give me THE CURE

Two phenomenal covers of The Cure, both filmed in interesting settings.

Erlend Oye of The Kings of Convenience singing "Boys Don't Cry" in the park:



PS22 Choir singing "Pictures of You" at school:

No, wait. This is what I want.

Motorcycles are a huge temptation for me. I avoid them because I don't think they will be as fun as scooters. They're just so much more serious. Yet, in getting older I don't like vintage stuff as much, and I just can't stomach a new scooter. They are just so much different than the old scooters I love.

But motorcycvles haven't really changed. They are still the same size, shape, and whatnot.

This is one I really like: Moto Guzzi V7 Clubman

This is what I want: BMW 2002

I am in love with BMW 2002s. I want one in a bad way, and every day I consider putting the Fun Bus up for sale and getting one of these little charming boxy cars. Particularly, I would like an orange one. I rode in one over the summer, a lovely dark blue 1971 round-taillight model, and I loved it. In the few miles I rode, I got the feeling the car was much lighter and tossable than a comparable Volvo. I loved the aircraft-style seatbelt latches. The seats were perfect vintage car simplicity and cuteness. The small details make it really great. I truly wish cars like this were still made.

Rollfast Sold

On a rainy night in October 2009, I sold my Rollfast. I really liked this bicycle, but I'm more nostalgic for mountain bikes of the 1990s because I'm around that age. I didn't live as far back in the past as this bicycle did, and therefore I can't be nostalgic for it.

FOR SALE: My Vespas

Regretfully, because my life is too too busy, I'm putting my Vespas up for sale. I want to sell them or trade for another scooter. Here are the details:


Silver and Orange Rally 200:
year 1975.
Includes 6V FEMSA electronic ignition.
European specifications: no premix, higher compression head, bigger headlamp.
A previous owner rode this scooter from Seattle to Sturgis and back. While in Sturgis he had the scooter signed by many motorcycle luminaries like Arlen Ness and Mike Corbin.
Includes some Rat fink stickers.
Includes new pieces like a brand new correct Euro taillamp.
Cowls are straight!
Clear Oregon Title. I bought this at a yard sale 3 years ago and have not done anything with it except buy new parts and disassemble it. It is in pieces in my garage in NE Portland. This bike needs and deserves a full restoration. I was quoted $1500 on a full paint job.
Price is $1800 or trade for a Stella, Ruckus, other Vespa, or Lambretta.



1979 Vespa P150.
Upgraded to Electronic Ignition stator.
Stella 150cc Top End.
Runs but will need a tune up.
Clear oregon Title in my name.
BAD: Has bent fork and will need replacing.
$1800 or best offer or trade.

THINGS I WILL TRADE FOR:
Volkswagen Vanagon or Bus
BMW 3 series or 2002.
Stella
Honda Ruckus
Lambretta
Vespa
Citroen

Point / Counterpoint

Miley Cyrus - "Party in the USA" (2009)

Beatles - "Back in the USSR" (1968)

I say "point / counterpoint" but these are such similar songs. Same themes, different countries, different milieus. Pop music still lives.

Golden City

I just came across this: the singer from the greatest emo band from Colorado, Christie Front Drive has a new band:

You can download one of their tracks off of their record label's site. This track has an upbeat feel, but retains the feel of distance that was soaked into all of Christie Front Drive's music. There's a fan-made video for a CFD song on youtube that simply pairs footage of landscape of Colorado shot out a car window with one of their songs. It's completely fitting.

When these singers of older emo bands continue their work they stray into great indie-pop territory, and this song has the pace of a band like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart or Maritime. What was vague emotion becomes more measured and deliberate, and that's not such a bad thing!

http://www.magicbulletrecords.com/bands/goldencity.html

"You're A Jerk" (I know)

"You're the first teacher I've seen who can do the jerk." - Sierra, age 11, August 18, 2009

My Lemond: A Love Story.

I love my Lemond bicycle. It's one of my favorite things. I have been getting a ton of use out of it this summer, which I consider to be the most fun summer since the summer of 2003.


Here is my Lemond frolicking at the beach.


Here is my Lemond at the park, near the swings.

Here is my Lemond on its way through the golf course.

New Bicycles

The other day I got this new bicycle frame as a gift! I had wanted a Peugeot for a long time, and I almost bought a very similar one a few years ago. I intend to build it up as a single-speed porteur.

