Thursday, November 26, 2009

I looked at a heck of a lot of bikes in Amsterdam



Looked at them both on the street and in bike shops and gave serious thought to whether I should maybe pursue buying a Dutch bike.  Thankfully the current answer is no - but I would love to make some changes to my Bianchi Milano that would make it, I don't know, more sensibly dutchy.

Virtually every bike I saw in Amsterdam has a bell, has lights - almost always hooked up to a generator, either an old friction generator or a generator front hub - has fenders and rear side splash guards, at least one rack, a kickstand, a rear wheel hand-cuff style lock mounted to the frame, and a second lock, more often with a chain than a long U.



The bells are used sensibly to shoo pedestrians out of the way on bike lanes and in the narrow streets and alleys.  The lights are used primarily to be seen, not to see, though I saw a couple (out of thousands) of bikes with lights meant to brightly illuminate the road.  The kickstands are to keep the bike upright when parked, and the racks are for carrying stuff.  Saying these things sounds kind of morinic, I know, but might be revalatory to most of my fellow Brooklonian bike riders, who primarily yell at people to shoo them out of the way, ride invisible after dusk, hardly ever stand a bike on its own, and generally like to emulate bike messengers and sling their loads, if any, around their shoulders.

I particularly liked the mid-frame kickstands that sit under the bike and have two feet.  The seem more stable and more usable in the city.  I also particularly like the front racks on many of the bikes I saw, and of these I particularly liked the frame-mounted racks rather than the handle-bar mounted racks.  


Some of the frame mounted racks (like on this three seater stretch baby limo) mount to either extensions of the down-tubes, or insert into holders welded onto the down-tubes.  Gonna talk to bro re whether he thinks he can add these holders to my bike.  Bikes at Het Zwarte Fietsenplan, like the (I wet myself) NX7, have them.  Looks like they also sell bolt-ons...

An amazing number of the bikes I saw had second and sometimes third seats on them, and I saw lots of kids in these - the seats are not for show.  I also saw a fair number of older folks getting transported, sitting side-saddle in the rear.  Also lots of cargo bikes, with kids sitting in the front-mounted truck.


Saddles.  Ah, saddles.  I should say now that I saw two, exactly 2, fixies in the 6 days I just spent in Amsterdam, and these two bikes were maybe the only ones I saw that had hard, skinny seats.  For all I know lots of folks have sporty second bikes at home with spartan seats, but that's not what they use every day for in-town.  I saw lots of sensible, cushy, waterproof seats.  Top-o-the-line bikes tended to have Brooks saddles.  A few bikes have these button seats that completely eliminate the technical hoops and fire for avoiding numbnuts: they just put the seat under your sit-bones and no where else.  (Do they work on bikes that are less upright than the oma and opafietsen?  Dit is het perfecte zadel voor dames met (korte) rokjes is what I hear.)

And the people I saw kept their butts in the saddles.  Hardly anyone posted.  Here in BKLYN, people post out of most stops.  Is it just part of looking cool?  In Amsterdam I only saw the most hurried riders do so.  Amsterdam riders are more likely to rock around in their seats to get up steepest rises at the canals rather than post.  Could also be because Amsterdam riders so often have a cell phone or (in November) an opened umbrella in one hand.

Blah blah blah.  Here's my to-do list:
  • Put bell on bike;
  • Check w/ Het Zwarte Fietsenplan if their bolt-on mount will work on my big-round aluminum down-tube, and if not maybe trick Bro into helping, or look at something from Steco that will bolt on to the head tube;
  • Start looking into getting a front wheel built around a generator hub.

    Buh Bye, IDFA

    We had a blast.

    I've moved the IDFA side-post I put up last week into this post.

    Aside from that, I have one word for you all: jenever.

    (PS: The cheeses, jenever and chocolates have all made it through. The dried sausages were stopped at the border, and I was lectured on meat-borne diseases.)


    IDFALori has two films she produced this year at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam - The Kids Grow Up, directed by Doug Block, and The Edge of Dreaming, directed by Amy Hardie. I'll be adding details here.

    Sunday, November 22, 2009

    Twirling on Ferdinand Bolstraat


    I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't make a note of the name of the shop, but there's a record shop on Ferdinand Bolstraat near the Ablert Cuyp market that has old turntables in the window, and on each of them is a twirly gizmo. Most were mirrored Disney-like things, but these dancers really caught my eye. Shooting through the window wasn't great. Please, don't fire me I'll do better next time.

    Dear diary, wish you were here


    Here, generally in Amsterdam, but specifically here, too, at Kapitein Zeppo's, where I am fortifying myself with a few pilsner, what the Dutch call young cheese, and an espresso.  Oh, hey, the gypsy jazz trio is about to come on...

