Weekend wrap-up

House Rennovations are on day 4 now and the guys are starting to remove all the waste from the garden culling.


All decking is being replaced.


On Saturday we had the JDMST EOMM at JDMyard. Nice day for a meet. More pics here.


On Saturday afternoon Suga and I attended Renato and Thais' wedding at Manly Beach. Renato is a designer at Saatchi's where Christina used to work, great guy. The wedding had to be the most laid back wedding I've ever been to in my life. Casual dress meant that there were guests in thongs as well as suits! There was a celebrant, and friends, no music, no fuss.




The man.


The woman.


Vows.


Nyaw.


The cake, which they cut upwards with the knife because Brazilians believe in going up in life.


The women going wild (note Christina's big effort).


Sunday we had Christina's Mum's B'day.


Fox and the Locks.

O M F G

Mark Berry's new car. OMFG. Go Aussie!

Louis Garneau MONTANA XT

OK so instead of doing hours of research on the best XC shoes I just walked into MCC and tried on a pair of Louis Garneau MONTANA XT's and I liked them. Grant said the shoes are mine for free if I could figure out how to undo the strap retention system in 30 seconds and no matter how hard I tried to break the things open I couldn't. LOL, turns out it was a simple case of pushing them down to undo them (I swear I thought I tried that!).

They're 905g a pair with cleats (heavy!) but damn stiff and I can walk in them fine but they do look gay (IMHO) but not as gay as some of the shoes I've owned and worn in my past (try purple rollers, michael jackson style pixie suede boots with buckles all over them or black leather boots with 15cm heels lol?).

Rennovations - Day 2

Rennovations begin

We've found a crew (Christina's family builders) and they got to work today on removing the vines which have overtaken all the windows on one side of the house, they also took off the lattice fencing along the entrance and trimmed out the trees in the backyard which hadn't been touched in 4 years.


Cancer vines are all gone.


Rotting wood.


Weed bed is gone. Never knew there were rocks back there!


I can see ocean!


Oooh Ocean!

Fathers Year!

Benjamin Ruhe says:
and I am going to be a dad in September

justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
Dad? Fucking hell what is it with everyone?! 09 year of the Dad! Congrats mate.

Benjamin Ruhe says:
hahahah 09 - fathers year

Benjamin Ruhe says:
come and join us

Benjamin Ruhe says:
JOIN US NOW!

"Do it, it'll be the best thing you ever do!". - I was surfing Facebook the other night, something I don't do very often, and it seems like everyone's becoming a Dad (or have just become a Dad).

5 albums that shaped my life

This was always going to be hard. Only 5?! I can think of 10 easy... the Chilli Peppers, Metallica, Kiss, Michael Jackson, The Prodigy, The Beastie Boys, Portishead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine... such amazing memory containers, but here we go:

My 5 (in order of my life):


I got given this album on cassette tape by a relative in Indonesia (was a copy tape!), the inside cover art by Robert Williams depicting robot rape was over the top and one listen to "It's so easy" where he sings "Why don't you just... .... FUCK OFF!" and I was hooked. PS: I never ever did get over Sweet Child'O'Mine and the CD's still on high rotation in the car, always.


The 1st CD I bought, the 1st song I ever learnt on the guitar (Epic) and the band I've seen live the most times.


This is a big one. He was left handed, he understood how I felt (teenage angst?). His music justified my anger. He made me write music and armed me to get out there playing gigs.


This was my departure from rock'n'roll as I knew it. I first heard the Prodigy when I was at a girlfriend's house, her flatmate was blasting "Voodoo people" and I'd not ever heard antyhing like it in my life. I didn't think anything could get heavier than death or thrash metal but I was wrong. It was this Chemical Brothers album though that won me over, it is rock'n'roll and it re-defined rock for me. I went from being a drinker, to a smoker, popper and a snorter.


He sings like an Angel. I hadn't cried to music before but this album was there when I broke up from a 7year relationship. Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley... I can't believe you guys died before me. I'm not worthy.

I love robots

X0 goes to Loftus

She did great! More here.

Copperbanded Butterfly

Copperbanded Butterfly with one of the new Chromis.

My laziness with changing water in the marine tank over the past year has meant that some of the corals have died off. I won't be replacing them and I might one day end up with a fish only and live rock tank. Some aiptasia has popped up though, and they're a pest more than anything else (they even look a bit freaky). I've enlisted the help of a Copperbanded Butterflyfish to do the cleaning up (they love eating aiptasia!). They are known as a hard to keep fish as most of them die once they run out of aiptasia to feed on but the dude I bought's been feeding off marine flake, brine shrimp and pellets too so that's great news (ie: he's food trained!). Whilst I was at my Uncle Johns Shop (Beach Aquariums at Bondi Beach) I also picked up 3 more chromis which are schooling nicely in the tank.

