Jahn from Cambridge Street Press just dropped off some of the first issues of the Inman Review, a homegrown literary quarterly featuring Cambridge and Somerville writers and photographers. I’ve been speaking with him over the last few months as he and his partners have been gearing up for the inaugural release and I was thrilled to see him come through the door with a bag of copies for us. Literary magazines live and die by the quality of their content and an engaged readership, and after paging though Volume 1, I’m sure that we can look forward to many years of this fine collection of new and established works gracing the coffee tables and cafe lounges of the area. If you creatives out there have submissions for these fine folk, direct them to inmanreview@gmail.com, and be sure drop by Open to pick up your copy- the first run was only 250 so they will disappear quickly…
Thursday, Oct 29th, 2009 Categories: Advocacy, Bikes
I would never advocate stealing bikes. But sometimes people make it way to easy for anyone to walk up to a bike rack and steal a bike. Like this bike, the lock is around two spokes, and the fork can be taken right out.
The distinguished framebuilder Mike Flanigan dropped by last night with some nice ANT (Alternative Needs Transportation) goods for me and a few ideas up his sleeve… hopefully we’ll be seeing some OPEN x A.N.T. collaborative efforts very soon.
Mike has been diligently building his distinctive but utilitarian bikes since 2003 after leaving IF (he was one of the original founders) and is now out in Holliston, MA. If you haven’t seen his rideable works of art, be certain to check out his current models.
PS: Note the Weekly Dig placard in the background of the photo- we’ve been shortlisted for the “DigThis 2009″ awards for Best Bike Shop! Pop over to the survey page to vote! (For us, if you feel so inclined…)
One of Open Bicycle’s family friends, videographer and director — Stebs, (a.k.a. Steve Schinnerer) of Quarter Productions — recently published a hot new BMX video on Vimeo.
It is filmed, edited and ridden completely by this creative youngblood. We could be on the early rise of the next Spike Jonze. Stay tuned for more from this young upstart.
Last Saturday, we good folk here at Open were granted the pleasure of producing the screenings and events for the Boston appearance of the ever-growing Bicycle Film Festival. The fest hits Beantown on what will hopefully be a clement fall weekend with a slew of events, parties, sociable gatherings, and of course, evocative films featuring bicycles and the people who love them. Details are still getting locked down- we’ll be posting things here as they become more concrete- check in often and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
I popped over to the Superb Bikes Grand Opening last Friday to see the refurbished space and hang with good company. Kip, Jason, and the rest of the crew have done an impressive job giving the former Boston Bikes spot a complete makeover- every inch of the shop says “bling!” Cold beer and fine people were present; see if you can spot the Somerville framebuilder cameo in the photo below:
The cops showed up early on, so it was off to HQ for the inevitable PRB-fueled continuation, but during my short stay there I had a blast and was happy to see many faces, new and old, supporting the growing bike culture here in the Boston area. I hope to make it across the river more often to see how the shop flourishes. Big shout out to Alfredo and Andres from OZIIO who did a superlative job designing and executing the redux of the old shop.
Black Dynamite, A Free Man’s Transport is OPEN Bicycle’s first Freeman Transport build. A collaboration that involved 4 states, 3 months and my desire to put together the last bicycle I would ever need. A free man’s transport indeed. View additional photos of the build captured by Justin Keena on Flickr.
