4/22/09 Ode to Earth Day; 4/21/09 The Art Dump "Make the Logo Wooden" show is this Saturday. It's a cash-and-carry thing at the Little Bird Gallery. All work is reasonably priced to fly out the door. Pretty much a one night only affair... see you there? I'm very proud to be a part of the new Girl/(RED) collaboration with Mike Carroll. Aaron Meza put together this nice short film to help explain the deal. A worthy cause. and a little peak into my studio and the Berrics. Thanks Megan, Aaron, Mike and (RED). 4/17/09 Keep it Simple. Is that so difficult? I can't be still. Could benefit from time away from everything. Such a luxury. If you owe me money, send it. I'm broke. If I owe you money, let me know. I can't pay you back right now, but I'll put you on the list. Round is funny. God has over a million fans. Fucking cool. His recent activity? God joined Facebook. Speaking of God, here's a song Rivers and Rainn did about him. Once, a long time ago, I can't remember why, but I just got into my car (it was a black Honda Civic that Megan was loaning me) and drove east without any destination. When I stopped I was on a long stretch of blacktop near Joshua Tree. It was about 2am or so. It was black dark and so quiet it was loud. Know what I mean? This was before I has tinnitus (self diagnosed, of course — what else could it be?), now it's always loud. 4/8/09 The Dead Weather, "Hang You Up From The Heavens." Wow. Benny Gold's summer collection is out. The Paper Plane Skate Wax is cool as hell. But Does It Float? The Return of Cafe Racers. Iconoclast Editions. I'm too late on this one. 4/2/09 Digging old Wedding Present right now. I interviewed the lead singer David Gedge from Raygun once and I told him, at the end of the call, that I knew one other person from Sheffield. He asked who. I answered, David Slade. Gedge answers, "You're kidding? He just shot our last video." Strange and wonderful stuff, these coincidences. Picked my pieces up from the Hibbleton today. The smallest one sold. One out of six. Hitting 167. Ouch. Need a $50 beach towel that will make you look sophisticated and cosmopolitan? Sure you do. 3/25/09 I haven't seen my old friend, Spike, much in the last few years. A lot of that can be attributed to me being more and more hermitized (hell, I don't even see my good friend Megan much and she's only about 200 feet away most days), but the other factor is probably his submergence in the biggest project of his life to date; the film version of Where The Wild Thing Are, adapted from the original classic childrens book by Maurice Sendak. If I'm correct, he's been cranking on this thing for at least 5 years. FIVE years. From concepting it, to writing the screenplay, to defending it and merchandizing it. Well, the official trailer just hit today and it looks spectacular — thought I ever doubted him? Spike, take a break after this and give me a call... time for another Fools Tour? Here's a super cool short time lapse of Anthony Lister working on a mural in Italy this year. The OC Weekly wrote a bit on the Spare Change show that's closing at the Hibbleton Gallery this week. I like what they said about my "New Depression Refuse" pieces — I think the writer, Dave Barton, actually got it. Here's a quick excerpt; "Take a few steps back, and they look like satellite maps of a city, the paper fragments blocks and towers and side streets, a Thomas Brothers guide to our individual histories." 3/20/09 Art Raffle meets the Art Dump in a battle of the Pods... or something like that. FOB Hersh put this thing together for the Dump. I recently finished an illustration for an old friend's upcoming photo book. Mike Blabac asked me draw a scene of Lettus Bee in a photo session with... Blabac! It turned out pretty nice, I think. Watch for the 11" x 14" gem of a book on PowerHouse. The Skateboard Mag issue #62 features this Chirp illustration (below). I'm still selling signed, color archival prints (12"x12" or 12"x16" depending on the design) of all Chirp illustrations. If you're interested, they're still just $30 — email me for details (payments thru PayPal). The original Chirp B/W ink drawings are available here. The big leagues is comin'. Just a few more days. The emails will soon start to flow amongst the all the Bend Baseball Kooks. In fact, here's one already; Matt Leveque sent over; The Worthless Card Collection. Be sure to read the Unconfirmed Player Notes and Tags. "There't not even free gum included in the pile of cardboard garbage." 