My djembe

Djembe
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

I just posted some new photos at my Flickr site, including this shot of my drum. You can also see some new pictures of my son Tenzin. Drop by and feel free to leave a comment!

A fellow spirit...

I spent a little time working on my bike this evening. Nothing complicated, just changing tubes and tires, getting ready to go for short jaunts into the frigid air between snowstorms. I'm ready for winter to die already, but living in Northern Utah requires patience and lots of indoor projects during the season. I have plenty, believe me, but I totally need to leave the house and do something out there!

Anyway, after putting everything away and admiring my ride (a 99 Schwinn Homegrown Factory hardtail that I bought from a friend for $350 bucks -- he bought it from the Yeti employee who lovingly built it at their Durango factory during the short time Schwinn was based in Colorado...he even put a vintage oval cruiser head badge on it instead of the ugly "compass" badge) I sat down to check my email. While Googling for some info on the Homegrown, I came across a rad webzine called Legs and Lungs.

Some time ago, its author, Chris Jensen, posted about the evolution of his mountain biking obsession, the increasing overspecialization of the bike world, and the possibility of escaping the madness through purchasing a used Homegrown. A beautiful bike and a well-written post on the capitalistic transformation of a revolutionary culture (riding bicycles) into just another consumer culture (buying bikes.)

From the little I've read so far, Chris is a very right-on fellow. He writes about many of the same things (parenting, aging in the hardcore/punk culture, bikes, activism, vegan/straightedge living, etc.) that I want to write about on this blog, and he seems to have a real knack for self-awareness that I really enjoy. His signifiers are right up my alley: Iceburn, Surly, Born Against, etc.

You should definitely check out his site. It's excellent.

P.S. Holy crap! I just realized that Chris was in Countdown To Putsch, an influential, and by necessity, obscure band that combined DIY political activism (their releases featured very cool companion books and zines) and free jazz aesthetics with their noisy hardcore punk. He also started the Mountain Collective for Independent Artists record label and published Mountain Monthly zine back in the day. This dude has some serious punk cred, and I'm stoked to chance upon his pages. I repeat, you should definitely check out his site.

Video game revisionism!

Yep. Smartass kids can always get me to laugh when almost nothing else works. Take these six youngsters, ages 10 to 13, who are asked to play, and then comment on, a selection of vintage Atari, NES and Genesis videogames by the dudes at gaming site 1up.com.

They play Mike Tyson's Punch Out! (NES, 1987):

Anthony: If Mike Tyson was in this game, his special move would be to bite people's ears. Then he'd be all gloating about it, but then the sound's all low because you can't hear him because your ears are gone. [Points at the next opponent, Von Kaiser] That's Mike Tyson, and he's trying to bite off your ear.

Garret: That's not Mike Tyson. Are you kidding me? Mike Tyson does not have a handlebar moustache, and he's not white.

EGM: [Laughing] So those are the two things that make you think that's not Mike Tyson?

Garret: Yeah, plus this guy's wearing pants.

That's pretty awesome. Check out this bewilderment, documented while playing the 1981 arcade version of Galaga:

EGM: Now imagine you've reached the 10th stage, and you're on your last
life. Once you die and you put another quarter in, you don't just continue from there-you start all over.

Parker: Are you serious?

EGM: Yup. When you lose all your lives, you have to start over. You don't keep going.

Parker: And you guys back then were OK with this?

Priceless! The original Child's Play post had me chuckling for days, way back in 2003. The kids started with the 1975 Sears/Atari home console version of Pong. (Lisa and I own one of these classics; it's currently collecting dust in the barn out behind our house.)

My all time favorite quote?

Tim: My line is so beating the heck out of your stupid line. Fear my pink line. You have no chance. I am the undisputed lord of virtual tennis. [Misses ball] Whoops.

John: Tim, how could you miss that? It was going like 1 m.p.h.

Heh. I do believe there's hope for the future.

(via MetaFilter/image via Threadless)

Sunset/Moonrise

Sunset/Moonrise
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

Another new photo, taken while walking home from Sal and Linda's house. Today was cold and clear, with the temperature inversion of the last few days pushed out by a cold air mass from the north. I only took a couple of photos before I had to put my gloves back on. Brrrr. I'm officially tired of winter.

Two nights ago, I had a full post about mashups finished and ready to publish here when Internet Explo(d)er decided to have a meltdown. Dang! So I typed up some notes from memory and will try to rewrite everything tomorrow for a new post. I also have a couple of other things I'm working on, so hopefully a burst of new posts over the next few days. If you drop by to visit, please leave a comment or an email and let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by...

The golden head

Head of Buddha
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

I happened to capture a pretty decent photo this afternoon. I'm thinking of submitting it to The Buddha Project at LensCulture.com. Anyway, you can wander over and take a look at this and a handful of other shots at my Flickr page.

More pictures are on their way...