NIGHT...

ofthelivingdead! Screen shots are fun, gonna take more of them.

Felt inspired, wanted a creepy shot.

New boutique popping up. Had to put down my tall tea and paper to get a snap.

Coathangers

From our second-story outpost. Taxi with the quickness. All in Austin better see The Coathangers on Saturday. "Once I had a tambourine- it wouldn't shake shake. Why does everything I love have to break break?"

Laundry Day

The basement laundry room up the block. Easily recognized (once inside) by the lingerie hanging on the light switch.

Felt a little like McAllister down there, staring down the furnace and trying to keep it together! Just kidding, it's actually one of my favorite reading spots.

What glass? And I believe it's "break".

I must agree.

I'm wondering why myself. And I'm kind of scared for other people's children.

G-Wagon. I shouldn't like these so much, or indeed at all. But I DO like them. A lot. Must be the Bird Man in me.

I ride the banks often. When there aren't bums pissing on them.

This one's the best for mega-launching (you know, catching like six inches of air).

Every single window. City blocks can look like this here.

Litter bug. Fine taste, though.

Dug the rounded corner windows of this building.

Read about this guy's work in a magazine recently. Then stumbled upon a couple of his pieces on my walk. Lucky me.

This one was apparently a take on his deceased grandfather.

Dope texture.

Doper texture.

No School Today

Saw an Empire BMX sticker on the longbox today. Small world...

And a Fight Pretty sticker on the mini-ramp. Now that's just eerie...




Got to ride the park for half an hour or so before some eleven year-olds showed up. Two of em at first. I made small talk, let them ride the bike, then casually asked them why they weren't in school. They said it was some kind of in-service yadda yadda yadda. I took them for bold-faced liars, but didn't press it (I get to the skatepark every morning around 9:30-9:45, and by 10:30 there are at least five school-aged kids there, every day- there cannot be an in-service every day). Well, they weren't lying this time. ten minutes later the place was swarming with young-uns and their "no-teethed, sailor-mouthed, passing-out cigs to thireen year-olds" parents.

I left. Too many people. That, and I needed to go back to the car, get in, close the doors and scream for a minute.

Ending on a funny note: This particularly toothless mother is riding her busted up Wal-Mart mountain bike around the park and one of her kids yells, "hey Stacy, think you could ride this place better than him?" Simply being referred to in such a setting makes my skin crawl. Her lips parted to speak, the crusted brown stains laying seige to her gums becoming particulary prevalent in the light of morning, and she echoes, "F--k that, I ain't even trying that s*** on this bike...too expensive for that s***." If they only knew how much my new frame cost me. They'd slit my throat from ear to ear and roll my steed to the closest pawn. After asking me to watch their kids while I bled to death.

"You better run, better run, faster than my bullet..."

Put the new steed together a few days ago, figured I'd get some pictures up. Head-tube angle. 4130 chromoly steel. Unfinished surface- no paint or coat at all. Bare steel.

Front end. Since there is no finish, you can see the welds clear as day. New frame sports top tube and down tube gussets: means its the strongest thing I've ever ridden.

Back-end. The welds are gorgeous. Only one hiccup: the lack of a painted finish or coat of any kind means this puppy is gonna rust, going to oxidize over the next month. You can see it on the chainstays already. I give it two months max and the entire frame will be coated in a thin layer of red-brown. This is exactly the same thing that happens to the raw material sitting outside the family shop back in Houston. Should look pretty bitchin.

Bottom bracket. You can see some of the flaming from the welds again. All hand-welded by Spooky Dave up in New York. Epic stuff.

Close-up of the down tube gusset. Totes banging.

Head tube. Really cannot decide if I want to throw a sticker on it or leave it alone. Either way, it is shiny and smooth. It looks and feels exactly the same as a part Kyle or Dad would remove from a machine, still dripping with coolant.

Old and new. The new frame is 21.25, the old was 21.5. I know the difference shouldn't be discernible, but the new frame does feel a bit smaller all around. Probably mental perception: the new frame's tubing is significantly smaller than the older one's (because the new frame's tubing is stronger and thicker). Kinda wish the new frame had the same tube size as the old, but whatcha gonna do?

"Picture it: Sicily, 1936...!" says Estelle Getty

The "Shot Tower" on the east side. Castle-esque, pretty dope. Heart-flag flying high. 'Cause love is oozing out of every pore in this city. Sarcasm.

New stickers! Thanks to Cult BMX ("never to serious not to be taken lightly") and the unstoppable, sticker-loving combo of Shelley and Mrs. Herbrich. Thanks a ton, to both parties.

Also a gift from Mrs. Herbrich! Shelley on the left, me on the right. As if that needed clarification- I mean, the resemblances are striking.

Mouth aghast.

A pillow that Shelley made. She's so talented. It makes comparing my accomplishments to hers (which is healthy, right?) so self-defeating.

Dude couldn't handle a cage, man. Just like my man Bhodi from Point Break. Johnny Utah always gets his man.