Awamori Time

My pics on 'VANCOUVER IS AWESOME'

VANCOUVER IS AWESOME recently held a 'FLICKN AWESOME' party that featured 99 local photographers & more than 200 photographs.

Unfortunately I was in NYC and didn't make it on the night but it's cool to know they featured some of my pics.

PS: I know they spelled my name wrong on their site... they got it right on the invite though!

See the website

Whistler Bike Park

I finally got around to finishing the editing on our helmet cam footage from the Whistler Bike Park a couple of months ago. We rented GoPro Helmet HERO cams from the bike shop for the afternoon and the guy burnt us 2 DVD's with each of our footage. Jon just bought the HD version which we plan on testing out in a couple of days... back at Whistler again, only with our snowboards instead of bikes.



GoPro HD HERO®: Pre-Production Test Footage

New York, New York

Last week I flew to New York to catch up with my room mates and a few other friends from my semester exchange at Cortland University in 2002. I spent the first night in a hotel near Times Sq. with my French mate Alex and his girlfriend Laury. We had a late lunch in Little Italy then went back to the hotel to chill with some beers and football.

The next day I got my head shaved at one of the old school barbers like you see in the movies.



Then we we got the A train up to 110th street and walked around Columbia University campus and over to Tom's Cafe (from Seinfeld) then back to the hotel.



When we got back we packed up and jumped in a cab to Newark airport to meet up with Ben when he flew in.

We picked up out Ford Expedition from Hertz and hit the road for upstate New York.



After about a 5hr drive we arrived at Fayetteville, near Syracuse, to Kate and Paul's place. Kate was our R.A. and next door neighbor at Cortland and we played basketball will Paul... they're now married with 1.5 kids and living the dream. They laid out some beers, home-cooked dinner and a bed for the night.





The next day we drove down to Cortland and found a cheap hotel for the night. We drove to West Campus, where we lived for the semester and caught the bus onto the campus where we had lunch, took some pics, used the phone, played some basketball and reminisced.









Our old apartment





That night we went out to the Dark Horse Tavern and played beer pong. After being ousted in the second round (thank god) we hit the road. We had grand plans to go to good ol' Frank and Mary's diner for a late night feed but to our extreme disappointment it was only open 24 hrs Thursday through to Sunday. So we grabbed a pizza slice and headed back to the hotel and fired off a few rounds with the BB gun, aiming at a Red Bull can on top of a cardboard box we set up in the parking lot.

The next morning we met Liz, who was the international student coordinator when we were there, for breakfast at Frank and Mary's.



Frank and Mary's

We did a load of washing at a nearby laundromat before hitting the highway towards NYC. We pulled of at one stage to get a few more shots of the BB gun in before we had to ditch it. We found a great place down a side road, set up a bunch of cans then I took one shot and the gun jammed up... daaamn! That's what you get for $24.99.



The BB Gun in the Expedition

We were supposed to have the car back by 5pm at Newark airport but as we drew closer the peak-hour traffic held us up. I called the Hertz office and asked if we could drop the car back in Manhattan, near the hotel in the Meatpacking District. They said that would be fine so I got my first chance driving through the middle of the city in peak hour... now I see why they love their SUV's in the US. It's not for off-roading, it's for dominating the traffic!

Friday we wandered around town sampling gourmet peanut butter sandwiches and getting a load of pics. I caught up with Jason, another mate from university, in the city for lunch and then we all met up at Grand Central Station and later went for dinner in Hell's Kitchen.



Peanut Butter & Co.



Grand Central

Ben and I decided to kick on afterward in the East Village and stumbled upon a series of live acts at a place called Under St. Marks on St Marks Place.



Under St Marks

After that we met up with Deven, a mate from Melbourne who was working just down the road at Tuck Shop, an Australian meat pie shop. We grabbed a few beers from the bodega around the corner, sampled some of the wares and kept him company for an hour or so.



Tuck Shop

Saturday morning Alex and Laury went shopping in midtown while Ben and I explored DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in the rain then made our way back to our hotel via Soho.



DUMBO

Alex and Laury returned exhausted with a bunch of shopping bags full of presents for friends and family back in France. We all had a few drinks and then they packed their stuff ready for their flight home later that night. When they were ready we helped them onto the subway and made our way to East Village to meet up with some more university classmates at a a karaoke bar called Sing Sing. Unfortunately Alex and Laury had to leave for JFK around 10pm. It turned into a massive/awesome night catching up with people we haven't seen in over seven years and meeting some new friends.



'Crazy Mike' our old flatmate

Sunday Ben and I moved from our massive room at Hotel 309 to the Loft Hostel in Brooklyn where we got a private room with an ensuite for $80 US.



Loft Hostel Room

Then we spent over two hours getting to Giants stadium for their game against the Cowboys. It was well worth it to see the Giants get up against the favorites in front of a sell-out home crowd.



When we got back into the city we met Deven at his studio/loft/gallery/apartment in SoHo... talk about living the life!! And we met a bunch of his mates at the second oldest pub in NY.



