Where Eagles Dare

Well, not really eagles but this ball of feathers could still be considered a bird of prey. Came home from a surf one morning and as I was going to put my board away I found this bad boy hanging out in the tree that sits right over my garage. He hung out for an hour or so and then just disappeared. Not as good as the time my wife was going to be late for work because there were turkeys in front of her car door, but still a pretty good encounter.

Persistent Vision

File under "another movie I would consider shelling $30 bucks out for":

This System Clearly Needs an Intervention

I was driving home last week after a rough day at work where there was just entirely too much bureaucratic nonsense coming my way, and I happened to listened to Yo Man, Go!'s song "Down with Bojangles" for the first time in a while. YMG were such a good band, reminding me a lot of the Latterman, and lyrically they always had something good to say. Hearing "Bojangles" it fit perfectly with the kind of day I had. The song stuck around in my head and I came up with this sketch a day or two later.




Here's Yo Man, Go!'s myspace page where you can hear the song:

http://www.myspace.com/yomangogo

While you're at it, order a copy of their seven inch from Square of Opposition Records:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=229431739

Fashion for Rebellion

A student of mine showed up the other day with this shirt on and I thought it was hilarious.

I went home and listened to Tha Doggfather seven inch by the Ultimate Warriors at the end of day in honor of such a fine garment.

We Sang Along and Lost Our Voice

A late 90's flyer for the once popular and short-lived Sunday Hardcore matinee at Scarlett O'Haras. I've been listening to a lot of the Atari discography lately and wishing they would play out again. There had been some talk over the summer of them playing a few shows in the UK, but, unfortunately, nothing came of that as far as I know.

Like the old saying goes, "Scarlett O'Hara's is the place to go for all the real hardcore shows".

Sounds Like Sunday

There was supposed to be a small bump in the waves yesterday, and with the forecast showing flatness until the end of the week, I thought I'd try and get out. A weak little front was supposed to pass over, bringing the NW winds, but once that happened, things were going to get blown out quick, so I sat around constantly checking the cameras and waiting for the tide to fill in a little in the afternoon. Finally, I headed out. First spot check was the south end, which as you can tell from below, looked tiny.

A high point in fashion: wetsuit plus slip-ons.

Trying to decide whether to park and go or check some other spots. I ended up driving the length of the island to find that things were equally as small in the north.
I ended up heading back down to the south end, all the while coming up with a list of reasons in my head why I should paddle out despite the microscopic conditions. So I ended up ripple riding for an hour or so in some super clean, although tiny waves. My neighbor Will ended up paddling out with a friend closer to the pier, so he can attest to the wild weather during the afternoon session. Things were relatively warm at the start, but the wind picked up a bit and then it began to rain and snow at the same time, eventually changing completely to snow for twenty minutes or so. Because the wind was so strong, it was snowing sideways for most of the squall, and things got very cold very quickly with the wind. I'm glad I headed out when I did because the wind seem to really beat things down quickly, leaving fewer and fewer ripples coming through to ride. Beats sitting on the couch watching NBA basketball any day.

Jazz the Glass

I don't care whether you surf or whether you are a competitive quilter. You need to see this movie trailer and watch it from beginning to end:

CLICK-----------> JAZZ THE GLASS TRAILER<-----------------CLICK

The makers of Invasion from Planet C, Mike Black and Stoke films are ready to release their latest film Jazz the Glass, and if the movie is anything like the trailer, it will be incredible. If you are not laughing out loud by the end of that trailer, you're a kook.

Five Finger Headache

It is no secret that I am big fan of all of Sean McCabe's projects. Ink & Dagger made their debut when I was in high school and from there I worked my way back into his other stuff too. Found Mandela Strikeforce and Crud is a Cult and eventually even xOn Pointx. I have the Crud seven inch in my collection, but didn't know that it had two different covers until about a week ago after seeing it up on eBay.

Being a completist for the more important bands in my collection, I was dead set on scoring the alternate cover and being the fact that the auction ended at 8 in the morning on a Friday, I thought my chances were pretty strong. No one had bid on the record up until the night before either, so I really felt confident. I awoke the next morning to find the price up to $18 bucks, which was a bummer. I had in my mind what I thought the record was worth based on what I had paid for it a few years ago, and it seemed to me that someone had put down a huge bid in an attempt to score the record without having to be around for the end of the auction.

Our school has a ridiculously rigid and overbearing internet policy. Case in point, one of my students were limited in going on a math skills building site because sKILLs has the word kill in it. Completely Draconian. Without getting too off point, I was going to have to use my phone to bid. I ended up waiting until right before the auction to bid, only to be outbid with a few seconds remaining. Poor judgment getting the better of me I decided to increase my bid, in the hopes of cracking whoever put up their ridiculously high bid, only to have a error occur on my phone as the last few seconds slipped away.

