The Coolest Mug. Ever. Minimug.

Coffee is good, yes? We drink a lot of it, yes? So...

Ooooh, aaaahhh, lovely! Look above, this must be simply the coolest coffee mug ever.

The Minimug.

New Fixed-Gear Bicycle Owner's Manual

Since I've been suffering severely from the Fixed Gear Fever(tm) as reported here earlier, this amused me a lot.

EDIT:
I found the source of the text, it's BIKE SNOB NYC.
After discovering it I no longer have any need to blog about any of this stuff anymore. Ever.

New Fixed-Gear Bicycle Owner's Manual

Contratulations on the purchase of your Bianchi Pista/Specialized Langster/Cannondale Capo/Jamis Sputnik or similar. Your new bicycle should give you many days of enjoyment until you tire of it for aesthetic reasons and list it on Craigslist for the full retail price in order to help fund the purchase of an NJS-certified keirin bike, a vintage Fender Telecaster, or your move to another, trendier city.

Until that moment arrives, here are some things you need to know in order to get the most enjoyment out of your new toy:

A Note on the Fixed Gear Drivetrain

Your bicycle is equipped with a fixed gear drivetrain. For this reason you may want to alter your riding style accordingly. Firstly, ride slowly. Very slowly. This is the best way to avoid obstacles. When riding with friends on city streets, in bike lanes, or in parks, it is acceptable to disregard the flow of car or bicycle traffic and ride in whichever direction you choose. Slowly. If you find yourself traveling in the same direction as traffic and encounter an intersection with a red light or turning vehicle and are unable to stop, simply turn right. Riding around the block will eventually put you back on course and save you embarrassment and injury. In fact, did you know it's possible to get to any point on an urban street grid using only right turns? Well, it is. And it's safe and fun! Remember this acronym: AAL (Always Avoid Lefts).

Furthermore, your drivetrain enables you to enjoy your bicycle without having to actually ride it more than a few feet at a time. Fun things to try include: skidding, skip-stopping, trackstanding, and putting stickers and colorful parts on it.

Upgrading

It is important to begin the process of upgrading your bicycle’s appearance immediately. This can occasionally have the side-effect of improving your bicycle’s performance as well. Fortunately there are increasing numbers of track bicycle boutique shops. These shops dispense with the selection, service, and expertise of old-fashioned bike shops and instead focus on catering to your every candy-colored whim. They can also offer you sound and practical advice. Best of all, they carry lots of cool t-shirts.

Proper Usage

Though the model name or advertising copy for your bicycle may include words like “pista,” “track,” or “entry-level racing,” in no circumstances should you attempt to use your bicycle on or for any of the above. Doing so shall void your warranty.

“Proper Usage” includes: riding slowly to the bike boutique to purchase accessories and clothing; photographing your bike for submission to on-line galleries; participation in ad-hoc skidding contests; and doing track stands for hours outside of the residence of a person you would like to impress.

Handlebars

Your handlebars are wrapped in tape made of synthetic cork. Please note that the purpose of this tape is to protect your bars during shipping. This tape should be removed immediately.

You should be aware that once the tape is removed the bars may be slippery and difficult to grip. If this is the case, remove bars from stem, invert, and re-install. Then, using a hacksaw, cut in the middle of the curved portion until the excess length is removed. Your hands will now be slightly less likely to slip from the bars due to the limited hand position. This is called “flop n’ chop,” and your bicycle is now a gelding.

Brakes

Depending on make and model, your bicycle may have been shipped with a brake or a pair of brakes pre-installed. These brakes should only be used in emergencies. Once you are comfortable bringing the bicycle to a safe and complete stop without using the brakes, they should be removed and discarded.

The term “safe and complete stop” means bringing the bicycle from 5mph to 0mph in a distance of no more than 50 feet.

Safety

Whenever operating your bicycle, safety should be your primary concern. Be sure to have a qualified mechanic install a top-tube pad immediately. Thanks very much for your purchase, and welcome to the exciting world of track cycling!

Cycling in Helsinki. Hazardous business. And then some.

Since we been discussing different aspects of bicycles and cycling here, here, here and here, recently I wanted to bring couple of bits of information related to biking in Helsinki and in Finland that I've read on main national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat during the last two days.

Here we go. Some pro-biking propaganda, or something like that, from yours truly.