These old french bicycles have a distinctive long fork rake, which gives it a distinctive French ride, in comparison to newer bicycles such as my Lemond.

Here are two articles on the subject: LINK LINK

specs:
frame : peugeot carbolite 103 steel, lugged ~1981 vintage
crank: stronglight

Also, I have this lovely girlbike in my stable:
specs:
frame: Raleigh step-through, grey ~1970s vintage
drivetrain: Sturmey-Archer 3 Speed, thumb shifter
wheels: 26" with newish tires
fenders: matching body-colored painted
accessories: wald front basket



The girlbike is for sale. $200.

I dream in song;

Last night I dreamed of two songs:

"Red Elephant" by Sunny Day Real Estate. In my dream, the part after 1:06 was blindingly loud.

Stay around
Running out
Time servant
Trip through the warm wind

Feeling
Sulking
My impression grows
Swayed stars part of my room
And you...

You climbed the wreck
Cold diamond heart
Still beating
And no one ever knew the reason why

Well I'd suspect
You would come to terms
With my hand
My eyes reflect your surface very well

Why'd I compromise
Swayed stars and time is slow
The way you restarts again

I'm all talk again
I'm on top of the world
The way you restarts in me too

The night a field and I'll take you there
The years of worry aren't my century

We climbed the wreck
Cold diamond heart
Still beating
And no one ever knew the reason why


"King of the Road" by Piebald. I love the first lines of this song, which inform the listeners what the band members have been occupied with since their last record.

Here is a live performance from their final show:


Andy went back to school. He got sick of Newbury comics
Aaron still rides a lot, except now, now he's just fatter
Alex took over for Alex Van Halen after his major surgery
John, well, he got married to Laura and I teach their kid in first grade

Thought I saw you on the road last night
I need to get my eyes checked
can't beleive I loved something as yellow as you
he's gone, so deal with it, man
wait, after all, you did get us across the world and back

Would you park at the station
my mind is playing tricks on me
can't believe I loved something as yellow as you
he's gone, so deal with it, man
wait, after all, you did get us across the world and back, hell yeah

Loved you in a Carolina
i need to rub my eyes
we keep your door like it's a postcard from you from camp
maybe see you at a junkyard soon
oh man, i really hope not
can't believe I loved something as yellow as you
he's gone, so deal with it, man
wait, after all, you did get us across the world and back

Maybe you're in auto heaven
oh man, i really hope so
can't beleive I loved something as yellow as you
he's gone, so deal with it, man
wait, after all, you did get us across the world and back
wait, after all, you did get us across the world and back, hell yeah

Sarah

Could someone email me the tracks to Sarah Records 83: The Sugargliders:

http://home.clara.net/koogy/sarah/disco/083.htm

I'd love it.

Music Review: That Dog. - Retreat from the Sun (1997)

I have always liked That Dog, ever since I first heard them, but somehow I managed to live my life without owning any of their records. That changed a few months ago when I got "Retreat from the Sun," their last album, now 12 years old.

This record is so great. Basically, it's mid-nineties "alternative" rock but all written from a female bias. This means lots of incredible harmonies from the Haden sisters who are in the band. This means lyrics only women would come up with, like "we'll have wedding rings and baby seats." The lyrics are perfect, not cliched, and give the band its own voice.

To call this album "cutesy" would not do it justice, because it packs a bite. It's actual pop-rock and this record holds its own against other records from their friends Weezer, and even Jawbreaker, who they counted as friends. It's also got the superhits "Minneapolis" and "Long Island." They name-check Low in "Minneapolis", which I truly didn't catch until around the songs's 60th listen.

This album definitely did not do well commercially. I don't think it was popular at all. I think this is because the record label released "Never Say Never" as a single. This song is ok, but "Minneapolis," "Long Island," "Being with you" and "I'm gonna see you" are all way better songs. "Never Say Never" is kind of abrasive in a bad way. The other songs are super-poppy love songs.

Music nerds are always lamenting the end of some imaginary era of music, so I suggest checking out this record for a fresh serving of mid-1990s pop-rock. I really like this album and I listen to it all the time.

Music Review: Brand New - The Devil and God are raging inside me (2006)

I've always liked Brand New. Back in the day I saw them play once in Buffalo and once in Syracuse. I even hung out with them once. One of my friends always told me he was friends with the singer's little brother.

