Monthly Archives: February 2011

E015 – John Feeds Multitudes

February 28, 2011Bicycling, Kitchensprocketpodcast

John Eads of Pyro Pizza joins us to cook an incredible bounty of food, and then to discuss food systems, budgets, and the state of nutrition in the industrialized world.

Note: We also recorded our conversation during the meal if you’re interested in hearing our off-the-cuff observations with our significant others. The charts that John drew up are available here for your perusal.

We discuss: Zach in Ft. Collins might give us a handmade bike show update,bikeportland.org has some great galleries, Logan’s neighbor looks trustworthy, whiskey stones, NYT (thanks Mark Parrish): retired police officer grows her own tobacco in her backyard, Bike Trailer Blog: Moving from house to house in Kentucky by bike,Oregonian: TriMet bus routes look a bit like an anthill. 1 day’s routes in 2 minutes,Oregonian: bus driver refuses to drive bus after driver’s seat is smeared with feces,BikePortland: as bicycle ridership increases, road accident numbers go down across the board, gobicycletouring.info: newlywed couple plans to bicycle through all 50 US states, Filmed By Bike: April 15-17 ($8 per show or $25 weekend pass), “I micromanage for a living,” food cart explosion, “I Am John Eads” T-shirts, moving the cart with a dump truck, the great meal, Newsweek article: The Dinner Divide, “what the hell are they buying? for $1000/month I could have almost everything imported from france!”, cheap, mid-level, and most expensive versions of the same meal, charts on what people spend per calorie, $.88 Banquet frozen meal, shopping for 4 items in 2.5 hours, 16 plates worth on 12, “my wife scolded me for not making dessert,” french bread crust sleeve/cast, big box stores are scary, american processed cheese food, polymers, 4000 calories a day, portion control diets, eating your child’s food,uncrustables, folks in the west hills can donate, “meat is not a spice,” sodium goes through the roof, Brock was the only one that ate the meatballs, industrial food is the standard, availability of high quality food, america is becoming a food desert (see alsothis article), “No one I knew could cook anything,” the dodo bird of vegetables, addiction to junk & organic MREs, “we’re not crusting the sandwiches,” making food can be time consuming, the Old Crow melted the lacquer off of the coffee table, cooking beans in quantity (and soaking them), “the problem with a lot of poeple…”, fast food logo stress study, mostly natural & organic & local is possible with planning and other people, “bug ’em to hell,” obvious red flags on breakfast cereals & juices, oranges are better & cheaper anyways.

Drinks
together, we drink a large portion of a bottle of Old Crow Bourbon

Music
the fabulous Portland-based Hillstomp presents their unique blend of buckets-and-cans-blues on their latest release Darker the Night and this week’s featured song, “Banjo Song #1.”

Fine Print
email us: thesprocketpodcast@gmail.com
twitter: @SprocketPodcast
phone in or SMS: 503-847-9774
web: http://thesprocketpodcast.com
music: Ryan J. Lane (intro & outro) & Hurtbird (headlines)

the meal:

wrangling the ipod into place with tape to record the dinner conversation:

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E014 – Adam Caress: The Great Technology Question

February 22, 2011Communication, Gardening, Technologysprocketpodcast

Adam Caress of mulevariations.com joins us remotely to discuss the methods by which we discern our relationship with technology this week.

We discuss: mixed drink terminology, Boston’s Lower Depths alehouse, drinking with your in-laws, Louis Avden’s gardening update, Sven Birkert’s The Gutenburg Elegiesand the mulevariations.com interview, no cable or television, first text message, before the internet, asking the question, how do we relate to each other?, consequences & morality, generational gaps, “we put people on that shit,” inventiveness and its associated problems, interstate highways, pesticides on plants, the narrative of progress, the unruly virgin that is America, Ray Kurzwiel & singularity, “this shit has aneschatology,” people who upload their consciousness aren’t very happy, death & ending well, denying death is creepy, Aleksander Sozhenitsyn wasn’t afraid of death, inscrutable on iTunes, science fiction grandparents, grandparent telegraph email, pro/anti twitter?, booking bands is easy, myspace is the Detroit of social networks, reminiscing with grandparents, waiting for the Cubs world series win, the Plain Reader, Amish independence, Colt 45 isn’t all that great, wilting boquet, outro cabling issues

Drinks
Brandon drinks the Ninkasi Believer Double Red Ale (6.9%), Brock endures a Colt 45 High Gravity Lager (8.5%), and Adam savors his single malt Islay Scotch Whiskey fromMcClelland’s.

