The Endless Bummer

Robert Ray "Red" Robinson 1921-2012

2012-01-24T11:47:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-23T17:45:00.001-05:00

Oh My God This Looks Like Fun

2012-01-21T19:18:00.001-05:00

Baby On The Way

2012-01-21T18:02:00.002-05:00

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.

2012-01-21T16:30:00.005-05:00

This sort of thing is great.

2012-01-20T08:42:00.000-05:00

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

Surf Art By Any Other Name

2012-01-19T15:33:00.001-05:00

Abbie

Today's Other Thought

2012-01-19T13:56:00.001-05:00

Quote Of Del Dia

2012-01-19T13:32:00.002-05:00

"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

2012-01-19T11:55:00.001-05:00

Mos def.

Today's Thought

2012-01-19T10:43:00.001-05:00

I've never seen this. Thanks Grant.

Ice Sailing

2012-01-19T09:43:00.003-05:00

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

New York is for Surfers

2012-01-18T10:28:00.001-05:00

Smile.

2012-01-16T16:30:00.001-05:00

via Salcedo via Mollusk via Vimeo via Witzig

The Other Side

2012-01-16T13:38:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-14T17:55:00.001-05:00

Kids Draw the Darndest Things

2012-01-14T16:10:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-13T20:48:00.002-05:00

Today's Thought

2012-01-13T10:18:00.001-05:00

Readiness

2012-01-13T09:19:00.004-05:00

Tyler Breuer's contemplation on possibility

Coke Is It

2012-01-12T13:26:00.002-05:00

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.

2012-01-11T12:28:00.002-05:00

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

2012-01-11T12:01:00.001-05:00

2012-01-11T08:55:00.001-05:00

Today's Thought

2012-01-10T15:14:00.002-05:00

Thomas Brookins posted this up and we are following suit.

YES.

2012-01-10T11:59:00.001-05:00

Page 41

2012-01-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

Just over that ridge there...

2012-01-09T13:16:00.003-05:00

"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.

2012-01-08T14:07:00.001-05:00

Today's Thought

2012-01-08T11:03:00.000-05:00

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

2012-01-07T21:41:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-06T08:42:00.001-05:00

Today's Other Thought

2012-01-05T12:27:00.001-05:00

Leg Ropes and Doo Dads : Today's Thought

2012-01-05T09:44:00.000-05:00

Today's Thought

2012-01-04T08:57:00.001-05:00

The Second Annual Smiths Point Polar Plunge

2012-01-03T17:04:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

via Desillusion

Get a load of this guy...

2012-01-03T10:29:00.004-05:00

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.

Happy Old Year, Happy New Year

2011-12-31T18:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday at San Onofre State Beach on my penultimate water session of 2011.

I had the distinct, and in the grand scheme of the world's population, unlikely pleasure to spend over a week of nearly unfettered surfy joy to round out the old year. Eight days of two to four foot Encinitas, Cardiff, Carlsbad and San Onofre with fits of culinary satisfaction and familial camaraderie stuffed in between. It was somewhat a fitting end to a year of surprising turmoil and even more surprising traction. The kind of capper that only goes to highlight all the things I need to be grateful for.

Anyhow, we look forward to servicing your (and our) apparent need for an online (and probably distant) surf buddy. And while Antonio and I didn't have the chance to put together some sort of rambling fifteen minute year-ending talkfestvideoscramble, we can't wait to bore the pants off you in 2012.

-Toddy

Recent Thoughts from The West

2011-12-30T12:02:00.000-05:00

1. Ed Cornell still knows how to pick them. This year I tried but just couldn't get into the twitter thing. I think my official count is up to three tweets. Just didn't take. Sorry Jack.

2. Aunt Ghonda knows sweaters!

3. Next to the new little Surfy Surfy is a new little coffee shop that I forget the name of. Regardless, it is my new favorite coffee in the area. And if you take your receipt over to the surf shop they'll give you ten percent off.

