Cool Local artists

Today was still not too long of a ride but more so than the past cold days.
I think we olny did 4.5 hours or so. Since the weather is much warmer today Johan wanted to get them out for a bit longer ride. It is not all about riding here at this camp but it is still nessisary to get some miles. The afternoon was also filled with a visit to the AMD offices in South Austin.
We were welcomed by many AMD managment, sponsor liasons and a host of AMD office personel. We got a talk by them on how AMD helps our team more than
just financially. Technology wise, they help us with things like AMD micro procesors which help speed research and development of things like our TT bikes. The TTX to be specific. In he past a bike went from frame concept to reality in about 8 months. With AMD and thier techology they helped Trek cut that process to 8 weeks from concept to real life usable frame in the form of our newest TTX Time trial bikes.
Tonight was our anual Jeff Garvey dinner at his house. I’m sure I said this before but his house is incredible. His guest house rivals many of our normal houses. Catered by the same group each year I see a friend who also is a bike lover in the day time and a helper for the caterers by night. She rides, worked at a local shop and also at a local brew pub that has now burned down (unfortuately). So, it is fun to both go to his house and eat and drink but to catch up with my friend Julie. Each year Jeff had a small band play. This year he had a Mariachi band. This is the same band that he had at this anual gig a few years ago. They were great then as the are this time. Too cool!!
Weekends are expecially fun in Austin. Last year Curt (soigneur) Chris (Mechanic) and I walked down 6th street to the bars, clubs etc. Then after a few drinks we all decided to get rings. There are many street vendors selling things such as food, art, jewery and a host of cool things. And so, Chris though we three should get rings. After about a solid 30 or 40 minutes of shoping for rings we all had rings after camp last year. Sadly I lost mine somewhere only a few weeks after camp.
This year I walked 6th Street with Kendal from Nike. I was pretty tired from doing a lot of running around and not nessisarily working bike stuff. So it was just a way to walk off dinner and relax for a little. Well kendal and I saw a ring vendor and had to get new rings. Especially for me since I lost the last one. So I’ve continued my (new) anual tradition of getting a ring while at Austin camp.
The other thing I looked for and got was a piece of art work. I saw this guy last year but did not get anything from him and I kick myself for not doing it. So this year I found him (In the very same spot) and got a piece of his work. His tools of the trade are multiple colors of spray paint, two or
three round discs (such as a mayo jar lid) of various sizes, cardboard (usually bent/curved i a “U” shape and crumpled up newspaper. His “canvas” was a heavy stock of white paper. With some heavy techno background music he whips the spray cans around like a cook weilding his knives at Benihana style Japanese restaurant. Throwing in some circle shadows with the round discs as cover and then the same for the Bent/curved cardbord. The crumpled newspaper “blots” away the texture and the end result is a sort of “lunar” style landscape with comets and moons and such. All this in a matter of about 10 minutes or less. At the end he turns a spary can into a torch to seal the art with the spray can/torch/dryer. If in Austin on the weekend look for him. I’m sure someone like this is not new and you may have a local artist just like him. But they are not dime a dozen like starbucks.
Such cool local artists.