Music
“Falling Stars” by Adam Caress of “T”, which is his band that finally consisted of mostly siblings, from the EP “Plan A”

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E013x – Mark Parrish: We Almost Died

February 15, 2011Uncategorizedsprocketpodcast

Mark told this story after we wrapped the program to fill in a gap that we just couldn’t leave to mystery. Adventures in bicycle touring!

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E013 – Mark Parrish: Epic Bicycle Tour

February 14, 2011Bicycling, Brewing, Touring, Travelsprocketpodcast

Mark Parrish is our friendly neighbor, mathematician and home-brewer, and in addition to that, he also has taken many bicycle tours across long distances. On this episode he shares stories of his cross country journey from Alaska to California, and then to Ohio and finally to Florida (impressive!). His friend Paula who made the trip with him joins us by phone.

we apologize for the abberant audio in this week’s episode – slicing plastic off of ill-fitting cables is a start, but we’re working on a better solution to have in place soon. 😀

We discuss: Brandon gets a week off, Brock takes the Worst Day of the Year Ride,way up in the west hills, bucking the system by homebrewing, Darren Alff of bicycletouringpro.com rides a taxi trike more than 250 miles through Peru, Oregon headphone bill pulled from the legislature, Bike Trailer Blog tells you how to overhaul your cheap trailer’s bearings, Sunset magazine names Portland OR “best city to ditch your car” in, when was that tour?, 1 1/2 years, the plan changed, L.A., “Fuck it, let’s just cross the country,” body rebellion, kindness of strangers, not too good at planning, “can we buy some butter? (we needed some fat),” a much needed bath, “we almost died” (Mark told this story after we wrapped the program), terrain preferences, Kansas winds, tornado hotel, raining sheets (not sheep), “where did we go from Oklahoma?”, Bikecentennial & an atlas, Whitehorse will confuse you, “it tastes kind of like seal,” “fishy butter,” Florida was the end, Kentucky & Tennessee are lumpy, 100 mile days through the Smokies, your body remembers it, going home to Alaska, 600 mile circuit solo loop (300 miles unpaved!),

Drinks
Mark provides his Vagabond Gingered Ale, a dark ale with strong hints of ginger and about 7-8% ABV.

Music
“Don’t Hear Me Wrong” by Centrevol, a Long Beach CA based band, from their 2010 EP Momentum.

Stories from BikePortland.org featured with permission from editor Jonathan Maus.

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E012 – The Car-Free Potters

February 7, 2011Bicycling, Car Sharing, Transit, Travelsprocketpodcast

The Potters of downtown Portland, OR join us to discuss their lasting foray into car-free living!

We discuss: mustaches & calico facial hair, Brock almost forgets to talk about beer, shaking a stick at beer in John’s Market, child on the way & going without beer,Portland “Bikeshed” camping map from Cycle Wild, Australian Taxi Trailer (!), Dude makes a snowplow out of a bicycle, Kid in California builds his own tandem tallbike, A rural Oregon private bus company is becoming quite popular, PSU in Portland now boasts 3 in 4 people getting there without car, Wrench Raiders fixes bikes for those without a lot of cash, Porche? No, bicycle, bikes growing up, Zwinglian European self-study (and trains!), people lending vehicles as a gesture of kindness, owning a car downtown is more trouble than it’s worth, other people’s cars getting towed, riding bicycles in traffic, carrying toilet paper, booties, pedal terminology confusion, wiping out in the snow on a fixie, Mia has a pimpy bike, Amsterdam bike looks classy but rides cheap, Jerrod is selling his fixie, fixies will kill your knees, all-in-one bike trailer,Brompton folding bicycles, Clever Cycles is a great little shop, riding in the car with the windows rolled down and the stereo up, Zipcar.com, karma & lending, intimate with your neighborhood, earbuds and awareness, finding a place for your bicycle, missing pieces, not much will change with the baby’s arrival, small living spaces, breakfast on the bridges, cushioning convictions for other people, Brandon saves the credits

Drinks
Brandon savors the Hopworks Secession Ale, Brock & Jerrod drink the Hopyard Dogfrom Pale Horse Brewing, and Mia enjoys Chamomile Tea.

Music
Joe Pug, a singer/songwriter from Chicago, presents “Hymn 101” from his 2008 EPNation of Heat. (also view the excellent video for this song)