To anyone who’s wondering, I am still sadly not back in the studio yet. I’m continuing to take the spring off so far and catch up on this “life” thing that I hear is out there for people who aren’t quite so workaholic as I am. But, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been up to anything, so, for those curious, here’s the score right now:

Biking

I’ve now got about 342 miles in on the new bike, according to my tracking app. Commuted 14 of the past 16 commutes (the two I missed were because of rain and waiting on my rain gear to arrive, which it now has.) In general, I think the roads seem to be a bit bike-friendlier so far this year than last year. Fewer instances of getting yelled at to get off the road. I think it’s probably the increased presence of bike lanes. While most of them are still horribly ill-conceived, disappearing at regular intervals and dumping bikes back into the lane just in time for most intersections, they do at least provide a mental space where drivers recognize bikes as “belonging,” while simultaneously getting them used to bikes being in the lane at random intervals. So, it could be worse. Same-lane passing, however, is still a problem here in the Circle City. But, I suspect it always will be.

Entertainment

Currently, I’m (finally) reading Neil Gaiman’s legendary American Gods. The Kindle says I’m only 39% done, so, I’ll reserve any serious comments on it until I’m done, but so far it has a lot in it that’s reminiscent of–though not copying–Vonnegut and Murakami. Not exactly hurting my feelings. Also, I suspect I’m going to have a lot of reading on mythology to do afterwards to fully wrap my head around it, but I’ve resolved to not do any until afterwards, so I can experience the book with the same general lack of knowledge of these characters as the text seems to expect.

Meanwhile, I’ve finished rewatching the anime Black Lagoon, based on the manga of the same title, and am now watching the more recent OVA continuation of it. Despite its heavy reliance on the “chicks with guns” genre and the scantily-clad and profane Revy for marketing, I continue to be really pleased with how down-to-earth a lot of the plots end up being, despite the expected anime flourishes. I’m still especially fascinated with the weird not-quite-noir not-quite-existential philosophical musings it dips into while executing it’s rather Tarantino/pulp-inspired stories. If you’ve not watched it yourself, I’d recommend it pretty highly. I’ve seen the original run in both subbed and dubbed version, and honestly, the dubbed is pretty stellar, if the language-barrier is usually a negative for you.

I will likely add the manga to my reading after I finish the OVA.

Consulting

What? You think maybe I’d just take the summer off of my infamous thousand projects completely? Pish. I can’t say much about my miscellaneous projects right now until they get a bit more complete, but I’m helping my good friends at EclecticPond with a website redesign, helping an educator of teachers for young children set-up a site aimed at giving that same information to curious parents, and I’m going to continue work soon enough on the InQode project which seeks to change forever how you think about and use QR scan codes (you can try the functioning beta now here).

So there you go, a quick check-up until I get back to more exciting things. Which, you didn’t hear from me, might resume as soon as next week… Stay tuned.

So, as I mentioned recently, I’m trying to switch to using my bike as a primary vehicle. And one of the reasons people will tell you for doing so is to save money, which always seemed to me to be a bit bunk, since most of the cost of a car is owning it at all and keeping it insured. So, I made a quick little calculator to compare the two on a maintenance and upkeep basis. The calculator asks for your commute schedule as you’ve been doing it by car, and then asks how many of those days you’d like to bike instead. Just punch everything in and it’ll spit out estimates of your cost per mile, per commute, per week, and per year, your savings for the same, and as a bonus can tell you how long it’ll take you to pay yourself back for the bike.

If you want to play with it, you can do so here: http://zedmartinez.com/calculate-your-commute/

So, some of you may remember last year I had an experiment in commuting by bike instead of car. I live, of course, in Indianapolis, which isn’t exactly the most bike friendly city in the world, but where most of my car usage was weighing in at around 2-12 miles in any direction. I’d biked to college for the first three years (the fourth year saw me hauling too many portfolio pieces and canvases for the bike to be practical at all), and I found myself thinking about taking that back up. With the advice of my manager, a bike commuter himself, I looked into a more modern, and task-appropriate, hybrid bike instead of the mountain bikes I’d grown up with, and I set to it. I got what was for me the most expensive bike I’d ever bought, but which I learned along the way was actually a rolling conglomeration of low-end parts and cut-rate bearings that were formed together in the shape of a bike. But, this was a big commitment, and a proper bike-as-a-vehicle investment would only make sense if I stuck with things, so, I decided to start with something low-end to see if I would keep at it before making such a large investment in a whim.

