TwoJeez

I found some time between work travel and bike racing to put together a quick poster for my friend Dove. She’ll be singing jazz and classical stuff with piano accompaniment. Nice simple poster for the show. Enjoy.

As usual I haven’t updated my blog in a terribly long time. It’s been a busy year so far. Between racing, work and random side work, I’ve been very busy. Unlike this time last year though, it’s a good kind of busy. Work hasn’t been interfering with my riding as much, and I’ve had a good start to my racing season. I upgraded to a Cat 4 this year and have already gotten 5 points towards a 3 upgrade. That’s a pretty big improvement on last year.

I’ve been doing a ton of poster/side work this year. The majority of the posters have been for the bike team’s fund raising events but I also had an opportunity to participate in the CREHAITIVE RE/VISION Poster show to benefit victims of the earthquake in Haiti. I’m also working on an identity package for my moms catering company and an iphone application for Fat Heads.

I realized that my site is linked on the Steeltown Anthem website and thought it would only be right to get some more current work posted for any stray surfers that happen to stumble my way.

I’ll be entering some work in the Steeltown Stock poster show that being hosted by Steeltown Anthem at C-SPACE COLLECTIVE. I haven’t decided what to put in the show yet, but I should have that figured out within a week. Stay tuned for more details!

Despite my efforts, I’ve fallen pretty far behind on this whole blogging thing. Which doesn’t really mean much to anyone other than myself so I don’t feel particularly bad about it. That being said, I actually have some new stuff to post so I figured that the time I’m spending sitting around at my moms house for the holidays is a perfect time to offer an update. The last part of the year has been filled with some fun projects and some great successes that will come to fruition in 2010. So, lets recap…

Geoff Roast
My most recent poster was a great project. The wife of everyones favorite Fat Heads manager commissioned me to do the invitation for said managers surprise birthday party. She wanted to do a Roast style party and I thought it would be appropriately obnoxious to do a caricature of Geoff. Anyone who knows him knows that he is quite a character so I had a lot to work with.

Iron City Bikes
I also recently decided to finally help out Bob with the bike shops website. With the help of Jacob’s web hosting skills and a little bit of love from Wordpress we were able to get the site up and running in just a few days. There’s still a bit of work to be done with it but they are just happy to have an updated site to help drive business. Take a look here.

Iron City Bikes Racing
I’ve also been hard at work trying to finalize all of the sponsorship contracts and jersey order for the 2010 season. Our latest sponsor deal to be worked out is with Magic Hat Brewery. They’ve come on board as our main beer sponsor/provider. We’ll be getting beer from them throughout the year to use in our fundraising events to help generate revenue.

Snowed In Black and Gold Sprints
Speaking of the race team and fund raising, the team and I are hard at work organizing our first event of the season. We’re going to be throwing another roller racing party at Over The Bar in January. I’m working on finalizing the poster for the event that will be printed by Commonwealth Press next week. There will be more information on the team site soon.  Here’s a little sneak peak of the poster:

I have some other projects brewing in the new year and maybe I’ll try and post updates about them. Keep an eye out for the printing of the Snowed In posters in the next week or two.

As I sat on my patio last night grilling dinner in a hooded sweatshirt I realized that summer was coming to an end. In Pittsburgh it’s not uncommon for the warm weather to stick around until mid-October but there is an undeniable fall feeling that comes with the first day you find yourself digging for warmer clothes for outdoor activities. This year’s summer didn’t quite go as I had planned.

Things started to unravel long before the sun decided to bring its winter slumber to a fiery ending. In January I was committed to a solid training schedule with hopes of dramatically improving my racing results by the end of the summer. Work promptly stepped in like a bitchy substitute teacher who decided to teach her own agenda instead of following the lesson plans in a desperate battle for control over the giddy, misbehaving masses. With a cup of poor planning, a tablespoon of misguided expectations, and a pinch of naivety, a project that was to be resolved in early May took a lengthy turn for the worst. This lead to weeks of long hours that helped to derail my training regimen until it was little more than a optimistic New Years resolution. I knew my racing ambitions were in serious jeopardy when I’d ridden less then 100 miles by the time the Mingo Creek race series (which I didn’t do) arrived. When the dust settled at work it was just about time for the weekly criterium series to start. I knew I’d have some work to do to get into race shape and the crits are the perfect tool to do just that. Of course, just when I started to feel like my riding was on a steady path to improving my body decided to get in a nasty fight with 18th Street leaving me with a broken knee cap and little hope of racing for the duration of the year.

For anyone who has been reading my blog over the last few months, this is obviously just a reiteration of the ranting that I had a chance to do in my down time waiting for the bone to heal. The difference now is that I am attempting to write from the murky puddle of reflection. I thought that spending the majority of the summer trapped not only from my primary form of transportation, entertainment, excitement, and exercise, but also from all of the warm weather activities that make summer worth enjoying would have left a reflecting pool the size of Lake Michigan. After all, it’s the camping trips, bike polo, bike races, alleycats, drinking by the river, or just hanging out at the pool with Sarah that draws me toward the few short months in the middle of the year; It’s most certainly not the swamp ass, mosquito bites, and inappropriately dressed overweight Pittsburghers.