I picked up this record sometime in 2007, which was rare for me, because it was a major label release and I'm a card-carrying indie snob. I had heard them play the song "Jesus" on TV and was really impressed. The song drones in a hypnotizing way, and the guitar parts almost sound like Explosions in the Sky. The vocals are almost stream-of-consiousness styled, but work great because there are more dynamic parts. The song starts off in an almost Pavement-level middle voice but then get into pop-punk territory toward the end. Also, I had loved Deja Entendu, and we played that heavily on WGSU.

This album has some really pretty parts and just some relentlessly heavy and abrasive parts. I love the varied production, which I consider a response to the Audiogalaxy era. The songs contrast each other really well, just like on other great records of the 00 era like "Lifted" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." The songs are sad, but expansive. It's pop-punk but it's experimental and ambitious.

This record has staying power. I'm very excited to hear the follow up.

VW: Pointless Love

In May 2009, as a reward for serving me so well as a daily driver, I bought my VW a new ignition system. I purchased the Crane XR-700 Fireball ignition. Basically, this replaces points and condenser with an optical sensor that triggers an electronic computer that makes the spark happen. This is simpler and better because it uses fewer moving parts.

In the last year the points failed a few times; once camping, and twice on my way home at night. I had to get the van towed. Hopefully the VW will be more reliable now. For the time being, I have abandoned the idea of trading it for a BMW.

For more information on this system, click here.

[Where the VW is always hypothetically always parked: the corner of hate and failing. photo by me circa march 2009]

Now that summer's here...

Perhaps the greatest pop-rock song of all time:
"Girl From Mars" by Ash



I love Ash so much.

Soundtrack for Students' Dream Opera

1. "The Chicken Dance" Tiny Tim
2. "Beat It" Michael Jackson
3. "Awake on a Train" Múm

Running Time: 16:18

a few songs i like right now:

"being with you" that dog
"young adult friction" the pains of being pure at heart
"re:stacks" bon iver

I woke you up to say goodbye.

The Lucksmiths, my favorite band that's still together, have decided to break up. I've seen them play four times, and the last time I saw them, when they closed with "The Year of Driving Langourously" I knew I might never see them again.

Also, Motopizza, home of the $5 pizza on 82nd in Portland, has closed.

I'm not sure how I can carry on.

Here are the lyrics to "the year of driving langourously:"

Darling roll the window down
I can't breathe
And I want to feel the northerly down my sleeve
I love a sunburnt elbow pointing to the sea

And, darling, can't you find us something on the radio?
A song to pass the time
Sweet and slow
Conversation was forsaken long ago

It's getting worse
You've hardly said a word
Since you set eyes on the horizon
But I've seen the other side of that ocean there
And it can't compare

Has it really been a year?
How did those days just disappear?

We held our breath across each bridge
Til we were blue
But I wonder if I wished the same as you
Like a ten-year-old pretending
Summer isn't really ending

It's getting worse
You've hardly said a word
Since you set eyes on the horizon
But I've seen the other side of that ocean there
And it can't compare to this
So I'll steal another kiss
Before the sun goes down on this fibrotown
And we give chase
Like all those other days
I suppose it's no surprise
We drive, time flies

Has it really been a year?
Where the hell do we go from here?

Car of the Month: DEFENDER NINETY

Today I saw a tan Defender 90 on the street. It had no roof, padded rollbars, and four dudes living their lives riding in it. I was very jealous, and thus this month's Car of the Month is the Land Rover Defender 90. Pictured above is one of the same color of my VW Bus.

I've been spending a lot of time lately riding around in a Chevy Silverado, which just makes me love trucks. Of course, most my main ride is a 1971 VW Bus, which I consider more of a truck itself. I love the big roof rack I recently acquired for my VW Bus, and roof racks are a standard Land Rover tradition. I am a sucker for long lived industrial designs, and the Land Rover Defender (as it was finally named in the 1990s) is mostly the same as the original Land Rover designed in 1948.

I would love to drive one sometime. I love that they're all boxy. I love that all the lights are round. I love that they were designed to be completely disassembled and put together using only hand tools. I love the vents that open under the windshield and that the door hinges are on the outside.

The Defender 90 was imported in small batches to the United States in 1994 and 1995. They still sell for well over $20,000 on the used market, unlike its sibling the Land Rover Discovery, which can be had for less than a nice Vespa. There are a few of them here in Portland and I upon seeing one I always shout "THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE LAND ROVER EMPIRE!"

