7/27/06 There's a kid in Emmet's baseball camp that hits the ball over the fence time after time. He's a big kid. He's black. His name is Barry. Em calls him Barry Bonds, but is really conflicted about it. "No one at the camp calls him that to his face, though." Why? Being called Barry Bonds because of a couple similarities is a bad thing? Apparently so. Pretty telling, isn't it? Is this young generation of athletes understanding the stigma attached to cheating via performance enhancing drugs? Or are they just mouthing what their parents tell them? Will they stop the cycle (no Landis pun intended), or succumb to the prevalent cheating culture as they progress and become more independent? We may have reached a point in the human evolutionary track where athletic progress has peaked and the only way to continue upward is unnaturally. Are we so driven to break records and win, win, win, that anything goes? Of course. There is a point in sport where the fun and games end and money takes over. My hope is that the trickle down effect dries up before it reaches culture-crushing proportions. Can you imagine people "using" to enhance their day-to-day appearances and "performance"... Oh shit. Now I remember why I fell in love with skateboarding and punk rock. 7/26/06 Cam and I have made up — though his excuse for missing the game was shite. Emmet turned 10 on the 20th. Couple days later his Peck Park All-Stars played a tournament up in LA. Over 100 degrees at noon during the 2nd game. It wiped the "ocean breeze" Pedro boys right out. Here's a morning shot of Matt, Emmet, Clayton, Daniel and Calial. And on the drive home after the double header... (Thanks for the photos, Janice!) Thanks for the photos, Janice! Larson and Coleman took off to Chicago today to set up the Art Dump "Mono-Poly" show for this up-coming weekend. The exhibition is essentially a collection of collaborative mono-prints and silkscreens... artists involved are myself, Larson & Coleman, Andy Mueller, Eric Anthony, Jeremy Carnahan, Misato Suzuki, Chistian Morin, Chris Waycott and AD guest, Andrew Pommier. Check the info over at The Art Dump blog. 7/18/06 Cam, where the hell were you? Another awesome game — rookie pitcher, Mosely got the win over the Indians, 10 to 5! GA and OC cracked balls out of the park. That's a 7 game win streak, Cam. The sunflower seeds were perfect and the Figgy bobblehead! Back to Sydney empty-handed... Sigh. 7/17/06 My vocal cords are raw from Saturday night. Super Vlad's grandslam (giving him is 1,004th RBI) took them out. Awesome game to witness in person. Went to see my mom on Sunday and she happened to be with her neighbor, a 60-some, shorter woman with dyed brown hair. My mom introduced me and she immediately said, "Rated X, eh? Heh, heh." And looked at me slyly, picket fence teeth the focal point on her old face. "Excuse me?" I countered, thoroughly confused. I couldn't take my eyes off her wooden teeth. She pointed to my t-shirt. "OH. That's RACER X — it's a motorcycle magazine." but she had already moved on the the next person in our group. "Your nose is very sunburned!" then... "You might need a haircut young man." and, finally, "Goodness, that is a large mole on your neck." Then she went home. 7/14/06 Going to two Angel games in the next few days. Against the Devil Rays on Saturday for Emmet's birthday and again Monday night against the Indians. The Monday game is a treat for our Australia brother, Cam Milligan of Monster Children mag who happens to be in town (and brought the Hecox issues with him). Those guys down there have never seen baseball, can you believe that? You'd think with the intera-web and all that... The Monday night bonus? Chone Figgins stealing (he lead the league last year with 62) bobbleheads! Figgy goes to Sydney! Now... if the Halos get a bat, stop making defensive errors and the pitching staff stays healthy — I say we go all the way. Who says it's still too early to tell? Pah! I'm bummed to be missing Thomas Campbell opening at the Roberts & Tilton gallery on Saturday evening. Sorry brother! Had a strange moment the other night. We were eating dinner in one of our favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints, Pena's. I hooked eyes with an older woman as she left the restaurant alone. I though, "I know her..." In a couple seconds I had it figured out. It was Linda, the late Charles Bukowski's wife. I turned to Kelley and said, "That was Linda Bukowski." in a matter-of-fact