Saturday, October 30, 2010
For the fashionably inclined...
Friday, October 29, 2010
Death Toll From Indonesian Disasters Nears 430
(AP) MENTAWAI ISLANDS, Indonesia (AP) - The fisherman was jolted awake by the powerful earthquake and ran with his screaming neighbors to high ground. He said they watched as the sea first receded and then came roaring back "like a big wall" that swept away their entire village.
"Suddenly trees, houses and all things in the village were sucked into the sea and nothing was left," Joni Sageru recalled Thursday in one of the first survivor accounts of this week's tsunami that slammed into islands off western Indonesia.
The death toll rose Friday to 393 as officials found more bodies, although hundreds of people remained missing. Harmensyah, head of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management center, said rescue teams "believe many, many of the bodies were swept to sea."
Along with the 33 people killed by a volcano that erupted Tuesday more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east in central Java, the number of dead from the twin disasters has now reached 426....
FULL, BREAKING STORY HERE
ONE PLACE TO SUPPORT EFFORTS : SURFAID INTERNATIONAL
"Suddenly trees, houses and all things in the village were sucked into the sea and nothing was left," Joni Sageru recalled Thursday in one of the first survivor accounts of this week's tsunami that slammed into islands off western Indonesia.
The death toll rose Friday to 393 as officials found more bodies, although hundreds of people remained missing. Harmensyah, head of the West Sumatra provincial disaster management center, said rescue teams "believe many, many of the bodies were swept to sea."
Along with the 33 people killed by a volcano that erupted Tuesday more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east in central Java, the number of dead from the twin disasters has now reached 426....
FULL, BREAKING STORY HERE
ONE PLACE TO SUPPORT EFFORTS : SURFAID INTERNATIONAL
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Marina Burini at Harry Gesner's Joint, The Way to Live
There is a goal here, the goal being to live within walking distance of salt water. Comfortably. It is a worthy goal for someone like me, but the environmental ramifications are frankly worrying. Should I be yet another body crowding the edge of land and sea, spilling my waste so immediately into that system? Still, it's the goal.
More than anything else, I've inherited ease. The ease with which I live my life is about as easy as you can get. Top 1% of easiness. Ease, ease, ease. And I am always pondering the possibility of more ease. In fact not a day goes by that I don't fixate, for at least a few private moments, on the opportunity to live in an easier place, doing easier things. It strikes me that I am wasting this great inheritance, this gift passed on from my forebears, by indulging in the extra amounts of small discomforts I insist on enduring. I think to myself oh, well, if I lived over there, I'd have it even easier! And truthfully, there is no small amount of guilt that comes along with this. It can be a big responsibility this ease, one might argue. Few people get the chance to live this sort of life, a life of quiet facility, and here I am squandering it. It could be so much easier! And wouldn't that make me happier? And wouldn't that happiness then translate into a beneficial equanimous energy I perspire into the world? Perhaps I'm doing the world a disfavor by needlessly stressing myself out.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
He said she said, then the other guy mumbled something. It was awkward.
News on the street has it that there is a new show to teach you about the old show. Or at least a new rendition of the old song sung about the old singing. Anyhow, Mike at Lenapejoking has posted about Richard at Hydrodynamica and here we are talking about it.
Blatantly good, ridiculously captivating. If it's like beer, we'll have some.
Found, predictably enough, here.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Waves Of Health
Waves of Health is a non-profit organization formed in 2007. The mission of Waves of Health is to provide modern medical care to under-served communities in the developing world and to educate health care professionals about health problems in under-served communities in the developing world. Additionally, having been founded by surfing physicians, the organization also has a focus on surfers’ health and sports medicine. Waves of Health shares goals with the Surfers’ Medical Association (SMA) and other surf related nonprofit organizations. A few dollars of donations goes a long way, and the importance of giving thanks for the bounty of our surfer's lifestyle is evident. Click on the "donate" button, and help.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Today's Thoughts
 |
| Jamie Watson's Cover |
And to those who say all that matters is winning, I want to warn them that someone always wins. Therefore, in a thirty-team championship, there are twenty-nine who must ask themselves: what did I leave this club, what did I bring to my players, what possibility of growth did I give to my footballers?
