hillary dixon rust

Happy holidays to one and all!

Not that it matters but I spent my xxx-mess up in Northern Indiana and the sun never came out and it snowed almost every day and it was quite a nice change from SoCal. I am glad to be back though. I've ridden more in the last 2 days than in the previous 10 combined. 

All things doc-wise are good. Our schedule got pushed back for various reasons which is bad but it gives us a chance to take a deep breath and get even readier.

Emerson took some iPhone photos when we were out filming for the new promo and then he touched them up as only Emerson can. I hope you like them. The promo will be finished and up ASAP.

The end. Hope you all enjoy what's coming up in 2010! Yeehaw! 

Chirp,
Hillary

The title is a trick. There is nothing regarding anything to do with the band the Pixies in this post except for this explanation. 

Dan and I met at Peet's on 14th and Montana where we discussed everything under the sun. Then we drove his work truck up to SFV (San Fernando Valley for you non-Socalians) and we rode al the way back. 

First the pudding, then the proof. 

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3355123weeblylink_new_window

I left off the bit where I rode to Santa Monica to meet Dan so add that on if you like but you get the idea. 

So there you have it. The first real ride I've done in a couple weeks. Did I mention the bank sign said it was 34 degrees this morning when I left? Did I mention I love riding my bike?


Chirp,
hillary

Not trying to jump the gun on any wild and crazy news but it's been a few minutes since I posted anything and the holidays are behind us now so it may be safe to let the cat peek an eye out of the bag.


"The News" is that the doc may be getting pushed back by a few weeks due to prior commitments (aka work that pays). It's not horribly complicated but we will have to shift everything which means redoing most of the work we've already put in. 


In news that is more awesomer, the footage will be arriving to the sweet hands of Zak Mctee tomorrow and so the editing will begin pretty soon and then we will have it up on the site and everyone can enjoy! 


Chirp,
Hillary


PS Them Crooked Vultures is amazing. Josh Homme is a genius. 

Unbelievable! 

I don't know where to start with the thank you's.

Allyson at Foxen was perfect. We couldn't have asked for  a better host. Going in not knowing what to expect I can safely say she was perfect. Especially considering it was her first time giving a tour on camera or giving a tour at all. We really got the royal treatment and could not appreciate it more. The entire staff was amazing and accommodating and everything just went really really well. Foxen Vineyard was just flat out beautiful in every respect. 

Emerson...what can I say? None of this would have happened without Em. I hope he's proud of himself. 

Brent is a professional camera man. He know how to set up shots to make them look the best and even when he could have been belly up to the bar getting free wine he was shooting b-roll.  He's just flat out amazing.

Justin is a nut. I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to get up at 6 in the morning to come with us let alone letting us use their camera and equipment and actually pitching in and helping out. He even hopped in the back of the Matrix and took over camera duties to give Brent a break!  

Sara, my dear sweet tortured wife. I promised her a day of wine tasting. Though she did get to taste some very excellent wines, she also got a lot more than she bargained for. She handled it all with poise and grace as usual and tolerated me and my version of "a day at a winery". 

Thank you all. 

Chirp,
hillary 

I had a plan to do like 40+ miles ranging all over from the beach to downtown to Griffith Park to Pasadena but what happened was that everyone (including me) anticipated the sooooper early day today and decided to take it easy.

I am glad we did. Instead of killing myself trying to get somewhere crazy before the sun went down after we shot in the canals, we ended up driving around the marina being a little more spontaneous. It ended up being really pleasant and it pumped me up to know we could trash Plan A and within 5 minutes be shooting a Plan B completely off schedule and still get good usable footage. 

Besides a huge thank you to Brent and Emerson, I want to give a virtual high five to Joe (last name Ohio?) that I met on the way to the beach who rode with me and talked and was generally just awesome and nice. Then there was Bill on the way home. I met him at the end of the bike path in Culver city. I had good conversations with both of them and they promised to check out the site. You'd be amazed how much you have in common with people besides your preferred mode of transportation and all you have to do is smile and say hello to find out.

What a great day! Time to get ready for Foxen. If it's half as good as yesterday it's gonna be amazing!
Chirp,
hillary

I've owned a bunch of bikes. Probably more than was ever sensible. I went through a phase where I was buying bikes a lot for some reason. I think I was just trying to find the "pefect bike" which I still think exists but it is most likely a "the grass is always greener" scenario.

Below are a few bikes I've had in Los Angeles that I've loved and ridden for more than a month.

I've owned one new bike in my entire life. It was a Murray BMX that my dad got me when I was like 10 or 11. It pretty much got destroyed. Not because I didn't love it, but because I loved it too much. I loved to jump it off homemade ramps and skid out and try to do stunts that didn't really ever work out. 

I dream of a day when I can find the perfect new bike and buy it and then try to ride it into the ground like that old Murray.