The things I saw this weekend

I missed a photo of 2 white Hyundai Excels parked next to each other, one stock and one over the top modified, shame about that, also missed a couple of Indian Miner birds eating someone's dried up vomit on the floor from the night before. But I did get these shots:


Bindi doll.


Mummys girl.


Shame on you Tony Hawk. Shame shame shame.


Sexy fembot.


Diu or no diu.


In Kingsford.


At Shalom on Anzac Parade in Kingsford, ghetto but damn great food. So good it reminded me of my childhood!

2009 Anthem X0

I built up my new bike today. WHOO HOO! More info and pics here.

Oxford sold on eBay

I managed to sell the Oxford on eBay for $102.50. It's not about the money but I'm glad it's going to be used instead of being destroyed (I found it on the side of the road).

In other news I've finally sold my apartment in the city. It was meant to be an investment property for me but it never went up in value, the body corp. fees just kept on rising too. The rental was OK though. Lesson learnt: don't invest in apartments! If I had invested in a house, or even a semi it would have doubled in price by now (apartments rarely double in price?).

In any case, the money will go to renovations on the house I'm living in right now and I've put a little bit of it aside for me to splash out on new toys. I've bought myself a new bike (surprised? NOT!) and Grant messaged me yesterday to say it was in so I'll be picking her up in a sec.

I'm also thinking about getting back on the bike, as in, motor bike... I still have my license and this bike has my name all over it.

Learning to listen

I've always been a loud person but over the years I've gotten better and better at listening to people.

After last Monday night's BMU night ride we stopped of at McDonalds (we're always starving post rides!) and Tai, one of the guys we've been riding with, tagged along. We all know that he's a vegetarian, and we also know he's a strong enforcer of the prevention of cruelty to animals but on that night I asked the right questions and he flowed with the answers.

It turns out that Tai's a very religious guy, so too his wife. He hasn't got a name for his religion, but it seems to take a lot from Buddhism (escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth, re-incarnation, kharma, etc.). He sincerely believes he's going to get "there" (enlightenment? Heaven?) when he leaves this life. He believes he's been put on the planet to be loving and he posed a question of whether or not you could lovingly kill an animal, which in the past few days has got me thinking.

He is living proof that you don't need to eat meat. He's built like a truck and has so much energy on the trails. Is he perfect? Far from it, he indulges in decadent luxurious toys and even sports a leather Louis Vitton wallet, but hey, no one is perfect and he sure as hell is trying.

Instead of arguing (let's call it debating), which I usually LOVE doing. I decided to listen instead and I feel I got a lot more out of it in doing so.

Yesterday I caught up with Tabitha, who used to run Bold, a new media company which took me on as a graphic design intern in 1996.

At the time I had just lost my father, and I'd pretty much lost the plot. I dressed myself up to be as visually offensive as possible, hair extensions, ripped up clothes, stockings, high heeled boots, it was all about attitude and shoving the bad feelings down. If I could have changed my name to fuck, I would have.

I remember the day when I was called in for an interview at Bold. I sent out 100 CV's where I crunched up and distored the type on the CV so hard that you couldn't even read it (IE: My CV as art, attitude, and not just a boring word document). I only got 3 interviews out of 100 CV's sent (I wonder why?).

I was wearing my big boots, stomping down a sun lit hallway, there was a modelling studio I passed, loud music and a photographer yelling out "yeah baby!" then there was Bold. Tabitha was the boss (a woman, yay!) and she wasn't wearing shoes. I knew I wanted to work there straight away. She had her Mac tower propped up on a tall wooden stool which looked like it was going to fall off if anyone ever bumped into it. I asked her why she set it up like so, and she explained that she loved the tension of it (what a lady!). She laughed at my cd-rom presentation folio (where others didn't get it and thought I was too arty) and she gave me the job.

I found Tab on Liz's facebook just a few weeks ago (turns out she's friends with Liz, my old buddy and ex-flat mate. Yes small world). I hadn't seen her in forever, I didn't even know what she would look like, but we arranged to meet up at Bondi Beach where she lives and works. She had just had a swim, and she was looking great! I remembered her voice (people might look different but they always sound the same) and we walked up to a coffee shop and 2hours of great conversation just flew over our heads in what felt like 10 minutes(so much to talk about!). Back when I was 20, she was my boss, my mentor but we were very much talking as equals now (I'm an adult now, right?!) and if anything I almost felt a role reversal.

