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Full Spectrum Cycling
Full Spectrum Cycling #128 – Bicycle Film Festival’s Founding Director Brendt Barbur is Our Special Guest
Sep 3, 2021
Full Spectrum Cycling #128 – Bicycle Film Festival’s Founding Director Brendt Barbur is Our Special Guest
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Transcript
0:00
[upbeat music] I cracky, that's a lot louder on these than the normal headphones I wear for some reason.
0:19
Huh? Uh, deaf over here. [laughs] Deaf in this place. I can actually hear out of both ears this week. Oh, nice. I think I'm using a headset that I wasn't using last week, because- Got another new headset...
0:29
it's exactly the same though. Is it? I don't know. Yeah. But you, you could flip it around if you want to. No, it just- Anyway... it just sounds and feels... Maybe I'm just used to it now. Hey, everybody.
0:41
Full Spectrum Cycling, show number 128. Aha. I don't know what- I don't know if that's... Is that good or bad? [laughs] I know. I'm not sure. That was seven.
0:49
But, um, here we got, uh, here we got, over here on this side over here on, on my right, which you can't see 'cause we're on the radio- It's the same... is JK Livin. Hello. We're in the same orientation. Right.
1:01
It's true. Yeah. Yeah, we are. We're- We got Tony Burger over there. Yeah, I'm right here. There he is. I'm right here. I'm here. T-Burger, who just got fat stacks cash for his car that crapped out on him- Yeah...
1:11
and didn't... That was very nice of them. I, I got back what I paid for it. Well, on a used car, normally he could've just said- I know... "Lemon law, dude." I know. I know. "Don't worry about it." I know.
1:19
"You're kinda hosed." He, he could've made my life a living hell, but then he realized we have over 100 Facebook friends in common. [laughs] 100 Fa- oh, in common? In common. Yeah, that's... Oh, yeah.
1:30
He, he don't want- You realize that- You don't wanna throw a wrench in those works... and, and a lot of people out here don't realize that my nickname that, that
1:36
SMS gave me is Tony the Talker, and I might have complained a little bit on the, uh, Facebooks and stuff about my ordeal, you know? [laughs] I know a Subaru's a very reliable, great car. Ah. It just isn't for me.
1:49
Yes, I do recall a- So it is gone... [blows raspberry] in the breeze. Not everyone has a great experience with every marker. Right. Right. You know? So it's okay. I know. I'm scared. Let's talk about bikes.
2:01
I don't know what to get. Hey, sp- okay, so I got one bike thing right off the bat. Nice. Um, and I haven't even told Patrick Zigo that I actually have it yet, but he l- unbeknownst to me,
2:12
he left his Handsome Cycle shop bike behind at the old Milwaukee By Bike building down there. Mm-hmm.
2:18
And, uh, when I went to take back the bike I borrowed, 'cause my bike broke on Steel Is Real, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Steel Is Real, not my bike so much, but [laughs]... And your bike.
2:28
Um, yeah, sh- I'm just gonna say shitshow. But I'm also saying- [laughs]...
2:32
that this shop bike from Handsome Cycles is one of the coolest things I've ever ridden, and I rode Chewy's in Decorah, and then I told Patrick about it, and he's like, "I got one of those. I don't really use it anymore."
2:44
I'm like, "Okay." I would. Then he wants to trade for a bunch of stuff, and I don't know about trading or nothing, but I know this: I won't sell it without asking him, and it just, they ride super great.
2:54
I have to ride some. It's a single speed, coaster brake. Oh. Got a big old Wald 137 basket on it. Oh, there you go. Nice basket.
3:02
I gotta s- say, though, the one thing that it doesn't have that I wanna put on it, which I may switch some parts out, this and that, but it does not have a stem cap on it for the, um, a headset.
3:12
And I just see myself, knowing me- [laughs]... crashing and being core sampled, impaled- [laughs]... by an inch and an eighth steer tube. I... Yeah, that would leave a mark. Well, Dave, that... Lun- it happened to Lunz.
3:25
I, some... Oh, it was a handlebar end- I remember... on a July f- third or fourth ride, and it went right into his leg and [imitates squelching] Ah. And- Pulled out several layers of core of skin.
3:34
[blows raspberry] And, uh- How-... Molly, Molly on, on the Purple People Eater, she ate it over that, uh, bridge. Which oddly enough was built by Colin. It, uh, and, uh, Huber. Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah.
3:45
Huber's got a new phone number, by the way. If you need to know it, uh, maybe call or text- It's Huber... us 'cause I'm not saying it on the air, but [sniffs]... Right.
3:52
And I guess he doesn't have a 414 area code anymore- Or Colin... 'cause he's- After five years... done with Wisconsin. [laughs] Yeah, after five years. He's in Colorado, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, nice. Nice.
