Living For The City

A couple of months ago Kelso sent me a link to some bikes that illustrator Stevie Gee had painted for Tour De Ville. I meant to post about it then (in fact, I just looked back through my drafts and there is a post half written from back then) but I was reminded about them the other day by my man Andrew and they’ve posted a bunch of new photos over at Death Spray Customs who, I take it, actually painted the bikes…

The head tube graphics remind me a little too much like the Barry McGee / RVCA / Cinelli Supercorsa for my liking but the projects are definitely neat enough that I don’t mind the similarities…

Seeing El Capitane & Figo Vengeance in conjunction with their associated artwork (as in the first two pics) is really pretty amazing. Thumbs up!

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Death Spray also has a bunch of cool projects posted like these Nitto ‘Love/Hate’ B123 track drops…

…and I like what they did with this old Eames shell chair.

I mean, I don’t like the pattern per se (kinda looks like an all over print hoodie one might find at some bad mall skate shop) but I like the idea that such a simple, classic and understated piece can be given a little punch of life without completely losing what makes it so simple, classic and understated…

…from the front, at least. I’ve got my eyes on one of these guys right now, maybe I’ll get one then do something interesting with it? Ok, probably not.

So, I’ve got this turn of the century Powell & Hammer ‘Winner’ bicycle headlamp that I picked up a couple of summers ago and ever since I got it I’ve planned to bring it back to life, in one way or another, and today I dug up some stuff to make it happen… in one way or another.

A good long while ago, my buddy Kris who works down the street at my local watering hole, gave me some of their little paraffin oil lamps to try out.

They didn’t fit so I tucked them away and hadn’t thought about it since… Then earlier while looking for something to put in some lanterns to put on my deck, I got to think about the little paraffin lamps again.

They’ve got a wick, the P&H Winner has a reservoir so if I just fill the reservoir and stick a wick in it, I should be golden, right?

Right! Golden.

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On a somewhat related note; I found a basically new front fender on the street yesterday so if anyone is getting ready for the winter and could use it, lemme know!

Looks like it would have lots of clearance for bigger tires, as well…

My man Ben was gracious enough to offer to lend me a digicam until I sort myself out and I think I’m going to have to take him up on that soon… iPhone snaps are fun and all, but let’s be serious for a minute, I’m a quite notable/modest/handsome lifestyle photographist and I need an actual camera…

I’ve waited long enough and I think the LX2 is officially dead. Major bummer. I think I’m going to take it in this week to see if the pros have any luck with it but let’s assume that she’s dead and gone…

Do I buy another LX2 because I like the camera and don’t have much money these days for an upgrade of any sort? Do I upgrade the to LX3 because I can’t help myself and my spare batteries and such will still work? Or do I take Ben’s latest suggestion and shift my allegiances back to Canon with the S90? My dad is a Canon man so, despite my many failures, I think it would I’d make him proud to see the Canon torch carried once again in hands of the air to the throne of the Rennick clan.

In the meantime… there’s a snap for that!*

*See what I did there? That would also make poppa proud.

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Lie Down In The Light:

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With all the little projects and furniture shuffling I’ve been doing lately I’ve been finding that I’m having a problem with overall scale – so for each new / large item I bring in one of the older, larger items must either move or they gots to go!

In context, when that old furniture cart made it’s way into my living room my old shelving units had to clear out… They fit perfectly in my old place but here, with all my new stuff, they just aren’t working all that well so I decided to put some new shelving in upstairs in a completely unused section of my bedroom.

Problem; a couple of weeks ago my dad and I installed a new baseboard heater (no ducts / vents on the very top floor) making putting any shelving against that wall pretty much impossible.

Solution; I saw a posting for some antique fruit crates on Craigslist pretty cheap and thought, instant shelving. It’s a super simple project and takes almost no time.

Find & mark your studs…

Put ‘er on pucks, bahd! In my case I wanted to mount them at 18″ to give a little space between the shelving and the heater and it just so happens that those old Ikea side tables are 18″ in height.

Make sure your shelves are level… Tits on!

