Archive for September, 2006
Monday, September 25th, 2006
Rent This: The Proposition
The Proposition features Ray Winstone of Sexy Beast and Guy Pearce of L.A. Confidential. Its a fantastically gorey cowboy story set in the Australian outback of the late 19th century. Ray Winstone plays the role of the ‘civilizing’ englishman, and Guy Pearce plays the role of killer forced to choose between his brothers.
Screenplay and soundtrack by Nick Cave.
Saturday, September 23rd, 2006
Something Unfun.
IMG_0498.jpg, originally uploaded by chris_mckenna.
Some cyclist, alot more experienced, and alot more smart then me once wrote that it not a matter of if you are going to have a crash on your bicycle, but when.
Well, today was my when.
We were about halfway thru the first annual hostile city century when I took a wet hard right at the bottom of a hill a bit too fast. The bike just kind of slid out from underneath me. I made contact with the pavement left hip first, then left shoulder, then helmet/head. I can tell from the marks.
My helmet strap was just loose enough to allow the helmet to shift up after it took the brunt of the asphalt hit. The mark pictured above was the result of the left over force.
Important lesson learned: Keep chin strap tight.
Friday, September 22nd, 2006
We roll deep like ants at a picnic.
MS 150 2006. The Hostile City Rollers. Post killing it, charity ride style. That’s me, bottom right.
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
The Vanishing and Other Movies I’m Going to Go Ahead and Admit That I Watched Recently
#1)The Vanishing featuring Keifer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, and Jeff Bridges. I didn’t actually finish watching it, but it did inspire me to read the book upon which it was based.
I had to. It was written by Tim Krabbe, who wrote the fantastic The Rider. Which I highly recommend.
I also like the Vanishing just skip the american adaptation.
#2)OMG. The Last Samurai. I got totally sucked in, in spite of, you know, Tom Cruise. Entertainment.
#3)Tears Of The Sun featuring Bruce Willis. I have to say that this is almost not a guilty pleasure. Plenty of action, lots of explosions.
I mean, Bruce Willis is a reliable action star. Even now: check out Hostage. Tightly knit, well made action movie.
Thank God Lost and Battle Star Galactica are starting up soon. I’m kind of tired of watching movies. I need my stories back
Monday, September 18th, 2006
75 + 75 = MS150 — Part II
#1)The ride back was fast. BL and I jumped into a paceline with 4 very large dudes. We figured it was a good call, they were all over 6 feet tall and over 2 bills each. And there was a headwind. They set the pace around 21-22MPH. At the first rest stop we were joined by the rest of my gang. After that we had a paceline of 12+ folks (including a couple from Guy’s Bicycles in Feasterville, who were rock solid. Everyone I have ever encountered from that shop…rock solid. Must be something in the water in Buck’s County. That or all the hills.)
#2)The second funniest thing that happend all day: We were cruising by this pack of folks in our paceline and I hear something like ‘Well, this is the train, we need to get on this.’ Everyone laughed as we moved thru but then the entire pack jumped on and we had another 20 people in our paceline. It was like hands across New Jersey at that point. When you were done with pulling, it took like 30 minutes to get to the back.
#3)Of the 4 original big dudes who we jumped on with, 2 were bigger and tougher. They decided to go road race pace for the last 4-5 miles. It was fun and punishing.
#4)The funniest thing that happened that day:
The Set up: So all the rest stops have these DJs and I think I heard that awful, popular Toby Keith song like 20 times. The one that rhymes world raining down on you(ie bombs) and red white and blue, the one that chicken hawks and red necks use to work themselves into a lather everywhere.
The Set up, Part II: Team Schmeme is a group of riders that are all pretty young. Last year alot of them rode fixies. This year they had powder blue t-shirts with fake tuxes on the front.(Nice touch guys). They all look kind of west philly/punk rock to me.(in a good way.)
They were all hanging out at the PATCO station at the end. As were we, waiting for stragglers to roll in. The DJ is playing awful music. Alot of it requests.
I notice these 3 kids wearing i (heart) DC t shirts with PIRATES written in felt marker. They are walking their fixies out of the parking lot towards the train. They have shit eating grins on.
5 minutes after they have left, the DJ comes on and says this one is a request going out to Team Schmeme from I (heart) DC Pirates, its ‘Proud To Be An American” by Lee Greenwood.
Oh, the burn.