4:04
Colorado's a good place. Last we heard, anyway. Well, lots of good people live in Colorado. I used to live there. You know where nobody lives anymore or shouldn't? Texas? New Orleans, man.
4:13
Why does everybody live in New Orleans with dang old 150 mile an hour winds and all sorts of- That whole area makes no sense to me, but- Can you imagine being on the water in your bike, on your bike, up your bike with a sail on in the water?
4:24
But it's steeped in culture. True that, but- It's ponder-... it's also steeped in, like, a- The land-... big ass pot of tea, man. [laughs] Yeah. Their land is below sea level. It's like literally steeped.
4:34
You're literally steeping their culture. Their land is below sea level. It makes- It has been for many years... zero sense. Right. Mm. Do you know what the... So has Amsterdam. You know what the Dutch did?
4:43
Managed to bring it above sea level. Yeah, I think- Get high and build canals... I think that it's just, it, it... [laughs] You know, why? Why would you do that? I- Why wouldn't you have moved it upstream after Katrina?
4:56
Well- Right? For the same reason- I mean... Oh... no one ever pointed a telescope at the sun. I'm... Yes, they have. [laughs] Yes, they, they totally have. It's, it's the- No, I mean-...
5:05
it's the Red Angel of- When one of the options after Katrina-... Groton, that city. And why did it, and why did it take s- this long- Oh, we're suddenly a weather podcast...
5:11
for somebody to take a, uh, a, a, you know, high-powered telescope, boom, boom, boom, look at the stars, paint that like an R2-D2? Finally did. Somebody did. It was beautiful. Beautiful. R2-D2 is s- pretty kickass. Yeah.
5:28
He's just a steady Eddie all the way through those pieces of anime. Rest in peace to that man right there.
5:31
So owing to the fact that the last few shows have been somewhat shitshowy, and honestly I've listened to the last few shows, so I don't know how bad the ones before those were. [laughs] I, I liked them. I liked them.
5:42
I liked them. Um, we are out of the old shop. Completely gone- Out... from that place. Out. So my dream of no bikes in the bike shop finally was realized- [laughs]...
5:52
on August 31st- When there was no longer any bikes in the bike shop... 2021. What time of day? There were no bikes.
5:58
Uh, well, I had to go back in there and take a piece of slat wall out today, but So September 1st could have been the one. [laughs] Well, all this was happening. Did you by chance move out a Purple Ape Medium?
6:10
I did move it to the new place. I also have a charger in the car since you do not have access temporarily to a charger- Oh... for your e-bike stuff. I was kind of hoping you'd do that.
6:18
I think I have it in the vehicle since I had to bring all this fancy gear. Hey, by the way, we're at, uh, we're at Bremen Cafe in the back room. Lights on us on stage just like it's some kinda- Bryce is in the corner...
6:28
dang old show. Bryce is in the corner. Yeah. Hey, ooh. Maybe Bryce will take a picture of us and then we can show you just how, you know, sort of professional this all looks.
6:35
[laughs] We actually should've- Don't take a picture of the crowd, though. [laughs] Look at that thing. That, there's a, whatever, that's not just a Leko, that's a thing that makes a lot of light happening. I think so.
6:44
They have a pretty good light show up in here. They do. I've seen some pretty decent shows here. Yeah. It's, um, you know, sort of slowly opening back up in here. You know what'd be fun to see here? Daikaiju.
6:56
I'm totally trying to figure out how to do that. I'm getting, like, shit-shamed by my friends for not doing the GNR show, so I'm like, "Ugh, we did plan that like a year ago."
7:05
It's also the, oh, well, it's also now The Flaming Lips at Summerfest. I know. This is, so, so September 18th has an awful lot of stuff going on, and then trying to fit it all in- You know what I'm gonna do?...
7:15
is gonna be a challenge. You know what I'm gonna do? Because I bought tickets. I bought tickets for you two, too. Go to Daikaiju. I'm gonna go see Daikaiju. Would be my guess. I, I- Smiley's never seen Daikaiju.
7:23
I wish I knew how punctual and/or not punctual, and is it midnight or- Nah... you know, do they have a show before? Mm-hmm. 'Cause a lot of times they'll have a show- Yeah, the all-ages...
7:33
in the area at, like, 8:00 PM, and they'll do their 45 minutes of fire and brimstone, and then pack all that stuff up and go somewhere else, which I think is a pretty good feat in and of itself. But,
7:48
uh, hopefully we can make that work, 'cause, well, Flaming Lips is pretty good. Also, Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew and whatnot on that night.
7:55
Um, I, w- since this is a music podcast, I'm gonna talk about, uh- [laughs] The, The Flaming Lips are releasing a cover of Nick Cave songs- [laughs]... with some 15-year-old fan from the audience that they exchanged
8:13
contact information with. And I watched the first video today, and let me tell you, it'll be a freaking great album. [laughs] It's, it's- I, I, who doesn't like The Flaming Lips?
