Saturday cool
By Anna | January 30, 2010 | No Comments
T-Rex? HELL NO. This is New Mexico, we have the THE DESTROYER.
swingset
By Kervin | January 29, 2010 | No Comments
glass eye, glass bottle–
neither admits a decent vantage point.
pain as part of process–
neither plays accordingly.
tilt a camera, twist your head–
you were star for a second.
This is why we can’t have nice things; Episode 1
By Anna | January 26, 2010 | No Comments
9:26 am. I am awoken by the excruciating urge to vomit all over my comforter and the snoring punk next to me. I clamber off the bed, stub my toe on the pile of detritus blocking the doorway and vomit instead in the bathroom where it belongs. Some time later, I emerge, not quite recovered and stumble still drunk into the living room to survey the damage. Kevin is passed out on the couch, his body completely covered in a riotously colored blanket that makes my head hurt to look at. I toddle to the coffee table and with addled dismay, peel the last survivors of my favorite deck of cards out of their sticky grave of beer and cigarette ash. What the-?
I wander to the kitchen with the thought of making tea, only to find that there’s no milk. I smoke a cigarette instead. Jack’s still asleep on my bed, and with good reason. He drank half a bottle of tequila and ran from the cops. oh yeah, now it’s all coming back to me. horse races, screaming at the top of our lungs, rescuing our wayward friend from the clutches of the apd, beer for miles and too many cigarettes. falling asleep on top of each other on the couch, david gently extracting my beer from my limp fingers and snapping one last photo.
with deep resignation, i take the coffee table, my mother’s antique coffee table, out to the porch and spritz it with simple green and begin scrubbing. we have officially lost coffee table privileges. I swap out the abused hunk of oak for the steamer trunk and smoke another cigarette.
this is why we can’t have nice things.
something magical for a mundane tuesday morning
By Kervin | January 26, 2010 | No Comments
Wu Tang is oft fucked wit
Tom Caruana is up to clever, clever things. Gauging by the first four tracks, he invested a hell of a lot of time into this project. Click the photo to [get "pointed in the direction" (read: so we're not liable) of a] download.
So there.
By Anna | January 26, 2010 | No Comments
For those of you (you know who you are Paul Glover) who insist on constantly nagging me about things like “intent” when I ask you to look at my work, I’d just like to share with you that someone got there a long time ago. And while finding someone that does the exact same thing as you isn’t necessarily a good thing for an artist, this dude’s been dead a long time and I’m not dead. And it establishes precedent. And exempts me from having or needing to explain myself, which I typically refuse to do anyway.
Be prepared to lose a good three hours looking at this book. Don’t be a sissy and wait it out. It’s 400 pages of awesome.
Also, read up on the dude. Ernst Haeckel had an epic beard.
Just a little taste…
By Anna | January 24, 2010 | No Comments
The BikeCult zine is well on its way, many thanks to everyone who contributed! Each issue will feature a letter from a different editor, in which they can get on their soapbox about any cycling issue they’d like to discuss. I wrote the letter for the first issue, and it outlines our philosophy and mission for the collective, and I’ve posted it below to give you a little sample of what awaits you in February with the zine launch!
I’ve been riding bicycles in Albuquerque for just over three years now. In that time, I’ve met some of the most amazing people this city will ever know, forged important relationships with influential people in the community and come to learn a lot about myself, the cycling scene and life in general. It wasn’t always like that for me, though. I think I had it pretty easy in assimilating into the scene; I seem to have met the right people at the right time, but I had to work for it. Looking at the scene from the inside, though, I’ve been struck by some of its more unappetizing faults. People, myself and my cohorts included, have complained that the cycling scene in Albuquerque has a certain exclusivity to those that aren’t necessarily “in” it. I think there’s a lot of intimidation felt by aspiring cyclists (I use that term to collectively reference anyone who rides any kind of bike) when they look at the scene. We’re a bit of tight-knit band, especially given the small geographical and social size of the community; we all know or know of one another, more or less. Add to that the exclusivity of the fixed-gear scene in general (which, for this city at least, seems to be one of the more visible aspects of cycling culture), and I can understand how people might feel like riding a bike in Albuquerque is inaccessible.
As a collective, Bike Cult proposes a renovation of the cycling scene as a whole, with an emphasis on encouraging more young riders to take up cycling. We’re extremely opposed to the in/out notion of cycling that has become so prevalent in this city. Even within the scene, there are marked divisions between different types of riders, and even discrimination. Fixed-gear riders tend to stick together, and even being one, I’ve felt excluded. It’s disheartening for anyone to want to build a bicycle of their own, only to be scoffed out of shops for the quality (or price tag) of their components. Commuters don’t want to hang with road bikers, fixie kids don’t want to hang with commuters, ad infinitum. Even Critical Mass, an expression of solidarity with the entire cycling community against discrimination by motorists, has lost steam in Albuquerque.
I think the problem lies in an ignorance of (or refusal to recognize) our common ground. People who ride bicycles have so much in common. Whether you ride for sport, personal fitness, transportation or just for fun, we all share the same problems and opportunities. In a city so focused on car traffic, cyclists have to stick together to carve out a place for ourselves on the streets. Bike Cult believes that exclusivity has no place in cycling, and to that end our collective is completely all inclusive. All riders of all levels on all types of bicycles are welcome to participate in the collective and the events we sponsor. Bike Cult is an open, democratic organization, with no membership rules other than an adherence to the collective’s all inclusive philosophy. We welcome and encourage input and participation. If we are to build a better cycling scene in Albuquerque, we need your help. So come ride with us, write for the zine, organize events, spread the word!
As always, ride safe,
Anna Reser
Editor,
BikeCult, theohshithandle.com
BikeCult meeting tonight!
By Anna | January 23, 2010 | No Comments
BikeCult is meeting up tonight to finalize content for the first issue of the zine. We’ll be at the Satellite Coffee on Harvard at 8pm. Come out to contribute, or just to hang out and drink coffee! All are welcome.
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