Concerning items of interest

Thursday, July 24, 2008

No. You look like a juvenile delinquent!


I'm a little confused as to why music videos have continued to be produced after this one was made. After all, it's pretty much the pinnacle of what can be done with the medium. Not only is it totally rockin', but listening to it is a real kick in the pants. I think it not shocking that I would have preferred to name as my most favorite tune the band's other classic Orgasmatron (by the way, not a real person, place, or thing to my knowledge), but said song lacks the philosophical depth found in Killed by Death. Although I do appreciate the laser-green and black, dichromatic color scheme of the Orgasmatron video, I think that Michael Jackson used the green-laser light color to fuller effect in one of my all-time top 5 songs of all time and top fives, Rock With Me. It just goes to show how important a bit of fog can be.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Bent Bike

I picked up this Trek 620 back in St Louis with high hopes to build it up into my main bike. The advantage I saw over my current Trek 400 was mostly the cantilever brakes (more clearance for tires + fenders) and more braze-ons for rack mounting. The nice old lady I bought it from did mention her husband had crashed it once injuring his knee, but the bike was unscathed. OR SO I THOUGHT! Check out the picture and you can see the tubes are slightly bent just past the lugs.
bent

And here is the worst shot I took, but it shows the bottom bulge better than the others:

lower bent

I was utterly disappointed when first I found the lump on the bottom tube. I think I now understand how it feels to one day in the shower discover a strange new lump on a testicle (or breast for all you females). I have to admit the old lady seller likely didn't know about it and didn't purposefully deceive me. But this experience has made me almost resolve to swear off all elderly women entirely!


Lesson to be gleaned here: please tell me in the comments what lesson I should learn. And please make it funny, because I can't be expected to come up with all the comedy all the time. Those of you who know me will surely understand how true that statement is.

On a happier note, I finally got around to fitting a tire in the 400 with the fenders installed. I had to drop down to the 700 x 28 Panaracer Pasela TG tire. I do miss the extra cush of the 700 x 32's but the 28's aren't that bad if the psi is around 75 or 80 instead of over 100. So here's what the 400 looks like now all enfendered.



When I put the fenders on I removed the front rack, but for a while there this bike really looked like a good randoneering bicycle. Someday I hope to do a few brevets, but until then I'll have to live my long-distance dreams vicariously through my sister's marathon training. Go Diana!

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