I finished everything!
Repairs, newbies, even the last few remaining bikes out back, either scrapped out, or rebuilt and the sudden, awful, sinking feeling set in, that today, I would be faced with doing...
BUSY WORK!!!
AHHHHHHHHH!
Well, thankfully, as I started my morning off with a brisk sweeping, cleaning my bay (YUCK!), reorganizing the wheel rack (AGAIN!) and smartening up by making set's to hang in front of the racks so as to relieve some of the precarious "Stacking", and of course, rotating the bike stock I was relieved to pick up a sweet, classic Peugeot Hybrid. She needs some work, but HEY it beats the heck out of having to sort through the "left overs!'
Happy Pant's Dance!
As mentioned, we put out a total of five newbies yesterday, with pics of three below. The other two are simple kiddo rides, not having that "umph" for a pic!
As well, we sent two to a new home yesterday. Well, that is to say, our new friends from the UK used a credit card over the phone to retain them for this weekend when they arrive. On the vacation plan, we'll be getting them back n a couple weeks, anyway. It was during this phone call, when I jokingly stated that as part of the deal he had to bring me a "Top Gear" T-Shirt from England, he informed me that would be difficult as the show had been axed!
WHAT!!!!!
OK, so here's my diatribe on this one! If you're not in the know on this, let me just explain that "Top Gear" is a Fact Based Reality show, based in England that is THE most popular show, All...Over...The....World!
Literally.
This show has been around for 38 years, and became meteoric after it's re-launch in 2002, due specifically to it's host's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. Their irreverent style, dry British humor and their propensity to insult and poke fun at just about EVERY class of people, ethnicity and body politic (not to mention, something I found particularly humorous, cyclists)
Apparently, their main presenter and Producer Jeremy Clarkson, who is NO stranger to controversy, got into a fight and hit another producer. Granted, it was announced last year, that the trio would be most likely calling it quits after another three seasons, but this "fracas" sounded the death knell a tad bit sooner. The show, and it's remaining three episodes were pulled from the BBC's line up, and as of yet, I can find no solid Intel as to the future of the show. I can only assume, it will return in some form or fashion, but the trio that held the reigns, and took this show to SUCH limits, will be sorely missed! Given the attempts that have been made to reproduce the show in other countries (the US included) have been opaque, sickly bastard children. I can't say as I hold out much hope!
And, speaking of ugly offspring...
Angi informed me the other day that there were plans to "reboot" the "Crow" movie!
Hollywood....you suck!
Isn't it bad enough that you are putting someone else behind the Joker paint, a blatant spit in the eye to the masterful legacy of Heath Ledgers perfect interpretation, and unfortunate subsequent demise, but NOW you're going to deface the memory of Brandon Lee!?!
A bit of background: the original movie, based on the graphic novel of the same name, is a dark and mournful tale of revenge. Eric Draven, a Goth Rocker and his fiancé are attacked in their home by a group of street thugs. Eric is killed, his bride-to-be, defiled and then died from her wounds. One year later, Eric's love for his lady is so great, he is allowed to return from the dead to enact his revenge on those who killed them. Here's the thing. Were this only a reboot of just another good movie, it would be one thing, but Brandon Lee (son of the great Bruce Lee) was killed during the filming! As the production was on a tight schedule, it was reported that the prop guns (real guns with blanks) had not been "properly" cleaned between takes, and as it turns out, a piece of shell casing hit Brandon, and he later died of his injuries. More superstitious folks, blame his death on the fabled "Lee Family Curse", but in reality, it was an accident with a little bit of carelessness to help it along. The point is, it was bad enough, they made sequels to the original (not to mention a bloody TV series), but NOW, they're "going back to formula!"
It was a good movie. No, a GREAT movie! And, of course, the only thing Hollywood execs see are dollar signs! STOP tampering with what has been done well. I'm sure there are a lot of decent ideas or scripts flashing across desks, why not take a chance and give us something new and exciting, with the same heart, not defiling the original for the all powerful opening weekend returns! PAH-LEASE!!
ANYWHO!
I'm gonna git a move on, as these thoughts are making me a tad bit peeved!
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| 26" LADIES 6 SPEED CRUISER!! ONLY $80.00!! |
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| 20" SCHWINN FALCON!! ONLY $35.00!! |
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| 26" DUAL SHOCK MTB!! ONLY $75.00!! |
Sweeeet... Someone is going to get very nice, comfy city bike with that lady's 6-speed cruiser. Well done, sir!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the account I read of Brandon Lee's death was a bit more complicated, and goes something like this:
ReplyDeleteThe gun was a revolver. If you film with revolvers, you need to know that if you load the gun with blanks, it will look empty, as you can see four out of six cylinders in any front view of the weapon, and the blanks lack a bullet, so they won't show. It looks silly.
To counter that (voice of experience here, by the way), you have the local reload shop construct a set of dummy rounds; that is, they assemble bullets in a brass casing, but minus the powder. It looks good in the front view, but won't fire. No powder. (You simply swap it out for the powdered blank round for the moment the gun is fired.)
HOWEVER: Whoever assembled that production company's dummy rounds used LIVE primers- a serious breach of safety rules there. As the gun was used the day before, the trigger was pulled, and a there was a muffled "POP". No one thought anything of it, and no one checked the gun afterwards. They were just dummy rounds, right?
As it turned out, the live primer and powder residue in the "empty" brass casing were enough to push the bullet in the dummy round up into the barrel, where it lodged, unnoticed. So the next day the gun gets loaded with blanks, each with a very serious amount of powder for that "big boom" effect. But there's a bullet half way up the barrel. Someone points the "blank gun" at B. Lee and pulls the trigger, and the bullet gets delivered just as though it was a live round.
Blanks are exceptionally dangerous, mostly because no one thinks they are. We only used them in one of our movies, and once was enough.
Thank you sir, for filling in the blanks. As I've mentioned before, I am sometimes not to up on current events, and took the initial report, after the tragedy, as gospel.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a case, after that, I believe, of an American actor putting a blank gun to his head and pulling the trigger.(Figuring, I'm sure, what the hey, it's a blank, right?) In that situation, the blast out of the gun muzzle drove a portion of his skull into his brain just as it would have any bullet, and killing him just as effectively.
ReplyDeleteWe had a tough time buying blanks for the big Ruger Blackhawk .45LC revolver we used for filming, even using a police office as our weapons property master. Reload shops hate to make them, knowing how very dangerous they are.