New vinyl from The Sword

Black Masses by Electric Wizard is dope, but the new hexagonal vinyl single from The Sword may have to become a Yuletide self-gift for old Reecey Wags!

Precognition

Got this from Mike, said he saw it at the Minnesota Zoo. I think a quest is in order, to learn the mysteries of the universe from this wisely old sage.

Flash

Wizard tats via Metal Mike:

Winter Classic

HBO's 24/7 is pumping my nuts for the 2011 Winter Classic. Go Caps!

Trail of Dead on Everest

Not really wizard-related, but this article was worth sharing. Frozen mummies litter the trail to Everest's peak. Landmarks on the mountain are named for the corpses of climbers huddled next to them; "Green Boots Cave," "Rainbow Valley."

Abandoned on Everest

Sphinx Observatory

A true wizard's paradise, the Sphinx Observatory in Jungfraujoch, Switzerland is the highest-altitude structure in all of Europe.





It is situated in the Swiss Alps atop a hollow glacier that many miners died to carve out. Within the observatory there is a 76cm telescope with Cassegrain and Coudé focus, and just below the observatory there is a research station where atmospheric and astronomical data are collected and studied.



Initially, the observatory was only approachable via a treacherous climb to the top (or via Tenser's Floating Disk), but in the early 1900s a train was put in to aid ascent.





Within the cavern there is a gallery of ice statues that never melt. It is claimed they are sculptures, but undoubtedly they are the work of a supreme magus whose spellcraft turned animals, people, and automobiles into ice.





More information:

1 2 3 4 5

Kunstformen der Natur

Ernst Haeckel.

The Eternal Trip

Diggin' these shirts from Jason Cruz. One color screens too!



I'd love a mid-Dodge Wizard Wagon in which to cruise through space. Anyone with any tips on a cheap restore lemme know.

I'm Back

I looked at this thing and saw that I haven't posted all summer. Thanks to anyone who still checks in now and again.

I finally got this sketchy POS running.





It was a really long slog all spring and early summer. I almost forgot how much I liked cruising on it. Basically, every time I got deeper into the case there was something else that needed replacing. The cracked collar on this sprocket shaft is a good example of the types of surprises I'd find.



Plus, a couple times I ordered a part and got the wrong thing. Once it was all back together I had to ride it pretty slow for 500 miles. That was a huge pain in the ass 'cause I had to take back roads everywhere. Anyway, I redid the wiring and got it all good (just in time to go back into storage for the winter, lol!). I'm starting to believe what they say about green bikes being bad luck. I may paint it if I can afford to while it's in storage.

Tips From a Fellow Wizard

He's an expert.

Dennis Hopper

So, I've seen a lot of "Dennis Hopper R.I.P." posts on a lot of blogs lately, but I wanted to share some photographs that I came across on the web a little while ago. Few people knew that Hopper was taking thousands of black and white photographs from 1961 to 1967, until he developed and released them last year. From an article in the Times online:

Hopper’s photographs may be around today only because they were snatched from his house in Taos by Walter Hopps. “We had a wonderful day together, and at night I had a paranoid episode upstairs,” he recalls matter-of-factly. “I started firing my machinegun. Then I passed out. Walter came crawling up the stairs and hid all my guns under his bed. When he left in the morning he took all my negatives for safekeeping.”

They've since been put into a book for all to read (or rather, all who can afford the $560 cover price). You can check out the full online edition of the book here.

This is the Sunday Times article to accompany some of the photos. I especially like this pull-quote:

During the last five years of his 25-year-long binge, Hopper was drinking half a gallon of rum and 30 beers a day. The three grams of cocaine he was also ingesting were just so he could keep “moving around”. He had become so delusional that he thought such consumption was okay because “I wasn’t crawling around on the floor”.

In the mid-1980s he was forced into sobriety, imprisoned in Mexico when he was found wandering naked in the jungle, then hospitalised for months in LA after he tried to clamber onto the wing of a moving plane. The antipsychotic drugs they gave him in rehab caused temporary Parkinson’s disease. That terrified him even more than his cocaine psychoses. “God really gave me a big sledgehammer, dropped me to my knees.”

Additionally, the blog Chasing Light is a photography blog that has a lot of insider shots of candid moments taken by notable actors, musicians, models, etc. Here Doug Kim, the author, features a lot of cool shots by Hopper:


Jefferson Airplane, 1965 © Dennis Hopper


Biker, 1961 © Dennis Hopper


Bruce Conner (in tub), Toni Basil, Teri Garr and Ann Marshall, 1964 © Dennis Hopper


Andy Warhol and members of the Factory (Gregory Markopoulos, Taylor Mead, Gerard Malanga & Jack Smith), 1963 © Dennis Hopper

Stuff kind of speaks for itself, the dude was from a different era. Billy was always my favorite in Easy Rider anyway. As Sonny Barger said, Peter Fonda graduated from "Chickenshit High."

Cheat'ah Choppers high back king/queen seat (SOLD)

I'm selling an old school Cheat'ah king/queen.
Excellent condition, except for the wear pictured in the joint where the backrest meets the seat.
I bought this from a dude on Chop Cult back in December, but I ended up going with a pillion pad instead.
Cheat'ah Engineering of Santa Ana used to be distributed by Jammer back in the day. Own a piece of chopper history!

Frazetta's Dead

I just made a post about him too, bummer.

Tank Design

Jon drew this. It's my paladin Dirk Brighthammer gettin' ready to put the hurt on some worgens.

Corpse Cloud

Check out my buddy Jon's comic, updated Wednesdays.




Link here

Kris Kuksi

Walton Ford

The Chronicles of Bygone Biker Sagas

Brucie hooked me up with some biker history books. Many spells here to memorize...

Splitting the Case

Did some more work. Got the motor out and split the cases. Still waiting on some bushings, jugs, pistons, etc.



Bruce was working on some customers' bikes.





The Man! Thanks for all the help buddy!


A lot of cool stuff winds up in here. It's kind of like motorcycle Valhalla.

Odyssey of the Green Machine

So...



This was Easter morning. Broke down in front of Buck Hill. Trailered it back to Bruce's.



Took it apart and the front piston was cracked. The rings were totally cracked and loose too.



No worries, parts are on the way.

Also found the source of all that exhaust smoke...



When I looked in the rear cylinder the wall was scored up in a deep U-shape. Turns out one of the wrist pin circlips had come loose and so the wrist pin was rubbing against the side wall. Prolly have to go with a new jug for that since it's already bored 20 over.