Posts Tagged ‘ cycling ’

THANK YOU!!! We rode an epic ride, we raised $610 for boobies, now let’s celebrate as TSURURADIO Presents… MIXTAPES WEEK!!! 1st up… Donde Esta La Playa? by nobleybones!

April 5, 2010
By

Illustration by Mike

Well, what can I say???  Saturday was epic in more ways than one!  First off, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!  With your help & your legs, on a windy day with impending rain, on a holiday weekend filled with egg hunts, church services, and men dressed up as bunnies, we were able to raise…

$610 for breast cancer research!!!!

Personally, I think that’s fantastic!   Thank you so much to everyone who took the time, took their bikes, and showed up to my super SUPER no-frills charity ride (seriously, pink poster board & a boom box playing a mixtape on the hood of the car, an almond jar to hold money, maps held down by windshield wipers, and my sorry ass jibber-jabbering with everyone)! And what a ride it was, eh?  We had families (and a couple cuties on cruisers) doing the 10 mile ride, Baby & quite a few others rocking the 20, tackling the rather annoying hill to the “Clubview Loop”, and then about 8 of us attacking the 50 mile route!

Here’s some of us before kick off in the parking lot (me in the knickers and white hat running around nervously while Baby deftly handled the money).

The biggest surprise?  The wind.  It was rather mild and pushing north making for a rather fast and rather furious first half a ride for everyone.  Speaking from the 50 milers point of view, we cruised at 25-30mph for a good portion of the northern ride!  As the day moved on, the winds started getting nuttier and nuttier.  By the time we headed west, oh, we started to feel it.  Cross winds whipping us around on a busy street, giving us that feeling of impending doom as we knew the southern part of the route was approaching.

And then we turned left.

All you could do was alternate between gritting your teeth to fight the wind & laugh your ass off at the nuttiness of what turned out to be 50 mph gust hitting us in our faces as we pushed south, basically acting as a brick wall!  One by one our little re-grouped peloton broke off.  All it would take was for someone would lose the wheel in front of them and then *POOF* they were gone.

At one point, we stopped at a CVS to try to regroup, finding only 4 of us were left!  We did see #5, but he missed his turn, didn’t see us, and kept on trucking (don’t worry, we found him later).

We barreled on, trying to stick together, losing people for moments, but finding a little relief on bits of westward travel for our small group of four to stick together.  We got some protection when we got back to the bike path, then it was every man for himself back to the finish line where one by one we all completed our rides!  Tuck & I had a sprint finish, where he completely owned me.  LOL.

I know I say it alot, and often I kinda have fun with the word, but that wind, oh my….  yeah, our ride was EPIC! Epic in every sense of the word.  And fun.  My favourite combination!

In my nervousness in organizing the ride, I took no pictures.  ha!  Nor foursquared nor tumblred nor tweeted during the ride!  lol….  Oh well.  I think our next new writer (post TBD) adventurerneil, who made his way up to Columbus from freaking Colorado to ride, took pictures, so as soon as he’s back, rested, and photo-uploading inclined, we will hopefully have a few pics of the ride.

It really was great. Thank you again everyone.  I can’t wait for Part II:  The Wrath Of The Riders!!!  And I’m not waiting until next year!  WOOOT!

But first, it’s time to celebrate!  Honestly, when thinking about what would make a proper celebration and get TSURURADIO back on track for musical libations, I could only think of one thing…

Mixtapes.  Lots & lots of mixtapes!

Fortunately for me, and therefore, for you, I’ve got mixtapes up the wazoo at my disposal thanks to the amazing mixologists down in Our Society!  So I thunked to myself, how about we celebrate with the inundation of mixtape musical celebration and harmonic coagulation ALL WEEK LONG!  What do you say to that?

Me too!

First up?  nobleybones and his spring time mixtape full of McCartney, Surfer Blood, & Coconut Records Donde Esta La Playa?!!!  Just what we needed as the temps continue their warm trend, as the trees start blossoming, so what say you to starting up the celebrations?????  Let’s do it as…

TSURURADIO Presents…. MIXTAPES WEEK!

Donde Esta La Playa? by nobleybones!!!!