way. Did I almost fan out on the widow of my favorite writer? Maybe. She's a cool lady — having donated to the San Pedro Skatepark Association. I'm a kook. I should have thanked her. 7/13/06 7/12/06 My wife and I are considering a redo of the Kelley Hart site. She wants to do a blog, having just discovered them (keep in mind, she's a luddite in the best sense of the word — a by-hand artist, crafter). She's also got a pretty wicked sense of humor which I've been trying to get her to put into effect. Maybe the two will come together for this. We'll also be debuting a cool t-shirt line for little ankle biters in the next couple months, so keep checking over there if you've got some of your own, or know any that belong to other folks. Or like your tees really tight. A couple of amazing on-line illustration archives: ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Nocloo In particular, take a look at the Edmund Dulac's "Lyrics, Pathetic and Humourous From A to Z." That particular book and artist was the inspiration for Wrench Pilot #24. 7/11/06 Wallride shipped, so I'm back. Talented Canadian line-man, Andrew Pommier, was in town for the Fourstar 10th Anniversary showcase. He gave me a copy of his book, "Things I Don't Remember." There are copies left and it's a nice one for the collection, check it out. The Fourstar gig was good. Hats off to Jason, Eric and Michael for putting together a fine night for people to gather. The limited edition posters are available somewhere, I think. I'll find out. Mark Gonzales and Brian Anderson got together and collaborated on a few large squares of wood with paint. Spike and Mueller had a barrage of photos from the archives. By far my favorite thing (besides the Tacate), was Max Schaaf's "4Q" machine. It is a badass knucklehead that somehow retains a really warm feeling. I'm at a lose how to describe the bike... you could just feel it was built by a talented craftsman. The pipes, rear fender and brass bits made it for me. True piece of art, that bike. Wish I had packed my digital... somewhere there's a picture of Emmet sitting on it. Rick? I traded Porous Walker for the "Peter Gammons" drawing (see below). Great piece. Thanks, Porous. How about those Angels? Two games from the front. They put a hurting on the As just before the break. Gotta go. More later today. Maybe. 6/28/06 From Porous Walker this morning; "I really like Peter Gammons, let's hope he pulls through." 6/27/06 Got a couple good emails concerning the GB500 I posted yesterday. Lori wrote to tell me the Canadian CB contingent are quickly switching to the Yamaha SR. Not sure why. But I did find this interesting SR owners site from Australia. I also received an email from Chris of Neckdeep with a link to his former GB500. Wow, that's just a great looking bike. Apparently, Chris is on his second one already. Thanks for the email, Chris, if you find another GB, let me know... Earlier this year one of the most well-liked and fastest motocrossers on the US circuit was badly injured in a crash. Team Honda's, Ernesto Fonseca, has be rehabilitating ever since, and the guys over at TWMX have posted these Quicktime interviews with him. Best of luck to Ernie. Watched the White Sox/Houston game the other night. Absolutely amazing 8th and 9th innings — in the rain. Down 9 to 2 in the 8th, Tadahito Iguchi hit a 3 run homer and then came into the 9th and smacked a grand slam to tie the game at 9. 7 RBIs from one guy in 2 consecutive innings? The Sox eventually lost in the 12th, but man, Tadahito was something else. Last night the Angels were looking defeated in the 8th at 3-0 against the Rockies, until a rally remeniscent of last years Angels brought them up 5-3. K-Rod shut the Rockies down in the 9th to finish it up with a 5-4 win. They needed that one. I'll say it right now; I'm going with Mike Napoli for the MLB Rookie of the Year. What the hell am I doing? I have to get back to work. 6/26/06 My friend, Lori "CB" D, inadvertently reminded me I'd had this clipping from the AMA magazine in my pocket for the last 3 months. I've been meaning to scan it and here it is. Thanks, Lori. It's a Honda GB500. It was available in the US in the late '80s for a bit. Not too many of them exist. The motor is a sleeved down XR600 (an off-road model) single. Pretty damn cool. I could swear I saw a guy parking one of these on Weymouth Corners in Pedro the other day. I shoulda stopped just to get a peep. 6/23/06 Finally dropped my Thrux