Marco......Polo

Last night was a record turn-out for East Nashville Bike Polo. 12 confirmed players but a few extra spectators and me who came on bike yet didn't bring a polo-friendly bike and had to bum bikes from others.

The timing finally worked in my favor for not just making it to polo, but having the time, and great weather, to ride my bike from the house over to the east side for polo. I even had time to do a once over on the bike and switch back to my big comfy slick tires and remove my fenders on the trusty Crosscheck. (also another opportunity to use my new Garmin tech device to log my ride)

The weather was perfect, as in it was 68 when I left the house, in a t-shirt and knickers. I brought along a jacket and Walz flappy cap just in case as the forecast was for a 45 overnight low but it turned out I didn't need them. Even the ride back home at midnight was comfortable with just a t-shirt and knickers. The city was calm and the sky was clear, it was seriously a perfect night to be riding through the city.

I had to vary my usual route to get downtown to the pedestrian bridge. Some voluntary rerouting and some required due to construction. I meandered through 12 South's back streets to avoid the slow hill through the narrow part of 12th Ave South which worked great. I may have to make this reroute permanent. They are still doing major construction downtown on Demonbreun so my normal direct route down to 4th ave was shut off. I snaked through the Frist and over to Broadway for some good people watching and a glimpse of honky tonk music.

I arrived late to the game and rolled up to find a court FULL of cyclists, chasing a small ball around with ski poles and pvc. Nice! Our polo games took a small hiatus and have recently been resurrected by the east side crew into a semi regular weekly/bi weekly event. Some time recently another polo crew who used to play downtown has merged in and now we seem to rarely have the problem with finding a minimum of 6 players to have a good game. As I mentioned, we had 12 people commit to playing a few days in advance this week!

The game was the usual mix of complete unorganized mayhem mixed with some good ball passing and a few adult beverages. Everyone was enjoying themselves and the time flew by. By the time we finally called it, it was already 11:45pm! Everyone disbanded in their respective directions to either get home, exhausted, or for the youngsters in the group; head out to the next pub for late dinner and refreshments. I settled in for the 10 mile trip home and thoroughly enjoyed another calm trip through Nashville.

As Dan said this morning, "If you played, you won"

April 28th

This date is symbolic because in 2007, Beth and I got married here in Nashville. At the same time, hundreds of racers were riding around in circles for 12 hrs in Fayetteville at the first ever, Dirt Sweat & Gears. (lots of other important things have happened on April 28th like Maryland ratifying the constitution, Mussolini being shot, and America pulling out of Japan.) Beth and I had plans for a lovely dinner at The Acorn, the site of our rehearsal dinner but she has caught a bad bug from over-working, traveling and sitting outside in 90 degree weather in a craft tent for 3 days straight. (don't worry, we're pretty sure it's not SwineFlu) So she is feeling miserable and not at all in the mood to celebrate anything so what does she do? She stays at home and works (that's dedication) and sends me out to enjoy the day on my bike.... the entire day!

I got up early and made Beth some eggs, toast and coffee and got some things prepared to meet up with some NMB guys for a 10am ride in Carthage, TN. Defeated Creek was the trail choice for this day. This was a totally new trail to me. I heard about it through the board last year when folks posted up pictures and trail reviews but never made it out there. After meeting Lefty Scott and FullSquish at the Mt Juliet exit, we carpooled down to Carthage. What a beautiful drive to get to the trail! Reminicent of the drive to Fayetteville through the farms, except with a more West Virginia hills vibe. We met Rick, the videographer of some great epic films from other local trails and x-coworker of the now retired FullSquish. Secret plans are being made to film a southeast riding video so keep your eye out for a rider hiding in the bushes filming you riding that tricky, technical section where you hope no one sees you fall. (Also in attendance were Mr. Clean Cooper and TVATim)

This trail has it all. What a great gem to find! The trail consists of two loops, a longer 7ish mile loop and a shorter 2.5ish mile loop. There is one long climb called The Grizzly and several fun up and down sections that flow perfectly. Flow is the big word for this trail. You won't find many riders complaining about overly twisty trail or lack of flow. Sure thet rail does wind in on itself multiple times since the plot of land is not very deep and is basically on a cliff side but it's designed great. Supposedly it has the most elevation change of any trail around this area. After riding two laps there I venture that Monty Bell has a bit more cardio climing (in the work-out kind of way) but Defeated Creek has more sustained decents, ala Pisgah style (almost) and great straight flowing sections that you can treat as a pump track.

