I had kind of forgotten about these guys, until one of my old homies from HS brought them up on FB. So, thanks, Mike! I first heard of Digable Planets on a compilation album that I picked up for free at this record shop I used to work out. The compilation is called “Jazzafunkapyschadelic.” It’s a mouthful. At the time I had no clue about organic New York hip hop. I thought the song was so great though. It was called “Time and Space.” I went straight out and bought “Blowout Comb” (1994). For me, it is one of those mellow albums that I can play straight through from track #1 to the end w/o skipping anything.

One of the many things that make this group unique, is the Lady Bug-factor. Black Eyed Peas weren’t the first ones to come up with the great idea adding some female vocals to spice things up. Only, in my opinion, Fergie ruined BEP, whereas, Lady Bug totally makes Digable Planets. She doesn’t even sing, but she doesn’t need to, because her voice has such a buttery sound, even when she is just reciting rhymes. The track that I’m sharing today is called “Where I’m from.” It was released on the “Reachin’” album, in 1993. Plug in the lava lamp, take a Valium, and press play.

Piper was an energetic maniac today. We had so much fun with her. She was in the mood to do some major standing today. She wasn’t even wearing her good shoes for standing . She was standing on the floor hanging on to the bottom of her crib bars for support. Then she started chewing on the bars. Kinda gross, but cute.

Of course Piper had some snuggle time.

And some finger puppet time.

Here for the rest of the photos.

The plan was to get up super early and go on this epic ride today, for Summer Streets. I had mentioned the plan to our friend Col, the night before. So embarrassingly enough, Reagan and I were still in bed, trying to decide whether or not to go, when Col called and was like “where are you guys?” That, apparently was we all of the motivation that we needed. We hurried to throw on some clothes, round up some other friends and headed out the door. Col had already made his way downtown a bit, so we picked up our friends Jared and Debi on the way down to 72nd Street. After some minor confusion, we met up with Col at the 125th Street Piers. We had an awesome relaxing ride all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge. It wasn’t really crowded, either. The weather was the most amazing thing ever. It almost felt like fall, this morning. Cool and breezy.

We took a little breather at City Hall before heading over to Battery Park City for some lunch.

As we were sitting down for lunch (on a patio near the Hudson), we saw some police boats speeding up river, but didn’t think much of it. We decided to head back up the Hudson River Path, on the way home, since Park Ave. was only blocked off until 1. Around 14th street, we started encountering massive gatherings of fire trucks and police cars. At first, I thought it may have been some sort of drill or exercise, until I started seeing all of the camera. When CNN shows up, it is pretty safe to assume that something major is going on. That whole section of the West Side Hwy. was blocked off, going south bound and completely littered with emergency vehicles. When we came up on the 30th Street Heliport, the only helicopters there were all NYPD, and they all had their rotors going. Looking out into the Hudson, there was a pretty tight gathering of Police and fire boats. At that point, I thought that maybe one of ferry’s had capsized.

This is where we finally stopped and asked some cops what was going on. They told us that there had been a mid-air collision between two aircraft. I didn’t stop to take any photos, because it was pure chaos. As we made our way farther up the path though, I did stop and snap a few. But, it wasn’t of any crashes. Just old subway cars loaded on a barge.

We had an awesome morning, and a really great ride. Reagan has really been a champ about these 25+ mile bike rides that I keep dragging her on, weekend after weekend. I feel bad for the people who crashed.

Here are the rest of the Photos from our ride.

I came across this fancy little product from Contexture Design, via Fresness. I’m not really sure why a person would want to take a smaller version of a device (conceptually made smaller to be more convenient) and bulk it back up with such a large case. But I do like the aesthetic. Maybe they can make one for full sized Ipods out of old 8-track shells.

Reagan and I are going camping with some friends, weekend after next. We are totally excited about it. We are going to this place near Bear Mountain, which also happens to have some climbing nearby. Ok, it doesn’t just happen to. My friend Col and I looked for about 2 hours on-line, one afternoon, to find a place not too far away, that we could camp and climb. So, in the spirit of not being totally embarrassed of my diminished climbing abilities, I accepted an offer from Col, Aubrey and Leslie to join them for a bouldering session in Ft. Tryon Park last night. It was a lot of fun. Aubrey had to bail a little bit early because of rowdy kids, and Reagan couldn’t make it because of a hair apt. Leslie and Col were both exhibiting some serious skills. Here are a couple of shots of them.

As pathetic as I was, I still had a lot of fun. I definitely have not used those forearm or back muscles for way too long.

