Funding Drive CD

Hey Everyone,

So stoked for tomorrow!! Here are some pics of our funding drive CD.

Whoot whooot!

Ola

pledge on the derby and you could WIN the raddest ride!

Joseph G - Bike Root Mechanic. A fine dude on a super-fine ride!

Howdy friends;

Yesterday I finished building the soapbox derby radio flyer - quite possibly the coolest bike ever - just in time to put in on the block as the grand prize on the soap/cold box/smoke derby's funding drive extravaganza this coming Thursday.

If you haven't heard, CJSW 90.9fm is in the midst of its annual funding drive. We ask the community to give us some financial support once a year, so's we don't have to ask corporate thunderwhores with nefarious agendas to do it. We are hoping to raise $200 g's over the course of the next week, and as of today (Sunday), we're well on our way with a $66,000 grand total.

There are a million reasons to pledge, but each and every CJSW programmer has also poured some heart and soul into their funding drive shows, and put some extra incentives on the table. So pledge early, pledge often - AWESOME!

The grand prize on the derby this year is a hand-built, hand-painted, unisex, one-size-fits-all, super-sweet cruiser bike. I built this thing from the ground up, from almost entirely recycled and painstakingly reconditioned (by me!) parts, at the Bike Root, One of Calgary's community bike shops, located on the university campus.

The whole thing took me about 35-40 hours to build, plus the cost of parts. Check a few posts back for the first phase of construction; here is the completion of the process:

Last Wednesday I came in for a few hours after work and build up some wheels. They're 26"ers, old-school chrome finish that I had to polish up with steel wool. I also put some fine german-made pedals on!

Then, while answering the phones (403.220.5000 is the funding drive pledge line) during a Friday-Saturday all-nighter, I finished polishing up the drive train - chain, rear gears, and rear derailleur. I went home for a few hours sleep, then back to the Bike Root to lay on the finishing touches and put it all together:

Built up the drive train, and cables and housing for gears and brakes,

then a classic black spring seat and old-school grips to complete the package! Slick!

And in case you were wondering, yes indeed! The argyle fender is still the classiest part of this ride - at least until you hop up on it!

It was a lot of work to build this sucka, I'm not gonna lie - but it truly is a labour of love! I'm super stoked that we've got this awesome incentive for y'all, and that some lucky derby supporter is going to cruise around on the fruits of my hard work, and that as a result we all get wicked, community driven, independent radio for yet another year. Everybody wins!

I almost forgot to mention - the prize includes a one-year membership at the Bike Root, so you can keep your new ride running smoothly!

"But how do I get the bike?", you ask?

Well, it's basically the same deal as last year: Every multiple of $25 pledged to the derby on Thursday gets your name in the hat once (so $25=1 raffle ticket, $50=2 tix, ... $300=12 tix, etc.). Your pledge has to be paid before your name is entered in the draw, and we'll draw for the bike live during the November 12th edition of the soapbox derby. My birthday is on the 13th, and I can think of no better birthday present than to give away an awesome bike! Plus, the 13th is the tentative date for the big move to CJSW's new space!

This approach seems to be the fairest to me - everyone gets a shot at the goods, your odds improve if you throw down more cash, and we eliminate the nastiness that comes with auctioning. I hope you guys can dig that.

Also, there are tonnes of other goodies up for grabs as pledge incentives on the derby. Ola is putting together an awesome mix CD complete with custom artwork! There are some yoga passes, art prints, Ola's home baking, commercial cd's & books, and lots of other stuff. We're even offering to take you out to dinner and a show if the price is right...

I'll try to post a complete list of incentives before the show - but failing that, please tune in Thursday, join us for the FUNding drive edition if the derby, and continue to support radio that really matters.

Thanks!
greg

yarn-bombing and gulu walk - set list oct 15, 2009

Hey!

Have you guys been listening to the Funding Drive? Lots and lots o' folks have been calling 403.220.5000 and pledging their support for free speech, tolerance and diversity, and the awesomest little radio station that could - we're up well over $50K on Sunday afternoon as I write this! More on FD later, including bike pictures!

See that sweater bike up there? It's an example of yarn bombing - graffiti done with knitting and crochet - and last week I had a chance to chat with some folks at the centre of the yarn-bombing movement. Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore wrote a book about yarn bombing, and they called in from Vangroover to tell us about it, about other yarnbombas (like these three), and yarnbombing resources.

Also, some folks came by to tell us about Gulu Walk, an event that happens every October to raise awareness and support for youth displaced by Uganda's civil unrest. Gul Walk was yesterday - I hope there was a terrific turnout, despite the less-than-terrific weather.