Screw a bunch of screws into ‘em and you’re basically done. For now I’ve just screwed the bottom three into the wall so that I can play with different arrangements and whatnot and I may re-enforce the bottom of the unit – either with two legs, some additional support along the back or some combination of the two.

Now comes the challenge of deciding what goes where and collecting more good guys to hang out on these good guys…

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On a somewhat related note; Ace & Kaelah (Arcee & Kaewonder) have an amazing soul / funk mix series called “Cratery” which is seriously incredible thus far… Download and boogie. Do it.

This weekend marked the Toronto premier of The Revival and Bikes On Wheels‘ first major event. I went by while the boys were setting up and they did a great job of turning a fully stocked bike shop into a pretty minimal gallery like space. Shout out to Tracy for sewing up them black curtains!

Ladies & Gentlemen; Sean Killen.

Ladies & Gentlemen; Sean Killen Security.

Ladies & Gentlemen; The Sundog Returns!

So much man-love.

The race started with a photo printout and slide show showing the various checkpoint locations.

Unfortunately our bud Andrew took a bad spill comin’ ’round the mountain and broke his finger quite badly. I didn’t want to be too “hey man, let’s take pictures of this” and everything but I kind of wish I had now, it looked gnarly.

I’m sure the road rash on his face helped but the folks in the emergency saw him right away and got him taken care of ASAP – it was really quite nice. Once he was going in for xrays Andrew said that he was fine and sent me back to the party. I’d have gladly stayed, naturally, but it was cool to get back in time to check out the premier. Thanks buddy, heal well.

Like I’ve mentioned a few times before; I don’t always get right into this type of fixed gear cycling video in the skate video format but I genuinely enjoyed this flick. It’s well thought out, well shot, well edited and plays out beautifully. Solid riding, solid soundtrack, solid dudes. I’d like to offer a more in depth review but really all I have to say is that I thoroughly enjoyed The Revival, I’ve got a lot of love and respect for a lot of the folks involved and I hope you check it out if it plays on your town… or wait for the DVD.

The turnout was awesome, everyone had a great time and the night went off without a hitch. Congratulations to everyone involved for producing a solid film and pulling off a flawless (Andrew’s mishap aside) event.

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Most unfortunate moment in recent memory – I had some drinks in my bag, alongside my trusty LX2, and one of said drinks decided that it wanted to be liberated from it’s aluminum coffin and thought it would make it’s new home inside said camera.

It’s drying out at home, as we speak, but I think this may be the end of the little guy. I’ve been given a few tips on how to revive him but does anyone have any experience with this?

In the meantime – iPhone snaps are gonna have to do!

A couple of months ago I picked up these vintage (probably 1940′s) truck flares that I thought I’d use as some sort of tiki torches on my deck. Logic prevailed and they never got lit up so they’ve been sitting out there gathering rust ever since. I figured I’d bring them in, clean them up and they either just put ‘em on a shelf, because they do look pretty sweet, or actually turn them into little lamps at some point…

There was a rag underneath the flares in the box they came in that is patterned all cool and stuff now… Rusty tie die, anyone?

For the whole weekend my place stunk like kerosene but the smell is finally starting to dissipate. Now that the canisters are empty, though, they still have a good measure of kerosene residue and the wicks are still in place which still gives off the stink – does anyone have any suggestions for a thorough cleaning? Anything I can fill them with?

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While those guys were airing out at home Roadie Robert, Tamo, her bud Keith & I headed out to The Junction to check out some of the shops out that way…

First stop was Smash which is right next to High Park Cycle, where you can look at nothing, buy nothing but know that the place is filled with decades of the best cycling stuff ever.

Smash is huge and filled with incredible stuff; unfortunately, you’d need to live in a huge loft to house and display a good amount of the stuff they have (and have lots of money) but they do also have a healthy supply of smaller and modestly priced treasures. I didn’t end up with anything, myself, this time ’round but I will be back!

I don’t know the name of the place across the street but it’s pretty awesome as well. The full wall of munitions cases is a sight to behold. The owner seems like a cool older dude who has things like “Auto Insurance is the new numbers racket – thank your M.P.P.” written on it. Robbie disappeared into the back for a while and when we found him he was balls deep in back issues of Soviet Life. Pinko.

