Absence makes the heart grow...fonder?

Hello all. I'd like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly apologize for my lengthy haitus from updating the Completely Spectacular Thirty Spokes Megablog. A busy Easter week, coupled with the tragic crash of my main hard drive and the resultant cursing and wringing of hands, started the non-blogging ball rolling. Since getting my computer back from the Best Buy service department, I've discovered that a rich, untapped multitude of lame excuses for not posting could be easily unearthed from the murky depths of my lazy slacker heart. Allergies, housework, spending time with baby Tenzin, work barbecues, helping dad-in-law Sal with re-roofing, etc etc etc blah blah blah. Of course, nobody cares. Because we all live busy lives, right?

So a month of not blogging comes and goes without a fancy monument or even the slightest concern of the blogosphere-at-large. C'mon, does anyone even know this thing exists? Outside of the handful of my brave best friends and patient family members, who log in once a week to see if Shawn has finally conquered his lifelong procrastination? Of course not.

But tonight I decided to call bullshit on myself. I was able to work all day, come home, eat dinner, and then mow the 75 shaggy and homely acres of our front yard (and not with any of these fancy riding mowers that all of my neighbors use, mind you) and I decided that a day filled with such triumphs could only be capped by adding tags and descriptions to a hundred new Flickr photos and then a short but thoroughly awesome and relevant blogpost. I got about halfway through the phototagging but I still made it here. Why? Because I care. That, and my ego absolutely requires its narcissistic expression on a regular basis or it will shrivel and die like the neglected spider plant on my bookshelf.

So welcome back, I guess, and thanks for dropping by. I will surely try to make it worth your while to stop by Thirty Spokes occasionally in your restless search for geek-sustenance. How? I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that gushing posts about the unbearable cuteness of my kitty cats are as good a place to start as any. Feel free to leave comments here or drop me a line at dharmapunk 71 at hotmail dot com. Rock on, kids. It can only get better from here.

Turntable love!

Theodore, applying some finesse
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

Yep, some new Flickr photos: these are from a recent DJ show that my friend John and I attended in...Park City? Yes, turntablism reigned supreme for one night only in the midst of this snowy upscale tourist hell, the unholy home of the Sundance Film Festival and the freakish backdrop for never-ending daily acts of pure, unbridled consumerist lust. Needless to say, it was a real trip.

Included are pics of DJs Rob Swift, QBert, and the inventor of the scratch, Grand Wizard Theodore. For further edification and edu-ma-cation, check out this sweeeeeet YouTube vid of Qbert in action at his home studio. OMFG, baby!

You can check out more Qbert video action here. Prepare to have your mind completely and totally blown.

Joy

Joy
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

Oh yeah. New photos at my Flickr page.

These are some black and white punk pics from fIREHOSE and Fugazi shows in the spring of 1993, including this rad shot of Mike Watt, bassist extraordinaire. For more info about the man and his bands, you can stop by Wikipedia or check out his website, the mighty Hootpage.

New photos!

The Missing Windowpane
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

Hey, folks, I just posted some new shots at my Flickr page. Drop by and check 'em out while they're still hot! And leave a comment while you're there, ok? Thanks.

Absence...

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that some new posts are coming to this blog very soon. Seriously. I mean it. I know it's been kinda empty lately, but I've actually been busy! I skipped work last Thursday and Friday and hung out on the campus of Utah State University in Logan, attending multiple events at a symposium on the Beat Generation. I have a ton of notes to go through so I can write up a post about the experience, and I also have a bunch of photos to edit and post on Flickr.

Then, after work on Saturday, Lisa and Tenzin and I drove out in the country around Richmond to take some pictures: Lisa had her fancy-awesome Canon camcorder, and I had my trusty Kodak C330. We took multiple shots of the same subjects, in part to learn about the capabilities of each camera, and to also compare our picture-taking styles. She recently opened a Pro Flickr account, and has been uploading scads of photos. You can check it out here. She tends to post solid, straightforward documentation of friends, family, and place while I seem to keep posting the indulgent artsy-fartsy shots.

So, please come back over the next couple of days. There will be some new content (spellbinding as always, of course) and I hope you help to make it better by leaving a comment. You can also post comments on individual photos on Flickr, so drop us a line.

Thanks for stopping by,
Shawn

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...