8:21
Yeah, but with, with- Or Nick Cave, for that matter... taking Nick Cave music and making it kind of like, you know, trippy eth- well, wait, that is Nick Cave music. Never mind.
8:28
But if you do, how can you do Nick Cave it, with your arms kept doing this? I, you know, he doesn't always do- He always does this. Come on. He's the, he does this.
8:36
That's like the guy from Black Crowes is always l- getting that fly away from his nose. Yeah. [laughs] All right, real quick on- [laughs] Real quick on the Steel is Real thing. [laughs] Go ahead.
8:44
I, I, so I'm totally blaming Steel is Real on Milwaukee By Bike and their- [laughs]... their, their day before anniversary party, which turned into a- Apparently people were drunk... wonderful event. It was.
8:56
Apparently people were pretty drunk. Oh, boy. It was, it was well lubricated. Yes, and which translated into being just a little off-kilter the following day. Yes. Yeah. Yes. What's, what's Bert's husband's name?
9:08
Wasn't he- Mike... kinda drunk? Mike? Yeah. I know. We're just giving Mike shit because Mike was ripped. Well, I think, um, that it was, at least for me, a great ride.
9:19
We had a lot of fun on Steel is Real, and, uh, there was maybe just a little bit of feedback that some things could've been a little different, but mostly I had a great time, except for, you know, my bike breaking.
9:30
But- [laughs]... the great part about that was watching a couple of guys just take the, you know, take it by their horns and go, "Oh, we're gonna fix that thing." 'Cause it was awesome.
9:41
And one of the guys that fixed him was a young man riding in beautiful chrome vintage Schwinn... It wasn't a Tr- a Voyager. Yeah, it was chrome. I think it might've been Kerry. I think it was a Voyager.
9:54
The thing was big. It wasn't Kerry, it was- Ah... some young kid. Yeah. He works at Wheel, I think. Who couldn't be by years. Anyway. Oh, 'cause him could- Hey, guess what? Hey, guess what? Huh? Hey, guess what? Caller?
10:03
Hey, guess what? I, hey, hey, guess what? Caller. Welcome to the radio program. Caller, who do we have on the line? Hello? Hello, this is Brent Barbour. There he is. Hi, this is Brent. Hey. How are you doing?
10:17
How are you? I am well. Can, can, can you hear us okay? Good. 'Cause sometimes it's a little janky, and we're sitting in a, we're sitting in a studio that's not normally ours. But how, c- can you hear us okay?
10:27
I can hear you. It's not the, it's not the best, but I can hear you. It's, uh, as long as you can hear me and the audience can hear, it's all good. That's fantastic.
10:33
No, you're, you're, you're 100%, uh, five by five as they say in the old, uh, radio business. Uh, mostly we're gonna let you talk, and then we'll just ask you a few questions.
10:44
And y- you're the guy, you're the thing, you're the deal, you're why this show's happening today. So, uh, let's just, uh, introduce you. Brent Barbour, Founding Director of the Bicycle Film Festival.
11:00
Do I have that right? Yeah. Awesome. I did, we did some research, just to not be complete idiots about this show, but, uh, I had no idea it was the 20th year already. Wow.
11:14
Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit surprising to me that we've, we've done it this long, but it's pretty awesome.
11:20
Um, yeah, the, I mean, technically last year was, we were gonna, and, you know, and we're based in New York City, and last year we were to celebrate in June. We were expecting about 20,000 people.
11:31
People were coming from all around the world, um, as the Bicycle Film Festival has gone all around the world. And, uh, we obviously didn't do it.
11:39
And so we've been doing a virtual tour, and we're coming to Wisconsin, which is pretty awesome. Right on.
11:44
Well, Milwaukee's become a pretty decent biking town, so we're glad to have the, uh, opportunity to check this out.
11:53
Um, I, I, so it, it is new to me, and even though it's been going on for 20 years and I've been in cycling for a long time, I really had, it never crossed my radar.
12:01
So what originally, you know, prompted you to do this 20 plus years ago?
12:08
Well, um, like I, I'm, I'm the United States originally, and, um, most people, you know, they learn to ride bikes when they're a kid, and they might pick up getting a car later on [laughs] when they're teenagers, and then never look back.
12:25
But, uh, I just kept on riding. And, um, I, um, I really, you know, that's what I do to get around. I, I love all the cycling. I still love BMX. I still love, um, road cycling. I love the sport of cycling.
12:40
I'm, you know, watching the Vuelta a España now every day [laughs], you know. So, um, but I- I as someone who rides around 20 years ago, that was kind of rare.
12:50
You know, the idea of, uh, people just, y- you know, using a bicycle as a, a tool to get through the city or recreationally just going for rides.
