Brussels, Sprouts

Ok, ok, so I am only 2 days behind in updating this blog with where I really am.

Brussels is an amazing city.  Really cool architecture.  Old buildings mixed with art deco details, columns with square and rectangular cutouts.

One of the coolest things was happening upon an artshow called "Its Not Only Rock n Roll Baby"

http://www.myspace.com/itsnotonlyrocknrollbaby

It was an artshow featuring artwork by musicians such as:

Brian Eno

Yoko Ono

David Byrne

Pete Doherty

Fischerspooner

and more..

it was especially cool to see this 10 foot tall David Byrne piece painted directly on the wall.  Knowing he stood there and did it for this great show is radical.  Rhode Island pride!

Other than that, I saw an 883R which was crazy...who has that bike, anyways?

and what the hell is Indian Tonic, just a new way for Euros to be racist???? i dunno....

Biondi - iphone picture post

man, so much to post about can't settle down!  between internet outtages and travel to different countries, I feel like I have no idea what day it is or where I am......here's some stuff to get you through your day!

On this past friday, I went to the offices of the infamous Alberto Del Biondi, shoe and product designer.  This guy LOVES BLACK.  more than anyone I know.  Everything is black in the office.  Black wall surrounding the office, Black rock garden surrounding the building, Black tables, Black chairs, just keep looking...

the black rock garden in between the outside black wall and the office entrance

the black couches lamps and side tables in the courtyard

the black toilet paper, yes BLACK toilet paper

black table, black chairs lunch spread for us.  note the red wine with lunch.  Italian style.

exiting the compound through the black steel sliding doors.

it was a great meeting, reviewing samples of the next Brooks bags and accessories.  They have some really talented designers and great people as well....even if they don't speak much english.  I guess i need to take some Italian classes at Cal State San Marcos this semester.....

Dance Party!

well, not really, but this is a good one that i wish I had a first person perspective camera for....(if you're listening, put that on the christmukah list, even though it doesn't really exist)

so, at Eurobike, on the final night they have big party (plural, read in german accent).  SRAM was throwing a free hamburgers and all you can drink beer party in the atrium of the convention center and then the official Eurobike sponsored even was in the center courtyard.  The SRAM party had some sweet world music band playing early on and after they ran out of hamburgers, we vacated the premises.

Then it was off to the outdoor Eurobike party.  Rain, rain and more rain, but once that German cover band started, there was no stopping the party.  Jason, Andy, Christina and I were ripping it up on the dance floor/2" deep pool of rain/sludge water and soon enough, the euros followed suit.  Once they kicked in with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and went right into 'Run to the Hills', we knew it would be a night to remember.  

I wish I had pictures of all of this, but I admittedly don't.  The next activity was dubbed, "dude, throw your empty cup at the band...".  This game was FUN.  It was also followed by a thing conducted by some guy on stage called "hey, these are musicians up here performing and risking getting electrocuted for you.  are you going to pay for their instruments if you break them?".  that was fun, but followed by the crowd's own game called "YEAHHHHHHH"

Finally, we left, and headed back to the SRAM party.  I decided it was time to liven up the place so I hopped on stage with the DJ and started playing the bongos and timbales with him.  then i moved to the front of the stage to get some dance moves going with the crowd.  What followed next was incredible.  Christina from crankbrothers hopped up on stage and grabbed the tambourine, some other Euro Dudes jumped on the percussion and I just had to grab the mic and yell....

IS EVERY BODY HAVING FUN!!!!??????

and when I pointed to the crowd, people started jumping into the fountain and it went off.  fun night it was.

going back in time and moving forward

I have finally added my Eurobike 2008 pictures to the flickr page.

Here's the address:

www.flickr.com/oldepro/sets

You should see both Eurobike 08 and Eurobike 08 fun with Euros...check it out.

Here's some examples of the fine things you will see:

Germans being German at a party

Andy Hilliard getting RAD on an ATV

and the most beautiful thing in the bicycle world

England is english speaking

Week 1, Done.  (say it again, but this time with a british accent)

no pics for now, but tonight I will have some good updates about the Eurobike show with pictures and I'll get all the pictures uploaded to the flickr site.....

Last night, I left Germany with a few work folks and headed to Birmingham, UK.  today we are visiting the Brooks factory.  I'm looking forward to this one.  My goal is to build a saddle myself, but they don't know that yet.  Time to infiltrate the system and get to business....

so again, look for another following post that is better, feels better and looks better.

candy = food?

i love candy.  not so much with the fruit and sugar, but the chocolate...!

here's some amazing Euro foods/candy.  ok ok okay...Bifi is not candy, but definitely weird, slightly fallic, but a food in a candy like package.  tip to the wise, everything Kinder is great and not matter what you think, Ritter Sport chocolate is NOT recommended when you are playing sports......but I do feel athletic when I eat any of the 23 flavors.

situational scenarios

I admire europeans.....well, not as a general rule, but the fact that they always do things that make me laugh, cheer, or say WTF??? so easily and so much.  Upon walking down the little streets of Friedrichshafen, we stumbled upon the hotel in the picture above...."well, Matt, is that where you are staying?", you ask.....not this time, but next trip, DEFINITELY.

As we continue our tour of the city we stumbled upon some amazing merchandising in an eyeglasses store.  I mean, this is some good stuff.  Really ahead of the curve.  check it out below:

OK, OK, this post is boring you, but I'm telling you, its really not.  Next on our list of places to visit was a great japanese restaurant.  I was especially excited for this.  After all what can be better in a landlocked country than Sushi??  Yeah, right, i wasn't about to step foot into this place, not after I saw the sign....Running - Sushi - Restaurant....WTF??? (there you go

The last stop on our tour led us to a beautiful jewelry store.  I had to have Andrew pose in front of this one....he really didn't mind and in fact "struck a pose" that was very fitting.

Yes, that is my boss....

so 2 full days in and I'm feeling ok.  Hopefully I'll sleep straight through the night, but the espresso I had at 11PM is starting to kick in.....