    Both of the openings last evening were fab.  Lota's busy busy busy and I'm, uh, scouting dinner and drink locations.  Research.  Wearing my bone to the bone.

    Tuesday, November 17, 2009

    Dear diary: I ate till I busted a gut

    Well, I thought, I'd like to have a meal just like we would order at Albano's Amorina, but I don't want to go out tonight.  So I decided to cook one.  When we go to Amorina, we always split a salad or two, then we split a pasta, and then we split a pizza.  Sooo... I made Bittman's Brussels sprouts & bacon (I used pancetta) and figs salad; then, with pesto Lota made and froze this summer, a dish of orecchiette with peas and pesto; then, with some leftover pizza dough I made a week or two ago, froze, and slipped out of the freezer last night - just in case - a pizza tre formaggi, with fresh mozzarella from Russo's, asagio and teleggio.

    And, Lordy, after Lota stopped eating and flopped around gasping for breath, I just kept on going.  Until....

    Yes, the fabulous International Notebook Collection of Jennie Maneri!

    AND, as if that wasn't enough, the crowning of Miss G Train!!!!

    from JM:
    Come see my International Notebook Collection on display at the City Reliquary Museum in Brooklyn!! Bring your friends, family and anyone I forgot.

    Where: The City Reliquary, Williamsburg, 370 Metropolitan near Havemeyer 

    When: This Thursday, November 19th, 7:00 - 10:00

    What: In case you didn't know, I have a huge collection of notebooks from all over the world.

    If you haven't been to The City Reliquary, it is truly a unique experience. 
    In addition to my notebooks being displayed in the Community Collections front window, the museum is holding The Miss G Train Pageant. So come on over for $3 beers, notebooks and the crowning of the new Miss G Train.

    Saturday, November 14, 2009

    I'm going to have to get to know Lambchop much better


    Lambchop - Give It from Merge Records on Vimeo.
    Via Aquarium Drunkard.

    Micro! (from MaLu)

    Just in from MaLu, now of Oh Hi Oh, formerly of Hawaii, formerly of Seattle, formerly our downstairs neighbor, lo those many years ago, in the County of Kings:



    As always, I have to recommend this gig. It will be a lot of fun, regardless of your music preferences.

    xxx
    M

    What: The Microscopic Septet
    Where: 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St. New York, NY 10013
    When: Saturday, December 5, 2009, two sets starting at 10PM
    Price: $18/adv $20/door
    http://www.92y.org/92yTribeca/

    ....

    The music of The Microscopic Septet is the sound of jazz in 20th century America: all of it, from Ellington to Ayler, bebop to Zorn,  Dixieland  to experimental, captured in a microcosm.  It distills the essence of jazz as a popular music into a sound that swings, a music that is intelligent, sometimes smart-aleck,  and always good fun. [Joyce Nalewajk]

    In 2009 Cuneiform Records released Lobster Leaps In, the first newly recorded Microscopic Septet CD since the late 1980s.             Here is what critics had to say:

    Downbeat: “As always with the Micros, it’s gloriously, delightfully and inappropriately right. Welcome back.”

    Jazziz: “…brings a renewed sense of fun to the often-humorless jazz milieu.”

    AllAboutJazz: “Packed with soaring melodies, jubilant riffs, joyous shout choruses, infectious rhythms and incisive solos, Lobster Leaps In is the most fun one can have listening to contemporary jazz.”
     
    The Philadelphia Inquirer
    : … swinging, infectious, and full of wit.”
      http://www.microscopicseptet.com
    http://www.myspace.com/themicroscopicseptet
    ...

    www.phillipjohnston.com
    www.myspace.com/phillipjohnston88
    www.microscopicseptet.com

    Friday, November 13, 2009

    Thursday, November 12, 2009

    Tree of Smoke

    This Veterans' Day found me aptly reading Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke.  150 pages in, and I hadn't read any reviews until just now when I started to post.  Yowza the first paragraph of Jim Lewis' review of the book in the NYT:
    Good morning and please listen to me: Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and “Tree of Smoke” is a tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but very fast, a great whirly ride that starts out sad and gets sadder and sadder, loops unpredictably out and around, and then lurches down so suddenly at the very end that it will make your stomach flop. It comes with the armor and accoutrements of a Major Novel: big historical theme (Vietnam), semi-mythical cultural institution (military intelligence), long time span (1963-70, with a coda set in 1983) and unreasonable length (614 pages), all of which would be off-putting if this were not, in fact, a major novel, and if Johnson’s last big book hadn’t been the small collection of eccentric and addictive short stories called “Jesus’ Son” (1992). “Tree of Smoke” is a soulful book, even a numinous one (it’s dedicated “Again for H.P.” and I’ll bet you a bundle that stands for “higher power”), and it ought to secure Johnson’s status as a revelator for this still new century — a prediction I voice confidently but reluctantly, and with a little disappointment and dismay.

