The season for late night bike rides is upon us. Tonight was the first ride I joined for pedalpalooza 2009 – the midnight mystery ride. The idea is that all cyclists meet up at a location before the ride (at midnight) which then leaves to the secret location. Only a few people leading the group know where it will end up. It’s a great event – riders of all backgrounds and bikes of all types. There were bikes covered in lighting, there were bike sidecars, there were bike boomboxes, there was even a bike grill (propane tank included). A wholly amicable group where socializing is easy and definitely encouraged. Pictured here is a tall bike covered in EL wire that was sound-responsive. Pretty neat.

I did done just cut my hair. I’m getting good at cutting a nice tight pomp these days.

Today marks the one year anniversary of my photoblog. It makes me really happy to have made it to this point. Despite having missed some days, it’s very rewarding to be able to look back at the variety of photos from the previous year. Its been pulling double duty by allowing me to explore photography as a hobby and serving a higher purpose by allowing me to keep a journal of all the things that I do. I look forward to using this past year as a great lesson to make this next year even better. Here is the cake I bought for the occassion.

There are these flowers all around Portland right now that are in bloom that are the most vivid fushcia color one could imagine. I was sad last year when I was unable to capture a picture of this enormous bush across the street when the colors were at peak intensity. Alas, I missed my opportunity again this year. I put a green monochrome filter on these ordinarly vivid flowers and produced this result, kind of a happy accident. They look like they’re made of oil, or something.

Well. Hmm. Our flight was pushed back then flat out cancelled yesterday. Cubanana (the airline) put everyone up in this strange, soviet feeling hotel where you MUST HAVE FUN. There wasn’t really much to do except watch TV which was nice because we finally came across information telling us what this swine flu hysteria was all about. So, between that and waiting for meals, we ventured across the road to a very pretty church to kill some time. On the way we came across these Cuban elephants. (Photo courtesy of Katie)

Perhaps the most stark difference between the U.S. and Cuba was the lack of any sort of commercialism, the most notable of all being advertisements. Spaces traditionally reserved for ads from L’oreal, Budwiser or Comcast were instead replaced by propaganda courtesy of the  Cuban government. It wasn’t until the last day that I realized that I hadn’t been taking photos of any of it, so the drive to the airport became a frantic rush to capture what we could. You get used to seeing revolutionary jingoism and iconography so frequently that at a certain point you just grow blind to it, much like advertisements here in the state. Although it was questionable how much the revolution and its heroes needed to be celebrated, at this point it was nice to see the public landscape clear of noisy, sexist, and unrealistic mass market imagery.

Sadly, our last day in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We played it pretty easy this morning since our bus was at noon. Woke up and had some food, wandered around the shops in search of various trinkets and gifts for friends back home. We stopped in this shop that specialized in day of the dead merchandise. One of the few shops that wasn’t completely selling dumb tourist junk. As Katie was checking out here, we realized we had about 7 minutes before our bus split and that our bags were in our hotel on the other side of town. I took off running to our hotel to go get our gear. I imagine it must have looked pretty funny seeing this pale dude running barefoot through the city streets with two hiking packs. We did make it in time, fortunately, though I developed blisters on the pads of both of my feet. Gotta have at least one experience like that on vacation, right?

I’ve got a big fetish for watches. I’ve been coveting skeleton watches for a while and finally found one that suited my fancy. It’s neat to watch the gears tick tick tick.

Bruxing was in the studio bright and early this morning. Justin has some friends who do some very excellent recordings from their home and offered for us to make use of their facilities for a good price. One of the better aspects of recording today was that we laid down our tracks onto 1" tape , courtesy of this fascinating (and enormous) Ampex tape machine. It was a behemoth, stood nearly five and a half feet tall. Less than exciting was the case of jitters that Justin and I both contracted. Pictured above is the source of Justin’s magical sounds.

This is Ernesto. He’s a two speed lowrider cruiser that decided to become my friend. I bought this bike on a whim up the street from where I live. Handmade custom bike for $100? Can’t pass that up. The best part is the handlbars which are about 2 feet long. Cruisers are the new fixies.

Just one of those objects in our daily lives that we rarely stop and notice.

There was an unsuccessful adventure to Bagby hot springs. In retrospect, it seemed like the forces were out against us that day. Bad traffic on the way out, late start, queesy stomaches from breakfast and snowy roads. Her car got stuck in the snow on the last leg of the road up there, which was about 5 miles out and turned out to be too formidable to pass. We retreated to this place called the Safari Club, which Katie had been to before. Combine a dive bar with rather trashy patrons and natural history museum and you’ve got Safari Club. Immediately upon entering, you’re greeted by a polar bear standing on his hind legs in a display case. Add to this two tigers fighting, cougars, panthers, african lions, gazelles and deer all propped up in glass showcases all throughout the bar. Too much to describe in a single post. Pictured here is the deer being pounced by a mountain lion.21

Quick to make their getaway, they raced through the sidestreets of southeast PDX and careened the classic convertible into an open garage. Quick to cover their tracks from the sharp eye and long arm of the law, they threw what debris they could find around their getaway car, dusting it with a bag of sawdust hoping no one would take notice. Maybe, maybe not.

This is the one of the first few pictures that I took with my brand new DSLR – a refurbed Canon 40D. I’ve got to say I’m a big fan thus far. Just the way the body feels in the hand is much more comfortable than the XT that I was shooting with. Today I plagued Ellie taking some photos of her while she was painting. We made plans to hang out today and have crafty/hobby time – where we could hang out without spending any money and both work on some things we’ve been meaning to work on. I’d have been working on my watercolor painting but I forgot my ink at home.

I sold my Canon XT earlier this week so I’ve been hard pressed to keep up on photos because I’m not particularly fond of this other samsung point and shoot. It does alright in very bright situations like this scene from Mt.Hood ski bowl above. Many of my friends decided to rent a cabin for the weekend and partake in some skiing and snowboarding, some drinking and some eating. Katie and I got off to a late start and made our way across the street (how nice, right?) to ski bowl. It was very warm and sunny, probably pushing 50 degrees. Snowboarding conditions were less than ideal but it was fun regardless.