3/18/09 Found the story I wrote, "Part of the Family", from the book Life and Limb; Skateboarders Write From the Deep End online... the book was published in 2004, but you can still get it. I recommend it highly, especially for Mike Burnett, Lori Domiano and Jocko Weyland's stories. Good stuff. Alex Lukas Blake Nelson Plus 1 Magazine 3/17/09 Bought the Dan Auerbach album, "Keep it Hid" a few days back and really like it. Then yesterday I noticed O was recently at one of Dan's gigs and taped a performance of "I Want Some More." So, go check it out on What O Saw. Thanks for the post, O. New Wooooo magazine (#6) is out. This is a pretty cool mag that's more like a pocket booklet. Mostly interviews. This time, Natas, Schaaf, Aaron Rose, myself and many more. 3/12/09 One of the most enjoyable things in my life is getting to meet, be around, work with and even befriend, some pretty amazing human beings. When Girl started in 1993, that was a major pivotal point in my life. Among a lot of other things, that's where I met and worked with these four; Guy Mariano, Rudy Johnson, Gabriel Rodriguez and Paulo Diaz. It's easy to take these kinds of situations for granted once you are knee deep in them. Thank you Patrick O'Dell for reminding me how lucky I am. Patrick started posting his Epicly Later'd series on the one and only Guy Mariano... and in there, along with the great footage, are some pretty cool interviews with Rudy and Gabriel. Go back and re-watch the videos of these guys skating 20-some years ago... way, waaaaay ahead of their time. Hard to believe it's been that long since Guy was introduced to the masses. 3/11/09 I am neurotic. The Post Family. Dodger Andre Ethier loves to eat. This shot of Brian Foster's scrub has made the rounds on the interwebs, but, man does it rule. I think it was originally a poster for Ride UK BMX. Anyone know who the photographer was? 3/9/09 The Spare Change opening went well. The best part was getting to see my old friend O, his lady Gabrielle (who I used to trade 'zines with back in the day) and Spidey De Montrond. O has a site called "What O Saw" and he did a short video montage on the show, check it here. Also ran into Lee Crane, did a quick interview with him and he posted excerpts on his interwebs thing, Boardistan. Check Lee's photo gallery of the opening here. Russ also posted a few shots on his blog. Now we start work for the Subliminal Projects show this summer, Weekend Pacifists. Thanks for including me, Pope, it's been a pleasure. Kelley Hart photo 3/6/09 I posted some photos from the Spare Change show set up on the Bend-o-Flickr. Check them out. The opening is tonight — hope to see some of you there. 3/5/09 Sneak preview of Spare Change bits I'll be hanging tonight; 3/5/09 The newest Chirp original B&W pen&ink is available for purchase. This is one of my favorites. You know, I'm always late turning these in to Ako and Kevin at The Skate Mag. And they are always cool about it. I love you guys. New one on it's way. Oh, and I'll sell limited (10 only) full color prints of this one, just drop me a line. 3/4/09 If you've been visiting Bend for a minute, you'll know I'm addicted to motocross, among a few other 2-wheeled offerings. That said, even if you don't follow motocross you may still have heard of this kid because he's pretty much revolutionized the way riders attack tracks. James Stewart. He is absolutely unbelievable to watch. I do not exaggerate here. For the 2009 season, he switched bike brands and just about every other sponsor he had been with for years and years prior, and has not skipped a beat. Stewart is the fastest on the track at any given time and sometimes he pays for it... but he also wins — convincingly — MOST of the time. With the Nike marketing juggernaut behind this charismatic kid, he's likely to be a household name if he continues to dominate as he does. Think Tiger Woods on a motorcycle. Check out this video introduction to James by Nike 6.0. 2/16/09 The "Spare Change" show is opening on Friday, March 6th. I'm headed to my framer today to get a bunch of new pieces on paper put together. Really looking forward to what my teammates bring in. I'll post some shots of the install at Hibbleton next week. Thanks Yong-Ki at Solitary Arts, for the great gift — the newest S.A. McFetridge wood is NICE... I don't even want to take it out of the plastic. Louis C.K. on technology brats. Nailed it. 2/16/09 About two weeks until the "Spare Change" opening at the Hibbleton Gallery (Fullerton, CA). Here's the lineup; Russ Pope, Chris Pastras, Chris Yormick, Mike Myers and myself. I'll have all new work for this one and even more at the "Weekend Pacifists" show at Subliminal Projects (LA) in August... the lineup is almost the same, but we welcome Michael Sieben. I'll post reminders as these get closer. 2/12/08 There are signed Chirp prints still available for $30. Payment via PayPal is accepted. Pick your illustration here, then email me here. We can work out the PayPal and I'll send it out to you ASAP. Foreign orders also accepted — just have to charge a bit more for shipping. I forgot all about this, but the Art Dump has a t-shirt + Monster Children (Art Dump issue) #15 combination available for $25. That's a good deal. A Design Mafia did a short write-up on the 2nd Girl collab with (RED). I finished the pieces for Mike Carroll's boards about a month ago and the decks themselves should be available by early summer. You can catch the Girl/(RED) spread from Wallride here, just scroll to the right. 