Shhhhh...

[catulle]

Atmo has been kind'a quiet lately. Maybe he is busy putting frames together. That would be just great, wouldn't it? Maybe I'll get a red bike sometime before I die after all. I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed. Shhhhhhh... Don't disturb him...

[Archibald]

I've known Atmo a long time, and I know enough people who know him better than me that I'm aware that the last week of his life hasn't been a good one. His family situation has been sad -- his pooch has diabetes-- and his bathroom breaks have all the appearances of being neither productive nor joyful. He was a man who once exuded an irrepressible joie de vivre. In fact, it was after my annual meeting with him 2 years ago that I wrote the following:

"His framebuilding sentiments come from the discord between the senses and the soul, the flesh and the spirit, the sensuality of his love and a mystic acceptance of its spirituality. His inner struggle between the sensuous and the ascetic is reflected in subtleties and antitheses of expression. He does not fight or rebel against the conflict, but records it with tender melancholy, in plaintive tones -- clear, sweet, with the elegance of technical perfection. The ride qualities are developed with the greatest sensitivity." As you can see, I'm a ****ing great writer.

2006 was a different scene altogether. He was slumped over as we talked. His gauntness suggested too little sleep, too little food, too many Twizzlers and 12-round slugfests with one set of ****ty circumstances after another.

In an earlier time Atmo might've celebrated one uniquely noteworthy detail of my own life: I banged Scarlett Johansson with famous regularity when she was in her early 20's. But Atmo's eye has become attuned to darkness now --and it's Bill Hick's anger and violence that he co-opted. His embrace of Hick's sarcasm is frightfully true to form. I say frightful because for all of Hick's well-documented dandyism, the last years of his life were in fact a grim blur of depression and heroin abuse. Then in 1988 he did what countless artists choose to do: he banged Madonna. Mark Rothko butchered open his wrists. Basquiat jacked himself up on enough heroin to kill a sizeable zoo animal. Hicks did too but it didn't kill him - it took banging Madonna to do that. In time-honored fashion he exited with a bang, not a whimper. In the process he achieved the one productive accomplishment of death: It became the act that killed him.

What does it mean that Atmo pays explicit tribute to the anger and violence of an artist who died from banging Madonna? And what does it mean that he does so during the peak of a period when his life -- at least to me -- has all the signs of being rudderless and bereft?

Maybe it means nothing, just nothing at all. Let's make that answer Option A: Nothing at all.

But what if it does mean something? What might it mean? Is Option B mass production? It's not easy to think that, much less write it down -- but it's no less hard than having seen the man who was vibrancy writ large look so lifeless and hollow. The only conceivable distance further from where Amto is now to where he was two years ago is the distance from where he is now to not being here at all. It's a horrible, almost-unthinkable thought, and it stems from that one word: Outsource, and that one name: China.

And then there's Option C, the middle ground. It's one where he's still with us, but he's not. He's alive as a man. He's alive as a brand and as a friend. But as a framebuilder? I must admit I've beaten my head against the wall in the last 18 months as his custom frames took longer and longer to arrive at my doorstep. I heard the culprit was a lack of available tubing. I heard it was because his painter quit. I heard about how his source for Viagra dried up and how damn hard it is to produce a technically perfect BLT when you don't eat pork.

What I should've asked about, maybe, was his state of inspiration as an artist. The muse, I wonder now, has it left him? Trying to conjure up fumes of inspiration where it used to overflow -- has he had enough of that fight? Maybe that's his Hicks-like grand finale. Not banging Madonna as a whole (pardon my pun), but rather a permanent release from the expectations the world puts on people who've shown flamboyance and creativity? Might giving up the torch for good liberate him as a man? Option C: Retirement from his burdensome celebrity as a framebuilder. Perhaps that's the omen intrinsic to his embrace of Hicks.

So why should you think about Atmo? For the same reason you should equally consider a BLT where the bacon is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. They're so perky, I love that. What was I talking about? Oh yeah...the materials of each serve as a nice point of discussion -- but any of them will do, really. I love the man even more than I admire his technical skill. I worry about him very much. And late 2006 is duly noted as the time when I became intensely aware that he won't be with us forever, after all lets face it, Atmo is older than dirt.

[Hysbrian]

It's cross season...come on!

[obtuse]

wow. that reaches a whole new level of something and i'm not sure what.

obtuse

[Kevan]

or maybe his computer died.

[slowgoing]

sounds quirky to me.

[Grant McLean]

Archie,

You're funnier than Borat.

(seriously)

g

[manet]

Archie,

You're funnier than Borat.

(seriously)

g

borax is funnier than barbara bush

[atmo]

.