It turns out Tab's been through some hard times in the past few years, and she's very much healing, re-discovering her worth and in need of good friends and company right now. Again I wanted to talk, so much, but I was so happy to listen too. I'm glad she's back in my life.

650c

Almost there! More here.

Epic Loftus night ride

Short video from last night's epic Loftus night ride :) More pics and chat here.

Weekend wrap

Christina bought a Rubiks cube on Sat, she's been obsessed with it all weekend.

On Sat. night Mum organised a huge traditional Indonesian dinner for my family and Christina's family. Food was awesome, conversation was great, awesome. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time! :)

On Sunday I woke up at 7.30AM to my mobile phone alarm, had to get up to go to the Deus Bicycle Swap Meet! Christina got up too and we met Andy there at about 8.15AM.

Here are some pics:


So me, wish she was mine.


Let me in let me in!


Drool frames. I would have bought the lot (especially the immaculate Colnago or Red Bundy track frame) if they were my size! Most were 58+ in size, many frames were going cheap at $200 and under.


This Paino sold in front of my eyes. Yummy!


This Bundy was sooo tiny! A kiddies road racer, so awesome.


Steel City Cycle.


$70 scored me all of this today :)

I just love what Deus is doing, they're breeding culture. Motorbikes, bicycles, coffee and hot retro cars too. It's such a buzz to see passionate people hang out around the shop.

We also dropped in to Kingsford markets, nothing but Repco's and Huffy's today though so we headed in to vote on the Archibald Prize. Abbey McCulloch is a finalist this year (I'm super happy as I love her work and I own one of her original paintings!).


Bitey sun but otherwise perfect weather.


We also hit the Opera bar for lunch, so good.


PS: All the gear I got today is now on the bike.

Richie road racer

Richie's been after a nice roadie for some time now. Doing up the old Oxford I found on the side of the road got the ball rolling, then we decided to bid on a nice 80's bike on eBay but we lost it at $405.

I asked Grant at MC Cyclery to help out, and turns out he had an 06 TCR in the store room. Story goes that a customer put a deposit on it, but never paid it off so considering it was so many years ago now Grant was willing to let Richie have it for a steal.

We checked out the bike today, it's got full 105 componentry on it which really hasn't changed at all over the years. A full aluminium frame and carbon forks and in Richie's size too. Richie loved the colours, and just had to have it, pedals and shoes were chucked into the deal and Richie's one happy camper!


The bike.


One little pedal in the carpark and Richie was in awe at how fast the thing is!


In other news, head mechanic at MCC Ash made this bike for his girlfriend Mel's B'day. How amazing is it? Click here for more details.


And I found this cracked carbon Scott Ransom frame in the bin at MCC.


Sad, but it's now up on my wall as art :)

Bike night!

I'm selling off a few bikes (to make room for more?!) and sold the Yeti to Timmy (the pink suits him much better in any case) and the Kuwahara BMX is on eBay. We had a bike night last night and Timmy built up his Yeti using parts off his beater. Pics and words here.

Red bits

I tried to avoid sprinkling more red bits on the SE Lager, but failed :) More pics here.

Work update

Running the Australian INfront, JDM Style Tuning, Bikes Move Us and Sex in Art keeps me pretty busy but I do actually work, as well as play you know! So here's just a few links to some work I've been doing.

The Australian Centre for Photography - I've always been a huge fan of the ACP, a photography gallery and school on Oxford St. When they contacted me to come in and act as a designer/consultant for refining their brand and image I was more than happy to get busy. I've just finished designing their new DL sized brochure, you can see a larger version of it here.

CAN Collections Australia Network - This was a big job, took a long time, but it's always fun working with the great people at the Powerhouse Museum.

MeMe Creative - This is my sisters web site. Her and her husband Richie are getting off the ground with their new design business and I've been helping out with HTML work.

JDMyard - Zi wanted a face lift, and he wanted to take off a whole lot of stuff off the old site. So here's the new site, for now.

Diagnostic Medical Co-operative - Corporate work is rarely fun, but it pays for more bike parts!

Pamela Dean - Sometimes you meet really nice people who have no money to make a site, but you help them anyways! I just gave Pamela a simple wordpress driven site so she could go in there and easily edit her own content.

everdure - expensive BBQ's! Due to too many reasons to mention, this job was a bit of a nightmare, shame as it could have been a really sexy site.

MC Cyclery - I've been running the site, blog, print advertising and shop, which a mate of mine Damien designed earlier this year.

I've got much more, but they're either too horrible to show, or not live yet!