off at Southbay Triumph to have the bent rear wheel replaced. The wobbling was getting so bad, it was scaring me. No one believes me when I tell them I hit a pothole the size of a VW Beetle — until they see the rim with exploded spokes (check the zip-ties holding it together. Sketchy). Crazy busy. Shouldn't be here writing this. New Kelley Hart line; new Wallride for Girl, Chocolate, Royal, Fourstar and Ruby due; Bonfire logos due; packaging for the Wrench Pilot figure due; Chirp for The Skate Mag due; finishing up work for an Art Dump show in Chicago next month... and Cam, I'm working on your tank, man, hold tight. Gotta knuckle down. I'm off. One more thing; you must check the link of the day, "Asshole." From my old friend, Holden in SF. 6/21/06 I usually get to work about 8 or 8:15 in the morning. This morning the landscapers were here cleaning up, fixing sprinklers and such. The back of their flatbed was open and cranking Mexican radio... the World Cup. Once inside, my window faces just out the front corner of the building just above their vehicle. I opened my window and enjoyed the Spanish announcing and the gardeners cheering until they left just before 9. It was genuinely a nice way to start the day. 20 years ago today I made a vow of commitment to a girl I'd fallen in love with the first time I saw her. The contrast between then and now is almost startling, but also funny and even nice. I'm very comfortable around this person and together we've made the ultimate human collaboration, our son, Emmet. But love can become a complacent thing with time and sometimes it's grasp loosens to the point of mutual concession — like when you hold hands with someone you love and the grip is almost not there it fits so well... That's why the dates of remembrance are good. Reaffirmation of the original love. The giddiness, the passion. Kelley, I love you more now than I did 10 minutes ago. Happy Anniversary, baby. 6/20/06 Matt Cain. Wow. 21 year-old Giant came 1 hit away (in the 8th) from a no-hitter against the Angels last night. I started up my email program this morning and this message appear and it chugged away: GATHERING CHILDREN FROM DISC FOR LOCAL ACCOUNT That kinda scared me. 6/16/06 Add two more errors to the tally. Cabrera missed a routine throw on a double play attempt and Molina had a brain fart in the 8th. Two more unearned runs. Barely squeaked out a win in the 10th. Thanks to, guess who? Cabrera redeemed himself by pulling an 0-2 inside pitch and dropping into a hole in left for a walk-off single. This was an important game, people. A quick pan of the dugout after the 2nd error showed it on all their faces. They're on the edge. We play Larson's Padres starting tonight... What do you think, Tony? In smaller baseball news, Emmet got a call from his little league Angels coach, David Stitt, last night. He made the Peck Park All-Star traveling team!! Peck Park is the same place I used to hop the fence to skate the empty pool in the winter... about 20 years ago. The whole place has been renovated since then and I'm sure the park rangers who busted us on numerous occasions are long since retired. About Larson — he's headed to San Diego this weekend to pick up his much anticipated chopped '66 Triumph from our old friend, Randy Jansen. Randy tells me the bike is about to appear in Cycle World and a couple mags overseas. Not a bad bike to adopt. 6/15/06 Have you seen the Angel's stats for errors this year? They've already surpassed what they had total in the '05 season. No wonder we can't beat the Royals, we're giving away unearned runs — for free. Or maybe just the cost of embarrassment. So young Weaver is hot. Old Weaver is cold. And Cy Young opener, Bartolo Colon, is on his way back from the DL. This is what I hear as of this morning; Old Weaver to the Bullpen... plus his contract is up for bids. No takers so far. By the way, thanks to all 8 of you who wrote in about being baseball fans. Is that a green light? Considering I have 10 readers, 80% is pretty good. I say it's a go. I thought this was a pretty original idea. Well, not for me... 6/14/06 Turns out Roethlisberger may have run a red light. Young Jared Weaver goes 4 wins straight, in his first 4 games in the majors. Still think they might send him back when Colon returns? The kid is pure fire. And teamed with Shields and F. Rod? Damn. I'm pretty much talking to myself here, huh? Can't imagine anyone else reading this follows baseball much less