Deven's Place

Monday we rented some bikes from a shop near the Willimasburg bridge and rode all the way along the water and 1st Ave. up to meet Renee in East Harlem for lunch. Afterward we rode through Central Park, Times Square and Soho and back to drop off the bikes. It was an incredible rush riding through NY in peak hour, dodging traffic and pedestrians all over the place. We then went back to the hostel to pack up and head for home.

Can't wait to be there again!

New York City Dec. 09 from Jeremy Aiken on Vimeo.

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Cypress Mountain Boarding

Went up to Cypress today and there was barely anyone there which was awesome. We were bombing the Collins run and on the chair lift started talking about how fast we thought we may have been going. I remarked that it would be cool if there were a speedometer iPhone app and next minute Jon had downloaded one so on the next run he held the phone up in front of his face the whole way down... the record for the day stands at 69kmph. Probably a little faster than we were supposed to be going on the run with all the "No fast skiing" signs all the way down and the "Speed Controllers" were also all over the hill. We stopped 1/2 way down on one run right where one of the Speed Controllers was waiting and I just had to tell her about the 69kmph run... she looked at us with a half smile, half frown and then suggested we move to another run where we could go even faster!



Unfortunately Jon didn't get a screen capture at 69kmph... but this is what the app looks like...

Proof that girls are evil

Whistler Boarding - 1st day of the season

Awesome Slick Rick Verse

Mos Def - Auditorium

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Lyrics to the Slick Rick Verse...

Sit and come relax riddle off the mac, its the patch
Imma soldier in the middle of Iraq
Well say about noonish commin out the whip
And lookin at me curious, a young Iraqi kid (awww)
Carrying laundry, whats wrong G? hungry?
No, gimme oil or get fuck out my country
And in Arabian barkin other stuff
Till his moms come grab him and they walk off in a rush

I'm like surely hope that we can fix our differences soon (bye!)
White apples I'm breakin on
You take everything why not just take the damn food like
I don't understand it, on another planet?
51 of this stuff how I'm gunna manage?
And increasing the sentiment gentlemen
Gettin down on that middle eastern instruments
Realized trappin is crap
Walk over kicked one of my fabulous raps (la dee da dee)
Arab jaw dropped they well wished they glad wrapped
Now the kid considered like an Elvis of Baghdad

Special player coments are gold!

Anyone know who that is saying "BLOCK THAT SH#T"?

U2 Concert

My first shift at BC Place just happened to be the U2 concert. Because I was being shown the ropes by Brendan I didn't have a whole lot to do so was able to see the pre-show rehearsal and most of the concert. We obtained a copy of the set list right at the start so it was good to know when was a good time to visit the boys.

Rehearsal just before the show

The set list

The stage

Bono on the revolving bridge

Canucks v Oilers

We bought tickets to the Canucks v Oilers game a few days prior and for $75 we got back row seats.. literally back row. During the first period we noticed there were 2 unoccupied seats in the 6th row. So at the break we double-fisted a couple of beers (to make it way to hard to extract our tickets at the gate when asked) and cruised on in... nobody said a thing.

Brendan with his (losing) Oilers...

A-Team Downtown Vancouver

Yesterday we went down to the big ski/snoboard clearance at the Convention Centre and they were filming the new A Team movies in the surrounding streets. I managed to get a bit of video of one of the action scenes taking place...

NBA Preseason - Suns v Trailblazers

When the city you live in no longer hosts an NBA team you have to make the most of any opportunity to get to a game. Living in Australia most of my life I have gotten used to this. The good people of Vancouver however, lost their Grizzlies to Memphis back in 2001 and although there were still some old Grizzlies jerseys in the crowd, many Vancouverites have adopted the Phoenix Suns as their home team because of their favorite Sun (pardon the pun) 2-time NBA MVP Steve Nash.

Unfortunately the Trail Blazers trounced them after 1/2 time and Steve was off the court most of the second half. One of the highlights for us can be seen in picture 4, down the page.

I think I'll be making the trip to Portland later in the season to see the Blazers again... they're looking good!

PS: If you haven't seen these Steve Nash Vitamin Water Ads yet... take a look they're gold!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a novelty for Australians. Last year I was lucky enough to have an awesome lunch prepared By the Brent & family on the Island. This year it was Alex and Kristen's turn (maybe I'll do it myself next time round). They'd only been in a the country a couple of weeks but were keen to give it a shot. The fact that they just moved in two blocks from my place was also a plus. We sat and watched NFL, drinking beers all afternoon while Alex tended to the turkey at 1/2 intervals. Kristen whipped up some BBQ wings with blue cheese to whet the appetite a little more. They were almost as amazing as the turkey!

Old school track of the week

via youtube.com

Redman & Method Man - How High Remix 1995

Posted via web from jzaindustries on posterous

Central Washington Road Trip 3-5 Oct

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922 km – about 13 hours 53 mins


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Interactive Map

So I decided to take off on another road trip, only this time solo. I packed a small bag and my bike into the back of Jon's car and left Saturday morning around 11am and drove to the same border crossing at Abbotsford then south for about an hour where I headed East on the Northern Cascades Highway. I'd been given some advice from some of our regulars at work that this drive was pretty spectacular and there were a couple of really unique towns worth visiting along the way.

