In the book, The Creative Habit, written by Twyla Tharp, there is an entire chapter on Where’s Your “Pencil”? The question refers to our American Express, Don’t Leave Home Without It, tools that fuel our creativity. In our everyday lives, there exists a metaphorical pencil, which is the necessary puzzle piece that drives our creative hustles.
Every time I visit OPEN, Joshua’s hands are perpetually covered in bike grease. When I see him, we dance through our customary social greeting which habitually begins with him saying, “Sorry man, my hands are dirty…” — followed by a hand slap that tightens into a tug-of-war style embrace, which leads into a shoulder-to-shoulder connect for the finish.
The fact that Joshua’s hands are always grimy is comforting to me. His greasy hands are symbolic of Joshua’s creative passion for what he and Zack, both, hope to bring to the familial and collaborative space they have created with OPEN.
For Joshua’s hands, gloved in filth, hardened and sometimes scarred from a day spent repairing and building bikes, the grease represents his pencil and is the one tool that feeds [your] creativity and is so essential that without it [you] feel naked and unprepared (Tharp, The Creative Habit).
What is the pencil for your creative habit? For me, quite literally, it is a pencil. True to my hustle, it is called the perfect pencil. As a writer, my pencil helps capture the world around me through finished narratives, or by sharing the fractured elements of stories without a voice.
Where’s your pencil? What creative spark to your habit will it bring to keep your fire burning? I suspect that once you discover the tool, the only thing left to pursue is your passion. Like Joshua, with his hands perpetually covered in bike grease, this is one habit you will never have a need to apologize.
There was a time when wizened economists held court in the parliment houses and ivory towers and envisioned a world ripe with possibility. The vast verdant forests, the broad rivers, uncharted lands; these were the raw-stuffs of fortunes and industries yet to come. Built capital was the limiting factor for this pregnant growth- social and natural capital was abundant.
I hope I’m not stating the painfully obvious by suggesting that the world has changed dramatically. We find ourselves in the midst of a dense human-made infrastructure- millions of miles of interstate highways, countless billions of tons of carefully shaped ferroconcrete structures, and extremely concentrated and socially stratified human populations- the (recently accelerated) urbanization of our civilization means that, in the contemporary situation, it is now precisely social and natural capital that are the limiting factors to economic development.
If there is anything that the “Great Economic Slowdown” has taught us, it is that top-down and international business and financial models only serve to fall longer and spread farther when they fail. We look now for ways to build our local communities from within, be it locally farmed greens at the market, used books from the corner seller, or pints from the city brewery down at the bar in the Square.
The methods by which we, denizens of these recent megolithic people-piles, move around our own communally made density play an important role in the cybernetics (in the original sense: the language and design of control) of cities. This effect on this control on our everyday lives, the vectors and future of our communites, and the less tangible element of our individual experiences is inherently tied to a sense of economic vitality, and unfortunately the measure of our economic health has been, since what seems like forever, been tied to this outmoded measure of infinite (and thus impossible) voracious growth. We stand at a crossroads- we can reevaluate ourselves as social actors, rethink our cities, remake our habits. In this way- bicycles can be revolutionary instruments, or not. In this way- bike shops can be revolutionary points of social (inter)action, or not.
OPEN strives to be more than just another business doing the same thing and hawking the same stuff as everyone else. We attempt to source as much as possible locally, and if not immediately local, made by companies committed to fair labor practices. From hand-crafted steel straight out of Allston to LA-made cycling cut denim, OPEN strive to support small community-owned businesses and connect craftspeople, producers, and users on a real and human scale. This isn’t some silly boutique concept- this is about building culture and creating sustainable relationships, communities, and cities.
Taking this one step further: contemporary popular belief holds that custom bicycles are for the moneyed and trend-seeking. We beg to differ: riding a bike made by someone who lives down the street from you isn’t a new concept, and it’s not terribly expensive compared to buying off-the-shelf once the hidden costs of globalized consumption are taken into account. Being able to interact in the process of designing and building a bicycle made expressly for for your body, riding style and habits affords a much richer user-producer experience that picking something out of a catalog, and the resulting machine is something that the rider will treasure forever.
This week, we’ll be interviewing three local framebuilders and showcasing their individual talents and visions here on the OPEN blog. We support local builders because they are the future of Boston cycling- we invite you all to share with us the wealth and history of their art and craft. Together, we believe, we can create a unique, vital and enduring local bike culture. Stay tuned- at the very least, we’ll have close-up pictures documenting the growth and development of Marty Walsh’s moustache.
