coachella report!

hi gang, i'm back from the land of no internet access, and thusly i present my report of the happenings at coachella 2008:

i went friday and we were late so we missed rogue wave, but I heard they were good. i missed battles by 2 minutes too, which blew, cause they are apparently really good live.  we met up with a friend who does club promoting in l.a., and on his advice checked out dj busy p, who rocked the house in one of the tents. i caught another killer set from diplo in which m.i.a. appeared to dance about in some kind of onepiece, basically looking all kinda international hot, and by this time the crowd was way into it. right after that, i think, dan deacon played his set and got everybody in the huge tent to form a running whirlpool of high fives and a tunnel of love. it was the most fun i've had since daycare. 

somewhere in there i hit up vampire weekend, who put together an enjoyably preppy set and promised us all a new album soon. unfortunately it might be later rather than sooner, cause the new tracks they played were kinda hit or miss, and that's coming from a huge fan. (by the way, me & my friend wyatt take full credit for first spinning their EP to the west coast audience after getting back from brooklyn last summer. you can quote me on that.)

aphex twin started to throw down a really awesome beat, and i tranced out for a few minutes until i realized i was missing aesop rock in the next tent over. aesop came through with a great performance, totally lived up to my expectations, and got the crowd amped enough to scream his rhymes with him. dan le sac vs. scroobius pip, who i had never heard of before tuesday, surprised me with one of the coolest, most interesting, likable, intelligible and dance-able spoken-word/rap/hip-hop shows i've seen since sage francis or saul williams. dan and pip, as they refer to each other on stage, have a great dj/mc rapport and are way worth seeing.

i was all stoked on spank rock, but the mc was apparently sick and the producers weren't quite good enough to hold their own without him. to make matters worse, they brought on a gang of female rappers, one of whom was smokin hot, but not so great, and they lost my interest. 

closed out the day with fatboy slim, who provides one of the tightest shows i've seen. his visuals and stage setup are insane, and at one point he plays a giant, schizophrenic video of man's evolution from bacteria. wicked awesome. 

anyway i gotta go, but links to follow, as well as new shit to listen to. 

keep the ruber side down yall, peace.

singletrack, get it?

hey yall, ever see that show robot chicken? it's good.

i'm back to weed after a short break. needless to say i'm hizzigh rizzight nizzow.

no riding post today, i didn't get out. i have, however, decided to pursue another peculiar interest of mine. a flight of fancy perhaps, but i've been thinking about putting together a fixed-gear mountain bike, or maybe a cross bike with the rear wheel rebuilt, which would be sick. anyway i'm working on getting a suitable frame, or a not-so-suitable frame, or a downright ill-suited frame, cause it's just for kicks anyway, and doesn't really serve a serious purpose. whatever. i'll keep you posted.

the first day of coachella is tomorrow technically, so i'll be making my reportage on it soon. should be a dance party of epic po-potions. also to follow very soon, links to mp3crib where the 15 mins. album is posted.

hasta luego, vecinos

let's check craigslist, cause, you know, i might want to buy something

3am and time for today's blog. thought i'd check the pistadex in the west, and it's looking bad. although bad in this situation is kind of good and good is a little bad too, so whatever. but as a thought experiment:

SF's is $550, which is on par, but interestingly only one was up for sale earlier this afternoon. sure seems like there used to be more. and it had some deep-vs too, so not a bad deal, maybe. there's even a pista concept on there for $600. 

let's move on.

l.a. doesn't have any p's up right now, but some idiot's trying to get $1200 for an '80s bridgestone. good luck. $400 for a converted aluminum cannondale is kinda ridiculous too. but we all know by now the odd collection of bikes l.a. offers.

san diego's got a $700 concept, shit. no pistas though.

you gotta go up to seattle, it seems, to get a deal over stock pricing: $500 for a stock celeste green. meh.

portland's pistadex is even at $535.  they do have a mostly stock bike for $400 though.

so anyway, though surprised at how few are available right now, the demand must be keeping up. i don't know if that just means that everyone who wants one has one, (cause i keep seein' em,) or if other makes have gotten more popular or what. good? bad? whatever. i'm gonna refrain from judgment calls here, and in most other situations. i'm an online journalist, and i want to emphasize the journalism part there. but i also want to stress the online part cause that means i pretty much get to say whatever i want.

ate logo, yall, i still gotta write that essay about this man.

blown tubes & legal amphetamines

dammit, i shoulda stolen that pista, cause yesterday  i blew out my back tire doing (unnecessary) skids on the top floor of the parking structure. just goes to show, it may be extremely cool-looking to light a grit while doing a no-hands skid, but the accompanying "BANGhissssssFUCK" sound is one of the worst noises i hear. oh well, another oversized rubber cockring needed. i'm gonna go to the bike shop and watch my wallet deflate faster than that tube did. maybe it's time to put a brake on the ugly fucker, not that that would help since it seems i only skid when 'practicing,' aka going somewhere where there's no one to crash into or embarass myself in front of when my lazy foot slips off the cruiser pedals from the seventies i somehow think are acceptable for brakeless fixie riding. 

bikesnobnyc, if you read this, everything you have said about the track bike craze is absolutely spot on. that said, i don't ride a track bike. i ride a conversion. it's a different deal altogether. 

cept not really.

anyway, my main ugly fucker is out of comission til i can afford its peculiar ostentations again. that leaves me with the real badass machine, my old fixie which is now some sort of bastardized upright hybrid/single speed/ancient roman gladiator chariot and almost as dangerous as that sounds. taking that near-brakeless contraption to class is an adventure every time.

speaking of class, i'll be back to the blog tomorrow when i finish this essay i'm supposed to do, and was due this morning. hopefully i'll get it done with the help of an adderall-fueled all-night trip to the 24 Lounge - doping for energy now having expanded beyond cycling into the hitherto caffeine-dominated realm of schoolwork, all thanks due to modern pharmacology. oh well. turning things in on time was never really my steez. 

go ahead, leave your fixed gear unlocked

outside the arbor at 6pm, just one more effing time, and i'm taking it. yes you, pista rider with white deep-vs. i almost came up on it today but you got lucky. seriously, tempt me one more time...