(Full Zip)

1 Floating Vibes – Surfer Blood
2 Heroes And Villains – The Beach Boys
3 Me And My Arrow - Harry Nilsson
4 don’t let him waste your time - Jarvis Cocker
5 Laura - Girls
6 Sound And Vision - David Bowie
7 back to you - coconut records
8 Eat At Home - Paul & Linda McCartney
9 Tell Me, What Will It Be? (Take 2) - Javelin
10 Charlie don’t surf - The Clash
11 Take it Easy - Surfer Blood
12 The Summer - Coconut Records
13 Hot As Sun – Glasses - Paul McCartney
14 Pictures In The Sand - The Kinks
15 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Paul & Linda McCartney
16 You Can’t Do That - Harry Nilsson
17 A Postcard To Nina - Jens Lekman
18 Summertime - Girls
19 Catholic Pagans - Surfer Blood
20 Excuses - The Morning Benders
21 These Days - Alex Bleeke

Thanks nobleybones, fantastic mixtape (as always)!!!  And cheers everyone &, last time I promise, THANK YOU!

Aaron (aka Tsuru)

2 Days To Go Until We Ride For Boobies!!!! And If I Had A Hi-Fi by Nada Surf!!!

April 1, 2010
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THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES!!!!!!  2, YEP, JUST 2 LITTLE DAYS TO GO UNTIL…

Maps are printed, signs are made, Clem’s in good shape, the weather is looking to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!

Let’s help save some boobies???? WHEEEEEEEE!!!!

* * DETAILS ARE HERE, SO, YOU KNOW, GO HERE NOW * *

And perfect with the Spring-like weather?  Why it’s new Nada Surf!  How perfect!  Well, not “new” new… It’s actually a covers album called If I Had A Hi-Fi, but Nada Surf is Nada Surf and their fuzzy power chord pop is Spring!

Image

Cover albums are tricky.  In one sense, they are probably the laziest form of album creation.  I mean, the song, the arrangements are already written!  Technically, all you have to do is get permission from the owner of the rights to the song and then play them in a mic.  Technically.

In another sense though, cover albums are ridiculously difficult.  First the selection process… Of the infinite available songs or maybe of just the couple hundred you love, how do you pick which ones to cover?  Then comes the really hard part, making the song “your own” but at the same time, not losing what made the song so great or fun or whatever to  begin with!  You are Nada Surf and you want to cover “Enjoy The Silence” by Depeche Mode?  If you make it too Depeche Mode, then what was the point?  If you make it too Nada Surf, then “wtf did you do to my beloved ‘Enjoy The Silence’ you asshole?”.  If you do something generic and watered down, well, now you are just pissing us off.

Take a look at Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch Your Back” thing out.  Basically him, I think drunk after a White Castle binge, tinkering slowly, so so slowly, on the piano while croaking out “indie” songs.  Oh my.  Something along the lines of this, but with a piano (and hopefully a shirt).

But in the end, no matter the deemed “success” of the covering on the album, they are still fun.  Even the worse ones are fun.  Even the Peter Gabriel one, no matter how serious he’s going at it, is still kinda fun.

And that’s exactly what we got here!  A whole bunch of the Nada Surf you know and love covering some known & lesser known songs!  From Spoon to Kate Bush (love that one) to Depeche Mode to French stuff!  So just turn on your favourite songs, and sing along because you know the damn words (another benefit to a covers album) and have fun!!!

Nuffin’ but good times….

01 Electrocution (Bill Fox)
02 Enjoy The Silence (Depeche Mode)
03 Love Goes On (The Go Betweens)
04 Janine (Arthur Russell)
05 You Were So Warm (Dwight Twilley)
06 Love And Anger (Kate Bush)
07 Agony Of Lafitte (Spoon)
08 Bye Bye Beaute (Coralie Clement)
09 Question (Moody Blues)
10 Bright Side (Soft Pack)
11 Evolucion (Mecromina)
12 I Remembered What I Was Going To

Nada Surf love! Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers,

Tsuru

World Cancer Day Announcement: We are hosting a Super Awesome NO-FRILLS Bike Ride for Breast Cancer on April 3rd in Columbus, OH!!!