the Angels. Let yourself be heard if you do. 6/13/06 So a multi-millions dollar NFL quarterback crashes on his street bike and the dangers of motorcycling become news again. Focus seems to be on the fact he wasn't wearing a helmet. Not on the fact that an oncoming driver made a left turn in front of him. Any driver can claim, "I didn't even see him!" (most do) and it becomes the cyclists fault. After all, he chose to ride the bike against flying metal objects 5 times his size, right? Complicated issue. I've heard the entire spectrum of stories concerning motorcycles on the road since I started riding my Triumph daily. Everything from an old man claiming he hadn't had a single wreck in his 40 years of riding, to our dear governor getting hit while riding his kid around without a motorcycle license. Turns out the Roethlisberger wasn't licensed either. Damn. Maybe motorcyclists do deserve to be overlooked and plowed into — no helmets, no license, riding on the fastest street legal bikes built. They're asking for it. I'm not passing judgement. But I do believe you reap what you sow. Ride a bike? Take your risks, everyone knows how stupid some drivers can be. Don't wear a helmet? If you go down, you are most likely hitting your head. Don't value it? Then fine. Ride without a licence? Well you probably didn't take any skill or safety courses either, right? Oh well. Take actions to protect yourself. Physical and mental actions. If you're going to go down, you're going to go down. But I think you can minimize your risks be being smart. Enough ranting. Time to ride home. 6/12/06 Larson's selling names, and painting again... Received this email from Michael Wikan after the post of 6/8; "Design without reach by Design Within Reach." 6/9/06 I think I figured it out. The internet is like a stream of sewage and if you hang around long enough, you may find a gem — like a kickball, a rubber duck or a message in a bottle. 6/9/06 The internet just seems to add to the utter confusion of life. A link from Lewman; "With a flavor of shouting, happy notions of taste!" Is this a metaphor on the dangers of mass consumption or a frightening allegory on colonial capitalism's rapid blanketing of the globe? As Lewman, says... "You tell me." 6/8/06 Everyone gets fed a steady diet of mailorder catalogs that are supposed to fit neatly within their co-called demographic. One of the most annoying ones I receive is Design Within Reach. Now, don't get me wrong, I love good design and am inspired by some of the work within its pages... what kills me here, is the misnomer. Within WHOMS reach? Ceratinly not mine. That's why I loved this site so much. Brilliant. Link found on News Today. I have a new painting up on the Ruby site (use the tiny scrolling bar on the right). The piece was part of a show called, ah, well, I can't remember. It was a couple years ago and I just got it back last week. Watch for 3 more wooden Girl dolls as well. I gotta get "within reach" people! Shit. 6/7/06 Friend of Bend and former critic (he gave it up after a bad bar brawl), Carl Sanger, passed me a CD by th' Haint. Good stuff, or, as Carl puts it, "...just 4 cool songs from 3 dudes. Sorta like a cross between the Birthday Party, X and Calexico with some whiskey thrown all over it." 6/7/06 Ryan "Team Solitaire" Clark has posted his Las Vegas SX gear for auction on eBay. For MX/SX fans this is a pretty cool thing, as the gear was one-ff and the Fly boots are ones I custom painted for Ryan, just for the finals. But the best part of the whole deal is that the money raised is going to help James Marshall, a racer who was severly injured in an SX race earlier this year. 6/5/06 The paradox I'm living in as a believer of Noam Chomsky and fan of sports is getting more complex... This morning I received a political spam with a subject line which read "Help Moby Save the Internet." The first question I asked myself is, "Why would I want to help Moby to anything?" Then, "Can we take a political action without some celebrity having to endorse it?" I guess not... we're too busy watching the NBA playoffs to pay attention. Maybe there should be a vote button on all TV remotes. Punch it and the ballot comes up on your screen. Click who/what you want and hit "send." Go back to your program, which will now be delayed a 5 or 10 minutes and fast forward through the commercials. Win, Win. Moby, don't send me any more emails, please. 