French Broad Cycling Classic 2009 Flyer

I made this flyer recently for my club’s (Asheville Bicycle Racing Club) big annual race: French Broad Cycling Classic. It’s called an “Omnium” because over the three day event there are time trials, road races and criteriums.

You can get the full size flyer (PDF) and more info about this great bike race FrenchBroadCyclingClassic.com. The site is still being updated. Come out and watch the crits if nothing else. More on that later…

Bonsai Beginner in Asheville

We went to a great bonsai expo at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. (Don’t let that old school web site fool you, the Arboretum itself is stunning.) I have been interested in bonsai forever and decided to get this Mugu Pine from a vendor in the marketplace. I asked the seller “what kind of tomatoes are these?” but I don’t think she was amused. The truth is that joke is an accurate representation of my gardening and bonsai experience, but I had to get the little guy. Some of the big ones were thousands of dollars. The expo had exhibitions by numerous bonsai clubs from several states. Just as impressive is the permanent bonsai exhibit at the arboretum. I took a bunch of pics and you can check them out at Flickr. Hey, there is a sample below…

Asheville Skateboard Camp 2008

Skateboard camp. Where boys become men. Old, broken, scarred men. But the pain is worth the thrill. The feeling of movement on a skateboard is magical. My son Mars just finished a week at skate camp here in Asheville, NC and according to him it was worth every penny. Of course, these weren’t his pennies on the line, but no matter. It’s about progression, at any age, and Mars met his goal for the week by dropping for the first time at the park. I owe that boy a t-shirt.

Kenpo Joe Comes to Asheville

My son Mars and I got to work out with Master Joe Rebelo a couple weeks ago. He has more than a dozen black belts in various degrees and disciplines, and he also the official historian for Kenpo and our art, TAI. Our instructor Derek Croley, Croley’s Martial Arts Center, does a great job getting martial arts big shots to visit and put on seminars. Master Rebelo is a pretty entertaining guy and high-energy to say the least. Mars liked it so much he got “Kenpo Joe” to sign his belt. And we did get schooled, but not as much as the black belts in the class. Near the end of the seminar Rebelo called me up to demonstrate something, on me that is. Mercifully, he changed his mind before I got there, told me to sit down, and called on a young black belt instead. Then, he proceeded to twist and contort the guy’s arms, said “you don’t scream much do you?”, and performed another move that elicited a hilarious squeal.

“Everybody’s wearing a cup, right?!”

KenpoJoe.com

Kevin Shelton’s Skateboard Collection at The Push Gallery

This one if for my main man Bennie. He was the first guy I knew to have a “serious” skateboard. It was a Kryptonics Krypstick with gnarly see-through pizza deck grip tape, Tracker trucks, and some sweet green Kryptonic wheels. He was cool enough to let me use it to commute to summer school one year in junior high. It was slower than riding my bike but I really wanted to show off that board, even though it belonged to Bennie.

Asheville’s Kevin Shelton has quite a collection of cool boards too. And he’s not just a collector; he once was pro and road for Walker skateboards. Thanks to Push Skateshop Kevin’s collection is on display in their gallery. The gallery, which is probably bigger than the skateshop, regularly has art exhibited, paintings, sculptures etc., but this collection really combines the twin forces of art and skating like nothing else. I didn’t even know about it until I started talking to Rob, the owner, when he was helping out at my son’s skateboard camp last week. He helped Mars learn some new things. Maybe I can get him to coach me.

I took a ton a pics of this collection and had a difficult time picking these few. Shelton also has quite a collection of vintage snowboards and land luges on display, but the skateboards are what do it for me. Here are some of my favorites.

Asheville Living — Horseback Riding at the Biltmore Estate

We finished a major renovation project on the house this week. So, we took a break and my daughter Paris and I rode the horses around the yard for a while. From the back the house looks a lot like the Biltmore estate.

Paris’s horse was named Dusty and my trusty steed was called Cowboy. I decided to change my name to Horse for the day just to keep things weird. Our guide told me that Cowboy was a little slow and that I would have to kick him pretty often to keep him moving. Then, she said “I’m not exaggerating.” And she wasn’t. Homeboy, I mean Cowboy, was lazy. It took about 20 minutes until we came to an understanding of who was the real cowboy. After that we’re were trucking along just fine. It’s good to be back in the saddle. Yee haw!

Art Deco — Detail from Asheville Music School

Asheville has more than its share of Art Deco architecture, a good thing. There are a number of reasons for this. I would guess that the main reason is that the town was blossoming into a popular mountain resort in roughly the same period the Art Deco style was developing. That probably attracted architects like Douglas Ellington to come do their thing, or things.

This pic is from the corner of the Asheville Music School. It’s right down the street from my house and my kids take guitar lessons there. The building is not that exciting, but these pilasters are definitely handsome. There are a half dozen or so spread across the façade. The center strip appears to be bronze and terminates at the top with a light fixture. Those blue lights are a nice little surprise in the evening.

Asheville Living — Dupont State Forest Waterfalls

This weekend the Sigler households joined forces and went a-hiking out at Dupont Forest. It’s less than an hour away and there are a bunch of waterfalls. The trip took us on increasingly rural looking roads with few cars in sight until we arrived at a parking lot jam-packed with tourists and a lot of out of state license plates. But there’s enough forest and waterfalls for everyone. Everyone that’s up for some serious uphill hiking that is. And we were. I decided I wanted to get close to one fall to feel its most awesome powah. I went barefoot and let me tell you it was cold man, cold!

There’s more about Dupont Forest at this unofficial site.

Asheville Living — Bele Chere Festival 2006

So we’ve been living here in Asheville, NC for two or three months now. I must say that I’m digging it more and more. This weekend was the big Bele Chere Festival. Some of the locals seem tired of it, but we thought we would check it out. We’re close enough to walk downtown, which is nice, because parking was not easy. There was a lot of the usual carnival-type stuff, a lot of art, crafts, and music on a number of stages. But I think the coolest bits were the street performers on the periphery.

Young women with tattoos, dreadlocks, nose piercings, and cowboy boots playing fiddle and banjo on the street? Awesome. Could be any day in Asheville.

A joking juggler or juggling comedian? This guy was pretty funny, even if he did bust on me, twice. There’s a large crowd right behind me.