On Longing

"Nostalgia is the desire for desire."

-- Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection

Lens Ad

This is how you sell a wide-angle lens.

My Week #14 (July 20-26)

My Week #14 (July 20-26) from nocoastfilms on Vimeo.

A couple rain storms, Nacho Ride & Hold Still awesomeness, Ande lets me cut his hair for the first time ever, Girl Bike Night Pretty Dress Ride, UUVVWWZ with Darren Keen, and the Rumbletime Girls win our division of the Team Triathlon.

Recent Signage

This Lens Costs More Than My House

While "researching things" at work today, I came across this lens in the B+H Used Department. I love the fun their copywriter clearly had with this description.

Features:

The Canon 1200/5.6L USM, the longest fixed telephoto lens ever built by Canon, contains 13 elements (2 Fluorite) in 10 groups and focus' down to 49.5'. With an angle-of- view of about 2° on a full-frame 35 mm camera, calling this lens a 'tele' is like calling King Kong a monkey.

Built-to-order by Canon from 1993 to 2005, each lens was hand-crafted at the rate of about 2-per-year and a delivery time of about 18 months. Only a dozen-or-so were ever made. Who bought them? National Geographic magazine and Sports Illustrated are known to own a couple, the Feds probably have a few squirreled away somewhere, and a few well-heeled photo enthusiasts.

This particular lens is extremely clean inside and out. Included with this lens is a leather slip-on 'lens cap', the original fitted aluminum trunk case, a custom trunk case with wheels that holds the original trunk case, and a prodigious measure of ego satisfaction. Weighing in at over 36lbs and an overall length of 33 inches, a sturdy tripod and pan/tilt head is highly recommended.

Pack mule not included.

Geek spec sheet:

Construction

Metal Alloy

Angle of View

2°

Minimum Aperture

f/32

Closest Focusing Distance

49.5'

Filter Size

48 mm Drop-in

Lens Hood

Built-in

Length

32.9"

Weight

36.2 lb

Oh yeah, and the asking price? $120,000.00.

Technology + Creativity

It's amazing the things people hear and see and think to mash up.

Signifier

My Week #13 (July 13-19)

My Week #13 (July 13-19) from nocoastfilms on Vimeo.

Is there something special about my thirteenth week beginning on the thirteenth of July? Perhaps. My work week is minced with a long ride and a visit from Nate; my weekend includes the best camping ever and my first century ride. Thanks to Felice for the shot of Baxter out the window.

0% Chance of Rain

With a perfect weather forecast unbelievable for the middle of July, Felice and I loaded up Baxter and camping gear after work yesterday for a night at Indian Cave State Park.


As soon as we'd staked out a good camping spot, we hit the trails for some lovely magic hour views of the Missouri River.


After hiking, it was time for some cooking and fire-sitting. It was one nice fire, and we discovered a naturally perfect division of labor -- Felice likes building, and I like tending.


This morning, it was maté & oatmeal on the Primus. We were chilly -- again, unbelievable for July 18th -- so the warm tea hit the spot.


We went for a morning hike as our tents got a chance to dry off their dewiness. Best friends are the best.

dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

My friend Alex Provan has an interview with Johan Grimonprez in the interview issue of Bidoun.



dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y was part of the screening schedule for my senior seminar in documentary production, paired with One Day in September, and I loved it instantly. You should probably read Alex's interview, then watch both films.

Wednesday Roca Rollers Ride

I headed out after work today after several days of excuses not to ride. Other than scoping out a bit of the triathlon course, I didn't have a route in mind. I hopped on Hwy 2, and thought about heading to Syracuse, thanks to a little BRAN-induced nostalgia. I got fed up with the traffic on the highway, though, and wouldn't have had any Rumbletimers with whom to share an adult beverage. I turned at Bennet instead, and headed for the Roca Rollers.

This is my version of a 6 o'clock shadow.