There’s also a sweet reclaimed furniture shop called Forever Interiors that is well worth a peek. There was a lot of stuff in there I thought was great, a lot that didn’t really tickle my fancy but I love the concept of every piece in there; old wood / new life. I didn’t get a feel for price, but if I had to wager a guess I’d say that most of it is outside of my pay grade. That said; it’s a fantastic place to gather inspiration for DIY projects, of which I am a huge fan, totes obvi.

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On our way back from The Junction we rode by the place that was slated to house our favorite Chinese vegetarian restaurant of all time – Bo De Duyen. Every time I ride by I get a little bit more bummed – zoning issues have kept David from re-opening for the last couple years.

There is some good news, though! David has a small cafe that he’s opened up at Queen & Spadina. He doesn’t have full restaurant capacity but he is preparing a couple of dishes every day and offering them for takeout and hopefully by Christmas he’ll have his delivery service up and running.

So, for the first time in over 2 years I had my favorite dish from my favorite place… and it was beautiful. I’ve been going to the Bo for probably close to 15 years and have a lot of very fond memories tied to that place.

David needs our support to help make sure that he’s able to see his plans through so if you’re in the area stop by and pick up some grub, or at least go give him some positive words because I wanna see that place opened up in the near future!

One of the biggest things that I’ve learned through this renovation project is that you’re going to have to do a lot of things yourself. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to do things myself, so that’s all fine and dandy, but what I find especially annoying is doing things myself that I’ve already paid someone else to do. I’ll delve into that, much deeper, when the big “before & after” post happens in the next couple of months but for now we’ll just talk about one simple thing… Cable.

The plans for the reno included several new cable outlets to be installed – towards the end of the contract with our GCs I started asking about how all of that was going to be wrapped up and was first told “everything will be taken care of” and then after a couple of weeks of asking with no results was told “oh, you have to get someone else to take care of that.” Fuck it, and more specifically fuck you, I’ll do it myself.

This is what they left me with; nothing terminated, nothing connected, nothing labeled.

So, I bought myself a crimper and a bunch of insulated coaxial cable terminators and figured out how everything goes together.

Unfortunately, when it came down to terminating the ends of the cable lines running into the electrical panel I kept screwing up at the crimping stage and wasted a bunch of my terminators.

In the end, I opted to whip back over to Active Surplus and picking up some screw on terminators which are far easier to use and are apparently just fine as long as you’re working indoors.

So I still need to button everything up and mount the splitters on the wall (and probably pick up better quality splitters, while I’m at it) but at least now every outlet in the house works and I went through the time consuming (and massively annoying) process of tracing all the lines and labeling them so that I know what goes where in the future.

As an interesting note; in my bedroom there were two outlets in a double box. I noted this to the GCs and they said that they weren’t sure why the electricians had done that and they’d get back to me. The official response was that there was an existing line but I’d specified a new line on the plans so they ran a new one and left the old one… Ok, sure.

So I figured I’d open up the wall and see the existing line and the new one – I found something totally different. TWO old lines to the basement (one of which works, the other doesn’t) and one new line running from a splitter in my living room which has a secondary splitter supplying the two new cable outlets. What? All of that jammed in the wall for no apparent reason with no real value. Thanks boys! Good work!

Lazy electricians and even lazier general contractors get The Gas Face!

Remember that time we really wanted to watch Quicksilver but we couldn’t find it for rent anywhere so I went and bought it and then we watched it and it was awesome and everything? That was really cool.

Well, it looks like David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spiderman, etc) is going to give us an action-packed update to a classic theme!

‘Premium Rush’ follows a courier who picks up an envelope at Columbia University (“premium rush” referring to the type of delivery service, we’re sure, and not, say, caffeine jitters). A dirty cop who’s desperate to get his hands on the envelope is in hot pursuit of our hardworking hero, delivering chase sequences to rival ‘The French Connection,’ Variety reports.

Killer.

via Hipster Nascar

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Also – don’t forget about The Revival premiere at Bikes On Wheels tomorrow night! There’ll be a race beforehand (registration at BOW – 6PM) which is the first of the Legends of the Fall series.

