Stick To It

I was in the local 5 & 10 the other day and stumbled across Uncle Maui's Surf Wax mixed in with the racks of monogrammed key chains and shelves of beach hats and trinkets. I'm a little skeptical in how well it would get the job done.

Hollow

Thanks to my wife, we popped in to this place this weekend. If you are ever in our neck of the woods and can find this place, stop in and grab some donuts: We were floored with how good they were. Seriously, puts any big donut chain to shame. It might be tough to find, considering that other than the sign, you can barely tell that it is a bakery and it is somewhat off the beaten path. If you can't find it, I will hook you up with directions.

The Games People Play

A picture of the miniature golf course that my grandfather helped design way back when in Bethlehem. Despite the blurriness, he is seated in the picture.

Robot Whales

A friend came down for an afternoon surf, but unfortunately the low tide wasn't helping conditions. Watching the cameras all morning, Ocean City looked fun, but crowded. By afternoon, the bottomed-out tide was making finding something worthwhile a challenge. Checked three or four spots and they were total junk, so I made my way to a spot at good ol' Whale Beach :

Some of the beautiful ambiance that awaits:

The view before paddling out. Mushy, but pretty lined-up and as the tide filled in, it grew a bit in size. Kind of a long paddle, but wide open and missing the fifty or so middle-aged guys on Noltes and Stewarts clogging things up.
We stayed for a few hours. With warm air temps and decent waves, it was a good end to the work week.

Thanks For Sharing

Somehow, in the recent glut of records coming in the mail, I missed giving this record its day in the sun. I was/am a more casual listener of Lickgoldensky. I've listened to Enjoy Terror or the Beautiful Sounds... their fair share of times, but not as much as some other Lehigh Valley stalwarts that are in constant rotation on my record player. Anway, this record is the demo, recorded in '98, put on to vinyl as a split release from the Lehigh Valley label Square of Opposition Records and the new label Hardcore is Dead out of Rochester. The demo sounds great: a lot more punishing, chaotic and heavier than the bands' other releases and that's saying a lot if you haven't heard them. The vocals and recording are really raw, which it my opinion makes it sound all the better. I suggest getting in contact with Square of Opposition and ordering up a copy or two on multiple colors of vinyl.


Perhaps the most charming part of the release is the inclusion of the lyrics sheet. I haven't read "feel good" lyrics like these since Eyehategod:

http://www.myspace.com/squareofoppositionrecords

Chokeslammin' Rick Ta Life

One of my students is a really good artist. He draws on everything and has really unique tastes in things. Like a lot of nine year olds he loves wrestling, but he also is a huge fan of Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees ( he wrote an essay on both of them for class that was incredibly detailed). When he told me he drew a mask and wanted me to have it, I figured it was something from a horror movie, but it turns out, it was a wrestling mask. Pretty incredible:

They Roared Their Terrible Roars

Like All The Rest

Watch some guy cruise around on the hottest trend in surfing right now since the SUP. Some Mandala Stubbie action. So easy a caveman can do it? Apparently.



Manala Custom Shapes Site

I would love to pick up one of the Mandala Stubbies and join the army of hull zombies.

A Couple Inches of Press for Mr. Yuk

An article from the Morning Call on the Mr. Yuk reunion from 10 years ago or so:

Repeater

Here's what happens when your wife and daughter go away for the weekend. Friday boardwalk surf check:


Things shaping up for the AM:

Now that spring has sprung, the only way to fight crowds is to hit it early:

It's always sunny in Strathmere, but unfortunately, this morning, it was also dumpy. Back in the car:

South End. Looked OK, but decided to head north:

North End. It was lining up way better, so I surfed for a couple of hours. A very mellow crowd of no more than six at any time could be found here throughout the morning. This shot was right before I paddled out:

A few hours later, the tide was low and the crowds were on it. Load up the car and time to head out:

The remains of a Rojos burrito for lunch:

Work on my skills:

Afternoon soundtrack:

Watch my bracket crumble for the rest of the day:

Transfer a couple of records to disc for the laptop:


Sleep, wake up, repeat. Sunrise at Corson's. Waves were even more fun Sunday morning. After a two hours, the line up was starting to fill.

What remains with the low tide. The usual mix of old men riding longboards:
Pretty much identical to Saturday, minus the Rojos which is closed on Sundays. Wild times, I know.

Question Mark

Uh....he'd probably recycle.

Beyond the Sun

A Sharpie drawing from a while back.

Our Gimmick Is Blogging

Some people might read the Bible, or Lance Armstrong's autobiography, L. Ron Hubbard or some shit when they need to be inspired. Me? I just pull out the lyric sheet to the Ultimate Warriors' LP. Truly uplifting.

Pose Hard

This picture is the result of showing up to beach and finding a giant ceramic wave model sitting on the sand and someone charging five bucks for a Polaroid of you on it. What young kid who loves the water wouldn't jump at that chance? My 11-year old self trying to look natural, even with my front foot waaay out of position around 1990. Only in Ocean City Maryland.