2/9/08 Thanks to all who have ordered the Chirp prints. Tomorrow morning they go up to $30. See the entry on 2/6 for more details. Shot some photos at the GTF over the weekend. I'm always stoked to get to see Rick skate. Hersh shot some rad ones later in the day of a mini-mega ramp to door to quarterpipe transfer some of the guys were doing. The man, the legend, Milton Glaser, puts his thoughts out there on the Shepard Fairey phenomenon in Print magazine; "For myself—this is subjective—I find the relationship between Fairey’s work and his sources discomforting. Nothing substantial has been added. In my own case, when I did the Dylan poster, I acknowledged using Duchamp’s profile as an influence. I think unless you’re modifying it and making it your own, you’re on very tenuous ground. It’s a dangerous example for students, if they see that appropriating people’s work is the path to success." — Milton Glaser On a seperate note... what ever happened to that band Some Velvet Sidewalk (K Records)? I love that song "Ice Cream Overdrive." 2/7/08 Shepard Fairey''s troubles aren't ending with the AP lawsuit. He was arrested in Friday in Boston on two arrest warrants; "...police determined that he had tagged property in two locations with his street art campaign featuring Andre the Giant and the word OBEY..." They nabbed him on the way to an opening of his work, "Supply and Demand" at the Institute of Contemporary Art. Looks like Shepard's going to have to get used to being cuffed and stuffed. With his new high profile, there's no way he can continue his street excursions. Or can he? 2/6/08 On Monday I'll be putting up prints for sale from The Skate Mag Chirp series of illustrations I've been doing over the last few couple years (about 30 of them, I think). The prints are full color, approx. 12" x 16" (depending on layout of illo) on archival paper and signed in pencil. You can pick any of the Chirp illustrations I've done so far. BUT, the maximum number of prints per illustration will be 10 and 10 only. Price: $30 with shipping (rolled in a tube, priority mail). If you pre-order from now until Monday night, I'll let each print go for $20 each (just email me and we can work it all out). Pick a Chirp and drop me a line. FYI: Dick Blick is currently having a sale on nice, wooden, "gallery style" frames. The 12" x 16" ones are all under $15. 2/5/08 I will always be impressed by well made bicycles. The Tonic Fabrication (Group) makes some really classy two-wheeled machines. The welds are pure art, and check out these details on their bike, the Howie... how clean is that? Landon Holt is the man behind the operation and he's truly an artist. Keep up the good works, Holt. Guns or Cameras is the internets of Scott Kinsey. I dig the interface. Cool interview with one of my favorites, Michael Sieben. The Associated Press sues Shepard Fairey. 2/4/08 Happy birthday, mom! 2/3/08 This is kind of mind boggling. The 2nd edition of the (RED)/Koston board I did for Girl was captured on Google Earth in Mill Creek, Washington. What are the odds? This is pretty cool as well; Lettus Bee eating crap all over London. Photos by Lionel Dufau. 2/2/08 Back from the SF AMA Supercross. Had a great time with my old friends in the city for a short weekend. Went and visited people in the pits with McGoo on Saturday and watched the race with Randy Lawrence in the evening — which was really cool. Randy's been around MX and SX for a long time and has a vested interest in the races these days as he's the trainer for a couple of the top dogs, Jake Weimer and Ryan Villopoto. Jake won the Lites class and Villopoto podiumed for the 2nd week in a row with a 3rd in the TOUGH elite 450 class. I think Randy was pretty stoked to say the least. Ryan Clark (that's a picture I took of him above) had a tough weekend, but his team, Solitaire's presence continues to look sharper and sharper. He's just opened a race shop in Phoeinix called the Dirt Lab. Here's a tee I recently designed for that; Thanks for dragging me out of Pedro, McGoo. 1/30/09 Found this photo from a few years back. It was taken at New Image Gallery when it was on Fairfax. That's Dave Carney reading an excerpt of his piece in the book, "Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write From the Deep End." I can't remember what he was saying here but he was cracking me up all night. That's Emmet just to my left. Great book; includes work by Michael Burnett, Lori D, Jocko Weyland, Carnie, Angela Boatwright, Ed Templeton and more. That's Bobby Puleo's work on the wall behind us... meticulously arranged items he's scavenged off the streets of New York. Really nice pieces. Heading off to San Francisco for Supercross and beers with some old friends. Let's see if Josh Grant can pull off another win. Have a great weekend, All. Back on Monday. 