I'll be your mirror

I scored this sweet new Shepard Fairey print while riding the crosstown bus through Central Park last night. Fairey was asked by ATP, to create this poster to help publicize this weekend's music festival: I'll Be Your Mirror. This print was released for sale yesterday but it had sold out immediately. However, there must have been a glitch in the Obey Giant website because when I checked back yesterday evening I was delighted to find it was still available! *Snag!* I think its pretty cool that Fairey incorporated the old Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, into the print. Side note: I love the fact that I was able to buy this print using my iPhone; so convenient. Every second counts when trying to buy new Fairey pieces; they usually sell out in a matter of minutes!

Rather than describe the print myself, I'm going to cut & paste Mr.Fairey's own words here:

All Tomorrow’s Parties is a great independent music festival that does events around the world. I attended one in LA a few years ago to catch great shows by Iggy and the Stooges and Mission of Burma. ATP has a great concept of asking people or bands to curate the festival. They have asked people like Jim Jarmusch, Matt Groening, Thurston Moore, The Melvins, and for this year’s festival, Portishead. I love Portishead, so I was happy to be asked to create the poster this year. The festival is happening in an amazing building on the boardwalk in Asbury Park NJ, so I incorporated the building into the design of the poster. I’ll be doing murals, an art show, and DJ’ing as part of the ATP festival, so I’m getting to indulge all my passions in a concentrated way this week. Oh, Public Enemy is performing their classic sonic thunderstorm of an album “Fear of a Black Planet”… shake your rump and pump your fist!!!! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, improve your life immediately and get that record. Or, get to Asbury Park and check it out.

-Shepard Fairey

My sister Mary and I are heading over to Asbury Park, NJ this Sunday to check out Fairey's album art show titled Revolutions during this ATP event. He's created a lot of excellent album covers over the years, for some really great bands, to include the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Idol, Tom Petty, and 311. I don't think we'll take in any of the shows but I'm sure we'll be able to hear them jamming out. We're more interested in seeing the Revolutions show; it's going to be fantastic and I'm pretty stoked to check it out!

I also found this little gem where you can download a mix tape of tracks from the bands playing at the I'll Be Your Mirror Show this weekend. Enjoy! [click here to listen/download]

Death on wheels

Mixed in with my office mail this morning, was this screen printed patch I had bought on Ebay last week. It's a Shepard Fairey screen print from who knows when. He's not currently selling patches on his website and I'm glad to have scored this one. Looks like the future holds another trip to the Ecuadorian Shoe Repair Shop in my neighborhood. The guys at the shop have a sewing machine with a stout needle that can handle stitching through the thick rubber and Cordura material of my old messenger bag. It's always fun to pop in there and explain that I want them to stitch a patch on my bag. They're always happy to make a quick and easy $5.00.

Rock on

Last Sunday I ripped around Sprain Ridge Park for a few hours on my singlespeed. Trail conditions were a little moist from the rain we received earlier in the week giving them a tacky/grippy feel. As usual it felt fantastic to turn the cranks and dip & dive through the woods. Riding a singlespeed through a damp forest can be quite surreal in that it is a very quiet experience. Twigs didn't snap beneath my tires and wet leaves helped to muffle my roll. I played around on this boulder for a few minutes before moving on. I wish I had the skills I used to have; I was once so smooth!

Picture of the day

A combination of two images I took this past weekend while backpacking.

Backpacking at Harriman

I spent Friday through Sunday morning backpacking in Harriman State Park in New Jersey. Friday night I took a 6:00 bus from downtown, across the Hudson River and into NJ where I met my friend Jay who drove us to Harriman. Our hike in to the Dutch Doctor Shelter was dark and the cool air was really comfortable for hiking. We hiked 2.5 miles by the light of our head lamps over gentle grades of boulder strewn trails. We arrived at Dutch Doctor Shelter around 9:00 where we met up with Mike, who would join us for the weekend. I made a lazy dinner of pepper jack cheese and pepperoni and we all sat around talking and listening to Thievery Corporation. The temperature was down around the mid 50's and made for extremely comfortable sleeping.

Saturday morning I woke up around 7:00, well rested, and brewed a cup of joe. I sipped my coffee while sitting on the edge of the shelter watching the sun rise slowly above the horizon. Rays of sunlight warmed my legs and pelted the eastern sides of trees in the woods before me. It was a beautiful morning. We packed up and set off west along the Tuxedo Mountain Ivy Trail to Claudius Smith Den. This trail took us over Tuxedo Mountain (1040') to the den which is actually a pretty large cave. I crawled up and through the cave stopping inside to enjoy the cool darkness and sound echoing around inside. I down-climbed a simple route on the the backside of the cave and was pretty stoked about the whole thing. I think caves are really neat.

