Bling

This faux crocodile laptop personally engraved with gold lettering can be yours for under 950 bucks.
Not a bad price since it includes a blu ray burner and a 14″ screen.
Limited run of only 500 so get yours quick!
Sonystyle.com

It’s Winter in New Zealand

Mr. Boh seen on the Market Frankford Line. No idea what it means.

Check out Kmart’s homepage. I dare you.

Some random beer news:

Iron City Brewery finally closed it’s old troubled brewery in Pittsburgh and is moving all operations to Rolling Rock’s old brewery in Latrobe, PA. Most local beer geeks think it’s the end of the road for the brewery. One expert even mentioned something I suggested a few years ago- convince the hipsters to drink the stuff and it’ll make a huge comeback.

Music:

A new find for me, a band from New Zealand on Drag City. Bachelorette

MP3: Bachelorette- Her Rotating Head

MP3: Bachelorette- Mindwarp

From the My Electric Family LP. Looks like we just missed their US tour- they played Kung Fu Necktie in June. Bummer.

BONUS: Largehearted Boy turned me on to this great track:

MP3: Brian Olive-There is Love

Jody Watley is coming to World Cafe Live on July 28. She’s still lookin’ good too.

July 4th in Philly

At the Roots/Sheryl Crow concert:

I’ve never seen such good weather on a holiday weekend in all my 32 years. The last two years were washouts and I seem to remember it raining most of the times I stayed in Philly for the fireworks.

Here are some better pictures via flickr:

(photo Dan Callahan)

(photo moocatmoocat)

Long Weekend Playlist

MP3: Passion Pit-The Reeling (Calvin Harris Remix) (c/o bbqchickenrobot)

New Orleans band on “former New Orleans now Philly thanks to Katrina” -based label Park The Van Records:

MP3: Generationals- When They Fight, They Fight (Hearya turned me on to them)

Generationals online

Finally some new, interesting dub/dancehall:

MP3: Major Lazer-Can’t stop now feat. Mr. Vegas & Jovi Rockwell (via dilate choonz)

From Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do. The whole thing is wicked. Get it.

I’ll see you at the Roots/Cheryl Crow (!) fireworks display- have a good 4th!

Founders Hall @ Girard College

I literally live a block from one of the most beautiful and historic spots in Philly- Girard College (not actually a college but a boarding school). It’s rare that the general public is allowed inside the sprawling campus and high walls but we peasants were allowed in as part of Hidden City Philadelphia. It allowed me to finally check out the grand Founders Hall, which was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, the same guy who designed the US Capitol dome. It was the second most expensive building built before the Civil War, second only to the US Capitol, and it is larger than the Parthenon.

Some history of Stephen Girard and his school:
He was one of the wealthiest men of the US industrial age and he left the bulk of his money to the city to build a school for “poor white male orphans.” Brown vs. Board of Education in the ’50s ruled that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional and Martin Luther King Jr. himself marched outside the college. It allowed blacks in 1972. It didn’t admit women until 1984.

Check out the very interesting complete timeline here.

I really need to brush up on my photography skills but I managed to get some good shots:

The colorful props are left over from a scene that was shot for M. Night Shalamadingdong’s next project The Last Airbender.

Student graffitti on the ceiling of a closet from 1880. I think this is so cool:

All of the old student records dating back to the mid 1800s are piled up in this dusty old room. So cool:

Better pictures on flickr.

WCL Summer Beer Tastings

World Cafe Live has been going a bit overboard with the number of beer events they’ve been hosting lately. Actually the whole region has. Once you’ve been to the Manayunk Brewfest is there really a need to hit the Iron Hill fest a couple weeks later? Most of the beer will be identical at each and chances are you’ve tried most of them before.

But WCL’s new idea piqued my interest. Each Wednesday in July and August they’ll feature brews from different regions of the U.S. so chances are there will new beers that you’ve never tried before. The BONUS is that there is also live music each night and I gotta say, the music lineup also looks schweet!

The highlight in my opinion is August 5th’s Great Lakes/Michigan brewery night- not because it’s my home state but because uber extreme Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales from Dexter, MI will be featured along with Ann Arbor band My Dear Disco, who’ve been making a name for themselves by doing nice remix work and performing some interesting cover tunes. For 25 bucks I’m all over that.

Check out the lineup and get tickets here.

Jolly Pumpkin is available in the Philly area in 25 oz bottles ($$$) only.

MP3: Franz Ferdinand/My Dear Disco- Ulysses (My Dear Disco Remix) (via Lets Sexy Fighting)

MP3: Kanye West- Love Lockdown (My Dear Disco Remix)

MDD covering one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs:

MDD covering Beyoncé (both videos lousy quality):

Guerciotti

I’m finally getting around to posting details of my winter project. It’s my first new bike in like 8 years or something. Almost all of it was either bought used online or new from eBay. The frame was bought used from the Trexlertown swapmeet.

