Bolts.

The New.  

Myself and a crew of like-minded heathens have joined forces to bring you the ultimate in blogging... Bolts Action.  Join us as we fight the good fight to be free to ride our machines, without bein' hassled by the man.

We might even get loaded.

(Don't worry, The Blacklist will remain live and direct, but a lot of the moto content will be finding it's way over there... just add 'em both to your RSS-Bloggy-Reader-Whatever-It's-Called-Techy-Thing, and you'll be sure to never miss an episode)

9 Frames, 2 Days In Springfield, Illinois.

*****

What I've failed to show you are the insane temperatures, ridiculous humidity, rat-sized mosquitos, "The Horseshoe", and the aftermath of The Horseshoe.  Consider yourself lucky.

2 days in Springfield, Illinois.  Job went well, considering everything stacked against us; from the aforementioned temps, delayed flights, rental car mishaps, and the expectations of our subject being completely different from what the client actually needed.

Go West.

If you can make it, get there... go west.  Which reminds me of being 11 years old in a 1981 Toyota Corolla station wagon with my dad, my 2 brothers, and my German Shepherd, driving around Mexico for 3 weeks.  I had a walkman and a single cassette - Midnight Oil on one side, and The Pet Shop Boys on the other.  I haven't listened to either since, although my friend Jeffrey Lee had a period in high school where he got way into the Pet Shop Boys.  I should call him and give him some shit for that.

Pet Shop Boys, “Go West” from Filler Reference on Vimeo.

On A Completely Unrelated Note:

If anybody knows the logistics/how-to's/bullshit-dealings of getting me this bike imported from Japan, please let me know.  I need this in my life.  So out of character, but so perfect.

Ninja, defeated.

Heidi took her motorcycle rider's course over the weekend.  She was all over me all day yesterday to go out so she could show me what she learned.

So, this morning we went out for a little jam around the neighborhood.  She was right - she learned a lot... she's exactly 63.7% better than our first parking lot sessions a few weeks ago.

We rolled around for 30 minutes or so, then headed back home to get ready for the day.

Everything went fantastic until she was about 15 feet from our driveway...

And that's when our neighbor ran over her.  I watched the whole thing as I followed on the bagger, about 50 feet behind her... just slammed it in reverse, didn't look at all, and hooked right out of his driveway and right into my girl.

The Ninja's gonna be down for a minute, but Heidi's a trooper... not a scratch, not deterred from riding in the least.  In fact, she laughed it off while trying to comfort the dumbfuck who had just ran her over - he was crying like a little girl.  He's probably still crying.

Leaving Las Vegas.

*****

Every 6 months or so I have a "career crisis".  I swear that I'm going to finally get out of my longtime home of Utah and move to NYC or LA - to a bigger market, where I can get my work in front of more people and work without flying into a major city every time I shoot.

And then Utah throws days like today at me.

And I remember that this is my yard.

And I remember that plane tickets aren't really that expensive.

Calling All Level 7 Warlocks and 45 Year Old Man-Children:

Yesterday Sean and I ran over to the second Grim warehouse to snag a few photos of inventory.  While there, Sean showed me this gem that he'd unearthed while digging through the hundreds of tanks on his shelves... I guess it slipped past him in the initial move.  

Uhh-maze-ing.  

Someone actually spent a fair amount of time on this.  I've definitely seen worse airbrush jobs...

(And yes, of course we have a piano in warehouse number 2.  Because we're classy like that.)

Paint.

Progress from today's spare few minutes.

CUT+WASTE

If you're not familiar with Dustin Ortiz's work, you really should be.  Lucky for you, he's showing at Mode Boutique on Friday... get on it.

Paintin'.

I've wanted to try my hand at doin' some sort of captain-fancy-paint helmet for a while.  Today I finally pulled one out of the closet and started the process.  After wet sanding the clear off this old job, I kinda fell in love with the flat yellow... but I pressed on.  If I stopped here, I'd have only taught myself how to wet-sand clear coat.  And that's not the goal at all.

We'll see how this thing progresses...

Everybody Needs One.

The new (used) Ninja has been gettin' put through the paces, for sure... gotta know what she's capable of.  And, thanks to rigorous scientific research, we now know that she'll do at least 95 on the freeway before the fairing feels like it's gonna blow off; she will burnout; she'll lean pretty decent (although she needs fresh rubber before we'll really know exactly how low she'll go); and, given the proper coaxing, she will stand up.

Unfortunately, however, testing may have to cease for now.  After seeing the shots from Friday night's "research session", Heidi has informed me that neither Sean nor myself are allowed to ride her bike any more.

I think Sean and I are both thinking we might just need to get our own... for being a dirt-cheap 250cc twin, pushing around 28 horses, this scoot is fucking FUN.

Fuck Globally.

Heidi and I headed out and made one of our rare social appearances last night, this time at Murray Theater to see Gogol Bordello.  Despite the fact that it was an all ages show (meaning there was no scotch, whiskey or beer), it was probably one of the best live shows I've seen in a long time... none of that hipster, stand-and-act-like-you're-doing-the-crowd-a-favor bullshit... nope.  Full on energy for a solid two and a half hours.

Fantastic band, and their live show will leave you sweating.  If you're not yet a fan, check 'em out.  Sorry for the shitty pics... I didn't take a real camera, so this is the best the G9 would give me... but you get a shit quality video, too.  Watch it... wait til you get a good eyeball full of the rad, marching band style accoutrements, at least.  Genius.  The video was shot at the end of the initial hour-and-a-half set... the encore lasted another hour, easily.  Hella fun show... catch 'em if you ever can.

Gogol Bordello at Murray Theater... May 27, 2009. from Steven Stone on Vimeo.

Summertime Rolls.

A weekend full of motorcycles, barbecues with friends and family, very little work, and hangin' with my girl.  She loves me... I mean it's serious.

Got her started on learning to ride the Ninja, too.  She's doin' pretty well with it.  

And if you haven't already picked up on it, Jane's Addiction's "Nothing's Shocking" has absolutely been my soundtrack for the day.  Get into it.

If This Were Anyone Else...

... then the babysitter in me would be super sketched-out when they send me a shot like this.

But Jeremy is one of the few dudes who can just pull shit off.  This guy is gnarly all day, every day.  Check him here if you haven't already.  And if you have your doubts about wether this shit's real or just a touched-out kickstand, I can guarantee you this:  everything this dude busts is as legit as it gets.

The Way Of The Ninja.

**********

My office is now in my home.  

It's been a stressful week, and having the office at home is kinda nice today - when it starts to feel too lame, all I need to do is walk out front, fire up Heidi's new bike, and dig holes in my lawn with it.