Painting My Lisa Frank Bicycle

When I decided to repaint my bike, the original intention was not to make it look like a Lisa Frank trapper-keeper. That was just a pleasant side effect. After just a couple coats of paint, I am now the proud rider of a day-glo orange bike with pink tiger stripes. Not only is it exactly what I wanted, it's also safer because it's so bright! And if I ever ride through a rave, the spray paint can assured me that my bike will glow under blacklight. But I'm not writing this post just to brag about my haute new ride. I'm here to tell you that painting your bike is fun and easy! Bike nerds are constantly making things harder than they need to be. They say, You gotta powder coat that shit! But no, no you don't. Painting your bike yourself won't look professional, and it might even be kind of sloppy (like mine). But it will be all yours, and cheap to boot. Plus it might look less attractive to bike thieves. Here are some pictures of my process. I didn't take "before" pictures, but it was a burnt reddish color.

As you can see above, I put on a pink base coat. I sanded the bike lightly beforehand so the paint would have more surfaces to stick to. After putting on the base coat, I used painter's tape to create stripes. This way, the stripes will be pink and the rest of the bike orange. You can also see that I covered all of the silver pieces with newspaper. Handlebars, gears, chain, pedals, and brakes all got covered so they wouldn't get painted.

Outside ready to get painted.

Above: my orange bike with the blue tape still on it. I don't have pictures of this, but after I took the tape off I put on a clear topcoat, mostly because the pink I used turned out to be "marking paint" made for concrete, so it was rubbing off on everything. Terrible! The clear topcoat took care of the problem, but it's a good reminder that painting your own bike can have its problems, especially if you're like me and don't know anything about spray paint. Just go for it!

The pink turned out to be much more subtle than I originally thought, especially considering how bright it was originally! The stripes didn't show up to much in the picture, but in the sun the pink is pretty glorious. I also replaced my riser bars with cruiser/mustache bars that a friend of mine gave to me.

Welcome to Jazzland

My friend and I infiltrated Jazzland! Jazzland was a Six Flags theme park in Eastern New Orleans. It caught my eye years ago, maybe even before I moved to New Orleans. Due to how flat the land is, the rollercoasters and other rides are clearly visible from I-10 as you drive through the east. The land out there is fairly underdeveloped- there are some neighborhoods, but mostly the land is this odd swampy, brambly fields. I'd never gone up close to the park before, but, while driving around in the area whil working on another photography project, my friend Darin and I decided to swing by and see if it was possible to get in easily. Due to the aforementioned swampy land, there wasn't really a fence around the perimeter, most likely because it would be nearly impossible to make it through the surrounding fields. One of the driveways was blocked with a fence, and we parked nearby and walked up to it and stood for a little bit debating the pros and cons of trying to get in. I had heard that there was private security on the site, and I was quite afraid of getting arrested for trespassing, because that would be kinda silly at my age. (I later found out that since Jazzland is now owned by the city of New Orleans, the chance that they would pay for security is laughable. But at the time, I thought it was still in private hands, so the worry was real.) We could see that there was a second entranceway, so we got back in my car and circled around. The second entrance was completely and utterly open- but the catch would be we would have to walk down a fairly large driveway, which seemed risky to me. The area isn't really well travelled, but there was enough traffic to make me nervous. We decided to go for it, and stashed my car in a nearby neighborhood, and tried to seem as nonchalant as possible while moseying up to the entrance. We hung out at a bus stop on the corner for a second, and, when no cars appeared to be approaching, took off running down the driveway, scampering behind the ticket booth while giggling maniacally. There's really nothing that makes you feel like a kid again than trespassing in the name of exploring. The park definitely seemed like some sort of weird movie set; it didn't seem like it was a real place. Being the only two people in a big theme park was definitely a creepy feeling- since I spend a big chunk of time exploring abandoned things, I'm always nervous of running into other people in these places. But Jazzland is fairly removed from the city, and most people would assume that it would be secured from break-ins, so, rather than my normal worry of other people, I guess the nervousness came from the utter sense that no one was anywhere near us. Especially since a theme park is designed to seem fun and inviting and family oriented- Jazzland was bombed out and pretty apocalyptic. A few months ago it was announced that it was going to be redeveloped into a Nickelodeon theme park, but that has since fallen apart. Sometimes it seems like city government here announced deals that will never come through just so it seems that the recovery is progressing on a daily basis, regardless of what actually comes through or does not come through. All I can say is that the amount of work that would have to go into making Jazzland functional again would be astounding, and with the current shape of the economy, I'm not so sure anyone's gonna take that risk anytime soon.

Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes! And Bacon!

So. I have not posted anything in a long time, but I have spent the past few months embarking on quite a few ridiculous projects, and with the other (and better blogger) half of this here situation jet setting around the world at the moment, I figured I should step up my so far paltry contributions and bring it. Or something. For everyone unlucky enough to not live in New Orleans, you've probably had a pretty standard week. Work, school, ordinary schedule. I, however, spent all of Tuesday marauding around town wearing a silly costume and drinking on the street for several hours, because it was Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras! The most magical and exhausting time of the year! The first year I lived here I had no idea that people actually dressed up, and was sort of embarrassed to be out and about among so many people dressed to the nines while I was wearing my street clothes. For most ladies, the outfits tend to veer towards the glitter and feather realm, while men with bad senses of humor like to dress up as penises or whatnot. And there's a smattering of things in between- this year I saw a few people dressed as octopuses, giant skeletons, and animals of all sorts. A lot of people do large group costumes; I saw an entire collection of people who were elaborate playing cards like the Jack of Hearts and Queen of Spades. I, however, went as pancakes. Yes, pancakes! One of the best breakfast items of all time! I constructed the whole thing out of felt, and stuffed it with polystyrene filling. It has a hole in the middle, so I could just wear it around my waist, which produced a hilarious waddle that I was kinda self-conscious of. The butter pat is two boxes of tea with yellow fabric glued on top. And I also knit and felted my bacon scarf! Standing next to me is my breakfast companion of eggs, aka my friend Drew. His costume took 30 minutes to assemble and garnered far, far more complements than mine, the lazy bastard. I now feel fairly confident that I could make all sorts of 3D objects, which was not the case before this project. The mere idea of pillows scared me before. But not now! Now I can burst forth and seize the plush in life! Ridiculously cute stuffed animals, here I come! As a side note, I actually managed to stay upright and cognizant from 9am until 9pm, which was a feat indeed!

Quilt Top Finished

I have finished my quilt top! Whenever I start a crafting project, I can't relax and do a little at a time, like some people. I make a schedule and try to finish as fast as possible. But to me, racing myself to finish is relaxing and (more importantly) satisfying. It doesn't matter how knotty my shoulders are from hunching over the sewing machine. I just like seeing my beautiful quilt top brightening up my bed pile (no bed, just a pile of blankets) in the middle of a gray winter.