Hey everybody…welcome to my addition to the Rome SDS blog world.  I’m gonna try and make some of my posts a place where you can get some insights on what products members of the Syndicate are using and why.  For the most part, I’ll try and focus on stuff we use on the hill.  It may be Rome stuff, but, like in this case, it may be something from another company that adds to our experience of being a rider.

Back down to business…

My array of iPods

Music is pretty important to all the employees at Rome.  Whether it’s Ron playin’ some Dylan, or Cavan needing to narrow down stuff for everybody’s part in NCW, all of us have a deep connection to our music and probably take ourselves a little too seriously as aficionados (myself included).

So this week I got my third iPod.  When iPods came out it was kind of like get this 40gig hard drive that you could fit in your pocket and take anywhere.  In reality, over the years I’ve found different iPods fit different uses.  Today I’ll run through all my iPods and why I have (and use) so many.

My 40 Gig click-wheel

The old stand-by

So not my first MP3 player, but my first foray into the Apple side of things.  Before I got this bugger, I really was against iPods.  My biggest problem with Apple is the lack of openness to the products; I still don’t think iTunes is as good as Realplayer used to be at managing music and playlists.  That said, that lack of openness is what makes Apple computers run well (albeit at a premium price).  I bought this refurbished from the guys at Small Dog in Waitsfield.  They have a bunch of riders who work there (even some who used to work at Alpine Options, our dealer up at Sugarbush). Pretty much it being “Recertified” and the price it was at made buying it a no-brainer at the time.

I have my full music collection on here.  Sully (our sales manager) and I have combined our CD collections onto a network drive at the office;  So I have over 9000 tracks on here.  I keep this at the office to give the day its soundtrack.  Sully and I need to have background music on all the time, and we probably annoy the piss out of everybody else on the first floor of the building (and I’m okay with that). We’re probably guilty of listening to Johnny Cash too much.

Since I only listen to music on this puppy, I don’t mind the old-school monochrome screen.
To keep it fresh, I wrote a smart playlist that eliminates any songs that I’ve listened to in the last three weeks.  That makes sure we don’t feel like we’re always listening to the same stuff.  I don’t have too many iPod shame moments with this playlist, but they certainly have happened.

Note the iPod sleeve from the 2007 line.  I love this sleeve.  It’s so simple in its design and doesn’t add any bulk.

My new 4 GB Nano.

My digi-cam is cheap so I stole this pic from Apple

I just bought this to keep in my car.  I bought it recertified from Apple for $99 (buying direct ensures that you get the full warranty).  In my old car I had a twelve disc changer but my new car’s stereo isn’t really conducive to being replaced by something aftermarket.  Without the changer, I was always feeling like I didn’t have the right music with me for my mood; also I hated having to always remember to grab my 40gig on my way out of the office.

I already owned a Monster FM transmitter for the car so I wanted to make sure what I got had the full iPod jack.  I probably won’t ride with this because I have my shuffle and I rock the Dragger’s Only, but this would be a good iPod if you were looking for one to connect to your Vagrant or Swagger jacket.  (if you didn’t know, those jackets will plug right into all iPods except the shuffle).

Obviously, Cover Flow is a pretty cool upgrade over my old model, but isn’t that important to me.  As a consumer, you always need to be asking yourself if you really need a certain feature of a product or is just an attempt to get you to spend more $$$ that you don’t need to part with.

Haven’t had this too long, but I’ve been listening to Eagles of Death Metal in the car this week.

My shuffle

This is one of the few products that I remember seeing come out and knowing I needed to buy it right away.  I guess people have that in their head right now about the iPhone, but at $79, or whatever it was when it first came out, it made it just something I had to have.

I totally saw it for what it was: the perfect riding iPod.  The clip helps make sure you don’t lose it.  You don’t have to worry about perspiration hurting it as much with the flash based memory.  It’s also small enough you don’t have to worry about crashing on it.

I use a Highway bag to store my gloves and goggles in; the shuffle fits nicely in that business card pocket so I can find it quickly without having to dig too much.

At one gig, I just load it up with songs that I want to hear when I’m riding.  I don’t really manage my music on the hill that much, so I don’t need a screen or integration into my coat; I just hit play in the parking lot and get on with the job at hand.

Some of my great pow riding memories are associated with songs that have randomly come on at the top of a line (Hurricane and Sixteen).