Truth be told, I have a feeling even if there had not been an error on my phone, I would have still not cracked the mystery bid, but it kills me not to know if it would have worked. I doubt I will be seeing the Funeral cover show up on eBay in the next few years and it is pretty sad that I get this worked up over records. I've been listening to the Crud seven inch this week along with my burnt copies of the demo and the mysterious 2nd EP in honor of the Cult and decided to make the alternate cover you see below. I feel it is T-Shirt worthy, although most guys who surf have no idea who Crud is.

Paint. Destroy. Vomit

Running some errands on Asbury Avenue the other day, I parked across the street from the building were the new 7th Street Surf Shop is going. As I was checking things out, my eyes scanned to the top of the building and noticed two very large and obnoxious logos painted on the top of the building. Whoever stays in the top part decided it would be a good idea to paint gigantic Phillies' and Eagles' logos atop the building for all passer-bys to see. The fact that its an Eagles logo doesn't bother me, its the fact that the "artist" decided to basically ruin the entire building by plastering two completely dumb logos on the outside of the building. The jackasses didn't even get the Phillies logo straight. Hey Picasso, stick to painting your face and your enormous gut on game day.

Beat the Clock

I don't want to sit and listen to you talk and talk and talk and talk. The results of a full day workshop last week:

A Small Part of Me is Saying I Still Have a Chance, The Rest of Me is Laughing at the First Part

Yesterday was a great mail day. Not because I received my latest car insurance bill or because I got a magazine subscription notice, but because of the manilla envelope you see below. Last week, Brian, the former frontman for Plow United put up a bunch of records on ebay, three of which were missing from my collection. Luckily, I was able to score all three and impatiently awaited their arrival. These records were not Chun King or Floorpunch on gold status, but to me, since Plow was the band that pretty much started it all for me back in my early high school years, it was a mission to have a complete collection. Call it the ignorance of youth or just being a plain idiot, but I passed up on buying the "Game of Chess" lp and "Goodnight Sellout" lp for the CD version way back when. Yes, that's right...the cd version. What a complete dumbass. At the time CDs were still considered to be cutting edge and so I am left with neither of the true full lengths on vinyl. At the very least I thought, by adding these records, I would have the complete collection of seven inches of the mighty Plow United. It was complete for a couple hours until a friend informed me that there is possibly a third cover for the Tallman seven inch.


Recognize the name?

The contents of the envelope:

A shot of all of the seven inches in my possession.

If anyone knows what the third cover of the Plow/Tallman split looks like, let me know. Also, you can hear a track from the never released "Meggers" seven inch at Sean Rule's website which is right HERE

Feature Presentation of This Thing Called Life...

Did I mention the lack of waves? Here's the trailer for Thomas Campbell's new film slated to begin showing in California early March, which means it should reach New Jersey by Fall 2012. No, the title is not plant-related.



Here's Thomas with some of his artwork:

Society's Running On Empty

The "dinner rush" at the restaurant the other night. In all fairness, it can be like this a lot of times in the winter, regardless of what the state of the American economy is. Summer is an entirely different story with people clamoring for tables and coming in every doorway possible to get a seat. In any event, I won't bother to relay the dollar amount that I made the night this photo was taken.

Spray Paint the Walls

Before starting in on a new project, I decided to tag up an old board before re-spraying it with a the base coat. The results are below. The story would be much better if it had be done on a brick wall in down town Ocean City under the dark of night, but unfortunately, those days are behind me. Having three days off with no swell tends to cause a lapse in judgment with how I spend my time.

Love Clowns

Amidst a sea of Iron Man, High School Musical 3 and animal valentines, a kid in my class gave me this one:
Definite style points awarded. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Regulator

Coming soon to a break near you...

Words of Life

Is this the best tattoo ever?

The tattoo belongs to Klint from Reign Supreme and although I do not know him personally, I do admire his choice of ink for himself. The words are lyrics to my favorite Floorpunch song "clear", and the praying hands with Xs just make me laugh. Classic work.

There is a contest going on right now where you can vote for this tatttoo for a radio station and win a hundred bucks in the process. Klint is up against some stiff competition in a sea people who clearly lack good judgment with their 311, Dave Matthews Band and Avenged Sevenfold tattoos.

So go and vote for him.


You can see the tattoos HERE.

You can vote for Klint HERE.

Crawl to Your Cross

Blatant satanic message? You can imagine my surprise when I walked into a coworker's classroom to find this blackest of images hanging on the wall. She tried to tell me that they were only practicing their multiplication facts and the certificates hang in order with the a three-way tie for fifth place, but I'm not so sure. For the rest of the day, I kept checking to see if I could hear any Bathory or Darkthrone being played in the classroom. Who knew multiplication could be so evil?

Blue Is the Water

There was a time where I kind of dug folk music. This was a time before every frat boy and party girl began loving Jack Johnson because, "dude it's total beach music" and before Iron and Wine was associated with M & Ms. A time before any jackass with an accoustic guitar could label themselves as a singer/songwriter and make me want to vomit on the spot.

