What are your jeans doing today?

[Paul T]

X post with ROy x Cone thread...

We took off with friends for a few days to a field in somerset, staying in mongolian yurts and drinking while the kids spent their time jumping from the top of haystacks.

Every morning we would wake up to a view over the hills.

We rambled around the area, mostly in search of pubs, and down to an idyllic, quiet beach, surrounded by cow parsley and wild marguerites. The houses around here are often dropdead gorgeous, made of the local sandstone. I liked this garden, hidden behind the wall, but visible through this fretted gate.

I made one grievous mistake, which was not to get a pic of me in the denim apron while making devilled mackerel, an old victorian recipe, using fish caught just down the road.

FInal night culminated in a bonfire, of course, then we sent this burning lantern off into the night.

We made a day of the drive back - dropped in on Glastonbury - we'd take the nipper to the festival there when he was little, so we revisited a couple of haunts. It's an ancient town, where Edmund Ironsides was crowned, and according to myth heavily involved with Joseph of Arimethea, King Arthur, and the Holy Grail - from the 1100s, it was reputed to be the site of the burial of King Arthur and Guinevere. The area is crossed through with ley lines, ancient stone barrows and burial sites, and it's also a prime hippie hangout - a few years ago, there was a bit of a media blitz when cannabis plants were discovered in the middle of the village's floral displays..

These doors, and the inn date from the 1400s or so…

there are ancient stone monuments all round, like this abandoned church up on a hill…

And most famously Glastonbury Tor… excavations have revealed neolithinc remains, plus roman artefacts.. it's been identified as both the site where the Holy Grail was once kept, as the centre of a neolithic sign of the Zodiac… and in the 1200s, the church was ruined by a major earthquake that reputedly was amplified by the shape of the mound.

[Paul T]

But hey, even that place is new-fangled compared to where we headed next.

First we drove over Salisbury Plain. This was once ancient woodland, home of many neollithic sites. But it's also a big military base, the place where all the 30s theories of modern mobile warfare were tested.

OUr destination: Stonehenge.

This place originates from aruond 3000BC, with the final, large stones haulted into place around 2500BC. No one knows quite how they did it, or even how they hauled in some of the stones, which come from hundreds of miles away.

When we first visited here, you could walk right up t some of the stones, and hug them, feeling their psychic power surge thru you (hey, it was the 90s! You know, the ecstasy years…)

Too many photos? Sorry… I just find this place is, literally, awesome. Some myths about it are false - there's a fallen stone, which was repiutedly a sacrifical alter, because in some lights it glowed blood red. However, the colour comes from the iron ore in the stone. All the same, recent excavations showed the skull of a 3-year old child, cloven in two with an axe, in what was almost certainly a ritual sacrifice.

According to myth, Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur is buried here. another myth says the these stones were once erected by giants in Ireland (the home of some amazing neolithic monuments) - but the wizard Merlin transported them here, in a display of his magical powers, for Uther.

Of course the nipper loves this. Unfortunately he is wearing flipflops, so will be making an appearance in worst waywt soon…

Now the hot weather's here I'm glad I picked up these 40s veldtschoen shoes… guaranteed waterproof, but cool in the heat. THey came with the origina laces, but I see that, 60 years on, I've knackered the laces in a weeks camping.

[louisbosco]

visiting tokyo. kinda like denim heaven

reaching tokyo, day 1

our hotel

dinner and some back street

shinagawa

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[louisbosco]

b]day 2, shibuya to harajuku[/b]

shibuya, not the famous crossing though

momotaro store

union special

buying 3m of momo denim

[louisbosco]

boots galore! they've got everything from trickers, to beckmans to red wings and whites. not to mention shitload of clarks db

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dinner

and starbucks to round off the night

another set, another time. hope you guys like this.

[lowrider]

today my jeans and i woke up early and went to the carlsbad cars and coffee meet then off the the HRE open house in vista where i saw some amazing cages and left wondering how these folks afford them...

if i won the lottery, this would be in my garage:

super clean detomaso pantera

not diggin' the colourway but it's a 458...

the costco of USA made forged rims:

after seeing all those fancy exotics, my practical and plebeian whip went to recycle plastic:

then we stopped by our friend's place where her shiba just had 4 puppies!

[lowrider]

we wrapped up the day with a little bbq with the wifey and puppy:

had to try this @ $3 / 6 pack! not bad!

[kansas]

^^^I'm amazed every time I check this page. Paul T - simply great. That whole ley-line system messes me up....doesn't Stonehenge connect to a similar Woodhenge?

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Getting drunk... first on craft beers, then on cocktails...