5/31/06 Now 6 for the last 7. Big brother Jeff got the win last night. Can they sweep the Twins? First one of the year if they win tonight. Do I smell funny? 5/30/06 Angels have won 5 of the last 6. Stoked on the new dudes, especially Morales and Jared Weaver. Ricky Carmichael leads the points chase in outdoor MX after Stewart crashes out at High Point. Noam Chomsky considers sports a distraction — part of a veil of propaganda, mis-information and distraction thrown over the many, by the few in our so-called democracy... damn. The Flyin' Dutchman has photos from a current run on his site. Check it for glimpses of Schaaf and Jessee. Still riding on warped rims. Do you know anyone who makes you feel self-conscious as soon as you even think about them? I do. Not too comfortable. But it's a feeling I bring on myself, right? They surely can't be thinking, "I'm going to see him today, can't wait to make his anxious and watch him sweat a little." Or maybe "He's so self-conscious... he must fix this problem. Maybe I can help him." And then thinking they are maybe trying to help you makes you even more anxious? See, now I'm writing this and thinking I'm so self-obsessed... I need to stop. I probably should. Maybe. Fuck it. Two tears in a bucket. I'm not living in East Timor, right? 5/26/06 One of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. Click on the scroll bar on the top right for a long list of panoramas. Thanks Lew. 5/26/06 Waiting in line for a sandwich yesterday, I watched through the shop window as three people dug around in big black trash containers for aluminum cans and glass bottles. They'd dig, find, drain then dump them into one of the two shopping carts they had. They looked like healthy people, I mean, they weren't emaciated, talking to themselves or overly dirty. It was a hot day, at least by mid-May Pedro standards, and one guy had his shirt off showing blued tattoos placed oddly about his torso and arms. He'd parked one of the carts in the shade and approached it to grab a quart bottle of Popov. I was sure it had to be filled with water on this day, but after he took a giant drag and pulled it from his lips, his face tightened up and shook a bit. He went right back to work in one of the cans. My sandwich was ready. 5/22/06 The Beautiful Losers docu. 5/18/06 Got this great photo from old skate brother, Miki Vuckovich (long time Transworld Skateboarding man, now at the Tony Hawk Foundation)... Miki, Gemco Banks, 1984. Photo GSD. It's all about the flow. The Tony Hawk Foundation recently gave a $25,000 grant to my hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming to get a good park going. Thanks, Miki! Headline of the week from the L.A. Times yesterday; MAN FOUND DYING IN MACHINE AT LAX 5/17/06 Remember when you'd leave the house whenever you wanted, didn't have to tell anyone where or what or why? I couldn't either until this morning when my old friend, Rodger Bridges, emailed me a group of photos from the late '80s... they were shots of me doing slappys at the shit Mervyn curb in Torrance. Late night, sweaty, flowing. I remember now. Thanks, Rodger. And thanks to the old crew who made those nights so much damn fun... (click on image detail to enlarge) 5/15/06 Angels now sit a lonely last in the American League West. But, surprisingly enough, only 4 games from the leading Rangers. Psychic cancels another meeting. Ever done design work for relatives? Yeah... 5/12/06 Thanks Lewman and Bendall for the podcast info... though, today I feel more like dumping the site entirely, not making a podcast. I'm constantly juggling the pros and cons of this interweb deal... I can't seem to wrap my head around whether it's worth the time spent or not. Tony Larson recently completed a cool project with Neal Shaffer. Neal wrote the graphic novel, "Borrowed Time" (Oni Press) and Larson designed a t-shirt that the main character wears in the book. Is that a first? Lardog and Penxa also did a nice poster for the project, check it out here. 5/11/06 We have a cool thing we do at home when the day is done. Emmet will ask, "Does everyone want to talk about their days?" and we sit down together and go over each of our days events. In person. Face-to-face. No keyboards or monitors. I highly recommend it. I realize this is a way for Em to stall his bedtime, but you know, for the right reasons, he could stay up all night. Now, if only I can eliminate the phone and get my friends together for some face-to-face... Anyone know how to do podcasts? Bend should do one. Fuck, that was a crazy nonsequitur. 