12:59
And, um, I was riding here in New York City, our base and where, uh, where I live, and I was hit by a bus. You know, I was swerved- Oh... into an oncoming bus. Hmm. Wow. Obviously, that wasn't a great experience.
13:10
[laughs] But, um, I had six months of rehabilitation at least to think about something that I wanted to do. I, I was quite angry.
13:18
The, the, as a victim, you know, a lot of victim-blaming and, and the dialogue around bicycling wasn't as strong as it is now.
13:25
And, um, I just had to explain so many times, like, uh, you know, a lot of people were like, "Well, you, you're riding a bike. That's kind of stupid. What are you doing riding a bike?" [laughs] Jeez.
13:35
And so I thought, "You know what? I wanna show people how awesome biking is in all its different forms," you know. I wanna tell, and what better way to tell a story through bikes than through films.
13:45
In our first year, I thought, "Okay, we're gonna do films." And then I talked to people 20 years ago. It was a lot more d- Actually, now it's 21 years ago.
13:52
We're kind of still on our 20th anniversary tour until about November. Right. And then we'll do [laughs] This is the, really the 21st year.
13:58
[laughs] But, um, you know, um, you know, and I, people said, "Hey, I, I'm not gonna make a film, but I could do a painting." So we had an art exhibition, and people organized bike rides to the event.
14:09
And we sold out many of the shows, and we had national press. I was totally shocked. We had amazing filmmakers involved. We showed A Sunday in Hell.
14:17
I don't know if you're n- yourselves or audience knows about I consider one of the greatest cycling films or sporting films ever made, um, about the Paris-Roubaix cycle race. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
14:27
Um, and so we showed that, and people were really, you know, it was like, uh, going to a concert. People were cheering [laughs] at the end.
14:34
You know, like at the end of the film, there was almost this, I felt like there was a standing ovation. So anyway, you know, there was so much enthusiasm. We kept on doing it. I, I never planned on doing it again.
14:43
It was just kind of like the thing I would do that was like a healing thing for myself. And so the next year, we did it again.
14:49
And like, so back then, the word gets around by word of mouth, and we did it in San Francisco, and then we did it in London, and then we did Tokyo. And then we did it all around the world, you know.
14:59
We've, and we've done it at major places like the Sydney Opera House, or we've done it- Hmm.
15:05
You know, at, you know, old warehouses and, you know, we've, you know, we've had some of the most important visual artists, street artists, visual artists, you know, people that have exhibitions at MoMA or graffiti artists, what have you.
15:19
It was a wide range of people and a wide range of type of films.
15:22
We've, I'm very proud to say that, not, not that this makes a film great, but eight filmmakers from the Bicycle Film Festival have gone on to win Oscars, you know? So like- Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Man. We've been doing that.
15:34
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, so. So you- So yeah, it, it's been, it's been a wonderful, it's been a wonderful time.
15:40
I'm, I mean, I was traveling about seven months of the year for many years just going around, you know, meeting the most incredible people into bicycles. That's awesome.
15:50
I w- I looked through your list of some of the people that have been part of it as, as, uh, either filmmakers or other, you know, visual arts or whatever, and a couple of them just kinda struck me, and I was just kinda curious how they contributed or what you thought of Shepard Fairey, 'cause I love the man's visuals, and Ridley Scott.
16:10
Those are two, I'm like- [laughs] God, who doesn't love Ridley Scott? Right, right.
16:13
So I mean, just y- you have a, a laundry list of people that have, have contributed and done great things, and I just, those really kinda just as my own, like, I love those guys kinda thing. Um, I'm just- Yeah...
16:25
kinda curious how they contributed to the, the project. So Shepard, I, I, y- you know, Shepard and I were in similar circles. He went to RISD.
16:37
And so a lot of people from RISD, the art school in Rhode Island, right, Rhode Island School of Design, um, moved to New York. So I knew a lot of people within the art scene here.
16:47
And then I was out in Los Angeles for the Bicycle Film Festival there, and I went to an event that he was DJing, and his name is DJ DiabetX. [laughs] Wow. [laughs] That could be mine too, by the way.
16:59
It's a DJ, like a DJ name. [laughs] Oh, yeah, [laughs] DJ DiabetX. And, um, so I, I, I started talking to a woman, and it was his wife, you know.
17:08
And I knew some of the people there, and like we just started chit-chatting. And I, I, I said, "You should be in the art exhibition or something." He says, "I don't ride bikes."
17:16
And I was like, "You believe in the, you know..." Ultimately, why I do this in the end for 20 years and work really hard on this is that I think that we're promoting a really great thing.
17:27
I don't ride a bike because I'm an environmentalist, but I think we do this because biking does h- solve some of these problems that we have. And I said, "Hey, why don't you s- Shepard, why don't you, uh, be in the..."
