King Walak

I first met Brian Walak when I was a sophomore at Williams. Prof. Cruz had organized a mountain biking trip to Utah and Colorado with a bunch of Pittsfield folks, and he graciously invited me, quite the noob at the time, to join them. The cliffs of Gooseberry Mesa and slickrock of Moab were my true introduction to the sport, but it wasn't just the thrill of riding off-road that got me hooked: it was the people. I had more fun that week of driving across barren BLM land in our rented Ford diesel pickup and riding until sundown than I did my first two years at Williams. There was Mark Gamache, always cracking a joke and allowing me to drink him under the table, and Sue M, who, despite being super-fast, would hang back a bit from the guys to make sure I was okay (I was actually close to defecating in my chamois out of fear half the time). Then there was Walak. Brian was one of the funniest and most creative humans I had ever met, and the lighthearted mischief he caused (or inspired us to cause) helped me to push aside my beginner's jitters and have the trip of my life. Brian was toting a tiny digital video camera with him for most of the trip, shooting footage occasionally without us thinking anything would come of it. A few months after we returned from our journey in the American Southwest, Brian unveiled the movie he had made of the trip. It was titled "Saran Wrap All You Can", and it freaking rocked. A telling example of the insane amount of creativity Walak possesses, "Saran" included customized intro scenes for all of the riders, including a plastic figurine of Mark Gamache being run over by a vacuum, a model airplane with my name on it being flown across Brian's lawn, and Cruz's name on an open/closed sign in the window of Brian's grandfather's barbershop. I watch "Saran" every couple months or so to reminisce about the week when I fell in love with mountain biking, to inspire new plans to revisit those locales with a new set of skills and a new group of friends, and to laugh at how incredibly dorky Cruz looked back then.




But, making fantastic home movies like "Saran" isn't Brian Walak's only creative outlet: the dude can BAKE. In fact, he's so good in the fondant department that Martha Stewart has him on speed dial. Check it out!