Lovebird in Your Soul

Here's video featuring the new Lovebird project from Bing Surfboards and Chris Del Moro. John Smart is the filmmaker, who also did the Natural Expressions video on Joel Tudor, which a classic in my book. It's a two part video, but the first part is a Sproutlike intro followed by some tounge-in-cheek Endless Summeresque acting, so while it gives some background on the project, not much surfing there. This is the second part where Smart features The Lovebird, The Synchronizer and the Whippet. The soundtrack starts off very Sproutlike again with some noodley jazz, which is not really my thing, but then goes into some Phish and Devo which was much better to my ears. The Lovebird looks like an amazing board.

Jan's Room Was Like for Artists

First off, I don't know who took this photo, but I apologize for not giving credit where it is due. Tonight, Exit Reflex, Walls and The Pissed Jeans will play the final show in Allentown, PA at the now legendary Jan's Room. The space which has been active for a few years now has had some great shows, a few which I was lucky enough to attend. The building, which up until now was in a forgotten part of A-town, is apparently being refurbished and repackaged as part of a "neighborhood revitalization" process.

The Lehigh Valley is an incredible spot for independent music and I don't think you really appreciate it until you go elsewhere. There are always new bands in the LV and when one venue dries up, someone, somehow finds a new space to do a show. While no space is permanent, there are always people willing to help out. Compare that to the south Jersey shore where everyone wants to sound like a mix of sublime, jack johnson or a bad screamo band and there are zero opportunities for good independent shows, you start to realize how good the LV scene is. Thanks to Jordan and everyone else who helped out with running Jan's Room. Unfortunately, a three hour drive for a midweek show is something I can't pull off tonight. I originally thought I could make it, and am super bummed that I cannot be there. Hopefully there will be pics.

Sons of Northern Darkness

This is a shot of a group of students from my school, who clearly have been infected with the Black Metal disease at an early age.

By the time they are in high school, they be can expect to dress like this:

Black Metal comes to South Jersey. Granted it was Halloween, but I can help but wish that they were forming a band called "Black Crayon" and secretly practicing Darkthrone riffs to original song titles like "The Halloween Parade is for Poseurs" or "I Drink Strawberry Milk, not Your Blood".

Let's Go Bowling

A newer piece that I did a couple weeks ago. The P.E. teacher at our school was giving away a bunch of gym equipment, mostly basketballs, wiffle balls bats, etc. I spotted this tiny golden bowling ball in the pile. It was plastic and weighed about half of what a normal bowling ball should, but I scooped it up and decided to draw on it with paint pens. The results:

My War

This is Raymond. He used to do the artwork for Black Flag. I remember seeing a kid in my high school who was much older wearing the "Police Story" shirt and being surprised that he was allowed to wear it in school. Much of Pettibon's art was like that. His style was unmistakeable, but also most of his subject matter was unsettling from the the picture of the Nun clutching the bare leg for "Slip it In", the "Family Man" cover or the flyer with the man covered in dirt watching the girl bathe. These pictures were from a NY Times article on him that I saved from a few years back.

I hope my garage looks like this some day.


This picture was printed with the article and I thought it was incredible.

Big Boards, Small Car

There was plenty of swell yesterday and with Amy out of town and Maeve at the Cape May Zoo, it looked like I was set up for a fun afternoon of surf, right? Not exactly. Being that the Golf Cart was just recently retired from the road, I had been taking Amy's Jeep Cherokee when I would go to surf. Since she had that car, I was going to take our Honda Accord, which I did not realize, does not have the same size roof as my old reliable Golf, rendering my surf straps useless. For twenty minutes, I tried to figure out how I was going to get a board to the beach. My noserider was out of the question, but I thought there was a chance my Tucker would fit. No dice. Then I remembered I had my old 6'8 Wynn Fish jammed in the rafters of the garage! I hadn't ridden it in probably four years, it was cracked along the stringer, yellowed, beat up, but it was small enough to maybe fit. I tried it and it just slid in the passenger's seat.

The waves were about waist to chest high and adjusting to a board that was three feet shorter than my noserider was tricky. The paddle was definitely harder and I had to sit way further inside to take off on the waves. The first wave I rode, I was totally squirrelly, not being used to the lightness of the tail and three smaller fins instead of one big one. After a while, I became adjusted to the feel of the board and actually had some fun ones. I guess if there is anything to be taken from it, it's good to ride different shapes. Below is a shot of the board post session:


Equally bizarre were the items that I found on the beach after my session. Random plastic, t-shirts, even a throwback jersey with the last name "Richardson" on it. Then as I was walking to my car and stumbled across this:


Maybe I am wrong, but it looks like skeletal remains of a snake or some kind of creature. Maybe I'm crazy.

Obscene Jigsaw Puzzle

Another classic document from my High School days. By some sort of divine intervention, I was able to land a Creative Writing Class with not only the famously goofy but cool Mr Bozzone (I am pretty sure he used to dress as a super hero at our pep rallies?), but with a number of my good friends. The combination led to what could only be one of the best classes I have ever taken at Liberty, strictly from a comedic standpoint.

Each class we would usually sit in a circle and learn about how to write creatively. The funny part was hearing all of the bullshit that these kids would spew in attempts to sound intellectual or impress the teacher. Within a few classes we looked forward to the class to laugh and crack jokes to each other about the weirdos in the class. The cast of characters in the class were equally legendary. Never has a more random collection of styles, personalities or hygienic practices been assembled. Like all great things in high school (see the High School Psychopaths entry) I can't remember how the eighth period beast began, but it was a great idea nonetheless.

Basically, with input from all members involved (Myself, Matt Eby, Kip, Shawn Price, even Chuck Koch I think...maybe Ed D.too?), we drew a creature that featured one bizarre attribute from each member of the class. Looking back at the drawing, it is pretty surprising to me that I can remember which features belong to which people in the class. While it makes me laugh, I won't point out any particular people to protect their identities, although if you were in the class you could probably figure a bunch out too.

If this picture is not proof positive that we were assholes, then another tidbit from the class reminds me that we were. It was right before or after this class that Kip and I would scream "DREW!" or "DREW CAREY!!" to a girl who had class across the hall and had a similar pair of glasses, until one day she turns around and screams "I'M NOT DREW CAREY YOU ASSHOLES!" or something to that effect.