January 30, 2010

Blade Runner



My favorite film. I can watch it over an over just for the cinematography and soundtrack. I've seen it 7 times in theaters, plus countless times on video. The Original release twice, two times watching the non authorized Directors cut when it was only released in Santa Monica back in the late 80's .. once in Milan in Italian.. no English subtitles. Twice in Paris for the Director's Cut - french subtitles. Once a friend and I couldn't afford to go home for Thanksgiving when we were living in LA. We couldn't find anyplace open around our place so we got Hot Dogs at the 7-11 down the street and watched Blade Runner. Not the worst Thanksgiving I ever had!

2010 doesn't seem all that futuristic to me and the movie time period of 2019 is not that far off. I don't think we'll be flying around in those cars unfortunately.

The one thing that seems so different is communication. I routinely talk to people all over the world in real time. Email,text message, Skype, this blog. Knowing and sharing common interests with people from all over is one of the best things to come from technology in my opinion.

Remember how long it took to dial a rotary phone? Watch a movie from even the 70's and someone goes to dial a phone.. and it's a 1 minute lull in the film waiting for them to watch the dial spin back and forth. Compare that to your cell phone.
Which brings me to why I am so drawn to old things .. like motorcycles. Part of it must be that you can see the machine in them. With technology things are getting smaller and you can't see how they function anymore. Looking at a cell phone or a computer it's just some plastic and a screen. Nothing too remarkable. No gears turning .. oil dripping. Things can't be torn apart and rebuilt that easy. They're not made for user maintenance, they're just made to be replaced. There is always something on the horizon that's faster, smaller, has more bells and whistles. With the early motorcycles any mechanic or farmer with tractor knowledge could tear the whole thing apart and rebuild every single piece of it. It's become a rare thing to have things that last like that, that can be rebuilt and maintained. My granparents have things in their house that they've been using for 50yrs. My friend Bill uses a 110 yr old lathe that belonged to his father everyday. I wonder how many of the machines and everyday things around us now will be there in 10 yrs let alone 50. I'm sure the old bikes that have made it this long will still be being rebuilt in the future. What about the ones being made now.. will they?

12 comments:

Jay said...

yeah as long as you can find your 7/16ths allen...gaddam star hubs!!!

t said...

Haha.. what about all those thin little spacers

Jay said...

I' not even there yet....I'm just trying to switch the 19 for the 21 I got for the 47..cant find the correct allen...I went to my tool place to purchased another entire "jumbo" allen set... which after I return home and pull it out still doesnt have a 7/16ths fucking allen!!!

t said...

I just went through that exact scenario. Couldn't find my 7/8 anywhere. It was in the evening.. had to go to the useless big box stores. Went to three stores.. no one had that size. 3/4 was the biggest .. one place even had a 1" allen but not 7/8. Tacoma screw has them but they're closed weekends and at 5. They have some at the museum.

Jay said...

yeah, if its nice tomarrow I'm gonna ride down...of course there is no front wheel on either of my running bikes...maybe the 68 will have to get broken out of its slumber

Jay said...

so do I need a 7/8ths?

t said...

For the brake drum lugs? Yeah.

Sideburn Magazine said...

Years ago, me & my brother were at a flea-market & came across this guy with a set of old but quality spanners. my brother had just bough a C15 BSA & needed some imperial spanners. The guy was offering a good deal if we took the lot. He was made up, but when we got home we found out all 20 spanners were 7/16th just different lengths & brands. Doh.

He still managed to re-build the bike, but had a few mystery nuts & bolts left over, we had no idea where they were from. But Still rode to Spain & back with no problems - or anything falling off.
BP

Jay said...

7/16ths! Troy!! she looks good with a 21!!

t said...

well I knew it had a 7 at least .. the bike does look good with the 21..

Jay said...

just givin you a hard time...hope it stays nice all week!!! hope the pan is running nice!

t said...

Rode it this evening and it ran well.