1.) Yesterday the newspaper reported a study concerning bike accidents in traffic in Finland. It turned out that according to a serious estimate while there are annually lot of bike accidents, in seventy, yeah you got it right, 70, percent of those the cyclist had been DRUNK. Like what the f**k? People please. And yeah, I've ridden my bike while intoxicated fo'sho but still.

2.) And from today's newspaper: According to survey done by the City Of Helsinki, while the citizens were most happy with the public traffic and less happy about the state of car traffic and they were least happy about the state of cycling lanes and generally thought cycling in Helsinki scary and difficult. Yeah, you got that f**cking right. Don't even get me started on this one.

Oh, and people please do remember, tomorrow, Septermer 22nd, is The Annual World Carless Day. So leave yo polluting metal cows at the parking lot tomorrow and ride yo bikes (or public traffic) instead. It's good for the environment, less car traffic is generally nicer for everybody, your health might actuallu improve and all that.

Oh, one more thing, my salvaged fixed gear bike project (pictured above) is currently taking a lil' time out since I'm still missing some crucial tools and parts but also because I already have my lovely Raleigh USA Racing Gran Prix fixie up and running AND because I just acquired yet another interesting project, and for very reasonable price too.

Rock Star Phenomenon

What's up with this thing, that rappers like to rap about rock stars, about acting like rocktars and such things? First came out Party Like A Rock Star by Shop Boyz, then R Kelly's/Ludacris' "Rockstar" and now Chamillionaire's new album has a song titled "Rockstar". And to top it all Chamillionaire's "Industry Groupie" samples long parts of "Final Countdown" by Europe. Well, judge yourself, if it works...

Chamillionaire - Industry Groupie mp3

Saturday Night's Alright for Pimpin'

Yrz truly, Alppila along with one of the original Helsinki hiphop heads, DJ Fyrre will spin that rap-rnb-related shit. Tomorrow, sat 15th at We Got Beef (Iso Roba, for those of you who grew up in a barrell).

Resident DJ Henrikki cannot make it because of some recent family business. Congratulations to Henrikki & his familia!

Nuff said, homies. See you there.

Dude, where's my Lamborghini?

Kriton is movin again. This time it's commercial.

Yes, we just made our first leap into big budget advertising business, by making this beat for a new Lamborghini campaign, Where Is My Lamborghini?. To be exact, it is a teaser site for a future Lamborghini game (which platform, i don't really know...).

Why, you may ask. Because we friggin could. And Lambo's are cool. Plus, we got to make exactly the beat that we wanted, without no "suits" getting in the way of our creative process (read: beer drinking). So we'll definitely make more stuff like this in the future too! fun. Fun! FUN!

Art direction by fiilin.com, 3d and flash stuff made by some other peeps, who did a great job BTW. Don't you just love fast cars!

Party like a rockstar!

Early last sunday I took a long and a slow longboard cruising session around my hood. When I got to Ruoholahti I found out that some wannabe rockstar seems to live there. That's what I thought 'cos there was this pile of electronics that turned out to be a tv that had been thrown out of the window. After quick investigation I realized that it was no real rock star who had done it: it was a crappy old tv, no HD-ready flatscreen. But it had gone to really small pieces, so the actual throwing must have looked cool though. Totally dude!

What's synthtron? Or anthem breaks?

Yadadamean? If you're not sure, surf to Ishkur's Guide To Electronic Music. It's a cool web site that maps various (techno) styles together and offers soundsamples of each genre as well.

But why isn't there a detailed description of the differences between Punavuori Techno and Kallio techno.

See what I found on a garbage dump today. Fixed Gear Bike Project.

I'm a kind of a person who gets really into something every once in a while and I also love to have all kinds of hobby projects. Well, I recently wrote here about how I got into bicycles again and how I converted my old MTB into a single speed cruiser.

I'm still really into the bicycles and the next logical step after my single speed bike project I had could only be to get a real fixed gear bike, like the kind all bike messengers and hipsters ride. Important part of that game is that you really need to build the bike by yourself, not just to go to a shop with your credit card in your hand and buy a Biachi Pista, Giant Bowery, Raleight Rush Hour or some other fixie that some big bike brands are already churning out from their conveyor belts. No sir, that would be lame.

Interestingly, while I been studying & and getting into the whole fixed gear bike thing, I've found people saying on several discussion forums stuff like: "fixed gear bikes is the new skateboarding...", there are also ex-pro skateboarders making skate video -style movies about riding fixed bikes in San Francisco and Tokyo etc.

