I ♡ Final Cut.

BIKES BIKES BIKES!

Soooo happy to be able to accomplish tasks via bicycle again. Quick trips to the store, client meetings, knocking out one-hour cyclocross laps from the house - all part of life again. Thank you Boulder.

What I get in trade by moving from Portland to Boulder.

1. Giving up shared space with Portland's bushy-haired, skinny-jeaned, tattoo-sleeved hipsters who reek of cigarettes. In exchange: Legions of "kind brothers" in tattered jeans, dredded hair and puppies on strings, who reek of skunky herb.

2. Giving up the moldy, mildewy wetness for the dry, hot, potentially dusty, life near the high plains. Luckily, Boulder is just far enough from the plains, nestled up next to the mountains. A bubble of goodness.

3. Giving up the proximity to majestic Mt. Hood and her frequent dumps of snow, however wet and heavy they may be. Gaining access to over a dozen ski resorts in the most vast mountain range in the lower 48. I'll likely be signing up for one of these bad boys. Pretty cool. And yes - the mountains are high. The snow is fluffy. Goodbye worries of another El Nino... and a potentially tragic global-warming reality for low elevation, coastal ski resorts.

4. Giving up nearness to friends and family. Gaining nearness to friends and family. :)

5. Giving up the comfort and calmness of my home state. Gaining the excitement and exploration of yet another new state.

An incredible adventure is unfolding - so excited!

Sea World Sucks.

http://www.ksbw.com/news/22666239/detail.html

F@$% all the Seaworlds. Set the Orca free. I am sad for the trainer and her family, my heart goes out to them. But can you really blame poor Tilikum the Orca? He is bored and very unhappy being put on display like a circus sideshow, criminal or some fascinating fossil. No respect for these animals at all. The blame lie squarely on the shoulders of the shareholders and owners of Seaworld. Shame on you.

I urge you to NEVER, EVER visit a Seaworld and support such ugliness.

An industry of shame.

A dream cometh true.

What dream may you ask? My dream of living in or near the real mountains - The Rockies. Don't get me wrong, spending time in volcanoland has been incredible, gorgeous and there are few places as fun as Mt. Bachelor for snowboarding. But I've always dreamed about Colorado. So, I'm taking my family and moving to the Rocky Mountain state - Boulder to be exact. The next great chapter in the life that is Keeney, this one promising to be the greatest tale yet. It's already unfolding as I'm now dividing my time between Sandy and Boulder now that projects dictate. I'll have all six of us (Kelly, Sulli, Kuma, Telli and Moses the Cat) under one roof again by the end of March.

Things to look forward to in 2010: A new baby - the littlest Keeney. A return trip to Monarch Pass. Some exploring around the four corners area and the national parks. Moab. Friendly bike-commuting. Local mountain-biking. New film and video projects. Living at 5400'. Time in Ned and at Eldora.

Stay tuned...

The newest Secret Chiefs 3 album

Secret Chiefs 3: Traditionalists
Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini



Recently ordered this one through the Web of Mimicry site. Alas, the soundtrack to an unmade horror film is classic SC3 with intense instrumentation and moody themes throughout. The band (on this album performing as "The Traditionalists"), pays respect to the Italian film composers this record reflects so much of. It is not for the faint-hearted or easy listening ears, but *is* for folks like me who crave, new, unique, instrumental music. Check it. :)

( give 'er 4 of 5 stars)

The Complete Cyclocross Diaries Archive

Our fabulous host Heidi sums it up nicely in one blog post over at Wend Magazine. Already looking forward to cross-racing 2010.

Don't let your dog eat raisins or grapes!

That's right - they are potentially toxic. Whodathunk? Veterinary professionals are still studying this, but it appears as only some raisins and grapes contain an element that can cause liver failure in dogs. Or maybe it's only some dogs that are effected?

