back to neckdeep

l Friday - August 30 - 9:33am l

Homepage image sent in by BK from Steve Caballero


l Thursday - August 29 - 8:25am l

Welcome to this week's Thursday Three. By next week we will have the official site lauched with all the bells and whistles. More on that as it develops...until then here are this week's questions:

1) How are you feeling right now? Solid. This week I was offered full time employment for a fair amount of money. It's nice to be secure, stable and valued. I'm also a bit hungry (small breakfast) and a tad tired (no coffee and little sleep). I also ALWAYS feel torn when I leave my dog in the morning to go to work...she just looks so damn sad.

2) What makes you sad? Where do I begin? There are petty little things that effect me personally (Jess being out of town for over a week) and huge overwhelming issues (American politics, the state of the homeless in San Francisco, animal abuse in general). Ignorance, intolerance and weakness all make me sad.

3) Do you ever feel like being sad inspires you more than when you are happy? Hard to say. I think that in general some of the best creative work was created from sadness and anger. I mentioned to someone recently that I couldn't remember the last time I felt truly sad and depressed on a personal level. Sure, sad and angry about things like 9-11, George Bush, and acts of injustice...but not deep personal saddness that drags you down on a day to day basis. Not that I miss it, but it is now a time I value going through.


l Wednesday - August 28 - 8:55am l

Yesterday's Fresh Air on NPR featured studio drummer Hal Blaine who played on Pet Sounds and most of the other Beach Boy albums. There was also a short Brian Wilson interview worth hearing. The man is a total genius...and quite a weirdo. Click to listen (Real Audio).

NPR rules.


l Tuesday - August 27 - 4:24pm l

After a crummy day yesterday today seems to be shaping up nicely. Very nicely.

Caught the Tony Hawk Gigantic Skatepark Tour on TV last night. My next vacation I'm going to Louisville. That park is SICK. Unreal. 7000 people to see the tour and a skateboarding mayor. I'm moving.

On that note: Screw baseball...go on strike. You know what? Kids don't care about your aging 'sport'. Skating and BMX is the future. Save your money now...your fans are dying fast. Greedy bastards.

Coldplay are good. Oasis are still better.

The new Epitaph site is pretty good...but I expected better from the Surfstation team. Lord knows it's better than the last site.


l Saturday - August 24 - 10:16am l

Sorry my Thursday Three are so damn late. Work. See below for details on that…

1) What good is employment if you can't enjoy it? Money. That's what my Dad would say. During my entire 'career' money hasn’t mattered too much. From the get go I followed what I wanted to do before the amount of money I could make. Good thing too, because designing for the snow/skateboard industry pays dick. I don't regret it for a second. I accomplished most of my goals quickly, had some great experiences, and made some amazing friends. I also got to meet most of my heroes and feel good about what I was doing. I'm not ashamed to say that I've now figured out that my work does not define who I am. After working incredibly hard to start my own business, it didn't work out. I made the change from working in something I loved to pulling back and working for the sake of work (meaning: money). To my surprise I'm very happy and comfortable with this situation. I'm able to live my life and do things I want to do (even still doing action sports projects) without worrying about the details (meaning: money). I used to define myself through my job...now past that. I'll always be the same person with the same passions.

2) Assuming you are employed, even if it is part-time/sometimes, do you find that you have to turn work down or say "NO!" to the boss? I try not to turn down work…even if it means working harder or later…but I have done that a bit recently. I've also been lucky in always having a pretty understanding 'boss' that knows I do my best...if I do happen to have a 'boss' while working on a project.

3) Where do you get the most work done? It's more like 'when do you get the most work done'. The answer to that is in the morning. I'm a morning person. I love being at the office, or in front of the computer early...before others are around to get in the way or start to call. I also get more done in an office type environment...fewer distractions.

Thanks to Brad for writing such great questions this week. I just finished the design for Thursday Three and we hope to launch the official site soon. PLEASE stick these questions on your site to get the ball rolling.


l Wednesday - August 21 - 2:26pm l

I've had the Mike Patton & Dillinger Escape Plan CD EP, Irony Is A Dead Scene for almost two weeks now (thanks Jesse at HECKLER). The bottom line is that if you want pure D.E.P., get Calculating Infinity (in my top ten of all time). If you want Mike Patton get a Mr. Bungle record. It's a pretty good effort on the whole, but sounds too much like Korn in the vocals and D.E.P. seem to be holding back. Compared to the normal crap out there it's great, but I have high standards for both acts here.