Weekend wrap

Christina and I checked out the Sydney Tattoo expo at Homebush on the weekend and we were both quite shocked at how hardcore the event was (it was meant to be a family friendly event). A whole lot of tiny overly cramped stalls (I even saw a tattoo artist tripping over themselves whilst tattooing someone!), packed with people getting tatt's done in front of the crowd looked both un-professional and un-inviting.

So what was missing? Well the shows on TV focus on the stories people have behind getting their tattoos, which in my opinion is the most important and interesting part of getting a tattoo. It's personal and so too is the process of sitting down with your tattoo artist and sharing with them your story whilst getting your tattoo done.

I'm sure many of those who went to the show after being inspired by shows like Miami Ink were shocked enough to not want a tattoo anymore which I think is a shame.

In other news Suga and I travelled far (central coast even!) to visit display homes. The cost of renovating is almost the same cost as pulling down my house to build a new one (albeit a project home which isn't double brick). Still, we're looking into all options.

Return to Menai

Sketchy ride this afternoon, pics and text up here.

What about the brakes Russ?

After a few close calls where the Jazz just wouldn't pull up in time I finally invested in some better brakes.

I got Zi from JDMyard to hunt me down something and he ordered me a set of RDA slotted disc rotors and EBC pads.

The manual Jazz I had before was fine when it came to braking but the CVT just doesn't use the gears to slow down so you're left doing a brake burner early every time you want to stop. This has totally eliminated the sloppy braking and the car hauls up a LOT better now. I'd even say it was punchy and the smell of new brakes bedding in rocks. :)

All in all, for just $375 (Slotted disc $185 pads $190) it's an amazingly radical change. I only wish it was that cheap to make this little slug accelerate faster!!!

I want to get next to you like Rose Royce!

Ooooh yeah I finally bit the bullet and bought up on a period correct Rolls saddle for the Paino. Black suede, gold bling details, she's so yummy for my bummy.

The Ring

Something I hadn't blogged about, but have been meaning to for along time. In 2007 Christina and I attended the AGIDEAS conference in Melbourne. Amongst all the modern and funky styley designers was John. W. Thompson, an old man, who reminded me of Kernel Sanders. He got on the microphone, seemed very nervous, had a great English accent and excused himself in advance for having Attention Deficit Disorder!

A lot of the young audience began to leave the auditorium when John started speaking, shame really as they missed out on an amazing presentation.

It turns out that John's a master hand engraver who still uses the same methods to engrave as were used in the Middle Ages. In the 1960's, he was the last apprentice in his craft to be taken on anywhere in the United Kingdom. Engraving is in the blood, his ancestor was the famed 18th century Hand Engraver William Hogarth.

He was turned down from some schools as his skills surpassed his lecturers, he was then recommended to work for the royal family. He's an amazing typographer as well as engraver and designed Prince Charles' and Princess Di's wedding invites and ring, he came out to Australia and failed to get work at the Mr. Mint as they use electric engravers (he does it all by hand!) but he eventually started his own little business in the Dymocks building on George St. Sydney.

He more recently did the ring for Lord of the Rings and he's been passing all of his skills over to his son who will soon take over the business.

That was a calling card for me. All that history, and he was in Sydney! I just had to pay him a visit, and that Christina and I did. He was so happy to greet us once we told him we'd seen him speak at AGIDEAS, apparently we were the only people who gave him feedback on his talk. Whilst most of his work is with gold and white gold he was so keen to help us out with a special little something and we decided on a font, a message (Inter nos perdite amare volumus [We agreed to love each other madly]) and in silver (which he rarely works with).

It was a long wait but we finally got our rings and we've never taken them off since! Last night I used my super buffing machine to buff them up and they've come alive again :)

Fuck cancer I'm Ezra

I've been a huge fan of everything Ezra Caldwell (aka fastboy) ever since I first visited his site. I've got him on my Flickr contacts and he's always uploading amazing photographs of his life.

It didn't occur to me until this monrning though that he's been diagnosed with cancer (it explains the few shots I've seen of him without hair perhaps).

He's sharing his fight with the world, read up and if you're up for it, offer him your positive words here.

Loftus night ride

Epic 2 lap ride at Loftus tonight, so buggered. More info and pics here.

1-Day

Found these Vans on 1-Day for $40. They're more like slippers than shoes, very comfy! I like!

Kentlyn!

We hit up Kentlyn today out in Sydney's West. Despite a bad night's sleep I was pretty excited about it as it was a new trail to all of us. We just hit all the downhill trails today, one after the other and it was a tonne of fun! More pics, videos and bits on this thread.