Lost In Translation

In the grand tradition of stultifying videos from Endless Bummer (New York), here is Yuri Shimojo, Naomi Kazama and Mike Ming attempting to translate the recent Glide magazine article about Toddy.

Things Happening Around Here

THIS

AND THIS

Wonders Rarely Cease

via Le Sabich

New York is for Surfers of All Stripes

The Morning Karmic Wonderment (or) New York is for Surfers

Belly full of coffee, check. Wife to take kid to school, check.  Board strapped to car, check.  Swell in the water with favorable winds, check.   Razor blade to reclaim melted wax, check.
Functioning car brakes... well, that would have been priceless.
Apparently it's those little things that'll get you.

Post Memorial Day

The official beginning of Summer things.  Like barbecues.  And cookouts.  And picnics.  And mosquitos.  And sunburns.  And seeing photos of yourself in the water that make you realize how truly awful you've become over a winter of semi-hibernation.  Or a lifetime.

One list of things is for sure:
1. Good surfers make bad waves look fun.
1.1. Mediocre surfers make ok waves look tedious.
2. Great surfers don't necessarily have to be good surfers.
3. Acclaimed surfers often disappoint.

And there is another list of adages one should keep in mind:
A) One hour of practice is worth a thousand hours of theory, but if you could actually accumulate one thousand hours of theory I'll buy you dinner just to pick your brain.
B) The best surfer in the water is the one having the best time, but sometimes it's hard to tell: people are real good at pretending like they are having the time of their life.
C) You can lead someone to water, but if the horse doesn't have any respect, it'll poo in your soup.

In my own recent accumulation of theory versus practice, I've managed to come up with a set of moves one might file under "DirgeDanderFiasco."  Observe:

(Other radical maneuvers contemplated but as of yet perfected: The Pig Fog, The Hark! Forsooth! and The I Pooped My Pants.)

Trailer Park.  This A.M.

A Respectful Memorial Day Weekend To All

Nice & Soft

This is a little "old." I can tell because in the notes it mentions it was shot on a 7D, as touting this new fangled techie-nology was something to do a while back.  Oh, I also know it's old because it says so.  2 years old to be exact. But I'm glad I stumbled upon it. It has that sensibility that is everything that reminds me of the best surfing days I've had.  Failing, warm light, just a couple friends and small, playful waves.  It's that Juicyfruit gum commercial color that will always illuminate every nook and cranny of my psyche.  I am simply a sucker for this stuff.

Yes.

His influence on my own life is obvious.

Uncle Bubbie On The Bus

Today the kids are going on a field trip to the French embassy.  P.S. 110 is rad.

Spectacle Goodness

A hidden gem in the neighborhood, Spectacle offers up all sorts of other, ah, hidden gems.



THURSDAY, MAY 24TH – 7:30PM WEDNESDAY, MAY 30TH – 9:30PM

“Emancipation or not, you want to sell a story.” Helke Sander writes, directs, and stars in this meditation on the proletarianization of the body, the misogyny of the Soviet New Man myth, and the other side of the Wall. Threatened by the increasing cost of living (not to mention of producing images), a women’s photography collective attempts to subvert a commission given to them by the politically and sexually repressive West German government. Drifting from private moments to Godardian accounting, urban survey to bureaucratic detentes, Redupers probes the possibility of reintegrating art into social space as a means of ending grey-on-grey capitalism and socialism, two sides of the same valueless coin.

Preceded by 'Subjektitude', Sander's student short at the Berlin Filmakademie.

FEMINIZING FILM PRAXIS spectacletheater.com/feminizing-film-praxis

SPECTACLE THEATER 124 S. 3rd St. @ Bedford spectacletheater.com| facebook.com/spectacletheater | twitter.com/spectaclenyc

Glide Surfing Magazine from Japan

"Hey Jamie.  What's up?"
"Hi Todd, how're you doing?"
"I'm pretty good, you know... what's going on with you?"
"I'm great.  Hey, are you at your office right now?"
"Yeah I'm here."
"Great.  Listen, the reason I'm calling is because I'm here with Chris down at Mollusk with some guys from a Japanese surf magazine and we both thought they should come and meet you."
"Sure, no problem.  Right now?"
"Yeah, we're right down the street, so..."
"Yeah, no problem.  I'm here. I'll be here all afternoon."
"Ok, well, we'll come by."

Next thing you know, Junji, Kenyu and Jamie are in my studio and presto change-o, Bob's your uncle, I'm in a surf magazine along with Bubbie and a bunch of other higher class people than myself. The magazine is gorgeous, there are tons of great photos, lots of kanji I can't decipher and articles on all sorts of surf shops and people and boards and things I've only heard about.  And me.  There I am.  In this sort of work-of-art Japanese surfing mag. Not only that, but Junji hit me up for some Pilgrim photos and so my photography is on the cover and in the Pilgrim section too. Crazy.  Michael Rovnyak did the super solid and donated what may be one of only four extant surfing photos of me. If Kanae weren't leaving for a vacation in Japan tomorrow I'd record her reading whatever they chose to write about me.  Looking forward to Lentini giving me a hard time about this.