I was sent the following image with only the words “POST THIS ON YOUR BLOG” earlier today… No problem!

Don’t ask, don’t tell.

Hey kids! It’s been a while… I came back from Philly wicked sick and had to take some time to heal up – I managed to dodge the swine flu but this sickness has kicked my ass up and down the block.

For as cold and sucky as it’s been for the last little while, we had an amazing weekend here in Toronto. Fortunately I got to spend Saturday with my pop – unfortunately we spent the day at my old condo replacing the over the range microwave for my tenant.

Tommy Fisher is now the proud owner of a lightly used front door assembly for a piece of shit Frigidaire microwave… Only really old readers will understand why this is relevant at all… I’ve made precisely 1800 posts since this was last mentioned. Woah.

The weather held out for the rest of the weekend and I spent the day walking around with the little lady and some good buds just really enjoying the sun and the city. If summer was going to breathe one last dying breath at all, at least she brushed her teeth.

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Last night I went by Good Time Design where Dan was getting some work done by Kris, who is learning the black arts and doing a damn fine job of it thus far.

I also got a portrait of my homie at work, Simon. Siiiiick.

I hadn’t been by the studio since Sarah took it over from Dan a short while back and it’s looking beautiful. It was already one of (if not the nicest) tattoo shop in the city and it’s only getting better and better.

Check out the custom lamps that Sarah made for the office / drawing room.

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Check out this wicked “ticket” that my buddy Ian at work found on his Steelwool last night.

It reminds me of a little project that I started the other day (which is now going me to make me seem horribly unoriginal), and it kind of made his day. I wonder who’s behind it? Urban Repair Squad? Toronto Cyclist Union? Either way, I like it.

I know I’m a little late on the take here but this weekend I picked up some used doubles from a bud and so far I dig ‘em. It still doesn’t compare to riding clipless but the added security is noticeable and I’m glad I made the switch.

While we’re on bike stuff, check this out!

I’ve traveled with bike many times now and it’s always at least a little bit frustrating because I like to put my bike together at the airport and ride to wherever I’m going so I can’t bring a bike bag so typically I just get a bike box in Toronto, ditch it when I get there and then get another before I leave. Sometimes it proves to be a pain in the ass so something like this would be beautiful! Granted, I’m sure it’s not without it’s problems and mine would have to be twice as big but I applaud the effort, regardless.

via LockedCog & Tracko

So, last night I swing by the metro on the way home and fill up the old metro with food and drink and various household goods. It runs about $70, which is pretty typical considering I bought a bunch of specialty junk and whatnot… But it was a lot, regardless.

On my way home I get a call from a local health food shop called The Nutritionista telling me that my “Good Food Box” was in so rather than unpack I just dropped off the metro, mounted the sultan and headed on over.

The Good Food Box was another solid recommendation from a solid bud and given that I’ve been trying to eat better and have more variation in my diet it’s a good fit. See, since the reno started I haven’t been cooking at home half as much but now that the major work is wrapped up I really have no excuse. I figure that if I get a random box of veggies each week that I’ll figure out new and interesting things to do with foods I may not normally buy… That’s the goal, anyway, we’ll see how she plays out…

Anyway, I get in there and open up my box and it is full to the top of fresh fruits and vegetables, most of which are locally grown. 1 big bunch Swiss Chard, 1 big bunch Spinach, 1 Cucumber, 2.5 lb Red Potatoes, 1 bag of Carrots, 3 lb Pears, 3 lb Apples, 1 Head Garlic, 1 Bunch Bananas, 1 Sweet Dumpling Squash, 2 lb Onions, 1 bag Hot House Tomatoes, 3 Oranges… and how much did I pay for this haul? $12!

Home sick again… blaaaaah. I managed to get a good amount of work, work done today but while I’m here I did my best to cross another project off the list – that old Factory Cart that I’ve been restoring little by little over the last little while.

Andrew & Robbie, who helped me move this thing in the first place can attest to just how frickin’ heavy this thing is so I really shouldn’t have attempted to move it on my own but, alas, I’m much man so I made a makeshift dolly out of an old skateboard and moved this thing (without damaging the floor or anything else, I might add) into the living room to reassemble the cart. Bolt by bolt, back together she went.

