Sunday, May 25, 2008

Three Speed Gallery

Just added a new link to the "Elsewhere" section: http://threespeedgallery.blogspot.com/

Jim Thill at planetary-gears started this one "as an antidote to fixed gear gallery". I like the sound of that! ;)

Monday, May 19, 2008

re-Cycles media coverage

In last Thursday's Ottawa Citizen the bike co-op was featured in a story titled "Five great places for a bike tune-up". The online edition only shows one photo, but the print version had all five shops across the top of the page, with re-Cycles featured first! There are a few inaccuracies - in our case our overhauled bikes do not range from $25 to $75 (our As Is bikes are in that range, while overhauled ones start at $100), but at least they didn't get our address wrong as they did for McCrank's!

And while it's nice to get the press attention, I was uncomfortable with the photo shoot. They want a photo of one person, since the photos would be small, and of course the want the "guy in charge". Easy to do with the other shops, but since ours is run as a collective I get a little uneasy when I'm singled out. Sure, I'm the Director and at times that will mean being viewed as a figurehead, but re-Cycles only works because of everyone involved.

Friday, May 16, 2008

drum trikes!

Some of my friends call my cargo trike "drum trike", since it was built mainly to move my drums around. I have a recurring fantasy to create an actual drumtrike; that is, a trike and drums combined. Using my friend Richard's BMX trike I did sort of create one for a day...

...to accompany the Grasshoppas during the 2006 Canada Dance Festival, but will create my own some day.

But in the meantime others seem to have beaten me to it...

(No further info on this beast)


Back at the Met.

No, not the famous Opera House, but the restaurant at Rideau and Sussex. We've just begun our third season of gigs on the plaza there, playing straight-ahead jazz for the Sunday Brunch crowd from 11am - 2pm, and "Swingin' 60's acid jazz" on Thursdays from 5pm - 8pm. And while we perhaps sound best to the crowd on the patio (because we face them) you can still enjoy the music by simply sitting on the plaza's perimeter.

And yes, I continue to use my cargo trike to get to these gigs.

(Previously blogged here and here.)

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Hop to it

The Grasshoppas wanted to celebrate International Dance Day. So the call went out and we teamed up with students from Sylvie Desrosiers' modern dance program for some noon-hour fun. I was the only accompanist, which was fine, though it was a bit hard to both take photos and keep the music going!

More at the Grasshoppa website.



A smaller group did a Hop back during Winterlude on the canal.

Cheap therapy

Ever felt the urge to smack someone? (Well, that's rather violent, and I'd never go through with it myself).

Ok, ever felt like like hitting something with a stick (wait a minute, that's called "drumming"...).

Ok then... Have you ever needed to just get some frustration out? Well, here's the Net version of the old adage "therapy is expensive, while popping bubble wrap is cheap":

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

And make sure your speakers are on when you click "fresh sheet".