185: Sven Nys Does it Right.

The Golden Globes were the other night. Did anyone watch that? I did and I thought everything about it was funny. Possibly lost a few Twitter followers at the same time, but whatever, you were not taking those awards too too seriously were you? I think that Ryan Thomson summed it up best in a text to me later that night "It is like the Cat4 of the Awards shows." And I could guess what CAT1 and 2 are, but what do you think CAT3 would be? Toronto Film Festival Awards? Banff?

Here were some of my favorite moments of the show:

1) Ricky Gervais openly drinking on the screen - right before introducing Mel Gibson.

2) James Cameron speaking in Na'vi (I typed "Nabis" and then looked it up) his retelling of Pocahontas is supposedly phenomenal, but when he spoke, I swear I heard papyrus. (found via Viewers Like You on Twitter)

3)Mickey Rourke

3.5) I'm not even going to mention the T. Phinney cancer blunder, because the NY Times Twittered about Michael C. Hall's head wear. That's the New York Times. Phinney is a child and should have his cell phone taken away. NYT, well they should know better. Thank god for this guy. I wonder what actually happens in "Media Training Day?"

Truth*

4) TJ trying to bust me out for being a hippy and watching TV in PDX. Are you fucking kidding me? Television is hilarious. I just watched a Hershey's ad with two Mermaids (well, one was a Merman) swim through a chocolate ocean to find a treasure chest full of almonds. Life cannot get much better than that. Besides Hippies watch tv and have golden retrievers, and drive jettas, and "make" dreads with their hair.

5) That Ninja Assassin got overlooked. And so did Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (can someone tell me why it took so long for us to hear that Lorenzo Llamas AND Debbie Gibson are in this?)

Besides, go easy on me Cycling Fans. This is what I went to school for, studied if you will. I tried to take every class I could about Cycling, but then I realized that there were no classes about Mountain Biking or the Specialized Rock Hopper which were the two things that I was really into.

So, I took film classes instead and then rode through homeless camps on my Rock Hopper down by the river on my free time (truth.) But this is also why I think I like You Might Find Yourself so much. You can pretty much post any photo of Toshiro Mifune and I will be hooked. Or T. Malick (what indeed is up with Tree of Life?), or an interview with the guy who designed the Funny Games movie poster and how Tim Roth wouldn't have worked with it. Those are all good things.

But so is this...

P.S. have you guys been following this Sven Nys book? Molly let me borrow it at the beginning of the cross season. Ok, well, it might have been earlier in the summer, but check it out MC, I still got it. This book kills me too. Sven does it all and goes the distance in terms of skills, and even in a few cases bikes. He'll take a turn on the MTB...or should I say VTT?

He finds time to put his toe in the "Zand" and I'm guessing talk about the implications of finding that dreadful adversary on the cyclocross course. I for one am a big fan of Zand... seems like a feature that the West Coast cross races are really lacking. Gloucester had it, Northhampton and Beacon CX had it... and no one can seem to find a sandpit out here.

But Nys also talks about running which is nice. Seriously here, could we not have found him a Rabobank Track Suit? Or little running shorts with a slit up the side? Actually, I do not think that fans of Sven would even know what to do if they saw him in "Street Clothes." Last year when Molly and I were travelling there we did see some clothes from the Sven Nys Collection, but those have mysteriously disappeared from the interwebs. Fear not, I have the catalog (do you have it MC?) Somewhere and will dig it out...


Don't worry, I saved the best for last. Think about this one next weekend when you are watching the World Championships unfold (Stybar! Stybar!). Think about his son Tibeaux who has been watching daddy's every move (I mean look at that armor.) Please, every parent that is out there, make a book like this about your profession and then give it to your child.


But really, the payoff here is that Molly re-created this photo (from Memory no less.) I smell new rider cards coming on. Maybe something with Dolphins, Sven-like poses and maybe Debbie Gibson? You Down?



*sorry about the poor photos.

113: Vices, Part Two.

So, with the last post I talked about what is now being called the Brubaker incident. Mainly because I read to much into the situation. Did I discover the real point of the Vice Magazine? Yeah. But the other thing that I discovered was also amazing.

I mentioned the incident out loud stating "now why would Tina Brubaker leave this Vice magazine here?" No one had an answer, however, my good pal Carey mentioned something else. "You've seen her card right? The Manbreaker one."

Excuse me? And that is when this came into my possession.


It brings up a good point and got me thinking about promotions. And scanning in kisses and putting them on cards. I dug around through my bag of tricks (which is really just a bag that I've been carrying around with me for the last year) and came up with some other rider cards that I've found along the way.


Our pal Sven has a few cards to his name too. Here's what you do to get these cards at the European races. Show up. The thing that kind of blows my mind is that we're not doing more of this here, and I think that Tina and Co. are right on track. They are designed by Shannon Holt of Grey Matter, so the cards are going to be a little better than most.

I made a point of getting all the American's that I could find.

There was of course Molly's, but she's usually ahead of the curve when it comes to promotions (I mean, she has me right?) and hers is good. However Trebon? Come on. Seriously. Our National Champion has left the design of his rider card to Swiss Stop. Not America Stop. Or even U.S. Stop. Swiss Stop. Ok, well, at least we're getting some good representation on the world circuit. There is a reason that I tried to hide it behind the others. We need good representation here people.


In fact, let us look to the Euro's and see how they are doing things. Sven Nys pretty much has everything on lockdown. Or at least his lackeys have it down to a science. In fact, here are three examples. The first two look very similar...but they're not. All sponsors represented and then do a second, in color so that the Belgian National Champion has a little bit of a spotlight....and then, into the studio so that we can shoot the one for Betafence.

Here is the key though. Results on the back. Information. The Swiss Stop one had brake pads on the back.

The Marianne Vos card though was the prize. I think that it happens to be bent and trashed like this because Molly tried to wrestle it away from me. Or maybe it was because the race took place on New Years Day and I was more hungover than I've been in a while, or since.

In any case, we got to see her race against Georgia Gould in the Pentage Race in Luxembourg. Then, we got to hang out with her in the Supporters Club afterward and found out that she's also an amazingly sweet and generous person, despite her aggressive racing style. (I shot this at the Pentage race.) World Champ? No big deal.


So, I'm going to put it out there. Who will be making them this year? I have watched grown men beg for these in Belgium. They hoarde them. They drop their cigarettes and literally run toward the people who come to hand them out. And who the hell know's what they're doing with them? Selling them on ebay? Trading them with there friends late at night over beers? Its working though, people know who Molly Cameron is because of her racing, but also because they can look at the card that they've just recieved.

Maybe I'll take some Super Relax cards with me when I head back to Europe late this fall...
Who doesn't want to see a baby faced J. Hufnagel covered in sandwich cookies?