Pedal On!

                                    some of the dudes that were on the team when I joined sorta at a point branched off and formed into another team,  good guys,  and it was so nice to get out and join their charity ride, to pedal and talk, and to ride with everyone, as a bigger team, for the World Bike Relief Fundraiser, contribute here, cause its and outstanding cause:   http://fundraise.worldbicyclerelief.org/team/SRAMFactoryEast 

Today, I thought, mtbike race, duf,  I'd be murdered,  Crit,  not up for it.  I had a hankering to hit up trails I have not ridden all winter.  I had nowhere to be, I left early and made a good portion of my day, riding my cyclocross bike.   Outstanding conditions, low weed growth, cool temps, tacky flow.   Had a nice blast, a la solo, just dlowe.

hope you all had nice times on yer bikes, Cheers!  dlowe.

on the Free Spirit

I rode my bike to the gates of hell.   I always smile when I think of that.

Just a ride down to the museums today. 
To see the Richard Avedon show.   To sit outside and eat the lunch I brought.  to enjoy a cold beer, in a pint glass, with a cloth napkin. Hearty bread sandwich.  and a chocolate croissant.                                          

                                                                      Rodin Museum

      detail from the giant doors.

  sitting out in the little garden is always a good place to eat,

   and listen to the foreign tongued tourist visitors chat

I've never seen the Gross Clinic,  I took that in at the phila. museum of art

       a group of school kids sat around it, in the gallery,  I sat in on the lecture too,

                          its a dark painting, with a brilliant natural light, illuminating the subjects.


painted for the 1876 centennial exhibit, to be hung in memorial hall, over there by Belmont where we ride our mtbikes.   The masterpiece was rejected for the show, and hung off in a medical/army exhibit, to gross I guess.
must of been quite a rejection for the 31 year old man,  5 million visitors went to the 1876 fair.

                                 The Gross Clinic on display @ the fair, in the US army post.

Avedon:  the show of portraits from 1976,  its good,  it would/will be good to go back and look up the Rolling Stone article,  the issue, and understand the importance, the roll these photos played in that era.    I was 14 in '76,  a strange year of change, real change and fears, in america.    I'm glad I grew up with that time in my history.

I love lighting, and I study each of Avedon's photos, looking at how hard and where the shadows fall.  For the reflection of the light source in the subjects eye.
I flipped through the books in the Museums store, looking, looking and a couple had the answers for me:

                    see in the eye,  that is the reflection, of a light bounced into a lighting umbrella.


and here,  in this cropped photo,  it is Avedon working, reflected in a mirror off to the side of the model.  An assistant, aims the light, which is low and closed to the camera.

plenty more happened today, it was full of stories, and tales, and a couple of real sweet events,

I think, not much of it all would have fallen in place, if I did not swing my leg over the old Free Spirit and pedaled it down to the city and back.

Richard Avedon: "Family Affairs"  http://www.nmajh.org/specialexhibitions/

dl.

Tuesday's sprints

Tuesday morning sprints are on the top of my workout ride list.  Held over at the East Park.  It starts early, 6:45am Tuesdays.    This morning it was warm enough to ride over, and still enough showed up to challenge each other, despite the drizzle.   The workout, is tough,... as you make it for yourself.  If I blow early, I still try to coax a bit from myself, to keep it going, harder.   and everyone sprints,  its not about winning, it's getting those vomit, nausea feelings aroused that I can't motivate myself to do riding alone.   It's getting me in a good habit of following wheels, and thinking when, how, where, to go from.

I was already wet, and the blossoms this year are leaving the trees quick, so I took in the views on the way home.  Flower pedals stuck to my tires, the bike, and I tracked them back into our home bringing the bike in.

This last year has been tough on these old trees, I guess they might be from the 1876 Centennial fair. That seems too old for them, I don't know, I am not a horticulturist.

I'll enjoy them, as long as I can.

Cheers, David.

Horrace Pippin: The Way I See it.

I have not told my wife, and I don't think its going to make sense, so it might not go so well.  Some nights I think in the future I want to buy an army cot, listen to a bit of music and fall asleep out in my shed.

Horace Pippin's show is going up down at the Brandywine,
I think he painted the best he could.
He must of just had to paint.
there are a few painters like that, that paint and paint.
and paint just the way they paint.

H. Pippin

I sorta ride my bike that way, I just need to ride, I got to, and got to race.

I hung a picture of Mr. Pippin up on the wall in the shed, to inspire me, when I race.


on view April 25 through July 19 @ the Brandywine River Museum.
http://www.brandywinemuseum.org/exhibitions-upcoming.html

dlowe.

Perfect.

I was out to dinner with some friends and the question came up, when will you retire?

I hope, that with a lot of good luck, that I never have to retire, that I can keep doing,
the riding, the work, everything I do, now.


This year, I got it into my head to ride a perfect GV30.
Sit on the right wheels, avoid the wrong ones, go hard at the right times.
I don't get down at coming up short.
Not at all, I just know that its out there, the Perfect Score.

Death Grips.

taking pictures at a show, for me, to do it right is to shoot like its a boxing match.
There maybe is only a glimpse of a chance to catch the moment.

I worked today, a good spring day at cleaning out the shed.  I didn't ride a lick.
Got it nice.  

I have avoided riding, hard.  I mean that I love cross, and I can't wait for cross, but I've found that I've got only so many bullets.  
One of my favorite rides, I don't do to often, out flat to Phoenixville in the spring, just to get a  pretzel, a coke, and had back in.

Its good.  I don't want ever to retire.  That would be like going to jail.

regards, dl.