To my surprise, it wasn’t the time that I spent working towards regaining my social mobility, but the few weeks of getting back to my normal routine that have shed a little light on my appreciation for the mundane things that bring me a bit of pleasure and the people that I am able to share those experiences with. I have a refreshed appreciation for the things that had become almost boring in my everyday life. I don’t mind taking the long way to work, climbing the two flights of stairs from the grill to the kitchen, or walking down to Fat Head’s for a beer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that I’m some seeing the world from some newborn/seen-the-light eyeballs. But I have noticed a certain enjoyment for the simple things that I couldn’t do while I was broken. Maybe I’ve just realized that summer is almost over and I haven’t had a chance to do most of the usual summer-time things so I had better get working on planning and enjoying what’s left of the outdoor weather while it’s still around. Now, on to planning a September camping trip. Who’s in?

I’ve been meaning to write an updated post on the progress on my knee, my hatred for the lack on content on websites, a few recent projects that I’ve been working on and a few other random bits, but, I haven’t had the time. The run up to vacation proved to be incredibly busy with a full load of projects that all were on the same collision course, and a surprise presentation in Cleveland the day before I left. So I won’t be writing about any of those things while I’m at the beach because, well, I’m at the beach. Some would consider it a crime that I’m typing anything at all right now, but I had a few other computer things to do so I figured, why not? I’ll be in North Carolina for the rest of the week and will return to reality on Sunday night. Hopefully I’ll find some time to update things next week. Until then, I’ll be very busy drinking beer and getting sun burnt!

The one thing I did have to work on during vacation was this t-shirt illustration for the Brunner company picnic, being held at the Pittsburgh Zoo. I wanted to finish this in order to get it printed in time for the picnic, so I guess I didn’t mind having to do a little work during vaca.

Click to see the full image

It’s been almost six weeks since my knee fracture and I’m proud/excited/cautiously-optimistic to announce my gradual return to the two wheeled mode of transport that I’ve been missing through the first part of this summer. I had my first follow up appointment with my sports medicine doctor last Thursday and the prognosis was good. After reviewing a few new x-rays, it appears that everything is healing properly and my therapy is helping to get me back on the road much sooner then I expected. Considering that the first question my doctor asked me was: “Are you back on the road yet?”, I figured that it might be time to give it a try.

As soon as my Physical Therapist put me on a stationary bike I’ve been testing myself to see how much pedalling I could do without inflicting any additional damage. Starting with short 15-20 minute casual spinning sessions and gradually building up to full speed 30-40 minute rides on the rollers, I thought I should start to venture out and start to build back some of the strength that I’ve lost throughout the healing process. I quickly discovered that I have a long way to go before I return to my previous form. On Sunday I decided to venture out for a casual 5-mile ride on the paved trail down the hill from my house. I knew that getting down the hill would be the easiest part of the outing, but I wasn’t really sure how I would fare on the way back up.  Continue Reading »

Moving into my fourth week since the patella fracture, I’ve become increasingly anxious due to my lack of mobility. A few people that have been following my recent posts have noted the positive spin that I’ve been placing on the recovery process. It’s true that I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to keep a positive outlook while I’m rehabilitating my knee, but I’ll admit that my sunny disposition has become slightly overcast.

Despite the change in forecast, a few rays of sunshine have recently poked through via the acquisition of a cane. I’m not really sure if I’m supposed to be walking without my crutches, but using the cane has been making it much easier to get around. It’s not causing me any pain so I guess that’s a good sign. I haven’t had a chance to consult with my physical therapist about my new walking stick because the holiday weekend derailed my therapy schedule. Since I wasn’t able to get an appointment over the weekend I’ve been doing my exercising at home. Most of the stretching, bending, and flexing in my routine are easily replicated using a yoga strap and a little ingenuity. Thanks to the exercise my quad has started to regain some of it’s ability to do some real flexing and my range-of-motion seems to be improving steadily. I’m still wearing my knee immobilizer when I’m not doing the therapy to prevent my newly found mobility from injuring me further. Although, when I’m sitting on the couch enjoying a beer I do let the knee get a little air.

Adding to my mobility anxiety, the first few stages of the Tour have been nothing short of amazing. Armstrong, Contador and the rest of the Astana team had an amazing team time trial this morning (er I guess this afternoon in France). They now have five guys in the top ten with Armstrong tied for time (with the exception of a few tenths) with the leader Fabian Cancellara. I’m still pushing for my goal of riding somewhere to watch the final stage of the Tour, but if the racing maintains this intensity it’s going to feel like an eternity before I’m back in the saddle. I think I’ll set up a bike on the rollers tonight and give it a light spin, per the doctors orders of course!

IN OTHER NEWS:
My youngest sister Kelsey passed her NCLEX last week making her an official RN! Congratulations Kelsey!

