“Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.”
Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
After several years of blogging I thought perhaps it was time to post a bit more about myself. I grew up in Northern California, subsequently attended and graduated from The School of Cinema-Television at The University of Southern California, and since then, for the vast majority of my adult life, I have resided in various parts of sunny Southern California.
Professionally I produce and direct documentaries for cable television networks through my production company, Cry Havoc Productions. Generally speaking our shows have revolved around the Automotive and Motorcycle worlds, though from time to time we’ve delved into other subject matter that we found interesting.
How I ended up in the moto-doc arena is story in itself – There was no great plan of attack that’s for sure – rather my eventual move toward the moto-world in a professional context happened quite organically. What at first was just a personal inclination eventually became both a lifestyle and a passion. I’m a firm believer that the best work in life comes out of the areas that you most enjoy and as an adolescent, I was always interested and intrigued by things with engines. (Particularly things I could take apart – even if they never quite got put back together correctly). Little did I know that both cars and motorcycles would turn out to be not only a life long obsession, but also vehicles which would allow me to travel the world, experience an incredible range of activities and emotions, and ultimately altered the paradigm through which I view the world.
Shows I’ve Directed & Edited
Ultimate Factories: Dodge Viper – National Geographic Channel
Ultimate Factories: Mercedes Benz SLS AMG – National Geographic Channel
Ultimate Factories: Maserati – National Geographic Channel
Man Made: Bugatti Super Car – National Geographic Channel
Motorcycle Crash Tech – National Geographic Channel
Twist The Throttle: The Series – Discovery HD Theater
In all honesty, there are probably hundreds of reasons to start a blog in today’s world. Mine was really quite simple, “Twisting Asphalt” was born out of a personal need for another creative outlet – something that felt more individual and a bit more organic then a 45 minute cut-to-clock program.
At first this need for creativity lead to a very cluttered site, full of all kinds of chaotic details. My sense is that this is exactly how the vast majority of blogs begin, that is to say most blogs tend to start without much of a focus.
Giving direction on the track
In the case of Twisting Asphalt, after a few months I came to realize that it already had a focus, I just didn’t know it. 90% of the time the words that I was putting down on the page tended to revolve around my strongest personal passion in life – motorcycles. Go figure, right? Thus began the first refinement of Twisting Asphalt.
There are a great many things that intrigue me about motorcycles; They have rich histories with the vast majority of today’s major brands having been born out of the ashes of World War II, they offer tremendous price-to-power ratios which rival quarter or half million dollar sports cars for a fraction of the price – that’s a nice way of saying they’re affordable rockets, and they also combine art, science, technology and aesthetics in a seamless and yet compelling manner which I personally both admire and find fascinating.
However when I meet people for the first time and they find out that I ride a sportbike – which I have to admit is fairly easy since just about every t-shirt I own is moto-related – what I tend to tell them is that my greatest personal attraction to riding is the actual ‘sport’ of riding itself. Some might call it the ‘art of riding’. It’s an activity, which resonates within me unlike just about anything else in life. It requires a dedicated focus, a tremendous amount of patience and a heck of a lot of practice in order to be proficient. You can’t just swing your leg over a bike and instantly be perfect. And of course it also offers amazing excitement and an awesome thrill factor. There are times when I climb aboard a bike, fire it up, and feel as if I’m actually defying the very laws of physics, yet riding a motorcycle can also be a completely introspective and individual activity. Inside a helmet you can simply ‘lose yourself’ in the moment. It’s a powerful and intoxicating combination that I could spend a lifetime trying to capture and articulate properly.
Over The Years
In many ways the foundation for Twisting Asphalt started when I purchased my first Ducati, a yellow ’03 749, and became part of the growing legions of Ducatista around the world. If you go back through the archives what you’ll find is a multi-year highly personal affair with Italian Sportbikes that offers equal parts admiration, disgust, hate, and love. To own a Ducati is an utterly awesome sensation and yet a total and complete pain at the same time. Yet in someways this love-hate relationship adds yet another level of intrigue to act of riding.
