Tuesday, August 31, 2010


Eternal Light
There Is No Time



Music: Lux Aeterna - Gyorgi Ligeti

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Tokyo Giants
Soul, R&B, and a little jump swing.
'Twas good to hear those old 60s soul rhythms.

This group had a 5-piece horn line. 5 horns!!



Jeff Tanner
Went along to RipoffRest on Saturday. My intent was to photograph the car show, but the show had moved on. By the time I arrive at 3:30 there was no one left in the park, really. No problemo. I spent a couple of hours shooting bands which I still love to do, especially if the bands are good. I'll cycle a bunch of shots through over the next few days. Great music. It was stay-in-the-shade hot. It seems to be that way every year for at least one afternoon.

Monday, August 9, 2010



Rehearsal Space

I am trying something new. Many of you know that I have
been attempting to marry soundtracks to my still images. Fun
stuff but the project is abandoned for now because any of the
good software needed and available to manage that sort of work
seems to have a price tag attached.


I acquired a very small, very cheap Chinese camcorder from an ebay seller
last week. I will, therefore be publishing these experimental videos
from time to time. I am also going to break with my current habits and
try naming these little pieces as you can see above,

Music by Mimi Majick
http://www.archive.org/details/ird063

Thursday, August 5, 2010

It was my afternoon for vintage wheels.

I saw the Schwinn bicycle in front of Zellers. I know some corporation or another released a line of bikes a decade or so ago to capitalise on the then burgeoning retro movement in cycling. There were balloon tire Schwinns around then, still are I believe. This one might be an original though. I think someone must have dug it out of Grandpa's garage or the old barn. I certainly remember Scwhinn coaster bikes looking very much like this model, right down to the rubber pedals and the little piece of almost art-deco sculpture running back off the front stem beneath the cross bar. The colour is right as well.

There is an interesting piece of trivia regarding these old critters. Those of you who are unaware might be mildly surprised to learn that the roots of mountain biking lie in the Schwinn and like machines. I no longer remember the specifics which is a pity, but Gary ?Davis?
and his buddies (Davis who went on to become the first major star and dealer of name mountain bikes), invented a gonzo form of racing wherein they took old coaster bikes, stripped everything unnecessary away, including the brakes perhaps, and rode them very quickly down the side of a famous mountain hill somewhere in California.

The Norton? Whew. This was the height of serious, hot, hot motorcycling when I was a teenager. Sure there were a couple of Ducatis and other exotics around that might have gone faster off the line and made out like bandits in their class on the European Pro circuit. A young friend of mine rode one for a short time. Truthfully it was fussier than an MGB in a spring rainstorm. His mom was relieved when Mitch sold the Ducati. It had serious potential to kill its rider/s because of that instant speed off the line and the top end it could achieve down the road.

The Nortons, especially the Commando, were something a serious rider could aspire to buy and ride; many people did. There were at least 3 around briefly at different times in my subdivision, along with the BSAs and Triumphs that most everyone else bought and rode. Several friends rode BSA 500s, one guy a few blocks over ran a Triumph, but no one I knew well had a Norton.


I have exposures of this bike that are closer to correct. I just couldn't resist fooling around a bit with these two.

Right. There were no Japanese motorbikes when all of this was taking place. The Honda 50 (?55?) scooter would make its appearance in my mid- to late-teens, then the first of the Honda and Suzuki road bikes appeared. My good friend Neil and his now wife of many years, Sue, went 'cross country on a 250 cc Suzuki (it was the 250 was it not, Neil?). Don't go getting all 2-stroke and 4-stroke on me buddy, I never could remember which was which, I just like/d the pretty ones, same as automobiles.
Nowadays I look back and think you would have to really want to travel long distance to do it on a machine that small.

It would be a few more years before these new names blew the Brit bikes out of the game, a few more years before Neil and Sue took their little show on the road. Early on there was no competition in the consumer market, especially in North America.

The Road Warrior