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August 04 2010
August 02 2010
Vifil yor er iz gegangn oyf di fis zol er geyn af di hent un di
iberike zol er zikh sharn oyf di hintn.
As many years as he’s walked on his feet, let him walk on his hands,
and for the rest of the time he should crawl along on his ass.
July 31 2010
An FSA Metropolis Handlebar is going on the prototype. We’re cutting 3cm off each end.
July 30 2010
In 1932 Abraham Budnitz, my great-great-grandmother’s cousin, quit Yashiva and followed his cousin to Ireland. Like his cousin, Abraham was ashamed of his Jewish background. He changed his name to Underhill, converted to Catholicism, and eventually entered the seminary.
Nevertheless, attempting to play off the fame of the famous Jewish bicycle brand, in 1936 Abraham Underhill founded Budnitz Bicycles UK, marketing cheap priest-blessed bikes exclusively to Irish catholics.
Brand confusion lasted for over 20 years until the UK brand folded in the late 50’s.
My grandmother Rose Budnitz, who twice held the 100-mile woman’s Jewish track record, used to say, “that no good farvandlen Abraham could in drerd arayn!” …and then she’d spit on the ground.
The above picture of an aging Abraham with one of the 50’s era Budnitz UK bikes was sent to me last week by Monica Underhill, who writes that she is a distant relative of Abraham. Thanks Monica!
July 29 2010
No mind, no thoughts. No thoughts, no delusion. No delusion, no enlightenment. No enlightenment, no Buddha.
July 28 2010
July 27 2010
Grodnsk, Poland c. 1908. Photo from A History of Kosher Bicycles, by Elihu Schemedik, Brandies University Press, 1992.
Early Budnitz tandem bikes were manufactured with a Rabbi-certified mechitza or “separator wall” (like those used to separate men and women in synagogues), which was mounted between the two seats.
The company “sponsored” liberal Rabbis who argued that putting a mechitza on a bicycle efficively turned a tandem into two bikes, which made it legal under talmudic law for a husband and wife to ride together. Orthodox rabbis, paid off by rival bike brands, condemned the design. The argument continues to this day.
July 26 2010
Self manifests in resistance to Self.
July 25 2010
Trying to work today is like forcing someone I don’t know to do things he read about someone else doing once.
July 23 2010
Sucklord selling bootleg Dunnys at Comicon. He’s even copying my signature. I am going to destroy him.
My interview with Jeremyville, here.
July 22 2010
Rebbe Hershel Chinitz, my great-aunt’s half-brother, at time trials in Shlodz, Poland in 1928 on a rare Budnitz “TSapldik” reverse-geared track bike. Take a close look at the cranks on the bike. In the mid-twenties Eastern-European racers experimented with eccentric hubs that allowed racers to reverse-pedal backwards to move the bike forward, the theory being that that the thighs have more pulling power than pushing power (try it, it’s true). The fashion only lasted a few years as most reverse-gear riders developed the uncomfortable habit of only being able to walk backwards. Rebbe Chinitz had his own congregation in Grodz that featured bicycles from his past races hanging above the bima in the center of the shul. He was famous for being the first Rabbi who had performed a bris on the back of a moving bicycle. He held the orthodox jewish 100k track record for 3 years running before breaking both legs in an accident at a Motzoh factory in 1931. Hershel emegrated to Enniskeen, Ireland in 1938 where he married into a Catholic family and changed his last name to May, and moved into artificial limb production. He made a fortune in the war but died tragically in the late forties when a shipping container broke open and he was buried underneath a pile of plaster legs. James May, who worked for Kidrobot for many years, is actually my mother’s third cousin.
July 21 2010
See you at Comicon! I’ll be signing advance copies of my new book I AM PLASTIC, TOO on Friday afternoon at the Kidrobot booth.
July 20 2010
July 16 2010
http://www.youtube.com/user/letscolour
