picture time

I've posted my 555 pics (barring a few really explicit ones from the river). Enjoy!

555

So, I just got home from this motorcycle trip. Some of you may have heard. Two weeks, Portland, Oregon, to Knoxville, Tennessee, on bikes that all had to be smaller than 500cc's, less than $500 and 1975 or older. The trip was (among other things) an amazing demonstration of the possibilities of organized chaos. There were twelve of us who went. All mechanics (except me). It wasn't a motorcycle ride so much as a problem-solving exercise. It was also a total blast. I can't wait to do it again! One night I started the campfire with a roman candle. Those things don't aim too well, so I also accidentally lit a guy's bike on fire. He was going to burn it anyway on arrival but we were still two days out of Knoxville.... I drank moonshine in two flavors, got tattooed all over, took one shower in two weeks, and earned a police escort into my campsite one night.

All together we rode about 3400 miles. Some of the scenery we encountered was pretty spectacular.


For anyone confused by the whole idea, here's a taste. There are two other segments posted, all recorded by Nathan, who shortly afterward took Patrick's DT out into the field and used it in anger, much to Patrick's delight.

I'll put up more photos soon, and will write further about this whole adventure, hopefully for money. Meanwhile, go back up there and watch that video again. That's good stuff right there.

xo

Knoxxed Out!

We made it! All the way to Knoxville on these crazy tiny bikelets...it was loads of fun. My feet are full of chigger bites and I'm sunburned and spaced out and totally happy. Check the photos on motonw.com. More coming soon!

xo

555 in Denver

I'm in Denver! Loads of bike work going on. Too tired to type much right now, but will try to update later. Photos, too. Meanwhile, you can follow us here: http://twitter.com/555pdx

xox

metrosexuality update

Of all the countries I've ever been to, Sweden has the lead (by a long shot) in the number of times I go, "WHOA, that's a dude!!!"

picture time

Photos from recent research trip to Sweden are up here.

smartypants

Back when I was getting my fancy big-city education, I had this class with Stephen Metcalf, which I loved partly because of the nerdy journo books we read (Paul Berman, Claudia Roth Pierpont, Murray Kempton) but mostly because of Metcalf's awesome vocabulary and labyrinthine sentence structure. He would throw down phrases like "Raskolnikovian garrett-dwelling troglodites" on a regular basis, all casual. It was impossible to identify, much less answer, any of his questions on first listen - they were paragraphs long, full of Chinese-box clause-upon-clauses, speckled with dangerous wormholes leading to alternate universes, and they were more likely to end in a closing parentheses than a question mark. They warped space and time - is that exaggerating? Anyway, he was a lot of fun to listen to, if intimidating to converse with.

All of which is just to preface a recommendation: Metcalf hosts the now-weekly Culture Gabfest podcast on Slate, and I stacked up a bunch of episodes on my beloved iPod before coming to Sweden. They're great - almost like being back in class, only with a tighter focus and without the enormous tuition bill or the expectation of intelligent response. And you can rewind. Check them out if you like hearing very smart people talk about the issues of the day and/or Tom Cruise.

eurovision

Hello. I'm in Sweden - therefore duty-bound to watch at least a few minutes of the 2009 Eurovision song contest on TV, which I did last night after dinner with my little old ladies. A Swedish opera singer called Malena somehow reached the semi-finals. She's terrifying! Check her out, if you don't believe me.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I made a cameo appearance in Sunday's New York Times travel piece about Portland, which experts have called "a far cry from frugal" but which I actually thought was pretty good, given the territory and the audience:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/travel/10Portland.html

(That's right, I sent Matt Gross to a strip club. It's Portland; they're everywhere. Besides, obviously, I favor the oppression of women. In my defense, I also accompanied Matt to an art gallery on First Thursday, and to that Lizard Lounge free-good-beer party, and to Ground Kontrol and Backspace. And I'll have you know I pushed for the Magic Gardens over A-crop; they've got a huge burger there that's even cheaper than the steak. I think Mary's Club is still my favorite, though.)

OK. Back to work! Hoho.

mexico

Yo, neglected peeps: I finally put up some photos from the week I spent in Mexico for Damian and Ramie's wedding. Stories to come! (Eventually.) I'm off to Stockholm in the morning, for a month, for a Lonely Planet update. I plan to be just as devoted to regular glob posts as ever, so - fear not. Ha.

xo

oh boy

From a story in The Local, an English-language web mag of Swedish news:

"Swedish men have become more metrosexual and less masculine in recent times, according to a new survey polling both sexes on their opinion of the Swedish male..."

Doctor Costa's new book!

I can't wait to get this (and if you don't know who Dr Costa is, you need to go out right now and rent the movie Faster - right now! You'll like it, it's narrated by Ewan MacGregor) --

Today, during a emotion-filled ceremony at Clinica Mobile in the Jerez paddock, I launched my new book Grand Prix College. Many riders came to hold it, stroke it, make it feel welcome, appreciated and loved. Valentino Rossi, who had helped me write the book preface, looked at the cover and commented, �My brother looks better than me�. Andrea Dovizioso promised me that he�d read the chapter about him and horses during the night. Jorge Lorenzo wanted to read his own words about fear, remembering all about that interview, one night when fear was knocking hard on the door of courage. Loris Capirossi and Ingrid were moved by the mention of their young son Riccardo. Dani Pedrosa saw his photo in the book and started to read the chapter about him while the Clinica Mobile physiotherapists treated his injured knee. Roberto Locatelli read the pages about his terrible accident here at Jerez two years ago, telling how he was born to this world a second time. Nicky Hayden, after celebrating the launch of the book with the other riders, continued treatment at the Clinica after his recent race crashes. Andrea Iannone, Raffaele de Rosa, Chris Vermeulen, Bradley Smith, Danny Webb, Marc Marquez, Pol Espargaro and all the Rookie Cup �baby� riders smiled to the photographers from the Clinica truck steps to celebrate their book, their hospital and their home. The book is available in Italian, English and Spanish: I�d like not just the children, but also their parents to read it and understand all that passionate young hearts can do to put the coldness of reason into perspective. My feelings that came from hidden places inside me and guided me in writing this book can now mix with the feelings and emotions of those who read it.