Anyhow, now after this over-long intro, here's what happened to day: I was on nice Sunday walk with my girlfriend and our daughter and I just happened to look into a garbage dumpster by a house, like I often do, and now what did I find there?

A cool 1970s vintage steel frame racing bike, with a real leather seat and all. Bit grimy fo'sho but all intact except for the tires. Like whoa, dude! Sure, I took it home and I will convert it into a fixed gear bike ASAP because that's the best thing you can do with those kind of bikes, basically. The actual project with the bike that I'm starting now could be bit complicated but I will keep you posted about the developments. First I need to acquire some things, like new tires, bottom bracket, crank set, chain wheel, chain, pedals, riser handlebar, grips, a track cog and a lockring - just to get my project started...

But wait, there's more. I wanted to know more about the bike but there were no decals or any other markings of any type, only thing I found was that all components had XB3 written on them. After some Googling I found out that the bike was apparently made by Ukrainian Kharkov bike factory, and of course in the Soviet Union. Actually, it was made by one of the only two factories in CCCP making racing bikes, and apparently Kharkov was the better factory out of the two. Nice.

The tipping point

All who have read Gladwell's book by the same name know what the term means. It's basically a point, when a previously rare phenomenon becomes rapidly and dramatically more common. Like crocs sandals some time ago (yucch!, Ok, let's not go there, but crocs are not for adults, and especially not for adult males youhearme!), and now they're a real mass phenomenon.

Well, these last weeks must have been the tipping point for Facebook here in Finland. As I write this a lot of finnish peeps are signing up for the service. Facebook has been quite popular in the US since last september when it opened up for the masses (previously it was a reserved for students), and now it seems to get a hold here in the northern hemisphere. When I tried it last spring it seemed like another place for social networking like MySpace, but it's technically a lot more advanced. You can so easily add cool applications that really work and the interface is pretty good when u get the hang of it. U just gotta play around with it. And I fell for it this week.

What makes me wonder is what's gonna happen to MySpace, or is this going to draw crowds from more "adult" services like LinkedIn.

However the Kriton Posse is alreade there, and we likes it. Let's just wait if this really becomes a mass phenomenon, it sure seems like it, 'cos the buzz is really big at the moment.

The first Kriton video "Scared Money" is finally here!

Okay, this is it then. The first official Kriton High School Bangers video (and at the same time the first video from Kriton Music) "Scared Money". Written, directed, produced and edited by fiilin.com. There's birds, there's a scary looking dude, there's explosions. There's even rap samples!

Recognize it, watch it, rate it, favorite it, comment it on Youtube!

[EDIT]
Okay, check this out: Youtube videos are crap quality. If you wanna check out what the video is REALLY supposed to look like, peep here (.mov = 60mb). It looks damn NYCE!

Dave Chappelle don't smoke weed anymore...

...with black people.

I can still feel it...

We've already posted way too many entries concerning Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight, so why stop now?
I think I'm just gonna go on and on blogging, as long as i've got something to write about that song.

A classic is a classic is a classic, and you can't even ruin it by making an atmospheric tribal deep house remix of it.
Well, I'm sure you could. But Osunlade didn't.

Here's Osunlade's brand new remix of In The Air Tonight (out on 12" on some label which i can't remember right now)
Enjoy!

Osunlade vs. Phil Collins: In The Air Tonight (mp3)

Me a Posenger now. My 'Sinkula' is here.

Ok, while we are on the subject of the bikes, look up, there's a v2.0 incarnation from my old mountain bike. Now turned into a single speed urban cruiser, or basically something like a big 26" BMX.

I had abandoned my old MTB some years ago. Originally I bought it in the mid-1990s, it used to be a good bike then, and I drove it hard until the gears, brakes and other parts where all worn out. Then I just left it in parents' garden shed and forgot about it.

However, this summer while on a holiday trip in Copenhagen I saw so many nice bikes around that it made me remember what I once had. I suppose I had also gotten a bit bored with my Jopo, I must admit. You need to have projects, and sometimes you need to be able to ride faster, right?

Now, with my bike project, basically I stripped off everything that I could and fitted a single speed conversion kit in the place of the old gear system. This changes completely the feeling of the bike, to a much nicer direction IMO. It is hard to explain but riding a single speed bike feels somehow more honest when it will only go as fast as you will pedal - and this is exactly why you wanna ride it fast. Also, having only a front brake forces you to really concentrate on your riding...

Finally, to give even nicer touch to my new/old bike, my man Teemu sorted me out with some nice extra fat slick tires, a more modern riser handlebar and a better seat.