The frame is 60 cm Columbus Genius differential shape butted steel

Scott aluminum bars stripped from my other road bike. Real brake lever stripped from my mtn. bike

I’ve since replaced the front lever with a Paul E-Lever from eBay.

ACS Claws 19 tooth freewheel

I was talked into going with a higher gearing than I wanted. I already had a large 52 t shimano ring on the front and nice, ROUND chainrings are either too expensive or hard to find. I’ll be replacing the freewheel with a 18 t soon. The ACS is pretty noisy and rough so I’ll probably go with a cheap Shimano.

I picked up these 72.5 Dura-Ace Octalink cranks at the swapmeet. I also got an Octalink bottom bracket but it was English threaded so I found a new Dura-Ace Italian thread online. The Dura-Ace isn’t a cartridge type BB like the rest of their line- it’s all exposed bearings so it’s gonna be high maintenance to keep in clean. I think I also over-tightened the bearings because it’s pretty noisy. The thing I like most about single speeds is the silent ride they give, so I need to take care of this soon.

The ring scratches shown in the picture are really the only blemishes on the frame.

I get flack from friends for putting Japanese parts on an Italian frame, but the frame came with a Dura-Ace headset already installed, and I’m already familiar with Shimano since that’s what was included on all of my older bikes, so I stuck with it. This 7800 front lever was found on eBay.

Another reason I went with Dura-Ace is because I absolutely LOVE their high flange hubs. I think they’re beautiful. I got a set new on eBay; they’re plentiful and about 1/3rd the price in shops. The rims are Mavic Open Pro. Wheels are the only thing I’ve never built yet, so I had them done at Trophy Bikes.

Selle Italia Flite saddle- another new eBay item at roughly half the price. Same with the Dura-Ace post.

I think the final price paid for everything was ~$1,300. I would’ve saved the time and money if I’d bought a complete bike but there’s NOTHING available (in single speed at least) with high end steel and components.

‘Where’d you get those sneakers at?’

‘Everybody think they’re so fresh’

Two tunes on constant iPod rotation, both with humorous lyrics about shoes of all things.

Some dubstep from a duo out of Atlanta:

MP3: TSD- Shiny Shoes

More from TSD here.

MP3: Tiga- Shoes

(c/o fluxblog)

‘What’s that sound?
‘That’s the sound of my shoes’

Tiga’s from Canada.

XTRA shoes:

MP3: Deer Tick- These old Shoes

Repost MP3: Melba Moore- Walk a Mile In My Shoes/Twenty Five Miles medley

Recycling

My job site has a used battery and toner cartridge drop off location so I carted over 10 used laser cartridges that were piling up in my office plus a huge box of dead batteries.

They probably end up in the trash dumpster but at least I feel good that I did my part.

Speaking of recycling, craigslist has GOT to be the ultimate recycler. Really. I’ve been using it so much lately to get rid of junk I don’t want and to buy junk (to replace the junk I got rid of) for a fraction of it’s original price.

In the past, say, three months, I’ve sold or given away: a sleeper couch, bike, patio set (just last night!), projector, lights, large format printer, scrap metal, a complete dining room set, coffee table, sandbox, and toys. I’ve bought a TV, a kid’s bike, bike parts, a scooter, a crib, a phone and a beer poster just to name a few. Sometimes I don’t even have to leave my neighborhood to make a transaction.

By the way, the craigslist scammers I mentioned before are way more prevalent than they were just a few months ago. I literally get a response to my listings within minutes, no matter how small the price, and I can always spot them because they never mention my specific item by name- they just say they are interested in my “items” and would I please send my contact info. Fuckers.

My buddy (who I won’t name for obvious reasons) spends even more time on Craigslist (and not all of it in the “men seaking men” category. Kidding.) In the past few months alone he’s bought 2 cars, a tree, paving stones, and gravel. He’s sold, I kid you not, an old Bowflex for over $500. Who the hell would want a Bowflex? Oh, and this I shit you not is true, but keep it on the DL: He just found a child to adopt on craigslist. Honest to God. He’s the master wheeler dealer.

I’ve got a bunch of old equipment at work that I can’t bear to throw out since most of it cost upwards of $10,000 when it was new. It’s a bit harder to get rid of… it’s even hard to find someone to GIVE it to. Some the non-science specific stuff is going to the annual Trash 2 Treasure sale being held this weekend.

Anyone need a perfectly good map digitizer? Cheap?

How ’bout a 36″ CRT? I’ll even throw in the cart. It ONLY weighs 900 pounds!

Violens

A new MGMT remix of a great tune:

MP3: Violens-Doomed (MGMT remix)

The original is still a bit better:

MP3: Violens-Doomed

New York’s Violens on myspace