
Photo Cred: B. Maschal Private Collection
November is all upons. Turn back the clocks and turn up the volume-

Photo Cred: B. Maschal Private Collection
November is all upons. Turn back the clocks and turn up the volume-

Trixie on Howard St. Circa 2012
The alternate title to this post could be “Please Help Me Feel Okay About Parting Ways With an Old Friend.” Even looking at the photo above makes me feel all kinds of ways about this bike. She was an integral part of my life for the better part of a decade. The bike originally belonged to one of my best friends (yes, an actual human) who left her in my care prior to decamping to Italy for work, shortly after the onset of the great recession. My friend and I met as colleagues in the early aughts and quickly learned that we enjoyed many of the same hobbies, including cycling. When the bottom fell out of the economy he shipped over seas to work and I was charged with the custody of ‘Trixie’ (the fixie), an SE Draft that my friend had purchased on a whim from one of those bike shops on Grand St. that has been around since before they started construction on Sty-town.Continue reading

Author’s Newish R5 MkII with EF Mount Adapter and 50mm f/1.2L
I love SLR cameras. I was a slow convert when film gave way to digital. Similarly, when mirrorless cameras became the standard, I resisted for several years. Earlier this year, I finally pulled the trigger on an R5. There were a series of preceding events that catalyzed the shift. First, the dial that controls shutter speed on my 5d Mk IV started glitching. My guess is that too many instances of shooting in heavyish rain caused the contacts to oxidize or something. At any rate, I would have to scroll it 5 or 6 clicks to adjust 1 or 2 positions. Not ideal. Around the the same time, my knock around rig just generally shat the bed. If I had it’s power switched on and popped the battery in and out, it would work. But… not something I really had time to mess with.Continue reading

It’s been a wild month. Some jams-

Some Yard Work in a Wet and Verdant May
Dear non-AI bot readers: I apologize for not being so great about keeping things up to date over here on Jake.News, other than the playlists. Continue reading

The Author Enjoying a Cold One in the Adirondacks | Photo: Courtesy Lukas North Private Collection
Some Late Summer Jams for your Aural Pleasure-

Escute bem-

Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s I played some early-gen video games from time to time. In that era’s version of video games, the objective was usually to steer a pixelated object through various ‘levels’ of other pixelated nonsense. A frog through traffic, an Italian plumber through mushroom and lava filled dreamscapes; those were the scenarios. As you, the player, piloted your little pixelated cartoon through each ‘level’, the degree of difficulty would increase. Life can be kind of like a 90’s video game at times.Continue reading

Photo: Courtesy B. Maschal Private Collection
Apparently it is already June. Some jams for ye-

Spring April Jams for your listening pleasure-