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FancySpikes
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Name: Darryl
Location: New Zealand
Interests: urban art-- stickers, stencils, doodles, masterpieces. skate, snow, ice.
Expertise: apple breaking
Occupation: Advertising
Industry: Media
Member Since:
3/7/2004
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| When I pedal through this stop sign and hit that perfectly banked right turn,
I am a fighter pilot rolling out of formation at the speed of sound.
When I peel the soggy top off and the steamy goodness clears to reveal
my deliciously poofy cup-o-noodle, I remember the taste of awesome.
When I close my eyes and let Ratatat tell my life story, the air becomes cool and smooth.
Life fills my hot chest and I take my first breath again. | | |
| It's funny, this afternoon i took some time, while recovering from getting my wisdoms yanked, to sort through a pile of papers that's been sitting on the far right corner of my desk for more than a year. Looking at the stuff that I've saved from the trash, I have divided the papers into piles. I like to call pile number one, the "fun pile" where I have old birthday cards, magazine cutouts, and the best of the best doodle sheets. Pile number two consists of "cool stuff that I can still use" including 8.5x11 sticker sheets, t-shirt iron-ons, fabric paper and a blank notebook. Not bad, B+ status pile. Then, I have a pile of UCSC stuff that could be important soon. Finally there's a pile of class notes and handouts that I think I might use in college. It's the smallest of the piles and the least familiar. The funny part about it is that while sorting through those notes, I remember the pictures so much better than the actual notes. I remember exactly what I was thinking when I drew them, but then when I try to read the class notes on the same paper it's like what?! My favorite pile is the one with class handouts on perfectly good white paper, those go in a pile that will soon be tagged to death, yay. | | |
| Something about me has changed. I am a graduate-- I feel new and uplifted, sentimental and reminiscent, lost but not worried about it. I took a long walk the yesterday because it was a great day to take a walk. Sometimes, my looked at my feet, but Id soon turn my head up so I wouldnt miss what was going on around me. The sun, it was out and about. I played taboo charades with my best friend all afternoon and ill remember it forever. Then I went to the beach with my favorite girl, and let the sun set and the fog roll in. I woke in the morning and went to the park. I wonder if I'll ever stop loving the park.
I am a rocket, a ROCKET on that bicycle. This morning, Father gave the tutorial on gear-shifting, safety, and all things road bike. Fifteen good minutes, and then he let me loose. This machine is certainly no bmx bike, those are dogs. Sweet baby jesus. I remember as a boy walking with my sister and grandpa to his morning tai-chi sessions near speedway meadows, I saw a cyclist wearing a flourescent yellow windbreaker just fly across that long strip of pavement so fast, faster than anything I'd ever seen. The whole panoramic picture is so vivid. I remember the smell of dewey grass and breathing in morning air. Right here, right now, I want to be that guy. This morning I felt what he felt. There's a banked turn between the rose garden and the intersection to Stow Lake, picture coming from the Stow Lake side. Start on the compact front drive, build a quick cadence and some speed, upshift to the big crank and pedal through that turn. Feel your body slip through the morning haze and your arms chill in the handlebar drops. Steal that momentum and the upcoming hill feels like flat. You're approaching that area above the two tunnels where inline and rollerskaters are weaving around cups and stuff; you used to think that was cool. Dont stop pedaling. At first everything around you speeds up, then at some point it all slows down and between the DeYoung and the tennis courts, you've destroyed every middle aged cyling enthusiast, every weekend warrior, every fixie rider, and every measley tourist. Your legs feel nothing, but you are panting so hard. Then you do it again because you love the speed, and you love feeling of blowing other riders off the road, but most of all, you love tearing the shit out of that two-wheeled machine. You're a rocket.
It was hella fun because there was also an ape race this morning. A huge mob of people in full ape suits running and walking down jfk and the deyoung. there were people holding bananas out to them on the side of the road and taking pictures of apes as they grabbed the snack. I love the park, I love Saturday mornings, and I love my new bike. | | |
| i just got upstairs. so i spent most of the night watching the xmen and some youtube videos of alleycat races, (certainly, two of my all-time favorite past times) but tonights ending was the best. as i watched an alleycat in ottowa, canada, i felt my legs getting all jumpy and energized. they are soooo ready to ride. so i figure if my real bike must stay caged for a while, i might as well make use of the stationary bike and get my pedaling cadence going. so at about 1130 i left my desk to go for a ride. ten minutes at 90rpm was the goal, but then ten minutes became fifteen, and 90rpm became 95, and then next thing i know, ive been going for twenty minutes, and by this point ive got sweat beading on the forehead, and i look at my arms outstretched in front of me holding invisible handlebars. so i stop, step off the bike and i feel amazing. i pull down my bike from the wall-o-bikes and just sit on it. i feel the curves of the handlebars and the seams of the grips. i rock back on forth on the pedals feelings their explosiveness just waiting for me. so i grab a waterbottle and just sit there for a while. this is how it should always feel. | | |
| Often, we live day to day, indulging in instant gratifications and spurs of the moment but every now and then, in our unpredictable spheres of life, we find something that tells us that whatever lies ahead is going to piece itself together in the future. In these last few weeks, I've built up certain enmities with the university of california system and expressed them through various outlets including mail-stomping, bitter recycling of once important papers, and a lot of i-didnt-want-to-go-there-anyway variations. On the bright side, making the choice was easy, uc santa cruz baby! I repeated the phrase to myself multiple times during the day, but I hadnt really gotten into it yet. Then this weekend, I drove up to santa cruz with the mother and sister to take a peek at the uc campus. The temperature rose as we weaved through the forested highway seventeen. Shadows cast by beachy looking homes lay under a pearly sun. I pictured myself spending four years on the boardwalk in a beach bum city. Then I woke up from my nap. More often than not, I fall asleep during car rides, no matter the length. We were driving through downtown santa cruz, and my eyes widened with the passing of jamba juice, pacific wave, and skateworks. Skateworks! live in the flesh, it was fantastic. We had pizza later, great pizza, GREAT pizza. That night, I knew I could survive in this new town. So I slept, because tomorrow's tour would be the real test. | | |
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