We took our time on our first lap, stopping a lot to shoot some video and keep the group of 6 together. Close to the end of the first lap, Lefty and I were getting anxious for more miles and a more steady pace so we said our goodbyes and rode off the front. We put in a full second lap with only a couple short stops to reconvene. Man, this trail is fun! It is a little bit of a haul to get out there but if you have the time for 2 laps (or more) I think the drive is totally worth the grin factor. If you are feeling clostrophobic with Nashville trails, you owe it to yourself to check out Defeated Creek and then head to Sewanee the next day to recharge your trail batteries.

Late morning EDIT: I forgot one of the other great parts of the day... FOOD! Lefty and I happened upon a wonderful place called La Villa in Carthage. Being fresh off the trail, we were starving, and this place didn't disappoint! I enjoyed a healthy portion of pulled pork and even BBQ beans while Lefty couldn't not order the house-special pizza. Yum! If you hit up the trail, you better go to this place to fuel afterwards!

The trail fun took up the entire day and it was already 4:30pm by the time I got back home. I checked in with Beth and gave her some anniversary lily's. All was still good. Polo and the Yazoo tap room were on the books for the evening plans but I was still feeling guilty about not spending time with Beth. She again reassured me she wanted me to go and have fun, we'd celebrate a different day when she was healthy. Like a madman I was running around getting one bike put away and another out, getting changed, running and getting dinner for Beth and then heading over to Troy's via the Green Hills post office. (only one in Nashville that is open til 6pm...gotta get those Freshie&Zero orders out!)


Our plan was to ride from Troy's to the taproom as they were open on a rare Tuesday for a Team Green social event. After getting Troy's borrowed cranks on my bike once again, we were off. Troy hooked up a rack and paniers to his Kona and was hauling all the polo stuff by himself. I offered the use of my chrome bag but he already had the system dailed in. It worked great too, even had room left to smuggle a growler for some polo hydration. The tap room was bumping big time. Lots of smiling faces with equally happy name tags. Dunn, Garth and Bloebaum were in attendance as well and Mel and her friend showed a bit later. Unfortunately we had to cut the fun after just one Hop Project (#14) and get back on the bikes to head to the polo court.

We snaked through East Nashville finding the path with the least elevation gain, or at least most gradual. It was a slow ride on the streets with Troy pushing a lot of weight but also a very easy gear on the singlespeed. Once again the weatherman had it all wrong and the weather was perfect for a ride through town. It was actually supposed to storm most of the day but it never materialized.

We only ended up with 4 players for polo so it was an offensive slugfest but still amazing fun. Who would of ever thought that riding around a playground on bikes with ski-pole mallets and a street hockey ball could be sooo much fun. (oh yea Justin did) We had some great games, great conversation, great beer and some nice sippin' from the flask. Troy and I had a long ride back to his house but it continued to be a great night to be riding. I was thinking how lucky I am the entire ride back to have such a great life.... a day spent more in the saddle than in my desk chair or my truck, a loving wife who loves for me to do the things that make me happy and great friends to share it all with.

POLO!

Another tuesday night, another evening full of bike polo in Shelby Park.

We weren't sure if we'd have enough people to play but we decided to go ahead and try anyways. We played a few games 2 on 2 with Troy, Dan H. Doug and me. Then Clint showed up and we subbed him in for a game and then Bryan B. showed up and it was on. 3 on 3 action filled the next couple hours. We all had a blast. Tons of laughs, some crashes, some sympathy crashes and much more laughing.

We're hoping to make this a regular Tuesday night deal again and it looks like we will have some more fresh blood, I mean new riders that wanna start coming out.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Marco...... Polo

Manondale shows off the Russian Hat
Originally uploaded by Chewieez

Polo was back on this week. It felt like I hadn't played in months! It was a chilly night but we played some great games!