some thoughts

By way of explanation, or an excuse, or just a nice couple of sentences...here's James Wood on Geoff Dyer, from the April 20 New Yorker:

It's always easier not to be writing than to be writing, and at least by not writing one is keeping alive the option of at some point writing again. But, as soon as one is doing absolutely nothing, the intolerability strikes one as being not so much a freedom as a prison, walled on every side by limitless possibility....

It's been weird here.

The little motorcycle, symbol of freedom etc., ran away, or was rolled down the hill, or took itself to church and never came back, or something, while I was out of town, and I felt so strange without it that I've been more or less paralyzed these past two weeks. That's one theory. I might also have Mexican pig flu, or something even worse that we haven't yet read about in the news. Probably it's just allergies. (I live in a park now, beneath a volcano, in case you didn't know, and every living thing in this park is bent on spewing horrible sneeze pods all day long.)

In any case, our worries are over: the missing bike has been found. A friendly neighborhood policeman called me this morning and reported having found it tucked in behind a giant bus in a church parking lot about ten blocks from my house (and right next door to Jack's...hmm!). It hadn't even been too badly thrashed - looked like someone tried to hotwire it through the headlight, failed, gave up and walked away. Or, possibly our troubles go deeper, and the motorcycle was seeking the kind of comfort and redemption one can only find in the Parking Lot of the Lord. All I know is that when I went to collect the bike it was surrounded by kindly church ladies making sweet cooing noises. They waved and waved as I rolled it away.

I doubt I'll ever know just what the poor Hawk went through during its time with Jesus. I only hope it found some answers.

Anyway, that's my excuse for not having written here lately. It's not that I don't love you all, especially you, Karl. I've just been sad. But now it's all better! Stay alert; news is on the way.

xoxo

still busy!

So I went to Mexico. Did we talk about this? I forget. Anyway, full update with soundtrack to come - this is just a note to my few remaining adherents (hi Karl!) that I am, in fact, still alive and will now be in the same place for three whole weeks, typing devotedly for your enjoyment. Meanwhile here are a couple of teaser pics:

Busy!

Hey y'all,

Here's a quick link to some more photos from Panama. Meanwhile, I've been moving into a new apartment in Portland, and then had a wedding to attend out east, and two upcoming trips to plan, but never fear: narrative highlights from the panamania will appear here soon. Watch this space!

whoa

And you thought Mexico was supposed to be dangerous...

Between that and this guy, I'm already getting nervous about my research trip in May....

in panama

Once upon a time, in Panama, I lived in a hut by a little red chair...


And the first thing I saw every morning was pretty much:


Now I'm back in the land of green vegetables and undamp air and keyboards that work, the land where you just go ahead and flush your toilet paper right down the toilet along with everything else and never wonder where it ends up, the land of airports rich with magazines and food, the USA. I miss my island paradise, even though it gave me dreadlocks and scurvy. I will report all details of the trip "very soon," but first I must eat salad and vitamins and wash all my clothes and dry off.

I am very tan.

xoxo

I have showered.

comarca de kuna yala

I accidentally got dreadlocks. Oopsie!

Note to self: next time, bring shampoo.

Photos and full report coming soon. (¨Months!¨) Back in fetid cesspit for the moment, but hopefully not for long....

xoxo
blecky

not so pretty

Panama City is a fetid cesspool. Yeay!
Currently plotting escape...details soon.

xo

¡panama!

Dudes! I´m in Panama. So far I have eaten shark; attempted to surf; ridden out a deadly apocalyptic disaster epic rain/wind storm that knocked out all the power and clogged the main road into town with dead trees; taken a three-hour Spanish class; lived in a bamboo hut; been sunburned; met a pretty convincing version of The Dude and an Argentinean chef who looks like Mikhail Baryshnikov; been attacked by a moth; showered with bats; and collected three mundane bug specimens all of which are harmless and available on the homefront. So the Bug Chart I had planned to assemble is pretty sparse as yet, but on the other hand, the Bug Chart is pretty sparse as yet.

Am currently living at a Spanish language school (on-campus dorm! kind of) in Boquete, a little mountain village full of coffee and flowers and rain. The night we got here (I am traveling with a dude called the International Crocodile, a name he got from a one-eyed drunken stranger), a massive and chaotic storm attacked the town - everyone lost power, and it didn´t come back on until last night (three days later). But folks were generally cheerful about the situation, and candlelight makes even a soggy bed in a damp cinderblock room seem fairly cozy. The current plan is to brush up on the español and then arrange a trip to the San Blas, which, if you look them up online, you´ll discover are ludicrously perfect-looking desert islands surrounded in unrealistically blue sea. I´ll upload some photos later on but basically, from what I´ve seen, just imagine the prototype of the palm tree/white sand/turquoise water/cute hut/walk across it in three minutes type of island, and you´re pretty much there.
More soon!
xo