4. Encinitas Surfboards have a fine selection of swim fins. Just remember to drop off a banana for the crew.

5. The happy hour at Fish 101 now joins Cessi's, El Nopalito, In 'n Out and Tip Top as a necessary North County meal stop off.

6. Life's Rad in Carlsbad.

7. Just when the dark, cold and lonely heart of beat-down Los Angeles was starting to crawl into my chest, I caught a whiff of something eerily familiar and my soul was duly saved.

8. The Ocean, my new favorite surf publication.

9. If you're in LA right now and you are looking for something to reconnect you to the recently anesthetized bit of your thinking brain, walk, stop for a quick stretch, then run, then walk again at a brisk pace to LACMA to see the Kienholz installation. It will give you nightmares but will remind you of many things perhaps you ought to be reminded of. At least it did me.

10. "Papa, why do we always have to watch the sunset?" "Because boy, just because."

11. You know technology is going in the right direction when the very first conversations on your brand new digital device center around hooking up a friend back in New York with another friend back in New York to buy/sell a Vaquero on the very quick. Mission accomplished.

Our Man, the Wandering Messiah

2011-12-27T16:45:00.002-05:00

Another find from the crypt.

The EBNY Sean Collins Memorial Surf

2011-12-27T12:44:00.001-05:00

I'm always keen to get out as early as possible, and if it weren't for wifey's grumbles, I'd prolly be out even earlier. Maintaining New York time is a distinct advantage for dawn patrols out here. I'm up, roughly at four, fitfully waiting until 5:30 or six when it has been deemed appropriate to actually rise and make whatever little noise I make. Matters are made more complicated as wifey's yoga class doesn't start until seven and she doesn't want to sit in the cold dark on the bluffs for a morning hour. Usually when I'm here I don't bother to check the surf report on my iPhone more than the initial inspection, waiting to board the outbound airplane from JFK. Once that initial digital check is done, I just look out the window in the subsequent early mornings knowing that I'll be heading down to Swami's or Cardiff or up to Old Man's or Cotton's no matter what I see. But even that one look, that one peek owes some sort of debt of gratitude to Sean Collins. I remember at one point a touch of hullabaloo about how such efficacious forecasting will ruin the art of the surf check, the marine radio report and any other manner of local knowledge. I still hear the grumblings every now and then, and an art has perhaps indeed been lost. But that is more or less a thing of the distant past. Now it is simply accepted. So it goes with things of use, things of true practicality. And acceptance can only follow. Here is to Sean Collins who was finally accepted and will be properly remembered.

A Good Day

2011-12-26T22:42:00.002-05:00

Time Pieces

2011-12-26T13:02:00.002-05:00

I still remember the furtive glances and stolen moments at the magazine aisle . Somehow, somewhere, in the darkness of my late Eighties Pacific Northwest youth, some local pharmacy-department-grocery store merchandiser thought it would be a sensible thing to stock surfing mags next to People and Time and I had been thrown into an illicit affair. The initial inspiration probably something happening halfway between the moment I traded in my planks for a snowboard and my older brothers relocating to Southern California; something then between the sheer boredom of the snowboarding magazines (located just to the right of the surfy ones on the periodicals rack) and the frustration with the oppressive mountain culture in which I'd been raised (oppressive a self-inflicted determination). Either way, both ways, whatever way, the bright blue water, the dappled sunshine and the goofball fluorescence drew for my mind's eye a picture of warm liberation. It would still be a handful of years before my own relocation, a handful of years spent eschewing skateboard tricks on my snowboard in favor of fitting in as many long arcing carves and snow spraying tail snaps as the Cascade ice drifts would allow, and a handful of years collecting, somewhat surreptitiously, a small library of surfing magazines, hot of the presses, or as hot as they can get with all that northern distance to travel. So really, it was a handful of years as a kook, a wannabe and a poseur.
Jump ahead to a few days ago, rummaging around in my old boxes stuffed away in a closet for safe keeping at my mother-in-law's Carlsbad house, I come across a milk crate stuffed with the detritus of that harrowing time. There in the reliquary I find the first couple surf magazines I dared purchase. The first ones I didn't just leaf through with angsty young digits while my mother bought the groceries, but had gotten up the gumption to buy to take home. First Surfing and then coming back with confidence for Surfer. Flipping through them now I can still feel the ignorant awe I held of the Rasta Schwarzenegger, Archie's tattoos and the improbable comeback of Tom Curren. After so many years of being in and then out and then back in the water again, It's nice to reconnect with that little moment of self discovery.