Heading west on Roca Road. The exposure here doesn't show it, but the road stretches straight into the distance for miles and miles, rolling over the Bohemian Alps. All in all, including waiting at lights in town, I rode 40 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

On Landscape, Corn, and Cather

As we were driving back from the Niobrara yesterday, my mother and I were discussing the changing landscape as we passed from Sandhills to flat plains to the rolling hills of the southeastern corner of the state. Near Bassett, my father said he loved driving through the Sandhills -- which are looking particularly verdant right now -- but could never live there. Later, my mother described the landscape in eastern Wyoming as just unbearable to her -- barren and dry. I, meanwhile, contended that to me, it was the endless row crops of the flat plains along Interstate 80 that were unbearable, the scar on the earth that is the industrialization of the land, the identical topography, the tips of the cornsilks evening the plain to a point where if nuance is imperceptible, the field is good.

And then there are the sad fields, a few short, pale-green cornstalks on the end, the occasional errant milo (exceedingly rare, this lovely drought-resistant grain), the center-pivots nowhere to be seen. Is this what it will look like?

I came home to read further in My Ántonia; and came to this passage, published in 1920:

July came on with that breathless, brilliant heat which makes the plains of Kansas and Nebraska the best corn country in the world. It seemed as if we could hear the corn growing in the night; under the stars one caught a faint crackling in the dewy, heavy-odored cornfields where the feathered stalks stood so juicy and green. If all the great plain from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains had been under glass, and the heat regulated by a thermometer, it could not have been better for the yellow tassels that were ripening and fertilizing the silk day by day. The cornfields were far apart in those times, with miles of wild grazing land between. It took a clear, meditative eye like my grandfather's to foresee that they would enlarge and multiply until they would be, not the Shimerdas' cornfields, or Mr. Bushy's, but the world's cornfields; that their yield would be one of the great economic facts, like the wheat crop of Russia, which underlie all the activities of men, in peace or war.

Little did Cather know how far this prophesy would come nearly 100 years later. Enlarge and multiply they did, swallowing up so many farmhouses now left empty and weathered, drinking down the aquifer, stripping away the topsoil, and poisoning the groundwater in the process. Yes, give me the dry and barren (or the mountainous, or the naturally verdant, &c.) over the irrigated and industrialized. In Israel, one plant has it figured out.

My Week #12 (July 6-12)

My Week #12 (July 6-12) from nocoastfilms on Vimeo.

Niobrara Trip

Annals of Grammar: Focussing

I have always been keen on The New Yorker's preferred spelling of "focussing," and I'm pleased to discover that BikeSnobNYC is, too.

My Week #11 (June 29 - July 5)

My Week #11 (June 29 - July 5) from nocoastfilms on Vimeo.

Train travel, plane travel, car travel, Colorado, rocks, clouds, carp sexuality, and fireworks.

Late Night Greens

Whilst prepping & packing for Colorado (4:30 AM departure from Lincoln with Ms. Reddy to meet Ms. Hepburn in Ft. Collins), I made some killer garlic scape pesto with scapes from my neighbor Rich's yard. I used pistachios as the nut of choice, and pecorino romano & parmesan to cheese it up.


Bread from Le Quartier complimented nicely.


I put off the packing for too long, and once I finished that, I needed some more fortification. Late night rainbow chard from the farm!

Gina's Birthday

When we met up for a celebratory drink on Gina's birthday yesterday, I'd forgotten my camera at home. However, today's visit provided a much better photo opportunity anyway, as Chiot and Gina came to show off her new gift from Cass.


Bike trailer fun! Look at those Kovanda ladies go!

Rumbletime, Bitch!?!

Annals of Cooking: Peas!

I had both snow peas and regular snap peas from the farm, so I flash-fried them with some garlic scapes from my neighbor Rich, and added some soba noodles and sesame oil to round it out.

The best thing right now is that when I take out the compost, the black raspberries that grow right by the compost pile are really ripe. Nice dessert!