In my search for the perfect bike I've learned a lot. To me, the thing that matters most about a bike is how it feels under you, and how it makes you feel, which are very closely linked. 

Bikes come in as many sizes as humans do and on top of that almost all of the various parts are adjustable so that whoever gets on to ride can make arrangements to make it comfortable for them. 

That being said, I've probably owned over 20 bikes in the 4 years I've been in LA and none of them have had a frame that was more than 2 cm different from one another in its stated size and yet they all rode soooooo much differently.

The angles at which the tubes meet, the rake of the fork, the size of the rims and tires, everything comes into play. Changing one thing can take your bike from a pure bred racer into a air ride cruiser. 

Of course, the one thing that it all really comes down to it how much you ride. Stealing from one of my favorite bands "broken chairs your body conforms to..." Meaning, even if the bike isn't exactly "right" for you, if you ride it enough you won't notice. 

I'm not sure why I wrote all this.

Chirp,
hillary     

We're heading up to Foxen Winery on sunday to film the new promo for the site. We've got a good list of questions for just in case. I'm sure we'll get plenty of awesome information and won't even have to bother digging but as my wife likes to tell me "be prepared."

Also, hopefully we'll get to get out on saturday and film a bunch of stuff around town like the Old Pasadena Bridge and the Canals in Venice. 

I'll be taking photos as well so definitely be on the look out for a new and improved posting.


Chirp,
hillary

I had this old blog called ClogLA.com. It was ironically named because I want this city to get moving. Oddly, as we all know, riding a bike normally slows you down as well as the people that have no idea how to deal with you riding your bike where they want their car to be.  Here is a post from ClogLa.com from back in August of this year -


a wider bike path would be safer...so i “worked” in the valley the last few days. it was a very strange spot in van nuys where if you were on the street where the house was where we were shooting you’d think something along the lines of “wow, this is such a nice area. i want a family and a life and everything and i’ll just be happy here forever.”

then if you went to the end of the street and went half a block in any direction your thoughts would shift to something like “oh, shit…where the fuck am i? i should call someone to come pick me up. i should just hide behind a bush until they get here. fuck, there are so many things i never did…huck, spluts, garble, murmur, huhuhuuuuuu…”

the real news is that it was 16.3 miles from home going the shortest distance so i got a pretty deese lil’ ride in without even meaning to.

but so after work each day i decided it would be smart to try to find a different way home. one night i was riding down riverside drive where there is a nice bike lane that goes for miles and miles and it’s really well lit and it’s flat and straight so you can just haul arse and whatever. so i hit this one light and there’s a turn lane so i make sure i’m not in it and i take a drink of water and a lady pulls up in a silver honda civic and rolls her window down and says hello.

i’m a little weirded out but i say hello back to her. she then says to me “a wider bike path would be safer.” i say “that’s true.” she rolls her window up and turns right on red and then the light is green and i’m off again.

about 30 seconds go by of me replaying the whole thing when i realize she didn’t say “a wider bike path would be safer.” she said “a white backpack would be safer.”

i am now officially over how mad it made me when i realized i’d misheard her. but to say the least i was glad it was a nice cool night. i’m not even going to bother explaining all the reasons her statement bothered me. i won’t even explain what i was wearing, or all the safety features i have in use on my bike.

i’m also not going to ask why so many people take upon themselves the burden of giving advice when it’s not asked for.

i will simply give this unsolicited advice -

griffith park should be open to bikes only at night if they are not going to turn on the lights.

la river bike path should @ least have those little solar lawn lights to illuminate the edges of the path.

all bridges that it’s not illegal to ride a bike on should have a bike lane even if there is no bike lane leading up to or away from said bridge.

when fixing potholes in this city, a big lump of asphalt is at least as bad as a big hole so it’s worth the extra time to everyone involved on both ends for the people doing the “fixing” to smooth it out. especially on beverly, 6th, 3rd, and wilshire east of la brea.

this city should pay people $1 a mile to ride their bikes for their commute to work.

okay, that’s all i can think of right now.

chirp,

hillary

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3320809weeblylink_new_window

YEEHAW! Lots of climbing today. Good times. 

I was super pumped for the Roscomare descent and then it turned horribly bad really quickly. See what happened was that the whole street was like a mine field instead of a civilized paved road and I was poised for speed and I hit the first 4 bumps and my seat hit me in the groin 4 times. 

It was all down hill from there. The head wind didn't help me get home any faster. 

I got a sooooooper dope Champion brand "weatherproof" cycling jacket today for really cheap and now I want it to rain!

Chirp,
hillary

I haven't gotten the tires yet but Schwalbe has been gracious enough to become what I will forever consider our first real sponsor. I got an email back from them today saying that they would be happy to provide us with tires. Which, if you've bought tires lately you know they cost money and Schwalbe makes awesome tires so win win win for us and I hope they feel like it's a win for them to and I will try to make it a win for them for sure.


Thank you Jeff!


Chirp,
hillary