What I learned is, in fair weather I loved it. It only took about ten more minutes for me to bike to the office instead of drive, thanks to the nature of traffic on the way in. Local errands were sometimes a bit slower, but came with the benefit of being able to skip the treadmill at the gym. And I decided that this year I’d put the deniro into a proper bike-as-a-vehicle ride. And some rain and snow gear, so that when I woke up and it was wet and cold I wouldn’t just throw in the towel and pick up the car keys. I was going to take this seriously, darn it.

And so, in the next few weeks I’m going to finish putting together my new bike v1.0, Bikesworth “Townie” Townsington. Or, as his friends call him, “The Town.”

I say version 1 because down the road I’m going to swap out some stuff based on experience on the bike, and a desperate need to save some money back up after dropping the scratch for the bike itself.

So. The bike. I knew I wanted a 700c hybrid commuter. I’m still not a fan of those hipster fixies that are scooting around everywhere. It’s mostly an aesthetic thing. They’re just not my style. And mountain bikes just flat out suck for commuting. My mountain bike in college was a labor a chore. Even my cheap-o not-Schwinn 700c made getting out on the road so much easier and enjoyable. So a 700c hybrid (half road, half mountain) was my meal ticket. I knew that if I could find steel that’d be nice, because it absorbs bumps better, but that’s a pretty niche market reserved mostly for fixies, so it wasn’t a high priority. Racks and fenders were. I’d added them to the cheapie, and they worked OK, but gave it a bit of Franken-bike aesthetic. I wanted something a bit more “designed,” and to not have to add the cost of those items to my odds-and-ends shopping list. I also considered disc brakes a plus, but not a deal-breaker, and waffled a bit on internal gear hubs, but settled on the versatility and cost-savings of a traditional cassette instead.

In the end, I ordered a Felt Verza City 2. It was well-specced: good, solid mid-end components with no fluff that I wasn’t going to need for commuting. It was beautiful, with a very European flare missing from most American hybrids. And, it was at the high end of my budget, but not unreasonable. For something I was going to try and use as my primary vehicle and work-horse, it was the right mix of everything.

As with all things, I strive to strike a balance between function and appearance. Despite being the sort of dude who asked people to get naked and wear a giant plaster chicken skull mask, I do like a bit of elegance to my stuff. So long as it doesn’t impede functionality, anyway. If it’s elegant exactly because it’s functional, so much the better. So, I set out to update all the essentials (which I had also stuck to cheap on): front light, rear blinky, bottle cage, saddle bag, bell, and panniers. OK, so, the bell isn’t quite an essential, but it’s technically in Indiana law any bike on the road has to have one, so, in the spirit of this being a vehicle and not a toy, a bell it was.  And I lucked out when Megan found men apprently-rare Dimension coffee cup bell without the tacky “COFFEE” screen-printed on it. A Niterider Minewt 350 cordless (on amazing sale at my local shop at the time) won out as the affordable choice for biking on unlit city streets (although if I ever move the country the 600 might see some of my love), and Planet Bike’s super-shiny clear half-watt blinky was the pick for the rear illumination. Top pick for the bottle cage was Velo-Orange’s elegant Moderniste, but since stock on it is harder to find than a Republican who doesn’t hate women, I settled for the very-knockoff Delta Inox one. I needed a new saddle-mounted bag to hold the emergency kit (tools, spare tire, tire levers, gauge), and for the time being I’ll have to settle for the rather-affordable retro-styled Electra Cylinder. My old cheap Schwinn frame pump isn’t the fanciest ever, put it shoves air if I get a flat, so it got to move on to the new ride, and for the time being my giganormous Mwave Day Tripper panniers get to move over as well.

And, while Indianapolis is no New York City (or San Fran, or Portland, or even Ball State University’s campus), I do believe in practicing good security methods with my stuff, so, I’ve invested in some new locks and tools for the first time since I was in high school. Not trusting cables, and finding u-locks too limited in flexibility, I’ve always rather been a chain guy. To that end, Kryptonite’s New York Noose is the right compromise between size and weight and flexibility, and is also reputedly one of the hardest lock solutions to crack on the market. In an easy-theft city like Indy, that’ll be more than adequate. Combined with a beater u-lock and replacing all my quick releases with OnGuard’s locking spindle system to prevent disappearing seats and wheels, and this ought to be a good start for there being a way home for me left at the end of the day.

The Future

So, the future. It’s only version 1.0, right? Right. I’ve got plans to make this the sweetest little townie bike in this damn city. Depending on how I find the ride with the current flat bars, I’ll either just add some Origin8 drop-ends and bar-ends near the clamp for extra hand-holds, or maybe replace the whole bar with a Soma Sparrow for a more touring-style bar that’ll let me keep my MTB shifters and brake levers.

