STUFFE

FIRST THINGS FIRST
Richard Mitchelson has another run of "Legends" shirts on the way. This time, the roster includes Bernard Hinault and Robert Millar, among others. I love these - Richard's talent in this limited format is evident if you look at the Hinault portrait, I think - it's recognisably Bernard, even without the more commonly portrayed "La Vie Claire" colours.

To use a phrase from the Velocast, "I'm havin' one".

THAT WORLD CUP FEELING
Comes to Monkey Photo Manchester. (Or any other website you fancy).

STIPPLE
Lines and Colors blog has this piece on Noli Novak, a staff illustrator at the Wall Street Journal.

Contrary to what you might think if you haven’t tried it, you cannot apply stipple mindlessly; the dots must be laid down carefully, with attention to the spacing between them. Get two dots too close to each other and you have a glaring error, dark enough to stand out in your otherwise smooth tone.

Given the difficulty of the technique, it’s a delight to have a bastion of modern stipple illustration in the form of the “hedcuts” (”headline cuts”) that have graced the pages of the Wall Street Journal since 1979, when the style was codified by Kevin Sprouls. The WSJ hedcut style, in which stipple is used in conjunction with engraving-like cross hatching, is employed for small portraits of well known figures, and has become an identifying characteristic of the paper.

You can see Noli's "Hedcuts" blog here, and her flickr art set here.

"I DON'T BIKE TO THINK"
The System has a great comic today - which is also going to become a t-shirt.

It reminds me of what (I think) Murakami said about distance running, that he did it to create a void in himself, where running was all there was. Of course, you are thinking when you ride, about how far you've gone, what route you're taking and about the traffic, but it's very focussed, and not about the worries of the day, in general.

THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP
Nedroid Picture Diary shows us, once again, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. IN COLOR!


GLASSES
I've no idea of the original source of this, but it features on Flowing Data - the difference a pair of glasses can make. A great idea, executed beautifully.

FISHER, CARGO BIKE
James at bicycle design has a piece that muses on the changes to the Gary fisher line. It also features a look at a bike that first appeared in concept form as the "El Ranchero", a longtail cargo e-bike, that looks rather nice (it's also available as an all human powered bike). The name is now the "Transport", and the e-bike version is the "Transport +" more detail on those bikes at cyclelicious.

HOW THE RACE WAS WON
Cyclocosm covers the Dauphiné in this video post.

Pavé has a Dauphiné wrap up (among other things) in text form here, as the "Monday Musette".

STUFFE

THE VUVUZELA
Science of Sport today;

I was going to crack on with the science series, looking at fatigue, but something that I almost have to discuss is the controversy that is rapidly building momentum regarding the vuvuzela. This is the name of the traditional horn that South African football fans blow at football matches. If you have watched even one single minute of the action so far, you know exactly what it is. Either that, or you are concerned that every match is about to be halted by the world's largest swarm of bees.

I rather want one, to be honest. The Science of Sport blog article is here, and their other coverage is worth reading too.

UK ANTI-DOPING
Cycling weekly covers the new agency which is;

"responsible for ensuring sports bodies in the UK are compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, running an education and information programme, managing intelligence and processing possible cases of anti-doping rule violations."

I must admit, I'd not heard about this, CW's articles on it are here and here.

BASIC SKILLS FOR BIKE COMMUTERS
The Bike Commuter blog is mulling a "Bike Commuting Basics" series - if you've anything you think they should feature, add to the comments in this post.

Also at Bike Commuters is this look at the Soma Double Cross (which is a nice looking bike). I have my doubts about mudguardless commuters, but that aside, their build looks like a practical, fun bike.

SURVIVING THE ETAPE
Via Gem at Bianchista is this excellent series of tips for riding the Etape du Tour - well worth looking at if you have this (or any other large event) in your sights.

FROM HARE KRISHNA, TO PUNK SINGER, TO DRUG DEALER, TO VEGAN CYCLIST
In fact, that hardly does John Joseph McGowan's story justice at all. A great interview over at Cycling Inquisition;

Back then, people I knew would ask "how much did you spend on that bike?", and I'd tell them...but then I'd tell them they could have bought three of those bikes with the money they spent on beer and cigarettes.

SCOTT PILGRIM'S WORLD OF PAIN

A preview of the upcoming Scott Pilgrim game. As one of the commenters points out, it's very reminiscent of classic side scrolling beat 'em ups like River City Ransom, Streets of Rage and others that consumed my early teenage years and I'm rather looking forward to it.

URBAN SKETCHERS
Introduced to me by the fabulous drawn.ca blog, I love urban sketchers.