1/28/09 Bend Question #9 has been posted — just to your right. Each week or so, I ask about 12-15 people the same question. This time only 3 got back to me... but all 3 are great, and completely different sets of circumstances. Check out the culmination of Mat Hoffman's "most memorable trip"... (actually, Mat sent over about 4 different answers and I chose this one — just for the matter-of-fact way he tells it). Enjoy. Mat, Bill Bryant and Damon Way, thank you very much for letting us in on these personal moments in time. 1/26/09 This is a crazy juxtaposition as pointed out by Carl F. Sanger on Crail; 1/22/09 Sometimes you just run across a single gem you want to share. Like this shot of Oren 'Putt' Mossman, from The Vintagent: Brian Unger gave this advice to the newest First Family. Suprematist Non-Objective Collage Poetry. New Collages by Cecil Touchon. Awesome. 1/16/09 Anyone catch Shepard Fairey on the Colbert Report last night? It was good. Shepard has pretty much solidified his place in current popular culture. Amazing and impressive. Randy Laybourne opens his solo show 20x20 this weekend in Oceanside at Swiv Tackle Circus. Randy is definitely in my top handful of favorite drawers, so the show will be well worth the visit to beautiful Oceanside. Some of the coolest photos I've seen in a while are Ryan Allan's Washington Street Skatepark set. A beautiful documentation of an incredible DIY feat in San Diego, CA. Ryan also co-conspirator on the Club Mumble blog. 1/15/09 Another Art Raffle Podcast is up; Me Talk When Me Sing. Check the song list here. Drove up from Pedro. Where my hat lay. Mark Penxa + Don Pendleton = Penxleton. Quiet Corners is Paul Gonella. 1/14/09 I have an idea. Bend Press is going to publish a book again. It will be called simply, FOB. All the images will be culled from the Friends of Bend Flickr site. If you have images you want to submit, become an FOB (send your email from the "Join the Friends of Bend" box to the left or lower right), then sign up to our Flickr page and post your images. No limit. No general direction (yet). Photos, art, graphics, prose — we can revise as we go... let's just see what happens. If you have written pieces you'd like to submit, just send them via email. 1/13/09 Anyone listen to the Bush press conference yesterday? January 20th cannot get here fast enough. 1/12/09 I have a couple shows coming up this year. I didn't show much in 2008, so I'm really looking forward to these. A lot of new work and sharing the spaces with good peoples (same line-up for both shows, except Sieben replaces Yormick at Subliminal Projects). Spare Change Russ Pope Andy Jenkins Mike Myers Chris Pastras Chris Yormick Hibbleton Gallery, Fullerton, March 6th Weekend Pacifists Russ Pope Andy Jenkins Mike Myers Chris Pastras Michael Sieben Subliminal Projects Gallery, LA, August 22 There may be an Art Dump group show somewhere inbetween those two (still working this out). More info as dates approach. Baseball season is right around the corner... but it's not like I'm going to shit myself with excitement or anything. At least, I hope not (link from Penxa). 1/09/09 "Air that is pregnant with possibilities..." Liyen Chong's current projects are documented in this video clip and they are just amazing. It's the kind of work you might think of doing (wait... probably not), but never get up the energy to do. Liyen has followed through and created pieces that will no doubt inspire dialog. Incredible work. Thanks to Trihn for posting on the Monster Children site. 1/07/09 Do Flaming Hot Crunchy Cheetos ever go stale? Art Raffle Podcast; 50 Under 60. Dig it. 1/06/09 Sites from a couple of exciting photographers I've been lucky enough to meet; Angela Boatwright Cheryl Dunn Bend Question #8 is up with more coming in the next day or so. Thanks to all involved. The questions & people asked will rotate every week, but archives will be available to check. The family is away in Wyoming for a week. Don't know what to do with myself except spend more time in the studio tinkering and experimenting with the camera. And sleeping. I love sleeping. 1/05/09 Bob K invited me to be a contributor to the newly re-launched Club Mumble. Since I'm a posting junkie, of course I said yes. Thanks for enabling me, Bob. Jerk. Today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 65 had he not passed away 20 years ago. The Motorcycle Man was 45 when he died of a massive heart attack. I turned 45 last month. It's going to be a strange year. Back to the INDEX page VISIT "OLD NOWS"... #1 / #2 / #3 / #4 / #5 / #6 / #7 / #8 / #9 / #10 #11 / #12 / #13 / #14 / #15 / #16 / #17 / #18 #19 Write us