3/30/07 To all the folks who've purchased the Lettus Bee vinyl scorpion; Thanks! I added a few more links on the right for shoes and figures. Have a great weekend everybody. 3/27/07 The Lettus Bee Vinyl Figure is now in stock at the Bend Store. There are a very limited amount available direct through me as Upperplayground and other online boutiques will be selling the bulk of them (there were a total of 500 made). The difference is, the ones I have are signed — both on the box and the figure itself — and they're available right now. Also, I hope you can all make it to the GR2 store on Saturday, April 21st for INK & PLASTIC, the official launch of the Lettus figure. I'll also be showing a grip of original ink drawings, a new giclee print and more. Thanks to Eric and Martin for making this happen. More info as we get closer to the date. 3/21/07 Cowtown's Phoenix Am contest is going down this weekend in Arizona. In conjunction, there's an artshow and I've sent over a few of the Chirp original black and white ink drawings (the color on all the final, published Chirp's, is done digitally). Check the show out if you're there for the contest, or, even if you're not. MVMNT Gallery 215 W. Univercity, Tempe, AZ 480-379-3605. On the subject of "skate art" go check the Jim Phillips studio visit that's up over at Fecal Face. Very cool to see behind the scenes of such a skate art luminary. Good stuff. 3/20/07 The National Safety Council has calculated your Odds of Dying. The odds of "Accidental Poisoning by and Exposure to Noxious Substances" surprised me. I guess you could consider this next list "The Other Side of the Coin"... The "Cartoon Laws of Physics." The Skull Skates Online Skateboard Museum. José Parlá is flat-out amazing. 1% For The Planet. 3/16/07 Just added most of the Chirp drawings I've illustrated for The Skate Mag over the last few years — that's the newest, above. Hit the "drawings" button to check them out. More surprises coming in The Skate Mag soon... Couple more shops added to the Wrench Pilot shoe list on the right. Check 'em out. A certain vinyl figure has dropped. In the Bend store soon... in the meantime, check the cool photos on this site. 3/6/07 Send your good thoughts to the family and friends of up-and-coming Aussie skater, Shane Cross. He's gone. Died in a late-night motorcycle crash. He was riding as a passenger with Ali Boulala, who's still in critical condition in a Melbourne hospital. More than anything I think of Shane's parents. They must be devastated. I'm not passing any judgement on what happened, or anyone involved— I wasn't there, I don't know what was going on, I don't know these two. But I do know a lot of young skaters are into bikes these days and there are plenty of photos posted online and in the mags of these boys, helmet-less on freeways, standing on their seats, fucking around. Rebel image marketing. I don't mean to generalize... but motorcycles are serious fucking business. In many cases they are heavy, powerful machines that demand respect, or they will tear you limb from limb. Literally. It's no joke. Every rider needs to take them seriously, but especially the young, new ones. It was a big contest & party week in Melbourne. No helmets. Fast bike. Late night. Rest in peace, Shane Cross, you should still be here ripping it up. 3/1/07 Spring opener is today... This afternoon is also the try-outs and draft for the Peck Park Minor League. I guess I'm coaching this season. Doh! A couple more shops have been added to the Lakai Wrench Pilot shoe sellers list. Check over on the right. 2/23/07 Go check out the winner and runner ups in The Quiet Life, Poo Poodles video contest. My old MX racing buddy and fellow graphic-pusher, Jared Eberhardt, took the top honors. Pretty cool idea for a contest, Mueller... and happy birthday mate! iChat iTunes right now (4:26); Wilco, Buena Vista Social Club, Emily Haines, Arcade Fire, Trey Anastasio, WOXY. 2/23/07 The best thing a bout iChat is getting to see what my "buddies" are listening to during the day. Here's a random sampling as of 3pm; Muse, Elliot Smith, Phish, KCRW, Flaming Lips, Children Collide... and Christina Aguilara. You know who you are. Give a visit to the Three Legged Legs, Casey, Reza, and Greg. 2/21/07 Cam, sent a few pics over from the current Ed Woodley and Kill Pixie show, "Bail Bond" in Sydney at the China Heights gallery... 2/16/07 I'm a dysfunctional human being. When I get the most busy, I get the most distracted. Inspiration comes at inappropriate times for me. I'm guessing the drawing will be used somewhere for something eventually. All is not lost. Back to work. 2/14/07 You know, Valentine's Day is considered a "Hallmark Holiday." Check this out: In 1969, as part of a larger effort to pare down the number of saint days of purely legendary origin, the Church removed St. Valentine's Day as an official holiday from its calendar. February 14 is now dedicated only to Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. But that ain't getting any of you off the hook today... me? I'm cooking dinner. And for all you Catholics out there; Happy Saint Cyril Day. 2/12/07 A sneak peak at the final Lettus Bee vinyl figure. It should be out in a couple weeks. I'll have a few for sale here on Bend. Thanks for shooting the photos, Mueller. 2/11/07 My old friend McGoo is working on his third complete bike build. He calls this badass the Smoking Gun. Check it out as of this weekend; The bike's tins are sitting in my studio waiting for me. Once I get over the intimidation, I'm locking myself in there to finish them up. Check out the Biltwell site for more pics and other good stuff. 