I wonder how many Rivendell aficionados were first attracted by Grant's
Bridgestone USA ads. I know that they caught my eye, attention, and
sympathy, for their retro/contrarian/poster-art aesthetic -- this when bike
ads had already become neon/flashy/agressive (far worse now!).
Speaking of poster art (forgive me Father, etc., for here starteth a rant):
It's to be expected that artistic skills and skills generally ("skills
generally" means "artistic skills") flourish in a suitable environment; you
don't expect high-craft blacksmithing in today's auto industry. But the
mechanization of work, where machines take over more and more of human and
creative (= satisfying) art and skill (note: I use the word "art" in the
traditional sense of habitual and acquired knowledge of translating
concrete imagined forms into given material or combination of materials -- *ars
recta ratio factibilium*) leaves the "worker" more and more of a machine
minder, that is, a drudge; a slave, to put it bluntly but accurately. And I
have been reading recently how AI will take over even more highly-skilled
work; even that of surgeons! -- leaving programmers on one hand and Orwells
proles on the other to be bought off with elusive and unaffordable
guaranteed minimum incomes, or else bread and circuses. The computer is the
apotheosis of the machine; and I predict it will become the machine
antichrist. Note: I do not by any means condemn all those who are in IT; my
worth brother in law is in IT; we do the best we can in the circumstances
given us. But no one can stop us from looking reality in the eye.
Look back at advertising in the late 19th and early 20th century, before
radio and later television. Although poster art was already a debased form
enslaved to the profit motive and the machine, it still had scope for real
human creativity; even if only on hoardings and flyers stuck up in public
places. I have a very nice, framed repro "Cycles Gladiator" poster in my
garage: it's not Chartres cathedral or Siva Nataraj, but it's still humanly
creative and, to that extent, a medium for beauty. Now, it's not even TV
ads; it's Twitter -- our Golem of Greatness, to use Kunstler's phrase, is a
man of his time.
I am acutely aware of this because my daughter, a senior in high school
with some graphic talent and interest, will have to find a job and, one
hopes and prays, not only a job but a remunerative and satisfying craft and
profession, in a world that is more and more, and at an accelerating pace,
more and more merely an adjunct to the machine. Or else she'll have to
write resumes.
Anyway, Grant's ads harked back to that already modern but still
*relatively* human medium, and -- one grasps at even very small and
relative goods -- they were very refreshing and intriguing.
I wish I'd kept my small collection of BUSA catalogues. (Yes, "...gues".)
On Tue, Jan 15, 2019 at 8:33 AM William R. <wroma...@optonline.net> wrote:
> I was super aware of Bridgestone in the late 80's and early 90's. Didn't
> know who Grant was, but I loved the ads and the bikes spoke to me. Never
> owned a Bridgestone though. I think the first time I became aware that
> Rivendell existed was not until late 1999 or early 2000 when I saw a
> beautiful Rivendell custom cross bike on eBay. I remember being stuck on
> that one and drooling over it, but not being remotely able to afford it. I
> lived in San Francisco at the time and they had the US National Cyclocross
> Championships in the Presidio in 1999. I attended and thought cross was
> awesome and I thought the bikes were awesome because they afforded the
> clearances that my road bikes at the time didn't have. I was stuck in a
> racing frame of mind back then and bought a pretty cool cross bike to use
> as a commuter. All was well for a few years. I didn't look deeper into
> Rivendell and in 2000 I moved to Colorado. I kick myself now for not being
> more aware and taking advantage of having Walnut Creek so close and the
> possibility of visiting RBWHQ in the early years. Ouch! In CO I was still
> clinging to the racer mentality but all the time wishing I could have
> bigger tires on my nice road bike for all of the dirt farm roads out there.
> I experimented a lot and was following Riv more and more. Moved east in '04
> and was dreaming heavily of Atlanti and Hilsen's by then, but they still
> seemed a little out of reach for me. Power clip ahead to 2009 and I finally
> made my first plunge and bought a orange, canti Hillborne. Hooked: I've
> always had a Riv since then. A bleu Hillborne next. Today we have 3 Rivs in
> the house: 1 Roadini (mine), 1 Appaloosa (also mine!) and one Betty Foy (my
> wife's). Our kids bikes are also heavily influenced by Riv. My son rides a
> Cross Check and my daughter has a neat Diamondback step through/mixte that
> we got at REI. I'm totally addicted to Rivendells bikes and their ways.
> Current dream is to fill in the gap between the Roadini and Joe with a new
> MIT Hilsen. That may not be in the cards and I will have to live with what
> I've got! Good thing Rivs are so versatile. My two can handle just about
> anything I could dream of doing on a bike at my age. It would just be neat
> to have that Hilsen as my full time fendered bike, the Appaloosa as my full
> time dirt bike and the Roadini as my full time road bike. My love for
> Rivendell continues in tandem with my dreaming! Hmm... tandem... there's a
> thought...
>
> Bill in Westchester, NY
>
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