Living For The City

Happy Birthday to Hammy, Wade & S.B.D. / T.B.D.

Two highlights of the evening;

1) On the way to Hamilton, Sparkles refuses to give directions to his sister and Karen on the basis that he’d already sent them to Karen via email earlier in the day. Hilarious.

2) Sean Killen loses his keys while the nut punchers have at it during To The Lions. After an exhaustive and inconclusive search, we decided that only one man could remedy the situation; Chris Colohan: Man of the people.

“Hey! I’m supposed to announce something here, what was it? Oh yeah… Rennick lost something tonight, what was it? His Edge? Oh yeah but that too but his buddy lost his car keys? What do they look like, Matt? Do they have a bottle opener? A wine corkscrew?” Amazing – still the best frontman I’ve ever known.

Within 30 seconds of the announcement a nice fella came bursting through the crowd, keys in hand.

Now I feel awful for snapping this photo of him earlier in the night to make light of the signals people unknowingly (or maybe knowingly, who knows?) send when they get dressed in the morning.

Here’s the thing about good friends; good friends are there for you when you need them and not too proud to let you be there for them when they need you. Good friends know you, understand you, trust you, love you and pick up the slack for you when you fall short but most importantly, good friends will indulge you. They’ll allow you to be whoever you are and appreciate you that much more when you invite them to stay up all night listening to Daft Punk, writing on each other with markers, putting boxes on your heads and creating sweet dance routines. Here’s to friendship.

This morning I was listening to Against Me! and I was thinking “I’ve never seen this band. I should see this band. I wonder if they are playing here any time soon?” Later in the day I got a call from my friend Chris who had an extra spot for the Foo Fighters last night and guess who was opening the show? Yep…

The Against Me! set was about as weird as I would have expected given the nature of the show but they were really good, none the less. The Foo Fighters, though? Incredible. By my estimation I’ve been to hundreds of shows and seen more than a thousand bands and I am rarely impressed any more. Of those I can really only think of two others that were big rock spectacles / stadium concerts – festivals aside. Guns N Roses / Metallica / Faith No More in 1992 and Iron Maiden a couple of years ago.

I’d never really thought of the Foo Fighters as a stadium rock band per se but god damn – this band knows how to put on a stadium rock show highlighted by a few basic things;

Lights / Pyro – lots of it

Giant screens so that the saps in the nosebleeds ca n see how hard you’re really rockin’

Additional Musicians (Percussion, Keyboard, Cello/Violin, Triangle w/ a Triangle Solo… seriously.)

A second stage that descends from the ceiling into the center of the crowd halfway through the show

Clever stage banter: Dave Grohl is among the best in the biz (not pictured, obviously)

Special Guests: Alex Lifeson & Geddy Lee, anyone?

Most importantly? Epic rock poses

I first met Andrew Pommier as a jeweler in the late 90s when I was trying my hand at selling body jewelry. Towards the end of both of our careers in the jewelry business Andrew invited me to, what may have been one of his first shows(?), a show he did with Derek Hodgson – I hadn’t really seen Andrew’s work before that and I was super impressed.

I’m pretty sure that this was the same night that Adam & Dave spent clad in short shorts, cowboy boots and helmets bobbing up and down counting out their body weights in song – or maybe that’s every night for those fellas? I really, really, really wish that I’d carried around a digital camera with me in those days.

This might be one of the very last pieces that Andrew made; I think I kept the baggie it came in because I figured one day he’d become a super famous artist at which point I’d sell it for untold riches.

Fast forward nearly a decade and Andrew is living in Vancouver, has worked with every skate company in the universe, done shows all over the world, been featured in countless publications, published a book (or two?) and most recently teamed up with Adidas to make his own signature series of shoes; Superskate Vluc Hi, Superstar and Superskate Vulc Slip-Ons. Andrew was kind enough to send out a pair of the latter for yours truly. At first I found the lack of laces kind of weird (I nearly poked holes and put fake laces on) but after a day or two in them I’m starting to adjust and I think that Andrew did an amazing job with them. Thanks, homie! You’re a great dude and a super talented guy and you deserve all the success you’ve had and will have in the future.

On an unrelated note: the soles on these are super grippy and last night while riding home I stopped to avoid a dude walking out into the street to get into a car and when I stopped I couldn’t pull my feet out of my clips and I fell over. I literally said “I’m goin’ over” as I tipped over slowly Most embarrassing fall ever!

My mom has been on me for months (years, maybe?) to dig through the piles of boxes in their basement and figure out what I want to hold onto. While I was out in Mississauga today I finally made my way down there and spent a couple of hours sorting through the better part of my life and at the end of it had whittled down a stack of boxes that was nearly as tall as I was to one Rubbermaid bin.