Since 2004 I’ve been through four Ducati Sportbikes (yikes that seems like a lot); The aforementioned ’03 749 which was unfortunately stolen in West LA (there is no greater sense of personal invasion then having your bike stolen), an ’04 999 whose engine ate itself after its first Track Day (it was a bloody, messy affair, which I have no desire to repeat again, though I have to say that in the end Ducati North America saved the day), an ’05 999 which I truly loved (and have since handed down to my old man for good keeping), and now an ’07 1098S which currently sits in the garage. As you can tell I’ve got a slight weakness for spending money on motorcycles — and if given the choice between what is financially prudent versus what is emotionally satisfying, it’s pretty obvious where I’ll land…
Then, after being away from sport-touring riding for several years and finding myself missing the longer distance types of journeys, I picked up an ’06 Ducati ST3 earlier this year.
Of course while I continue to own and add Ducs, Twisting Asphalt as a website has continued to evolve.
In late 2005, Pro Italia, a Ducati dealership in Glendale, California, asked me to write some motorcycle reviews for them. You can check’em out here.
Then in 2006, partially because of Twisting Asphalt, I did some on-camera work for Discovery Turbo. Clips can be found here.
Today Twisting Asphalt is about a tad more then just riding and Ducati Sportbikes. During the past several years quite a bit of my work and personal life has crept back into the blog, sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s not. Oddly this has brought the site back full circle in some respects, making it a bit harder to define the focus in a simple and instant manner.
As I mentioned before, originally I started the site simply as a way to let the creative juices out – however these days quite a few folks show up according to the awstat website stats. Today Twisting Asphalt serves many purposes – it’s both a personal blog and a extension of my work, it’s part Ducati related news and part community thanks to the folks who leave comments time and again – but the basic gist of the site remains the same, it’s still a creative outlet for a very personal passion – the art and act of riding a sporty motorcycle. RSS Feed
For those of you familiar with RSS and News Aggregators you can follow Twisting Asphalt via the RSS feed. Simply add it to your news aggregator and you’ll get notification every time something is published.
I’ll Be In Touch, So You Stay in Touch
Team Pict - 2009 Sportbike Doc for National Geographic
If you would like to more information on Twisting Asphalt, or simply want to get in touch, please feel free to drop me a note below:
About
“Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.”
Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
After several years of blogging I thought perhaps it was time to post a bit more about myself. I grew up in Northern California, subsequently attended and graduated from The School of Cinema-Television at The University of Southern California, and since then, for the vast majority of my adult life, I have resided in various parts of sunny Southern California.
Professionally I produce and direct documentaries for cable television networks through my production company, Cry Havoc Productions. Generally speaking our shows have revolved around the Automotive and Motorcycle worlds, though from time to time we’ve delved into other subject matter that we found interesting.
How I ended up in the moto-doc arena is story in itself – There was no great plan of attack that’s for sure – rather my eventual move toward the moto-world in a professional context happened quite organically. What at first was just a personal inclination eventually became both a lifestyle and a passion. I’m a firm believer that the best work in life comes out of the areas that you most enjoy and as an adolescent, I was always interested and intrigued by things with engines. (Particularly things I could take apart – even if they never quite got put back together correctly). Little did I know that both cars and motorcycles would turn out to be not only a life long obsession, but also vehicles which would allow me to travel the world, experience an incredible range of activities and emotions, and ultimately altered the paradigm through which I view the world.
Shows I’ve Directed & Edited
On Location at MV Agusta’s CRC with Massimo Tamburini
Other Projects I’ve Edited
The Origins of Twisting Asphalt
In all honesty, there are probably hundreds of reasons to start a blog in today’s world. Mine was really quite simple, “Twisting Asphalt” was born out of a personal need for another creative outlet – something that felt more individual and a bit more organic then a 45 minute cut-to-clock program.
At first this need for creativity lead to a very cluttered site, full of all kinds of chaotic details. My sense is that this is exactly how the vast majority of blogs begin, that is to say most blogs tend to start without much of a focus.
