Solus Sto

What event is this? The Chinese seem pretty good at it.

This is actually an image of a woman being executed by the Chinese authorities. According to one site that I got these photos from, these are Tibetan protestors. I don’t speak or read any Chinese, so I can’t tell what the little placard says on her chest in the other photos. All I know is that they shoot this broad in the back of the head and get whatever task the were trying to do, done.

Given all the hoopla out there about China, this image should be seen by all the stupid folks out there who are being fooled by the Olympics. Understand, dear people, that China is not a good place. They are an authoritarian capitalist state. Think the ol’ US of A has problems? As Americans we need them to buy cheap things from China to keep our debt stable, but this is the real face of the folks we’re dealing with. Yeah, gold medal count. That’s important …

No matter what I happen to be doing at the time, whenever I hear Death Letter Blues my feet instinctively begin to tap and my head starts to bob. There’s something about this bluesy, down home song that always gets me going. Now, the version I hear most is by the White Stripes, and it’s a good one. The below video is a live version they’ve done:

Now, if you want to see the original in all its glory check below. Son House was the man, and this song is just raw emotion from the Mississippi Delta. I just love how he beats the hell out of his guitar with the string pluck and all. Dude was hard.

I spotted this vid over on The SIetch Blog, one of the many that keeps my reader pinging all day. The video production quality is super high (+) and the message is timely, if not a little bit of a downer. Take heed, world!

So in the interest of keeping things “fresh” and just because I can, I recently flipped my rear wheel around to ride single speed instead of fixed. I’ve been on a fixie for the last like ten weeks or so, this was quite a change.

The first thing I noticed was how much muscle memory I have from riding a bike where your legs have to keep pumping. I would get up to speed and my legs would instinctively kind of kick back to resist what I anticipated to be the crank’s inevitable turn. However, there was no revolution and instead I was met just with the click, click, click of a free hub. Kind of fun. Still a little weird getting re-used to it.

Riding in traffic was a different beast altogether. Firstly there’s the matter of brakes. On the fixie I don’t need brakes at low speeds as my legs can do that work. You get used to that when you’re riding in traffic and your navigation at low speeds is critical. I’m no bike messenger, but I do ride in traffic through at least part of my ride. Having to readjust to a free hub and being more reliant on the hand brakes was a little odd.

One nice thing about being on the free hub was the ease of getting into my toe straps. It should go without saying that getting into your cages while riding a fixed gear bike takes some practice. It is literally a moving target. On the free hub you don’t have this issue. You just get up to speed, throw her back and slide on in there. No wobbling about and trying to time the insertion with crank rotation. This also aids one immensely at stop signs/lights/etc. Instead of worrying about my toe cages and getting going, I can just stop anywhere and pedal on when the time is right.

I do feel a little less “hard core” on my single speed as compared to the fixed gear. Having the ability, the option, to coast is just too irresistible. I find that I ride about the same speeds, though.

In the end, I’ve decided that people who are afraid to commute to work on a bike should give a single speed a try. They are light, they are simple, they work well. I see so many people on 21 speed monsters that are just too much bike for the purposes they are being used for. Of course, if you ride in a hilly area you probably need all those gears, but around here a simple three speed would suffice for most commuters, I am convinced. As for me, I’m keeping the free wheel around for now, but I know I’ll be fixed pretty soon again.

For this not aware, San Francisco has an annual event wherein the Navy docks at port in San Francisco and the town is awash in sailors. Now you have some idea as to why gay men love it here so much … Anyway, I was forwarded this video by my uncle and thought it was pretty creative and well done.

I spotted this over on How To Avoid The Bummer Life. It’s a pretty funny vid.

Although I am not anything close to a runner, competitively or otherwise, I can appreciate the spirit of the sport. On some level, foot races are the purest of athletic events. Non-contact, man to man contest.

Recently while listening to NPR I heard them profile an American Olympian, Anthony Famiglietti. Just hearing the guy talk about his personal philosophy and his appraoch to running made me interested in him. He seems like a down-to-Earth kind of guy who just happens to be a bad ass runner. I guess I root for the modest superstar.

His running style, where he takes the lead and runs balls-out for the duration of the race is very much like Steve Prefontaine. Could we be witnessing the rise of a new American track star? Go Fam!!

Given my affinity for Zombies and bikes, how could I not post this comic?

I’ve been aware of the Scraper Bike videos for awhile, but last night when Eva and I were having dinner there was a whole hour of public radio devoted to these guys. That’s cool, I love seeing some Bay Area love being spread around, especially in the bike scene. Probably the coolest thing about the scraper bike movement (can we call it that?) is how well it blends hyphy, the Bay, and biking culture together. I like when people put their own stamp on things.