St. Patricks Day You Went Away...Or Something Like That Anyway

A picture from yesterday's "Wear Green Day" at school: a day of silly hats, goofy t-shirts and trinkets of all kinds. What made this completely punk was not just the mohawk. The students have in their handbook that they cannot dye their hair or wear anything distracting to the learning process, the hair still being a big no-no, even on special days. He did it anyway.


Punx not dead.

Not a Character Assasination

When I heard that Livewire was releasing The Weight by Over the Line, I have to admit I was pretty excited but also a little skeptical. While I am a huge fan of whole period of the '88 revival (for lack of a better term regarding the late 90s), the bands can be very hit or miss. For every quality band, there would be three or four bad imitations that would end up getting sold back to the record store after a listen or two. This was especially the case later on as the success of Floorpunch and Ten Yard Fight brought more bands out of the woodwork and began to imitate what some of the bigger edge bands were doing. I remember Over the Line being reviewed in Contention Fanzine and being described as generic and while I was interested in checking them out despite the description, I never got the chance.

When Livewire said they were putting out the record, I figured, "what the hell" and ordered the red and the blue vinyl as any good record collecting scumbag would. The records arrived in the mail and while the layout was well done the art was kind of...well...different. Don't get me wrong, it was well done, it just was pretty cartoony, like a cross between pushead and a marvel comic. Not really what I expected from a band who named themselves after a Turning Point song. I thought the layout inside and the labels for the record were incredible and so without further ado, I dropped the needle and gave it a listen. Believe it or not,the it reminded me of Burn a lot of times, which was not what I was expecting. The songs had a lot of groove ala Burn and the vocals would sound like Chaka at times and other times Curt Canales. So yeah, somewhere between Burn and Chain of Strength is what I heard, which is a pretty interesting combo if you ask me. Very listenable. While it will not get as much play as my Rancor or Atari records, I will definitely be listening more.

Living Daylights

A sunrise shot from this week. On this particular morning, conditions were in the waist to occasionally chest high range, clean, but not lining up too well. I spent about twenty minutes here before driving to the north end of Ocean City and found a spot that was lining up a lot better and stayed for a couple hours.

Fear and Loathing in Allentown

My first experience with Middle America is one of regret. They were to play following Carpenter Ant during Globefest a few years back, and since I had to drive back to the shore for work the next day, I left without seeing them, only to read about how great they were on LVPR. Luckily, I caught them a month or two later and really dug what they were doing: Short blasts of songs about self loathing and depression that would have your head spinning before you realized their set was over.

"Scars" is the latest release from Middle America, containing three tracks of paranoia, anxiety, topped off with an unhealthy dose of autophobia...and it is awesome. The vocals are the rawest that I have heard on any M.A. release and while the sound has a definite early 80s vibe, there are a lot of different tempo changes and styles thrown in to keep things interesting. "Every Night" is the a-side, and it moves a long with the ocassional stop-n-start, finishing with Josh repeating "every night" filled with disgust over a sick little guitar run. The b-sides are even better. "Reclusive" starts off with a haunting little guitar part, only to smash you in the face seconds later; it slows only to assault you again as it thrashes through your speakers. "Scars" is the final track. It winds along with a slower rhythm thanks to a Black Flag-ish guitar, oozing bad vibes and dirty looks. By the end you almost feel bad for enjoying a record built on someone's issues with the world, but you can't help putting the record on again and again. Feeling bad never sounded so good.

http://fashionableidiots.com/catalog



Middle America also has a record out on Home Invasion Records, which you should probably pick up too.
HOME INVASION!!!

Leather Daddy

I received my order from Fashionable Idiots the other day which contained the new records from Allentown's Fresh Meat and Middle America: two newer bands who share some members if I'm not mistaken. First up, is Fresh Meat's Leather Daddy. I've loved everything I've heard from Fresh Meat so far and this is their best release to date in my opinion, which is a pretty good accomplishment seeing as their other releases are quality . The recording itself sounds really good, making the tracks sound strong. There's no labels on the record or the sleeve, so I can't really tell much about one side as opposed to the other, but the side with the single track reminds me of (what else) Brainbombs a lot. Mid tempoed, it will have you bobbing along to it as Ray Gurz screams "just do your stinkin' job!". The other side is just as good. It has two faster paced tracks that make you go from bobbing your head to violently flinging yourself into the furniture as you listen. The second song has a really rad guitar part that fits somewhere between Greg Ginn and Dick Dale, sounding incredible over top the track as it thrashes along. Overall, the record is solid from start to finish, with an infectious rhythm underneath the chaos that will hopefully get some kids' attention outside the Lehigh Valley. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the next Fresh Meat show in the LV. Limited cover below:


Every limited cover is listed as 1/100, which made me feel like an idiot for thinking they would just randomly send the first record to some dude in Jersey.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up----------> FASHIONABLE IDIOTS CATALOG

Middle America coming tomorrow!

