As you all know, I went there to get all arty, and what not.

But while I was busy getting arty, I also had an opportunity to spend some quality time with a substantial handful of internet friends.
Like Prolly;

photographer extraordinaire ENB and her beau Chad;

Master dispatchers Bobby and Kid from Cyclehawk Messenger Service, (who it should be noted, set us up with the most incredibly generous VIP treatment with their friends at Cafe Habana. If you are hungry, and want your mind blown, treat yourself to a visit. I promise, you wont be sorry.)

The lovely Aden, and the almost lovelier Carlos;

and as long as the bottles of booze were on me, I even got to spend a substancial amount of time with The Bike Snob;

who generously bestowed upon me a gift of cotton and plastisol;

And though I am fortunate enough to have been previously aquatinted with him in three dimensions, I was graced with the presence of Cyclehawks own Squid;

As you would expect, any trip to New York City has to include the standard fare of spending time in Central Park, going to the MOMA, seeing Times Square, and of course, riding a mechanical bull;

which needless to say, ending up looking like this;

I spent some time getting around on the endlessly complex network that is the subway system, but as Id mentioned several times over the week, riding the train tends to make me feel as though Im under water constantly attempting to swim to the surface, and just when I think Im about to come up for air, I grab a hand full of sand. To remedy this, I took a full nine hour day and walked.
Not only do Vans make for a crappy 'fixed gear specific shoe', but theyre not very good for walking all day in either.

I stopped by Track Star NYC to say hello;

..and even fell into one of the Crumpler stores, where I met the camera shy Yassira, who was the wiz behind the construction of all of the bags at this past Springs Invisible Bags show;

Upon leaving the store, I came across this cat, sitting outside, watercoloring a lovely cityscape;

There obviously is no shortage of art to be seen in the big city, so we had to choose wisely. The enigma that is Banksy had his first solo show at the Charcoal Grill happening as well;

As they say however, art is in the eye of the beholder, and walking the streets on Saturday morning, I found what very well could have been some post-clubbing, synchronized bodily expulsion, which in my addled mind was pretty brilliant;

Taste truly is relative.
Anyhow, my feet are again on West Coast terra firma, though my head is still stuck firmly in the clouds. I want to thank everybody that came out to the reception, (Lockwood, Chris, Andrea, Jason and Mr. and Mrs. Amigo #2 Im looking at you), as well the good folks at Invisible NYC for making the show happen.

Id also like to include the quote of the week that graced my ears from a young woman who will remain unnamed upon being asked what shed done the previous evening-
"Oh.. I just watched some porn for a couple of hours and then fell asleep."
Shes truly a women after my own heart.

Let us now dip into the exceedingly full mail bag..

From Dave;

"Having your vintage Colnago stolen would be a bummer.

Dave"

Its good to know folks are looking out for each other. More fun can be found here.

Z-Doh got ahold of us to let us know how he rolls;

"Yo- glad to see you made through the LV weekend in one piece, fortunately for everyone else not in a one-piece. Say, would you be so kind as to post this event for my pal Bill from Rushmor Records in Milwaukee, on the bummer life blog? For info folks can e-mail rushmor@rushmor.com . This is definitely bummer life avoidance material, and a wonderful primer for the 2008 Homie(ey) Fall Fest.

The kids in Milwaukee dont quite do the riding like the Mpls Mafia, but they definitely have the partying and carrying on down pat. I will be down with Team HurlBrauMac celebrating 40 years of perversion where it all began. And doing a bit of Pug riding (not the canines) like the attached photos.

Speaking of the HFF I think I can speak for my Twin Cities brethren when I say we hope to see you in late Oct early Nov on the arm of Demonica and in the company of J Mack and Tina B. Let them kids know they have a couch waiting, they just have to leg wrestle Dirty Ol' Brauer (aka DOB) for the futon rights. Til then ta ta or in the case of DOB tatas!!-- Zitoldman"

Ahhh.. The Homie. I so badly would like to get back to my second home for this event, but Ive recently spent so much cash, my wallet has actually turned into a small blackhole, from which not even light can escape, so its with a heavy heart that I will bow out, but I expect to get a full report on here at some point, from somebody.

Our friend David at Fixtee got ahold of us to let us know hes weathering the financial storm, and has got the ball of his new business rolling along smoothly;

"Hello friend!

I just would like you to know that I have updated Fixtee(dot)com.
Octobers issue of our t-shirt has been released, I think that this design is really cool. Please check it out.

And if you could mention something about this on your blog I would be very
very
thankful.

Best regards / David J"

I gotta agree. Thats a shirt chock-full of badassness, and Ill wager most folks here will tend to agree with me.

Big Steve P celebrated his 40th birthday just recently with a hairnet ride, and believe me, in my absence, my heart broke into even a billion more pieces after I got a review and pics from Amigo #3;

"We missed you at hairnets at high noon, but fun was still had by all. As expected Big Steves Birthday ride turned into hairnets at 1:30. Perhaps in my passing I will draw a crowd like the group that showed up for Steves 40th birthday.

Ross Shafer, Bruce Gordon, Mike Ferrentino, Sean Walling, Eric Richter, and Elvis all showed up to celebrate Steves journey into the second half of his life.

Obviously not everyone can be a mountain bike hall of famer, industry big wig, or dead celebrity so the usual dregs of the mountain biking society were also present to make the who's who's look that much better.

Robert Ives, Ezra, Loudass, Cameron, Kathleen, Allison, Bee, Steve Bernard, Elvis and myself made up the list of dregs. The ride Kicked ass we did a 30 mile loop through Petaluma. The only down side was my Flat 30 minutes into the ride that just happened to take place next to something that had been dead for quite some time. To make it worse, it took me about 30 minutes and two tubes to get us back on the road.

When we arrived back at Steves house, there was a keg of 7% alcohol fancy pants ale, a twelve pack of bud, and 25 lbs of meat waiting for us. We ate, we drank, we bullshitted, we raced slot cars and we hung out with Elvis and the last Spooky Boo known to man.

Sean from Soulcraft made hairnets at high noon his maiden voyage on a fixed gear rig (pics incuded). The bike was much sexier than his pedal stroke but he survived unscathed.

I would also like to note that I couldn't help but be impressed by the fact that Ross Shafer spent most of the ride at the front of the pack on a fixed gear. I'm sure that to most this would be unimpressive but to a guy who lives in the land of "fixies" that never leave the coffee shop it was impressive.

I hope your show was a success we all missed you but were happy for you at the same time."

I appreciate that. The last bike event I missed I heard was more fun simply due to the fact I wasnt there.
And do my eyes deceive me, or does Blacksocks have a moustache?
By the way, for those who are unaware, the little sheep pictured sitting next to Elvis is 'Spookyboo', and I actually am in possession of the other one.

Anyway, it shouldnt go without saying that even though I wasnt present in body, I was present in spirit, as I embarked on my own hairnet ride in Steves honor;

Id also like to mention that I crossed paths with that big guy who I crashed into at the beginning of the summer while I was out and about, and we had a good ride through the woods together, never once meeting up with the ground because of it.

Well, Ive got a ton more stuff, but its time for all of us to get back to work. Rest assured, Ill continue to sift through the goods as the week progresses and spill a bunch more beans out for everyones consideration.
Have a good beginning of the week, and well catch you all in a couple of days. Its really is good to be back in your presence.
Believe it or not, I kinda missed it.