New York December NYC Meet-Up

Difficult to say if the Brits will decline into droog like hooliganism over Brexit, but I find it interesting that making the break easier is fomenting radicalism from their right...as if a "no deal" Brexit with maximum punishment is their intention...well I suppose that fits their character but I wonder who they're trying to punish. Seems like so many people are acting against their own best interests in so many places and that cant end well. I feel like at least the French are focused on what the trouble is.
 
Tonight (Sunday) if you have the chance watch NBC World News Tonight. They will be running a segment on older bloggers and "Maggie" is one of them.

The smut is that Maggie hates the prefix older or senor and does not like to promote ageism.

Let's see if I get photo credits this time.

NBC did get permission from Perricone to use one of the shots I took, but I don'y know if they will use it.

Let's see...

Cal
 
Over the weekend I installed the neckplate I needed and strung up the new Tele. This guitar is very lively and resonant in a way that captures mucho air. Maggie stepped out so I was able to plug in and make some noise. A very "woody" tone with warmth a plenty. It still has spank though.

I figured out how to use this "Megaswitch" that offers 5 positions instead of the standard three on a Tele. At each end I have a pre-set: one is the neck pick-up with the tone control removed for full sound; and the other also bypasses the tone control, but for the bridge pick-up, with the addition of a small cap to ground to chop of the top a little that provides the tone of a "cocked wah-wah pedal.

I introduced a push/pull pot in the volume control and will wire this double pole switch to add further versitility. The Tele is such a basic guitar with only a single volume and a single tone control, but without adding anything extranous I somehow have managed to add a lot of versitility with these few controls.

I tried to center the front wheel in this vintage Koski fork. This chromed fork looks awesome on my polished ti Basso, but the wheel is offset and not centered due to bike polevault damage. My optimism had me remove the fork and go to work where I have a vice. I has thinking I could possibly exert enough force to cold-set the legs, but I pretty much could not exert enough force with my meager 152 pounds.

This fork has a long steerer tube, meaning it came from a large bike, so the rider that performed this epic pole vault likely had to be at least a very tall guy and forensics suggest rather girthy or portly also.

Plan "B" is have this other Koski fork have the steerer tube extended. The likely better choice because this fork has a shorter 1 1/2 inch rake for faster more twitchy steering and will also provide a shorter wheelbase.

Either option requires a framebuilder, but since I'm on this route I might as well benefit with more aggressive handling.

My New Year's resolution is to get ultrafit. My intent is to get stronger and get some endurance back of my youth.

Cal
 
Cal,
You need someone with a fork alignment gauge and the knowledge of how to use it. I used to straighten forks almost every day back at Via and it is something that needs a delicate touch. It can be done with a cylindrical clamp (for the steered tube) in a vise, a long pipe, a 2x4 and a junk bolt-on hub.
You'd be surprised how many frames out there are out of alignment which need resetting.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Cal,
You need someone with a fork alignment gauge and the knowledge of how to use it. I used to straighten forks almost every day back at Via and it is something that needs a delicate touch. It can be done with a cylindrical clamp (for the steered tube) in a vise, a long pipe, a 2x4 and a junk bolt-on hub.
You'd be surprised how many frames out there are out of alignment which need resetting.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

I'm aware that someone who builds frames has that touch. I think my steel IBIS has forks that also need to be cold set. Funny how many a times I pole vaulted on that bike. Only 39 inch wheelbase, a 72 degree steering tube angle, topped off with a high 12 inch bottom bracket height.

So you are correct. half of my bikes have forks that require straightening. I'm a least man enough to know that this is beyond my skill and I need a pro.

Mike the Wack-job, AKA Mike the skinny Hipster, had a guy who builds frames tweak his Pinnatero after he got hit by a USPS mailtruck. He needed a new rear wheel though.

There is this frame builder who owned a shop called Chelsea Bikes. He had to close up shop due to crazy rent, but Mike the Wack-job says he just reopened a shop on the other side of a bridge in New Jersey.

Also not sure you will be at the December Meet-Up. If not PM me your snail-mail address so I can ship those Dura-Ace first edition 8-speed shifter levers. Merry Christmas...

Cal
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Its actually pretty easy once you have a few decent tools and a reliable means of measuring.
Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

I can see that getting the leverage is not the issue, but securing the fork without collapsing the steerer tube was a concern. I kinda figured out that I needed to maintain the 4 inch distance between the lugs. I had a good wheel as a rough indicator.