After returning from the mountain yesterday I discovered Kuma had pulled the large bag of raisins off the counter - and devoured the entire thing. Little Telluride has taken in a few I think too. After a quick call to my dear Kelly, it was off to her clinic for us all. After making them puke, feeding them a slurry of wet dog food and charcoal, and giving them a hefty sub-q dose of water (under the skin) - we could only hope and watch. Apparently they would start showing signs of nausea and lethargy within 24 hours, which they did not, but damage can appear as long as 72 hours later. Luckily for us, Kuma and little Telli appear to be doing fine and are showing no ill effects.

Heads up friends... keep those raisins stashed away tight, next to the chocolate and herbs. :)

Jailed Ski-Bum finally set free!

This story is incredible - as are the comments people are posting in response. God bless Charlie Toups! My hero.

Motion Graphics or Bust!

This is my new kick and I ain't lettin' up.

Winning a trip to Mustang Powder Snowcats!

I'm officially blogging about Cat Skiing Mustang Powder in hopes of winning a contest they're having. Shameless? Hell no... for anyone that has ever been cat-skiing or boarding - you know there is little else comparable to a skiing and snowboarding experience, other than taking a heli or airplane of course. I've been lucky enough to experience cat-boarding a few times at Mt. Bailey Snowcats - but that was many moons ago when I knew someone and had good cause to barter services with them. Cat-skiing and heli-skiing are, for the most part, a rich man's endeavor. Since I am not rich, but I have spent the better part of sixteen years trying to rearrange my schedule for the choicest powder days, I feel like I am a deserving and grateful candidate to take ownership of this contest and win it! Not only will I be a gracious guest at Mustang Powder, but I will bring along some of my HD camera gear and document and blog my experience to share (and brag) to all my friends and readers of my client's blog at Wendmag.com.

Sound good? Yep. Sign me up! Take Keeney to Mustang Powder, then I'll have a little contest of my own to see which lucky bastard gets to tag along. Haha!

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie.

This is dynamite. Found via Draplin.

Cyclocross winding down with two big weekends on tap.

US Gran Prix this weekend at PIR.

US Nationals next weekend in Bend. These will be the first two races I shoot this season where I'm NOT racing. Whew! Kind of a relief.

Anywho... here are the last two Cyclocross Diaries (6 and 7). The Diaries series will be complete with a naughty, number nine episodes after these weekends. Enjoy!

Cyclocross Diaries Webisode #005

Not nearly enough time for blogging these days. Too busy getting married at Breitenbush Hotsprings, honeymooning in the San Juans and Vancouver Island, and returning just in time to embark on a rather large project: Racing AND Producing the Cyclocross Diaries for Wend Magazine, all over our fine state, from October through December. There is nothing I would rather be doing, but it can be a challenge - particularly when you are racing, camping, donning a winning costume and trying to gulp down the occasional beer. Such was the case at THIS race:

Intuition and a powerful full moon.

Seems this change of season is a fine time to post another group of thoughts. As my love Kelly made note of - this last full moon on Sept. 4th seemed to be a powerful one, perhaps signaling the changing of the seasons as well as a change in attitude. Sometimes it's easy to get stuck in a rut and it takes a little external push to send things reeling into a new direction. The moon helped me do this recently.

Now on to a story about intuition. As I may have mentioned in a previous post - we now live out in the woods, near the Bull Run river and resevoir. We're actually up on a ridge that looks out across the entire Bull Run watershed - and as Pounder says - the view doesn't suck. One of the other fringe benefits to living out here in the sticks is the awesome hiking and biking out our backdoor. Frequently after dinner, we hike out the back door down this overgrown forest road behind our house which dead-ends at a gravel road and drops quickly down to the Bull Run valley. Once you get about a quarter mile down - we are stopped by a big yellow gate. The kind with no trespassing signs and warnings posted on it. It is here that the property switches to the Portland Water Bureau - and they don't take kindly to folks crossing that line. Sure - when we first moved here - I bombed passed the gate several times on my mountain bike, surveying the land, getting to know my place in space. Since I had never seen any form of water bureau folks patrolling here at the gate, nor down on the pavement where it ends by the river - we figured it was okay for a kind family such as ours to be walking gently amongst the old growth once in a while. After all, we're treehuggers, this IS our neighborhood and we generally only walked another half mile or so into the old growth to make the most of our walks.

