The Cuppow

  Has anyone seen or used this awesome looking product?  The Cuppow looks like an amazing alternative to the ever terrible coffee travel mug and I'm guessing it would have prevented my disgraceful display on the train today.

This morning I committed the cardinal sin of the Chicago public transportation morning commute...

Tourist in my own city

   Have you ever spent a day being a tourist in the city you live in?  After being out of town weekend after weekend for friends' wonderful weddings all summer long, Whit and I thought it was about time for a little vacation in our own favorite city... Chicago.

Anatomy of a clash

Chicago Tribune photographer caught this great and intense photo sequence at the 2012 NATO Summit protests. This seems like a fair trade off to me - if you break a stick on an officers head, you should plan on getting punched by that or another officer.

I'm hoping that the small group of radicals pumping up the tension in these otherwise peaceful protests do not do anything too stupid.

Photo Hunt: Bears Edition

     While these pictures appear to be similar, they are in fact very different.  
Can you find:
1. An old school badass Bears coach flipping a bird to the camera
2. A current Bears QB dressed up in his period pants walking a gerbil

Places in Time: Chicago

An amazing timelapse from the artist Chris Pritchard. I highly suggest clicking here to view the video in a larger HD format on the Vimeo site. The small window on Bearded Brain just does not do Chris' work justice.

"All footage for this piece was shot between 2010 and now. My goal was to provide a glimpse into the energy and fast paced life of an average day in downtown Chicago, enhanced through fast motion timelapse. Some of the viewpoints and locations may seem familiar, but I've also tried to showcase the city from a number of different and less common vantage points"
-Chris Pritchard

ANT Bicycles

                Photos: Antbikemike.wordpress.com

Ant Bike Mike Makes an Antbike from zak lee on Vimeo.

    Not too bad of weather in Chicago, especially for still technically being in the last few days of what has been a very bearable winter. Now that it looks to be warming up enough I can get started on some projects I've been putting off all winter - mainly, building Whit's bike.  I'm thinking it's going to be a strip down and paint job on the frame, toss on the moustache bars, and add a custom rear basket for her to carry her lady gear in. I'll post some pictures of this as it progresses, but for the time being check out a real bike builder at ANT Bicycles.

Mike Flanigan (Ant Bike Mike) has been in the bicycle trade since 1983 and has been running ANT full time since 2003. Mike constructs his bikes from scratch in his machine shop in Holliston, MA.  If you're interested in learning how to make and take home your own bicycle frame from raw steel tube you can check out the one week frame building class. If you want to learn how to make your own bicycle business check out Mike's six week frame building class. What's that? You're not feeling up to the grueling labor of building your own bike? That's alright, you can just purchase one of mikes handmade rides here.