Pretty much I don't want to hack a now rare vintage fork. If you find old Koski forks I would collect them. I have two: one is chrome and has a 2 inch rake; and the other is off a Bridgestone MB-1 and features a 1 1/2 inch rake with a rather stubby steerer tube.

These forks are still highly regarded and are of historical value. Trying to secure one is not so easy on EBAY.

I also see great value in keeping 8-speed alive. The stronger chain and drivetrain seem to be longer wearing. Joe's idea of changing chains often is only a pro-VO-lactic measure. Fact is the 9-10-11 and 12 speed drivetrains seem to wear easily. Perhaps promoting going cross chain is a factor.

Cal
 
If you basically want to build a high-rise within your living space like I did, the Container Store is running a 30% off sale on ELFA storage products. Pretty much I have a lot of space, but a small footprint. LOL. Definitely has the macho man-cave appeal. Believe it or not things are organized and laid out in a convenient manner that is efficient.

Pretty much this is like LEGO blocks for adults. This is how I house my printer that I call the "Jersey Barrier," momentarily two bicycles, a camera collection, part of my guitar collection, and pretty much a warehouse of stuff that otherwise would be clutter.

The CF in me made me hold out for this annual sale for these last few items on my list.

Looks like the efficiency of my Boneco humidifier is getting low. I see how it struggles to maintain my apartment above 50% humidity. Thinking about buying an air scrubber to supplement the old Boneco. The playful gamble here is if the old Boneco which is about 4 years old will make it through this winter. Ideally in the spring I would just throw away the old Boneco and buy a new version next winter.

Like an old car I want to just run it to the ground and then bury it. Maintaining 50% minimum humidity is key to avoiding clogs on my printer.

This Ti Basso will remain a retro 8-speed. The good is that the heavier chain will ensure a longer wearing drivetrain. I'm looking at this bike as more like having a SUV or old pickup truck since it does not have the more sporty handling of either of my IBIS's.

To take the idea further, and in the tradition of my old Jeep Scrambler with the Corvette engine, I'll mount 2.35 inch oversized tires to create my version of a retro fat bike.

This allows me to really go sporty and performance on both IBIS's. Currently both the steel IBIS and ti IBIS are only single speeds, but I have stockpiled two full blown XTR 11-speed groupos, and a retro XTR/Dura-Ace 9-speed. I have enough stock likely to last more than a decade.

Everything should be mighty evil. I love it. Happy-happy.
 
Since I've been out for a while I am looking forward to seeing yer mugs at Rochard on Sunday...will anyone show-up? I hope so although drinking alone isn't the worst thing in this world. I'm also getting together a bunch of give-away items I thought I would use someday but won't: VAROB's, DMUOO's, VSPOO's, DOORX's, filters, flashbulb stuff...things like that. - Chris
 
I can't make it that day but we do expect to be in NYC sometime during our winter break (ends Jan 7th.) Bethanne's brother and his partner are actually visiting Philly from NYC that weekend.

Phil Forrest
 
Saganich said:
Since I've been out for a while I am looking forward to seeing yer mugs at Rochard on Sunday...will anyone show-up? I hope so although drinking alone isn't the worst thing in this world. I'm also getting together a bunch of give-away items I thought I would use someday but won't: VAROB's, DMUOO's, VSPOO's, DOORX's, filters, flashbulb stuff...things like that. - Chris
Click to expand...

Chris,

I'll be there. I have mucho filters that I can downsize. Most are Leica 39mm and 46mm and B&W brand.

I'll have my "Monster Workbook."

Cal
 
Phil_F_NM said:
I can't make it that day but we do expect to be in NYC sometime during our winter break (ends Jan 7th.) Bethanne's brother and his partner are actually visiting Philly from NYC that weekend.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

Let me know when you are in the city. If during the week you could stop by my Cyclotron lab for a quick tour (72d and York). I can save in my CF tradition on shipping you those shifter/levers.

Cal
 
579K followers.

It seems that my shots of "Maggie" get about 20K-25K likes within 24 hours.

Since Monday "Maggie" is featured in Amazon's Shopper's Guide where she plays the character of the picky mother-in-law. I originally thought that this likely would be for broadcast TV.

