steveb leatherworks: the blather

this design, a favorite, has a ton going on texture wise…a sweet feel to the hand and durable as hell.

[flickrvideo]http://www.flickr.com/photos/steevenb43/4036468794/?processed=1&cb=1256267298300[/flickrvideo]

went out with the gray hairs –  chucky, jack and big boy (the monster wearing shorts) for a ride to eat today.  it was a spectacular day – nothing better than new england in the fall with your friends… on country back roads

i am telling ya – if you live in the NYC tri-state area or have plans to visit… make it a point to come spend 4 hours at the Bronx Botanical Gardens, they’re beautiful and available for your pleasure, year round.

i am really liking this color these days, super deep and rich, avoiding the poo color UPS browns.

Oysterfest is another local affair. The weather sucked this year, but i soldiered out alone (can you believe no one wanted to come) and scoped the scene. Did the solo wolf deal, had a beer, some spectacularly crappy BBQ and some greasy fried clams to top it off. Went home feelin a bit sick. Ick

I love whack a mole, one of my best games, but am a little too big to really enjoy the Clff Hanger and Scooter rides.

This handy sucker takes a pad and pen. I leave one in the car and one in my bag.

I totally dig these little guys on their scooters – hardcore in every sense of the word. Totally focussed on the moment, these little warriors hung with the big dogs at the local ramp and shared the space like champs – showing deference to the big dogs at just the right moments. Here’s to the little warriors *clink*.

Went to this NYC landmark greenery spot with the Boss one day. One of the iconic landmarks you go as a kid on a class trip,  honestly I’d not been back since – and i have to say – it rocked – what a great place to spend the day. Exotic plant fare, fantastically manicured grounds, cool architecture – and the food was even tasty. Major home run, we had a great day.

This brings to light another aspect of growing up in a place as rich in  activity as NYC. I take places like the Botanical gardens for granted and had kind of dismissed it as being “done” and touristy. Well I surprised myself with this trip, it was cool.

This fancy, one of a kind belt came out nice! Dave was real happy about it too!

St. Leo’s Fair is one of those ultra-local shindigs where the  kids run free with their friends and everyone eats fried shit, plays silly carny games and hangs out. I love the local fairs we’ve got like this.

Flynch – ya ever heard the name? Well, if you’re a disenfrachised malcontent biker kinda wannabe character who reads and has been in the Harley game for awhile, you’ll know him. If not,  sorry, you missed it.

Well anyway, I am deeply honored by a Flynch write-up on his blog. Very cool. I dont get alot of this rockstar stuff  so i am kinda digging it. Actually it aint about me at all, its really about my FXR….

I know, I know – I hear it now… ” b, dont be a weenie”.   I do try, but it’s hard… anyway.

Check out my write up and Flynch’s writings, school is in kiddies, pay attention.

Flynch

I’ve been running most of my hot rod & bike images on 45dgree, but thought I’d share this with youse here.

great attitude…

So, meet the mellow side of Lake Erie. It can be a wonderfully beautiful place when it is in the mood.

Buffalo’s waterfront is all along Lake Erie. A meaner, nastier piece of sonofabitch water you are not likely to find. Lake Erie can be placid as a pond and then a howling banshee in a matter of minutes, pretty crazy to see this – and near all of the weather in Buffalo is created by the great and powerful “lake effect”. I spent enough time in the city to see  all the many flavors of Lake Erie, and you can believe me here – it is a wacked piece of water and the coastal frontage withstands a beating every winter due to the hugely thick lake ice pounding the crap out of the shoreline.

So some years ago, the Army Corps. Of Engineers came to Buffalo and basically installed this breakwater and built a park on top of it.. allowing the residents to have true access to the waterfront via a park like environment. Very cool. This was all newly opened when i moved here, so seeing its dividends all these years later is neat. I recall coming here is the coldest windiest nights of winter and seeing the giant plates of ice screech and crash together.. very prehistoric.. very cool. 