    Tuesday, November 10, 2009

    Far away, and only yesterday

    LH's life is much more interesting than mine right now.  (Makes me wonder how the blog can grow old without a "plumbing" tag.)
    The second night was at Tintale, which is quite high at the top of a long, exhausting upward slope. We stayed at a kind of lodge / house. I talked with a handsome guy who was a teacher at a private English medium school, seemed to be well-off, and when I asked if he read Nepali novels, it turned out he had read ALL of the novels I've translated (in Nepali, of course) and seemed genuinely impressed to meet the translator! The proprietor of the "inn" (I'm not sure what to call it - they serve dal bhat and provide space for sleeping) was a very jolly Rai guy, and we had lots of laughs. He urged us to stay another day so we could "dance and sing together." We were informed that Tintale gets knee-deep snow in the winter. The way to the outdoor bathroom was so treacherous I peed in the road during the night rather than attempt it (it required going out through a room of sleeping travelers in the dark trying not to wake them, opening a creaking front door, stepping over a plank across the threshold, going to the street, going down a steep slope with uneven steps, being careful not to trip on a 2' high hose in the path, hopping down a 3' step (all slippery mud), negotiating the toilet door locked with a tiny lock - all while holding a flashlight and toilet paper, then dealing with a squat toilet. Luckily I didn't have the runs). Dinner was a noisy affair, as a couple of the guests had drunk a lot of rakshi and got a little noisy and obnoxious, but they soon went to sleep.

    Thursday, November 5, 2009

    No nuthin'


    1st Ave, East Village.  Sent via thingy

    I'm feeling all aflutter about the Batavus BUB


    The article at Bicycle Design is particularly interesting, I think, describing contemporary bike culture in the home of Batavus.   Lota and I will be in Amsterdam in a couple of weeks - and I'll probably be pretty glad that the BUB is not available yet.

    Wednesday, November 4, 2009

    I really just can't talk about this redding thing


    Somewhere between $90,000,000 and $140,000,000 gets you 50,000 votes more than $9,000,000.  I bet that causes the spender some mixed feelings.

    Anyway, right here in the hood, I'm way happy for Bill de Blasio and Brad Lander.  (Brad, update the site - you won!)  And for the health of both the NYC Dems and Working Families Party.

    (I'm linking to the Post from the map, though it's a Times graphic.  You know, I tried real hard to find a link on the NYT site to the full NY election results, and couldn't - had to back into it from Google news searches.  Then I grabbed the graphic and altered it for posting and had to go through the Google search again and the Post results came up higher, etc.)

    Illuminated Manuscripts: Alexandre Singh's "Assembly Instructions"


    Tuesday, November 3, 2009

    By then I would have read John Barth's Chimera (da da dum, etc.)

    (... speaking of Scheherazade:)  At wiki.  And pages at Google.  Comments by Harold Augenbraum at the National Book Awards site: "When I was coming of age in the 1970s, if you didn’t read John Barth you weren’t a young reader."

    Dah da-dum, da-da-da-dum, da-da-da Dum Dum (dum dum)

    Caught a cold yesterday or the day before on the plane and last night was pretty miserable.  Slept in exile with the radio playing very softly next to me, and at some point before dawn I stirred to Dah da-dum, da-da-da-dum, da-da-da Dum Dum (dum dum).  Which brought my fevered brow back to back to a summer some +360 odd moons ago when for a short time I didn't have a place and was sleeping at work on the floor of an office, in a sleeping bag and every night on the cassette deck next to my ear, soft and low, I'd play either Joe Jackson's Look Sharp or Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.  (They were the two tapes I owned.)  JJ, LS.

    Monday, November 2, 2009

    All of Joe Nardiello's campaign calls for the 39th District in Brooklyn come from a Seattle based war-dialer

    Uh... dude.

    Flowery nose, creamy texture: more northwest chanterells & more pizza



    Well, I know, you're sick of hearing it, but I'm not yet sick of eating it.  We were in the northwest again this last weekend (WA, this time), and again there were wild chanterelles at the farmers' market.  Bought some, and some garlic and red cippolini onions, some canned San Marzano tomatoes.  And a pizza stone since our host didn't have one.  We bought a handful of bottles at Patrick Hub's fabulous Olympic Wine Merchant (noo, laddie, no web site, you just have to go there).  (My fave was a Buty Sémillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle blend. Oh, slay me, I am a pig of a pig of a pig.)  Lota made a salad, C made an apple crisp, and we stuffed ourselves!