It's okay, I'm working on my approach shot

gettin' close

We are days away from finishing the film, 'Fair Fight'. I don't think I've stayed awake so many hours in a row, in my life.

It's all worth it and I'm excited for everyone to see what Rod and I have been working for the last year.

15 points

A ruling in favor of teammate Sue Haywood may have cleared up a messy situation that occurred in 2004, but what's a chance to go to the Olympics worth? (Especially after dedicating your life to reaching that goal...)

Rad Rod

Rad Rod Blackhurst gave me an early birthday present and surprised me by gathering an all-star line up of some of my best friends for dinner. It was one of those nights where we all could have talked until the early hours of the morning...

Thanks Jeff, the Patricks, Isaac and Rod.

wedding bells

A big congratulations goes out to my cousin Ryan and his brand new bride, Sara! I was fortunate enough to stand up for Ryan as he asked me to be his best man. Well, it goes without saying - even though I'm saying it - that it was a huge honor to be asked to do this.

Thank you Ryan.

My ravishing better half flew into Rapid City, SD from NY to be at the wedding with me. So very nice of her . . .



Following the wedding, we actually got to spend the next week together. On the drive back to CO we stopped to see Mt Rushmore and had a really good, greasy, small town lunch in Newcastle, WY.

I'd say one of the many highlights of the wedding was when us guys went go-kart racing. We even got these little hair net things that made us look like your average rehabilitated convict serving lunch at the local soup kitchen. And these weren't your average little cars . . . They reached 50mph and there was some dirty racing going on. I may or may not have had mercy on the groom . . .

2,940

A new frontier has been reached by our production company.

Some stats on our current project in post production:

51 pages of log notes
94 reels (running at 1 hour and 4 minutes ea.) from Sausalito
51 reels (same running time) from Denver
22 pages of personal notes
51 complete scene ideas
2,940 individual clips that were worth my time to go back and log

This film is going to be released early 2009... Details not released yet.



Big Head Todd - Live at Red Rocks is almost done. (Release date before Christmas)



A trip to Santa Fe with Patrick Marold yielded some beautiful footage as we installed a piece of his art in Levy, NM. I'll be posting a short piece on our websites shortly.

'you wouldn't happen to have any extra water, would ya?'

As I arrived in Gunnison at Mr and Mrs Smith's house, I had this weird feeling that the 100 mile race course would NOT be marked . . . I was right.

Poor Brian and Jenny had to give me a crash course on the trails around Crested Butte, at 11PM the night before the race.

'You'll see a fence on your right, keep your eyes open for a 180 left turn . . .' and so on. Brian wrote out some directions, we printed off a mileage chart, AND I randomly brought my GPS. This is what I had to go on for an 8 hour ride.





Well, I still got lost. I was leading and I kept getting lost, flying past turns, and backtracking. I was so focused on not getting lost that I didn't eat like I was supposed to. So, I finished the first lap and Brian took over for our team and I kept going for the solo category. Brian was the man and helped me out as long as he could. I started to bonk real big and at a certain point, he just had to go on without me. I got off my bike and ate whatever I had in my jersey pockets. I then stopped a pair of couples from TX and begged them for a couple bottles of water. I got myself together and made it back to town. I chose not to go out for the third and final stretch. The first 70mi and 8,000 ft of climbing did me in...

We won the team event with Brian and Jenny, (the super couple) smashing it on the brand spankin' new Trek Top Fuels. Jenny did the final lap and got into a little rain. Lucky for her, she finished 20 or 30 minutes before anyone else!

Brian pacing me, pre-bonk...



Jenny coming in first, a little muddy.

one more for good measure

I've decided, under the 'pressure' from teammates Brian and Jenny, to race one more time this year. And I think this one will hurt...



Tomorrow morning I will start the Crested Butte 100 in hopes of putting in a fast time for our three person team. However, last night, Brian called me and informed me that the promoter was keen on having me do the solo as well. So, I'm going to try it. I'll just keep going after I finish lap one. Not really sure where my fitness is these days, but will give 'er a go. (truly, this event is low-key and about having some pizza and a good time with friends - sans the suffering after mile 20...)

choke, california - the trailer

Rod and James Minchin created a film for the band, Jack's Mannequin. I did enough work on the audio side that they gave me sound engineer credit. The reason I'm excited is that this marks the first time I made it onto a real movie poster...

