. I don’t want an app on my device that lets my bike sense me approaching and unlocks the integrated lock in the rear hub.
I like to imagine a Bike Works employee dragging a VanMoof out of the donation dumpster in 5 years. When they get it back to the warehouse and crack open the internal electronic 4-speed shifting doohickey near the rear hub all the little cogs fall to the floor and they laugh and shake their head before hurling the whole thing into the metal recycling container.
There was an awkward moment, a brief disturbance that set off an unfortunate sequence of hollow halfass events, creating an imbalance in the universe. It was only a matter of time until the universe took care of things and kicked that shit back into shape.
As if you have nothing better to do. Plenty of free time on your empty hands. Here’s an idea to fill in the negative space.
This book is about the 1936 UW crew that won the national championship and the right to represent the USA at the Olympics in Berlin, where they kicked ass and won a gold medal.
Tina loaned me this a few weeks ago and now I believe it should be required reading for all UW students, perhaps even all high school students in the state of Washington. It covers a great deal of Pacific Northwest history. But also national and international history too. From the construction of Grand Coulee Dam to the nation’s struggles during the great depression to Hitler’s Germany pre WWII. This scrappy group of guys from Washington were perhaps the greatest crew in the history of crew.
Soon to be a major motion picture (think Chariots of Fire on the Montlake Cut) But the book is better than anything tossed up on the silver screen. and one more thing...
I’ve only just cracked the surface of this one but it’s narrative nonfiction at its best. The incredible story of a family with twelve children, six of them schizophrenic.
You don’t have to go home but you can’t eat here. They will not offer ketchup. We must ask for it. Plant based plastics are still plastics they say will stick around 998 years less: (EN13432) Until further notice. Occam’s single-use throw away plastic razor. Parsimony, pepperoni, macaroni... Junior Junior couldn’t care less. 5-storey residential, street-level retail, no off-street parking. Sunday morning easy like.
