Monday, November 24, 2008

Techno trance rave electro anthems... by bike.

Some mysterious youtube user has been helmet-camming around Dublin, then going home and creating some music to go with the footage. I think I know who it is... see if you can figure it out.



The rest of their clips can be found here.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Xmas Alleycat *update

Dublin Messengers plan on throwing an Alleycat on Dec. 19th this year. The final alleycat of the year followed by a nice little shindig somewhere.

No concrete details as yet, just something to throw in your diaries.
We're going to re-use the Golden Pages race that was dreamt up by 5Jive, who never lived to see his race actually happen. We ran the race for a couple of years in his honour, but that somehow slipped last year so I'd like to bring it back again.

I think it's important to have something like this at one of the darkest points of the year, both literally and emotionally, for many people. 5Jive(Ciaran), seemed full of life and was always great fun to be around, but, as we found out, this was not the case. His tragic death was a stark reminder to us all of how important it is to have friends, talk to people, and be there for others.

Couriers are a bunch of misfits, it's always been the way. Many are not from this country, many have little family, other couriers are in a sense the family unit, however dysfunctional that family may be. So come along to the race, have fun, and remember how important the group of people you are sharing that fun with is.

Sorry if that sounds all a bit serious, the race will be a blast, I just think that at least once a year, we should look inwards a little bit and have a think about what this community means to a lot of us, and how lucky we are to be surrounded by such good people.

I need help organising this so please get in touch if you would like to help out. I think it would be nice to donate the proceeds of this race to a charity like Aware, an Irish support group for depression.

On another note, don't forget to come along to the Dublin Cycling Campaign's Christmas Party. Thursday Dec 18th in the POD. A good chance to mingle with some of Dublin's other cycling groups, and strangely enough, they don't all hate us!

*It appears there are 2 Irish guys cycling around the world to raise money for Aware. You can follow their progress here.

You will need a copy of the Golden Pages in your bag in order to complete the race, so start trying to lay your hands on some copies now.

Bike Hero

Anyone who's played guitar hero will appreciate this:

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Messenger Bravey in Oz.

From the messenger mailing list:

"We heard about a stabbing on the streets of Adelaide Australia yesterday. The newspaper 'the daily telegraph' mentioned that a cycle messenger used his uniform to stem the flow of blood from a stabbed victim... I sent a concerned email back home asking what happened...

here is the story tellers version...

'Yep yep, It was Bowie as most of you would know him as. Heaps of dudes stayed at his house during the nationals. Basically he saw a kid fall out of the newsagent, ran over and dragged him out to the main street and called an ambulance. Bowie then went back to his bag and retrieved his bike lock, you know, because that's what couriers tend to do...
He then proceeded to enter the newsagent and found a second victim in an aisle. The kid told Bow he had been stabbed in the chest, Bow told him to remove his shirt, apparently it was gushing blood, he had been stabbed just above the heart, not in the leg as some twit from the Advertiser had reported... Not really certain how one could be in a life threatening condition with a leg wound... Would have to be a hell of a wound, moving on.
So Bow rips off his trusty Toll shirt and covers the stab wound on this kids chest. He puts him on the ground and tries to stop the bleeding. In the process he talks to the kid, learns his name is Dave, he likes basketball, he's 14. Meanwhile the attacker has been in the store the whole time, and when he see's the kid is on the ground he thinks its his chance to finish the job. He runs over, grabs the kids legs and tried to drag him across the floor, then kicks him in the face a couple of times. Bowie manages to grab the stabber from behind and pull him off the victim. He struggles with the stabber and manages to push him to the back of the store. He then gets the injured kid out to where the police and ambulance crew were now starting to arrive. He and fellow courier Mark managed to cop a face full of pepper spray as the police were attempting to apprehend the stabber.
Bow refused to be identified, was hounded by various news crew and was apparently misquoted in the paper. The first kid that Bowie dragged out onto the street died, the stabber was intent on finishing off the second one as well. If Bow hadnt intervened I have no doubt he would have. I keep referring to these guys as kids because they were 14 years old. The stabber was 16. They were Sudanese refugees who have fled a war torn country in which many youths are trained militia. Bowie lost his mobile phone, his bike lock and his trusty Toll uniform, but thankfully managed to get out of it unhurt. I still cant work out if it is the fucking stupidest thing I have ever seen him do (and I live with him, I've seen him do some pretty clever things), but the fact that he didn't notice the colour of their skin, the fact he was facing a knife wielding freak twice the size of him, the fact that it had absolutely nothing to do with him, ran in and saved a 14 year old kids like is fucking awesome, and certainly worthy of a few free beers. Definitely a credit to the courier creed. "

Link to the story here.

Kyotoloco stuff...

Might give a little insight in to how much fun next years CMWC and pre-event are going to be...

KYOTO LOCO '08 from Eli Tokyo Jitensha-Jin on Vimeo.

Results here.

Pics here and here.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Global Gutz Video

A couple of Rocko's mates were doing a college project and used Global Gutz Dublin as their inspiration. Been trying to get my hands on a copy of this for ages, but it's finally been posted on YouTube, so check it out:

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween Results

Thanks to everyone who showed up to race, hang out, do a checkpoint, whatever. It was a cold evening and standing around was not particularly fun.
Halloween 2008 by you.
28 raced on Friday. Results as follows:

1st: Gyula
2nd: Steve
3rd: Kropa
4th: John Wharfield
5th: Brian
6th: Kerr
7th: Chris + Eoghan McNulty
8th: Cisto
9th: Geri
10th: Dennis
11th: Frank
12th: Squeak
13th: Aidan
14th: Michelle and Dave
DNF: Lorcan, Doricea, Barry, Ali, Daz, Cariosa, Renee, Fabian, Tim, Johnny, Lucas,
DFL: Josh

I think I made a boo-boo with 1st girl, so Squeak shall be receiving a prize next time I see her.
Apologies also to Daz who got a misprinted 1st manifest with only 2 pick-ups and drops on it, but had the good grace to lose his 2nd manifest and save me a headache...
Halloween 2008 by you.

Savage party afterwards in Perrines, thanks for the hospitality.

Saturday night was Courier Carnage, but, due to the carnage from the night before, only 7 brave souls turned up to race. We just did a 7-up sprint and Daz came out on top to take the cash prize, which he nicely spent on getting us a round afterwards. Everyone seemed to enjoy the course, so there's talk of making it a more regular, winner takes all event.
Halloween 2008 by you.

Thanks again to everyone for coming out, I'm looking forward to the next race.
Rest of my photos can be found here.