Opinel Factory

I’ve never owned an Opinel knife, but I do like them and will get one, one of these days.

As much as I love seeing a small scale maker crafting a knife, seeing how things are done by a company that cranks out thousands of knives per day is also interesting to me.

S.o.t.D. - Microphone Fiend – Kid Loops

Microphone Fiend – Kid Loops

Heard this a few days ago. I only recognized it from some of the lyrics. Why do I know this? Used Shazam. Ahhh. I know this from it appearing on a K7 DJ set....I’m tempted to say Smith & Mighty. Different though, a remixed version, or pitched up.

Polygonal Portrait: Roxann

I’ve been doing some over photo illustration, using just triangles. Time consuming, fairly tedious, but I like the results.

And even though I’ve used Illustrator for almost 30 years, I learned a few new tricks doing this. Namely a way to find out how many elements are in use, and a way to quickly and easily close any paths that might not be closed.

The lovely Roxann:

The result.

The original.

The process. 4249 triangles, 13,144 points. Somewhere between 30 and 40 hours of work.

S.o.t.D. - Deep Trip – Tidal

Deep Trip – Tidal

Deep indeed. Deep roller.

S.o.t.D. - Sanzhana – Sonic Saturation

Sanzhana – Sonic Saturation

Absolutely adore this genre.

Polygonal Portrait: Thomas

I’ve been doing some over photo illustration, using just triangles. Time consuming, fairly tedious, but I like the results.

S.o.t.D. - Transparency – J. Albert

Transparency – J. Albert

Groovy tech-house I’ve been playing for the last half hour.

S.o.t.D. - Ancient Wayz – Deep Stealth

Ancient Wayz – Deep Stealth

Corker.

S.o.t.D. - Lumière Tamisée – Nicole Moudaber

Lumière Tamisée – Nicole Moudaber

Beefy tech-house.

S.o.t.D. - Hey Hey – Dennis Ferrer

Hey Hey – Dennis Ferrer

S.o.t.D. - Telluric Undercurrent – Revolution Void

Telluric Undercurrent – Revolution Void

Discovered this in an ad for Atlas 46’s 24/7 Comfort Tuff Work Pants.

S.o.t.D. - Don’t Let Go – Philth & Collette Warren

Don’t Let Go – Philth & Collette Warren

S.o.t.D. - In Rain – Command Strange

In Rain – Command Strange

Signage: J. Rumor

A Portuguese deli/grocery on Barton Street.

S.o.t.D. - Whisper – Blu Mar Ten (ft. Kirsty Hawkshaw)

Whisper – Blu Mar Ten (ft. Kirsty Hawkshaw)

But this world
Will be shaken by a whisper

And when I feel my world falling down
I think of you

And when I feel I can breathe no more
You speak to me

And then there is that creamy bass line.

Signage: Get More Out Of Life With Coffee

Great new sign at Saint James on James Street, done by Brush Boys.

S.o.t.D. - Universal Horn (Flytronix Remix) – JMJ & Richie

Universal Horn (Flytronix Remix) – JMJ & Richie

Love this genre.

S.o.t.D. - Hip Squatch (Kalya Scintilla’s Purr & Pounce Remix) – Mr. Squatch

Hip Squatch (Kalya Scintilla’s Purr & Pounce Remix) – Mr. Squatch

The first three minutes are the best.

S.o.t.D. - Nuuk (Air) – Thomas Köner

Nuuk (Air) – Thomas Köner

I rarely play music that loud, but stuff like this (like this for example) I play at room shaking volumes.

S.o.t.D. - Abysm – Alaska & Paradox

Abysm – Alaska & Paradox

Sooooo good! Deep and evocative. Almost veers into Bonobo-ish territory. 
(And this isn’t two different artists collaborating, it’s just two different guises of Dev Pandya, supposedly “collaborating”.)

The Ride Journal - nifty bicycling magazine with some great illustration

http://theridejournal.com/

Online, downloadable PDFs of the first six issues.

Cool mag. Worth checking out. I like that it is a general interest magazine. Everything from mountain bikes, to trick riding, to commuting, to couriers, to the politics of cycling. Something for everyone.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sw7invs3y2ao4kr/the-ride-issue-1.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1y679iarafqbvu/the-ride-issue-2.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mk2o6a7tqtmjpov/the-ride-issue-3-1.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqatszwacm1zvr5/the-ride-issue-4-3.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hw7b0odzh37yr5d/the-ride-issue-5-4.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/am96ld2vbrv8xc4/the-ride-issue-6.pdf

S.o.t.D. - Lonely Vibe – Smote & Verbal

Lonely Vibe – Smote & Verbal

Pop Can Stoves

Just a small sampling of the pop can stoves I’ve made over the years.