I don't think I'm wrong with this other tech company though that was shot in studios in L.A. I still think this will be TV and the production value is big enough and also the timing for a Superbowl commercial.

Also it seems we are doing well for this luxury leather design in our street shots. Mike-the-Wack-Job has been handling the product shooting. I'm cool with that. At this point in my life don't want to do anything I don't have to, even for pay.

Seems like my Humidifier which has a capacity maxed out for the size of my apartment this year is struggling. At this point I say it is climate change. The air it seems is drier and it is reminding me of when I lived in New Mexico.

When I take a shower in the morning, the added moisture is enough to tip things in favor of maintaining above 50% humidity. Pretty much I have documented that I'm at the hairy edge, and my concern for the health of my printer I likely need another humidifier for a boost-assist.

Oh-well. I'm not like a Republican anymore and acknowledge climate change.

The CF spin on this and "Beauty Secrete" is that at Bed Bath and Beyond they sell a Neutrogena Seseme oil creme that is absorbed readily at a good price. I bulk up exploiting coupons. My print head is not the only thing that suffers from low humidity.

I'm reminded today of why I'm a good photographer by how I can spin almost anything into terms of photography, like even jetting a 750 Holley 4 barrel carb (double pumper).

Back in my Hill Billy days, when I owned 5 vehicals and more than half of them were not registered or running in the Long Island suburbs, one of these vehicles was a black 1980 Pontiac Firebird that was kinda famous on the south fork of Long Island. Mark was this British rich kid who ordered a ZZ3 Chevy crate engine (a 4-bolt Corvette engine with aluminum heads) with a high stall torque converter.

According to my cycling friends he kinda would do doughnuts infront of parked cops to initiate a chase for fun. Separately at a party I met a South Hampton cop who clocked him at 135 mph on Montauk Highway. When the cop called the pursuit in on the radio the command was to stop the chase before someone got killed.

I had a line on an entire Corvette engine from a wreck through another friend, and the bonus here was fuel injection for a price of $1500.00. Not a bad deal, but it so happened that I bought the entire black Firebird for only $1k because Mark the owner was in a jam.

He eventually fell victim to a trap by the police and was arrested. The real problem that enabled me to secure the engine for only $1k was that the code against having an unregistered vehicle was also creating other law infractions and also tension with Mark's landlord.

I installed this engine into my 1984 Jeep Scrambler. The original motor I destroyed as a result of an engine fire, but I was luck to have stalled out right in front of a car dealership that used a fire estinguisher that saved the chassis.

The ZZ3 motor has 350 HP and 400 foot pounds of torque. This is a lot of power on a Jeep, and one of the problems is that the carb that was installed was not set up right for my Jeep. I bought the 750 double pumper at Englishtown during the Summer Nationals.

I pretty much bought a book about Holley Carbs to kinda get the principles, mounted a vacuum gauge on my steering collum with a hose clamp, and advanced the timing and performed adjustment by full acceleration test runs.

The Jeep had very bad wheel hop that was serious and dangerous, because power and traction interacted in a violent manner and I ran a serious risk of breaking a leaf spring that would lead to a crash.

Since I worked at Grumman at the time I started designing traction bars, but they were not required because I eventually got a smooth application of power. My truck weighed about 3200 pounds with the Corvette engine and a literally 200 pound cast iron truck tranny that was made for a much larger truck. The radiator alone weighed a lot having 4 cores instead of two or three, and cost about $500.00.

But without the doors and the fiberglass half-cab the Jeep with a full tank of gas weighed about 3 thousand pounds. By definition old muscle cars had one horsepower per ten pounds, but I had 350 for 3,000 pounds. Once in a drag race in front of Babylon Town Hall on Sunrise Highway I beat a SVO Mustang. To be fair I even gave the Mustang a head start. LOL.

Boy was he pissed. He moved off to the service road and wanted a second run, but I headed east on my way.

So developing film requires the same discipline as setting up a 4 barrel double pumper. Lots of testing and experimenting to dial in a combination of things that interact, but basically simple in principle.

So it seems that when one has the identity of being a photographer that everything is somewhat related. Just like how I got an almost new ZZ3 crate motor that only months earlier was purchased for almost $3K for $1K, I secured my Epson 7800 (Jersey Barrier) for only $100.00.