Aloha Wednesday!

One More Time For the Cheap Seats

Guillaume Giving A Shout Out to Standard EBNY Positioning

Well, yeah, this does look rad.

via Driftwood Collective

Fish Fried

Saturday was super fun. The waves were there. The sun was there. The boards were there. I didn't shoot for long, obviously there were other things to do, so this is just about every inch of the footage. Apologies to those I didn't capture in the act (and apologies to those I did.) Good times.

More HERE.

And here.

Notes For Telemarketers

Andy Kessler Foundation Benefit

Proud to announce that the Picture Farm Gallery will be hosting 

the Kessler Foundation benefit on May 31st.

I Want To Go To There

Alex Knost is funny subject matter. I get the feeling there were a lot of haters out there at some point and maybe that whole thing blew over as people begrudgingly accepted how fun it is to watch him surf. Or maybe there are still haters. Or maybe there never were. I've never met the guy but he seems squarely in the creative camp. But everytime he is around these parts and playing music and surfing and whatever, I seem to be elsewhere. Then again, I didn't surf yesterday, or today, so I don't seem to be anywhere these days. The funny thing is, I actually asked myself if I wanted to post a clip of just Alex Knost surfing. I'm not sure where that comes from. But the water looks too clean, the beach too perfect, the surfing too fun not to.
Oh yeah... via Desillusion.

Ava in 'ol Times Square

Sometime EBNY contributor Primo Demmon has magically placed his daughter in Times Square in a bid to freak us out.  It's totally working.  The lovely Ava licking a lollypop some place where strip steak is eaten far more often than tri-tip .

Go Fish, Then Go Fish Again: Pilgrim Board Merry Go Round

Art Brewer Retrospective

If you know anything about the history of the photography of surfing, you know a little more than the average joe.  If you know anything about Art Brewer's odd prowess in that art form, you aren't claiming too much more.  I only say that since Brewer is a surf photographer of such rightful repute you couldn't be mining the depths by figuring his schtick out.  No, he's one of the first you stumble over. And one of the most affecting.  The upcoming exhibition of his work will no doubt be required viewing.  As Ty Breuer puts it "If you are a photographer, aspiring photographer, Instagramer, or give a damn about surf culture and you live in NYC, you should go to this.... The Art Brewer Retrospective"

And that's about it.

http://www.surfersvillage.com/surfing/56193/news.htm

(Here's a glimpse at the last time we saw him here.)

Rad Wintery Littleness

via Le Smash

Critical Slide Society

This outfit has been around a while. Things from them pop up on the Facebook feed and in emails and on blogs and so on and in true slacker fashion I've never really checked them out with the special thinking eye. Yesterday I see this great photo appear on the screen and I click it.  Then I see all these other photos appear that I like just as much, if not more.  This sort of viewing is not enough to make me feel ok about not being in the water this morning. I must have this crazy mixed up karma that gives me so much and then tugs the rug out right when the waves get surfable.  It drives me insane. Anyhow, these photos are full of the promise of better times had soon. via CSS.

LES (that's Lower East Side) (of Manhattan) (New York)(USA)

If you're around that part of this town today, tonight, in the immediate futre, there are some good things to see (and get) in unexpected places. Niki Polyocan's travel photos are gracing the walls of Casa Mezcal, and right down the street at Lost Weekend is a tidy pop-up shop put together by students from the local high school.  Easy pickins.

Breathe.

When all is gone wrong, and the morning mist has turned an annoying drizzle, when you've let yourself down and in so doing forced others to let you down as well, there is always the simple thought of flow. Quiet flow. This is via Mollusk and via Desillusion via Facebook via the internet via procrastination (mine and others) and of course, via the Campbell Brothers. I couldn't think of a better thing to watch on a day like today, which only built it's stutter upon yesterday's wreckage. Is that stinking planet in retrograde again?

Fish Fry e This Weekend

The 6th Annual NY Fish Fry is On!
Saturday, May 19th @ Washington Blvd    9AM-2PM   

Abegg Spindthrift

via N Oldfield

One More Time, for the Cheap Seats

Last Night's Party

Surf checking.  

Respect

Today's Thought.

Shaping

Alright, so we can't verify the quality of Windingo surfboards overall, or the efficacy of the Cash model in question. And we don't even know the guy who emailed us this video, out of the blue, claiming it to be "super cool." But frankly it is cool. Nice job on the simplicity Mr. Pappas:





And then, something on a completely different track (the verification process on this one would be so far beyond us it barely registers to register):





And finally, something we can attest to:

Tonight

I will not promise anything.

Yes.

All this pining away for some yesteryear, back-to-the-basics, halcyon days, wishy washy, oh wasn't it great sort of sensibility kind of gets on the nerves. I mean, I get on my own nerves. I bore myself to death with it. But still, there is something to learn from it all. Or just just to enjoy from afar in moderation.

Awesome.

From the oft-blurry vision of one B. Lentini
(hand prolly shaking with rage)
today's illumination: Go shred!!!  

Keeyah Super Tough alright!!!!

Beached Days Opening @ Pilgrim