Alright then folks,
We have officially hit the road. After grabbing a quick hour and half power nap on Wednesday night our crew woke up at the break of dawn to head out to Coney Island to shoot some intro footage. Forty-five minutes into our journey we were greeted with sirens in our rear view mirror. A moment of unease and discomfort quickly passed after we were informed we'd been pulled over simply because one of our bicycles was dangerously close to falling off. We had a beautiful sunrise and morning shooting on the boardwalk and in the Atlantic. There was a plethora of old Russian men and women at Coney Island, and a thief was amongst them. Our director kicked off his sandals upon reaching sand only to return to nothing after the shoot. It was a sad morning for sandal fans everywhere. Maj and I dipped our wheels in the ocean and began to mentally prepare ourselves for the journey to come.
A few run-ins with police later (our crew somehow wound up EZ Pass-less in an EZ Pass only lane headed into Manhattan) we finally made it to Morristown. It was definitely a hot ride. Since we didn't do much training, and by not much I mean..well...none, it definitely wasn't easy. The hour and a half of sleep I grabbed (forty five minutes for Maj), did not do much to aid our ride.
When we arrived in Morristown we were welcomed by reporter Kevin Coughlin of the website Morristown Green. He interviewed us about the project, and took us over to our apartment. Local lawyer/triathlete Karl Fenske was nice enough to take us in for the evening. He's a solid dude. Coughlin helped us set up a private performance from local Morristown artist Steevan Mars at the Egan Gallery. Alexis Egan was way awesome and nice enough to open up her gallery to us for the performance. It's a rad space, and if you're ever in Morristown you should definitely check it out. After his set we were able to sit down and have a chat with him about the Morristown scene and its correlation to his music. It was pretty cool to have such an intimate performance and be able to talk with Steevan about what's going on.
A quiet, plain, and quaint town exists on the facade of Morristown, however, Maj and I both felt something was a little off. We don't mean to pick on small towns (we're so pretentious, being from Brooklyn and all), but something just didn't sit right amongst us. It's tough to say what it is...but I was definitely getting some Pleasantville vibes. Keep checking back in...we've got a webisode in the works!
Check out Coughlin's articles and video about our project here:
Bandcycle & Steevan Mars Video
MorristownGreen Bandcycle Article
MorristownGreen: Metermaid Misery
- Dan
Distance Biked: 42 miles
Distance Biked to Date: 42 miles