Pushing on past Claudius Smith Den, we turned south down the Blue Disk Trail. This trail was pretty awesome as well because it splits and gives you two options: the "elbow brusher" or the "easy route". We all took the elbow brusher and enjoyed squeezing through narrow crevices and along harry ledges. This trail was mostly down hill. At one point we stopped for a break and I noticed a big hornets nest hanging high in the branches above. It was the size of a basketball. Sitting on some rocks we all snacked, drank water and talked about the beautiful weather and excellent trail conditions. We all enjoyed the sight of a giant tree growing from a ledge on the side of an equally large boulder.

A mile or so later we were hiking along the Kakiat Trail which routed us across Spring Brook. Hurricane Irene had caused so much flooding that the bridge across Spring Brook was destroyed. Remnants of the bridge were interesting... concrete pillars with re-bar and broken strands of cable sprouting up out of them. Across the brook, a log the size of a telephone pole held anchored to the pillar. The other end of the log was swept downstream by the current. We followed the brook until we found a spot to rock hop across about a quarter mile downstream.

After another mile and a half or so, we came across Stony Brook which is a boulder strewn river with several small waterfalls (10') and deep refreshing pools. We all filtered water from this brook and I climbed around taking pictures. The roar of the water filled the air and a canopy of very tall trees let light filter down through gaps in the leave cover high above. It was beautiful.

We hiked a couple more miles to the top of Diamond Mountain where we set up camp. The tents went up quickly and we all went about collecting firewood for the evening. It was about 4:00 at this time and cloud cover had me wondering if it was going to rain or not. The weather forecast had called for good weather but I had a feeling I was going to get wet. As luck would have it, the clouds blew by and the stars came out. Dinner was a freeze dried meal of spaghetti (Again, I have to say Mountain House meals are great). We all made meals around the fire and talked while Bob Dylan played from an iPhone. The three of us shared food and stories and kept the fire blazing for a few hours before calling it a day.

Sunday morning I woke up around 6:45. The sun was just creeping over the rocks in front of my tent highlighting the green moss on the ground just outside of my tent. I stared through the screen at my boots and water bottle I left outside overnight. Moments later I was outside stretching, rubbing my eyes and picking up sticks for the fire. The coals from last night's fire were still hot and the fire came back to life with a few hand fulls of kindling. I wasn't too hungry but I ate a breakfast bar with my coffee and then cooked up some bacon for the three of us. We broke camp by 9:00 and hiked the last 4 miles out to the cars. Great trip!

Experiencing zero gravity

Stumbled upon this over at John Nack's Adobe blog. Totally love it. Really want to base jump now...

SS cyclocross bike 4 sale

Of all of the not-so-bright things I've done in my life, ordering the wrong sized bike could be one of the worst. I say this because I am well aware of the fact that I ride a 59cm frame. But, last week I ordered & received a 58cm Motobecane singlespeed cross bike. I have no idea how I picked "58" from the drop down menu when I ordered it but oh well. Its a beautiful bike and I took my time setting up right. But, after one quick burn around the neighborhood I knew that this frame was too small. Rather than return the bike and rather than try to make the bike fit me I threw it up for sale on Craiglist. I'm asking $700 and I think she'll go pretty fast. This bike can be ridden as a fixed gear or with the freewheel. 16T cogs live on both side of the flip-flop hub.

Rocky Mountain Altitude RSL

I've always wanted a nice All-Mountain (AM) bike. Something fully suspended that will climb without bobbing and sucking my energy but will also suck up the big hits and be able to take the big drops on the downhill sections. The Rocky Mountain Altitude RSL looks pretty awesome. 5.5" of front and rear adjustable travel and a solid frame design; nice. I can just imagine riding this thing up at Blue Mountain in Peekskill, NY.

Coney Island

I spent Saturday afternoon at Coney Island walking along the beach, the boardwalk and around the roller coasters and other rides. As usual, there was no shortage of strange sites and sounds. I believe Coney Island may have the highest percentage of Carnies in the entire New York City area. All sorts of folks roam this place, ensuring that you will always see something interesting at Coney Island. People danced to music on the boardwalk, children were running in and out of the water and flying kites. I was avoiding shards of glass, feminine hygiene products and other nasty bits of garbage that make up the beach at Coney Island. Although the beach is filthy and chances are high of emerging from the water with a used band aid stuck to my face, I usually jump in and float around for a bit. The cooler temps and my self-preservation mindset kept me out of the water this time. Below are a few snapshots from the days stroll.