harvest week #3

we do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they were going to be easy

a poster at the beach entrance

hey there!

I’m going to start by saying thank you for reading these posts. Thank you for the comments too (I see you Maria), and thanks to everyone in person who tells me they missed reading these.

More about the mini delay on this one at the end. Now let’s talk about something I haven’t been able to shut up about lately. Road bikes¹!

I’ve been riding all over Paris to get to places this summer and while Velib is super useful, it’s always a gamble. At a party, I talked about road bikes with a couple of people and the next day my entire life was dedicated to finding a vintage road bike on Lebocoin that I could use to traverse the streets of Paris and maybe beyond.

Days passed and a couple dozen messages later I met a lovely man who restores bikes for fun, I got an early ‘90s late ‘80s Peugot road bike (yet to be named) that was ridable!

the beauty in question

I rode it all over. I realised that it needed a bit of work the more I rode it. So I decided that the best thing I could do with this fully functioning bike was to take it apart, give these 30-plus-year-old parts a nice clean and shine, repaint the frame (it was rusty in a few areas) and put it back together.

from disassembled to stripped to painted

I did all this with only my audacity and YouTube to help. Spray painting things is hard, I’ve just found out, I’ve never done it before. Truly, this has been all I could talk about for the last month. It’s amazing the effort I put into this project which led me to explore the things that motivate me and keep me working even when things are tough. I had a couple of days where parts wouldn’t come out because of the rust, things wouldn’t fit as I wanted, and the paint wouldn’t set or dry fast enough. They’ve been genuine roadblocks and I kept going until I got this.

we’re 80% done

It’s not done yet! But we’re almost there.

In exploring desire and duty and when faced with indecision or battling a lack of action. I’m learning to ask, “What do I want to do?”, Why would I struggle with a bike and laugh/cry through it til I get what I want but not through learning a new language or building an app? I’m still exploring my actions and motivations as I pave my way forward through life. I’m gonna share more about what I discover here!

highlights and gratitude

quick list

• I saw Lorde again, she performed two new songs that I hadn’t sat back to listen to until now. I have that memory etched in my brain now.

• I’ve been obsessively working on my bike! Can’t wait to ride it after I’m done. Also, I know way too much about bikes now.

• I went surfing in Cornwall! I usually surf with people so doing it alone and having a great time was a really big moment for me.

• It’s rentrée and I’m grateful for the summer that passed. I’m excited to catch up with people after the holidays and get back to work.

• I’m writing a lot again, but not just this. I’ve got about two pseudo-professional blog posts coming out soon! I can’t wait to share them.

• I’m getting my health back on track!

art and music

• I heard this weirdly incredible track by Ignez (my favourite techno producer right now), if that's your jazz, give it a listen on Bandcamp.

• I’m playing around with Max for Life plugins in Ableton and made a very janky rework of uproar that needs a lot of work, check it out!

software and products

• Loops earplugs: I do a lot of music events and I can’t emphasise how much these earbuds are saving my ass. If you’re in the market for some I would recommend them.

• As of today, Starfield is out, as soon as I send this I’m hooked. If you give it a try let me know. Also, I can gift 4 friends Xbox Game Pass so if you’d like to try it out I can give you Xbox Game Pass!

• I found this really cool product called Senja, I don’t use it yet but might at some point. Love how the creator is building it in public. Very inspiring.

events and travel

• Uniqlo is launching a new collaborative collection with Clare Waight Keller and for some reason, I was invited to the launch event. I’ll share some pictures of the collection below if you wanna grab something.

• Ahh travel, I’m intentionally staying in Paris now because I’ve been moving around a little too much and need to focus on putting out some projects that need me in one place for some time.

some of the pieces from the collection, love the shoes!

I travelled the day I was supposed to write this and underestimated how much time I needed to get it out at the level I liked. Then I got sick for the next but we’re good now and I’m back with these every two weeks!!

Lots of highlights, it's been a while. This one is a little long. Seasons are changing, I can feel it. I feel good. I feel bad. I feel everything. I feel and I like it. Reminds me that I’m alive. I hope you all have everything you need to go into this new season of your life whatever that might be.

1. This will be a very long explanation