You can grab an MP3 form the EP here.

Not much else to report. Pretty busy and trying to catch my breath. Watching the X-Games when I have the time. How was Mike Metzger's back flip no-footer? Good lord.

Check out the lost issue of DIRT by clicking the feature. I still have quite a few issues bagged and stored. I pull out the 'Head Out on the Highway' issue and read it often. Truly ahead of their time, The Master Cluster were no joke. Read on...


l Tuesday - August 20 - 9:01am l

I will continue to offer music that only one or two people who visit this site will actually listen to. OK, three (Chad, Tom, and Ivo...download this now). A song off Nile's new album is now in the Playlist. 10 megs of jaw dropping skill. Seriously, even if you aren't a metal fan, you have to admit that Nile are damn talented. The full album should be store shelves today...I'll be visiting Amoeba after work.

Still swamped...more later.


l Sunday - August 18 - 9:55am l

I did it. I spent the big bucks. I'm now the proud owner of the new 10gig iPod.

I hope all the work was worth it...I had to upgrade to system 9.2.2 (X makes me sick) and lose the use of my graphics card (crappy old graphics card...bye duel monitors)...all to rip and upload to the iPod. In a few weeks I'm sure it will all be worth it.

And now...back to working on a Sunday.


l Thursday - August 15 - 4:50pm l

I've been so damn busy...trying to work on two contract jobs, personal stuff, and a redesign for How's Your Edge. Full plate.

One project that may take shape very soon is Thursday Three...a better, smarter, sharper Friday Five. Feel free to answer these questions on your bloggy blogand give us a much needed jump start. ( questions written by my partner in crime and Thursday Three co-founder Brad)

1) How excited are you for The Friday Five? Will you be in front of your computer hitting the refresh button so you can be the first one to post? Friday Five is a joke. Poor questions that are rarely refreshed. It's a quality concept...but the torch needs to be passed. I've never added my name to their little 'I posted NOW' list...too silly.

2) Do you cry when you realize all of that time was spent in vain? Do you consider suicide? I do cry. I cry like a little girl with a skinned knee. I cry for the thousands of web surfers who look to FF for quality and are given much less. Suicide is not an option. We must boldly go on.

3) Don't you agree that The Friday Five is the lamest community-building bullshit of a web site you have ever stumbled across? I do....but again, the concept is solid. It's our duty to take it to the next level.


l Tuesday - August 13 - 4:10pm l

It seems crazy that I found this link about the state of San Francisco skateparks on a Philly skate site. It's a good article, but proves to me that the SF scene is just not communicating with each other. I suppose I'll post this on the sfskatepark.com site tonight...no one else will. I guess I should just bite the bullet and go to Crocker every one in a while, just to see what's going on...not to skate.

l 8:55am l
Interesting NYTimes article on the Warped Tour. Break out your wallets and buy in...punk rock is on sale now. (thanks to Lewman for the link)


l Monday - August 12 - 2:58pm l

An Idlewild song has been added to the Playlist.

Nothing worse than spending almost $1500 bucks to fix an auto. Damn. We're currently trying to save some of this blood-money by making the previous mechanics pay up after their shitty work. Jerks.


l Sunday - August 11 - 7:20pm l

If you live in the Bay Area I highly recommend the SKULLS exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Great exhibit design and fasinating skulls to check out. The website is pretty kick ass as well.