17:39
He made a painting, actually. He made a painting, and the painting sold for $700. And so then I said, "Can you make more stuff?" And then we went to Tokyo with that.
17:47
We would, Joyride was the art exhibition's name, and so we went, took all that artwork except for stuff that was sold and went to Tokyo. I, I personally don't own any Shepard Fairey. Back when it was a lot cheaper, $700.
17:59
[laughs] Yeah, right. [laughs] But that was the original work, you know, that he actually painted with his hand. Wow. That's a fantastic- Um, not a screen print. And, um, so yeah.
18:08
So he was involved in the art exhibition. And we also did later on, um, with Vice, we did in, uh, uh, like-...
18:17
downtown LA, we, in a, a, a family-owned, uh, Mexican restaurant with this really beautiful courtyard backyard area. We had an amazing part- party there, you know, and he DJed. [laughs] So- Oh, yeah...
18:31
yeah, so we've done a couple of things. I haven't seen or spoken to him in many years. And since that time, he did the, um, Obama, uh, poster, so he skyrocketed in fame. Oh. [laughs] For sure.
18:42
So, um, but yeah, uh, he's a really good guy, and very conscious and, uh, I think really cares about community and people. So- Awesome... I think that's where we are able to get folks. And they trust us.
18:54
They trust that we're, you know, curating well and so on. So I think, yeah, that's exciting, man, to talk about. Thanks for asking about that, Brett. I haven't thought- [laughs]...
19:02
[laughs] about that film in a long time. Yeah. I mean, you know, and you know, it- Ridley, Ridley... Say, say again? Yeah. Go ahead, yeah. Ridley Scott, I mean, you know, everybody- Yeah.
19:10
So Ridley Scott- I think everybody probably knows who he is, but I'm not sure. You know- [laughs]... Blade Runner and many, many other things, but... Yeah, Ridley Scott, yeah, Blade Runner.
19:20
Like, Ridley Scott is like, uh, did he do Alien as well? You know, that Blade Runner- No... is so awesome, so is Alien. And Ridley Scott is somebody I don't know.
19:30
Um, I know his son, uh, RSA Films, um, his son, uh, is really into, I think his name is Jake Scott maybe, and he's really into cycling and they've worked with Rapha in London, and they've done some films with them.
19:44
Um, but I know that Ridley Scott's first film in college was called Boy, I think Cycling Boy or Boy Cy- no, if it's called Cycling Boy or something like that. I'm sorry, you guys. This is- [laughs] No worries...
19:57
you know, very, very, uh- We, we got the interwebs to figure that out...
19:59
anyhow, um, I knew about this, and Paul Smith, the fashion designer, was always very supportive of the Bicycle Film Festival, and I just, I didn't even know, but I figured they have to be friends.
20:09
So I asked Paul Smith if he could ask Ridley Scott to make an installation of that piece, and his brother was in that piece, and his brother Tony Scott, who's also- Mm-hmm... a well-known director. Yeah.
20:23
And, um, Tony Scott had passed, so it was kind of a cool installation piece that he made.
20:30
Rather than just showing this old black and white film, we made a, kind of a homage to his bicycle film that he made that has nothing like, uh, Blade Runner, you know? [laughs] Right. [laughs] Um, but yeah.
20:41
Nothing will ever be like Blade Runner. Mm-hmm. But, uh, right on. Oh my God, I love Blade Runner. It's a classic movie. So, so what can people expect when it comes to Milwaukee virtually?
20:51
We're talking September, is it 10th through the 19th? Um- Whatever the dates are somewhere in there. Yeah, um- [laughs] That sounds right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But you know what?
21:02
I kinda got stuck because I had, my brain is frozen. You know, I've done thousands of interviews over these years. I still get a little bit nervous, but I had looked it up.
21:11
Tony Scott, um, he did Beverly Hills Cop 2, he did Top Gun, so you know, he's just, he was quite respectable himself. It's a, a pretty amazing family for film. Right. So anyhow, yeah, Bicycle Film Festival Wisconsin.
21:25
We have been to Milwaukee a couple of times. Yep. None of the festivals in Milwaukee have been, like, our big festivals where you're getting tens of thousands of people coming.
21:33
But they ha- I personally have never attended, but I think they, they did it at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
21:38
Also, um, Peter D'An- D'Antonio, who had this magazine based in Milwaukee but was all around the world called Cog Magazine. Yep, for sure. And, um- Good friend... he's been in the festival there. Yeah. Say, say again?
21:50
I said he's a good, he's a good friend of the, of the show. Great. He's an awesome dude. He's definitely very supportive of cycling. He looks like We al- we always see him-... Steve Jobs Yeah, we- Yeah.
21:58
We always see him on his Bullitt- Yeah... with electric motor going really fast. [laughs] That's awesome.
22:05
Yeah, I haven't seen him in a while, but yeah, you can't, you, you can't, like, find too many nicer people than him.