$150 for a stove that can burn anything at any altitude? Why? Personally, I seriously doubt I’ll ever end up in a remote part of an undeveloped nation with an unknown availability of fuel to climb mountains. I can reach into a blue box, and with at most an hour of work, and with cheap and easily available methylated alcohol, have a camping stove that will suffice 95+% of the time for 95+% of people. I go on day hikes, weekend camping trips, week long canoe trips in northern Ontario in spring to autumn. For that, these are great. Light, compact, quiet, no smell, cheap fuel. Sure, they don’t work at altitude, they don’t work when it’s really cold and they don’t boil really fast. Oh well.

I’ve made from the complicated, the penny stove, to the simple, the fancy feast stove. And the latter is probably my favourite. A Fancy Feast cat food tin, a hole punch, punch a dozen holes along the wall and done. Wears out, lose it, give it away, sit on it and crush it? Make a new one. Andrew Skurka points out some of its flaws, but if I don’t like it, I have many other ones to choose from. Probably about three times as many as seen in the above photo.

Crane Dismantling

Always enjoy seeing a tower crane be assembled or dismantled. Whenever I watch the process, I invariably figure I would dig doing that as a job.

Blood Donation #50

I reached #50 this week. (I hope I can reach 100.)

Got a pin for reaching this milestone.

I knew I had received some other pins for reaching various other milestones over the years. Decided to dig them out.

That’s why I do it. For the pins. And the free cookies. You should do it too.
(Oh and funny aside...I have a friend who has a violet wand. Curious as to what it felt like, I let him run it down my arm with a few different attachments. Freaky. Like tattooing, but 10 times more prickly. Just a weird sensation. I look at my arm the next day and it left all these weird red pin prick marks up and down my forearm, especially in the ditch by my elbow. Weird. Forget about it. The next day I go to donate blood, and one of the things they do is look at your arms to see you have no needle marks. I hadn’t given another thought to the marks, till the nurse asks to see my arms. Whoops. I look...and they’re almost all gone. Phew.)

S.o.t.D. - Time – Smote

Time – Smote

Another producer like Synkro that I just can’t get enough of.

S.o.t.D. - Telescope – Bop x Synkro

Telescope – Bop x Synkro

The fact that this involves Synkro is of course great. That it is available on blue transparent marbled 12" vinyl makes it even greater.

S.o.t.D. - Coven – Fabrice Torricella

Coven – Fabrice Torricella

Minimal techno that isn’t particularly subtle, but I dig it.

S.o.t.D. - All Things – The Cinematic Orchestra

All Things – The Cinematic Orchestra

One of the first S.o.t.D.’s on here was All Things To All Men by C.O., a slightly different version of this featuring Roots Manuva on vocals.

Signage: In Front Of Gate

Just love these crude, vernacular signs.

S.o.t.D. - S.O.B. – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

S.O.B. – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Fun.

Signage: Rusty Yard

Love signs like this, where the original still shows, but entropy has wrought something else out of it.

Sweet New DadaHell T-Shirt

A shirt Simon did up to commemorate his 22nd year of tattooing.

http://www.dadahell.com/

S.o.t.D. - Origin – Keeno

Origin – Keeno

S.o.t.D. - While I Got You – L.A.O.S.

While I Got You – L.A.O.S.

S.o.t.D. - Nautilus (Mouly & Lucida remix) – Shogun

Nautilus (Mouly & Lucida remix) – Shogun

Proper jungle business.

S.o.t.D. - Depth – Cidi & Ephixa

Depth – Cidi & Ephixa

I often approach D&B DJ sets with some trepidation. So often they’re relentless, devoid of any sort of groove, exercises in how well the guy that doesn’t actually dance, can mix.

But sometimes you discover gems like this on them.

S.o.t.D.- Double Trouble (feat. Total Science) – S.P.Y.

Double Trouble (feat. Total Science) – S.P.Y.

Likely the best current producer in this genre.

S.o.t.D. - Serenity – Vacant

Serenity – Vacant

Song title is very apropos.

S.o.t.D. - Peace, Love & Unity – DJ Hype feat. MC Fats

Peace, Love & Unity – DJ Hype feat. MC Fats

What a tune. What a bassline.

Excellent Cold Weather Manuals

Excellent set of (English language) mountainous and cold weather operations manuals from the Norwegian military. Even if you aren’t military, anyone who spends time in mountains or outside in the winter might learn something from them. Topics covered include personal clothing, nutrition, winter injuries, safe routing and navigation, bivouacking, avalanche rescue, etc.

https://forsvaret.no/en/education-and-training/coe-cwo

S.o.t.D. - Poly – Robin Judge

Poly – Robin Judge

Toronto producer I’ve recently had the pleasure of meeting. I could say her work is “minimal techno” but that is a far too restrictive, and frankly undescriptive, phrase to describe what she does. There is far too much warmth beneath those chilly synth washes. There’s a logical disconnect and an emotional connect.

S.o.t.D. - Rash Reflection – Skinny Puppy

Rash Reflection – Skinny Puppy

The video is the backing imagery they used for this track on the Too Dark park tour.

S.o.t.D. - Headhunter 2000 (Haujobb mix) – Front 242

Headhunter 2000 (Haujobb mix) – Front 242

Hope you a have a swell 2016.