Pilgrim Acomin'

Fasten your seat belts, hold your horses, batten your hatches, rub them nipples.  

Talent runs in the Family.

Robert Ray "Red" Robinson 1921-2012

Red Robinson passed on Sunday evening, surrounded by family and friends at his home in Carlsbad, California on the eve of his and Grannie's 70th wedding anniversary.  Papa generated more than a few namesakes, my son among them. The "Red Dog" helped incorporate Carlsbad in the 1950s, planning and building out much of the town's infrastructure. His strength of character, intelligence and generosity marked all the best things that North County has to offer. A pillar on the beach, Papa's enthusiasm for volleyball led to the creation of the Ocean Street Volleyball Association and countless games played just for the fun of it.  Papa was a man of a thousand stories, each more enthralling than the next.  From his daredevil flights transporting plumbing supplies to the inlands; from his time on the gridiron pairing in the backfield with Jackie Robinson; from his association with the most interesting time in California politics; Papa's most telling stories remain the ones he's left behind: his children, his grand children and his great grand children. A party is set for Saturday afternoon in his name. And a paddle-out to spread the ashes in memory of his birthday is set for July.

The North County Times obituary is posted here.

One such story.

Street Seen 1.23

Oh My God This Looks Like Fun

Baby On The Way

The beginning of the end.  Welcome to the wild world of urban parenthood.

If you are in the Bay Area or nearby, I've ridden in this truck. It is a good truck.  A much loved truck. I mean, it's no Suzuki (certainly no Datsun) but it seems like it's the next best thing. 

YES.

This sort of thing is great. 

Grant came down the other day and stayed long enough to take some photos
and accept some dinner.

Surf Art By Any Other Name

Abbie

Today's Other Thought

Quote Of Del Dia

"Hey, man, you got to let Joe Flacco know we're trying to win the Super Bowl around here! He's at home riding a skateboard. Somebody's got to let him know what the deal is."

In The Hook

Mos def.

Today's Thought

I've never seen this. Thanks Grant.

Ice Sailing

Noah Sabich dropped by yesterday and got me thinking real hard about this.

New York is for Surfers

Smile.

via Salcedo via Mollusk via Vimeo via Witzig

The Other Side

While meandering along  the lonely boulevards of Los Angeles a few weeks ago I was unexpectedly buoyed by the site of some New York Cosmos stickers slapped onto one of the street signs.  Something of the pulsating vitality of my adopted home came flooding through my visual nostrils and I could breathe a touch easier.  Skip ahead to this morning, trudging through the cold Midtown avenues my bookmark slipped out from the pages, warming my frozen gut with a memory of more comfortable times.  The grass is always greener as they say.

Today's Thought

Kids Draw the Darndest Things

The little central squiggly bit is apparently some poor bastard getting pitched.*

*My words not hers, that being the blue retelling of her version of illustrated events.

Thinking of Africa

Today's Thought

Readiness

Tyler Breuer's contemplation on possibility

Coke Is It

I read this the other day on some possibly dodgy health site:

When somebody drinks a Coke watch what happens… In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down. 


20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment) 


40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness. 


45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way. 


60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium. 


60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water. 


60 Minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

Submarining the sup.

Now, I ain't no SUP hater, necessarily. We've talked about it here.
But this is pretty great by the comedy standard.

This one is for Jack

Today's Thought

Thomas Brookins posted this up and we are following suit.

YES.

Page 41

Just over that ridge there...

"We interrupt today's neighborhood walkabout in order to offer this image to remind you of where you're not.  Thank you and continue on..."

Thank you Mr. Curran.  Sheesh.

YES.

Today's Thought

Stories from the Grand Street Playground
Yesterday Delphine told me that life in Paris is too bourgeois, her holiday at home bringing her nothing but cafes and wine drinking and nights out spent in conversation through the wee morning hours. She added that she finds men sexier there. A handful of minutes later, Molly regaled me with tales of Istanbul and how it is such a kid friendly city. Her holiday, spent with Everard and the two girls in the shadow of the Hagia Sophia, bewitching her, "illuminating" as she said. Everard admitted that perhaps one ought to watch the little girls closely when there. He was worried by possible snatchings. Maura spent her holiday in Greenpoint watching someone's geriatric golden labrador. Nick and Quynh spent their holiday traipsing the trails at Yosemite.

Stories from Fatherly Duties
The thing is, sometimes you just gotta eat it.  Granted, it weren't all bad.  But sometimes she gets to go out to Montauk to visit friends on the eve of some surfable waves while you've got to stay in town and take the kid to his friend's birthday parties.  It is what it is.  Luckily the birthday party was at Zebulon and the pastis and parler flowed like wine.  Comme du wine. And this morning when Fresh Direct rang my door, my head splitting with unrepentant soify memory, I checked the little digital forecaster knowing I was in for a heartache of a different sort.  Ah, fatherhood.  Ah, husbandhood.  At least we'll always have permaculture.

Roadtrippin' in Australia...East Coast

here's a quick little vid of a trip I just made to Angourie, Byron, Gold Coast with Andy Ward & Karl Weber....enjoi.....Angus.

Pilgrims of a Different Sort

Today's Other Thought

Leg Ropes and Doo Dads : Today's Thought

Today's Thought

The Second Annual Smiths Point Polar Plunge

The Second Annual Smiths Point Polar Plunge had a great turn out to bring in the new year, a solid 40 50 people took the plunge with about 100 on the beach cheering on, pretty good since last year there was only 3 who made the plunge. Note to self going in a 2nd time is very painful..apparently your body loses heat and doesnt gain in back and since I weigh 4 pounds my body was quite angry the second time in..good thing my goat herders beard kept me warm.   - Lentini

Enjoyablé

via Desillusion

Get a load of this guy...

I first met Mick at the initial New York Surf Film Festival a few years ago.  I was hanging around the after party, alone and in a corner nervously sipping on a Red Bull.  He sauntered past and struck up the only face-to-face conversation we've had.  That ended up leading to a number of other digital conversations later on.   It's funny how a relationship can happen over the internet.  I don't hink I've had too many of those.  My old fashioned, pre-cell phone brain has a tough time getting around the fact that this sort of detached yet lively thing can actually happen.  But I guess if one puts the energy in...

Anyhow, he has more than a few things boiling in the pot and a regular check in on his blog Safe To Sea is a blog-roll must.  Here is a guy I can say I learned to greatly admire from the digital afar.  Check out Ty Breuer's interview here.