I'll go mainstream without kicking nor screaming.

I played a show on Friday May 1, 2009 and this is what I played:

Intellectual Sweetie (the tennies, my old band, cover)
Syncronised Sinking (the Lucksmiths cover)
Do you love coffee? (braid cover)
Clover (newish song)
Kiss Me Thru The Phone (Soldja Boy cover, abandoned quite soonish)
Frost (newish song)


I love this song by Soulja Boy.

The Story of My Honda Elite 50.

Like many people who are so deep in something that they forget just where it started, I have to remind myself exactly how I first started riding scooters. After working in the summer of 2002 at my dad's warehouse, I became the first kid in my college town to have a scooter. I bought a 50cc Honda Elite from Christman's Honda in Palantine Bridge, New York. It cost me $460 out the door, and I also bought a white 3/4 helmet.

I rode it home pretty scared of it, being my first time on the road. I didn't tell my mom I was buying a scooter, but my dad brought me there to pick it up. It was so light to ride - much lighter and smaller than the Vespa that replaced it. It accelerated quickly and was really nice to ride, especially through the rural areas where I lived.

It was a 1987 model, which was kind of a one-year-only type of deal for Elites. It had electric start, a broken odometer, and a plastic top case trunk. I think I had one new tire on the back, but I think both were that old-fashioned type of tread, not the nice style ones that we have now that offer a really smooth ride. Like all Hondas, the suspension was really soft, but since I had nothing to compare it to, it was great. It always started and never broke down. I didn't do any maintenance on it ever.

I brought it with me to Geneseo in the fall and locked it to a tree outside with a big cable lock. The first night I was there some drunk girls were sitting on it, and in the morning it was all knocked over. Its cover was strewn about 10 feet away. I was really upset about it, and got up early to take it to Dunkin Donuts. I added a few stickers to the trunk - Lookout Records, and one that said "R2 is my Co-Pilot."

The campus people gave me tons of trouble for having it on campus and not paying for a parking permit, so in a few weeks I had to move it to a bike storage that Mahoney told me about over by his apartments. Luckily, no one ever bothered it there, except for one day I came back and it had its trunk filled with leaves. I was really upset about this until a few months later when my roommate Greg eventually confessed to it.

In the summer of 2003, I stayed in Geneseo, living off campus. I kept it in a weird closet under the steps to the above apartment at our cheapest-in-town duplex. I found out about mail-order performance parts and got a Proma brand expansion chamber and some Malossi variator weights from a site called VT Cycles in Hawaii. I brought the bike to a Moto Guzzi shop in Avon for them to fix it. They called me halfway through the operation and said "Hey we found this weird part - do you want this back in?" I said "No! That's the restrictor! Leave that out!" Riding it back from that shop, I was scared because it was going so fast! It now did 45 MPH in the flats!

Different people had different nicknames for the scooter, my favorites being "T-REX" and "The Red Menace." I rode all over on that thing, including numerous 50+ mile sojourns from Geneseo to Rochester and back. The first one of such trips was a wednesday night when I met up with the Negative Image Scooter Club and rode with them. That was also the first time I ever passed a car on a scooter, even though I was at the back of their pack. We rode in a pack to Mendon Ponds State Park, where it started to rain and we broke up. I overshot and missed a few turns on the way home and I think I ended up in Hemlock at one point.

After that I rode to Conesus Lake a bunch of times. I rode in the cold but did put it in storage in my uncle's basement for the winters. I rode with people on the back even though it was never designed for that. Pretty much all my friends rode on the back of it at some point or other. Geneseo never really had any place to go, so mostly I just went to Dunkin Donuts or Wegmans, or just rode around in the countryside outside of town. I never rode the scooter to go to class or anything. Geneseo was just too small for that.

The scooter had its only break toward superstardom when it was featured in my friend Dhaval's short film "Catharsis." The film also featured my band, The Castawaves. The film really combined those two major forces in my life. I had brought back a drum kit in the fall of 2002 and started the band. I had the idea to make a music video for a Castawaves song involving me riding around on the Honda randomly giving out flowers to girls, but we never filmed it.

I can't remember exactly when I sold it, but I think it might have been just right when I came back from England; probably January 2004. I sold it to a friend of a friend in Rochester, who never registered it, and who had it stolen and impounded. Dan took me to get it out of impound, but by the time I heard of this the cost to get it out was $330 and it reportedly had a lot of damage to the front end, so we had to walk away.