It’s been just over two weeks since I broke my kneecap. In that time I’ve discovered a few things about having broken bones and I’ll say that none of them are very enjoyable. This particular fracture is pretty minor in terms of the damage you can do to yourself when breaking major appendages. Unfortunately, it still leads to inconveniences in the normal daily activities that are so easy to take for granted. For example, putting on socks or walking a few blocks to the next bar. And don’t get me started on the topic of public transit…

Easily the most annoying aspect of my limited mobility is not being able to ride my bike. For a cyclist, especially one living in Pittsburgh, this is probably the worst time of year to be off the bike. Not only has the weather been great for riding, but this Thursday brings the start of the Bicycle Film Fest to the City of Champions. The upcoming holiday weekend also brings a number of other cycling related events including another installment of Black and Gold Sprints at OTB and a Bike Polo Tournament.

This Saturday also marks the start of the 96th Tour De France with the prologue time trial in Monaco. While I have started physical therapy—and have already noticed steady improvement—I don’t think that I’ll be back in riding form before the end of the Tour. I make this connection because one of my favorite things to do during the Tour is to go on long training rides that end at a bar to enjoy the replay of the days stage. There’s something to be said for the feeling of riding vicariously through the efforts of the best riders in the world. There is always a certain fire in your legs when you get back on the bike after watching an epic stage play out on the roads of France. This almost always leads to impromptu sprints down Carson Street on the way home.

Hopefully I’ll be able to harness some of that fire to put towards my rehab efforts. As I said, I’ve started on my road to rehab at the UPMC Sports Medicine facility in the South Side. So far things have been going well. I’ve mainly been working on range-of-motion and strengthening exercises that I can do with minimal impact or pressure applied to my knee. I was very pleased yesterday when my therapist asked how I would feel about trying the stationary bike. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to pedal (very slowly) with minimal discomfort. My knee felt a little tight, but not really painful. Lame though it may have been, those ten minutes on the bike were a big moral booster in terms of getting myself back to normal. If my knee continutes to cooperate maybe I’ll be able to ride to a bar stool to enjoy the Tour’s cruise into Paris.

Today marks a week since the crash that fractured my knee cap. I’ve been hobbling around the house ever since and I’ve got to say that crutches suck. Adding to the hassle, I bruised my ribs. That doesn’t help the crutching, or breathing. Honestly, the ribs hurt 10x worse then the knee right now. Not being able to take a deep breath sucks.

I went to see a Sports Medicine Specialist, Dr. Vonda Wright,  at the UPMC sports-med facility yesterday. Dr. Wright is going to be getting me through the rehab process in the coming weeks. Looking at my x-rays she said that it doesn’t look too(oooo) bad since the fractured piece is not displaced. I may experience some creaky knee problems later in life but I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it. She also sucked a TON of blood out of my knee joint that had collected there after the fracture. My sister who is a nurse said that it looked like 60ml. I was going to post this photo here, but I’ll spare the squeamish and just post it here. Apparently the quad isn’t as resilient of a muscle as one might expect. I have to go in for electro-therapy to stimulate the muscle to prevent it from shutting down before I start doing range of motion stuff.

In the meantime, I’ve been working from home and sitting on the couch a lot. I can’t wait till this heals. Being in the house (and not being able to ride) all day is driving me crazy. And it’s only been a week!

If you’ve looked any of my work, you know that I am a fan of doing gig posters. Most of the posters that I do are set up with screen printing in mind. Unfortunately, I don’t often (or ever) have the opportunity to actually get them screen printed.

My latest project gave me enough lead time that I was able to call in a favor to my friends at Commonwealth Press. My good friend Dove is the lead signer of the band Pancake. They have a show coming up and she asked me if I’d be interested in doing a flyer. I (almost) always jump at the opportunity to create a poster for local shows and since I already had an idea floating around in my head, I accepted.

It’s an interesting challenge going from faux screen printed posters to the real deal. It’s not a terribly forgiving medium and choosing the design style requires a bit of thought. While complex designs are achievable, you have to keep the interaction of the colors in mind when designing. Dan from Commonwealth had given me some advice in the past so I had a decent idea of the design mistakes I should avoid. Upon sending the files over, Dan didn’t see any problems getting the art to reproduce. I have to thank a production specialist at work, Linda Twining, for hunting down enough paper to print the job. We printed on Cougar uncoated 80# cover. The paper took the ink fairly well with minimal warping.

We printed a run of 50 that I will be signing and numbering tonight. If anyone is interesting in purchasing a poster, let me know. I’ll be trying to figure out a way to set up a paypal link in order to figure out payment. How does $10 sound?

Here are pictures of the process, and the final printed piece.

Thanks to Dan Rugh of Commonwealth Press for spending his evening getting these printed. If you ever need t-shirts printed, this is only place. Call them, or else!  This also wouldn’t have been printed without the help of my wonderful girlfriend Sarah who saved the day when we ran out of red ink. She happened to have had the exact color that we needed, and was nice enough to run home to grab it.  Finally, I have to thank Pancake for the opportunity to make this poster real. I hope you guys dig it as much as I do.

The finished product.