Last week we were riding tallbikes with our 14 Y.O. son.

Last week we were riding tallbikes with our 14 Y.O. son. He got to see something unusual. He grew up on my tallbike but only recently started bike riding long distance with us on his own tallbike. For the most part he had to get used to folks cheering at us a lot. Well on this evening my bike light fell off the handlebars. 
I blame the butterfingers who installed it (myself). Our kid pulled over to pick it up for me but had to wait for a passing car. To his horror the car deliberately swerved a tire to the center of the road and atomized my light. 
Then it sped off leaving my light shattered into a million pieces . He was freaked out. "Dad that car went out of it's way to kill your light. What are you gonna do?"  
I was smiling the whole time. "I'm gonna do what I always do." and I pulled out an identical light with a sturdier strap, attached it without dismounting and clicked it on "Always plan for assholes son." 
He just rode for a while silently smiling.

My son is 13 and totally a riot.

Yesterday he was meeting friends for a movie. We had to take him to a bike shop to pick up a lock for his tallbike. 
I was locking our bikes up so I had no idea why there was a crowd of perturbed looking cyclists surrounding him. When I got in it looked like a town hall meeting. 
The first thing I heard was a spandex clad man saying "Ulaanbaatar...why?" 
Olive wanted to get in, get out quickly and unobserved, that didn't happen because as soon as my boy went into Joe bikes he said (to the crowded bustling room)
 "OK listen up everyone (everything stopped). I have just one question...What is the capitol of Mongolia?" 
Because it's Portland someone knew right away. 
Then he said "OK I just have one more question! What would Canada do if it had a trillion dollars?" Another cyclist said "They do kid." 
That was the end of Bruce's townhall world events workshop. 
Olive gathered him up and we split. 
On the road I asked him why he did that. 
He said they looked too serious. 
Somehow he left them more serious than before.

Colored delighted while checking my bike's traffic cam,

 

Colored delighted while checking my bike's traffic cam,

I see what Olive was up to when she is the passenger on my tallbike today. <3 span=""> <3 span=""> <3 span="">

making myself fit everyday.

My son knows I need some forms of photography. Basically Olive is in all our photos by default. 
I'm the pitcher taker. 
On the other side Olive does all the drawings and isn't into photography. 
She does notice when she can't find many photos of us together when she makes event ads. 
So I peeled my 13 year old away from his game and asked him to get some pics from his tallbike. 
The real deal was I wanted him to get more tallbike practice. We took a long ride around SE PDX and I found some steep hills to try him out on. The camera is attached to his bike. He took this one and I'm liking it a lot. 

Getting home we noticed Olive collected three little humans for the day. She is still babysitting for our friends who are working on house moving. 

Turns out his bike has hand and back pedal brakes. He did better than me. Then I took him down Division so he can experience heavier traffic. 

 I also told him a lot of "outs" for the inevitable questions. I suggested that if people ask if he knows us to say "never heard of em" That is a great way to avoid snubbing the person while still not giving an answer that leads to more questions. I guess it's a lesson on keeping his space. Happy Tuesday!

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"The Stump" it's what we call the double necked guitar.

 We keep learning that it isn't ideal for kiddi punkrock shows. 
It doesn't ride on the bike very cleanly and all of it's tones compete with Olive's sound. 

The big gutstring I play everyday truly is perfect for the job. But when I'm alone with The Stump, it's all math prog rock. 
The Stump is as complicated as I am.
 I don't play covers but I always hear Rush influence (ala A Farewell to Kings) as well as Yes, David Gilmore,  and occasionally SRV blues sounds.

The Stump is for scoring videos and personal enjoyment. 
For the kid act, it's all about Trigger. On the Gut string I'm more in line with Willie Nelson.

 I named that guitar "Trigger" after Willie's guitar. That ax sings with Olive's tones perfectly. We can do old school country, ska, blues, rock, flamenco, jazz, boogie woogie all the way to stuff that sounds like The Kinks, Black Flag, The Clash and The Ramones. Trigger also perfectly fits on my bike with the amp, books and mic stand. 

I don't jam with people so I try and keep the gear solo act friendly. 
 I never thought I would dig doing a kid act so much but it has all my favorite sounds including the kid crowds howling and laughing. :) It's a great town to be a clown.