Finding that demo last week brought back a lot of memories for me and I was really happy to see that I had kept a lot more than I thought of my own musical past – not to mention the stacks of show fliers, zines and patches that I found down there.

I also found reminders of some of my prouder moments; early design work, business plans, academic achievements and blunders like this letter that got sent home in ’96 notifying my parents of a 3 day suspension for telling Mr. Zaremba to “fuck off” when he told me to take my hat off and remnants of my short lived career as a manufacturer of fake ids.

I was apparently a fairly an enterprising little guy, as shown by this brochure for a company I started back in 1987; Rennick Lawyer Services – If your [sic] going to court, go in style.

With ambition comes rejection and I adjusted to that at an early age. Along with a bunch late 80′s skateboard memorabilia I found two rejection letters; one from Powell Peralta when I applied to be their Graphic Artist at the tender age of 10 years old and another from Airwalk after I volunteered to design skateboards, trucks and wheels for them – my terms of employment were hilarious.

I truly feel for the poor souls that had the misfortune of receiving and eventually having to have replied to these letters.

Today was my godson Dylan’s 9th birthday. Yeah, that’s right, I have a godson. I know, I know, a man of great religious timber such as myself must have many a godson but alas, I only have one to be spoken of. He’s a sweet little dude, highlighted by the fact that he chose to have his birthday party at one of Mississauga’s finest establishments; Scooters Roller Palace.

Scrabble

McCrackens, Bayleys & Pellatts (In Hiding)

The Big Guy

H Dizzle

Dogs with Corkscrew Heads

Awards

Hong Kong

Salvation Army Power Generators

Most Power Generated Ever!

Suntans

La Bicicletta

Coffee

Coffee Shakes

Goblin

Maiden Voyages

What do you do when the son of a cop gets caught drunk driving (twice!) and racing on public streets? You take away his license, right? Wrong. You strike a deal with him to plea to the lesser offense of “engaging in a speed contest” and give him 24 months probation. Then, a few years later, you make him a cop himself and put him on patrol.

What happens next? Well… your guess is as good as mine.

Look, I understand that this was an accident – an unfortunate event that resulted in two innocent young people losing their lives (and all that entails) and a third having his life put in serious danger (and all that entails) but it’s also a shining example of what happens when the powers that be fail to adequately punish those with serious driving offenses further re-enforcing the generally accepted view that driving is a right, not a privilege.

R.I.P Kristy & Matt / Heal well, Christopher

I was just cleaning up a little ‘round my place and I happened upon a demo that I recorded when I was 15 or 16 years old. I wish I could find a photo (I’m not even in the only one I could find), a cover for the demo, a shirt (I gave the only one I had to Sergio Vega from Quicksand – he probably thought I was retarded and took it out of pity) or a show flyer (actually, I’m sure I’ve got some of those but I’m far too lazy to dig one out) but unfortunately I have so little to show for what was a huge part of my life from around 92/93-96. It’s hard to imagine that this is what I sounded like almost 15 years ago.

Shiner

I remember blowing off an English essay on The Stone Angel to spend the night in the studio (if you wanna call it that) and plagiarizing a friend’s essay, getting busted hard and being grounded for a couple of weeks afterwards. We put a lot of effort into the demo; hand printed covers, patches and brown paper “loot” bags made in my high school Media class. Come to think of it, I think I submitted it as a project and actually got marked on this – whatup Mr. Marmorek?!

Lies (haha, this one is a little embarrassing – I was 15, what do you want?)

The demo release show was a total riot – there were at least a few fights (the first of which resulting in a giant clump of hair / scalp being hung on the mic stand) and we ended up getting chased out of town; narily escaping without having the entire youth population of Waterdown, Ontario piled on top of us.

City Insane

Looking back, those really were some really exciting times in my life – one might say the best and the worst of them. Those days really helped me, as a young person, find some direction, take initiative and start to figure out who I was as a person and what I wanted out of life. Here’s to the truly formative years.

Full Demo: Same As It Ever Was*

*I played guitar on the whole fandangle, did backups on most and sang on tracks 3 & 5

Totally unrelated but I guess Sparkles was on a “15 years ago” tip as well and just posted this. What’s even weirder about Spark’s post is that I listened to Statue’s Filter The Infection at work yesterday – true story.

Looks like I spoke a little out of turn when I said that spring was well on its way. 12 degrees and sunny in Toronto last Sunday / -5 with over 25cm of fresh snow 7 days later? I’m just so over it.

Fortunately for me; my girlfriend is smarter than I am and suggested the sock / plastic bag / sock combo which helped keep my dry all day!

