Bikes, Bars, and Bexar

Bikes, Bars, and Bexar Part 1:
There was an HD Theater Presentation, the series is called “Twist the Throttle,” the individual program was about Ducati motorcycles. Not a brand that I’ve owned, more than once. Respected and loved? Sure. Love the sound of a “duke” – it’s a V-Twin engine, usually one upright cylinder and one forward-facing cylinder, hung in a bare frame.

The intriguing engineering, from a motor-geek point? The “Desmodromic Drive” valves. On the older models, the ones I was familiar with? Instead of pushrods operating valves loaded with springs? There used to a be a single cam, topped with a rotating gear, and the valves were opened and shut by direct mechanical force. Pretty cool, if you’re a motor-head. Just thinking about a solution to a problem that no one thought about before, or, not in that way.

The positive valve actuation like that? There was always the sound of extra gears, more metal-on-metal meshing noise, than with a regular motor. The other part of the mystique? The throaty roar of a large displacement twin-cylinder motor. V-Twins makes a certain kind of noise. Ask a Harley rider. “Loud pipes save lives.” The “duke” makes its own, special brand of growling, ferociousness. Noise. A clatter – sounds like steel on steel – transposed within my mind.

On the HD Theater presentation, the show concentrated on the last three models, each successful, and then, a new model, what the consumers have asked for. In my time actively riding, what we – my friends, cohorts and various associates – gravitated towards, we called them “rat bikes.” Big motor, stout suspension, excellent rubber, and not much in aesthetics. Brake light, a headlight with – as close as we could get to – a landing light bulb. Sometimes loud pipes. Knock about half the baffling out of a stock set of pipes and there was marked performance increase without too much added volume. Speed without attracting attention. Always a good trick.

The images of the factory brought back another memory, a factory orange, 750 Ducati Super Sport, the fiberglass tank had a clear strip for a fuel gauge, and embedded in the clear fiberglass? A single fly, like an insect in amber. Belonged in Ft. Worth. (Yeah, that’s a connection no one will get.)

The conclusion of the Ducati show, what perked me up, more than anything, was the way the engineers solicited, then incorporated, suggestions from riders. What the consumer wanted to see. Turned out to resemble – the concept – the stripped down motorcycles we used to love. Rat bikes. Straight from the factory.

Bikes, Bars, and Bexar Part 2:
When I was searching for a place in San Antonio to hold a workshop, I stumbled into C4Workspace. Judging solely by the website the site’s associated content, I was figuring the owner/operator was a much younger person than he is. Team, really, one of those husband and wife things. His web presence suggested youth and vitality. Still does. That raw, untainted by the real-world, void of cynicism, kind of energy.

The place itself was featured, briefly, as a local Democratic Headquarters. I watched as it shifted, and the press material, the publicity, and the concept, seems to work. Wish them all the success.

Every time I’m in there, there are subtle changes. Or not so-subtle changes. In part, it reminds me of the first place I landed in San Antonio, the now-defunct Dancing Moon. The feeling is much the same, although, the work-space isn’t – on the surface – about new age (crap). It’s an office space that’s for rent by the day, week, hour, whatever. Bring a phone and a laptop, ready to roll. Why I like it. I’ll use it again, if there’s ever any call.

The idea of the place, though, when I first met the owners, operators, really, they pointed out a few features and then, talked about possible future stuff. Great idea.

When I first walked in, then when I went back a few weeks later with flyers and business cards, I kept thinking that the place reminded me of a web page. Not a finished page, but one that was open for business, just wasn’t fully laden with all the features, bells, whistles, and Google Ads.

More like a WordPress.org blog. Which, I might add, is the back-end, last time I checked. Walking in, there’s sofa seating, then chair, tables, desks, all the material of commerce. Changing, mutating, flowing. The conference rooms down one side, there are doors, but the tops are open. I’m sure there’s a fire code/structural reason for that. Not an issue for me. I like that open feeling. Nothing is etched in stone.

Last time I was there, some gallery-quality artwork was going up. Again, material that can be added and subtracted, as need be. No need to get married to just one version of the place, as it is changing and mutating. Even as this is posted, there’s new artwork, and yet another configuration. The owner’s singular complaint, was the distance to IKEA, north of Austin. I would think the one west of Houston would be closer, but certainly not nearly as cool as Austin’s.

While they seem to be working every angle, I haven’t seen it full up, not yet. But then, I’m not there every day, and the doors are open. On top of that, a number of San Antonio folks seem to have heard of the place. Just blocks south of downtown. Free parking, which, as I understand it, an issue in that city. I wouldn’t know.

I used that comment, “It’s like a web page,” and I’m afraid that’s the best analogy. Can’t take the metaphor any further. It’s perfect. A bricks and mortar interpretation, no, an embodiment of the supple nature of web work.

I don’t believe that C4Workspace reconfigures with the click of a mouse, but it can be more than one thing much easier than most.

Bikes, Bars, and Bexar Part 3:
The original idea behind what’s become my side project, there’s a single web portal in San Antonio. While Austin is over-full with good web portals, San Antonio is dominated by a single – major media backed – window. Everything “web” in SA flows through that single location.

Divorced from its TV in-laws, the bulk of web traffic in SA still goes through one or two major media outlets. I’d guess it’s because it’s just not a big deal, that whole, web-wide-world, inter-tube thing.

The original idea, why I bought the domain name, first? It was a joke. Austin City Limits? Bexar County Line. I passed that line, each month, thinking it ought to be something. The original vision, what I wanted to aim for, was a collective portal.

What happened, I found I had images. Stacks and metaphorical stacks of digital images from with the Bexar County Line, and from that? I started rolling them out, one at time. Found a portal that shot me a little bit of traffic, the “city daily photo” place. I also found that there really weren’t a lot of web-writers in San Antonio. My old hood in Austin had more activists per square inch than I can find in miles and miles of SA. Not a problem, way it is.

The idea, the concept, it started one place, took a detour, and launched into something else completely.

It’s about listening to what the people, the consumers, the riders themselves, all about listening and paying attention. Really, it’s not even listening, it’s about reading and following trends.

I’d like nothing more than to do a simple, single column layout. Just feature the content with no additional material. No extraneous advertising. Probably want a fixed width. Easier to toy with the typography that way, make the print nice and legible. That’s not happening any time too soon, not at this rate. Still need the site to carry some advertising to help defray the cost of production.

I’ve lost count of the number of cheap, digital cameras I’ve been through, but even at close to a hundred bucks apiece, I’m pretty sure the count is near a dozen. Not really a problem, though, as the original premise, precedes the side-project, is that the cheap cameras are more likely to be in place when needed. Won’t drag an expensive camera out on a boat, fishing, but I’ll gladly pocket a cheap one – not afraid of crushing, soaking or otherwise misplacing it.

Some of the pictures are captured on cell phone cameras, and with the latest revisions, some of the cell cameras are quite decent. However, the equipment used doesn’t matter, not as much as the content. It’s about point and click.

There are limits. What I see in my mind’s eye, and what makes it to screen, occasionally, whatever I was aiming for, it’s all lost in translation. Part of the problem with the medium.

There has to be failures to have success. Not every image is going to be “museum quality” or “gallery” worthy. Couple of galleries I’ve been in? And museum or two? Yeah, not everything gets edited the way I would. But that’s me.

I have zero formal training in visual arts. Even less when it comes to photography. Which is why it’s a natural element, as I’m not burdened by the “rules,” whatever those might be. Convention. Strictly learning as I go.

As “new media,” though, there is merit here. It’s an intersection of web/tech and pure art.

New Media.