i totally cheated on my cats

but how could you blame me?

Say hello to Rufus:

THIS makes me miss the east coast

GET YOUR DUB ON - Tonight @ the belly up

as we play rhythms that will leave you feeling good about life during this holiday season.

why was the grinch green? cause he loved the dub and the weed. (ok, that was stupid....)

check out the details here

sportscenter entertainment

ESPN's sportscenter has some of the best commercials on TV. And they really don't get the hype that they deserve. They're so stocked full of humor and wit that they just make me laugh and never cease to entertain.

This one is currently my favorite:



turn it up. its great.

And...home

2hours2Go

Glove Warmers in Victorville

Baker 53 degrees

Starting to get a bit warmer.

Last time I rode past this sign it was reading 106 on the Bolts/Burton
sales meeting ride.

So to break it down, it's half of that temperature now.

Slow Go So Far

First stop, Primm

It's cold. Biting cold. Fingers are freezing. Stopped to layer up. Put
on the burton base layer bottoms and gonna head back out there.

Leaving Las Vegas

Elevator ride to the garage. Weather report last said 39 degrees.
Perfect...

Self Park

Quick Pick after coffee chug

Update and Correction

Ok so when I last stopped, i was almost to Victorville. The next
major city was Barstow. I was all mixed up withthecities with the B's.

So again I had to hit the reserve but this time the sign said: Baker
45 miles. Big uh oh. No way I'm gonna make it that far in reserve.
Lucky there's this nice little double priced gas stop about 13 miles
before Baker.

Second Real Gad Stop

Filled up at the house then hit the road. Made it to the sign that
said Barstow 27 miles and had to hit the reserve. Shit. Will I make
it? Luckily the chevron at the mountain high exit approached! Sweet.

First Fuel Up

>

> Gotta start the day right...
>

solo mission...

...out to vegas today. Its the annual mancation trip to Vegas that my brother and a few of his friends do each year and since I haven't seen them in a while and won't be heading back east for the holidays, I decided it was worth it to head out for a day or two. And what better way to get there? ride. I'll be leaving hopefully right around 9 or 9:30 this morning and if I can get my email blog update working, will be updating every hour or so of the voyage.

I can only make it 100 miles in between gas station stops so that will at least keep me sane.

routine. jet lag. oil change. maintenance. updates

so last night was a great night. a bunch of us headed to the VEC for some bowling/pizza party action for Alicia's birthday and then proceeded onto the Turf Room (the bar behind my house) for some more drinks and karaoke....

I was hoping that I would just get drunk and then that would put me to sleep to beat the jet lag. BUT instead, I got home, the jetlag kicked in making me feel like it was 5PM instead of 1AM. So there I was, drunk as hell, and WIDE AWAKE while its pouring rain outside and Leigh Anne going to sleep.

so I just preheated the oven, and myself some dinner.....

today, woke up around 11:30 feeling fine. Leigh had some floral lab stuff to do, so I finally got around to giving the bike the needed oil change and transmission/primary fluid change it needed. Runs like a champ now and snapped a few update pics:









that last picture is showing the final result of my rewiring I did of the bike. an on/off switch, on/off/on switch, and a momentary switch later and the bike runs and I still have my high/low beam. super fantastic.

I'm going to work on a better seat mounting scenario later this week and hopefully get some pipes made up soon. just in time for me to tear it all down and start again I'm sure...

birthday/chrismukkah

word on the street is that Chris broke into my garage and started on my hardtail or not hardtail modified swingarm sportster bobber/not bobber with chrome or not chromed at all project while I was gone....at least that's what he might or might not have emailed me.

what? I dunno...

If you missed my birthday, no worries....its not too forgone, and the winter holidays are approaching. So if you're looking for a great gift to chip in for me, just go here:

'52 Pan Shovel

Thanks everyone.....I promise I'll build a killer bike.

oh and i'm heading home from Taiwan tomorrow morning, so don't worry about gift wrapping it.

cuts through your brain like a knife...

that's the only way i can think to describe what the food scenario smells like here in Taiwan at the 7-11's. It's so odd and pungent and specific and painful and spicy and bitter and terrible...and everywhere.

I can only imagine that it is the equivalent of what a taquito and johnsonville brat smell like to a taiwanese person....every morning I tell myself, "matt, just don't inhale when you walk into or past the store....." but I can't not do it.....

savor the flavour

here comes the brand new flavor in you ear......

need some inspiration..?

well, i'm just tired. no time or energy for inspiration right now.....what I needed was to just laugh. and Jon B. came through.

start with this fucking gem right here:



now head here and just laugh your balls off....

i'm a cat owner so maybe i think its funnier than other people.......

