Beer of the Week

Whatever your tipple, it doesn’t really matter when you’re drinking it from the sweet Velominati Sacred Chalice!

Tastes even better while wearing a Velominati T-shirt, after a ride in the most-pro of kits.  Check it all out and buy it here!

Gigantic

When the Pixies played in Auckland in March this year, it was for me the culmination of a twenty year wait to witness one of my all-time favourite bands.  I’d missed them in Australia in 2007, when I moved to NZ.  That was hard to take, and resulted in a week of depression, remorse and disappointment, to say the least.  Auckland would be a defining moment in my musical fandom.

Or so I hoped.  

It’s just a ride…

Most of the jokes I was well-versed in.    The outline of his life and death is well defined in my mind.  But there is so much more revealed in American: The Bill Hicks Story than I ever imagined.

This is a brilliant film.  As Bill’s life was tragically all-too-brief, the lack of video footage was apparent as the producers utilised clever montaging of still photography to paint an almost abstract picture of the life of the greatest comedian ever.

Looking around the packed Paramount Theatre (damn I love old, stately theatres like this) I wondered how many were already disciples, and who were being initiated into his complex world.  I know of one person who fell into the latter camp, and when she stated “I’m converted” as the credits rolled and the applause broke out, the legacy of Bill had reached at least one, and probably dozens more in this space and time.

If you get the chance (and they will be limited until a DVD release I think) go and see this film.  And even if you aren’t converted, you will be entertained.  RIP Bill.

*More video here*

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park.  And when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are.  And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud and it’s fun, for a while.  Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question:  “Is this real, or is this just a ride?”  And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, “Hey, don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.”  And we kill those people.”

Afterthought

Afterthoughts rule my life.  I should’ve tied that down.  I shouldn’t have had that extra one.  I wish I’d said that.  I wish I hadn’t said that.  I wonder if that was what they were laughing at?

I should’ve taken more photos on my trip back to Aussie.  Yep.  Or at least some of my family and all the other friends I caught up with in the fastest two weeks I’ve ever experienced.  Well, at least in the last two weeks.  Now I’m back in the Isles, and the predominant afterthought is I should’ve taken more time off, I should’ve seen more friends and I should’ve taken more photos. Where the hell does the time go?

So here is a small selection of cats, dogs, people who ride in thongs (Jandals for the Kiwis), people who crash in mudholes, people whose leg warmers have minds of their own.

Next time, more time.  More people.  More pics.  Less afterthought.

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Can’t leave 2

                             

It’s not just the dirt.

Why I can’t leave (1)

There are plenty of great things about my adopted city of Wellington.  Sure, it’s windy.  Yep, it rains a bit in winter (that’s what is supposed to happen in winter, yeah?).  But those things just don’t bother me.  It’s just weather.  Everything else about this place cancels out those two minor foibles.  The main reason I feel I can’t leave is the riding.  The mountain biking is just too good to give up.  The trails in this video are my ‘locals’.  The ones I ride more than any others.  Not a bad place to go for a ride.  Check out Caleb’s helmet cam work from Makara Peak  by clicking the photo, and view other Welly trails on SPOKE’s Vimeo channel.