Last year I spent a lot of time in Portland and it’s the perfect city to contrast Los Angeles. I’m way too East Coast-y angst-y to live there but visiting is like a vacation from reality. The cars are made of vegan cake and you can usually find me riding down the middle of the street with no helmet while eating tofu scramble with nutritional yeast sauce.
I use Bethlehem pretty loosely to include Easton, Allentown, etc.
After diligently collecting photos from all the cities I visit for my 3 Photos project I have been very undiligent about posting them. After spending time in over a dozen cities this year I think it’s time to bring it back.
Each of us experiences space in a unique way. Everything we have done and seen leading up to our time in a new place sets up how we will interpret it. I spent much of my teenage years visiting new places- but mostly BMX trails, skateparks and street-riding spots. I could tell you where a great wallride or handrail is in Chicago, but have no idea about where to eat or what else to do. Then food became my obsession and each new city meant new places to eat! Even now when I visit a place like Pittsburgh, where I have been dozens of times, I see it in a new way depending on my most recent experiences. I started this project to force myself to take a minute and evaluate my environment and the emotions they trigger. Some are obvious, some are silly and some will only make sense to me, but I’m joyed to share them all with you. Thanks for looking.
After much work, I am so incredibly excited about the launch of a Kickstarter Fundraiser for our Day in the Life series! I always hate asking for money. I’m too punk and too DIY. That’s one of the reasons I never do any of those charity rides. But this project has gotten bigger than we can afford out of our pockets. It’s a nice problem to have. We’ve set up a bunch of great rewards for people who have the means to donate like a one-of-a-kind print, a True Love Health t-shirt, copies of Appetite for Reduction signed by both Isa and I, a dvd, personal consultations…check out the Day in the Life Kickstarter page for all the info! Also note that I don’t get any of the actual money- 100% of it goes to production costs. We’ve some pretty outstanding athletes in mind for the next few episodes. Help us get to them!
I know not everyone can donate money, but you can help out by promoting our page through whatever channels you have at your disposal. Twitter and Facebook are obvious, but what about email-lists and people you work with? Also consider the ShareThis links below this post. Everything helps and I’m super appreciative of the positive feedback we’ve already received. Thank you!
And for fun here’s a music video I did BMX stunt work for in NYC way back in 1998 (I’m one of the three guys doing the tricks- while wearing suits!). If you look closely you can see the three of us BMX kids dancing awkwardly at the party on the boat. So fun!
Going through trip photos and I love this one. Solo bike touring puts you very much in your head. You adapt to your new life as a transient so quickly and a giant mirror in a grocery store gives you a rare glimpse of yourself from the outside.
This is 11 or 12 days in. My kit is filthy. I had been looking for tortillas obsessively in every store I stopped in for two days and finally found them. When you’ve stripped your life down to the basics something as simple as finding them is like winning the lottery. I smiled for hours. In my mind this photo captures these feelings.
I already miss being on the road.
Early last month I went to see Happy: The Movie (trailer below). Like Hare Krishna books and gifs of puppies, I have a soft-spot for the subject of happiness. It’s what we are all searching for, no? The rich want to get richer to have more stuff and more experiences in order to be happier, right? When it comes down to it this is the fundamental question: What makes us happy?
The film was better than I thought it would be. I (wrongly) assumed it would have more of a minimalist / ‘live simply’ slant. As in, ‘look at these poor, happy people and these unhappy rich people’ but it had more depth than that. I especially enjoyed the discussion with researchers on the science of happiness. The conclusions on what makes people happy- mainly having passion(s), close friends and family to share with and be supported by- are obvious. It got me thinking how these statements relate to the ‘live simply’ mantra. I have always interpreted ‘live simply’ as consume less and lower your impact on the world. Connecting it with the film’s messages I now see it also as ‘think simply’. I don’t know about you, but I always find ways to complicate simplicity.
A few weeks later I was on a day-trip to Mexico on motorcycles with my friend Mark (the one who had the gnarly crash). We’ve been friends since we were teenagers and we’ve both had a plethora of life experiences. We got talking and came up with a statement that went something like this: We wish we could be happy drinking beer and watching football. Imagine if it was that simple! I’ve always been slightly envious of those whose joy comes with such ease. Mark’s fun and happiness come from racing motorcycles at over 100 MPH. Significantly more time and energy to get the same result as the person kicking back on a Sunday with a beer.
But, Mark has found something that makes him happy. And he recognizes that it does. And makes changes when parts of it no longer do. Maybe our brains cannot be as simple as we’d sometimes like, for a reason. Maybe those with their couch seat belts locked in aren’t as happy as they or I think? Here we go with the thinking and complicating…
Another part of the film discusses being a part of bettering the world as a way to be happier. I have felt this. I’ve spent my entire adult life doing it and it’s not always a path to happiness. Maybe the average person who works at a soup kitchen goes home and thinks, ‘ah, how rewarding to help those poor people,’ but my mind doesn’t work that way. I go home and think, ‘why the fuck is there poverty and how can I change that?’
Is ignorance bliss? Yikes. I hope not. My point, which seems to be moving away from me the more I write, is that maybe we’re not letting ourselves be happy. We ‘get’ what’s happening in London. We’re mad. But most of us have what we need to be happy. Passion. Friends. Family. That anger that makes us fight, can and should be joyous (does everything I write end up sounding like Crimethinc wrote it?). And maybe just everyday life doing what you love with people you care about is enough. Right?