Sometimes I do forget to charge it, which brings me to an honorable mention…

My MiniDisc player

The Warhorse

Before the shuffle, and even when I had my 40gig, I would always ride with the MiniDisc player. I had no problem burning a disc with some riding music and just rolling with a tight playlist.  Like the shuffle, this was cheap enough that I wasn’t afraid to crash on it.

Now, I still keep my MiniDisc player in the bottom of my Highway bag just in case the shuffle has no juice left.  I pretty much just keep a Led Zeppelin mix in it; you can never go wrong riding to Zep.
(The first time I went to ISPO we needed to pump music into the booth and all I had was my Zep disc; I don’t know if Paul can listen to Zeppelin ever again after three days of non-stop Zep)

Fin

So hopefully you enjoyed this tour through my music listening habits in the office, on the road, & on the hill.  Check back over the next few months as we roll through some of the other items we’re using.  By the end of the year I hope to go through all of Rome’s product categories.  As the snow flies, I’ll look to give some reports from where we’re riding and what we’re using in those conditions.

Think Snow.

Some additional music links…

Wolfgang’s Vault Sully and I like to put something on from the Vault when we’re looking to shake things up.  I think Mark Joyce turned us onto this site.   I’m a big fan of the 1977 Pink Floyd concert from the Animals era.

Pandora Sean Larkin showed me this a few years ago.  I don’t really listen to it that much, but I know the guys in Warranty put it on to help mix it up over there.

It’s a lovely Wednesday afternoon, which means it’s time for my blog. This week I wanted to take a look back into the history books of Rome. Retrospectives are always cool, it’s good to zoom out once and a while - and, as your print design liaison, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the catalogs of yore.

#1 - 2002/03

The ‘03 product Consumer Catalog

A collectors item - you can’t just find these anywhere… and I’ve got 3 of ‘em!

#2 - 2003/04

The ‘04 product Consumer Catalog

Did I mention this was the ‘04 consumer catalog?

#3 - 2004/05

The ‘05 product Consumer Catalog

First departure from the good ol’ corporate word mark, though it still bares the gruesome mustard-yellow Pantone 124 of times past.

#4 - 2005/06

The ‘06 product Consumer Catalog

First (and only, until ‘09) photographic cover. Nice, huge wheat-paste hit on a Burlington train

#5 - 2006/07

The ‘07 product Consumer Catalog

This was my first job at Rome. There’s a sweet gloss hit over that star-bar, but you can’t tell because… well… it was printed on glossy paper anyway.

#6 - 2007/08

The ‘08 product Consumer Catalog

First dip into specialty neon inks. Bumped up to a significantly bigger size this year as well.

#7 - 2008/09

The ‘09 product Consumer Catalog - the latest and greatest, hot off the presses.

Get this bad boy at your local shop, or make your life easy by signing up for it here.

Until next time… evh signing off.

Ali, Buster and I headed over to the Maine coast for the weekend. Our plan was to stay in Portland at my mothers place on Saturday night and go to a BBQ on the beach Sunday. We had perfect weather so we decided to skip my moms (she was out of town anyway) and crash out on the beach.

I was so stoked to be there I was up before the sun.

this is a bit later, After I had thrown the frisbee around with Buster, Ali decided to get up.

Thanks to Buster, we both woke up covered in sand. At some point he decided to dig a trench next to our blanket. Totally stoked to be there but in need of coffee, we headed out and up the coast to shit, shower and shave at my moms. Found a nice greasy spoon for breakfast and heading back down to spend the day at Fort Fosters with friends and family.

I’ve seen this video linked on several different blogs today, so in the interest of saturating the market, i’ll post it here as well. 

Paul Mawhinney’s record collection is all time. 1 million full length albums, more than that in singles. He’s got the FIRST record ever made. He also pulls out a random Stones album that was pressed, but never actually released. It’s worth a mellow $10,000.

A pretty epic watch.

Greeting from Austria. I landed in Munich on Sunday AM en-route to our board factories in Austria. After getting my bag and grabbing really good coffee (for an airport at least) I went to grab my rental car, but got side tracked because there was a huge TV set up in the courtyard at the airport showing the Men’s baskeball gold metal round, and it just happened to be the 4th quarter. After watching the ‘redeem team’ bring home tho gold (and the hearing the German announcer yell KOBEEEE about 20 times) I grabbed my car and hit the bricks.

First stop:

Modern-day Eden - Osterrvaldgarten

Somewhat on the way out of town, somewhat off the beaten path, the Osterrvaldgarten was found on accident, en-route to a different beergarten (which, as it turns out, was about 2 blocks away and passed on my way out of town. whoops.) The menu at this place was pretty epic - the standard sausages, beers, potatoes, etc along with french inspired dishes of pork, duck and chicken. 

