No Mod Required

The classic early hip hop photographer talks about discovering graffiti, rap, and break dancing:

Welcome to the “Mojave Experiment.” What do people think of Windows Vista® when they don’t know it’s Windows Vista? We disguised Windows Vista as codename “Mojave,” the “next Microsoft OS,” so regular people who’ve never used Windows Vista could see what it can do - and decide for themselves. Now decide for yourself.

The “Mojave Experiment”

Apparently people loved it. Me? I use Vista at home and I love it too. I wish I could use it at work as well. XP is a drag in comparison.

I know what you’re thinking:

“zomg, Vista is teh lame!”

And maybe it is if you’re trying to upgrade an old machine or are stuck with software/peripherals from five years ago (and I know a lot of people are, so that’s a valid complaint.) For my particular situation (a high end machine running Ultimate with current/latest version licenses for all my essential software) it’s great.

There, I said it- great.

The biggest complaint I’ve had in the year I’ve been running it was the fact that my scanner was unstable and I had to replace it with a newer, Vista ready scanner and drivers. Even that’s more on buggy driver support from the manufacturer than it is a fault with Microsoft.

Beyond that, while I have a few complaints about access control oddities, it’s pretty cool.

I know what you’re thinking now:

“Madness! Who’s the crazy man?”

That’d be me

*I need to run a couple of normally innocuous apps in “root” mode to get them to work correctly- my Garmin training software being one- WTF?

While I can’t say I’m happy that Sastre won, in hindsight he was the most deserving winner. He and his CSC team really controlled the race and winning the stage and the Tour on Alpe d’Huez makes his a truly classy victory.

I am happy to see the three time world champion Oscar Freire, win the Green Jersey points competition. Freire is a fun rider to watch throughout the year so seeing him get such a great result on the world’s biggest stage was a real treat.

The best thing I can say about Cadel Evans, in light of his performance is that he’s got some heart. Pulling himself up off the ground and fighting as hard as he did in the mountains was pretty gritty. Even with all of that, he reacted reasonably well to the attacks launched at him in the mountains but in the Tour it’s very difficult to win merely countering moves. As Sastre proved, at some point, the true race leader has to take control. Evans never did that. I don’t know. Maybe he believed his own press or something, but it seemed like he just assumed he would pull it all out in the final time trial. It was a reasonable strategy I guess, but obviously he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. Sastre did.

The rider I’m most bummed about is Menchov. I feel like he was just a couple of breaks away from being on the podium.

On the flip side of that I’m ecstatic for Christian VandeVelde and the rest of the Garmin Chipotle team. Finishing fifth when no one (including me) really pegged him for a finish that high is a great result and is a phenomenal introduction for the team to the world.

Speaking of introductions to the world, Team Columbia had an incredible first race under the new sponsor’s banner. Cav was obviously the revelation of the Tour but the team as a whole showed why they’ve been so successful this year, showing up to race day in and day out.

Is it really another 49 weeks until it all starts up again? At least I’ve got Sastre vs. Contador in the Vuelta to look forward to in the fall

This list isn’t exclusive, of course. There are plenty of other incredible artists out there that I could have chosen.

These 10 are pretty damned good though

Dondi

The Style Master General.

One of the most influential writers of all time. The ultimate stylist.

Revok

My favorite of the LA style writers. I eat that West Coast style up and Revok has taken it all to an impossible extreme. So fresh.

(all revok photos courtesy flickr user anarchosyn)

Vulcan

(vulcan photo courtesy flickr user otherthings.

“The Style Messiah.”

The stuff he did in the 80s is more complex and thought-provoking to me than 99.999% of the work done since. His photos in Spraycan Art (one reproduced below) are amongst my favorite pieces of all time.

Daim

The 3d master. Daim takes what, in the hands of some is basically a cheesy novelty style and brings it to the absolute top of the graffiti style game. Top notch color, form, design and draftsmanship.

photo courtesy flickr user Pasota.com

photo courtesy flickr user Harry Palmer

Doc/Arab

(photo credit to Doc himself. Swiped from myspace)

So much style.

Ces

(classic vet and ces halloween wall courtesy flickr user dmax3270)

The classic wild style practitioner. Very influential.

Bates

For my money, the best style writer in the world today. At a time when many people literally paint the same outline dozens or even hundreds of times and just change up the colors, Bates paints a different style pretty much every time. If you’re a writer, know one thing: Bates can probably do your style better than you.

Delta

One of the most unique styles in graffiti, Dutch old school legend Delta takes his industrial design background and applies it to the letter form in wildly creative ways.

(photo credits to … you guessed it … my hard drive*)

Dream TDK

RIP

One of the first West Coast writers that really impressed me when I was younger. He had a really smooth classic style. People doing 500 color “burners” could learn a lot by looking at Dream’s letters.

REAS

Reas is, for my money, the best practitioner of that funky AOK/RIS style that basically took over graffiti a few years ago. So fresh, crazy influential and as Todd James, one of the top ‘writer makes good stories” ever.

Photo credits are noted where possible. A lot of these are just pulled from my hard drive (and therefore originally pulled off the net), so if you see an image here that’s yours and you want it pulled or just want me to properly credit you, please just let me know.

And we still don’t have all that much clarity.