On one of my excursions, I happened across the town of Savona and opted to dine at Mom’s Savona Diner. Pretty much the only thing in Savona. The pancakes were big and heavy, the bacon crisp and the cuppa joe, endless

Think on this… why eat corporate crap when you can get food like this if you get off an exit earlier…….

This beautiful red rod is the end result of 30 years of work. It is cool to see old guys drive these stinkers around on their respective club’s Hot Rod nights. I can only imagine how different these characters looked as young men when they started these projects. Now they drive to their collection point, pull out the lawn chairs, coolers and tell stories and lies of days gone by. Kind of sad to thing that so few young men round these parts will be picking up the mantle of America’s hot rod past. They are into Tuner cars and think the old men are “old and in the way” and for the most part irrelevant.

boy, are they mistaken 

Jason and his crew needed an adult chaperone to take them through CT, MA and VT -and so enlisted the services of yours truly. We ate copious amounts of BBQ’d meat, we drank just a modest number of adult beverages, it was a grand time and a great ride.

If you’ve been reading my crap for any length of time, you know I love food, I love to eat, I love local business and to wrap it all up – i love eating in the most local of all places, the neighborhood joint…. I seek these places out wherever i go eschewing “finer fare” whenever possible.

The ‘hood that this place is in, in Buffalo, is laughable after dark, I mean – you have to be a little nutty to come down to Niagara Street after dark for dinner. But let me tell you, Santasiero’s dishes up the finest working man’s neighborhood, homemade Italian you’ve ever had. No shit, pilgrim – this is the last of the breed, come and get it now before it’s gone.

Homemade everything, everything is absolutely killer…except the bread. Seems back in the day there were so many great bakery’s nearby feeding the working class that worked in the steel mills, that getting bread was never an issue. Now since all of those places are gone – it is an issue. So the bread sucks. I almost gave them some shit, but thought better of it, on Wiz’s urging.

Check it out – if there is a place like Santasiero’s in your area, frequent it, support it – because we need places like this. If we dont support them all we will have left is crap franchise corporate fodder – and that just aint right, aight?

Found this print in one of Mickey’s photo albums. She had a thing for airmen and this print has been signed by everyone of these guys with a line from each. Her & Max being in the USO must have been traveling with this group/airwing for a bit because by the look of the notes on the back, they had shared some fun times. They must have heard her sing because more than one commented one her “bird like voice”. Keep in mind, she couldnt sign for shit, so they were all having some fun…lol.

Once again, i found a Western Union telegraph on the facing page, a notification that a plane had gone down in France and all on board were lost. I dont know if it was this crew, but i cant imagine seeing so many people you know, go to their deaths…and since she was pals with so many airmen (who had very high attrition rates throughout the war) I know she saw many pass on…

I was fortunate and had a chance to hook with an old friend from back in the day, recently – his name is Don. This consumate character lives in Cali and I can almost forgive him bailing on the East (East Coast Rules) because ya see, Don grew up in Lackawanna, a hardscrabble town on the Lake Erie waterfront whose residents serviced the monsters of industry – Bethlehem Steel, General Motors, Dunlop Tire, etc… this is no pretty place, this is not an easy place to live – under any circumstances…so I can kind of understand why Don has no love for this part of the world… I remember visiting lackawanna back when we lived here, driving over the “Father Baker Bridge”, a terrifying scarred up road.

I also remember little bars on EVERY corner of the Polish, German and Irish neighborhoods, most of which are gone 30 years later… Beef on Weck…oh man….. (ya’ll know what a “weck roll is dontya?)

Anyway  – we were very tight back in the day and still keep in touch. It was great to see him. Interestingly we ate in a nice outdoor cafe place that used to be right in the middle of a drug infested neighborhood when i lived in these parts. I should know – I lived a block away from here…ha! We had to fight the junkies off with sticks many a night…kind of a real “night of the living dead” set…

Anyway, it is great now, the area has really picked up and it was wonderful to see my old friend, still a character in all regards..I love this guy! God bless our old friends!