Tunes:
roustabout - old man luedecke
tell it to me - old crow medicine show
lowdown stank - breakestra*
lausd - jurassic 5
you already know - us3 feat. brook yung*
break - crown city rockers*
jerusalem - sinead o'connor
sister sinead - kris kristofferson*
somebody's gotta help you - bob brozman*
things 'bout comin' my way - alvin youngblood hart
we shall be free - leadbelly
obviously 5 believers - bob dylan
i see the light - olu dara
maama yatuzaala - bitone project
kamphopo - the very best*
ghosts we're buried on - the dudes*

Alright, that's that - stay tuned for some bike pics and more funding drive info, coming right up!

Support CJSW!

later,
g

bike racin', bike buildin', funding drive!

Howdy!

In case you haven't heard yet, it's almost funding drive time - and the soapbox derby is building a bike, that will be won by one lucky pledger during our funding drive show on October 29th. Details on the bike and how you win it will follow, but here are a couple of pics to show you how it has progressed so far:

I'm building this bike at Bike Root - the community bike shop located on UofC campus - from old abandoned bikes and bike parts. Pictured above is the birthplace of all the Bike Root's bikey goodness. Go by, join the Root, and build you own bike!

I started with an empty (almost) unisex frame - I wanted to get a picture at the very beginning, but forgot my camera until I got the bottom bracket and handlebars installed - here's what it looked like then (note the nifty "Nova" decals):
The next step was a custom soapbox derby paint job, courtesy of my pal Matt aka Uncle Lijiah, host of Wednesday late night's Blue Collar Bravado and all-around awesome fella. The highlight of the paint job is shown in the first pic above - flying cjsw logo with lightning bolts!

I spent last Saturday cleaning and breathing new life into old parts, and assembling bits of brakes and drive train - here's what it looks like now:
Looka that paint job - dig the shine on that chrome! My favourite part of the bike so far is definitely the wicked, diamond-detailed rear fender - here's a close-up:

Chrome-a-lishus! Stay tuned to the blog - I hope to have most of the bike built by the end of this weekend, and I'll post pics as the project moves along. Someone is gonna get one sweet ride!

And now, a couple of set lists to keep you in the music loop.

September 17th - talkin' Bow 80 blues.

Bob from Bow Cycle came by to get my mind right in advance of the Bow 80 bike race, and to tell us all about Bike racing and trail advocacy in Alberta. If you want to help build trails or stand up for cyclists' right to recreate, check out the cmba or mmbts. Roll on! Tunes:

slow down - bullfrog
anagrama - os mutantes feat. tom ze*
sounds & pressure - hopeton lewis*
garbage to the showglass - sierra leone's refugee allstars
lift off - twilight circus sound system
boom or bust - mahogany public
rain dance - the very best feat. mia*
sabotage - penelope(s)*
word up - wet cookies*
trance fat - looptroop rockers feat rakaa*
war - dilated peoples
new people - blue scholars*
d-e-f - dragonfli empire
give it to the people - noah23*
mountain man - meisha & the spanks*
pakowki - lazy mk's*
ohio - dojo workhorse*
oh my god (it still means a lot to me) - the wooden sky*
santiago - valleys*
life's like canadian football - cfl sessions*

How did the race go, you ask? Well, not as smoothly as I would have hoped. I called it a day at about halfway around the 80km loop, when I was up on jumpingpound ridge on the brink of a 7km technical descent, there was about 4-5cm's of snow on the ground, it was blizzarding horizontally, I was getting rather chilled, and my bike didn't really work any more on account of being covered in mud and slush. If you don't believe me, check out the post-race analysis here, or here.

I'll take another crack at it next year...

October 1 - Bow Bottoms!

I tried to line up a couple of guests, but nothing really panned out. I did air an interview at the end of the show that Ola did though, with her friend Reuben Bullock. Here are the platters that spun:

bell bottoms remix - jon spencer blues explosion vs. u.n.k.l.e.
bell bottoms - jon spencer blues explosion
tears of love - tommy mccook
sheppard & his flock - up bustle & out feat. andy sheppard
strugglers dub - black seeds*
nahwia's dream - baka beyond*
i'm gonna assemble a city - these united states*
uke puke - black mold*
caracas - georgia anne muldrow*
insight remix - fort knox 5 vs. the nextmen*
deep marsh - 5ivestyle
straw man - lou reed
people - hank pine & lily fawn
rewind - olympic symphonium
aiwa - emmanuel jal & abdel gadir salim
i am sound - secret broadcast*
grownups never lie - wax mannequin*
transmission part 1 - the lower 48*
phillipians 3:20-21 - the mountain goats*
then ola's interview with reuben.

K, I gotta roll out, and get ready for tomorrow's show. It's gonna be a good one, featuring interviews with some yarn bombers, and folks organizing this year's gulu walk.

Be nice, and don't forget to give'er some,

Flashing Hallways from Cody Townsend on Vimeo.

g