Winter Wonderland

2011-12-23T11:18:00.001-05:00

The Coaster in from the Airport.
Sunset at Swamis.
Tamale making.
Morning glass.
Ding repair lessons.
Newt & Unca Dana.

Today's Thought

2011-12-20T18:28:00.000-05:00

Well, alright. If you don't know Mastastico, well then, you don't know.

Yes.

2011-12-19T15:16:00.001-05:00

"SurferMan"

2011-12-18T20:34:00.000-05:00

The five-year-old sleepover is a fearsome thing. Odd bedtimes, even odder waking times. Weird food allergies, more likely bizarre food dislikes. There is always a spate of crying and a spate of complaining and a spate of not wanting to go to bed. But, there is this golden opportunity to affect a life. You know, to really make an impact. And so, when my son's friend's father forwarded me this picture my son's friend drew immediately upon return to his home, I figured I'd done my job alright.

Today's Thought

2011-12-18T11:09:00.001-05:00

It has now been half a month since I've been in the water. I'm pretty sure Antonio hasn't fared much better as I've not gotten the obligatory gloating and/or admonishing text message. This will all change, I'm pretty sure anyhow, with the imminent holiday trip to North County where the warm sun shines, hear the wind blown chimes...

Today's Other Thought

2011-12-14T10:55:00.000-05:00

Today's Missed Surf

2011-12-14T10:37:00.001-05:00

I had slated a surf this morning. Up early and out into clean fun cold water. But I didn't sleep last night. And I didn't set my alarm. And I'm tired. And then, out of nowhere really, my friend Amos pointed me in the direction of this clip. It oddly articulates a newspaper article I read this morning about Alvin Plantinga, a philosopher I studied in school. The idea he posits that we have these foundational beliefs that lead us down the road to accept that one plus one equals two, and there are other people out there who have brains like ours, that we're not just dog spit. Basic epistemological blather. But useful, in a way. I've always been about the coherent set, and I think that's where it all leads to, and he probably wouldn't disagree. Foundational beliefs don't exist outside the context of that set anyhow. Either way, I hear fake English every day.

Today's Thought

2011-12-13T16:33:00.001-05:00

via this guy

Today's Thought

2011-12-09T10:23:00.001-05:00

This One is for Lentini

2011-12-08T18:15:00.001-05:00

SurfyRider NYC Meeting

2011-12-08T14:41:00.001-05:00

Scheduled for January 11, 2012 at the Soho Patagonia store.

YES.

2011-12-08T10:53:00.001-05:00

100 Grand

2011-12-08T10:38:00.001-05:00

The perusal of our blog "stats" is not a daily habit. It is not a weekly habit. It is an "oh yeah, I wonder if anyone is looking at this blog" sort of every-now-and-then habit. And to be honest, we really don't know how to read the stats anyhow. I mean, how do you know if the page views are by one person clicking in a bunch, or some sort of evil empire spam robot, or if people are just finding us by accident, throwing up in their mouth upon arrival and quickly moving on? We don't know. We just do not know. Having said that, today I looked at the blog stats and saw that there were one hundred and seventy two pageviews yesterday. Figure at least 150 of these are of the evil spam robot variety. However, the really startling number is the 99,000 + "pageviews all time" number found just south on the stats page from that other number. Holy cow. I mean holy fricking moley. Moley. Today the Endless Bummer New York unSurf Blog may reach over 100k "pageviews all time." We have no idea what that means, and are absolutely sure that it's small potatoes, blog numbers-wise in the greater scheme of things, but that's just fine, it's some kind of crazy milestone as far as we're concerned.