22:11
So he, he brought the festival to Milwaukee, and um, so it's kinda nice in a way to be back, although that we're really focusing on with the Bike Federation, um, on, you know, working with different organizations from Beloit and Madison and Milwaukee, as this whole event is BFF Wisconsin, you know?
22:32
So it's kinda cool that we can, because it is virtual, like, really, uh, reach out to, um, different communities rather than just Milwaukee. Right. But someday we're gonna come back to Milwaukee. Right on.
22:42
So- But what you can expect is- So some portion of the proceeds goes to the Bike Fed from this thing. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Um- That's great. Yeah, lar- yeah. So, um,
22:55
so a fair- a fairly good portion of the, the ticket sales, we're doing a ticket split, um, goes to the Bike Fed, and there's a sliding scale, I believe 10, 15, and $20, you know, so people wanna chip in.
23:10
You know, if you wanna pay 10 bucks, it's cool, and then if you wanna pay 20 bucks, cool too. So- Right on...
23:15
but what we're offering is this one short film program, which is, you know, if you go to the normal Bicycle Film Festival, generally speaking, sometimes we do do these screenings where like one-off, where we do one program of shorts or two programming shorts.
23:28
If you go, like some festivals will have like, uh, road cycling screening, maybe they'll film about, I don't know, Mark Cavendish or, you know, or s- Tour de France or what have you.
23:39
But then we also have the messenger, uh, fixed gear, or BMX all in one or a separate event, street, street bikes. You know, it's still a lot of fun. Like, or we have like, you know, adventure cycling or backpacking.
23:53
So we kind of like segregate sometimes, or people buy passes and they go see all of them, you know? So th- but with this, I had to think, like, how are we gonna appeal to the bike messenger- [laughs]...
24:03
to the road cycling fan? Not everyone's like us, where we just like all types of cycling, [laughs] you know? But you know, which is fine.
24:10
But so I fi- I figured when we first started this, because we had to do something, otherwise never do Bicycle Film Festival again.
24:17
I was concerned if I didn't go and jump on and do this- We would, I would just move on and not do it again. I kind of love to keep it going, you know.
24:26
I don't know if we're gonna do another 20 years, but, um, but you know. Anyhow, so what we've done is we're telling stories. I thought, "Okay, people love stories, the human story."
24:35
So we selected films that appeal to the human spirit. And, like, maybe there's some guys that never even knew what BMX was.
24:45
You know, they grew up in Nigeria, they live in Nigeria, and they saw on a YouTube cam- uh, YouTube channel, um, in a YouTube ca- They don't have a computer.
24:53
They are in a YouTube cafe, or, you know, Internet cafe, and they see YouTube, these guys doing these amazing things on bikes. They're like, "What's that?"
25:00
And so that was the beginning of BMX in Nigeria, and these guys are amazing. So much energy, so many smiles. And, um, then we have, like, we're truly privileged to have a film from Iran. Um- Hmm...
25:13
you know, a, a film critical of the government from Iran, and it's about a, a girl that can't ride a bike. And, you know, it's revealed that in the film, so I probably shouldn't be giving... That's a spoiler alert.
25:25
[laughs] Spoiler. That's all right. We only have one, we only have one listener anyway- [laughs]... so it's not a big deal. [laughs] And so, and so yeah, um, also, um, there's a film, there was a ride.
25:36
You know, the Black Lives Matter thing was super positive and, um, you know, very big here in New York last year, and there was a ride from New York to Washington, DC to, um, commemorate the anniversary of Martin Luther King's march on Washington.
25:54
Mm-hmm. So there was, uh, I think, like, 100 people, and this is, like, just a little short. You know, and just showing the people riding down there. So it's kind of more current and topical event, um, thing.
26:05
There's a, a film about, um, you know, a kid whose parents went through gen- his family went through genocide in Rwanda, and now he found the most positive thing in his life has been a bicycle, and now he's on a pro team.
26:18
It's pretty awesome. Um, some mountain bikers in Colorado. Um, you know, Leo Rogers, he was on the cover of Bicycle Magazine. It's a Lucas Brunelle film, if you guys know Lucas.
26:30
Um, anyhow, he, uh, you know, he lost a leg in a, in a crash, and he still rides, and it's super positive and- Right on... yeah, that's a few of the films that were on, are on the plate.
26:42
[laughs] Yeah, it really sounds like a, a, a, a smorgasbord of good vibes and, and interesting stories. So how do folks find you if they wanna do this thing virtually on the web? What's the website address?
26:55
If I may say one more title that I made a mistake. Oh, sure. You guys know, on the River West 24 we had a film about five years ago made by, uh, Jack Davidson, and, uh, it's called, um, To See What You Can Do.