These carts are designed to have a little bit of teeter totter action, pivoting on the large center wheels, so I cut up some leftover super nop carpet from the front hallway to level ‘er out.

You can’t really tell what’s going here, but because I’m losing the cabinet that I used to have my tv on with cupboards and whatnot I’m doing my best to manage all the cables running behind the tv so I mounted the power bar on the back of the cart and zip tied all the cables to keep ‘em clean. There’ll be a coax cable post coming in the near future as I learn to be a cable guy! Riveting, I know…

So, there she is! Not sure how well it works in here so I’ll live with it for a bit before I decide whether it stays or goes. Now I’ve got to figure out how best to re-arrange all the rest of my furniture to make it all fit… Cross one thing off the list, add another four. Ain’t dat zumpin’!

Last night I decided that it was time to get going on another project in the kitchen – the mason jar lamp that I’ve mentioned before. The goal is to replace the light (below) that I’ve never liked but couldn’t find a sconce that I liked enough to replace it with. Not anything I could afford, anyway.

I wanted to go to the hardware store to buy parts but it was raining and I wasn’t on my fully fendered bike so I just went down the street to Urban and picked up their lamp cord kit for $12. In hindsight, I should have held out because I could have gotten something much cheaper and more minimal. But I digress…

Pair that with the antique Crown mason jar that Alex gave me and the cap that I found in the lobby of my office building and we’re puttin’ ‘er on pucks, bahd.

Because the old mason jars used glass tops vs tin I had to find something else to secure the lamp fixture so, for the time being, I just trimmed and center punched the top of the cord kit packaging.

Tharr she be, for now anyway. Step two is going to be to remove the wall plug end and hard-wire the fixture into the wall / to the switch which should be fairly straightforward. I also thought I had another Edison Bulb kicking around here somewhere which would look much nicer in there but I can’t find it so the little CF will have to do for the time being.

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While I was at Urban I spotted these shelf brackets which were 50% off. I don’t know if I’m all that thrilled about them and may not use them once I find something I like more but for $5 I figured they’d be good enough to get that barnboard shelf hung in the kitchen that my new mason jar lamp will sit on.

With a stud-finder and a level in hand hanging it took all of 10 minutes but I think I hung it about 10″ too high.

I let it sit over night and if I still feel like it’s too high and I’m up to it today (oh yeah, I managed to come back from Philly with a really bad somethin’… cold, flu, i dunno, which might also explain my lethargy at night while over there) I’ll drop ‘er down tomorrow.

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Update: Still haven’t decided on shelf height but I went ahead and finished up the jar lamp today while home sick… If you’ve never hard-wired a plug style lamp, it’s pretty simple and here are the steps that I took to do it:

First; Make sure that the breaker is off and if that’s not an option, I’ve never had a problem with just having the switch off… Be careful with this, though, electrocution is no joke!

Second; Cut the wire to the desired length plus a few inches, peel the outer casing back and then separate the white and black wires inside. Then carefully cut the ends off the casing on those wires and you’re now ready to start. I like to tape things up with electrical tape to keep things clean but I don’t think it’s necessary at all.

Third; Wrap the newly exposed wires around the exposed wires of the corresponding colour sticking out of your electrical box and twist some marrets around the two until tight. If there is a ground wire, screw it down to the electrical box but in the case of most cheap lights like this you’re not going to have one so it’s not going to be an issue.

Fourth; Test ‘er out, see what she does.

If it works and nothing blows up then you’re ready to button ‘er up. In my case, there was a small challenge because I didn’t want to the plate to sit on a diagonal and didn’t have the right stuff to level it out… Sooooo, I took the old light fixture that was there and stripped it for parts.

I took the threaded center rod to use to fasten my cap but unfortunately I needed a hollow one and this one had a fixed end. No biggie, I threaded a nut onto it to protect the nearby threads (I’ll still need the rod to work) and gave it a couple of rips with the hacksaw.