The saddle bag I want to be an actual leather one, of the type that the Electra is imitating. Call me old-fashioned. Zimbale makes a really nice looking one with some size to it, so, that’s on the list. And, while the Mwave panniers get the job done, they take up a lot of space when they aren’t in use, and they’re not often just left on the bike as a result. The obvious solution is a good pair of waxed canvas ones that I can roll up, and Laplander makes just such a thing that also comes with a cinch-string nylon lining, unlike the Brooks. The problem is, being hand-made by a small family business, they don’t run cheap. But they oughtta last forever, for sure.

And, what else? A Brooks saddle? Maybe. A pair of amber spoke lights from ThinkGeek? Almost certainly. And from there… we’ll see. Like anything, my desires and projections might change with use and need. But, either way, it oughtta be one hella fun ride on The Town.

Best Valentine’s Day gift ever? Classic Lion-o and Mumm-ra. Go ahead. Try and tell me otherwise.

 

Sorry I’ve been quiet of late, everybody. Still catching up in life after the whole Oranje thing. There’ll be more work soon, but, in the meanwhile, here are some badass photos from a session I had with local photo dynamo Jennifer Spurgin (nee Jennifer Parker) recently. You can tell she’s good, because I actually look like a people person in them.

Also, the Central Branch library here in Indianapolis is an absolutely gorgeous choice of location, amirite?

Well, for all those who’d been participating in the old Grimey pool regarding my death, sorry, I never was particularly good at playing along with things. So here I stand, 28. Damn. These things do so sneak up on you. Meanwhile, in the background, way bigger stuff is moving in the world and in my own extended family. But, let’s face it, birthdays are great days for egotistic introspection, and I’ve been told that no one’s quite so egotistic as me. So, how about one of those list things the internet loves so much? That sounds good, right?

Things I’ve Learned (Maybe)

1. Life’s too short for cheap beer, cheap tea, cheap coffee, and cheap scotch. Seriously. Enjoy yourself a little. Which reminds me of point two.
2. Addiction is for chumps. Real men have vices. The difference? Connoisseurship. If you’ll slug back just anything so long as the hurt goes away, that’s addiction. if you’ll wait three days and shop four stores to find just the right fix, that’s vice.
3. Like point 1, life is also too short for bad friends. This isn’t Pokémon, there’s no prize for having the most friends. Pick a handful of people, love them dearly, keep them close. Plus, you never know when you’ll need someone who trusts you enough to do something like wear pleather hot pants to a gallery. Or conquer Wal-Marts.
4. A degree proves you can follow rules. Education means knowing how to process and think about the world around you and use previous data and experiences to adapt to new situations without instruction. Wisdom is knowing when to call it all bullshit and go have a drink with friends instead.
5. Life will never be like it is in books, unless you live it like it is. See point 3, you’re going to need some trustworthy conspirators to let you pull that off. But, there’s a difference between idealism and fancy, and if you can pay all your bills, it ought to be up to you how you live your life otherwise. That much, I feel, is important.

Presented without further exposition or explanation.

Way back when. Myself, the illustrious Nuclear Bob, and Sam Hartman (now of Anagnorisis).

Visiting my parents’ place today to cut some new stretchers. As you might imagine, they’ve collected a handful of my pieces over time. Always a bit odd seeing them there. After a while, they start to seem more like part of the architecture than things that once sat on my easel.

More updates later.

OK everyone, I have an announcement to make: I’m going to be an exhibiting artist in Oranje 2011. I am, obviously, extremely excited by this.

For those of you not in the know, Oranje is a huge, annual art event here in Indianapolis. Lots of artists of all sorts, lots of musicians on multiple stages, a neat venue, and a whole lot more. I enjoyed it when I made it out to the 2009 event, and I’m completely stoked about being a part of it and not just a spectator this time.

So, I’ll be exhibiting my primary bodies of work: The Great Chicken Skull Revival, We Were Rockstars, and my oil paintings. In the next few days, I’ll be putting up a poll so you all can vote on which of the photos you’d most like to see out there on September 17th. (UPDATED- You can go vote here: place your votes)

Speak of your help, I’d like to ask one other thing of you wonderful people. The burden of creating the booth and initial prints are of course on me. So, I’m staring down a large amount of expense the next couple months during the lead-up to the event itself. So, I’m doing what any good artist throughout history would do:

Begging.

Well, asking for donations, that is. Via the fine services of PayPal. And, because I always feel bad asking for handouts, I’m offering a few gifts to people generous to donate certain amounts, although even a dollar or two helps, if you can spare it.

So, yeah. Woo. I’m excited, I hope you’re excited. We’ve got a long way to go yet, and it’s going to be a fun ride along the way. If you want to be a part of it, read the bit below, click the big gray button. Make a difference. Help a Zed out.