[sg8357]

wow. that reaches a whole new level of something and i'm not sure what.

obtuse

Archibald is channeling Dr. Thompson, or has found similar fount of pharma.
Maybe you can be the Big Samoan to Archibalds Dr. T.

Scott G.
Fear and loathing of resinous products at NAHBS?

[Grant McLean]

.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/violentgrind/296459366/

he he

g

[Samster]

Im gonna hit the highway like a battering ram
On a silver black phantom bike
When the metal is hot and the engine is hungry
And we're all about to see the light
Nothing ever grows in this rotten old hole
And everything is stunted and lost
And nothing really rocks
And nothing really rolls
And nothings ever worth the cost...

Then I'm dying on the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun
Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike
And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell
And the last thing I see is my heart
Still beating
Breaking out of my body
And flying away
Like a bat out of hell

[catulle]

.

.

[manet]

.

[Ginger]

Geez...you guys have no heart...

At least *I* offered him some of my Vic...of course, that was before I read all this cr*p. Gotta take all that back 'cause nobody's gonna blame me if he goes out bangs borat and od's on vicoden and vodka.
Nope. Not gonna happen.

[atmo]

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[manet]

It is from this period, when he relentlessly delved into one cosmic system after another.

[Ginger]

The last bike known to be touched by his torch, ordered by a customer named catulle; remains in the fixture, a memorial. Half tacked never to be touched by human hands again.

[Louis]

The last bike known to be touched by his torch, ordered by a customer named catulle; remains in the fixture, a memorial. Half tacked never to be touched by human hands again.

Ginger, what kind of paint job was that frame going to get?

[Ginger]

red as rust.

[catulle]

The last bike known to be touched by his torch, ordered by a customer named catulle; remains in the fixture, a memorial. Half tacked never to be touched by human hands again.
__________________
He who does not travel,
who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself, dies slowly.
--Pablo Neruda

Do you mean, Ginger, that what is below the line is related to what is above it? I wouldn't think so, atmo.

[William]

http://www.andriaroberto.com/Salvador%20Dali%20-%20Mae%20West.jpg



To "e"!! :beer:


William

[keno]

I'm still thinking about Scarlett Johansson; she was the only mention I cared to contemplate. BTW, when do early twenties end - she's only 21?

keno

[e-RICHIE]

BTW, when do early twenties end -

keno

the great depression thingy came at 29 atmo.

[BumbleBeeDave]

Does this mean atmo's frames are now available through Competitive Cyclist--IF he ever completes another one? ;)

And what's this about Borat banging Scarlett Johannson with famous regularity? Maybe I should go see that movie . . . gotta be the mustache.

BBD

[William]

Does this mean atmo's frames are now available through Competitive Cyclist--IF he ever completes another one? ;)

And what's this about Borat banging Scarlett Johannson with famous regularity? Maybe I should go see that movie . . . gotta be the mustache.

BBD

She has a mustache???? :confused:




William :rolleyes: ;)

[William]

She has a mustache???? :confused:




William :rolleyes: ;)

;)

[catulle]

Oh, well... I just figured that Atmo, like the watchmakers in the Jura, would turn fervently to his work as the ground turns white with snow and look what we get. Namaste, bro.

[e-RICHIE]

Oh, well... I just figured that Atmo, like the watchmakers in the Jura, would turn fervently to his work as the ground turns white with snow and look what we get. Namaste, bro.

wha (http://campyonly.com/images/richardsachs/snow1.jpg) atmo?

[Ginger]

The last bike known to be touched by his torch, ordered by a customer named catulle; remains in the fixture, a memorial. Half tacked never to be touched by human hands again.
__________________
catulle's frame is in the dumpster

Do you mean, Ginger, that what is below the line is related to what is above it? I wouldn't think so, atmo.


What?

[catulle]

What?

Ginger pushes Neruda to the dumpster...? :D

[e-RICHIE]

Ginger pushes Neruda to the dumpster...? :D
dumpster diving is the new reading atmo.

[Archibald]

I'm still thinking about Scarlett Johansson; she was the only mention I cared to contemplate. BTW, when do early twenties end - she's only 21?

keno
Jesus tap dancing Christ! Did your parents have any kids that lived? What part of early 20's don't you understand? It was for the first third of her 20th year. The second third would be her mid 20's and the last third would be her late 20's then she'd move into her early 21's. Do I need to go on?

:banana:

[catulle]

.

[atmo]

.
quartz mining is the new dumpster diving atmo.

[edouard]

!

[manet]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.labmed.org/catalog/images/yellowsnow_lg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.labmed.org/catalog/L-Snow.html&h=200&w=200&sz=6&hl=en&start=11&tbnid=opX6C1vdnAucSM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dyellow%2Bsnow%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den% 26lr%3D%26sa%3DG