Freddie Spencer

Work colleague Paul Yeates recently introduced me to one of his many childhood heroes.

Freddie was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1961 and would become one of the greatest road racers that America ever produced. Spencer was a record setter. In addition to winning three world championships, he was the only rider to ever win the 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix World Championship in the same season (1985 being his best season).





(From Left, Freddie Spencer, Kenny Roberts, Ron Halsem, 2nd, 1st and 3rd respectively at the Daytona 200 "Speed Week" 1984.)

Live to Ride, Ride to Live

Don Hearn and John Chester, Pittsburgh, Kansas Police Dept. 1948.

Signs

Cincinnati Dispatch #02

Christian Moerlein
Cincinnati's always been a german town. Beer and pork. How can you not like that? No really? Here's a little on one of Cincinnati's more famed breweries. Salud!

Christian Moerlein was born in Truppack, Bavaria, in 1818. He immigrated to the United States in 1841, eventually settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1842. In 1853, Moerlein established a brewery in Over-the-Rhine, a predominantly German neighborhood in Cincinnati.

In its first year of operation, the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company produced one thousand barrels of beer. In just over a decade, the brewery produced more than twenty-six thousand barrels of beer per year. Between 1812, when the first brewery opened its doors in Cincinnati, to the enactment of Prohibition in 1920, more than fifty different breweries had operated in the city. Moerlein was the most prominent brewer in the city. He sold his product across the United States as well as to other countries. During this time, no other Cincinnati brewery entered the international marketplace. His most popular beer was "Old Jug Lager Krug-Bier." The brewery made Moerlein a wealthy man and The Christian Moerlein Brewing Company continued to operate after his death in 1897. The brewery closed its doors with the enactment of Prohibition in 1920. In 1981, new owners resurrected the company, which continues to use the Moerlein name today.

This isn't the brewery, but a bar in New York City touting some Moerlein draft. (Via Shorpy)




(via Ohio History Central)

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

Tuesday night, a work colleague and I went and saw the movie The Road, (based on Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic novel of the same name). If you’ve ever seen it, you can relate to my actions upon coming home in a daze... grabbing a beer, a cigarette, and immediately searching for guns on the internet.

After a couple of sleepless nights, I realized that living in New York City would allow for scant disaster survivability, whether natural or terror induced. Chances are, I’d be a quick and handsome corpse, but in the event that I had to grab my girl, my bro and go, I’d need some essentials on my Escape From Nueva York.

Springfield Armory M1911 .45

Classic, powerful, and truly an American native.
The quick story is that the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) proved the .38 caliber round to be less effective against determined opponents (most notably Moro Warriors fired up on drugs). So the US Army went shopping for a replacement pistol with bigger punch. In heated testing against the German Luger (?), Mr. John Browning took the contract with the soon to be named M1911, which was built around his newer and stouter .45 ACP cartridge. In fact, he designed the gun so well in 1911, that it became the standard side arm for US forces until 1985. Considered one of the most popular semi-automatic pistols ever made. And it’s styled like a Cadillac.

Ultimate Survival Technologies StrikeForce Fire Starter



Metal to Magnesium will give you sparks three times hotter than the standard match. Also has a built in waterproof tinder compartment to get things going. Need a ready-made fire starter? Take an empty cardboard egg carton, add lint from a dryer lint filter into each cup, pour melted paraffin wax about 2/3 full. Freeze. Cut carton into individual little starters. Done. When needed, put a little toilet paper, dry grass, whatever on one of these things, hit the magnesium striker and you’re ready to keep the wolves at bay. Finally my childhood Boy Scout knowledge goes to use.

Gerber LMF II Infantry Knife

4.8” blade will cut anything from firewood to seat belts. Pointed buttcap can shatter glass. Sheath has built in sharpener. My quick internet research has concluded that hollow, compass-ended “Rambo” knives are more Hollywood than practical. Quick note on Gerber Legendary Blades courtesy of Amazon: “Joseph Gerber started Portland, Oregon's Gerber Advertising back in 1910, and one Christmas, he hired a local knife-maker to craft 25 sets of kitchen cutlery as client gifts. The knives were so popular, Mr. Gerber ultimately left his agency to launch Gerber Legendary Blades in 1939.” —Just in time for the impending “Nazzzi Scalp” business.