Giving direction on the track
In the case of Twisting Asphalt, after a few months I came to realize that it already had a focus, I just didn’t know it. 90% of the time the words that I was putting down on the page tended to revolve around my strongest personal passion in life – motorcycles. Go figure, right? Thus began the first refinement of Twisting Asphalt.
There are a great many things that intrigue me about motorcycles; They have rich histories with the vast majority of today’s major brands having been born out of the ashes of World War II, they offer tremendous price-to-power ratios which rival quarter or half million dollar sports cars for a fraction of the price – that’s a nice way of saying they’re affordable rockets, and they also combine art, science, technology and aesthetics in a seamless and yet compelling manner which I personally both admire and find fascinating.
However when I meet people for the first time and they find out that I ride a sportbike – which I have to admit is fairly easy since just about every t-shirt I own is moto-related – what I tend to tell them is that my greatest personal attraction to riding is the actual ‘sport’ of riding itself. Some might call it the ‘art of riding’. It’s an activity, which resonates within me unlike just about anything else in life. It requires a dedicated focus, a tremendous amount of patience and a heck of a lot of practice in order to be proficient. You can’t just swing your leg over a bike and instantly be perfect. And of course it also offers amazing excitement and an awesome thrill factor. There are times when I climb aboard a bike, fire it up, and feel as if I’m actually defying the very laws of physics, yet riding a motorcycle can also be a completely introspective and individual activity. Inside a helmet you can simply ‘lose yourself’ in the moment. It’s a powerful and intoxicating combination that I could spend a lifetime trying to capture and articulate properly.
Over The Years
In many ways the foundation for Twisting Asphalt started when I purchased my first Ducati, a yellow ’03 749, and became part of the growing legions of Ducatista around the world. If you go back through the archives what you’ll find is a multi-year highly personal affair with Italian Sportbikes that offers equal parts admiration, disgust, hate, and love. To own a Ducati is an utterly awesome sensation and yet a total and complete pain at the same time. Yet in someways this love-hate relationship adds yet another level of intrigue to act of riding.
Since 2004 I’ve been through four Ducati Sportbikes (yikes that seems like a lot); The aforementioned ’03 749 which was unfortunately stolen in West LA (there is no greater sense of personal invasion then having your bike stolen), an ’04 999 whose engine ate itself after its first Track Day (it was a bloody, messy affair, which I have no desire to repeat again, though I have to say that in the end Ducati North America saved the day), an ’05 999 which I truly loved (and have since handed down to my old man for good keeping), and now an ’07 1098S which currently sits in the garage. As you can tell I’ve got a slight weakness for spending money on motorcycles
— and if given the choice between what is financially prudent versus what is emotionally satisfying, it’s pretty obvious where I’ll land…
Then, after being away from sport-touring riding for several years and finding myself missing the longer distance types of journeys, I picked up an ’06 Ducati ST3 earlier this year.
Of course while I continue to own and add Ducs, Twisting Asphalt as a website has continued to evolve.
In late 2005, Pro Italia, a Ducati dealership in Glendale, California, asked me to write some motorcycle reviews for them. You can check’em out here.
Then in 2006, partially because of Twisting Asphalt, I did some on-camera work for Discovery Turbo. Clips can be found here.
Today Twisting Asphalt is about a tad more then just riding and Ducati Sportbikes. During the past several years quite a bit of my work and personal life has crept back into the blog, sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s not. Oddly this has brought the site back full circle in some respects, making it a bit harder to define the focus in a simple and instant manner.
As I mentioned before, originally I started the site simply as a way to let the creative juices out – however these days quite a few folks show up according to the awstat website stats. Today Twisting Asphalt serves many purposes – it’s both a personal blog and a extension of my work, it’s part Ducati related news and part community thanks to the folks who leave comments time and again – but the basic gist of the site remains the same, it’s still a creative outlet for a very personal passion – the art and act of riding a sporty motorcycle.
RSS Feed
I’ll Be In Touch, So You Stay in Touch
Team Pict - 2009 Sportbike Doc for National Geographic
If you would like to more information on Twisting Asphalt, or simply want to get in touch, please feel free to drop me a note below:
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