Super Lisa Bufano
June 6, 2009
Lisa Bufano is a superhero. One with fancy attachments! She spent a long weekend running all over NYC’s streets, bridges, and trains in her crazy cheetah legs, turning heads and fighting crime. And I tracked and documented her on my camera bike. It’s for the first of a series of video podcasts she’s producing about exploring her unique body.
Your best chance of keeping up with Lisa is through her website: http://www.lbufano.com
This video is poorly shot and from before she studied dance seriously. But I love it anyway.
Moving the Busycle
June 6, 2009
This was fun. One day Matthew Mazzotta asked me to help move the Busycle from an ancient warehouse in the Navy Yards to Cave Dave’s workshop/home in South Boston.
What is the Busycle? You’ll just have to see:
That thing is *so* not even hardly street legal. So we were concerned about police as well as high-speed mechanical mayhem. But the St. Patrick’s Day Parade had just happened in South Boston that day, which apparently changed the rules. The police seemed to think we were just some part of the celebration on our way home. So we somehow got a pass as long as they thought we were all drunk revelers rather than sober engineers and artists.
Make Bike Film Now
June 2, 2009
Have you ever wanted to capture the rare sense of grace and speed you only get from city biking?
I’ve been experimenting with my bike-cam. It’s so easy and fun I want everyone to do it! All together now – Just put a digital camera on a cheap tripod, and use some zip ties to strap the tripod and bicycle frame together in various compromising positions.
What you see here is a compilation of some sweet camera tests. This summer I hope to make some completely bicycle-based films. Maybe even a musical. Everyone on bikes: actors, cameras, crew. Daredevil traffic situations, breathless dialog, and a nice bicycle kiss at the end. So stay tuned.
Tallbike Rodeo
June 1, 2009
The Boston/Cambridge area has a preponderance of artists, engineers, and just plain freaks who build things. What happens if you put ‘em all in a pot and stir ‘em up? I wanted to find out. And a Tallbike Rodeo seemed like a perfect juncture of art, engineering, and daredevil badass-ness.
The idea lounged around in the back of my head for a while. But it became a reality when Lisa Monrose from the Museum of Science took it on as a project. She got people working and even wrangled some grant money and sponsorship.
What we didn’t know was that all the tallbike freaks already knew each other through SCUL. And there was a lot of suspicion among them that we were trying to co-opt their home-grown culture to promote some corporate agenda. Heavens forefend!
Eventually we met with Fleet Admiral Skunk of SCUL who turned out to be an awesome and genuinely sweet guy. He saw that we were just working to promote creativity and ingenuity through bicycle culture. And he could totally get behind that. So we had Skunk to thank for the ten tallbikes and riders who showed up for the big day!
So anyway …. races, obstacles, and a demolition derby — all on tallbikes. What could possibly go wrong? Enjoy the photos. Many were taken by Monica Parker-James.
Circus, Circus
June 1, 2009
Some time ago, we hosted a best-birthday-ever for the lovely and awesome Robin Amer. This featured two, count ‘em two, marching bands: The Stick and Rag Village Orchestra and the What Cheer? Brigade. What Cheer? was so new they didn’t have a name yet. But they rocked the party like no rock band could have.
Don’t believe me? See for yourself:
After both bands played, they osmotically blended into one big pounding, honking, gyrating band and marched out of Nervebox Studio into surrounding Chinatown, bringing the party to the people. They marched back in 20 minutes later with more people than they’d left with.
