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

Philly bike race 09 photos

Lemon Hill

Timecycle courier old heads

Best tshirt of the day

Brad set up his dj gear and camped out on Lemon Hill overnight

...so did this guy

Philly Bike Race 2009

It’s the first Sunday in June so you know what that means- It’s time for the Corestates/Wachovia/First Union/Commerce Bank/Manayunk Wall/Philly bike race, or whatever the heck you care to call it. (Really, Philly folks, we need to come up with a catchy name and STICK WITH IT).

This year’s name is now the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Championship. I missed last year but I heard the weather was the hottest and stickiest ever. This weekend is supposed to be perfect, so there’s no excuse not to come out.

Lemon Hill

The best place to watch the race is obviously the Manayunk Wall (where I once watched a young Lance Armstrong fly up it in his big ring) but it’s most fun to ride the length of the course and watch it from all over. The finish is cool if you can get a good spot in the crowd, but for the life of me I don’t know why the media recommends the feed zone. There’s really nothing to see there.
My favorite spot is Lemon Hill. Biker Brad should be spinning there again, at least post-race: last year the lame ‘MMR MC shut him down. Jealous I guess.

If you see me on my new ride be sure to say “hi”.

The official race site

Some pics from 2007

Course map PDF

If you’re crazy enough to get up at 6 am on a weekend you can ride the course (now for a fee)

This year’s race almost didn’t happen thank to the economy

MP3: Daedelus-Off To The Races

Tagalong

Took my kid to school one day and locked up next to a Dad who did the same thing:

55 Inches, Baby!

Alternate title: A lot of junk in my trunk.
My new 55″ Samsung B650 LCD was shipped to me at work. Fit in my Mazda 5 like a glove. Everyone says 55″ is too large for my basement.

We’ll see.