2/8/07 The Monster Children Gallery has updated their site with photos from the "Taking Turns" show last month (thanks Cam, Joe, sorry to pester you). Ed Templeton and Jim Houser are down in Sydney at the moment opening the "The Invasive Embrace" at said gallery. This is damn cool... The Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz. And don't miss their Jazz Resource Library. 2/2/07 Lakai has updated their site (now, if only Monster Children would put up the "Taking Turns" show...) with the spring '07 line that includes the Wrench Pilot kicks, as well as some other choice goods. The bad news is, the WP slippers didn't make the production cut. The Mueller's son, Owen, has aged to the one year mark this week. Congrats you guys! Won't be long before they have him stocking the aisles at the Quiet Life. 1/24/07 Yesterday was our annual Open House here at Girl. I taped my Panasonic Lumix to my desk and shot these (1.7meg gif) over the day. 1/22/07 Got the green light from Lakai to show the Wrench Pilot shoe set. Check them out on the right. Now, as far as where to get them, check the Lakai site later this week, they should have an update with all the new shoes, including the Wrench Pilots. Or, hell, google it. Hope you dig. 1/19/07 I've been listening to old Public Enemy lately... great stuff. "She Watch Channel Zero." Remember that song? I'd forgotten all about it, so I had a good laugh at the irony of Flava Flav shouting out "Yo baby, you've got to cut that garbage off! Why don't you back up off that TV?!" Yeah, I realize most people figured this out right when Flav hit the TV. Still funny though. "...read a book or somethin'!" 1/18/07 Even Monster Children have a MySpace. Call me a liar if you want, but my first time ever even looking at pages on MySpace was last week to check the MC Gallery spot. I know, I know. I'm was the last one. But don't think I'm going all MySpace... I'm old, man. If you're over 22 and posting on that site, damn. Let the kids have it. What was my point? Oh yeah, the Monster Children Gallery has a nice slideshow up from the opening night of "Taking Turns" and you can check it here. A note from Ryan Schierling re the 1/16 post: "I got that slide from Spike along with a number of others (including a few shots of Lew, a pile of bikes, one from the side of an open van, and one that looks like the front counter of a Carl's Jr.) in various packages that were sent my way in 1989-90. They'd been stashed in a slide box, inside a shoe box of 'zines, buried in my closet for years. When I got a new film scanner, I dug out all of my old negs and slides, and found Spike's photos. Lettus was among them." Thanks for forwarding the scan, Ryan. 1/16/07 Apparently, that (above) is a piece of Lettus Bee graffiti I did back in 1989. I don't recall doing it (perhaps a beer haze). It's captured on a slide courtesy of Spike through Ryan Schierling at aural-fixation.com. How Ryan got it is a mystery, but thanks. I also want to take a few words to say thanks to the Monster Children squadron in Sydney. Cam, Chris, Joe and Lucy... you all made our trip a pleasure and a success. THANK YOU! 1/11/07 The Beast finally started working and I got a lot happier. Tonight's the opening. Cases of Asahi and multitudes of mon-prints ready to be consumed. All is well in Sydney. Here's a shot of the gallery last night — last minute touches, as Joe and Larson mount the large monos. (click for enlargement) 1/06/07 No luck with the HPDesignjet 1050C. Won't read the files we're sending it. Illiterate machine or idiotic operator? You choose. 8pm and I'm sitting in the gallery waiting for our lost tube (checked in at LAX on the 1st and apparently left there until today) to be delivered. Saturday night. Work is at a stand-still. I'm flipping through the pages of the very thick, "Sing Ding Aling" Thomas Campbell book just released by the Museum Het Domein. And feeling pretty inadequate, I might add... the volume and quality of T-Moss's work in the book is a site. I can't seem to get a damn thing done and the building across the street is laughing at me... Think I'll take a nap, maybe I'll feel better when I wake up. 1/06/07 Work's going well in Australia. Here's a shot of the pieces so far for the hand-made section of the Taking Turns show (about 1/3 of the exhibition); This show will be our first time trying giant, multi-pass digital prints. The HP machine is sitting here in the gallery looking menacing. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll work... Here's a shot of Joe Allen with Larson at a great pizza joint in Sydney; Turns out Joe used to art direct the graphically strong, Kingpin magazine, when it first started. If you want to check out a copy of his excellent zine, "30 Hackney Love Stories," give him a buzz at the MC Gallery. 1/03/07 Made it to Sydney. Posting from the Monster Children Gallery where we've started to set up already. When I get home ask me what it was like to sit for 13 and a half hours watching four bad movies in a row, with Larson's hairy, tattooed arm on my left and a hyper-fidgety 7 year-old girl whose parents could've cared less about watching, on my right. More soon. 1/01/07 I guess we've all been welcomed into '07 by now. Make yourselves comfortable. I'm headed to Sydney in a few hours via a 14.5 hour flight from LAX. Looking forward to it, really. I kind of like the idea of being captive on a plane for a bit... nothing to worry about or be responsible for. Larson and I are headed to set-up an Art Dump show monoprint show at Monster Children. Mueller is also featured but he's staying back to man the fort. I'll try to post while there, but if you don't see anything here, click over to sharetheair.net. Kelley got me the new Tom Waits box set for my birthday. I listened to it once then lost it. Anyone out there who knows where I might have misplaced it, please contact me. Maybe slap me. Thanks. 