We decided playing 4 on 3 was the best idea so no one had to sit out in the cold. I think the teams were a bit lopsided at first, but we switched players and the last couple games were more even. Thad brought his new official ball, which doesn't hold air. We broke it in and scuffed it up. A new ball means new style of play and a new dynamic. Our usual field hockey ball with the water inside was immediately frozen.

Overall good times, good beer and no fights.

oh and Thad's got a new pimp polo mallet, which means I get to use his old pvc mallet which is the perfect length. win win....

Spending money

I finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop. I'm going to be moving out of 2003 and into 2007! My 1g Ti Powerbook is getting replaced with a Dual 2.2g Macbook. It's really amazing where things have come and how cheap it all is. $1299 for a dual 2.2g laptop that can hold 4g of ram. I maxed out the ram through Other World Computing for a measly $137!! Take that Apple! Can you believe Apple charges $850 for 4g of ram?! $850!!!!! It's as though Apple is saying "We don't want to bother with putting more ram in your system, so we'll just price ourselves out of that service." oh well... I don't mind doing it myself and saving $713. Next on the shopping list is a LCD widescreen monitor. I've been shopping around a ton lately but I think I'll wait until ater Xmas to make a purchase. I imagine prices will drop some more by then.

Last night was another night of polo. The overall mood was different and everyone put more emphasis on style and technique. Sharpe coached us from the sidelines and gave tips. My first team (Thad, Neal and Dan H.) worked a lot on teamwork and spacing around the court. We concentrated on hanging onto the ball and control and passing and tried less slapping and big clears. Unfortunately Thad had a brake incident and had to retire his bike. Everyone decided to call it then and make it an early night. We only played three games this go around but they were all fun. I managed to stay upright a lot better and use my mallet more for balance. I even scored three times which is a personal best by far! I'm generally lucky to get 1 score per night.

This past weekend was our return trip to Austin, TX for the Stitch show. This trip Beth and I revisited a few areas of town like South Congress. We weren't as pro-active to do the sight-seeing activities as we were last year so it was a much more relaxed trip overall. The Stitch organizers planned a pre-party the night before which was fun. We didn't know many people and I didn't know anyone, but after about half an hour we had made some friends and had some good conversation. Keg beer was supplied as well as free water from some company I can't even remember. Obviously I partook more of the keg than the water. The show was in the Austin Convention Center this year. We had fears of crazy, unorganized load-ins but it all went very smoothly. We were setup in no time and then Beth had a chance to browse the other vendor's booths which she never had time for last year. The show was a definite success but overall I don't think they will host it in the Convention center again next year. The room was a bit too large and much brighter than last year. It was hard to feel the some vibe as last year. We sold more than last year which was Beth's goal for the show so I'm sure we will be making the trip again next year. You can view photos of our trip on Beth's flickr site.

Random things I learned while in Austin: Shiner bock tastes better with a lime, we never figure out how to get anywhere until we are about to leave town, I still don't think service roads are a good way to get on and off the interstate, hotel internet service always sucks and is slow, just about every city we travel to seems to have a lot more casual cyclists
than you ever see in Nashville.

Free Music?

Another night of Polo occurred Tuesday. It felt like I'd missed a month (might have) and everyone seemed excited to be back playin'. We played with a different, smaller ball which changed the dynamic quite a bit. It's a field hockey ball filled with water so it rolls differently than the other rubber ball we were using. It doesn't ricochet near as much either which lead to a much harder time getting it out of corners and off the wall. Even the material was different enough to make an impact to me. I needed to be much more careful with my angle. If I hit it on the top too much my mallet would just drive it into the court and I'd roll right by it.

I was able to shoot some better footage of the action this week. I posted them up on my flickr page: Nashville Bike Polo Oct 2nd

I fixed my lcd screen on my digital camera again after squishing it for the second time. My camera has a key weakness in that there isn't a protective shield over the screen. The first time I broke it I was hiking with it in my jacket pocket and was bouldering. This second time I had it with me while mountain biking and presumably something just happened to press right on the screen with enough force to crack it. The fix is really quite simple. The only hard part is watching ebay for a good deal on a broken camera with a good LCD screen. The first time I got one I had to pay $40 which was a great deal at the time. I swapped out the screen and re-sold the broken camera with my broken screen for $20. Gotta love ebay, people looking for everything! This time I was able to score a camera with a broken lens motor for $6!! I swapped the screens in about 5 minutes and am all fixed up again. I guess the value of broken 3.2 megapixel Sony cameras is falling.