[tg76]

testing glues on neoprene

then, what to do with stacks of old tees i cant be bothered selling

baby goth

[Baeyer-Drewson]

Awesome, tg! Can't rep

[dirtyjack]

Today, my jeans met with alot of other jeans and had a great time! Had an mini Singapore denim gathering host by Indigo Roots & Obbi Good Label, Sorry for the mass pictures!

Here come the pictures!

Everyone Start gathering at Obbi Good Label Workshop @ Singapore.

Let's start off with our guest from Iron Heart Forum!

[dirtyjack]

Roy denim next!

Pure Blue Japans

[dirtyjack]

Prize Presentation! Erwin Low

next up, shatheist

While waiting for the last winner,

Next up, dinner at an awesome place near OGL workshop, box and sticks!

[dirtyjack]

[dirtyjack]

Congratulation to our last winner, goofywoofy!

Lastly, one big group photo!

Too bad my camera went out of battery at this time!

Thanks everyone for making this happen, without you guys there won't be Indigo Roots

& Also, Thank you Obbi Good Label for sponsoring the Members Raffle Prize and lending us the space of the workshop to hold our gathering!

Cheers!

[HoustonChris]

brisket is good as well..I'll agree there but NC style pork??? You're speaking against the TX code of BBQ!

^^^fella, we could debate bbq until the cows come home..hahahaha, but personal taste will win out every time. I'm a short ribs w/spicy vinegary sauce meself, but pulled pork is next......

What can I say? I'm a transplant; I grew up in NC and have lived in TX for the last 6 years. I love brisket, but pulled pork with a vinegar based sauce will always have a special place in my heart (and stomach). But hey- why debate, when we can just enjoy it all?

[jigsaw]

Must spread Dirtyjack , look like a Fun meet ups!

[Max Power]

What I was doing:

[Max Power]

What I was eating:

What I was reading:

[chambo2008]

so yesterday was off in the morning with the wife and kid, we got hungry so we went to the chinese supermarket called "wing yip" its about 30min drive from us has all your normaly bits

they also had a fresh fish section and had this guy in his own tank next to the lobsters

anyways got a few bits then went to the restaurant next door

got my fav - iced green tea bubble drink

i had - beef ho fun with beansprouts, could eat this all day long

then after that spotted the cakes

and i got the normal

[kansas]

^^outta rep dirtyjack - amazing photo montage!

[ThisSunday]

Xpost from Roy X Cone Contest

Went to a Polo match on Governor's Island today. It was a little to "Take Ivy" for me, but over all a pretty cool event

[ronaldlsh]

Nice post dirtyjack. Repped.

[dirtyjack]

thanks for the kind words, such gathering really let the community in Singapore grow stronger and share great ideas! hope more of these coming up!

[LC_Miey]

I enjoyed the indigo roots gathering pictures..looks like a good time!

[Graytrain]

Its been a while!

So as some of you may not remember, I currently work with a astronomical research group at the University of Utah. We work with a .8 meter telescope in Southern Utah.

The snow finally melted to a point were we could get up the mountain, our first trip of the year. Being that our telescope had been sitting unattended for all of winter, we knew we would have to do some clean up. This trip therefore has only a small bit of interesting content and a lack of pretty pictures.

The most important part of this trip was the cleaning of the primary mirror. This is a very delicate operation as this is the single most expensive piece of the telescope, coming in at ~$150,000.

So here is our telescope:

That round bottom part houses our mirror, and that has to come off. Some 400 pounds of it.

SLOWLY

almost there

There she is in here filthy glory

Then the ROYs dawned a clean suit for the operation.

We have to be extremely careful not to get any oil, spit or anything on the mirror as we cannot clean it in the conventional way. Our cleaning method can only remove dust and other electrostatically bound particulates. The coating on the mirror is only ~5 microns thick (about the thickness of 2 E. Coli bacteria) and any rubbing or abrasion will damage that coating.

Here I rinse the mirror with chemically pure water, trying to rinse as much of the dust off.

Then we use a gentle surfactant (soapy water) to release more of the dust from the surface.

Then the most delicate part of the operation, taking sterile cotton gauze soaked in the surfactant and dragging it across the mirror under its own weight and no pressure. This will lift most of the remaining dust from the mirror.

AND the final product:

an incredible improvement.

[Graytrain]

(continued)

to give an idea of the great improvement, here is before and after:

before:

after:

After this cleaning, we are now collecting about 20% more light than before!

BITCHIN.

Dont let the pictures fool you, this was a 6 hour process.

I wont just leave you on that note, here are some pretty pictures from this weekend:

the galactic center to the south:

The big dipper to the north:

[chambo2008]

Amazing as per usual!

[lance]

It has been a while Graytrain, always enjoy your posts. keep em comin!