I found out about the availability of this printer for "no-money" from Chris, and Joe at a NYC Meet-Up offered to help me pick it up. Last night I topped up all the carts with Piezoflush and ran another Power Clean. Kinda like playing with my old Jeep except different.

Just to let you know how crazy my old Jeep was: the tranny was only a three speed manual, but with and overdrive and an underdrive; I figure with the 6.32 to one granny along with the 2.6 low from the transfere case and the 3.5 to one in the cut-down Ford nine inch rear with Linciln Continental rear disc brakes I had over 60 to one gear reduction and that I likely had enough torque to push a telephone pole over into someone's house I didn't like.

I could also burn the clutch a little in second gear from a dead stop and wind the Scrambler up to 85 MPH in just one gear.

Kinda like being seen around NYC carrying a Baby-Linhof, I kinda was well known out in Long Island.

Anyways this is kind of a Christmas story because while I don't own my Jeep I still own the Jersey Barrier, and I'm forever greatful to Chris and Joe for their help.

I located a few snapshots of my 1984 Scrambler and also my fugly 1980 Checker limo with black vinyl top and opera window when I cleaned up my studio. I have some old shots of when I did some off-road in New Mexico. I'll bring some of these shots to the Meet-Up.

Cal
 
See some of you this Sunday at the Rochard.

I'll have some retro car snapshots of some of my hot rods. They are "Calvinized" and are pretty loud and bold artistic statements that are both novel, crazy and cool.

In one shot of me doing a stream crossing off road in my Jeep I display short hair that is kinda 80's where it is pretty much an Afro, but with straight hair.

At the time I was working at Los Alamos on a Ronald Ray-Gun Star Wars project: a Neutral Partical Beam Accelerator that was being developed as a space based weapon to shoot down Intercontinental Ballistic Missles called "GTA" for Ground Test Acellerator.

Cal
 
I'll have a full bag of stuff I need to give away...gummy shutters, 127 Ektar lenses from an old Graflex, an old Leica point n shoot, a cannon II ltm with stuck curtains and 50mm, Polaroid back , a Nikon right angle finder, a working sychronoblitzer with wires and bulbs, old film 100' APX 100 and box HP5 4x5. A couple US Camera Annuals from 1950's, Leica M catalogs from last century, Reprovit stuff, enlarger lenses, Leica leather case from 50's...the list goes on.
 
Phil_F_NM said:
I should bring a wheelbarrow when we visit.
Looks like that is going to be in the first week of January right before we get back into school.
Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

Let me know so I can share the wealth. Definitely bring a knapsack.

I took ownership of the Agfa 100 ISO 135 that is old but never opened. Likewise for the 4x5 HP5. I also have these LTM extension tubes that are different lengths than the extension tubes that come with my Leica Copy Stand.

One camera you might be interested in is a Minolta 35 that is a LTM body complete with a 50/2.8 Super Rokkor. The shutter is not jamed and fires, but the forensics are that one of the curtains let go.

Ignacio got a free Leica point and shoot.

Joe took some lens.

Chris says he has another box of goodies that he will bring to work. Pretty much is almost like getting to a camera graveyard and doing free salvage. Lots of cool stuff. Mucho *** conversation pieces. There will be lots of forensic discussion. One Leica focus helicoil is NOS in box, but what is it for is a great question. My guess is Visoflex or Leica "R."

The crazy retro Leica flash Chris says works. I know Sam or Jim would love it. Comes with flash bulbs and spares. I will likely save this for the Beauty Contest because people will fight over this as treasure. Remember the only rule strictly enforced: "No biting." LOL.

Anyways mucho rare and hard to find stuff. The Kodak 152mm F4.5 Ektar is for a Graflex Graphic Supermatic. I exercised the shutter which seems to be spot on. The glass is also clean.

The 127 Ektar F4.7 has a Polaroid MP-4 shutter, but no aperture.

The brown leather Leica case is made for a M-body and three lens kit. There is a removable pallet that houses three M-bayonet mounts. I never have seen anything like it.

For the February Beauty Contest Philippe donated a working Olympus Pen EE-2. There is a stipulation though that whoever gets awarded this working camera, that is basically a half-frame analog point and shoot that is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, has to post pictures taken with the camera.

Sadly Philippe will be in France for the next 6 months.

Cal
 
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