Through his blog, Troy brought to my attention the new Radiohead album that will be available Oct 10th through their site. They are looking to stir the pot a little with a few weird quirks to the release. Oct. 10th they are releasing the songs for download exclusively through their website. You are able to preorder a large collectors edition including 2 CDs, 2 LPs and some artwork for 40 Pounds ($80), which will be released in December. I gathered that the actual CD will hit the stores in Dec as well. The big catch to the entire deal is they are asking people to name their own price on the digital download that is being released Oct 10th. You can even name your price as $0.00 if you feel that is fair. It all seems a big experiment. What will the average person decide to pay to enjoy the songs 3 months before their official release? Radiohead is in a very unique situation in that they are a superband (popularity/success wise, not subjectively) and are currently not signed with any label. A lot of blogs are calling this move a big middle finger to the large labels and corporate music. As it can appear that way I can't help but remind people that it was these very establishments that helped Radiohead become the household name they are. It's easy to say all music should be free, but in the long term what will this mean for artists? Should all paintings be free as well? Photography? Art is so hard to qualify, and also put a monetary value on, but I still feel there needs to be a price. I've been thinking of posting an entire blog entry on my thoughts about music, downloads, burning/cloning etc. This might have to wait for a lazy sunday afternoon. I am always curious to discuss the matter with my friends as long as they are willing to have constructive discussion.

So back to the Radiohead discussion. I was all ready to plunk down at least $10 for the downloaded songs. Then I started wondering what format would they be. Would they include some manner of DRM or copy protection? This info is hard to find and I think purposefully not divulged by Radiohead. As I said earlier, I'm set on the idea that music is worth something. Especially from a band which I revere as much as Radiohead. They are on my very short list of bands I don't even give a second thought to purchasing their music. If the songs are presented in a subpar .mp3 format (below 192 bitrate) I have to admit I feel much less willing to open the wallet as much. I acknowledge though that I am a bit of an audio snob due to my profession and that the majority of the world doesn't have the same feelings. My plan is to wait and see what Radiohead actually releases and then maybe later on the 10th or the 11th I'll make my purchase. It is nice to see someone going about things from a different perspective though and I applaud them. It will be very interesting to hear about the outcome.

Wow, since May 2006

Can't believe I set this thing up over a year ago! Still not sure if or how much I'll actually use this thing. I'm not the best with writing down what's going on with me and having it come across remotely interesting. I figured out how to integrate mycyclinglog info into the blog which I think is pretty cool.

I just finished up another night of bike polo with the Yazoo crew. Another night of very few crashes and little carnage which is nice. I will have a few more bruises on my legs, mainly below my knees. My knees have a bad habit of scraping down my top tube repeatedly. It's been a blast these past couple weeks riding and hanging with Thad ( Johnny5 ) and the other Yazoo guys I've met. They have quite the weekly riding schedule down with many nights filled with beer which is always welcomed! Between two rides at MB, bar hopping from Yazoo through midtown and two game of bike polo I've just been lovin' it! They are very welcoming!

As I sit here and type I can barely move my head to the right without a load of pain. I'm not sure if this would be polo related or just a bad night of sleep this week. I'm thinking that latter. Beth just gave me a stout painkiller so I'm waiting for it to kick in before I crash. I've got a big day of work tomorrow which is great! Work has been picking back up again which has been very nice. Work always equals cash flow which keeps morale up! I've got two sessions booked tomorrow and need to find time to set up for a tracking date that's going on thursday morning. No sense complaining! Enjoy the work when it is there and enjoy the time off when it isn't.... keep telling myself this!

It is actually going to work out great this week. I worked a little last night (Labor Day), worked today and will work tomorrow and thurs. Then friday, Beth and I are packin' the Explorer and heading to German Town in Memphis, TN for a craft show weekend. Hopefully the show will go smooth with a constant flow of interested consumers. No electricity at this show so no fan, hope it stays relatively cool for us, under 90 would be grand!

Here is a link to my flickr set from my first bike polo night this past saturday:
Chewieez Inaugural Bike Polo Night
video:
Click for Vid, didn't want to embed (too big)