My podium right now looks like this:

1. Evans
2. Sastre
3. Menchov

Sastre and CSC rode this race to perfection and Sastre had the legs to deliver the goods. Will it be enough time to hold off Evans? I don’t think so. But he’s definitely got a chance owing to their tactical perfection and to his excellent legs yesterday.

I feel bad for both Menchov and Christian Vandevelde. CVV fell on the descent the other day and lost a minute or two. He said he was only 35 seconds behind over the top of the climb. Otherwise, with the way he climbed on the Alpe yesterday he’d have a strong shot at landing on the podium.

As for Menchov, his fall during his attack on Sunday is the great “what if” from the race for me. That was his best day in the mountains and I think he might have been able to take some serious time out of Evans on that stage. He’d broken out to a big lead (costing energy), fell, had to catch back up (more energy) and still had the energy to attack later (even more energy.) If it had all been smooth sailing I think he might have been in much better shape coming into these last two alpine stages. Certainly his losing seconds on the descent on Tuesday is inexcusable, but it didn’t matter as much as it probably should have because of that missed opportunity on Sunday. As it stood Evans was the main “strong” time trial rider defending against the CSC climbers.

I know one thing, the Time Trial will be a lot of fun.

This is super fresh.

Did I mention super fresh?

Check out some video of the billboard being painted (time lapse starts around 1:30 in)

Augor x Revok x The Dark Knight (video Logan x Keegan) Meatpost.com from Meat Post on Vimeo.

In honor of Wednesday’s monstrous alpine stage (which should be the best bike race of the year), here are some resources culled from the net about the final climb, the classic Alpe d’Huez.

1. First off, check out the profile for Wednesday:

   

   That hurts.

2. Average gradient 7.9%, 13 kilometres long, 21 hairpins, elevation 1860 metres: This is L’Alpe d’Huez.

   Situated on the border of the French Alps near the town of Bourg d’Oisans, roughly an hour’s drive from Grenoble, Alpe d’Huez is the most feared climb in the Tour de France for its abrupt, brutal ascent into the clouds. No other climb has a greater history of suffering, nor exudes the same emotions. It is what the Motirolo is to the Giro d’Italia, or the Angliru to the Vuelta - but with the charm, history and mystique of the Tour de France behind it.

   The above is from a great article from the 2003 Tour published by Cycling News.

3. How about a 360 degree webcam from the top provided by the official site?
4. Now, check out this incredible story of Greg Lemond and Bernard Hinault’s trip up Alpe d’Huez in 1986.

   1986: The Alpe’s Greatest Duel

5. Once you’ve digested that, check out some vintage video of that fateful day:

7. And now Lance Armstrong:

   From the time trial in 2004
   
   photo courtesy flickr user eugene

   And from 2001’s classic victory, we have “the look”:

And finally, from 2003 the full flight of madness that is an Alpine stage of the Tour

photo courtesy flickr user matt knoth

As Danny said when he sent me the link “whoa.”

This guy is MAD creative.

Comics + Graffiti = yes.

Comic book artist extraordinaire Rob Stull has organized a great show featuring the art of some of today’s top comic book artists as well as the art of some absolute graffiti legends.

The show drops July 26th at Technical Skate Shop on Newbury st. here in Boston.

The short list of artists included goes like this:

Graffiti: Med, Ces, Snow, Stem, TKid, Wane, Yes2
Comics: Steve McNiven, Ed McGuiness, Larry Stroman, Jim Cheung and Keron Grant

Say it with me “hell yes”

Check out the flyer:

Check out this bit from the Garmin-Chipotle blog:

How did we feel about this? It’s hard to go over individual feelings but the general buzz in the bus was one of good news shrouded in contempt. It was a little surreal and disheartening watching the police and dozens of media surrounding the Saunier Duval bus. But at the same time, it was gratifying to see the little bastard getting caught. Because that’s what he is, a little bastard. Forget ‘The Cobra’, I’ve got two better names for him: The Trouser Snake (courtesy of Danny Pate at the Giro), and The Worm (courtesy of Mark Cavendish here at the Tour). Well, I had a feeling the snake’s move on the Aspin was too good to be true. And unfortunately of late when I have that feeling, doping is involved.

Now he’ll disappear from the world of cycling and hopefully from the dreams of any young cycling fans. Only it’s not that simple is it? Marco Pantani was Ricco’s idol. He wanted to be like him and climb like him, much of his riding style was based on him. When he would attack on the climbs, he would attack in the drops because that is what Pantani did. He wanted to win on L’Alpe d’Huez because that’s where Pantani won. He wanted to win the Giro by attacking the most, because that’s what Pantani did. He had forgotten that Pantani doped and cheated. In fact most of Italy has forgotten that I think, which is sad because his memory can serve a much more powerful purpose than that of a winning cyclist.

Read the rest:

There are also heroes and they need you to believe

I never liked Ricco. He had an acidic personality. My girlfriend didn’t trust him. Her suspicions (and the suspicions of plenty of others) were justified. Dick.

I just wish he’d been busted at some race other than the Tour. The earlier positives had been taken in stride. Now this douche goes and gets busted after having won two stages and riding high in the GC.

Millar makes a good point, by the way. Between people like CVV and Cavendish there’s a lot to like about the “new” cycling in this year’s Tour. It’s a shame a moron like Ricco has to put a damper on the good times. Me? I’m not letting it bother me. As I mentioned, I hate the guy anyway, so if that’s the way he wants to play it- fuck him and his red-headed doping ass.