27:10
So I, I pulled that up out of the, the archives Well, that might've been- It's, uh, a terrible title... that might've been the year we won the River West 24. I'm not sure. It was, like, five years ago. What, when did...
27:19
Our, our team AA actually won, oh, it was only three years ago? 2013. Come on, 2013? I thought... Oh. Okay. Oh, it was eight years ago. You gotta watch the movie- All right [laughs]... to find out. Yeah, we'll find out.
27:29
You gotta watch. [laughs] So also, by the way, I've been ar- I, you know, I've been around the world. I, my life is, like, diving into the cultures of every city. That is one of the most amazing events. It- You know?
27:43
Like, it's so... I wanna go someday, and I feel like I can do it. I could stay up all night and just- Absolutely... you know, just have a blast. This shit isn't really that hard at all.
27:49
Oh, Tony's got a River West 24 shirt from 20- 2020... 2020. All right, Brent. Well, you guys, you've been a- So you guys, yeah, I'm thinking there's some champions, right? Yeah. [laughs] Yes. You've been a great guest.
28:00
Um, you made the show way more interesting than if we just yammered on here about what we normally do.
28:05
Um, is there anything you wanna leave us with before we say adios and then, uh, go ahead and, and sign up to watch this film festival? Sorry. [laughs] Yeah, I interrupted you guys.
28:16
Um, but it starts next, not this Friday, but next Friday. You just go to the Bicycle Film Festival website and click on tickets, and you'll see, uh, with BFF Wisconsin, and then you can buy tickets there.
28:29
Please tell your pals. It's, uh, a little bit more difficult to get the word out, so share. If you like it, enjoy it, share it, um- Right... with everybody you can. And it's a great way to...
28:39
This is a nice way to bring in people who may not be as into cycling as you are. You could show them, "Hey, this is kind of like what I've been talking about. This is so awesome."
28:48
And, uh, and then this is, this would appeal to them 'cause they're just movies, you know? They're, like I said, they're about story. I think anybody into, not into cycling would enjoy it as well, is my point. Very cool.
28:58
And, um- Cool... yeah, I think that I'm very grateful to be around this cycling movement and meet so many amazing people. So I appreciate you guys having me on the show. Oh, yeah.
29:08
And I wish you the best, and I'll see you guys soon. Anytime. We, we, we can do this again. And, uh- Anytime you want... and before you go, I, I do have to ring the bell at the top of the hill.
29:15
[laughs] I don't really actually have the bell right now, but we're at- Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding... ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
29:19
We're at the top of the hill, which normally means we take a pull off the beer that's sitting by us, which today is Lakefront IPA from right down the street. Do you, uh, e- [laughs]...
29:28
either have a favorite beer or even drink beer? And if you do- What is it?... give them a plug right now. Okay. I haven't drank in a while.
29:37
I've been on this health kick, especially during COVID, but I do like Duvel and Belgian beers. Yes. But, uh, um, when I was a kid I liked Sierra Vne- Sierra Nevada a lot.
29:47
I know that's probably pretty boring for- [laughs] No, that's a good beer. Good beer. Good beer. Yeah, definitely good beer. [laughs] Right on. Yeah. Duvel- Uh-... is one of my favorites. Yeah. All right, Brent.
29:55
Well, thanks again- Duvel... for being a guest. And you can, uh, you can, we can talk to you anytime down the road if you, uh, if you have something you wanna talk to us about, [717] 727-2453.
30:06
You're always welcome to call in. His bike. That would be awesome. Yeah. Let's, let's, uh, let's meet again. Let's meet again. Let's maybe, uh- Fantastic...
30:13
we'll come back, or we could talk afterwards and see what you guys think about the film. Yeah. Right on. That's my pleasure. All right. That's a great idea. Well, we'll be signing up.
30:19
Okay, man, thanks very much for being on. All right. We really appreciate it. And, uh, have a good evening. You too. Have a good night. All right. Bye. Later, Brent. Hey, everybody. There we go.
30:31
That was actually entertaining. That was Brent. [laughs] Yeah, right? [laughs] Way better than our normal person. And taking- I was just saying-... a nice shut up.
30:36
[laughs] Well, you know, I mean, when you have somebody on the, on the show that you know- It's a little-... it's a lot easier to try and banter with them.
30:43
So when you have somebody that you're actually interested in what they say, and you know, maybe, it- this- the whole phone thing is just, we gotta... It just...
30:51
It's not like sitting in a room with somebody and just shooting the shit. Right. It's like, my goodness. But you, you guys were great. Well, I, I gotta give those, both those guys a pat on the back. [laughs] Yes.
31:00
We shut up very nicely. You shut the hell up. [laughs] I didn't realize I did. [laughs] That was a good time. [laughs] And, uh, I, you know what? I don't know.
31:07
Well, Levis, uh, the Levis Mound Fat Tire Festival is coming up, [clears throat] like right now or something, or no, it's next weekend.
