Another year towards...

This is the last post of the year. I cannot think of a better ending than some poems and some pictures by David Robilliard. I've been reading and re-reading his work all this year. Funny, poignant, they often punch to the heart and the gut. There is somebody I know who I wish would read them.....


THE GENUINE APPROACH


Meaning
everyone's looking for meaning
look a little to yourself
and a lot to others


-----------------------


MOTHER EARTH SHIMMIES


Dreaming screaming scheming steaming
everyone on earth has a spirit that dances within them
darting from fantasy to fantasy
an occasional relationship
with the reality that is their lives
meanwhile Mother Earth shimmies
for all she's worth


-----------------------


PRINCESS TINYMEAT AND THE WHITE STOOLS


Your understanding grows
as you take off your clothes


-----------------------

Enough for this year, au revoir.

bonneville 2010 pt2

 Lazy Christmas. This movie clip has planted a ridiculously stupid idea in my head which is starting to itch. There's no prize for guessing I'm trying to run before I can crawl.

Booker T & the MGs, Green Onions and Bonneville what more could you want?

Party poppers

All done and dusted for another year. Now to finish off the leftovers. My particular turkey should be simple enough to bone. How hard can a combination of floats, main jets, primary main jets, vacuum piston sets, slow jets and main nozzle x 2 be? My answer is 576 permutations. My maths is as competent as my ability to cook Christmas dinner without poisoning a hapless soul. Chin chin.

 

To Yule

To all who read this blog or stumble across and leave with haste or fear.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year


'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

Post DVLA blues

Well, the inspection came and went. Two hundred quid out of pocket, skint for Christmas and to be quite honest, none the wiser. So goes the human condition. The chap inspecting did give me some clue - I may be able to obtain a registration in accordance with the era the bike was made, but not necessarily the VLR it has at the moment. Positive but no guarantee.
A late night took its toll on the Alchemist and myself. Still, the push for aesthetics has paid off methinks. I've always thought other people should suffer for my art.
The centre stand has disappeared, a tail light emerges. Pipes and silencer fitted and a seat takes form. Oh! what's that under the seat? The original nitro-jetpack-battery housing created and installed by the Alchemist (patent pending).


To do list:

• Wire up the tail light
• Reshape the seat and cover in dark tan leather
• Chrome front fender (small hugger)
• Mmmmm..... figure out why it's still only running on one cylinder!!! (fuel starvation?)

Good God! Here they are again.

Maybe I'm thinking too much.....more likely, too little.....

I'm not trying to make sense with this post. The result of too much time spent alone at the allotment. Emptiness through digging.
All That Is - not about speed, intellect, money, aesthetics, not about skill even. It is the essence and spirit of the object, the human that shows through. The Buddha in all.


All these pics are taken from photo.sparetime.jp - MOONEYES The 20th Annual Yokahama Hot Rod Show - here

Yep, thought so.

A reverberation down the spine.


Images and video from sparetime - MOONEYES 20th annual Yokahama Hot Rod show 2011

These two look like trouble

Yamantaka

Yamantaka

The Conqueror Of Death

Yamantaka, the ferocious emanation of Manjushri (Bodhisattva of wisdom), is the most complicated and terrible of all the wrathful Buddhist divinities. As this existence he conquered death, Yama, who was ravaging Tibet with his insatiable thirst for victims. According to this myth, in his paroxysm of insight, Manjushri travelled all the way to the underworld to seek out Yama, the God of death, who dwelt with his minions in the sealed up iron cities of hell. Yama appears in Indian mythology with the head of a water buffalo. To vanquish Yama, Manjushri adopted the same form, adding to it eight other faces and a multiple array of arms, each holding murderous weapons. He sprouted a corresponding number of legs, and surrounded himself with a vast host of terrifying beings. To confront death, he manifested the form of death itself, magnified to infinity. Death (Yama) saw himself endlessly mirrored back to himself, infinitely outnumbered by himself. Death was literally scared to death. The yogi who meditates through the imagery of Yamantaka intends and hopes to develop a sense of identity strong enough to face down death, and the fear that attends it. Each head, each limb, each attribute, symbol and ornament of Yamantaka expresses the total mobilisation of the faculties of enlightenment needed for this ultimate confrontation.

Both Yama and Yamantaka are represented with bulls heads, but Yama always has an ornament, shaped like a wheel on his breast, which is his distinctive mark.


"Jambel Shinje is the form in which Yamantaka enters the world in times of direst circumstance, when the world is filled with grievous difficulties, terrible dangers, great conflict and flagrant intolerance. His special powers annihilate the very root of all these troubles - atmagraha, or self-cherishing. He turns the minds of living beings away from selfishness and hate, and leads them to universal loving kindness and compassion. He enters the mind of the practitioner and completely destroys the most stubborn, habitual tendencies to hold to the reality of the dualism of self and other that is the basis of all error, misery and samsaric rebirth." - Dudjom International Group


The shakti (the personification of divine feminine creative power) of Yamantaka is Zhags-pa-ma - 'she holding the noose'.

The making of a Yamantaka mandala

The Penultimate Push

I didn't post much last month due to an outbreak of futility and laziness. So, I'll make up for it this month.
The DVLA want to inspect my machine on 21st December. No more fighting the system, it gives me a deadline to work to.
A long night at the Workshop of Wonders.
Everything I ordered for the bike came with universal fittings. Unfortunately they weren't from the same universe as my bike. Measuring, pondering, cutting, grinding and welding.
After a few seconds on the angle grinder, an acrid smell sets alarm bells a-ringing in my head. Yes, I had set fire to myself. What a tool I am! No more than two hours later I managed to melt the welder. Drunken swearing and kicking ensued. Why the Alchemist puts up with me I do not know.
I was able to cut out a cardboard template for the seat without incident.
Eventually, with the intuitive make-do-and-mend skills of the Alchemist, all was fixed and bolted to "The Water Buffalo" (the bike now has a name).


Chrome rear shocks and the "Dunstall Megaton" exhaust are now a feature. The exhaust may bottom out now and again by the look of it, but hey! a few sparks are sure to impress. Note the bracket fixing the exhaust, a Campagnolo crank arm no less. 


Should I even think of a style category for the Water Buffalo? If I have to describe her, "brat-drag-cafe-bobber" comes to mind.

Miniature perfection

Beautiful workmanship Pete.

Italian Chrome

I've spotted this Moto Guzzi café racer parked outside several private views around town lately. A lot more interesting and aesthetically pleasing than some of the exhibits inside the galleries. 

Singapore sling

Well done to The Rag and Bone Man. 15 bar stools made with flare, attention to detail and creative cunning as is his wont, but in extra quick time and with precision logistics. They're gracing a bar in Singapore now, well away from our impending winter. Chin chin!

A short but sweet documentry film

THE WALL OF DEATH from benedict campbell on Vimeo.