One evening a couple of weeks ago, our little 6-year old Sullivan commented, "I don't think we should cross the gate tonight Mommy". It's okay we said, dismissing her thoughts. "We're just going a little ways, and we'll turn back" we told her. As we continued passed the gate, she commented several times how she really felt like we shouldn't keep going this time. I actually had tuned her out at this point as I was more in tune with the big trees - and then - of course - I saw the coming headlights way down the twisty road. "Run!" I said. We turned around and started running back for the gate until I quickly realized we were not going to beat the truck back. It was uphill and little Sulli's legs can't quite keep up with my long legs. So... I stopped us and took it like a man. Behold - and VERY official... and VERY serious couple of youngsters in a Water Bureau patrol truck scolded us and threatened to lay a big ticket and fine on us. Being quick on my feet and with my tongue - I quickly explained how are dogs had rad passed the gate and we were only retrieving them. "We hike down here all the time" I exclaimed. "We never go passed the gate, the dogs saw a deer I think - and took off!". Well... they bought it! and let us off with a stern warning.

Three lessons learned that evening. 1. Never, EVER discount your children's intuition - it's often more powerful and raw than your own. 2. Do not fuck with the Portland Water Bureau. They are serious about protecting Portland's drinking water - as they should be - but shit... don't they chlorinate that water anyways? (another thought for another time). and 3. Be careful when and where you bend the truth - not only does a 6-year old have strong intuition - they also have bionic ears. At least our does. We had to do a lot more explaining about how it was okay to bend the truth in some circumstances than we did explaining why we were on the wrong side of the gate.

Last time I'll cross the gate? Probably. Last time I'll bend the truth? Probably not. :)

Village Idiot rise from the dead.

So great to see these emmer-effers throwin' it down again, some ten years since. They slayed it. People witnessed. Smiles abounded.

Short Track Finals

Great racing for the last night of mountain biking at PIR. There were some stellar riders in this series, pros like Shannon Skerritt who consistently rode like the wind, usually, many lengths in front of his competitors. Other dudes like Jesse Lucket and Salvatore Bondi kept the front of my pack, the Cat 2's, spread out ahead. A super fun time this summer though - making 5 of the 7 races has got me primed for Cross season, and for my first "real mountain" race at Diamond Lake next month. I put a few more pics from last night's finale here.

Life in the Woods

Walden, A Walk in the Woods, Listening for Coyote - some of my favorite stories about man living, walking and traveling in the woods. Now I'm living some of my own stories after living high on Bucksnort Ridge. I think the most incredible thing that I keep coming back to is discovery. Discovering so many new sights, sounds, plants and animals I've never known before. Our home is surrounded by such incredible diversity in plant life, particularly berries. One such berry, the thimbleberry, is in abundance right now. It kind of looks like a raspberry, but far more delicate and a similar taste, just more exotic.

Then there are the wide variety of flowers and other berries, wild irises, red columbine, salal - it is never-ending. Don't even get me started on the ferns. I feel pretty damned lucky to live in such a gorgeous place. We get the kinds of views and smells usually only reserved for those long backpacking trips. Makes me feel... Namaste.

Portland Mountain Biking Short Track Series 2009 from Eric Todd Keeney on Vimeo.

We entered a short film contest online!

Jesse Blanchard is the man, Renee is the brains - and me? Ummm, a little of this, a little of that. After a couple of quick brainstorming sessions and online preproduction, we more or less shot this thing in a day. Jesse picked up the SFX shots at home the next day - then - like the champion he is, edited the shit out of this thing. Turned out perty-durned good I think. It's called "Borrowed Skin". If we win, we get some cash to use as funding for the next film!

Watch for yourself:
BORROWED SKIN