We also checked out the Tattoo The Earth event in Oakland today. It was WAY too expensive to attend (21 bucks each?!) and a bit underwhelming. I like to watch traditional Japanese tattoos being done by hand and we didn't stay long enough to even see that. Sometime in the afternoon Nikki Sixx was scheduled to make an appearance and sign autographs. His fans were pretty easy to spot. I don't think I'll see that many 'Crue' tattoos ever again. I have to give ultimate props to the guy getting a portrait of Nikki as seen on the inner sleeve of Shout At the Devil on his entire forearm. As David Spade would say,"Pure balls".


l Friday - August 9 - 9:17am l

A crazy cat ATTACKED my dog last night. Yup, a cat jumped out from under a car and attacked Kato while we were on a walk. I pryed the hissing screeching cat off Kato and Jess kept walking her down the street. Then THE CAT CHASED AFTER HER HISSING. Insane. Kato had two deep scratches on her nose after the ordeal. So strange...we reported the cat to animal control and cleaned Kato's wounds. I do wonder what would have happened it we didn't tear Kato away...probably a badly scratched up pit bull and a very dead cat.

Watch the Drunky cartoon for some Friday fun. "Oh Drunky, you're the drunkyist...".

and this...Battle On The Boat. Great, great animation and a killer little Ninja story.


l Thursday - August 8 - 9:38am l

Some music news of note:
- The Hives stuck between labels

- Noel Gallagher of Oasis injured in U.S. car crash...some U.S. dates canceled

- Sex Pistols to play SoCal with Blink 182 and The Offspring (what a shame...)


l Wednesday - August 7 - 8:36am l

Go and buy Shit Magnet by Jim Goad. Amazing. I'll have a full review posted in a few days.

A few new MP3s on the Playlist. American Nightmare is straight up hardcore. I wasn't impressed at first, but these guys have grown on me. Down is heavy. As heavy as Black Sabbath or zepplin, with a bit of Alice In Chains thrown in. As much as I dislike the predictable, macho Pantera Phil Anselmo does good with this band. I should have listened to Ivo and bought this sooner.


l Monday - August 5 - 12:01pm l

Forehead tattoo placement for sale on EBay. Wonder who won and if they are going to pay up? I somehow doubt it.

Then there's Tadoos...where do I pick up my check?

l 9:41am l
On Saturday night I attended a spoken word performance by Jello Biafra at Great Amercian Music Hall. Jello was good...but after two and a half hours it just gets a little boring. He had amazing things to say about post 9-11 America and some humorous Bush quotes but it just became like a high school lecture after a while. Buy his new CD...it's a digestable version of his performance.

Surprisingly enough the opening speaker impressed me ten times more. Darryl Cherney was in the car envolved with the EarthFirst / Oakland car bombing along with Judi Bari. Judi was also an EarthFirst activist who died of cancer in 1997. Darryl talked about Judi, the day the bomb went off, and about their fight with the FBI and Oakland police which they later won. In July ha was awarded 4 million dollars to be paid by the FBI. Darryl sang a few folk songs about the above mentioned subjects and closed with a great song mocking George Bush. It was an act Jello couldn't follow.

I've always admired EarthFirst and their 'No Compromise' stance...and Darryl really explained the group and what they do. Sometimes I just want to quit the design game and go help them out...they are making a real difference.


l Saturday - August 3 - 4:33pm l

I caught the movie Signs this morning. The first 2/3 of the film had me riveted. Great characters that were well acted and a very tense plot. The last twenty minutes managed to destroyed the entire film. Pass on this one. Also, M. Night Shyamalan needs to stop acting in his own films. He ain't Hitchcock (credit to Frank for that one).

Continuing the 'My girlfriend is out of town Movie Fest' last night I rented Mean Machine which is now out on DVD. Great movie. Vinnie Jones was solid in the lead and Jason Statham was great as 'Monk'. It's not SNATCH, but it was damn good.


l Thursday - August 1 - 4:29pm l

Damn, does this film look good.

l 1:18pm l
Burton launches their 2002/2003 website. Very rad. The audio clips with pro-riders talking about each product are fresh...wonder where they got that idea from? (*cough*Ride2001/02*cough*)

l 12:00am l
After months of wondering where in the world he was, my good friend Mark sent me an email filled with travel stories both good and bad. After visiting both Japan and Europe he is now chilling in Sweden with his new girlfriend. All the best Mark, we'll certainly get together when you return stateside.

Check out Mark's photos of Japan in this well designed gallery.

I've been playing Transworld Surf for PS2 quite a bit. Quite possibly one of the best games ever. Surfing games have come a long way since T&C Wood & Water Rage for Nintendo.