August 16, 2011
Recent changes
So I’ve been pretty busy the past few months. Here are some updates:
-I started taking swing dancing classes at Dance Manhattan. At first I was just doing some dabbling but it’s stuck and now dancing is one of my new favorite things. So much so that I’m going to do some traveling to other cities next year (for dancing) and go to dance camp. Yes, dance camp. I started off taking East Coast Swing classes, but I’ve advanced over the past few months and now I’m working on Lindy Hop, Charleston , and Jazz moves as well. I really like the Charleston and the many variations of it. Aside from that, I’ve dabbled a little bit in Balboa and next month I’m taking a Collegiate Shag class. I think for the remainder of the year I’m going to focus mostly on Lindy Hop and Charleston and try to “catch up”.
-I moved from Williamsburg to my own place in Greenpoint. I love my neighborhood and I’m pumped about living alone and having a place to myself. I’m currently working on decorating and making the place my own, which I’ve never really had the opportunity to do in the past. I’m trying to balance being tasteful with being lazy, hopefully it works out.
–Bedford & Grove is still in the works. We’re hoping to start pursuing it more aggressively next month, once our new website is finished and we start going to buyers to get our stuff in stores.
-I bought a new bike. It’s a Linus. Here it is in Mcgolrick Park in Greenpoint:
June 30, 2010
New (old) bicycle – Schwinn Hollywood
I’ve been obsessing over buying THE perfect bike for 2-3 months now. I haven’t ridden a bike since I was a teenager, so I had to learn all about what makes good bikes good and what I should look for since I’ll just be riding around the city. In the end I decided on a single-speed vintage Schwinn (which may or may not be a girl’s bike). Old Schwinns are amazing because they’re American-made, high quality and have the vintage aesthetic that I’m always into. Many 50-year old Schwinns are still around and fully functional today.
I started looking and found a few different bikes in Brooklyn but unfortunately didn’t act fast enough before they were sold. Then this past weekend I was walking around my neighborhood and some dude was selling this on the corner for $125! I bought it right then and there, and it was absolutely worth it. This particular bike is a Schwinn Hollywood probably from around the 1960s. I got this pretty cheap all things considered, so I’m going to buy some new parts for it and fix it up over time.
The first thing I plan on switching out are the grips. I’m going to get either leather grips or cork grips to replace the current childish ones.
I also have a few other bike-related purchases coming up now. I plan on getting a new messenger bag from Archival Bags for when I’m out with my bike for the day. My current bag is way too large to wear over the shoulder comfortably. I also need some new shirts for biking, because it’s been 90+ degrees in NYC lately and madras shirts just aren’t cutting it.
BrownBoots 