Speaking of getting in shape, I have my first physical therapy session today, for my knee. I will be going to the orthopedic Dr. tomorrow for x-rays and such. I don’t have any races for the entire month of August. So I’m hoping that they can whip me into shape in time for our next race on September 12th (then a half marathon on the 20th). I’m going a bit stir crazy, not being able to run for more than a hand full of miles at a time.

Finally, a funny story about this morning: I parted my hair and combed it over to the side this morning. I don’t know. I just thought I would switch it up, a bit. When I came out of the bathroom, Reagan said “Hey, you look like Don Draper!” I was like “yeeahhh, baby.” I continued getting ready, and was contemplating buying a gray flannel 3 piece suit, when Reagan came walking down the hall and asked if she looked like Don Draper too. I turned around and she had slicked all of the hair on the top of her head over to one side. Hahahahahah. Nice.

From a purely aestheic perspective, these things are a 9 and 1/2 out of 10. The fact that they are also functional is an added bonus. Make Blog re-posted them from Iwan Roberts‘ blog Dau Gi Bauch, where he writes about having constructed them for his friend’s 21st birthday. Roberts, can we get and instructables page on these babies?

If  you read Wooster, then you have already seen this. I thought it was extremely cool though. Enough to re-post. The artist is Strøk. Diver at low, and high tide.  [click thumbs for larger images]

If you have nine and one half minutes to spare, here is the original Gothic vampire jam. When Peter Murphy and gang refer to Bela, on this joint, they aren’t referring to the cutsy Bella, from the sparkly skinned “Twilight” vamp clan. They are talking about Bela Lugosi. I’m not really sure what all of the rage is about these days, with this seeming vampire craze in pop culture. One thing is for sure, it certainly would have validated all of the goth kids I went to Jr. high, with. Hahahaha. I don’t remember who I was having that conversation with, recently. But it was a good one.

Anyway, If you love “Twilight,” “True Blood,” or “[insert other trendy vamp crap here],”chances are, you didn’t grow up listening to Bauhaus (Julie T. excluded, of course). But it’s never too late to get on board. They even have an album called “Gotham,” in case there is any ambiguity. If you don’t recognize Bauhaus, you may be familiar with their front man, Peter Murphy. He went on to have a solo act. He wrote, “strange kind of love,” etc. Anyway, here is “Bela Lugosi’s [un]dead.” As mentioned, it is a bit lengthy, but well worth it, if you are in a vampy kind of mood. Give it a spin.

Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, I was participating in outdoor activities since before I could walk or talk. As a result, my family always had a generous stockpile of gear. Among the various backpacking, camping and hiking items, were several varieties of canteens. We had mostly the G.I. style, that were army green and hooked into a gear belt through little steel eyelets.

The old-school canteen, that was pretty much the standard, when I was younger, was later replaced by Nalgene style bottles. It seems like Nalgene is now being outmoded by the aluminum bottles, especially since all of the warnings about chemical leeching have come about.

Last night, we were watching the opening night of Shark Week, on Discovery, and I saw an ad for stainless waterbottles, which claimed to be better than both plastic and aluminum. Hmmmm. But until today, I hadn’t seen any water bottle company that has tried to work the fashion accessory angle.

One of my friends forwarded me a link to the US Canteen site, this morning. The idea is a little bit corny, but I have to admit I like the idea of not having to carry a water bottle in my hand. Also, the over-the-shoulder sling beats out the old gear belt in form and function.

They come in a bunch of different styles of bottle, and carrier. Apparently they are all on sale right now, also. Check em out.

First of all, Bloomberg’s Summer Streets are back, starting next weekend. I’m pretty pumped about that.

We had so much fun last year. I was able to ride Park Avenue, all three weekends. We are going to be camping on the 15th, this year, so we will be missing that weekend for sure, but I think that we are going to try to take full advantage on the 8th and the 22nd. Here are some links to photos from last year. From 8-23-08, and from 8-16-08.

Saturday morning, I went for a run from our house to the piers at 125. My knee was hurting from the outset. Reagan rode her bike down and met me there. The initial plan was for me to keep going, down into the 70′s and try to get in 12 miles or so. Because of my knee issues, it didn’t exactly work out that way. I hung out with Reagan for a bit, tried to stretch out my ITB, then ran home. So I ended up having 2 quick 3 mi. runs. Lame. I decided that it is bad enough I’m going to go to the doctor this week and see what is going on with my stupid knee. It’s getting ridiculous.

Yesterday, the rain was back monsoon style. So we opted out of seeing Coldplay last night. I was able to get caught up on a couple of weeks worth of sleep though. Something about hearing the rain hitting the window ledge.

Piper is doing extremely well these days. Yesterday, she had a great visit with some of her friends, and Reagan wrote all about it.