Today was a busy day; we sold a couple of vintage Campy shirts (among other things), did a pile of repairs and a load of folks stopped by to check out the space, or ‘Creative Basement’ as Clarence has dubbed it.
I just got around to opening mail and packages, which seem to be coming more frequently. My boy Liam at Burton sent down this US Open hoodie to congratulate & celebrate the shop opening – god knows I love purple & gray! If you happened to catch any of the Vermont / Stowe foliage shots in the last issue of Cog Mag, Liam was a part of the shoot. (Sorry, I couldn’t find any of the photos on Blotto’s site!) I also happened to be up there (without bike) for the annual Jake Burton party that weekend, and witnessing track bikes on the overpass just before winter set in makes riding there next fall an absolute must. Thanks Liam – see you in a few weeks, can’t wait to ride!
This last Saturday, Zack, myself, and an awesome crew of helpers officially welcomed the public into OPEN’s newly-renovated space in Union Square, Somerville. We cleaned the place up, hung the gallery, chilled the beers, polished the bikes, and made some spoke cards:
Early in the evening, the shop began to fill up- locals, racers, friends, couriers, frame builders, artists, out-of-towners, and a few dogs mingled amidst the shiny components and locally-crafted bicycles.
The latest custom fillet-brazed steed from Icarus:
A bit after 7pm, the enormous raw steel door that separates OPEN from the Chorus Gallery was raised. The gallery’s inaugural show, “Keep it Down,” is a new exhibition from local photographer Justin J. Keena that showcases the artist’s past and current work via a diverse range of study, and the public seemed to be enjoying the new space and the evocative photographs:
Shortly after the gallery opening, the video kicked off. There were a few technical hitches, but our man Jon knocked out some quick technical debugging and the show began, with people covering the floors, stairs, and furniture.
A short film we produced last winter started the series, followed by another short that showcased a day in the life of Geekhouse builder Marty Walsh. (Both films were shot and edited by local videographer Steve “Stebs” Shinnerer of Quarter Productions.) The Boston premier of Macaframa followed- the hi-def shots of smooth riding in warm air got everyone hyped up for spring. The movies went over well with the crowd and the party began in earnest. Dom, Maggie, and Stebs held down the bar:
Free Narragansett, Fisherman’s Brew, and Redbull & Vodkas kept the kids happy and everyone took turns playing records, dancing, and generally cutting loose:
We had a wonderful time, met a bunch of great people, and saw many friends we haven’t seen for the last 4 months as we’ve been building the shop. More events are planned for the near future- we’ll post info as it becomes available. Thanks to all that helped out and supported us; we couldn’t have done it without you!
Photo credits go out to Kirsten Tamme! (Yes, we gave Justin Keena the night off..)
The last few weeks we have spent laboriously completing out build-out, launching our new design studio, superbe collaborative, sourcing a great assortment of awesome bikes, frames, components, apparel, and generally hustling like mad. Saturday we quietly opened the front door and full service repair shop.
Our official grand opening will be the 11th of April- until then we’ll be open 10a to 8p during the week and 11a to 7p on the weekends. The goodies are filtering in and new stock will be added every day. Repair turnaround is same day as of now and we are offering special spring pricing on tune-ups.
Please come by and see us in Union Square in Somerville- we’re on the corner of Washington Street and Hawkins Street. We’re quite happy with how the shop turned out and we’d love to have you all over- stop in and chill in the lounge for a bit, admire the shiny vintage components and local hand-brazed steel, and tell us what you think!
The collaborative will be based out of the studio space here at the shop, but will be extending its hands to work across the globe. I believe strongly that there is nothing more powerful than bringing talented designers from all fields together to solve creative problems. As for the small collective of designers, creators and thinkers involved – the quality of work is high, the client list is strong, the energy never ends and there is an undeniable commitment to perfection. Concept and strategy matched with intelligent design reigns supreme! www.superbedesign.com
From the website… “Since launching these pants in October, the response has been tremendous — no, ridiculously, mind-bogglingly tremendous. Most every day, a new blog talks ‘em up and we keep cranking out production run after production run to keep up with demand. A sampling of this growing pants phenomenon: Gizmodo, Bike Hugger, Tree Hugger,Boing Boing, Eco Velo, Thrillist, and more. Best of all, they’ve inspired fun things like this instructables contest and the great (though wet) Rollin’ Lightnin’ time change ride. Seems like we’re on to something here, and we look forward to expanding upon this idea. As always, we love your photos and feedback. “
In the words of Lupe…
“We tryna go up in this club
Show a little love
Get a few drinks
Holla at some girls Snatch up a pair
Leave outta there
Put some dro in tha air
And then go and get some grub.”
