Brompton Bike vs Wilkes-Barre

Wow November 29th, so far this is the longest I've gone without a blog post. In some ways, I feel like this is a good thing because we've been getting a lot done here at Death By Audio. New drywall, new heating ducts, cleaning up the space a bit. In some cases, I've opened up a window here and found I had nothing to say. I've been doing a lot of writing on the side which will not be available to the public until it's in a presentable form. I've also been developing a few ideas I've had with circuitry that I may be posting if they work out. So far, nothing has.

I recently received my Brompton bicycle from my place of employment. For those of you unfamiliar with the bike, it is a 16" wheeled folding bike. This video accurately describes the bike:








I had mixed feelings about this at first, but after the Thanksgiving excursion in Wilkes-Barre, I'm sold on the idea. It is not as fast as my beloved road bike, but for travel purposes it really can't be beat. I threw it underneath the bus and rode back to Wilkes-Barre. In my hometown, the aspect of riding a bicycle long distances (like my house to Wilkes-Barre) seemed unheard of in the past. Yet, I found myself traversing this distance almost every day of my holiday. Despite objections from motorists and even a stop at 3 a.m. by the police, I was overjoyed that I was finally able to get around my hometown without a car. This was probably the first time I came back from a holiday visit to my hometown without feeling bloated and lazy. I actually managed to get some exercise. Since I doubt I'll ever be able to find a replacement for my beloved Nissan Altima, and the idea of owning a car and paying for gas and insurance is not really desirable at this point in time, a bike will be serving as my main form of transportation. I look forward to biking the shit out of other cities and traveling a lot more with this bike.


Thanksgiving with the relatives was nice. Got to catch up with cousins and aunts and uncles. There was a huge feast, as usual. Much later, I got to partake in the vegan Thanksgiving with friends. Lots of jazz and wine and good homemade food. Got to talk to a lot of old friends and meet a handful of new ones. Between Common People Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre and Panksgiving! Thursday night in Scranton, I think I managed to cover all bases in a little under three days.

You know, though I probably wouldn't go back and live there, I like visiting northeast PA on the holidays. There will always be a place in my heart for Wilkes-Barre.

Bohemibot

Over the last few days, my house has been turning into the set of a video shoot for A Place To Bury Strangers. Director Brendan Bellomo and Oliver have been working together to construct a sci-fi virtual reality simulation using a wall of televisions, a variety of Oliver's pedals and homemade instruments, and a metal bowl attached to some cables.

(I took the pictures down, for the courtesy of Brendan's artistic vision, but I'll post the final video when it's done editing.)

As awesome as this set looks, I'm more excited for the finished product and future endeavors by Brendan. We watched his 2009 Student Academy Award Winning film, Bohemibot, a futuristic sci-fi story about a man that loses his wife and child, as well as his hands, in a totalitarian takeover. Working in a sort of concentration camp in space, he copes with the absolute helplessness of this lifestyle and the grief of losing his family. When he meets a child prisoner sentenced to death, he works out a method of escape. Here is the trailer:




The music video will be for the song "Keep Slipping Away" off of Exploding Head. I can't wait to see the final video.