- Two days past the due date. Nothing yet, ah well.
- Pretty much everything I listen to these days come right from
Jason's site Lo-Res
Viscera. So many great albums to grab. My two favs right now
are Modern Life Is War
and Trap Them,
which is really good. I'm looking forward to a trip to Amoeba
SF come holiday time. Until then I get by here in Portland...
- Happy Halloween.
+ Saturday, October 27th, 2:10pm +
My first in-car filming attempt. My new Cannon SD750 rigged
to the rear view mirror driving down the Historic Columbia River
Highway.
They can only get better from here. If I have the time. (This
is the first You Tube video I've ever included on my site...wanted
it to be one of my own)
You know the song...it's one of my favorites to drive to.
+ Thursday, October 25th, 2:18pm +
I'm about two-thirds into The
Driver by Alex Roy. Being the obsessed rally guy I am, this
book is like crack. Roy details all of this Gumball 3000 runs,
his Bull Run drives and his quuest for the cross country drving
record. If you're into this sort of thing, I can't recommend this
enough. Also, check out the Cannonball book by Brock Yates...which
I've read a few times now.
Read
this WIRED article first...as it's really a very well written
overview of his latest Cannonball inspired record.
I'm going to get a bolt on mount for my digital camera and try
to make a little driving film this weekend...we'll see.
+ Friday, October 19th, 3:46pm +
- Well, I better get the posts in because the kid is coming
any day now. Unbelievable really. The image above is the mural
in the nursery.
- Even with the kid I hope to get some snowboarding in this year.
When I moved to this city some damn some jerk stole my entire
set up. I just eBayed myself up another one. Picked up this
board in a 159. I'm sure there will be plenty of snow at Hood.
- Some interesting blog popping up...Coin
Op from Pinball Publishing and Rebel
8 look good.
- I missed 'Edge
Day'? What the hell is that any way? I should point out that
looking at all of Dobek's
Jam records helped me get into my current listening streak.
+ Wednesday, October 10th, 9:06pm +
Man...I'm on a movie kick lately, all three of these in the
past week...
- Let It Ride - The
Craig Kelly Story was pretty good. I enjoyed the 'hsitory'
aspect of the film and the early footage for sure. I think the
tough part was the actual footage of Kelly throughout. He may
have been a deep thinker but he just came off as sort of a burn
out. It might have worked better to let his riding footage do
the talking. It also seemed like the film makers stipped over
the part of snowboarding history when it passed Kelly by. I'm
not entirely sure he stepped out of the spot-light because he
had enough...the sport just progressed. Still, worth a viewing
for sure. Definitely a tragic way for such an amazing rider to
die.
- Next up, and at the same theater for this week only, is The
Man Who Souled The World. This was the story of Steve Rocco
and how he tunred skateboarding on it's head in the early 90's.
Very well done. It was great to see Rocco talk about everything
first hand. I guess it's hard to find fault as it's certainly
my favorite time period in all of skating. I clearly remember
everything that went on and learning about the hidden details
of this time was worth the price of admission. There were a few
'facts' that bothered me. The film stated that World had the first
'all street' team and video. Untrue. First, they had Jordan
Richter as a vert
rider (watch the first two minutes) and H-Street
had been doing the street thing for a year or two before Rocco
and World came around. Both companies were crucial in destorying
the 'big five'...but World wasn't the first, just the biggest.
ANYWAY, solid film.
(Also, if you haven't seen it...check out the On Video retorspective
on the Blind Video part
1 / part
two. It covers some topics from the film. Most of the stories
are also told in Sean Slivers AMAZING book Disposible.
A must have.)
- And last night was Into
The Wild. I didn't like it. It didn't follow the book at all
(in my mind) and was just a modified, sappy road picture. I'm
sure this the version of Chris McCandless that Sean Penn and Eddie
Vedder would like to believe in but I feel they missed it
where Krakauer got it right. This
review pretty much sums up my thoughts. Go read the book if
you haven't yet...it's brilliant. Skip the film .
+ Friday, October 5th, 6:05pm +
Last night I was able to attend the Portland premiere of
the new Nike SB skateboarding film, Nothing
But The Truth. I have to say...Nike spares no expense. Tons
of people with VIP bands enjoyed free food, drink and a great
venue at the Crystal Ballroom.
The video was also quite lavish with Brand
New School providing the opening intro, Mark
Mothersbaugh composing original music and songs from The Smiths,
Depeche Mode and Thin Lizzy. Pricey stuff to say the least.
Unfortunately the video wasn't up to snuff. I mean, there were
great parts...well, one great part: Omar Salazar. Chet Childress
was alright and Gino's three tricks were epic. And they needed
to give young Grant Taylor more screen time. The kid was amazing.
But past that the skits were pretty worthless, the video itself
was WAY too long and that P-Rod ender? Weak, weak weak. He was
the closer in sequence only with Omar taking the crown with ease.
Hell, almost everyone else was more entertaining. Is this the
end of P-Rod's career? Maybe.
But all that aside, the highlight for me was meeting a true legend
and one of my idols, C.R.
Stecyk III. Simple put, Stecyk has documented, or is directly
repsonsible for almost everything that I've even been into or
influenced by. He was the man behind the original Dogtown
movement, the Bones
Brigade idea and visuals, the attitude and look of Indy Trucks,
and most of the Kustom
Kulture car movement. He created the Skate
And Destroy logo for god sake. Skateboarding and car culture
would not be the same today without Stecyk.
I tried not to fan out too hard but had to tell him how important
his work was to me both as a skateboarder and a designer. He was
very humble and we spent a few minutes talking. I was stunned
when he mentioned that he read my stuff on SKATEDAILY.net. Unreal.
"Skateboarding without Craig could easily have become Little
League baseball..." - glen E. friedman
+ Wednesday, October 3rd, 8:58am +
I didn't even know he was rumored
to be dead. And he's alive again. Good to hear.
+ Tuesday, October 2nd, 1:50pm +
- Hello Portland...welcome to winter. So far there has been
no fall. Just straight into the cold and rain. Fantastic.
- I've been hitting the Netflix hard lately...
- I was very much looking forward to Deathproof,
the car based half of Grindhouse created by Quentin Tarantino.
Well, I thought it was flat out awful. OK, that first head on
car crash is amazing. No question. But past that...it was worthless.
I just didn't care about the HUGE amount of dialog...mostly because
it doesn't lead anywhere. If I have to listen to these woman drone
on and on it should pay off at some point. Nope, never does. Kurt
Russel's character was cool...but had no substance or back story
at all. Fucking yawn. I was glad I wasn't in a theater.
- And I owe Jay Bakker
an apology. Last
year I grouped him in with Stephen Baldwin and other preachers
jumping on the 'extreme sports / tattoo' bandwagon. After watching
One Punk Under
God I have done a complete 180. I wanted to see a freak show
but he seems like an honest and good guy. Watching him stand on
the alter of a baptist church in Georgia and tell the congragation
he supports the love and inclusion of all homosexuals was something
else. The guy has got guts and certainly my respect. Worth a viewing.
- Holy Shit. Sam McPheeters is as funny as ever. Listen to 'Bong
and Pipe Tips' on his My
Space page. Genius. He's online as well with his
own site.