None of which has anything to do with Brown Bird.

I stumbled upon Brown Bird after checking out Portland Maine's Pine Haven Collective, a cool little artist collective that they having going on in what has to be one of the raddest towns in New England.

Anyway, I checked out a few songs by Brown Bird and instantly dug what they were doing. A lot. I'm typically not a folky guy (does Erik Peterson count?) as you can tell from a lot of the bands that I feature on this site, so what Brown Bird are doing, is pretty killer in my book. The stripped down sound, the lyrics and tone of the songs all scream (in a hushed tone) of being straight from the heart. Rather than try and give a Pitchfork worthy review of things, you should probably listen for yourself:


Definitely check out the myspace page as well. The above polaroid of lead BBer, Dave Lamb, was taken from a collection that can be found at downorout and they are very much worth sneaking a peak at too. I am hoping that Brown Bird can venture down to warm climes to play a show around here some time soon.

'Cause Sometimes Life is Less than A Dream

A shot from yesterday's late afternoon session paying homage to Allentown's Pissed Jeans. The air temps were super warm, so I ended up staying out for close to three hours. The waves never really went above waist high, but they were super clean and with the temperature well above the average, there was never a chance to get cold, even with 36 degree water. The lower tide made things a little unmakeable at the start; basically, I'd just take off knowing things were going to close out. Once the tide started to fill in though, things started to change and it became about fifty/fifty. If you timed it right, you could get one and zip down the line quickly trying to outrace the whitewater. About an hour before sunset, the waves were lining up so well, that once again, if you picked a good one, you could see the wave lining up 50 yards down the line making for super fun, waist-high conditions. It was weird seeing so many people walking around town and on the beach. It's still a little too early for the invasion to start up again.

Born in the Basement: Part II

Here's the last bit from the piece on doing your own shows
I would be thrilled to see a show advertised around here that doesn't sound like Sublime or Slightly Stoopid. The one "hardcore" act I saw from the south jersey shore region had a presskit and sounded like Hoobastank. Yeah dude, completely hardcore.

I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement

One of my favorite single issues of some of the zines I've collected over the years has to be the "Do It Yourself" issue of Jersey Beat put out by Jim Testa. Inside the pages of JB, everything DIY is gone over from recording a demo tape, to running a distro, to starting your own label. One of the more do-able articles for the average joe hardcore was putting on your own house show. The cover and article are shown below:



Top ten basement show tips from Jersey Beat coming tomorrow.

Sitting 'Round At Home...

watching the pictures go...

Whatdja Expect in a Cold World?

Here's my day yesterday in a nutshell.

Waking up to a couple inches of fresh snow:



Realizing the end is near (the snow not the world).



Having to go to work, but really wanting to do this.


Watching the 7th street camera all day, hoping the offshores don't blow it out by the afternoon.

Getting a look at the snow and sand while suiting up. Paddling out into 36 degree water with air temps in the low 30s and no one in sight, let alone in the water. Realizing that these things aren't so bad when it means an empty break to yourself.

Draw Blank

The other day, I gave a student an opportunity to draw on our whiteboard that is located in the front of the classroom. This is what he came up with. Should I be worried?
It appears someone is a fan of Jules from Pulp Fiction, but why is he wearing a bowtie and a straight-jacket?

Fully Loused

I didn't plan on doing back to back youtube videos, but I ran across the new Lost Soul commercial on LVPR and caught my attention. Incredible from start to finish. I wish more surf videos were like this rather using the same stale formulas over and over again with the same mellow-inducing soundtracks. Favorite moment comes just before three minutes in and it involves a TV. Rad.

Gothic Dolphins

If you haven't checked out the Gothic Dolphins site yet, it is awesome, nothing more to be said:

http://gothicdolphins.blogspot.com/

The site is in conjunction with Alex Kopps' film Displacement that he is working on (hopefully it will be done soon). It focuses on what started as the cult following of the hull or stubby board and now has become a full bown trend in surfing right now. I can't say a hull would be the best choice unless I was able to find a consistently well line-up wave, but I really dig Kopps' art and style that he has used in crafting the subculture. Here is the site and trailer:

http://www.displacementfilm.com/

We Locked Our Keys in the Van

Like a lot of hardcore kids who grew up in the Northeast during the 90s, I'm a member of the cult of McCabe. I got into Ink & Dagger right around their start, only to discover Sean McCabe's earlier projects were equally as good. Tracking down those records can be a real bitch a) because of the smaller press runs and b) no one wants to get rid of them. Luckily I had found a copy of the Crud seven inch on eBay years ago, but the Mandela Strikeforce still eluded me until I was lucky enough to score the lot of records you see below last week:

I am beyond stoked to finally have these records in my collection and was flipping out when the box arrived in the mail yesterday.