February 4, 2010
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How’s THAT for a Bike Ride name???   Awesome!!!  Exactly.

Today is World Cancer Day, so I couldn’t think of a better time to make this announcement.  On Saturday, April 3rd, TSURURADIO will be hosting a Super Awesome NO-FRILLS Bike Ride for Breast Cancer!!!

The Idea

I’ve been wanting to do this ever since my first charity bike ride, the Tour de Cure for diabetes.  There is something amazing about a bunch of people getting on their bikes, riding around together, making new friends, exploring new areas & routes, maybe discovering what they can do physically, and all the while raising money & awareness for a great cause.

Now, I’m just one guy so I wanted to keep this extremely simple & super-minimalist.  So here’s how this is going to work:

  1. April 3rd, you show up BEFORE 9AM with your bike, your helmet, and $20.
  2. You donate $20 and pick out a 10, 25 20, or 50 mile route map.
  3. At or just after 9am, we all ride out together!
  4. Follow your chosen route map, have fun, make friends, enjoy a nice April morning, until you are done.  YOU ARE AWESOME!!!
  5. We count the money raised, announce it here, and give it ALL to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure group!

The Details

  • NO-FRILLS? Yes, no-frills.  This is an unsupported, no pomp, no circumstance, NO SPONSORS, no free stuff, no prizes, no cowbells, & therefore no expense (except copying the maps), meaning more (actually ALL) money goes to the charity!


  • LOCATION: PARK OF ROSES, COLUMBUS, OH!!! After much deliberation, we decided to meet at the Park Of Roses in Columbus, OH.  It has public parking, water fountains, and (hopefully) the porta-potties out!  It’s on the bike path, which most of the riding will occur and it’s a chance to take advantage of one of the best bike paths Columbus has to offer!!!   We’ll be over by the bike path, come look for us!  The official address is: 3923 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43214




  • HELMETS? Yes.  You look like a dork?  Get over it, we will ALL look like dorks together.  This is for cancer, not for your ego.  And bring hydration, bring a spare tube, bring a working bike, bring your cell phone in case you need to be picked up. i.e. BE PREPARED!  The more prepared you are, the more fun you will have!  I promise that!


  • HOW BIG WILL THIS BE? I have no idea.  If we raise $20 because I’m the only guy out there on April 3rd, or if we suddenly have 1,000 people trying to ride together, it will be a success in my book.  Let’s just do this!


  • WHAT IF IT RAINS? Wear a rain cape and expect to get wet.  As my Mama Tsuru would say, HTFU or “Harden The Fuck Up” (she had quite the sailor mouth).  This is for charity, a little rain is NOTHING compare to what our moms, sisters, wives, friends, and even a few guys have to go through.

3/10 update!!!  MAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, we tried and tried, but there was just no way to get a good 25 mile route without making it a convoluted ride of back streets and switchbacks and god knows what else… SOOOOO we had to make it a 20 mile route, hope you don’t mind too much.  Here are the routes!

10 MILES!

Difficulty: Easy
Description: Enjoy a lovely ride along the Olentangy River and see just how far that bike path actually goes!!!!

20 MILES!!

Difficulty: Intermediate
Description: Take the Olentangy Bike Path up and out. You’ll have 1 little but nasty steep hill to contend with, but after that, some looping into a residential area and back down we go!!!

50 MILES!!!

Difficulty: Experienced
Description: Just like the 20, take the Olentangy Bike Path up and out, but after that little but nasty steep hill & a bit of residential, we head north to Powell & then to Delaware! It’s long straight-aways up with rollers to boot & potentially some traffic & railroad tracks. Definitely for those comfortable around cars. The way back south will show you some open fields, a bit of lovely riverside, then back from whence we came! A good hard ride!

I will send out updates to this page on the blog, Twitter, and Facebook.  So subscribe, follow, and/or friend us now!

Excited???  ME TOO!!  Stay tuned, okay?  More details to come!!!!   WE CAN DO THIS!!!!  WOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Cheers & let’s ride,

Aaron (aka Tsuru)