5/10/06 I found myself gazing out the window of Morgan Stanley during the meeting with the financial planner yesterday. It turns out the company is housed in a bank building I used to skate with my friends back when I first moved to LA in the early/mid '80s. Really smooth indoor parking structure with good curb blocks. Some rough banks in the parking lot... and here I was over 20 years later discussing life insurance policies, IRAs and 401Ks. Strange. I guess that's one difference between a 20 and a 40 year-old. I want to go back there and skate that place at night, just to shake hands with that catamaraning kid... maybe learn a thing or two. Didn't get to meet the psychic last night. She must've figured out I was napping and didn't want to disturb me. I never call my friends. That's lame, isn't it? But I hate phones... at least, I think that's the problem. I saw this girl in art school for a while and she accused me of treating my friends horribly. But at the same time, she was cheating on her fiance whilst hanging out with me. What the hell am I supposed to think about that? I should call my friends. And by the way, that girl went on to marry the fiance she'd been engaged with. And yes, he knew about me. 5/9/06 Today is stacking up to be an odd one. I meet with both a financial consultant and a psychic reader. Earlier this year I was asked to contribute to the Stussy World Tour T-Shirt Series. Having grown up with the Stussy brand, and harboring a healthy respect what Shawn and Frank started many years ago, I said yes. Here's Group 2. Check out the nice script on Cartoon's tee. Emmet pitched for the first time in a scrimmage game last night... The best part was seeing him smile up there on the mound. He was stoked. I think he forgot all about his crunched digit. Upperplayground has redone their site. Check out the Sam Flores "Fatima" vinyl figure. You'll be seeing a Lettus Bee late this year... 5/8/06 “I kept saying to myself there is no way Chad (Reed) is beating me tonight..." —Ricky Carmichael And he didn't. Carmichael and Stewart share the two premier class 2006 supercross championships. I predicted correctly last week (5/4 post) that James would win the battle and Ricky the war. RC's 2nd place Vegas outcome netted RC his 14th motocross title (his 5th in SX) and James the World SXGP title. Chad Reed came in for the 3rd spot (sorry, no championship for 3rd). Solitaire's RC, Ryan Clark, finished at the back of the pack after some trouble on the track — but, he still managed a 9th overall in both the SX and WSXGP series. Super impressive privateer effort. Emmet crushed his index finger doing a "coffin" down the neighbors steep driveway (here's a shot from a couple years back in Sacto). Who hasn't done that a few times in their life? Unfortunately, he's got piano and baseball... Marc Johnson bought four of my paintings (Mandala #2 & #3 and Piece of Sheet #5 & #6) over the weekend. If you don't know who MJ is, then, get a copy of "Hot Chocolate" and watch. He happens to be the man. Thanks, Marc. That emptied out my cache of work over at the Ruby Republic Gallery, but I've got more coming. I spent Sunday on a series of three wooden OG dolls and some smaller paintings. Maybe, in the upcoming weeks, I'll be able to complete and post them. The Art Dump blog is back online. 5/4/06 Angels six game losing streak ended with a big win against Detroit today. Tiger boy, Mark Penxa, was there behind home plate... how do you feel, my friend? FedExed the boots to Ryan in Vegas. Be sure to watch the SX finals LIVE Saturday night on Speed. I'm telling you, it's going to be a good one. And I'll go ahead and say Carmichael takes the championship with a 2nd place finish behind Stewart. Watch for Ryan (#32, Team Solitaire) and his boots to be in the top 10. The Godfather of freestyle MX, Mike Metzger, is due to go for his backflip of the Caesar's Palace fountains in Vegas... in just a few hours. By the time most of you read this, you'll know the outcome. ...and an hour or so behind Metzger comes game 6, Lakers vs Suns. Can the Lakers pull it out? Rick and Megan are both headed to the game tonight. 5/3/06 Not feelin' it; Giant, jangling keychains with tons of shit attached to them. Slow walking. Slow driving. Cauliflower. Arnold. The former roady, whispy-haired little asshole Brit in denim who works at the banner place. Not getting mail. The Oakland A's. Slow driving. Being hooked on coffee. Being tired. The terrible reading material in the bathroom at Girl. Anytime a decent publications shows up, it just as quickly disappears. Man, if that's all I got, I'm in pretty good shape. 