Fair Warnings

If you're wondering why I still haven't launched the Kickstarter page, well I'll show you.



Yesterday my brother, Steve (of AllBright Skateboards fame) was hit by a car on his way to work in Boston. He was on his bike and thought he had a clear intersection. Turns out he didn't. So anyway, I've been in Boston for the last 2 days chilling with him at the hospital. I'd write more/work on getting the video up now, but I'm tired as hell. If you're curious, he's ok, just a broken Tibia and Fibula, thankfully. I know that's not, not a big deal, but it could have been a lot worse. He's a fucking machine.

BE CAREFUL!

Updaterade

So, I've been working on a short intro video for the Kickstarter page and let me tell you, making videos is hard. Even the little 1-2 minute jam to introduce the film that I want to make is taking me all night. I knew this project was going to be a lot of work, but now I'm starting to realize just how much. Regardless, I'm still really excited for it, and super excited to get the Kickstarter page live so that I can get this ball rolling.

I wanted to take a quick little break from the video and update all of you faithful followers (I think we're up to a solid 7 now) on the progress. Here's a short little clip of what you can expect:



Ok, actually that wasn't the one I wanted to show you, that was just me checking the lighting and making sure I looked ok (special thanks to Stu from Tazzors for the epic soundtrack suggestion). Here's the actual clip:



I know it isn't much, but it's tough aiming your cell phone camera and riding. That's a pretty clear example of why I need money for a helmet cam. I'm trying to finish the video up tonight, so look for the project to launch tomorrow.

In unrelated news, my younger brother just launched a skateboard company over in Boston with a couple of his friends. Give AllBright Skateboards a look and maybe even order one of their boards. They're pretty badass.

Cut a Hole in a Box!

Things are starting to move on the film front. As I mentioned in my last (first) post, I'm planning on filming my rides/commutes for a year and editing them into a baller POV movie. You may have guessed that my not having a helmet cam would be a slight hindrance to this whole project. Being that I'm swimming in a somewhat substantial pool of student loan debt, I can't really justify slapping down $500 to start a big project that probably won't yield any returns (other than a glorious film). But have you heard of Kickstarter? I'll refrain from explaining how it works here, (you should check out the site if you haven't heard of it) but it's basically a way for creative folks with cool ideas to get their projects funded. Anyway, long paragraph short, my project just got accepted to Kickstarter and will be going live soon. Obviously I'll be spreading the word pretty hard once it does, but keep your eyes peeled.

In an effort to inspire you all to pledge once the site goes live, (besides the cool NPR/PBS style pledge rewards that will be listed on the site) I wanted to post some pictures of some stuff that I've made in the past. Just to prove that I might have some small amount of potential to make something cool.





Starting small, Once I decided I wanted to "customize" my laptop; I drew some lines on it... MOVING ON!




image courtesy Erin Nicole Brown photography

This is the sign I made for the new Bicycle Habitat location.





I made these picture frame style bike displays for the new Habitat location also. They're designed to accommodate a few different tire widths and road bikes up to a size 56.

I know what you're thinking, "Wait, Dave, all the shit you just showed me either involved drawing some lines or putting some wood together. How do you think you're going to make a film?!" Well it should be known that I have other things that I could have posted here, I just don't have any really good pictures of them handy. And come to think of it, they mostly involve putting wood together or drawing lines... BUT! I have a few really good friends that have some film-making experience, both behind the camera and at the editing board, so I'll be asking them for a lot of advice. *cough*Justin*cough* More importantly, though, I know it's not going to be easy, and I'm OK with that. Editing down a years worth of rides to one exciting hour is going to be excruciating. But I figure if I work as I go, and weed out the schlock, it won't be too bad in the end. So here we go, into some new territory. Now if I could only think of a title...

PROJECT!

Welcome!

So, I created this account/blog about a year ago with the intention of writing posts about myself, and what I'm up to, and talk a lot about the "yolk" parts of my life. The yolk being the rich parts, the parts that we all live for; an afternoon BBQ with unlimited friends/meat/beer, a four hour mountain bike ride without a crash, a concert/movie/play so epic that you couldn't stop talking about it for days after. But then, I never wrote anything. I guess I just didn't think people would care about the awesome times that I had (and I definitely had a lot of them). I wanted to write about them, so that I would remember every detail, but I just wasn't narcissistic enough to share.

'Why are you posting anything now?' You may ask (assuming you're actually reading this). Well, I've had a little bit of a brainstorm recently. I've been in need of a new outlet for the tiny ember of creativity that I like to think smolders at the back of my head. Making stationery as graduation gifts and anniversary cards for my parents was nice, but I need something a little bigger.

I was riding my bike to work the other day, as I do every day, and I realized that I come across some interesting things on my commute, and on bike rides in general. I'm not trying to say that I have any more of a spectacular experience than any other of the thousands of folks that commute to work every day, or ride recreationally; but I do have a lot of varied experiences on the bike. So the project that I came up with is to share those experiences first hand, both to people that ride all the time, and to the "ride-curious." I'm going to document my commute, and the bike rides I take, through a helmet mounted camera. After a year of ride footage, I'll edit everything down to a hopefully digestible, entertaining hour or so and unleash it on the world.

The goals of the film are multifaceted. On the surface I want it to be an exciting, visually dazzling, thrill, like the POV reels you might find on Pinkbike . But more than that, I want it to be enlightening for folks that ride, and those that don't. I want drivers to see what cyclists go through every day in their fight with traffic. I want pedestrians to see where we are coming from when we yell from the bike lane. I want other cyclists to see what buttholes we are when we run a red light or go the wrong way on a one way street (which I won't deny being guilty of). But mostly, I want people to see what they can experience on a bike, and hopefully inspire at least a few people to spend a little more time in the saddle.

Cycling in New York has grown by nearly a third in both of the last two years according to the DOT, and cyclists in the city aren't going away. The more understanding that can be fostered between cyclists and drivers in the city, and even the rest of the country, the easier time we'll all have. And the more people we can get on bikes, maybe the more people we can get to see the "yolk" in every day.