GALFROMDOWNUNDER UPOVER

VIDEO:  Shot by the Galfromdownunder on the corner of 23rd St and 8th Ave NYC.  Music by Honest Charlie, sampled live in Tucson, AZ.  THERE'S a perpetually problematic corner on 23rd St and 8th Avenue in Manhattan. And I'm not referring to the stalwart sales associates handing out the Rite Aid and eyebrow threading leaflets either.  In torrential rain, this corner becomes a deep, impassable twin lake, causing pedestrians to walk an extra block, give pause, or if they're lucky to be wearing the ubiquitous Manhattan Hunter rubber boot (women only), slosh smugly right on through. When it snows, it becomes a glacier and lake combined - necessitating some mini mountain climbing (see video). Squint your eyes to block out the buildings, street and yellow cabs and you can almost imagine you're in watching National Geographic documentary on Greenland - before global warming set in. I have no idea why the city hasn't brought in a truck with some concrete to build t

Accidental Advertising: This arty shot, resulting from almost dropping my camera as I chased down a customer on her bike, resulted in a very nice little plug for clothing manufacturer Peal Izumi. I've just spent a week riding my bike 80-100 miles a day with 2000 customers and other folks on Cycle Oregon . I was looking forward to impressively blogging from the saddle, except my supposed all-singing-all-dancing iPhone turned out to be a bit of club-footed wallflower, as I ranted on Fastcompany.com . So I'm glad to have my clunky, predicatable but lightening fast old Blackberry back. it does what I want and fast. A friend is reading Terry Pratchett. I'd never heard of this English author at all, but he's prolific, having written a ton of books. The friend keeps sharing snippets aloud. Last one offered: if you steal a sock from a vampire, it will throw him off completely, because vampires are such neat freaks. Now just pause for a moment and savor the absurdity: a vampire