I need to log some serious hours on the bike before Europe but it’s hard with the weather the way it is so I’ve been loading up the Sultan and riding the rollers every night to help train for the trip.

The Spring Bike show was a little disappointing as usual but I went for free (thanks Andy!) and I did manage to score some new tires and a DA Lockring at a pretty decent discount – not to mention got to drool over at least a few nice bikes, mot notably those from True North and Winterbourne.

It was nice to see the boys & girls from Duke’s Cycle at the show and starting to get back on their feet. The irony of the giant flaming Duke’s logo wasn’t lost on them, either.

I hadn’t been over to Ransom since the renovation and but swung by to visit Chris and the place looks beautiful! Well done, folks. The guys are hard at work next door in the Stussy Store which is scheduled to open up officially on March 15. I can’t show any photos of the build-out but it’s really coming along amazingly.

When I was a wee beb my family was driving through the Rockies and I looked at the back of my father’s head and proclaimed “when I grow up I’m going to have a hole in my head just like Daddy.” Folks, if you’re ever starting to loose faith in your own hopes and dreams just remember that sometimes with a lot of hard work, hope and prayer dreams really do come true.

Spark dug out a few old ‘zines for something he’s writing including Equal Vision #1 featuring all kinds of Krishna related work, Phyte Fanzine which featured all kinds of anti-Krishna related work and Joshy & Halichuck’s short lived On The Bank Of The Tumid River featuring Spark’s old band, Confine.

I also found an ad for my design work from 8 years ago. I’d completely forgotten that I’d even done that – it’s at least a little embarrassing.

I figured that while I’m away I’d need a little bag to throw my camera, maps and a snack in because there is no way that I want to be rolling around Barca with a monster on my back so I peeped out this here little Under The Weather Swinger. When I picked it up yesterday at La Carrera, I realized that I’m a big man and a little miniature messenger bag slung over my shoulder would look entirely too ridiculous. Now how can I still get the usefulness out of this bag without looking unintentionally ridiculous?

Two words; Fanny Pack!!!

A few month’s ago we had the pleasure of receiving a guest blog from my boy Sparkles: Professional Male Model entitled Matt Rennick: Man Of The People. Well, today I have the honor of returning the favor in my piece entitled Sparkles: Professional Male Model / Man Of The People.

Last night, whilst on an epic trek through a blizzard to Casa De Killen, Spark and I heard the faint cries of a damsel in distress. Spark, having spent years training his ears to answer this call stopped dead in his tracks, frozen in time trying to locate the source of the cry.

We turned to see a young lady screaming to let a cab driver out of the car, swinging the door into traffic and stumbling into the street where she informed us that the cabbie had taken her in the wrong direction and effectively robbed her of all her money before kicking her out of his cab. This story has yet to be verified but she was clearly distraught and in need of a little help so how she came to find herself on the corner of Harbord & Bathurst that fateful winter eve was of little importance to Spark Dizzle.

Spark immediately found out where she was going and decided that we were going to help this young lady on her quest to make it home safely. Upon noticing that she did not have any gloves on he demanded that I remove my glove liners and hand them over to our new friend. But wait, there’s more! She mentioned that she was a little hungry but the cabbie had stolen all her money at which point Spark demanded that we change direction to locate this young lady the finest Falafel this city has to offer so that she may replenish her energy for the homeward journey ahead.

We helped her on her way, ensuring that she’d be able to return home safely, the two lovebirds exchanged phone numbers (not that either of us expect her to remember who Ian is this morning) and we were on our way.

Moments later we encountered a in a car stuck in the snow and when I offered to help, Sparkles said “No Matt! You can’t do that with your bad shoulder – I will sacrifice myself for you!” and with all the power and the fury of a jungle lion he singlehandedly lifted the mid-sized sedan from it’s snowy resting place and sent the young couple on their way. I now know what it must have been like to witness Jesus hung on the cross – sacrificing himself for the many sins of humanity. Seeing that kind of selflessness in action gave me the overwhelming sense that there is a power in the universe greater than you or I and last night that power was channeled through my friend Ian Clarke aka Sparkie Clarkie aka Sparkie The Dragon aka Sparkles aka Sparkles: Professional Male Model aka THE SUNDOG.

Well folks, I think it’s time for me to retire my faithful Elph in favor of something with a little bit more gusto. He has served me well over the years and captured a lot of very fond memories. Alas, this little guy is just a little too slow, his eyes aren’t so good and he can’t be up for very long before he’s got to get some rest and recharge so I think it’s time. I’m not going to lie, I’m going to miss him very much but changing the diapers is getting a little bit distressing and I’m sure it doesn’t make him feel very good either. Independence is very important to an older camera.