I started out slow:

Way better than day old bread - fresh pretzel a Radler to wash it down

Fresh, soft-ish pretzels replaced the boring old bread and butter common to many US restaurants. A Radler (the German original that inspired Bud Light Lime, but way, way better) was brought in to help wash it all down. You can make ‘Radler’ at home if you like - the budget way. Take your favorite yellow beer and top it off with some Sprite. Not quite as good, but it works in a pinch. Liquid Summer.

Lunch was served:

Its mushroom season in bavaria. Great timing!

Sauteed pork with local mushrooms in a cream sauce, Spetzel and summer vegetables.  Not much else to write about this. All time.

After the meal, I hoped in the rental and took off for Austria. 3 hours later, I was in the town I was staying in, but got good and lost. Thankfully, i was able to rent Yan’s girlfriend and bring her along:

She made the drive feel better, although she nagged more than my mother about my speeding, constantly reminding me to “mind the local speed limit” Thanks, computer lady.

After making it to the general vicinity of my hotel, i passed on the directions dictated to me and decided to trust in the GPS. Bad idea. After following it to the wrong hotel with a similar name in the wrong town, i punched in the correct address, which took me on an epic adventure up the WRONG WAY on a highway off ramp. Thanks, GPS - i hadn’t has a heart attack lately.

Eventually, i got on the right track, checked into my room and got settled. One hell of an adventure, all in less than 12 hours of landing in Munich.

I spent the day at the board factory today, with more to come, and took some photos of the new boards in various stages of production. Then my battery died. I’ll figure it out and get those photos up soon. Until then - PROOST!

One of the benefits of working at Rome SDS is that you get to work and live in Vermont. While late summer means winter is almost here to most people, to one guy downstairs, it means one thing…. apple whipping season.

Ron claims to have read about apple whipping in a childrens book that most likely has been burned at this point for encouraging such juvenile behavior. 

Here it is, Apple Whipping with Ron

Step 1: get a knife

Take a knife from your mom’s kitchen, school cafeteria or as in Ron’s case, the drawer of utensils at work. They probably have a serrated knife, and to avoid being caught for taking it, don’t bring it back, leave it out in the woods or something.   

Step 2: get a beer

Purchase a 24 oz Budweiser, 12oz won’t do.

Step 3: select your whippin stick

Now, this is important.  This is where you choose your apple whipping stick.  It needs to be flexible and around 5 ft long or so for maximum whip. Make sure to cut off any small nubbins, branches and other imperfections.

Step 4: widdle the tip

Do a little widdling on the tip… you know what I mean.  Make it sharp, apple poking sharp. 

Step 5: find a good apple

This might be the most crucial part, choose the wrong apple and you could blow your elbow out and ruin the rest of you apple whipping season.

Oh man, almost whippin!  The softer the apple the deeper the poke, the harder the apple, the shallower the poke.  I’m sure there’s some sexual innuendo in there, I’m just not sure where.

Step 7: whip that shit

 It’ll take some practice, but you’ll get it.

we're really whipping now!

yeah

Since the car dealership moved out next door, whipping aint the same.  It was a glorious feeling dropping a ripe apple on a new Lex.  If you hit someone, and they freak out say…”stop being a pussy it’s an apple, you’re lucky I’m not out here rock whipping”.

Thanks Ron, lunch will never be the same!

I couldn’t be more excited to share to the world the joys of the ever-growing canine community here at Rome as my first post. Whether it’s sweet, sweet Thistle slowly making her way to the front door to greet you first thing in the morning, or Bud eating the styrofoam cup that just had your chili lunch in it -shamelessly - right out of your garbage can, or even an unidentified dog dropping a man-sized duce in our newly acquired office space before anyone even had the chance to move in. Ladies and gentilemen, I present to you The Beasts of Rome.

Jackson

Jackson manning his former post as top-of-the-stairs-roadblock

Jackson; a gargantuan, a silent king lording his powers with a mere glance to this rag-tag crew of beasts. Here we catch a rare glimpse of him in a classic Jackson hang spot - his new jam is down by the garbage cans. An age-old piece of Rome lore says that Thistle, as a young pup, almost became lunch for Jackson by coming between him and his food bowl.

Thistle

Thistle has mad industry hook-ups

Oh Thistle… the sweetest dog ever made. She likes to bring her bed over to your desk, just to show you. I swear she can look right to the core of you, as if to say “Hey… whatever it is… it’s OK… I care about YOU.”