5/3/06 Barely 30 games into the season and the rivalries are serious. A's catcher, Jason Kendall rushed the mound in the 6th after assuming Lackey (who's 6'6", 235 — and check that fist in the photo) was trying to hit him for some previous bullshit. Both were ejected after the bench-clearing scrum (cool word). Manager, Scioscia was booted out in the 9th after Rob Quinland was also hit by a pitch. Overall, a series of home games the Angels would like to forget, I'm sure. They're in Detroit tonight. Raja Bell?! Damn, dude... 5/1/06 Emmet's Minor Angels are now 2-1. Tomorrow night is game 4. The little guys are doing much better than the grown-up Angels for sure — they have slipped under 500 for the first time since 2003 with a 12-13 record. The White Sox swept the home series against the Angels and that solicited this comment from Centerfielder, Darin Erstad, "We stink; we're just not putting it together..." This upcoming weekend is the final race in the 2006 AMA Supercross series. It's live on CBS. I would suggest tuning in, as the storyline this year is amazing. The GOAT, Ricky Carmichael, is tied in points with the supposed underdog, Chad Reed. The phenomenal James Stewart sits in 3rd, 6 points behind. The title chase hasn't been this close since RC hit the scene several years ago. My take on the scenario? Doesn't matter. If (when) you watch the race, look for my friend, Ryan Clark, no. 32. He'll be wearing a pair of Fly boots that I'm custom painting in the next couple days. I know, I'm watching a lot of sports. But I do have three more wooden OG dolls coming along, they should be done and for sale on the Ruby site next week. I've also started work on a series of mini paper quilts that derive from a project I started some 7 or 8 years ago and was featured in issue 7 of Arkitip. The mini quilts are sewn from my huge collection of found and saved notes and general paper trash. I'll post progress as I go. Colbert roasts Bush. 4/24/06 Emmet's Angels won last Sat against the Nationals, 6 to 2. The Koston Kings didn't fare so well against Howard's Heroes on Sunday. Two games, lost both. Didn't matter... damn fun weekend. See Crailtap today for more. 4/24/06 Yesterday I found out Fausto Vitello died of a heart attack at 59. If you don't know who Fausto is then you don't know skateboarding. He had a huge impact on the sport/art and thus a huge impact on me and a whole lotta people I grew up around, and for that I must say thank you, posthumously, regrettably, having never had the chance to meet him in person. He was practically legend in his living life and now he certainly is, for the legacy he leaves behind. Rest in Peace Mr. Vitello, skateboarding will miss you. 4/21/06 I found Edith Abeyta's Buried Alive Plate #11... Emmet's Peck Park Minor League Angels have their opening day tomorrow, then go on to play the Nationals. Then Sunday is the Girl Softball blitz... not to mention the big Angels are be up in Oakland killing the As. It's an all ball weekend. 4/20/06 Strange set of coincidences revolving around Pedro... I've been reading Bukowski again. Started with "Last Night of the Earth Poems" about a week ago. Then, randomly a few days later, I found a fairly recent documentary done on Hank, "Bukowski; Born Into This," on Netflix. Got it and watched it last night. In the docu, one of my favorite creative people in existence, Tom Waits, is interviewed and he reads from a battered copy of "Last Night of the Earth Poems." Also, yesterday I went searching for a piece of Edith Abeyta art that she's buried somewhere near White Point with this hint; "D. Boon and Charles Bukowski are buried approximately five miles northwest of the site." Then, today I meet a Pedro resident (digitally), Davey G. Johnson of Jalopnik.com, and he drops Buk's name when we write about living in Pedro. It also turns out he knows Watt (D. Boon's bandmate in the Minutemen), having interviewed him for his blog a while back. To top it off, Mike's infamous Econoline (shown in the Jalopnik blog) now belongs to Raul, Kelley's assitant, Paloma's, boyfriend, who also silkscreens for Kelley Hart. No, I didn't find Edith's Buried Alive Plate yesterday, but I'm going back this afternoon. I love Pedro. 