Etón FR600B Solarlink


Alright. It’s got AM/FM, SW (Short-Wave), all 7 NOAA weather channels plus S.A.M.E. Technology. S.A.M.E. (Specific Area Message Encoding) is a must for any emergency radio, as it allows you to receive weather warnings to your area after punching in your county code. On top of that, it has a hand-crank dynamo, solar panel on the handle, four white and one red LED light and USB cell phone charger connectors. It has gotten some reviews stating it’s dinky, but for a portable that’s not military grade, it seems to have a variety of ways to grab energy (dynamo crank, battery, solar) and keep you connected.

Good Night and Good Luck.

Picture from Grandpa Joe Sr.

This is a photo of my grandpa posing with a stoned friend. HIS sister Rose, and my Grandma Joan taking the picture. I love this photo. It's hanging on the wood paneled wall of my grandparents basement and i've put my mark on it.

This image was taken by my brother and grandpa on his camera phone, after they mentioned to him that I wanted it. He then baited me with the text message "Look what grandma and grandpa gave me!" I bit, furiously texting my ownership. Look at them in the reflection of the glass giggling like little school girls. Jerks.

The Vice Guide to Liberia

This looks informative, insane, and prophetic.
Societal breakdown and open warfare. Two things you never want in your life.
I'm sure of it.
Warning: Graphic

Roger & Co. / The Nickel Tour

Welcome!
Thought I'd invite you over for a drink. Look through some old books. Show each other some internet findings.
Or we can just enjoy our drinks. No rush in 2010.

Thanks for stopping by.

Always True

Oregon, August 1939

"Unemployed lumber worker goes with his wife to the bean harvest. Note Social Security number tattooed on his arm." (And now a bit of Shorpy scholarship/detective work. A public records search shows that 535-07-5248 belonged to one Thomas Cave, born July 1912, died in 1980 in Portland. Which would make him 27 years old when this picture was taken.) Medium format safety negative by Dorothea Lange.

(via Shorpy)
If you're not familiar with Shorpy, it's an online archive of high-resolution photos from the 1850's to 1950's. It's really an amazing resource.

Crash Test 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air VS. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu

This is how the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety celebrate their 50th Anniversary, by showing how far car safety has come. As thought provoking as it is to watch, it must have been brutal to wreck that '59 Bel Air.


(via BoingBoing)

The Bikeriders / Danny Lyon

For a project at work researching motorcycle gangs, I fell across the photographic work of Danny Lyon.

After some of his earlier work photographing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's involvement with the civil rights movement in the early '60's, Danny embarked on a study of outlaw motorcyclists between 1963-1967, photographing, riding with, and eventually joining the Chicago Outlaws MC. A product of his time with the Outlaws is The Bikeriders.

Stay Classy CNN

CNN's new online format places an ad next to the headlines of the day.
Might be worth vetting these to avoid awkward juxtapositions.

Good Luck Fellas

HUZZAH! To the Cincinnati Bengals (10-6)!
Swept the AFC North and playing in there second Playoff game in 19 years.
A successful season as far as i'm concerned.
Who-Dey!

Postcard from Grandpa Joe Sr.

A note from a man that never misses a party.

Behold the Future 2

Mom got Street Chopper Magazine in the early seventies.
Dad got Uncle Sam.

Pictures from a book he received (make you buy? probably.)
upon completing Marine Corp. boot camp at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. 1970-1971.
One of his proudest accomplishments.

California to Ohio to California 1972

Lost photos from my parents road trip as young twenty-somethings.
Mother from Anaheim.
Father from Cincinnati.
Met in California when my father was stationed at Camp Pendleton.

Good Morning 2010