September

The seldom seen, but important people.

Handsome Rob . . .

. . . welcomed a brand spankin' new, gigglin' little baby boy into the world last night.



Congratulations Rob, Heather and Bergen!

been a looong, but great week

Since Brian Head Utah, I've been working all day and all night trying to catch up with work. In addition, I've been on shoots this week which is always fun. First it was the DNC concert and march. (Rage Against the Machine and Flobots), then we shot a series of acoustic performances for the band. Here's where it gets tricky...

I wanted to do a 50 mile race in South Dakota on Sunday, but we were shooting from 10A to 10p (or midnight) both Friday and Saturday and I would ned to leave by midnight to make the start of the race. Well, I left around 1 AM and flew through WY to barely show up for the start of the race. With all the fitness and miles from Brian Head, my body adapted and I had an incredible race. I ended up winning and setting a new course record by 17 minutes! The second place rider, (and last year's winner) David Olsen, had a great race and finished 8 minutes faster than last year. All in all, this was one of the best races I've ever done. The organization and overall great people involved make this event amazing. I was able to meet a bunch of great people, see some good friends from the ND cycling scene, and even take home a good amount of cash and Garmin GPS computer for my bike. It was well worth the 40 straight hours of no sleep.

Check out the write-up... http://www.bhpioneer.com/articles/2008/09/02/sports/northern_hills_sports/doc48bd5c35a77b6211550178.txt



One thing I have to plug-

During our shoot on Saturday, Rod, Aaron Johnson and myself jumped into the studio while the band took a break.

What came next was magic. We, Rod Richardson + His Po Boys, recorded a version of Bob Dylan's 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' in record time - one take. Take a listen...

Rod 'Moonshine' Blackhurst on Vox and piano
Aaron 'Slow Hand' Johnson on the skins
Kelly 'Boxcar' Magelky on the six string

a write-up from Rebecca Rusch

Two-Time Solo 24 Hour World Champ and new friend wrote a story about staying with all of us Trek folk in Brian Head.

http://mbword.mountainbike.com/2008/08/american-moun-2.html

the carnage and the glory

It's hard to believe it's over. One moment I feel like it was over in a flash, and another I feel like the prologue was a month ago. At times I felt it was never going to be over. (Like the start of stage 2 when my legs were in horrible condition. Then the start of stage 3 when my legs were in really horrible condition...)

It is truly amazing what the human body can do and I was pleasantly surprised when I got stronger as the days went on. I credit my teammates who are exceptional and professional athletes. They definitely showed me the way this weekend. The amount of talent and experience just staying in our cabin was incredible. Lea, Jenny and Rebecca were great, positive spirits while Brian and JB were inspirational and kept me fighting the whole weekend. Gregg was the perfect support as he did all the calculating and logistical planning, (not to mention keeping the bikes running perfect).





I never thought I'd say I was tired of eating, but at 5 AM, I got pretty close...



Thanks to all who helped all weekend and my parents for supporting. (morally and financially)

AMC: day 3

Today was another good learning day.

I had a great start and felt real strong in the beginning. I sat in 6th/7th for the majority of the race until (again) the last 10 miles. Today, however, I ate a lot of food on the bike and even had a little caffeine toward the end. I realized that I probably just need another year or two under my belt to be able to battle it out with these super fast guys...

Speaking of super fast, JB won again! And - it was another sprint to the line! After 3 hard days of mountain bike racing, Jeremiah holds a 6 second lead over JHK. Tomorrow's stage is said to be the hardest (I can't even imagine) and it will sort out the winner of the whole stage race.

My other teammate, Brian, is killing it and getting stronger every day. He keeps catching and passing me right at the end of the stages. It's sort of good for me as I can learn a lot from these guys here.

Well, tomorrow should be another hard day.

AMC: days 1 and 2

As I try to complete my first stage race I'll update the best I can as the days go on.

Trek VW had an amazing day one (The 6 mile prologue) with Jeremiah Bishop and Lea Davison each winning and grabbing the leaders jersey.



I had a good day, but blew up a little bit at about the 4 mile point and ended up 9th. When you go into the red zone at this elevation, you don't come back.