Now, I’ve always been a Canon man. My dad has been a Canon man for longer than I’ve been alive and I guess, for no real reason other than that, I’ve never bought anything but Canons and never thought that I would.

When I started shopping for a new camera a couple of weeks ago I had my eyes on the Canon G Series but once I held one in my hand I realized that they are just too large for my liking. They are too small to be a proper DSLR and just a little too big to be a useful P&S so the likelihood of me actually taking it with me when I go out would be largely diminished. The newer Elphs are nice enough but considering that the higher end ones are more expensive than the G7 with less features I couldn’t really consider any of them serious contenders.

Ever since my boss, Yan, got his hands on a Leica D-Lux I’ve been just a little bit jealous. It’s a powerful little camera, packed with features in a relatively small, classically styled body – just a beautiful little piece of machinery.

Enter Panasonic; my good friend Ben has had the Panasonic Lumix LX2 for some time and has spoken very highly of it. I remember seeing the 16×9 screen on the back once while we were out riding and immediately growing green with envy – what can I say? I like a wide load. Once I opened myself up to buying something other than a Canon the Lumix series started to look very attractive. Given that Panasonic actually builds Leica’s digital cameras for them they have the ability to use the same Leica components in their own cameras.

Effectively, save for the difference of the body and some of the imaging software, the Leica D-Lux and the Lumix LX2 is the same camera so for a guy like me that could neither afford nor justify the cost of the D-LUX the LX2 is a perfect substitute.

Now an unfortunate truth; Canadian brick and mortar shops just can’t compete with US online pricing. If I were made of money I’d buy locally just to keep my money in the community (and because I’m horribly impatient) but the fact of the matter is that I was able to get this camera with a 2 year extended warrantee, a spare battery and a 4GB 133x SD Card shipped to me for less than the cost of the camera alone (before taxes, even) at Henrys or Vistek and around the same cost of the camera alone at a small, independent electronics store.

Want to learn to build wheels? The Community Bicycle Network is holding a 2 part wheel building workshop this month – the first workshop focusing on theory and lacing and the second workshop focusing on truing and properly tensioning the wheel.

Both Erin and I have signed up for the workshop and have 2 wheels to build each (only 1 will be done in class) so there are 2 wheels available for people to build if you don’t need a wheel built right now but want to learn the skill.

Also – for those of you looking at acquiring or improving upon some basic bike maintenance skills there is a workshop tonight (although it may be full) and again on the 12th of the month. Contact the CBN for details.

The weather is actually starting to warm up and I’m finally starting to come out of hibernation so you can expect more frequent updates here in the coming months. I know, I know, the prospect of more frequent updates has all 6 of you trembling with excitement and it’s a little bit overwhelming so I figured I’d just give you a polite warning so that you don’t blow a gasket when the good shit starts coming!

For starters – I’ve started doing a little bit of writing for the still unnamed Toronto Cyclist Union magazine so hopefully you can expect to see a little bit of crossover for the things that I’m working on with them – not to mention that I’m going to contribute as well to the Devil Strip Rollers website when it launches in the very near future so I’ll have no shortage of content to produce.

While out rolling around this weekend Sean and I made a quick stop to take some test photos for an article I’m working on and we got stopped by the police because they didn’t like his face mask which he only wears because he doesn’t like the cold. As it turns out one of the cops lives in my complex and has a sweet dog names Zeus but she didn’t seem to appreciate me talking to her with any sort of familiarity in front of her partner. Maybe there is some sort of unspoken code amongst police officers where they aren’t allowed to acknowledge that they are in fact humans, borne of this earth with lives that exist outside their role as foot soldiers for the man. But I digress…

Now that the whole fixed gear scene has lined itself up for a epic shark jump I’m going to have to get up on some next level shit – I’m thinking; folders with 14” wheels. What?!

Ryan decided that he’d pick himself up a fancy new set of Crank Brothers Egg Beaters at Curbside but didn’t take into consideration the fact that his old cleats had been pretty much cemented in place by about a year’s worth of dog excrement and crushed squirrels.

Fortunately our boy Robin knows that there is a tool for every use and a use for every tool so he finally had a chance to put the shop’s screw extractor to the test.

In preparation for the FHBC European Tour, Sparkles – Professional Male Model has procured himself a nice little IRO Jamie Roy and this weekend we got a rollin’ chassis going so hopefully by the end of this weekend he’ll have a complete rig to roll around on.

That is, of course, assuming that he can take a break from his budding career as a tattoo artist to get out and pick up the last of the parts we need.

On a totally unrelated note; Harley still runs this office.