Doppelganger

Chances are you have one....maybe even two.....you ever walk down the street and swear you saw yourself? or hear hey I saw you in New York City this weekend, but when I waved you just kept walking....?

well upon going to Sam and Kelli's wedding, it happened to me.

definition here

pictures below of me and mr. Nik Ewing......he even knew my dance moves.....






yes he's a musician as well, and yes we will start a band.

birthday day in Taiwan

Being away from home is weird for days that matter. Especially when you're a day ahead than you would be if you were home. Besides working from 8am to 8pm straight through with one of my favorite (re: pain in the ass vendors) it was a good day filled with the following:

SUUUUPER Generic Cake during the morning meeting
work, argue, work, argue
a stop at a helmet store
my vendors know my obsession with motorcycles and especially the helmets here and while I'm not a fan of accepting gifts from vendors (i usually say "you want to get me something nice? ship my samples/production on time") unfortunately its easier for them to buy gifts than move products out of their own factories in a timely manner
BUT, i digress....they did hook me up with an amazing light blue sparkle and a matte green w/tan edge strip helmet.
I'm stoked.
then at the end of the night when I got back to my hotel room a nice card and another cake awaited me.

not too bad.

from above the clouds to flying through them

look at that view.....that was what we got to see all day Saturday up at Timberline on Mt. Hood. It was a gorgeous sunny and warm (30 degrees f) day and we head a good crew on the mountain. Just look how happy my lovely wife looks in that picture! It's an amazing thing driving up the mountain through what seems to be a cloudy day and then having it clear up as you park, only to get on the chairlift and turnaround to see that you are ABOVE the cloud line.....forget above the treeline

and now......back to work

after a great little Thanksgiving holiday filled with micro brews and tons of food along with some snurf action at Mt. Hood, I'm back in Taiwan for a few weeks worth of grinding....

In this first week, I'll be pushing to approve preproduction samples one by one of all the goods while trying to get the full quantities of the sample order by this weekend when our little trade show starts.

Then next week, it'll be finishing up what couldn't get done this week and then dialing in packaging and starting some tooling on the next bunch of projects.

CB 350 K4

This is my dad's CB and probably the reason I like motorcycles so much. But it took a long time to hit me. As I kid I would see this in the garage and not really think twice about it. It wasn't ever running from what I can remember once I turned 8 or so and it was way to high for me to be able to just climb up onto. BUT it was always there.

It wasn't until I moved to soCal that I realized why a motorcycle was a good idea. Sunny, warm weather 10 months a year, barely any rain and tons of fun little back road with hidden watering holes....

I just got his front wheel re-laced and trued at Buchanan's Spoke and Rim and they are true pros. Not even a question from me. Just put it in a box with a handwritten note and when they received it, they gave me a call and within a week, it was done, tire mounted and balanced and on its way back to Brooklyn for my dad to put it back on the bike.

Now all he needs is a new battery (he thinks that should fix it...) because for some reason the orginal 35 year old battery isn't holding a charge.....yeah, a new battery will probably be good...hopefully the points and voltage regulator are good as well, but time will tell. Since rebuilding it in the past 5 years it only got ridden a few times each year, so it needs a bit of love. It needs to be back running again in the spring so when I visit NY I can come and grab it for the week!

Bob Dylan

I consider myself really lucky to have been raised in a family where music was so important. Sometimes it was just how we communicated even. I know families today have DVD players to keep the kids busy but that creates 'separation' not togetherness. This was different, this was me HAVING to listen to my dad's music, unwillingly at first, but sure enough ALWAYS turning into singing together on our weekly road trips to the ski house in Vermont where I attended nursery school in the Pumpkin Patch at Mount Snow, or going to the bagel shop in New York in the morning, or as I got into my early teens heading to some shitty fireman's hall into the Jersey border with my brother to go to a 'tape and cd show' where the entry was $3 and you'd scrounge through the thick scent of stale cigarettes looking for that one missing record, tape or cd to your ever growing collection. My dad has always had amazing taste in music, recently its questionable (was that a NEW country album or 5 on your iphone?), but man his music collection and unspoken passion for great music really shaped me and my brother from a really young age....

Bob Dylan was a staple in his car and in his house. Among the Beatles, Neil Young, CSN, Harry Chapin, Neil Diamond and tons more......but Dylan always stood out. So moody. He could make you wake up from a long nap in the greatest mood, or he could put you to sleep in a bout of the deepest saddest thoughts, but I've always loved his music, his attitude, his stories, and his ever changing of his own songs and look.

When Dylan went electric, it nearly KILLED his career, but he didn't care. He knew what he was doing. He knew he couldn't sing, he knew that his stories about how he got to New York were all tall tales, but he played his cards his way and it always worked, despite the death threats before shows and despite everyone telling him how to do things differently.

He wrote and recorded perfectly crafted folk songs and then would get to shows not play one the same way it was recorded in 1968, or tour with a 20 piece band all dressed as gypsies and clowns and this was in 1975. Its something that stood out to me when watching the Wilco documentary 'I am trying to break your heart'. When Jeff Tweedy says "their my songs, and I can create them and they're mine to destroy" about the recording process of adding extra instruments and stripping things down and changing songs from just being pop/folk to masterpieces....it was all Dylan

I can't embed this video, but its a great live version of Tangled Up in Blue from the tour in 74 or 75. check out the weird makeup.....but he just did it.

Tangled Up in Blue

thank you to my dad for inspiring me from such a young age and thank you to church of choppers for posting that picture of Bob Dylan on the triumph that got me fired up on this a few days ago.