Category: films

cp vid #2: crankpunking in Singapore

yes, i’m in Singapore, over here to race in just a few short hours on Saturday morning, Batam 6 Bridges race, which you may have guessed, yes!

is a race over 7 bridges.

i like Singapore, it’s kinda scary in that it is way too clean for a city but other than that it is an interesting place, some very cool buildings and generally amazing weather. the cycling kinda sucks, unless you like riding up and down the same road and getting honked at by every third car, but yeah, with a visit.

here’s a little video in which i say ‘little’ about 8 times. still kinda shoddy on the camera, hopefully i’ll improve…

 

Museeuw & the pave

if you’ve always wanted to see how Boonen does it and you haven’t seen this site you should, as they run a service that offers you the chance to ride famous Belgian cobbles with none other than Johan Museeuw – so if you fancy a chat about doping with a former pro who confessed (years after he stopped riding, naturally), here’s your chance! they’ve made this rather lovely little film giving a glimpse of the the riding over there – looks like fun.

which reminded me of this curious film made for Rapha from last year, which Ridley Scott had something of a hand in. it’s a bit nuts in places but worth a watch.

‘and if we must die, let it be riding’

crankpunk’s been sat here feeling a bit gloomy as a result of yet another injury that means more time off the bike, which means more consoling junk food and even more huffing and puffing to be done when i finally do get back in the saddle. then i came upon this fantastically wonderful short film from Spain which not only compelled me to write this and brought a tear or three to my weary eyes, but also made me realise i have nothing to complain about.

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the cojones on these guys…

cantaloupes. must be. crankpunk had a couple of BMX back in the day but after one too many nutcracker not-too-sweets and one particularly nasty faceplant  (aged 12, in front of my longed-for-but-never-to-be sweetheart, Pamela Barber – if you’re out there Freckles, i’m cranking solo, and the scars have almost healed) i gave up altogether. and so my respect and admiration for these guys comes from a memory of pain and works its way up past my muffin-esque overflow to my cerebral cortex,to the spongy area that records all the data – which has great difficulty computing just how in the heck they do this stuff.

the precision, the courage, the sheer rock-blockin’ verve of these two-wheeled artists gets me feeling that what i think i know is nothing. it’s like when you’re presented with an image of an organism magnified a million times and you can only respond with the realisation that the reality that we perceive is in fact the merest sliver of what is actually real. and when i say ‘the merest sliver’, i mean like a grain of sand on 10 kilometer stretch of beach. that’s what i feel when i see Danny McAskill nail a trick. or when the guy at 3:58 on this video does what he does. i know what i can do on a bike, and it’s basically to go pretty fast in a straight line. and i feel pretty damn cool when i bunny hop a train track at 65km/hr with 120 guys around me. and then i see what he can do on a bike and my bunny gets hopped on and stomped on and beaten to a bloody pulp.

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take me to Mustang

it’s one of those saturdays that feels like a sunday here in crankland, and if that wasn’t melancholic enough, it’s raining to boot. it’s delicate enough though, the pitter-patter variety that draws gasoline rainbows in puddles and has the kids giggling as they run about in front of the coffee shop. an old cranker just rode past on his town special with a front basket loaded full of veg and an umbrella in one hand, expertly weaving through the cars at the traffic lights. maybe i should try that later on my r5…

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boy

here is a wonderfully emotive and very well made short film by Prasanna Puwanarajah, starring Timothy Spall as the father, that won a British Airways film competition before the recent London Olympics.

“A huge amount of the entries were about a granny and a 16-year old on a housing estate,” said Spall. “This told a story that was so personal – everyone has experienced loss. There’s a lot of razzmatazz around the Olympics, good and bad, but to make this so personal and human is so rare, and so British.”

British actor Richard E. Grant mentored the young director, and praised of the power of the piece. “It just got you,” he said. “It went through the judges like an electric current.”

Enjoy.