steveb leatherworks: the blather

Waaay better than street meat..Grays rocks the house with its beef tubers and papaya. Now i know i shocked and reviled some of you with my last missive about street meat, But my point was this – ya have to be selective folks. You want a hot dog? You go to Grays. You want a slice, you go to Stromboli. You want bread or a veal thing – you go to Arthur Avenue…capcihe? Ya got to go to, and seek out the spot that rules in terms of what you are looking for. Bottom Line> don’t settle for crap, we are not the Quiznos nation! remember this is something you are putting in your body….

the boss and i went for a culinary adventure in an ethnic part of Port Chester not too long ago.. Brazillian food, served buffet style. Of course we were the only Anglo’s in the joint- like i give a shit, and the folks who owned the spot were very cool and clued us in on how the dealio works. The food rocked, i dug the ambiance and it was cheap. far out – we will be back. The folks who were eating family style all around us thought i was some kinda food journalist TV guy with the camera..ha, if they only knew! 

A beauty of a park, not far from Freddy’s secret location. Very nice, very secret, very private. We like.

big beef in its day

I am a child of the 60’s and 70’s- so i have a warm sport in my heart for machines such as this. Forgive me, it aint like i am wearing rust colored corduroy blazers or anything….at least not these days..ha!

The TR6 is running sweet and we took a blast today to grab some lunch and test the grip-tion of the Redline’s on the Merritt Parkway. 

Mister Squirrel is the toughest and wiliest of all animals in Manhattan. This fine specimen was giving me the hairy eyeball when i stopped to notice him. I mean, this squirrel had an attitude!

I saw these two red bike riding characters in NYC during February. A Ducati and  Honda, both pretty modified cranking around midtown.  I learned  about the machines once i asked – as the owners started rattling off a litany of mods they’d made to their machines..cool guys, cool day in NYC and cool machines.  Ya know it doesn’t take much of a poke to get an owner, from a real tough guy to a Sunday doddler,  to begin spilling his guts about his machine.. it’s a great trait all bikers share – our unbridled enthusiasm about the mechanica of it all.

Personally, no matter the machine, the marque or the style of rider garb – the machines as well as the riders fascinate me.. I cant help but be drawn to them….it really is all good. I find something to like about every machine i see.

it kills me – people will pretty much eat any damn thing if it is served on the street, even better if it is served from a rather unsanitary cart. Makes one wonder, don’t it? In the city with the worlds best food,  so many choose to basically eat…in a word…s-h-i-t.  If you knew where these little ptomaine factories were stored at night (on the West Side) you’d not ever eat from one of these again. Fo Real 

I dug up this tidbit to share with all of youse in keeping with the Armed Forces Support theme i’ve been beating into submission, in my own weak way.

my Mom hung around alot of soliders during WWII, partly because she was USO, stationed in Europe and partly because she liked hanging with guys. She was pretty fearless and grew up toughened by life on the road as a vaudevillian entertainer, where her back was always watched like a hawk by my grandfather Max….there wanst alot she hadnt been exposed to – both good and bad.

She liked to listen to,  and could tell story’s, she’d had the occasional drink and she smoked. She was also blonde and cute – and so, no wonder why guys flocked to her like flies – she was one of the few women that was cool and that didn’t run at the sight of a “girl-starved” solider – quite the opposite actually…she loved the attention.

My grandfather was Dutch, so of course they connected with as many Dutch soldier and sailors as they came across to get  news of this and that from the “old country”. I believe these pictures were taken just as these  Dutch sailors were being shipped out. There is a clipping that fell apart when I opened this page, that has from what i can tell, a headline and news about the sinking of their ship in the Atlantic.

I can’t imagine how my Mom felt when she had to put that clipping in with these pictures… pictures that show so much life and youth – I wonder how it felt to know you might be the only person who had that person alive in memory and in an image – when all others are dead, gone and long buried.

Talk about baggage……

Headed North this morning for a bit of scouting and to begin wearing out the nubbies on the new rubber donuts i just put on the Shiny Penny. I headed out alone this AM, it just felt right, a cool morning, a fresh set on the iPod -i was good to go… no waiting, no negotiating photo stops for your man B, no gas stops, no blee bla bloo, just me……

I thought i’d make a quick stop at Marcus Dairy to see what was  up, maybe see some new street meat to shoot…although i have to admit, i havent seen a whole lot worth stopping for lately, but if i dont make this stop, there is little chance of me seeing anything new at all….so i make the pilgrimmage on the off chance…

…but today I was given a treat for my diligence and I saw this little beauty – a collection of this and that, choice bits and pieces from all manner of year and era. I  dont know much abut older bikes and haven’t bothered to pay attention when “informed” by those in the know to the scads of minutae that come along as baggage when your into this type of stuff, but i sure can appreciate craft, clean design, careful assembly and thoughtful accessorization.

Got to meet the owner,  a heckuva nice guy who informed me that the bike had run in the Horse…probably TBear or Arsen shot it….and did a crap job of it – as is their style. I’d like to shoot this stinker for real some day and do a proper photo feature – it is just that cool and well done.

ya see – if ya don’t stop and  take the chance – ya dont get to see the cool bike. So I ride alone and take the time to stop.