Wylie

Wylie just being his weird old self

If there were ever an old man trapped in a dogs body, Wylie is it. He mainly keeps to himself, but I can tell by looking in his shifty eyes, that his soul is as old as time.

Bud

Getting wasted

Bud washes garbage down with beer. That should tell you enough right there. He’s the kind of guy that’s likely to get a little loose and go start some shit, usually with Buster. Bud knows how to party.

Buster

Buster is a plain old good boy. He did go through a little bit of a weight problem when he figured out on his own how to get out of the building, go down the street to The Depot gas station, walk inside and beg for a treat. Yeah… he’s that smart - and he’s even got his weight totally under control again. Good dog.

Chico

"GET THE F OUT OF MY FACE"

Chico is bad ass. This was just about as close as I could get with the camera before getting my entire arm taken off at the socket. You can just see it in his face here: “I swear to god, if you come one step closer…” It’s not too often you come across a dog that’s got legit jail time under his belt. I once got close enough to see a little tear tattoo by his eye hidden underneath that ghostly white fur. The other dogs don’t really enter Chico’s zone.

Mugsy

Big, Dumb Ol' Mugsy

I mean dumb in the best way possible, though. Mugsy is a serious contender with Thistle as sweetest dog in the office. It’s pretty impressive to see her Falcor-like grace when she’s in full-stride. My only negative impression on Mugsy is that I have to take Greg home every day soaking wet because she can (and does) fit her ENTIRE mouth around Greg’s ENTIRE body. Gross.

Greg

Just look at him. I might be biassed though, Greg’s my pup. He’s a pretty cool little dude most of the time. Though, I just found out that if you shake him too hard pee comes out. I’m currently trying to train him to kill on command, so I’ll make sure to give updates that progress in future posts.

Gracie

shark teef

Gracie does everything at 3,000 miles per hour. This is about as clear a shot as I could get of this wild beast. You’d never tell from this photo but Gracie’s pretty harmless. She’s still growing into those teeth, though. Gracie’s got a high level of the characteristic we’ve come to call “Minge-y-ness”. A scale based directly on how much trouble-causing the Minge-like dog creates. Gracie is Minge-y to the core.

And there you have it. I’d like to leave you here with a piece of art (this is the “designers” category) done by a friend of Rome - Jay Howell, author of “Dogs and Dog Information” and designer of that 2008 A.S.S. (Artist Syndicate Series) Tee - The Howell.

Jay Howell - "Good Dog Bad Dog"

The Howell

Living in Burlington, VT is, for the most part, good living. It’s a really bike friendly town, and has great local purveyors of meat, cheese and produce which makes dining out (or cooking at home for that matter) a real nice treat. It’s even got that big old Lake Champlain pretty much right out my front door. Unfortunately, the lake is full of fresh water, and thus lacking in the access to fresh seafood that i had come accustomed to living in Boston or Brooklyn. To fix this problem, i headed to Rhode Island for the weekend to get sand in my butt crack and fill up on seafood. Thanks to one Mr. Aaron J Draplin, i was able to jot down my 36 hours of consumption in my handy copy of Field Notes.

36 hours of awesome

Having the inaugural post up here, and being a man of limited grammatical skills is quite the daunting task for this guy. I decided to forgo the words for the most part and take you on a visual tour of my second home, AKA the office under the birds nest. Hope you enjoy.

This poster greets all who enter the mess that is my office. Unfortunately, most don’t seem to heed the request, and therefore spoiling my fun. 

All sorts of ideas in there, past, present and future

poetic, huh?

Messy book corner

Youth in a bag

In an effort to come up with some treasures for the soundtrack of No Correct Way, i dug into the CD collection of my high school years. All sorts of angst in there. The transition from my straight edge days to my emotional days and beyond can be tracked by the release dates in here, but that’s for another blog post.

These guys are just trying to survive amongst this mess.

Inspirational sampling.

If you thought this post was going to lack a bacon reference, you don’t know me. Thanks to Derek for keeping the smell of bacon in the air at all times.

Mark Gonzales. Poet. Fellow bad speller.

A fine drinking establishment

Thanks to Capt’n Al for this gem. A reminder that when all else fails, there’s nothing beer can’t solve.

Well, that’s that. First post over and done. I hope you enjoyed it, or at least made it this far. Next time i chime in will be from the European continent as i wrap up all the 2010 board graphics with our factories. Until then - eat bacon.