To Be A Superfan

I'm all packed up to head to Iowa City for Jingle Cross. All year, I've been looking forward to this weekend -- the closest really big race and a chance to line up with a bunch of women in a sport I've really come to love.

Well, I won't be lining up. A crash in last weekend's Lincoln CX left me with a fractured thumb and the inability to grip handlebars -- not exactly OK for 'cross racing. This past week has involved a lot of psychological pain and frustration on top of the physical as I've watched the gnarly bruises develop.

So, this weekend, I'm shifting gears. Trying to take inspiration from CVO, Liz and others, I'm transforming into superfan mode. Best of luck to my Sheclismo teammates Sydney, Kat, and Kimberley, to our honorary member Ryan the singlespeedo, and to all the other Nebraska riders taking the course. I wish I were out there with you, but I'll be happy to heckle you or hand you a drink, too.

Weekend in Chicago

Last weekend, I went to Chicago. This is the view from Nate's rooftop. Pretty great, especially after nine hours of driving.


After a late-night party in Pilsen, Nate & I rode to breakfast at Lula in Logan Square. It was incredible.


Having my own bike along made the long drive well worth it. On Saturday afternoon, Nate & I spent some time in Millennium Park, reading & watching the clouds.


We met up with Dave and rode up the Lakeshore. Dave has a pretty sweet looking ride with a tension disc.

Nate did live visuals for the CAVE show Saturday night. Totally beautiful. Not pictured: my lovely dinner with Rob Sand in Iowa City on the way home.

Tri-State Century

Melissa & I headed to the northeast corner of the state to do some camping and biking over the weekend. We staked out a really nice camping spot at Ponca State Park Saturday night. Setting up tents together and leaning our bikes up near them felt like BRAN -- but with far superior camping.

At 9:30 Sunday morning, after a lovely campfire breakfast, we headed west and then north.

First state line crossing of the day, on a bridge over the Missouri River.

No sir, we are not whimps (wimps?), though the headwind at this point was quite strong.

This massive cat clearly owned the city park in Elk Point, SD. He was prowling after small children.

Second state line crossing, from South Dakota into Iowa. There were loads of casinos at this border.

Back to the good life, quickly, due to heavy traffic.

Delicious Thai-Lao food in South Sioux City, NE.

Fueled by dinner and powered by a tailwind for the first time all day, I finally hopped into the big ring for a bit.

Our shadows were getting long as we returned to Ponca at around 7 PM.

Century completed. Thanks, Melissa!

Poets in Denver

After helping Becca move to Ft. Collins, I headed down to Denver to visit Jules & Mathias and D'Count in their new home. This is their dog park.


Not satisfied to be so close to the mountains without venturing up a bit, Jules & I headed up into Rocky Mountain National Park this morning before I came back to the flatlands. This stream had wonderfully cold water to walk in.


Even D'Count tried it out, albeit puppy-hesitantly. Smart puppy! Water is fun! It was his first trip out of the city.

US Mail on the SF-NJ haul. Oh, Nebraskus.

One of the better ones

The trope of photographing oneself every day for a year (or two, or more) and turning it into a stop-motion video is pretty well worn at this point, but the effect is doubtless still cool. This video, however, is by far the most visually interesting of them that I've seen.

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Most of these self-documentarians choose the same plain background, focussing the viewer's attention solely on changes in the facial characteristics of the subject. In this video, however, it is the background that is dynamic -- in addition to the subject's facial hair transformation. Titles in the lower third heighten the piece's storytelling power as well, meriting multiple views to piece things together. Well done.

Niobrara Trip

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!

home

this was the important news i caught while on my ski trip. home now, time to catch up.

From DC to NYC

I left DC yesterday evening, spoiling myself a little with an Amtrak ticket instead of taking the bus. Good decision, especially since I got to spend a little time in Union Station.


When we passed through Baltimore, I looked for Omar and Snoop on the dark streets full of vacants. No dice.