Dopethrone

Driving through Ocean City the other morning, I happened to catch this by the side of the road:

Drawn and Quartered

I went to see Watchmen finally at the IMAX in the Trop. It's very easy to slip into some pseudo-intellectual term paper mode after seeing it, but everyone will have their opinion. Mine? I was a fan of the comic book and I dug the movie a lot.
Here's a screenshot of Rorschach getting close to Bigger Figure in the jail. Jackie Earle Hailey killed it as the man in the mask and his scenes in jail were probably the high points of the movie for me.

Flyin' the Flannel

My closet is beginning to look a lot like Seattle in '93. Who says there are trends in hardcore?

Benson & Edges

Yesterday was a pretty good day as far things go. I was able to score the Carpenter Ant/Air Conditioning split on yellow, which was missing from my CA collection. Ended up arriving home to a couple new records on my step (reviews of which will be forthcoming). One of the guys I bought a record from threw in an additional copy of an atari record, which was super cool as well. Due to daylight savings, I didn't have to try and beat the clock to get out in the water after school and was able to take my time rather than rushing around the house trying to get all my shit together. I ended up at the south end for a windy high tide session and despite the weaker conditions, it was a lot of fun. One other guy out and the occasional line-up wave came through. I grabbed this picture before I left but it didn't come out the way I wanted (It looks a lot better if you click on it). You can't see the water well enough and I tried to get the pier in it, but no dice. The only bummer was I lost out on a Beyond LP that I was trying to pick up on eBay. I got aboard the Beyond train very late, but have been listening to the demo so much lately, that I was really kind of psyched to get a hold of "No Longer At Ease". I'm sure it will turn up again and at least it's not like the "Break Down the Walls" LP on red that I saw just went for $700.
Finally got my list up on "How's Your Edge", so feel free to hit me up with trades or offers:

THE LIST

I sold a bunch of my records last year at this time and tried to just keep what I considered my essentials, but some are obviously more important than others.

Comfort Like Baseball Bats

So the World Baseball Classic has begun and the US is 2-0 after squeaking out a game against Canada and unloading on Venezuela last night. During the game, I noticed the advertising banner just to the left of homeplate was advertising a tire company with a very interesting name. I am just glad they don't sell surfboards:
Maybe they could run a deal with Joel Tudor's new company. Buy one noserider, get a free t-shirt and a pair of radials.

Boardwalkin' on the Boardwalk

Due to the bizarrely high temperatures yesterday, Maeve and I hit up the boarwalk and the beach for a bit. In between talking to random people, birds and dogs, we did some wave watching and ran around near the water. Only a few pics:


The first step:

Karate Kid IV: Watch out Ralph Macchio!

On My Mind

Like any good piece of art, this one makes you think. Mainly I'm thinking, "what is going on inside this student's head?", but it's thinking nonetheless. I really like these drawings.

The Duh! Blog

I decided to change the title page just to switch things up. I took the pretty well known photo of Miki Dora and scrawled the lyrics to Carpenter Ant's "The Duh" song in the background. Even though the song is about skateboarding, it's a pretty good fit for surfing too. Here's a Carpenter Ant show from York a few years back that is up on youtube:



The crowd reaction is super-weak, but Carpenter Ant was tight as usual. I am looking forward to seeing the big invasion to the shore this weekend due to the warm weather. People will be coming out of the woodwork.

Two Things At Once

Some more video from the winter storm on Surfline, compliments of VBS.TV/Hi-Shredability.

http://www.surfline.com/video/webisodes/vbstv-snow-day_24932

Also for your viewing pleasure, Artie Lange on David Letterman:

Floating Boys

Check this out:
http://cbs3.com/video/?id=75419

Someone posted this on the 7th street site. Some guys in Ocean City out taking advantage of the swell that the snowstorm brought. The first minute or so is just them sitting and paddling but around a minute in, a longboarder is one screen for about one second taking off and then things pick up around 2:06. At different points you can see it snowing on camera.

Cold Snap

A good snowfall comes around about as often as a Phillies World Series Championship, so needless to say, we were all stoked to a) have off from school b) get around 8 inches of snow and c) let Maeve actually experience playing in the snow. Here are some pics from yesterday. Our snow-bro:

Maeve had some trouble navigating in the deep snow with her boots, so she opted for walking on the shovelled parts:

There are very few hills in all of Upper so I ended up piling a bunch of snow up on our front yard to create a mini-track. Maeve and I before take off:

Taking off:

Maeve was not too thrilled with having to wear a scarf. At one point, she tore off her gloves, hat and scarf.

Trying to play snow soccer:

Hanging out with the snow-bro:

Checking out the snow, minus the gloves=bad idea.
We had a blast, although I think Maeve still needs more time to warm up to playing in the snow.