This Is Definitely About the Bike
Innovators always seek to revitalize, extend and reconstruct the status quo in their given fields, wherever it is needed. Quite often they are the rejects, outcasts, sub-citizens, etc. of the very societies to which they bring so much sustenance. Often they are people who endure great personal tragedy in their lives. Whatever the case, whether accepted or rejected, rich or poor, they are forever guided by that great and eternal constant — the creative urge.
- John Coltrane via Brain Pickings
I had been thinking about the All-City Big Block for about three years but didn’t know whether I’d enjoy fixed gear riding where there’s no coasting and if the rear wheel turns the pedal turns and it’s the way bikes worked in the old days so something old is new and I hated the colors of the bike but it was clearly the one so I sold my 1973 Super Beetle that I got in 1988 and jumped into the Silveroo which is a shorter way to say silver Subaru a year ago tomorrow to pick up the bike at a shop in Portland with the thought that I’d finish the bike shop over the summer and then when it cooled down I could repaint the garish colors of the Big Block and here it is a year later and the bike shop is truly close to complete so maybe I can get this bike that I’ve fallen in love with painted soon but this morning I’m going to remember the fun drive over and back to Portland and enjoy listening to Coltrane’s “Blue Train” on this July morning. You can see photos of the bike in the last two editions of these things which is why I posted the photo of Mt. Hood that surely wasn’t taken from the highway...
These things inspired me recently:
Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments of Critical Thinking and Democratic Decency. Number one is “do not feel absolutely certain of anything” and they only get better.
One of the Most Influential Mathematicians...Who Never Actually Lived. Nicolas Bourbaki wrote some of the most understandable books on mathematics, sent invites to his daughter’s wedding, and even had an obituary. How is it that the early 20th Century French had so many very odd and brilliant ideas?
The Rashomon Effect: The Phenomenon, Named After Akira Kurosawa’s Classic Film, Where Each of Us Remembers the Same Event Differently. So then does art imitate life or life imitate art?
Start Before You Think You’re Ready. The idea is to not get stuck in research but in doing. Specifically this is about writing but it applies to anything really. You don’t get the feeling of flying without pointing the wheel down the hill and letting the bike roll.
Mt. Hood Oregon. July 16, 2020.