Into The Wild Blue Yonder {0}
Many more here.
May 17, 2012
May 14, 2012
Required Listening {0}
First record in 8 years – every bit as good as I’d hoped it would be and hearing what Chris & Chuck have to say about it, track by track, is pretty rad.
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The full album is streaming here – other stand-outs for me are Drag My Body, No End Left In Sight & The Traps.
The record doesn’t do a whole lot for me, to be honest, aside from a few tracks which are absolutely fucking brilliant! King Of Days falls under this category… This jam is absolutely huge!
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Despite thinking that Metals, the newest Fiest record, is amazing – I was a little disappointed with the Feist side of this split, I really think she should have made it her own a little bit more and stayed away from the distorted guitars and whatnot. The Mastodon cover of A Commotion, on the other hand, is perfectly executed. It sounds like a Mastodon song but isn’t so far removed from the original.
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This is one of those records that is both heavy and, for the most part, pretty “happy” sounding. The repetition of the tail end of this song and the way it builds has earned it some serious rotation.
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I really hate the way most record reviews are written but this review is spot on. “They’re the rare punk band whose command of atmosphere is just as strong as their gift for velocity, and their continued existence is a gift to all of us.”
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More CanCon! The vocals, sometimes, are a little too Cornell-like for my liking but there is way more than enough classic rock riffs for me to look past that. Legit rippers, for real.
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May 11, 2012
Get Busy Livin’ {0}
I have lived a boring & predictable life – or at least that’s how I feel when I’m given the opportunity to imagine another.
Eric Valli has been taking photos in far off lands since before I was born and continues to produce stunning work that allows us, from the relative comfort of our homes and office buildings, a glimpse into ways of living most of us will never know and without words the type of hardships that few of us can even comprehend.
Even more interesting to me are the shots of folks in North America who have chosen a simpler way of living – instantly, the cynical piece of shit inside of me looks at a bunch of young, good looking white people in buckskin with horns hanging off their belts and thinks “how pretentious” but I don’t even know why that thought would even cross my mind… It’s certainly not fair.
I’m going to draw certain conclusions about their motives that may or may not be accurate but as best I can guess they’ve decided that the way we’re living here sucks and they’ve chosen to exclude themselves.
In more ways than I can count, I’m pretty jealous.
May 7, 2012
Posh. So Posh. {1}
A month or so ago, in a rush to get off my street at night with my super obnoxious new & improved exhaust, I rode away from the curb as quickly as I could and before I knew it I was thrown from the bike and found myself picking it up off the ground. In an attempt to keep my bike somewhat safe from theft, I’d been using the steering lock and in my haste I rode away without unlocking it. I can’t believe, with all the technology available, that you can even put the bike in gear with the steering lock on… C’est la vie! Won’t do that again!
I got away with no injuries at all, I think I even landed on my feet, but the brand new pipes I’d put on were a little dinged up, the brake lever busted off and the grip was pretty well destroyed.
I don’t really like my things to be “too precious” in general so I didn’t really care but one thing I don’t like is looking ridiculous and one thing that’s for sure is that I looked totally ridiculous… I was wearing the helmet that I bought for Yvonne for our 1 year anniversary, complete with mirrored bubble visor.
Anyway, it gave me a good excuse to swap out the grips which I’d wanted to do for some time so I picked up these here Posh natural gum rubber grips that Flying Squirrel recently got in. Much better on all accounts.
I also figured, while I was at it, I’d hit the pipes with a high temperature matte black (BBQ) paint and, although not perfect, it helped and also gave me an opportunity to black out that chrome logo.
In looking at the photo after, I think I’ll hit it again just to even everything out but I’ll do it after giving it a proper cleaning first.
May 2, 2012
Town Moto {5}
As most of you will already know, two of my dearest buds Andrew & Marika took possession of a building at Ossington & Argyle a few months ago and have spent pretty much every waking moment since then preparing for today – the opening of their new shop Town Moto.
