Really impressive no matter how you look at it.

Very cool.

First half of November has been pretty rough. Lost a close family member to cancer, and Current TV laid off a ton of people (I dodged the bullet this time). I’ll eventually write about both things (once I get a slice of free time) but in the meantime, here’s a video I stumbled across on the interwebs and it made me laugh out loud (seriously). I thought I’d share it with you. It’s my new goto “pick me up” video.

So when we last left off, I had outlined what my plans were for rebuilding my bike as a cafe racer. This past weekend I started making good on those plans.

First up, I picked up a Vance & Hines exhaust system from a guy who was going to tear down a Seca II he bought and convert it to an electric. Sold it to me for $100. It was covered in surface rust and missing a couple of the exhaust springs; the can was stained and oily and overall the whole thing was snotty, crusty, but entirely salvageable. I called up V&H to see how much it would cost to order new exhaust springs, and much to my surprise, they offered to just send me a bunch for free. Now THAT’s service. I broke out the 120 grit sandpaper, steel wool, rust remover, high temp black paint, my latex gloves and set about refurbishing it.

Day 1: Refurb the Exhaust.

Refuribing the old rusty exhaust took most of the day. I finished it up and left the bike for the night. The next day I picked it back up by removing all the leftover fairing mounts, disassembling and removal old speedo / tach, removing the old turn signals, cutting out the original light bulb based tail and replacing it with a LED tail light I hacked together from a truck trailer LED light, and taking off the old bent handlebars and replacing it with a brand new club man bar. Needless to say, it was a long day in the garage.

Day 2: Turning an old Japanese sport-tourer into a badass cafe racer: the beginning steps.

Next steps: Install the freshly rebuilt 7″ round headlight, install LED turn signals (front and back), rewire bike’s front end electrical system, and install & calibrate a new speedometer/tachometer. Plenty more to come.

Much like everyone else on the planet, I never actually took the time to watch what was on Current TV. All I knew about it was that it was “Al Gore’s TV Network” and two of their reporters were arrested in North Korea. Back in July of this year I ended up doing a freelance gig for Current, and it turned into a full time position. That was the first real exposure I had to any of the content that they produce here. After being here a couple months, I have to say that not only is the quality of the shows made here very high, it’s without a doubt one of my favorite places to work.

But I digress. I spend most of my time at Current working on the Embedded and Vanguard series (and I’ve previously talked about them at length on this site). I was even lucky enough recently to have some of the work I did for Embedded ripped off by the Mr. Jon Bon Jovi. I do however want to highlight a show that many people probably haven’t seen, but should. It’s called infoMania. It’s an incredibly witty and funny show that airs once a week on Thursday nights. Current is even kind enough to host the shows after they air on it’s website.

Last night’s show was particularly funny and I wanted to share it with all 5 people who read this blog. Enjoy.

Bon Jovi loves the ironic. His newest music video is called “We Weren’t Born to Follow”, and somehow it manages to completely rip off the title sequence that Micah Hahn, Mike Beynart and myself created for Current TV’s Embedded Series. For a song who’s title claims they weren’t born to follow, whoever created the video missed the meaning.

Yes, I said it. The video is a rip-off, a copy, a fake. I’ve been noticing this for awhile tho, big name artists and the massive corporations behind them have no shame in biting off of the work of other artists who aren’t as big as they are; a prime example being one of the most blatent rip-off artists of all time, Timbaland.

I guess I should be flattered, but honestly, Jovi’s video isn’t just a blatant bite, but it’s a POORLY done rip-off. C’mon now, if you’re going to rip off my work, at least improve on it.

Now you might say “…but Bon Jovi’s video premiered Oct 10, 2009, and Embedded aired on Oct 14th!”. Well to that I’ll say that Embedded was originally supposed to air in early September, and promo’s for the show (which include segments of the title sequence) were viewable on Current.com and on Current TV for a good month or so in advance. You decide for yourself.

Embedded Title Sequence:

Bon Jovi’s “We Weren’t Born to Follow”…heh