Today's Thought

2011-12-07T12:40:00.001-05:00

Somebody Else's Thought

File Under: Can't Blame Them For Trying

2011-12-07T10:05:00.001-05:00

As The Nusbomb would say, hmmmm...

Surf Art By Any Other Name

2011-12-06T10:13:00.001-05:00

Nicholas Kennedy Sitton

Today's Thought

2011-12-05T18:19:00.001-05:00

A Hundred Miles to the End : The SMASH John Beattie Interview

2011-12-05T11:06:00.001-05:00

New York Is For Surfers

2011-12-05T10:17:00.001-05:00

Rest In Peace

2011-12-04T19:08:00.001-05:00

Today's Thoughts

2011-12-02T12:10:00.001-05:00

Lake Huron Radness

2011-12-01T15:48:00.001-05:00

via the fine, fine folks at Kurungabaa

Surf Art By Any Other Name

2011-12-01T15:44:00.001-05:00

Felix Weigand

YES.

2011-12-01T13:01:00.001-05:00

Today's Thought

2011-11-29T08:35:00.001-05:00

via Mr. Loo

A Belated Happy Thanksgiving from the Other Half

2011-11-27T09:31:00.001-05:00

While Tony took off to Costa Rica for a week, I had to settle with a quickie flight to North County for 48 hours. Fried turkeys in the Valley. Cotton's dawn patrol Spitcast session that worked out just as Jack said it would, even though he didn't have any forecast for that sort of high tide. Then Cardiff Reef and martinis with old one eye at the Ranch. Stopped by to buy a throwback watch from J.P. at Surfy Surfy to boot. Then back on the plane and back to NY.

Thanksgiving Day traffic

2011-11-24T11:00:00.002-05:00

End of Day 3 Occupy Nosara

2011-11-23T19:40:00.005-05:00

A Peruvian in Montreal

2011-11-21T10:46:00.001-05:00

Today's Thought

2011-11-18T09:01:00.001-05:00

via Desillusion

Yes.

2011-11-12T23:12:00.001-05:00

http://www.aco.com.au/Default.aspx?url=/reef

On Dropping In

2011-11-10T00:20:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about that Inertia article about dropping in. What I come away with are a few different moral justifications for the snake:

Economy of Aesthetic:
Each incarnation of energy made into a precious, surfable wave should, ethically, be ridden to it's highest potential. A rideable wave's highest potential can only be actualized by the most accomplished and/or aesthetically pleasing practitioner in the water. If a lesser practitioner takes off on the wave, it is the superior practioner's moral duty to reclaim the wave in the name of an overall general economic success.

Law of the Land:
Each incarnation of energy made into a precious, surfable wave should, ethically, be ridden by the practitioner who has spent the most time at that particular bit of rock, sand or coral. For the good of societal order, if a "younger" practitioner takes off on the wave, it is the "senior" practioner's moral duty to reclaim the wave in the name of communal justice.

John Stuart Swell:
Each incarnation of energy made into a precious, surfable wave should, ethically, be enjoyed by each practitioner equally, based not on merit but on existence of effort. If one practitioner snakes another practitioner based on any of the preceding justifications, parity must be reasserted to maintain moral order in a natural environment that is intrinsically free to all. It is the moral practioner's duty to reclaim the wave and reset the agenda for the good of surfkind.

Each of these fall prey to more or less the same slippery slop of the sliding scale. Who is to say what's prettiest? Who can really claim localism? Who can be the judge and jury on what's best for everyone?