...I want to win the match. But I don't give in to tactical reasoning as the only way to win, rather I believe that efficacy is not divorced from beauty..."
-Cesar Luis Menotti
It starts one day and may have finish the the next. Two days comprising the one day. The first day might be an autumn day, late autumn in dim, clear autumn light. Cold, dark, we wake in darkness, pulling on our suits, glad it isn't quite as cold and dark as deep winter, and the suits aren't as thick as all that. The swell appears crystalline, frosted by the frigid sun. Just above the belly, just below the neck, the espressos pressing our jaws into jabbering between sets. We sit in front of the T.V. steaming, ventilating, watching sports. Soccer, yes, baseball, maybe. Football. Someone has made chili! Or bratwurst. And they've brought beer! Or red wine. We roll off the couch in the afternoon to kick the ball in the park. Someone stays behind to read a book. Coming back to play cards. Thick wintry pasta around a long table. The second half of the day, the second day, blooms early. In summer. Half summer, just around the longest day. Just before. We make espressos on the stove in the espresso pipe. We pull on our t-shirts and amble down to the beach. The surf is good then less good so we switch to body womping. After a while we laugh at how early it still is. The cold beer goes well with the eggs and beans and hot sauce. Someone bought the paper! There is a call to ride around, maybe shop the yard sales. Someone, no, two or three people, stay at the house, reading the paper in the backyard and drinking coffee. I am one of those people. We play ball, kicking back and forth. Should we wait or go to the beach now? Let's drink a couple beers then go, they'll know where to find us. The water is seasonably warm, the sun beats down and we head back. Everyone is back. Show and tell. Music. Someone with guitar. Sandwiches and fruit. A nap in the sun. The afternoon session is a building swell, evening glass without a whisper of wind. Someone has brought a pizza! This prolongs our session. When we get back we barbecue. More music. More people show up. Lots more. And more family. A salad. Drinking, dancing, a fire in the fire pit out back. And it's warm enough to sleep outside. No mosquitoes!
I once sat in a semi circle around a very small stage with about twenty other people at a Jonathan Richman concert in Santa Barbara. It was just him and that drummer and the twenty of us. Sitting there. Swaying. It was pretty great. Last week I paddled into Bill J. walking the old lady on the beach at Poles. We chatted for a while and I revealed to him my recent attempts to get Roadrunner onto a couple different television commercials. Yep, I've turned into that guy. The guy who unthinkingly takes a classic, life-shaping song and ruins it for everyone. Luckily, the clients didn't get it. Or they did, and they knew better. Hard to say. Either way, somehow in these tough times, Jojo has been a touch more than liminal. Interesting, that. This gem is via Gustavus Rhombiscus.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The preceding nonsense that lead up to this moment of potent observation was ravaged by ignorance, but the moment of potent observation remains, seemingly, intact. In the last few months it has increasingly dawned on me how much my life is spent either in front of a computer or away from a computer. I can basically divvy the time up in that way. Maybe an overstatement, but not too far off. It's an addicting thing, and one that has its own rules and social mores. I don't think it can be said anymore that it doesn't reflect "reality." More, that is has started it's own "reality" in some sense. It's an odd place to sit, watching oneself perhaps straddling a fence one never figured could be put up in the first place. But the first step is acceptance, as they say.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Richard Kenvin at the Tribeca Grand with a Microphone in His Hand
One half of EBNY made it down to the Tribeca Grand for the Kenvin talk. Took away nothing too specific, other than a real strong, real vague sense that a few lot of smart hydro-intellectuals were forward- thinking a might more than our often one-dimensional surfing history likes to tell us. It's the sort of narrative that begs more questions that will inevitably be left unanswered, or answered. Probably both. Like Maslov coming up with a modern sort of Total Football 4-4-2 in the USSR before anyone else. So it is with just about everything. History always unravels a tangled web. If you get a chance to see that short film Kenvin made (I was glad to get it a second time, first time had serious technical issues with the projection) be keen to pay attention at the first part where M. Muñoz is talking about the paipo boarders hauling ass.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