They are “a small shop in downtown Toronto specializing in motorcycle gear for the urban rider.” They carry a full range of Helmets, jackets, gloves, boots and pretty everything you need to ride safely as well as a variety of soft-goods to make sure that you look cool doing it… let’s face it, none of us would ride motorcycles (at least not the ones we ride) if they didn’t look cool! Come on now…
Aside from a few bars, grips, etc. they aren’t carrying much in the way of moto parts but they do have a decent selection of tools, and supplies for basic motorcycle maintenance including copies of Modern Motorcycle Mechanics and a book about the fella that wrote it as well…
The paper that has adorned the window of 132 Ossington for months is officially off and the doors are open!
Congrats, buds, you’ve worked very hard for a very long time and you deserve all of the success that this venture is going to bring.
Apr 26, 2012
Apr 25, 2012
Apr 16, 2012
What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been {0}
“We asked some of our favorite illustrators to imagine a postcard from everywhere and nowhere at once. We’re blown away by the results, which we’ll be sharing every day on this blog. We hope you will be too”
More at *Wander – available for download as iPhone or iPad wallpapers as well.
Apr 16, 2012
Apr 13, 2012
Apr 11, 2012
Diamonds Are Forever {0}
“Africa has had a devastating history of blood diamond wars. Blood diamond refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and then sold to finance an invading army’s war efforts, usually in Africa where more than two-thirds of the worlds diamonds are extracted. This site specific social / political word play was painted on the exterior wall of Johannesburg’s largest diamond trader Jewel City. Jewel City is a six-block mega-precinct that serves as a base for some 300 diamond traders as well as South Africa’s Diamond Board and State Traders Association. Jewel City is the largest diamond exporter in the southern hemisphere with over 7-Billion worth of Diamonds being exported every year.
I was able to get away with this diamond wall heist because I told the owners I would paint in big letters “Diamonds are a woman’s best friend” on the exterior of their building. The owners loved the idea and all quickly agreed. The next day I had started painting but what the owners didn’t know is that I lied to them and was hijacking their wall. Like any premeditated robbery, situations are not what they seem and shit can flip from best friends to worst enemies in a few moments.
I assume the owners were too busy trading diamonds inside the mega center they never took the time to come out and see I was painting a controversial word play about the diamond trade and how it’s fueled so much bloodshed in wars making it one of man’s worst enemies.”
Apr 11, 2012
I Feel The Band Of Love, Of Dreams {2}
Thanks Ryan!
Apr 10, 2012
Apr 10, 2012
More Power! Oh Oh Oh! {0}
After installing my new exhaust and air cleaner a couple of weeks back and running the engine lean ever since, I finally stole away some time to myself to install the fuel management system to improve (or rather, normalize) the performance of the bike.
I made good and sure to read the instructions front to back and made sure I had all the tools on hand (not many) before getting started because there is nothing worse than finding yourself in the middle of a job (on a Sunday, especially) and not having the right stuff to finish the job… Wrenches, Sockets, Drivers, Beers…
Getting the seat up and locating all the connecters was easy enough..
…but the one thing I didn’t pay attention to in the instructions was the removal of the battery. Really not a big deal but I didn’t bring my shop manual with me so it was a bit annoying… but not more annoying than trying to reattach everything without tiny little baby hands.
The programming of the module once connected was pretty painless. I somehow had it in my head that it was going to take 40 minutes of running the engine solid and going through all the modes whilst simultaneously pissing off all the neighbours but it was really quite painless. It took all of 7 minutes and that was running through the modes twice to make sure that all the settings were correct. Note: If anyone is doing this and has an ’11 model, skip modes 19-22 – don’t worry when the numbers flicker as you run through them.
Because the spot where all the new connectors sit is so small, they are currently bulging out under the seat and one of the things I like most about the springer seat is the side profile / seeing light through from one side to the other so I’m going to have to go back in at some point and try to clean that up… Not sure how successful that’s going to be, there really is NO room in there…
Ah well, at least I had some good company!
Stay classy…
Apr 10, 2012
Apr 10, 2012