12/15/06 Oops. The Lakai Marketing Department shat a brick about the 12/13 post, so I had to pull the Wrench Pilot ad off the site. If you saw it, cool. In not, you'll have to wait until the print ads hit in Early Feb... Skate Mag first, I believe. Sorry Bird! 12/13/06 Here are a couple things I'm probably not supposed to reveal yet, but, what the hell... 1) The Lakai ad for the upcoming Wrench Pilot series of shoes; (click for enlargement) Lakai and Kelly Bird really went off on this project; 4 shoes, some slippers and a bunch of cool accessories including patches, pins and stickers. All this stuff will be available in February, I believe. Mueller put the ad together. 2) Lettus has a "Daily Ops" coming up in the next print issue of The Skate Mag. (click for enlargement) 3) The Upperplayground Lettus Bee vinyl figure prototype. It's almost done — just need to tweak colors, as you can see in the shot. This thing should also be available in the early spring of 2007. 12/12/06 There is a brief mention of skateboarding deck design in the new book, "Stylepedia; A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits," (Chronicle) by design writing guru, Steven Heller. The image of a Girl board I did is pictured along with a couple by skate graphic legend, Jim Phillips. A big thank you goes out to Mr. Heller, it is an honour to be included in one of his works. After spending some time on Steven Heller's website, I thought of the first ever design book I ever owned. It was required reading in my first year of art school; Wucious Wong's "Principles of Two-Dimensional Design." That Wong fella really knew how to break it down. And how great is the name Wucious? That may be my next child's moniker. 12/11/06 After I made a deposit at the bank this morning, I withdrew a "quick" $40. You know that feature on the ATM machines? Makes it easier to withdraw, right? Less buttons to push. Time saved. Well, at lunch I realized I'd left the quick $40 in the machine. Right in the slot were it pokes out. I didn't even touch it. This must be compounded retribution for the dollar I found, and claimed, on the hallway floor in 5th grade. Someone's not getting a Christmas present this year. The Dan and Bean Gildorf show will remain up at the Angels Gate Cultural Center in Pedro for the next few weeks. Great work. I posted some photos from yesterday's opening on the Art Dump's sharetheair blog. Chris Waycott and Andy Mueller redesigned the Art Dump site. Check it — I like "Besides" section best. 12/08/06 Added a new piece to the "painting" section. 12/08/06 Last year I created a board graphic for Rick McCrank that was a symmetrical design using a limited color palette (we also ran an ad). I really liked the effect and I've been thinking about making a painted version of the same idea. Only without measuring — without the perfect symmetry. The idea is that it's a statement on the impossibility of symmetry. The imperfections in ourselves and the world. About accepting them. I started the first painting last weekend. I'll take a shot of it when it gets further along. A Saul Bass title design archive. The flash stop-motion animations are nice to click through. Steven Heller's books. To put it simply, Heller is one of the world's leading authorities on design. The surface of the sun. Don't look straight at it dumbass, check the link. 12/07/06 Winsor McCay is one of my favorite line makers. I love his "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" comics — in both execution and concept. I hadn't thought of Winsor or the Rarebit comics for long while, until this afternoon when I stumbled upon the Pulphope blog. Paul Pope is quite the line layer himself, just take a look around his site. Ward Jenkins is more than likely not related to me or mine, but damn if we don't have a few things in common. Lots of new tees for the ladies over at Ruby. They've also added more of my paintings to the gallery/shop (scroll down). 12/05/06 I had a dream last night in which my family and I were staying over night with Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and their family in New York. Our kids, who happen to be about the same age, got along famously. And instead of talking music and pop culture, we were all just being parents and kids. Their apartment was beautifully modern and unique. The night after our stay they had a huge party with 100s of people. The vibe was great. Then, this morning — back in the waking world — I opened an email from Nieves with a promo about Kim's new book, "Chronicles Vol.2." I'm not too surprised by these types of coincidences any more. The book looks good. Peter Taylor's drawings are pretty unique. Somehow, the characters have a real warmth about them. A KozynDan documentary. These two have managed to put out quite a load of good work over the last few years. 12/01/06 Sale's over. Thanks all. I will be having another one (10% off) next week in case you are planning any more holiday shopping. You Tube is a pretty good idea that gets pretty goof ball. But my friend Staci found a goldmine on there as far as I'm concerned. Do a search for Tom Waits and check out all the gems that pop up — lots of live performances, foreign interviews and all his Letterman appearances. This live performance of "Chocolate Jesus" is fantastic. He's one inspiring SOB. Love him. I met him once, you know. Yep. Jason Polan has an interesting project starting this weekend (tonight!) at MOMA in New York; The Ream Project. VISIT "OLD NOWS"... #1 / #2 / #3 / #4 / #5 / #6 / #7 / #8 / #9 / #10 Write us