I got to Mathias & Jules's place by 10:15 or so without making a single wrong turn all the way from Penn Station.


I know I'm home here when there's a mammoth in the window. I guess the plants were really huge in the time of mammoths, too.

Flying to DC

Ready to leave

Sunset & planets rising

Blankets

Metro bike commuter

Metro architecture

Travels

I'm off to D.C., NYC, and Philadelphia for 10 days...

More Photos, Secondary Blog

Darin kindly uploaded an album of photos. My camera, defunct, has yet to be replaced.

Also, knitting and other handmade pursuits (other than films) have their digital home on a new collaborative blog, Handmade It, viewable here. Let me know if you want in.

new bike city

Yesterday I biked in San Francisco. Hills conquered, bikes taken on trains, bike hooks hanging in the courtyards of bars, messenger bags aplenty. Very nice.

My Suggestions to the Frugal Traveler

The New York Times has sent its Frugal Traveler on an American Road Trip. Oh, swoon! He's going to be in SD and Nebraska next. Here are my suggestions:

Nebraska! Check out the Art Deco masterpiece that is the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. Beautiful mosaics and light fixtures, allegedly Hitler's choice for his North American headquarters, and lovingly referred to as the Penis of the Plains for its form. (Plus, the tip of this structure features a statue of The Sower, a man sowing seeds across the prairie!)
After touring the capitol, walk over a few blocks to Yia-Yia's Pizza at 14th and "O" Streets for the best selection of beers in the Midwest. You'll also be on the longest main street without a curve (40 some miles, stretching out of town in either direction) and in one of the densest bar strips in the country.
You can also check out the Tractor Test Track and Museum (located on East Campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln), where this Land Grant school takes consumer testing into its own hands. You get to see tractors racing around a banked track, pulling stuff! Plus, there is an excellent collection of tractors throughout the years.
Head west, and hop onto Highway 2 at Grand Island, where you can drive through the beautiful Sandhills, artifacts of a more sea-like past. This is ranch-and-rodeo country, and you'll also be passing through a few of the country's poorest counties. Gives you something to think about. Eat some locally grown steak in Broken Bow. Make it to Alliance for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Carhenge, the ultimate in weird art and roadside attractions. Yes, it's like Stonehenge, but out of old cars. Great at sunset, for all your photo needs.

Updates, Various

I've been up to this and that recently.

Last weekend, I got flown to Detroit to film Bright Eyes in concert. My good friend Joey Lynch is on tour with them doing visuals, and so I got to spend some time with him, too.

One of Joey's screenprints, called Social Studies

Animation with Joey Lynch from nocoastfilms on Vimeo

Some animation I did with Joey a few years back

Another videographer who went along to Detroit -- and who shall be known as the future Mrs.2000 -- is part of the No Coast Derby Girls, and she manages all their taping. Saturday, then, I got back into derby taping, and got the fun job of following jammers. My congratulations especially to Shiv #66 and Sylvia Bullet #45 to a bout well jammed.

Doing these side jobs, I've been feeling really good about my camera work, and I've also been enjoying not being the director of the shoots, and having just a bit of direction to work with in each case. I've been feeling ok about work, when I'm editing or shooting, but have found that I'm really not interested in much beyond that out of my work scene. Also, teaching is looking good for the whole "summers off" bit, though when I mentioned this to my retiring 30+-years-of-teaching mother, she replied, "there's a reason for that."

Grad school or post-bac classes are seeming like a really good idea no matter what for, and I had a nice long talk with Marco at the farmers' market early Saturday morning about sustainability, greenprints, urban/rural planning, and environmental studies while eating pea shoots, local pain de campagne and artisan cheese on a street bench. When I think about the heated discussions I get into, they tend to be more on this bent, therefore making these choices possibly more logical (and certainly more fundable) than film school.

Lots of people are gearing up to move out of town. Hmm.