I stopped for lunch along the way at the Blue Mountain Grill (note the extremely unrealistic stock photo on their homepage) and one of the servers suggested I visit a town called Winthrop on the Cascade Hwy. So, based on the most sound, local advice I had received to date and the fact that I had no real agenda, I moved on towards Winthrop.

I got to a place called Marblemount mid afternoon, where there was a fork in the road. Seeing as it was going to cost me an arm and a leg in roaming charges to use the iPhone GPS, I had switched it off just after crossing the border. So I stopped and asked a guy by the side of the road which route to take towards Winthrop and he proceeded to give me the wrong one. Anyway I went along the WRONG road for about 1/2 an hour until it turned into gravel which made me think I may be headed the wrong way. So I back-tracked to the intersection and took the other road. As I moved on up into the mountains the scenery became more and more spectacular.



Unfortunately the light was fading fast and i was still about 70 miles (112k) from Winthrop. As it got dark it also began to snow and I began getting tired. I eventually made it into town by about 8pm. From what I could tell, this place was a full-blown saloon town, straight out of a cowboy movie set. I also noticed that there were loads of cars parked in the main street with bikes on racks or on the roof... this was promising!

I stopped in at the first hotel I saw to find a room for the night. they were booked, as were the next 3 that I tried. I eventually found one that had nobody in the reception but had a sign with 3 sets of keys by it. The sign read...

"If we are closed, don't worry, rooms are still available. Please select a key from the bench and pay in the morning. Enjoy your stay!"

So I took a key and unlocked room #8 only to scare the crap out of a couple watching TV in bed. I aplologized and went back (rather dubiously) to select another key from reception. This time though, my room was empty. Quickly threw all my gear inside and headed back out to find somewhere to eat. It was a Saturday night so I thought I wouldnt have any trouble however the first couple of bars I tried in the main street had finished serving food and barely had anyone in there even having a beer. So I tried this pizza place right near the hotel and just made it as their last customer for the night.



The next morning I got up early and headed into the town to take some pics. I spotted a guy in his car on the side of the road who had a rack full of bikes and asked him where the trails were. He was telling me how there was some big weekend of racing for all ages and skill levels but that the trails were still partially open to the public. So I packed my gear, checked out of the hotel and headed off on the 9 mile drive up Sun Mountain to the trails.



After picking up a trail map from Sun Mountain lodge, I dove down to the main car park and asked the woman at the gate which of the trails were being used for the races and she said it didn't matter and that I could go anywhere I pleases... OK sweet! So I got the bike out and took of on Black Bear Trail which had been recommended to me by the guy I got the map from. It was definitely one of the best trails I'd been on outside of the Whistler bike park (where you pay a chunk of change to get on) and before too long I'd had a big stack so decided to take a short break to recover my confidence and get some pics of the surrounding views. Oh yea, that was after I found my camera buried in dirt from when it fell out of my pocket. Just as I slowly got back on the saddle and took off again I hear this guy yelling 'coming through' so I pull off the track as he races by... literally 'races' by. He was one of several guys who would fly through who were actually in the race. It was a mixed bunch of skill levels and as I picked up the pace again I found myself overtaking a few of the slower riders. Not sure how happy they were about that. Anyway the rest of the trail was amazing. I think it was about 3-4 miles in total. At the end i stuck around for some free Gatorade and chocolate slice then got back into the car and hot the road again.



The next stop on the cascade loop was the 'alpine Bavarian village' of Leavenworth, about 3 hours from Winthrop. They were in full swing for Oktoberfest so I stopped in at on of the bust bars for a bratwurst burger and some Sunday afternoon football action.



I drove on with a few short stops at random places along the way until it started getting dark about an hour from Everett and Hwy 5 which was the end of the loop. Due to the fact that it was Sunday afternoon there were thousands of people headed the same direction after a weekend away, most of them headed back to Seattle. So after about half an hour of doing 5 miles an hour I gave up and pulled into a motel on the side of the road in a town called Gold Bar. I had a dinner at the pub next door to the hotel then crashed out around 10pm.

I set the alarm for 7.30am and hit the road again. It was a beautiful morning and the morning sun was burning off a heavy fog that lay across the road and surrounding paddocks and hills. I drove for about an hour, through Everett and down into Mukilteo where I put the car onto the ferry for the 15 minute crossing to the southern point of Whidbey Island. I drove all the way through the island to the northernmost point, stopping at a couple of paces along the way, until i reached Deception Pass where a small bridge joins the island back to the mainland. There is a Naval Air Station on the island so there are all sorts of planes flying overhead all day. I stopped for some lunch just after the pass then drove back to Hwy 5. I drove back to the outlet mall just before Everett for a cheeky look then headed back up north to Vancouver. I arrived home around 5.30pm Monday afternoon.



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