I cleaned up the edges of the rod with a file and my drill (for the inside) to remove any metal burrs or sharp edges so as not to damage my wiring, screwed it into the box and fed my wires through it – fed the cap over-top and screwed it all down.

Not the most elegant solution, perhaps, but it works. The wall could use a little patching and I could, in the end, use a nicer cap but again… it works. The beauty of this project is that it didn’t cost me more than $15 (and could have been done cheaper) so if there is anything I don’t like about it down the line, and I already know that there is, I’ll just change it!

Et voilà!

In terms of Art that I like I definitely gravitate towards print, paint and graphic arts in general but when Today & Tomorrow posted up both of these artists last week, one sculptor and one multi-disciplinary installation artist(?), I couldn’t help but be drawn in.

All of the pieces below were carved out of various types of marble by Fabio Viale.

Note; the last two aren’t Styrofoam at all – they’re marble carved to look like it! Incredible.

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How cool is this? Felice Varini put a bunch of big circles on homes in a small Swiss village? Not, like, big circles on pictures of homes in a small Swiss village. Actual big circles on actual homes in an actual small Swiss village. Yup.

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While we’re on the art tip – last week Joaquim sent me a message letting me know that a limited edition (73) high quality offset print of their Connected poster is now available in their webshop for €39.

I’m not sure that I have to cash to order one right now but hopefully when I slow down on my spending otherwise hopefully they’ll still be one available…

If you have the cash, you should by one!

I went up to the shop today to have lunch and check out some of the progress that Sean has been making since he & Aidan took it over a couple of months back.

Taylor, who helped me out with my closet millwork, has been doing some woodwork on the main cabinets which is a huge, huge improvement over what was there before!

With all the richness of the wood and the fresh ground goodness courtesy of Ideal under the counter – the place is becoming a little bit more homey every day. Killen has got some big ideas for the place and my guess is that by the springtime it’s going to be some seriously sharp lookin’ shop.

While I was up there Tom Briggs stopped in to hang his posters for The Revival Toronto Premier which takes place at Bikes On Wheels – November 14th. Now you can check out Briggs, Mosher & Tobra all big and junk…

Speaking of The Revival – the fellas uploaded a new website and a new trailer bailer last week and it’s looking pretty sweet! Hope to see a lot of you at the premier!

I just read this story about my man Aaron and though I’d share…

You were in the back of a cab heading West on Dundas Street towards Ossington on Friday night, October 30th at about 1:45 AM. I was on my bike in the lane adjacent to your taxi. The driver got in a shouting match with me over how much room I was taking up on the street while he was straddling the line dividing our lanes. That cabbie decided to cut the argument short by steering the car into me, knocking me off my bike in traffic.

While this occurred I saw a passenger in the back of the cab (female?) on the passenger side. I checked with police and no one called the accident in last night. I will be filing my own report and I urge the passenger to please do the same. I spent the night in the emergency room because I remembered very few details of my night when I regained consciousness. I’m sure my helmet saved me from very serious injury, but I am cut and bruised, and you don’t have to be a cyclist to realize the risk posed by a driver who deliberately uses his car as a weapon. If you see this, PLEASE contact the police about what you saw. Thanks.

He’s currently trying to track down whoever was in the back of that cab so if you know anyone who knows anything, please, please reach out.

Having had a guy intentionally swerve into me a while back I can certainly sympathize, I just got really lucky and managed to escape accident & injury.

First and foremost, I hope you heal up well and get back on your bike soon. Secondly, I hope that someone comes forward and they catch this piece of shit. Not that I think they’ll do much of anything to him (unless the fare/witness agrees with your perspective of what happened – often people inside the cars have a skewed perspective of events) but at least there’d be an opportunity for some sort of justice to be doled out if anyone knew who the fuck he was.

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Edit: I also just heard that my friend Tobin was awarded the coveted door prize yesterday. Rod, tell our lucky contestant what he’s won! Well, Bob, our friend Tobin will be going home with the pain and overall life disruption of a broken collar bone and a solid year of bumper shock while riding in traffic! Congratulations, homie!

But seriously, heal well, friend… and don’t forget to Spay & Neuter your pets.