I took the money from the sale of the scooter and put it toward my white Vespa. The Honda was one of the best purchases I ever made.

A few songs I love, right now.

Pretty much any time Christianity and alcoholism are mixed in a song, it's a winning combination. That is why I like this song by The Hold Steady entitled "212-MARGARITA."



This is my current favorite for listening while driving the VW. "Ghost Town" by The Specials. Please, if anyone would like to buy me a gift, purchase me the "Ghost Town" shirt from Supreme.




I found this video a few weeks ago (and by a few weeks ago I mean Valentine's Day). It puts original footage of Busby Berkeley's shows with the great Magnetic Fields song.

PHISH REUNION

I've been listening to Phish all weekend, and found this, which made me giggle a lot.

Cold Weather Challenge

Today's scooter ride home qualifies for the 2strokebuzz.com Cold Weather Challenge.

Name: Michael Morrissey
Temperature: 28°F
Distance: 10.3 miles
Location: Portland Oregon
Date: January 26, 2009
Time: 6:30 PM to 7:40 PM
Scooter: 1979 Vespa P150

Your CWC story: I was getting kind of bored with my breadloaf bus, so today I rode the rickety yet trusty old Vespa to work. I wasn’t even thinking it would be cold, but this evening was really chilly. I work in deep SE portland, and live in NE Portland. I went about 4 and a half miles out of my way on the ride home to run in and get some hippy food at New Seasons at 33rd and Alberta. There was ice and some snow outside still. I saw a red motorcycle at one point also riding, which made me happy. The food was worth the extra distance traveled on the old putt putt.

Route: Deep SE, up 82nd to Fremont, New Seasons at Alberta and 33rd. Back out Killingsworth to my house in NE.

Giorgio Bettinelli

This is the Wikipedia entry for Giorgio Bettinelli, as translated from Italian via Altavista Babelfish:

Giorgio Bettinelli
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Bettinelli

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George Bettinelli (Cream, 15 May 1955 - China, 16 september 2008) has been a journalist, writer and Italian traveller. Graduated in letters near the university of Rome, it is famous for its long four completed travels to edge of a Vespa. In fact during its permanence in Indonesia, like payment of a series of debits, he comes to it given a Vespa of which he falls in love himself immediately.

Its first travel leaves from Mentana, dov'era resident, in province of Rome, 1992 with Saigon destination, where it will arrive nine months after - March 1993 - having covered 24,000 kilometers. According to part from Anchorage in order to arrive to the Earth of the hard Fire and from 1994 to 1995 along a distance of 36.000 kilometers. The third party joins Melbourne to Capetown, for a total of 52.000 km covered between 1995 and 1996. The last quarter and, called Worldwide Odyssey, is a real turn of the world, hard more than three years, from the October of 1997 to the May of 2001: the departure place is the Earth of the Fire and that one of arrival is the Tasmania. It covers 144,000 km passing for Alaska, the Siberia, entering in Africa through the strait of Gibilterra, and costeggiandola all till Gibuti passing an other time for Capetown, in order then to costeggiare all southern Asia from the Yemen to Indonesia, till the arrival in the last continent, Australia, and to the final destination, the Tasmania. During this last travel George Bettinelli it has been also kidnapped from a group of guerrillas in the Congo, in order then to be released after little time, derubato of all but with the life it saves. By now the expert pilot-traveller has decided not to stop itself, and therefore has carried out an other travel in the only great country from up to now not covered he: the China (where then it has been moved and married), to which the escape of its last book is continuation China in Vespa.

George Bettinelli is died in China, 16 september 2008, to the age of 53 years for an unexpected malore. There he lived from four years, on the rivers of the Mekong, with its Yapei wife. He was preparing an other book, this time on Tibet.

Bibliography [modification]

* In Vespa. From Rome to Saigon (Feltrinelli 1997), that it narrates the first travel
* In Vespa beyond the horizon (- Rusconi- 2002), 400 photos intensely lived during the 110,000 km of its first three travels
* Brum Brum. 254,000 kilometers in Vespa (Feltrinelli 2002): the others travels till the rapimento in the Congo
* Rhapsody In Black. In Vespa from Angola to the Yemen (Feltrinelli 2005)
* China in Vespa