Cycling, Podcasts and Rad News #2 🚌

Relations over deals

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“Ehm, is it too late?”
“Yo Stefano, it actually is. But you are always late, don’t you? Come over, get a beer”.
I usually get inside in this way. Because I’m always late, but I know that nobody will kick me away, and if they do I know that I was really too late. These are my favorite stores, most of them are local and physically staying on the side of the road, between a walking path and a park, but they are not only like this. I have many trusted places like this, and no, today I’m not gonna talk about bars: Tortuga Cycles in Berlin, the shop of my friend Luca — I also got the keys of that place for a while. iHome still in Berlin where Niko was calling me every time he got a new cake to try. Cycle Store Zurich the place that welcomed me in Zurich and where I spent most of my early months while drinking great coffee and chatting huge laughs. Coffees and chats like in Obst & Gemuse, a place that I have been knowing forever but visited just a few months ago, on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Basel understanding why it is such a great cultural hug on the Black Forest doors. And obviously, I cannot get away without talking about Ilya, my next-door shoemaker: I stop at his shop every time I pass by, sometimes also several times a day, and we talk Italian about our lovely Höngg, old recipes, tv shows. He never let me pay when I have to repair my cycling shoes, and he offered me to use his shop when my girlfriend and I needed a location to shoot a teaser for her theatre show.
But stores don’t only mean physical stores, I appreciate a lot also many online ones and I feel like having the keys of their trust as well: Open Cycles, for example, I know we share the same values, and Andy knows it as well. Or Chimpanzee Bar where we spend a lot of time with Ondrej talking about cycling events and next challenges. Shall we also talk about Max, with his Podia on the cover of this NL? He is great and I love all the nice words and great tips he sends me for any of my new projects

Ok Stefano, why are you telling us all this?
Because I feel so sad when I only run against the clock, when I spend my time grasping the net for a deal without appreciating people and communities behind these stores.
So, my life balsam is to jump at my friends’ and say hello even if I have nothing to buy, shoot them a line when it is a lot of time I don’t talk with them, check how they are doing as I do with friends, not with vending machines. Because I’m so happy when I have somebody to wave on the way home.
Ok, enough of a sermon for this time. Check out some links down there, they are mostly related to local stores and communities, but not all of them.

Cycling Glimpses 💖

#WW108 — Some memories

On May 9th, we remembered Wouter Weylandt for the 9th year. That day was horrible, really horrible, something you never want to see on a bike race, even if we did it a few more times in further years. The day we all lost Wouter, David Millar got himself into a really responsible situation: managing those sad days from his Maglia Rosa. David wrote this story in his book, The Racer, and on his blog CHTT3 he put an extract of it. This is the only no-local-shop-relater contribute in this Newsletter, or maybe it is, as David Millar founded his company, CHPT3 in Girona. Anyway, it is worth it.
#WW108

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The best invention to emancipate a woman was a bicycle

Life can be not that easy, especially when you want to find your real self into a pretty much conservative society. That’s the story of Jen and Anne, two brilliant women that moved to Fruita (Colorado) looking for cheap rent and some good trails. After 15 years with their extreme talent and smartness, they own a pizzeria that is a huge spring of passion, inclusivity, positive values, and smiles. All with bicycles and a really good pizza, that I would love to taste actually.
Life of Pie | Pizza and Bikes Can Fix Anything

Podcast and Sounds 👨‍🎤

How silent sounds like?

Its name is Field Recordings, and it is brilliant. A bunch of audio-makers stands silently in fields with their load of microphones, recorders, and talent while doing their job: putting the audience into a special moment. You will find yourself into a thunderstorm in Berlin, in the silent celebration of democracy on the 25th of April in Lisbon or into a warm night on the feet of the Etna Vulcano.
I’m an atheist but I love the sound of the Adhan, especially when it comes from the red land of Palestine, for this reason, I will link the contribute of Michael Umney from the Cinema Jenin Guest House (local shop, wink wink) in the West Bank, but, hey, you have to listen to all of them.

When a (Music) local store closes

In the summer fo 2016, Other Music, music store of 4th Street in New York, went out of business. It was not only a great music store, it was an important cultural hub with gigs from the best underground bands (Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend, TV on the Radio, ..) and a huge community spending time there to discuss or building up projects. That’s the story of this film: Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller describe the importance of local stores for communities and the difference that these make for the real people. By renting the movie you will also support your local store in a very smart way. I think it is a good time to watch it and reflect.
Other Music Documentary Website

Radical Salad 🥗

Let’s meet at the Kiosk

In the small business crisis, also the famous food kiosks in East-Europe are disappearing. I have to be sincere that I saw this decline also in my times in Berlin when the kiosks of Warschauer Strasse and Ostkeruz left their place during the renovation of the S-Bahn Stations. Why is this happening? Kamila Rymajdo gives here an explanation on the great Calvert Journal supported by the strong images of Troy Litten. I loved the article, better you like it as well (keeddeeng 😘).
Hot dog joint? Time capsule? The sad decline of Eastern Europe’s iconic K67 kiosks

Broom Wagon of the (½) Month 🚌

Dustin Klein — Philosophy more than bikes

Dustin is a great character in the cycling world. He has been involved in it for a long time and now he runs his amazing Youtube series called Everything’s been done (EBD) about bikes, of course, but also a lot of other things. I had a chat with him on the Broom Wagon 🚌 and we took a lot of time talking about differences between expression, style, creation, making. Give it a shot :)
And, ok, that’s also not about small shops and people behind it, but it is coming, so get your ears peeled 👂 (ehm, that’s kind of gross, Stefano).
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Cheers 🍻

Thanks a lot for reading ‘till here. Don’t forget to share it with your friends and see you later. You want to tell me something, give me feedback or shout at my mouth: feel free to send me an email and let me know. And if you didn't already, don't forget to subscribe 🎯