Left my guitar outside a shop for a while today

Lotta grumps on the grill today. I was almost one of them. After making nondreds of dollars busking on Hawthorne we did what clowns do and got distracted.
We interviewed folks with an empty camera and frolicked around with sidewalk chalk, posed for pics with tourists, went to the grocery store, found our way home.
Then I realized I had left my guitar in front of this store a LOOOONG time ago.
I jumped on my bike, flew down some streets, turned the corner and bam headwind (wap waaa) and I'm 10' up in the crows nest of my bike fighting a wall of wind while hoping I didn't just lose "Trigger".
I got to the spot and pulled the guitar out (like Excalibur) from where I put it next to the bush.
About that time I tuned around to see Olive Rootbeer catching up on her bike.
She was shaking her head and saying "You gotta be the luckiest clown I ever met."
She says that a lot.
I think "Maybe I know how to set stuff out of the way+ people are nice +it looks like a trap.
I think the number one reason my guitar was unharmed is that folks were too grouchy out on the grill to care about ground score guitars.
Hahaha.
I wasn't so grouchy after getting my friend back.
The Kids at Heart toy shop crew were a riot.
Their pleasant reactions when we came in and voluntold them we were gonna occupy their slice of sidewalk for shenanigans. They were like "ok, clowns go be clowns, good luck. Need water?"

Tallbike in freezing rain POV.

I love sunny day riding (mostly to watch my wife) but being 10 ft. up in rain and sleet is really exhilarating.
It's also dreamy to warm up at home cuddling while scoring this groovy music together.
I should have named this vid, "How to make a pointlessly big deal about a burrito run"

what it look like tonight. wet and cold on the way to the burrito stand.

chilly morning ride home

Great day for a chilly, brisk ride home from work. 

This morning before our show I walked into Henry Higgins bagels.. I ordered coffee and a bagel, tried to pay, as usual they wouldn't let me. A large group of 20 somethings were sitting at a table nearby. As I waited, one of them noticed me and started talking about me like I couldn't hear them. "Oh I forgot to tell you (to a friend) Portland is the kind of town where famous people walk around and visit shops like normal. look there, That's a famous clown called "Oliver". LOL! I wasn't about to correct them. My order came up and the barista didn't miss a beat, "Order for Oliver!" and handed me my loot.   oliveanddingo.com

Teens at burger joint drive thru: "Dingo, can i please get a free balloon, it's my birthday." Me: "You bet!" I don't care how old you are, be polite and I'm happy to break my stride.

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My bike tonight

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We have been "single serving" friends to a couple of cool cats from China

We have been "single serving" friends to a couple of cool cats from China. 

There is a bit of a language barrier but that's my fault. They were nice enough to show up knowing a lot of my language. 

They are a riot. One of them was brave enough to ask for a ride on my tallbike. It was super funny. They got really animated. 

Afterwards the question was about something else they had never tried but heard a lot about. Mexican food.

pics of my butt (trucking down the street on a 10' tallbike.

tonights tallbike ride

New paint job. I painted my bike from black to purple for a Prince ride..and to celebrate our purple tea.

How to trick out your bikes paint job. 
I had painted the whole bike black to be in a funeral. 
Then I took white spraypaint and carefully painted through the lace of a table cloth over and over.
 It took a long time and a lot of acrobatics to get all the angles while keeping the spray can upright. 
Then it's all about a can of purple, translucent "designed for metal" paint. 
Last step is a whole can of clear coat. 
BOOYA! 
it was right as purple rain for the Prince ride that happened the next day.
That's how ya do it. :)

I painted my bike purple to reflect Olive and Dingo Tea. :) It's the best paint job I have done on this bike in a long time. It gets re-painted a few times a year. 

One day I hope to mail my bike to Texas for a paint job. My friend Rene Zunigais just off the hook with the custom paint jobs. Clean as I ever seen. I wanna hire him to trick out my hoopty. :) Till then it's just my rattle-can and table cloth. 

I don't remember all the paint jobs this bike has had since circa-2005. That's when "Behemoth" became my main ride. I do think this is one of the better ones. 

Does my bike look heavy fully loaded with music gear and clown stuff? It is. I don't mind. 

Here is a link to our tea sponsor. http://chariteaspot.com/

get our tea here. :)

http://chariteaspot.com/product/pre-order-olive-dingos-color-changing-tea/

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