In the end, it's a mixed bag of privilege to surf at high tone spots with any consistency. More often people find themselves at less than spectacular breaks, surfing middling waves with a community whose skill set, while certainly functional and at times inspired, rarely climbs the highest heights of surfing accomplishment. Especially with this in mind, one gets the feeling that there really is no categorical justification for dropping in. Not to say one shouldn't snake someone every now and again for whatever personal reason. But that's just it: it comes down to self-interest. I need to catch as many waves as I can in any given session. If some guy keeps snaking me, I need to figure that out. If a lesser surfer keeps taking waves and bailing, I need to figure that out. If someone paddles around me (a sort of "pre-snaking") I need to figure that out too. Basically, there are no lists of "if thens"; no delineatable set of moral obligations either way. You do what you need to do. In this way, perhaps there is one more categorical justification to add:

Man as Animal:
Each incarnation of energy made into a precious, surfable wave should be ridden by the practitioner who can lay claim to biological superiority based on strength, aggressiveness and guile. It is simply the way things go. The only moral measurement is the survival of the fittest. It is the practioner's personal duty to take an honest approach to the natural state of things thereby doing justice to the majesty of the untamable ocean and the blatant realities of existence.

Of course with this you've got the live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword deal. Which is often enough the best personal arbiter of pragmatic action out there.

Today's Thought

2011-11-09T11:15:00.001-05:00

The Case of the 20 Year Old Sticky Lumps

2011-11-09T11:05:00.001-05:00

So, maybe 15 years ago, prolly closer to 17, Tommy took a summer job at a surfboard shop near his childhood home in Sandy Eggo. At the time, Tommy was all about collecting stuff. He had a few wetsuits, a bunch of leashes, a few cruddy old boards, a truck, a car, a motorcycle and a very good looking beard. Did I mention the afro? Anyhow, so there he was working at that shop collecting stuff. Or beginning to collect stuff, because maybe it was within a couple years he had all that shit in one place, namely that little yellow house on the hill in Summerland. Or maybe it was at the Ranch? I don't remember, honestly. But at this point Tommy thought it would be a great idea to buy a couple of cases (cases) of Sticky Bumps. Then he stuck the gooey loot in a closet in his parent's house in Sandy Eggo and left it there. Or, more likely, he carried around the boxes full of the junk to the 20 or so odd different domiciles he would inhabit over the next ten years. That's probably more like it. I can't be sure. Or I could be, but I choose not to be. Anyhow, getting back to it, a handful of months ago Tommy handed over a handful of these old bars of Sticky Bumps, you know the ones with the scary ghoul guy on the package? Yeah. And I'm all "holy cow! where'd you find this old stuff?" and he reminds me of all that old crud he used to have and that he still had this military grade cabinet chest thing full of old wax and that I was welcome to it any time. So this morning, waxless and worried, I find some of those old bars in the boot of my car. Ever try to wax your board in 2011 with 1996 sticky bumps? Rub the heck out of it on the pavement to get at the golden nugget of goodness within the hard candy shell.

Whaaa...?

2011-11-09T10:33:00.001-05:00

via The Breuer Bureau

More Morning Light

2011-11-08T18:02:00.001-05:00

I guess I'm a Washington guy.

Lenapefoting

2011-11-07T11:25:00.000-05:00

I haven't seen Mike M. around as the shop has been closed... but he is still at it somewhere, doing that trickster thing he is so good at.

Mobile. For a morning.

2011-11-07T11:20:00.001-05:00

There is some article doing the digital rounds via The Inertia about the thorny ethics of snaking people. If you can get past the petulantly incendiary opening lines of someone wanting desperately to be antagonizing someone, anyone really, you'll find a relatively nice little piece that covers the topic to a point. On another tip, last night the phone said "green" and the website said "so-so" and all my cells were crying out "go!" This morning, the phone said "red" and I didn't even bother to look at the website as my cells were still screaming "go!" So I went. Chunky, cruddy, windblown and high tide. But the air temp was warmer even if the water seemed colder, and as I paddled into a handful of mushflats, I couldn't help but be proud that I made the paddle on the Monday morning, Wednesday morning or Weekend-morning-of-your-choice, that I am allowed to hope for surf. Even if there was in fact, no surf. So yeah, here I am, feeling proud.