31:14
It's the 10th through the 12th, which would sort of kinda sorta be a Gnome Fest-y sort of a thing. Oh, yeah, yeah.
31:22
I do believe a lot of the proceeds from that go to the Levis Mound Fat Tire Trails, well, they're actually mountain bike trails, but- Right, right... I would go ahead and check that out if I were you.
31:31
You can find a link to that event on the Facebook thing. Where is it? Where is it? You know, we're not actually... I don't know.
31:39
The, oh, yeah, there's, uh, there's Daikaiju at the [laughs] at the X-Ray Arcade on the 18th. But, uh- Yeah, there's probably people riding bikes to it, 'cause last time I went there was a underwear bike ride, right?
31:49
Yeah, it was. Mm-hmm. So it's a bit of a ride if you're not a regular rider. But it is, you know, what is it? Speaking of that- 16 each way... I was, uh- It's a cruise. Yeah... I was looking at, uh, what is it?
32:00
This is in early October, is Crusher Fest. Well, yeah. Yeah. Speaking of, uh, Cudahy-hi-hi. Who... Wait, Crusher... Damn it. Isn't his birthday in June?
32:14
Yeah, but they're d- That was my idea to have a Crusher ride in June... but they're doing, yeah. I'm just saying. You forgot. [laughs] But not really forgot. Nothing wrong with Crusher Fest.
32:22
South Milwaukee, Cudahy, down that way. 16.3 miles. [laughs] Yeah, that sounds good. Door, door- Each way, right? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, door to door. It's a long, it's a long ride, man. Yeah.
32:33
I mean, I guess it's not long to some people, but- Well, X-Ray's 13... for my lazy ass, it is. X-Ray is 13- Yeah... door to door, so.
32:38
[laughs] Unless you're doing the other pants ride, then it's more like 17 and a half, but whatever. Well, yeah. It's depending if your inner gyroscope goes completely ba-konky and- Ba-konk...
32:47
you end up, like, you know, taking three lefts to make the right. Hey, guess what's on the stand at the shop. Nothing, 'cause we're not- 'Cause there's no shoppy.
32:55
'Cause there's no space to put even a bike stand up in there. We- Uh-oh. I just started, actually just started setting up the podcast studio today because that's actually my priority really. 'Cause we won't have a cast?
33:06
Well, because it's going to be used by other people, and podcastmke.org is going to be a portal for ostensibly- People who do podcasts... Milwaukee-oriented websi- or, uh, podcasts. Yeah.
33:18
But, um, either you're, it's about Milwaukee, you're from Milwaukee, you do it when you're in Milwaukee. I mean, there's some pretty liberal about what this'll be, but- Right...
33:26
um, I think that room is gonna get power before, [laughs] before this shop gets. [laughs] But you can't come, like, from Chicago.
33:33
Well, you could if you did your show in Milwaukee, or at least- And it was about Milwaukee... maybe you were from Milwaukee and you moved to Chicago. Who knows why anybody would do that?
33:40
But anyway, yeah, there's gonna be a, a very loose blanket of what covers Podcast MKE as a portal for podcasts, but for now, it's ours.
33:51
Our old, uh, our old Weekly Dose of Fat episodes, which by cracky, I'm gonna put up only the k- the best ones, like with Ned Overend and a couple other ones we did that- Yeah, I was-... I thought were really good...
34:02
I was looking into that, 'cause I was just outta curiosity, I'm going, like, God, how long have, have we been doing them? I mean, I, I know you- Two... Yeah, 2017 or something.
34:09
I wasn't, I wasn't on the ground floor, but I was in the- You were in there thick. You were at, like, number 10-ish or something. I was in... Yeah. I mean, close to ground. Somewhere in the ground floor.
34:17
So there are a couple interesting ones. So roughly, like- I'm not gonna put every single one we ever did, but- 2014-ish? Yeah, I would think somewhere in there. Somewhere.
34:24
I mean, I've been doing it since 2006, believe it or not. [laughs] Since zero. But, um, that had nothing to do with cycling, so. In zero.
34:30
That, uh, and, and that's what, uh, Podcast MKE's about too, is about learning and having the gear to do shows and how to plan shows, and certainly not emulate this show. But- [laughs] We're a cautionary tale. Yeah.
34:41
We're, we're a cau- Right? Yeah. This, so- We're showing you what not to do. [laughs] So if you wanna do something successful, don't do this.
34:46
[laughs] All right, everybody, uh, thanks for listening, and thank God for Brent, because this was actually a pretty good show. And, uh- Thank God...
34:54
we're gonna do it next week again anyway, so even if it's crappy, you're probably gonna listen to it anyhow. Hopefully. Right? Enjoy. Shannon, looking at you. Yep. Everybody, bye. Bye.
35:04
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