All that fixed gear and single speed craze is apparently bit of a trendy thing now, so that makes me, what, a Posenger?

Kriton team longboard report #2

Last friday the Kriton Posse took their boards to various downhill spots in Helsinki to do some cruising. It was great,we all had a blast, and no one got hurt. We took over the long curvy road leading from Uimastadion to the parking lot of Stadion, and also tried the area around Hartwall arena. This week we gonna try something else. We love it.

It just proved that you can be over thirty and get a new hobby. Besides longboarding I've also started road cycling this summer ( see my bike here). I've been mountain biking for like 7 years now, so this kinda bikes were a bit weird to me. My ride is not a pure road/track bike, it's more like a urban shuttle type-o-thang, it a singlespeed, so there are no gears to get in the way. It has a flip-flop hub), so you could easily turn it into a fixed gear bike, but that's next year, right?

Reggae Album of the year goes to...

Coooooooooolllieeeeeee Buuuuuuddddddz. To make it short: get Collie Buddz's album now. I heard it first time like a month ago (don't ax me how I gottit...), but it took me until this weekend to realize that this one is a true killer. You have heard the biggest singles maybe too many times (come around, mamacita...), but as a whole this is one of the best albums that has come out in reggae for a long time. Me likes it.

And there are some killer tunes that have not yet been released as singles, like "Haterz / Blind to you", which keeps ringing in my head all the time.

It gwaaaan like dis..

"I'm blind to you haterz,
Cya touch me war instigators,
Me say me busy love lately,
Ask you how the world ah run so"

Straight Outta Veruca Salt Lake City

One of the coolest things is to find out what one hit wonders and has been bands or musicians are doing today. I bumped into Nina Gordon's new stuff on the ever great interweb. Nina who, you must be asking. Well, Nina used to be in Veruca Salt, which is one of those nice grrrl pwwwr bands that ruled in the nineties. I'm not all that stoked about Nina's solo stuff but this cover song made me laugh.

I know it's a thing that's been done before, mess some gangsta rap songs with easylistening versions or such (yuh know Richard Cheese with gin and juice), but this sounded... honest? Enjoy this crazy stuff still.

I can feel it too

What a coincidence. I happened to be at the pool in Italy too, when that Phil Collins classic hit the air. Plus various offsprings of us Kriton peeps that we like to call "the second generation Kritons" but that's another story. The deal is that Hennessy was damn right: "In The Air Tonight" was so designed to be listened to at the pool. It was perfect.

And here we got another coincidence: the new album by teen reggae/hiphop/r&b prodigy Sean Kingston just hit the streets this week and guess what. Its got a nice song in there called "I Can Feel It" and you already know which 80's hit it samples. And the album's not bad either, if you don't have anything against poppy r&b/reggae, that makes T-Pain sound like serious art music. It's all good.

So here you go: "I Can Feel It" By Sean Kingston featuring the immortal Phil Collins samples. Mp3

I can feel it

...In the air tonight. Phil Collins is the king. I had to get the "Face Value" album as soon as I got back from my trip to Italy, 'cos they played "In the air tonight" it sooo loud while we were hanging out at the pool. And at that moment the song got a really new meaning to me. I used to dig this song before (hear Kriton's remix of T.I.'s Why you wanna, and you'll find some familiar chord changes there... ), but I had never listened to it at this volume. Really, this song is at the same time the coolest chill out song (as in Miami Vice, you remember...) and a banging tune as well.

And what makes the song interesting is the urban legend about the lyrics as well:

"An urban legend has arisen around "In the Air Tonight". According to the legend, the lyrics are based on a tragic event Collins witnessed, usually a drowning (as in the song's lyrics), in which a man could have helped the victim, but did not do so. A common ending is that Collins invites this man to a show and sings the song to him, often with a spotlight pointed at him. Afterward, the man is arrested or, in some versions, is wracked with guilt and commits suicide. "

Duffle Bag Boys

I admit it. I haven't posted new music on this blog every week, like i said i would. It's my damn summer vacation. I don't have time for all that.

But, right now i have. My bags are packed and the plane is ready to leave for sunnier regions after a couple of hours of sleep.
So here you have the extra-slept-on Playaz Circle, new stuff from Ludacris' DTP label. The track is called "Duffle Bag Boys" and it's hot.

Playaz Circle: Duffle Bag Boys (320 kbs)

And by the way, duffle bags rule!