4/19/06 Angels lead-off, Figgins, hits another homer against the Twins yesterday. The man is catching fire early, gotta love him. Koston Kings vs Howard's Heroes is on. The prep for the Girl Softball game are in high gear now — batting cage sessions, parking lot toss, jerseys... though it may be getting a little out of hand with closed practice sessions and steel cleets. Long-time friend, Harold "McGoo" McGruther, has a new online writing gig over at the Jockey Journal. The man can lay the words down, so keep within clicking distance of his blog. Rumor has it he's got a couple books in the works as well... 4/17/06 Vlad finally woke up his bat yesterday. Figgy cracked one as well — a three run homer. 9 to 3 against Baltimore to end a 4 game losing streak. Have you watched the Henry Rollins Show on IFC yet? Pretty good stuff. My only complaint is that the interviews are just too short. In my opinion, the Chuck D & Jurassic 5 show was the best so far, though Sleater-Kinney rocked pretty hard on the first episode. I've been working on another series of Girl wooden dolls to post for sale over at the Ruby Republic online gallery. Watch for them to pop up within the next week or so. 4/13/06 No, I haven't finished my taxes. Too busy teaching Emmet how to snowboard at Mammoth. Conditions were epic and he was grinning his way down the mountains for three days (thanks, Brad). So, yeah, taxes could wait three more days. BTW, the shuttles up in Mammoth all run on Bio-Diesel. Larson turned me on to this film; "An Inconvenient Truth." The trailer is very dramatic, but, if you think about it, it should be... how else to you reach the media-callused masses? Hell, this probably won't even work. Megan and Misato have uploaded a new version of the Ruby Republic site and it looks good (Agents of the Area did the backend). Check out the gallery section, I have a few paintings for sale in there (discounted pricing — scroll down) along with Misato, EA and Megan. Visit down the road as well, Ruby has a lot of good stuff to come... I'm honored to have been interviewed in Pedro zine, The Rise and The Fall (you might recognize the Minutemen lyric). Check out their current issue. Damn cool local magazine effort. Thanks, Craig. 4/6/06 Working on a set of one-color kid t-shirts for Kelley Hart (that's my wife's little workshop, for those of you who don't know). Here's the first couple; 1 & 2. Also working on the new Girl website. It'll hopefully be up in May sometime. June? Coleman and EA have finished and posted the new version of the Fourstar site. And Carnahan has recently updated Royal. Doing a 2-color silkscreened poster for the Fourstar 10th Anniversary event (more on that later). Bunch of Art Dump alumnus are participating, including Geoff McFetridge, Johannes Gamble and Bucky Fukumoto. Anyone know how to reach Kevin Lyons these days? I've lost him. The Angel's defense is slow to warm up. Five errors in two games? Yikes. I think they averaged about 1 every 16 innings last year. I know, I know, only 3 games in... 4/3/06 It's Opening Day. I've already written about this on The Art Dump blogger, but it's cool enough to me that I want to repeat myself; "I've had this idea for years. To invite specific, sterotypical examples of certain sub-cultures to a particular place, at a designated time, without letting them know why or who else will be there. None of these people would know each other ahead of time. The ideal result would be a room of say 30 males of the same sub-cultural genra mingling about trying to figure out what's up. What would happen in these instances? Would these people rapidly bond? Or would it break down into an ugly scene? Well, I found this site today and am simply amazed at the photographic results of a similar experiment. Exactitudes." McGoo has posted his El Diablo Journal, "This is Our Story and We're Sticking to It," on the EDR blog. A fairly quick breakdown of the March ride with corresponding photos. Thank again to McGruther and Bryant. I'm looking to learn a new brush disapline. Monster Children Cam has entrusted me with the gas tank to his new hill-climber-meets-Hirajuku street beast (built by the artisans at Deus Ex Machina, the shop that's literally under MC mag's offices). I believe McGoo's 3rd build may be next in line for tin customizing... A really cool resource for cigarette package design. If you're interested. VISIT "OLD NEW NOWS" #1 / #2 / #3 / #4 / #5 / #6 / #7 Write All words/images ©2006 Bend Press and Andy Jenkins All Rights Reserved