I am paying props to my friend Jason for doing the right thing and taking care of his obligations, before taking care of getting himself a new bike. Ya got to keep in mind Jason tours on a sportster and could really use a bigger bike, but the obligations of life intervened and well, the house needed a new tractor…so thats what sits in the garage.

the realio dealio

Here is to taking care of business and all the stand-up guys out there that put their families and their responsibilities before themselves *clink*

I’ve noticed that the media has stopped covering our “conflict”, police action, or whatever you want to call the waste of life, time and resources in the Middle East. Nothwithstanding my opinion that we have no business taking care of another’s house when our own is so fucked,  that doesnt matter one whit when it comes to supporting the folks that our government has placed in harms way.

Our soldiers need to be top of mind and NOT forgotten by us, even if the media has “moved on” to things like Michael Jackson’s funeral and the death of Billy Mays…

Please take some advice from the blathering B…go find your own news folks – dont eat the shit that the major networks are feeding you….. seek out the news on your own – be smart, be aware, be informed and come to your own conclusions – but make the effort, at the very least to get more than the crap we’re being force fed- ok?. it is worth it, don’t ya think?

Oh man – newbies – all i was missing from this scene was the “vroom vroom” sounds.
We’ve all been there. Got to start somewhere, I guess. Tough to be badass in a polo shit and khaki’s, but if you got the cake……you can do pretty much whatever the hell you want.

I visited a disturbing place recently on a demo & destruction tour – a staff dorm on the grounds of an abandoned mental institution in my neck of the woods. This facility was open back in the day when workers at the hospital had no nursing or mental health training, were hired from the community and were not professional, in any sense… they may as well have been working in a factory for the amount of training they were given….one can imagine how they handled the stresses of working with the mentally ill….

I’ve dug into the history of this place as of late, and my gut instincts were right – this place was a freak show, that pretty much embodied the worst that mental health institutions had to offer during the last century.

“the Hills” had a fearsome reputation in its day, and from what I can see – it was well earned. Hydrotherapy, cold packs, electro shock therapy, lobotomies and chemical restraints – all blended together, made a horror movie look tame, I’d think.  This place brings the movie “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” into clear focus, and brings me to the conclusion that peoples cruelty and ignorance knows no bounds…shame on us.

Could you imagine being here? Having a loved one here? The thought stops me cold.

To see more of this adventure, click here.

I think i saw the ultimate guest house, or escape crib or refuge or whatever you might want to call it, tucked away on a little piece of rail in the middle of the woods, behind a not-so-big house. How cool is that? How beautiful is that view? What a great idea…the riggers who installed the car must have thought the guy was nuts…”…you wanna do what?…”

hey now — well I was finally able to deliver on my promsie to improve the hardware on my Pocket Wallets. I have teamed up with Duckbill Designs, maker of the duckbill money clip seen here, to up the level of the utility, durability and functionality of my Pocket Wallets. The new money clip is a bear, very heavy duty and virtually  impossible to overload… not that any of us are “overloading” our wallets these days…. come and get ’em!!

Bobby Q – Got to love the name, real jokers! The food was actually pretty good..edible for sure and with a good taste to boot. Freddy & I jumped in here the other day hoping, on the off chance, we’d a hit it big…I don’t know if i’d put it up against any of the real deal killer stuff out there, but for this neck of the woods… it aint bad… and the price isn’t a killer either.

Sent out the Icon Fin Wallet to a new customer the other day. I really liked that wallet, the stamping pattern was really odd, the leather had a nice scar and the colors were killer. I would have kept it, if i didn’t already have like 20 others (which i need to get rid of).  Good score for Butch the new owner. When he got it he was kind enough to let me know….and said:

Got the wallet today. It is even more than i expected from the picture on your site. Great work. Before long will have to get with you about a belt.   Thanks   Butch

So – another happy customer and a happy steveb, I really think this is my favorite part of the whole deal…for me it is kind of like watching someone’s face when they open a present they got from you. Very Cool.

Icon Fin Chain Wallet

Plain and simple – this neat little Benchmade fixed blade needed a special sheath for daily carry. Cool Burgundy color, wet moulded and red thread all add up to something different!

saw this 1980’s era BlackHawk the other day. In use by the NH National Guard, these guys were on a rescue mission looking for a lost hiker, using a ski resorts parking lot as a spot to land and get fueled. What a complicated piece of machinery..and the newer ones are even more complex. Amazing…I am no way near smart enough to understand how these work, but am glad there are folks out there that are….

Bill’s is one of those places I love – homey, local, good food with a wry sense of humor and resignation.  There is a place in Riceville, IA that i stopped at years ago on a bike trip heading back east that had a similar feel to Bill’s. Shank and I busted up to Bill’s not too long ago, during one of those rare, not raining days back a few weeks ago. I dig it when my stuff is wrapped in wax paper, somehow it just feels right, know what I mean? 

20yr old cop hassling street vendors

I hate when people abuse the little bit of authority that their job gives them, or should i say, lends them..