After the prologue and team dinner, Lea, Rebecca Rusch, Jenny Smith, Jeremiah and myself decided we would jump in the freezing cold creek to get our legs nice and flushed out...





The elevation is so high here that Jeremiah headed down the mountain so his heart rate would get low enough so he could sleep. Speaking of JB, he won again today in another sprint finish after 55 miles. He is on fire with 2 stage wins so far. I again had a real good day, but I faded from 6th to 9th as I ran out of calories in the last 10 miles. Maybe 9 is my number. (even my mom's birthday is on a 9th)

I can't believe we race 62 miles tomorrow - and another 55 on Sunday. This race is turning out to be really fast and difficult with all the big names here. I'm hoping to stay consistant and healthy the next couple days.

skinsuits and 20 dollar bills

Handsome Rob and I made the trip to Breckenridge for their Wednesday night race series, (which is ran with impressive organization). Both of us were in need of redemption following a disastrous race the last time. I will not go into detail.

Well, we got it. Handsome Rob, with super tired legs from all that water skiing?, pulled off a top 5. I managed to win by, literally, half of a wheel. My first sprint finish in a mountain bike race - and they hurt real good. Great work to Kevin Soller of the US National Team for killing it and giving me a run for my 20 bucks.

Here is a write-up: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080813/SPORTS/198241091/1056

Man O' War

Eric Bachmann's music video directed by Rad Rod Blackhurst. Filmed by Rod and myself.

Coming Soon.

you can't always get what you want

Even though I didn't have the race I wanted, I had a great time at the solo world championships last weekend. My parents came up to Canada and I was surrounded by some of my best friends for a week. How can you beat that?



Jen Gersbach absolutely killed it in her first solo 24 hour race . . . ever . . . by taking home 3rd place and a nice check.



Sammy and I had some tough luck. Some bad food tore Sammy up quite nicely right off the gun at the race, while the onslaught of rainstorms brought my early lead to a quick and quite painful end. I've got a lot to learn when it comes to riding over wet, slimy tree roots.

Having quite a few of my family members come to the race made it very special. What made it even more special was that some of my extended family surprised me the night before. It was key as my cousins, Ryan and Alexis, played huge roles in the success of our pit.

All in all, it was a great time and we spent it in a beautiful place.





My new good friends, Sammy and Bunny



A huge thank you to Nick, Bethany and Ryan. I'll never be able to thank you enough - I know you were tired . . .



And to Josh, my teammate, who loaned me his personal race bike and has relocated to Montana. Miss ya bro.



I will be back next year. And I'll be back to win it for everyone who has put so much time into helping me get there . . .



Mark my words . . .

off to canada

I'm just about to head out the door and make my way to Calgary (more specifically, Canmore) for the solo 24 hour worlds.

If you're bored and want to waste time on the computer, check out http://24adrenalinlive.blogspot.com/ for live coverage of the race. (noon on Sat to noon on Sun)

Stand by for updates...

'wayfarer'

attrition

Congratulations Jeremiah. You killed it!



The Firecracker 50, serving as the Mountain Bike Marathon National Championships, is always a suffer fest. 50 miles and 10,800 vertical feet of climbing. Trek-VW had a great weekend as Jeremiah battled through broken chains, broken spokes and a bent derailleur to earn his first national championship. I passed him twice - once for each time he had to pull over and attend to his machine, and he passed me back twice - like I was standing still. JB is one fast dude...

Huge props to Martini (team manager) and Shep (our mechanic) for keeping us dialed in - as usual. Shep threw a brand new tire on my bike right before the race and I believe it was the key for me. Martini booked us a sweet condo, and both he and Shep were unbelievable motivators as I came through after lap 1.

Another plus, the biggest plus, was the surprise Libby gave me by flying in the morning of the race. Now if THAT isn't motivation to ride fast...

I am surprised I finished 5th, but I'll take it! I didn't feel sharp at all, but I kept going, and going.



On the women's side, Jen G finished 3rd in an amazing performance, and my teammate, Jenny Smith, got 4th, (but was relegated due to her being a Kiwi).

An early crash took out a couple of the super fast guys like Trek-VW cohort Brian Smith and last year's winner Jay Henry. Two great guys who were dealt some bad luck.

Well, I've been resting and recovering. I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be plenty of riders looking for redemption this weekend . . .