Today's Other Thought

2011-11-04T14:02:00.001-04:00

Today's Thought

2011-11-04T13:30:00.001-04:00

Yes.

2011-11-03T10:10:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I take a look at the Follow section down below and see who else is out there. This usually means I am trying to put off some other thing I need to be doing. I nearly always come away with a good, substantiated feeling. This one is from Khaos.

Another November

2011-11-02T10:35:00.001-04:00

This is the season where each session is like one of those advent calendars. You've only got so much time between the sunrise and the moment you gotta be back in the car, heading back home. Pop open those little perforated windows... one, two, three, four if you're lucky. This morning was like that. Out and in, three in the bag. Fun, chest to shoulder high lefts, rolling from the depths of the east.

Negotiating the Window or Another Recorded Miss

2011-11-02T00:42:00.005-04:00

One might get weary of repeat performances. I'm not. There's something about the idea potential so tied to surfing around these part, Negotiating the window of opportunity, timing the tides, the swell, the wind, the new babies in the midst, family you never get to see, the rest you never seem to get enough of, the work you never get away from, the posts you only get to think of, the exercise you should have done through the week...We looked longingly on the situation. We gambled on the idea that as long as the wind stayed the same or got better, the cold air lifting as the day got warmer, it should be better as the tide dropped a little more but not too much probably. Maybe smaller but better shape. It wasn't. And it looked better just a few blocks down the beach. On either side. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't and maybe it just seemed to be that way.

Quality Muertos

2011-11-01T12:23:00.003-04:00

We'd like to say something great today, but these guys already did.

Marlyn Minter is for Surfers

2011-10-26T20:23:00.000-04:00

With all the down times come the up times. And for every sleepless night and lost cause, there is a productive all-nighter and crazy opportunity. And so it is that I was gifted, a few months ago, a handful of hard drives full of Marilyn Minter's next video project with which to have my way. Well, our way. That is, Marilyn is one particular, artsy gal with a set of objectives, percolations and opinions that would tend bubble out into me normally sedate life. To be honest, she was very patient with me. And to be honest, I am grateful for every minute. Anyhow, this Friday night at Salon 94, Marilyn is kicking off her exhibition with an old fashioned art opening. Besides the obvious point-of-destinationy kind of things that are her massive and incredible paintings, swing by and you'll also see some of my helpy handiwork rear projected onto a wall on Bowery. Inside is a whole room filled with another piece I helped her make. Super sloshy, wet and right down the alley of people who tend to like the sloshy and wet. Marilyn Minter is for surfers.
- Todd

Salon 94

New New York Observer Article

Today's Thought

2011-10-24T14:44:00.001-04:00

In The Water, Again. Finally.

2011-10-23T18:18:00.002-04:00

The waves today were small and fun.

Another Gold Nugget from Johnny Abegg via Noah Sabich

2011-10-21T11:40:00.002-04:00

Wave Theory

2011-10-19T10:41:00.000-04:00

Noah Sabich sent this through...

Today's Other Thought

2011-10-17T13:47:00.001-04:00

Today's Thought

2011-10-17T10:31:00.002-04:00

File Under: The Things They'll Animate

2011-10-16T13:37:00.001-04:00

Fela is not on Broadway

2011-10-15T19:23:00.001-04:00

Tommy Brull Foundation, The Latest Gig

2011-10-15T17:22:00.002-04:00

Today's Thought

2011-10-14T12:19:00.003-04:00

TSJ. Scott Hulet. Rad.

2011-10-14T12:17:00.000-04:00

Ty Breuer just stopped by to clasp hands, bringing glad tidings of congrats on the CSFF win and making the TSJ blog.

I'm all "whaaa?"

And he's all "yeeaaah."

And I'm all "whaaaa?"

And he's all "shut up already."

Then he showed me this: