FYI for anyone who actually visits this page looking for updates…
One of the reasons I never use this is that the comments feature is impossible. It doesn’t weed spam–either I ban comments altogether, or allow them and delete a hundred spam per day with a feature that doesn’t allow batch edits.
If you’re on Facebook, […]

Oh, Facebook, you have stolen me away. It’s so much easier to blog a few sentences every hour or so and have guaranteed interactive readers. Ah well.
Back from a couple weeks out west, one spent kicking around Vegas and LA with my gentleman friend Paul, and one spent working on storyboards for a […]

Oh my, it’s been awhile.
I’ve fallen into the vortex of Facebook, where sporadic updates to a captive audience have supplanted blogging.
Much art news in early 2009.
First, I’ve illustrated another book. This one is published by BBC History Magazine (UK only) and presents a bunch of hilarious history trivia. You can preorder […]

That’s the name of a Neko Case song about how art (read:song) can accompany you through your life. Or something like that. I mistrust the tendency to take life guidance from art. Maybe that’s because when I was a kid I had a serious Marcia Brady-wish, and was vastly disappointed by a […]

Last Saturday I answered a call to help John Greenfield move his apartment via bike.

Here are the movers, in the alley behind his house. We had eight trailers, I think, ranging from my little Action Packer to Steve’s 6-foot Bikes At Work trailer, which can (and did) haul up to 300 lbs. We […]

Marco took this nice picture. Note: I am not actually suckling the puppy.

…when riding a fixed-gear.

Actually, the skirt was form fitting so not a problem at all, and the boots lace so high that there was no danger of the laces getting caught in the drivetrain. Toe cages weren’t really made for jackboots, though, maybe.
I like this one. I look like Max Fischer.

Visited my friends Diane and Marco in Taos last week. Diane has a fucking brain tumor (more about that later) and there were many logistics in operation. But there was also plenty of beauty at which to marvel, and the whole New Mexico vibe to rock to: they talk about “personal transformation” there […]

Check out this bike that the friendly neighborhood crackhead sold me for $10. It has a totally homebrewed front end, solid rubber tires and humongous spokes. Vern thinks it was used to haul a wheelchair. What do you think?

Well, that didn’t take long.
Mere weeks ago I was proclaiming my love for gears and joking about “fixie freaks.” But one or two sentences in defense of fixed-gear riding from Alex, along with this passage from Sheldon Brown’s site, was all it took to convince me to convert the old Bianchi frame Jay gave […]

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about “hipsters.” People argue much about what that word means, who it applies to, whether it holds any meaning at all, whether it’s an insult, or just a demographic, or…etc.
I ran across this article in the amazingly humorless magazine Adbusters (sorry dude. I am all for culture […]

This is Braley:

She works with me at Star. She helped organize and run the national bike polo tournament. She’s 20 years old. Last night she trued a wheel at the coffee shop, using her legs as a truing stand.
In a few days she’s leaving for five months on a student work Visa […]

One day in the 90s I was walking through the Loop when I noticed a big black dude sitting in a folding chair and scribbling on a huge piece of what looked like drywall board with magic markers. Upon closer scrutiny, he was “painting” a sweet sketch of the street scene in front of […]

1. Tote 50 pounds of bananas:

The best part was the look on the clerk’s face when I told her I didn’t need any bags.
2. Gather a few friends
(or in this case, a few Windy City Rollers)

My derby lovah and Co-President of UPWGSD, the Union of People Who Get Shit Done, Loco Chanel

My […]

The hand of a hobbiest. Check out those grungy nails!
I’ve been getting a lot of comments on all my “hobbies” lately. Some of ‘em are snarky: “Just what you need–another HOBBY.” Some are jokey: “You really don’t need to be good at EVERYTHING, you know.” Some (mostly from Vern) are just […]