Nostalgia Now

This Guy Is Truly Inspired

2009-05-20T13:09:00.003-07:00

Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009

A Tribute to George

2008-07-07T11:24:00.001-07:00

A Message by George Carlin

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly,
laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space, but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe,
because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

- George Carlin

DTS Video Part

2008-07-03T10:23:00.001-07:00

I recently discovered this little gem that somebody posted up on You Tube. Ha! It's my short part from the Dogtown video in 1991. I really missed those years of skating the ramps at Studio 43!

Lance Mountain and The Fountain of Youth

2008-06-30T10:34:00.001-07:00

We took it out to the Oregon coast yesterday morning to check out the second to last stop of Independent Truck Co's "30th Anniversary" US tour at Lincoln City. On hand, were plenty of kids, up and coming rippers and skate legends. I skated a bit and shot a couple of photos. This one below was my favorite of the day. Lance Mountain, back on Indy after a truck sponsor detour for a couple of years, blasting out of the mammoth-sized snakerun bowl...so proper, so classic. At 44 years of age Lance delivered the goods and left many of us in the crowd inspired and stoked. Stoked to be skateboarders.

Lance Mountain blasts a head high backside air.

The Ten Year Old Puppy

2008-06-25T14:15:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that Juneau has been in my life for ten years now and has recently reached his "golden years". Sure, his face has been grey since the age of two due to his high-strung character and incessant playfulness, but over the more recent years that signature grey has marched onward down his legs, chest and paws. Nonetheless, the little guy remains tenacious as a puppy and lives his life to the fullest. His strong personality, charm and "ready to play at a moment's notice" attitude brings me joy each day. Dogs rule...especially this ten year old friend of mine that goes by the name of Juneau.

Look for a compilation of assorted video clips with him in the coming week.

Juneau at ten weeks old.

The Junes and I share a Kodak moment together in 1998.

Nap time.

Nothing tastes as good as peanut butter in the Kong.

Halloween 1999

King of the castle.

My favorite portrait of Juneau. October 1999

Nap time again.

Flanked by his own electronic awesomeness.

Undeterred by size.

Tahoe trip - March 2004.

Kickin' it with Charlie - June 2005

Dog day at the ballpark.

Sailor boy!

J-man loves his brew...

and camping too!

The Scrooge at Christmas.

Grandma's sentry.

Riding shotgun.

Checking out the neighborhood

Under the covers you'll find him.

Ready for the jamboree.

Bush hater.

Combing the Vegas Boneyard

2008-06-07T18:17:00.001-07:00

This past week we paid a quick two-day visit to Sin City for some business and pleasure. Las Vegas never ceases to amaze with its rapid growth and sea of sprawling buildings and casinos along the desert floor. One morning before the heat index began to climb, we took it upon ourselves to visit the The Boneyard operated by the Neon Museum with select guided tours. This lesser known area north of the strip is the resting place of Vegas' numerous renowned and most important signs from Casinos from the past and present. Most of them have been rescued from demolition and remain displayed unrestored and faded on the dirt of the Boneyard.

Beginning in the fall of 2009, The Neon Museum will open the Boneyard for regular hours to the public at its new location with the restoration of the original La Concha Motel as its welcome center. Surely the up close and personal vibe of the guided tours will be lost. Have a look below at some of these giant artifacts that enticed and illuminated the streets of Vegas in years past.

The La Concha Motel's original neon sign sits and waits to be resurrected.

The tour of the Boneyard begins through these chained gates. Our small, yet large group moves on in.

The Ceasars casino of today has evolved well beyond this marquee.

Donna keeps up with the tour theme.

Liberace's signature marquee has surely seen better times.

Got any spare bulbs partner?

Binion's Horseshoe is one of the famous signs that will be restored.

Our guide Justin informs our group of the lore of the original letters of the Stardust casino.

Although it will cost close to a half million dollars, the signs of the Silver Slipper will be restored.

The Golden Nugget sign has seen better days.

Megawatts.

I stand beside the retired skull of Treasure Island pointing to Vegas' ongoing problem.

The oldest sign of the collection was built in the 20s. Donna and I clutch amongst the monoliths of metal and glass.

Inside of this fence sits a bunch of rusted signs and artifacts from Las Vegas' past and its rather short heritage.

Scribing with Fire

2008-04-24T10:21:00.003-07:00

I've just downloaded a cool piece of software called ScribeFire that works as an add on blogging feature with Firefox browsers. This is a basic test run to see how seamlessly it works.

Northwest Skatepark Blitz

2008-02-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

It all started with a phone call late on a Friday night. Marc Conahan was on the other end of the line and he'd informed me that he and a crew were gearing up for non-stop attack on some of the skateparks around and outside of Portland's metro area from sunrise to sunset. In the spirt of Cannonball run, their goal was to skate 16 parks on the 16th of February. It sounded like a worthy cause, but with an early morning wake up call and first grinds at Burnside at 7am the very next morning, I didn't promise to be there in the pre-dawn chill. I told Mark that I'd connect with him and the others when I was out and about according to my schedule.

So after a good breakfast and errands out of the way, I hooked up with Mark, Rich, Randy and a friend of theirs new to me named Rick at the Vancouver skatepark. It was their 4th stop of the day's whirlwind tour schedule. Soon after my first rides, Mark made the call for us to move one. Damn, I was just warming up!

Next up, we stopped at a little public skate zone a mile or so away. It was a blast, but again due to the hectic schedule, we had to keep moving. The pace of the exhaustive schedule permitted us to skate each park for perhaps 15 minutes tops. Then it was back on the road for a number of miles until we did it again and again and again until the skies had fully blackened. All said and done, I skated 12 parks within a nine hour period and the other die hards in our group skated and achieved their goal of 16 parks total. It was a good experience, despite the shortage of actual skate time vs. distance traveled.

As a result, a scaled down fun run of 8 parks on 08.08.08 is where I will find myself this summer. The sun will be out longer, the weather will be much warmer and I'm sure there will be a crew, ready, willing and able to do the distance.

Check the photos and footage from our very own "Cannonball Run" below.

Comittment

2008-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

Lately, I'd been thinking about this piece of video footage that I'd filmed back in 1994 with Sean Young. This mellow kid arrived from Atlanta and was a new resident to San Francisco at the time. I'm not sure where it came from, but he'd acquired the guts and determination to bomb down the many steep hills all over the city. No foot drags whatesoever. Here he is dropping a straight line down Jones Street on a busy mid afternoon. The rest is history as they say.

From The Jam Drops in on Stumptown

2008-02-13T09:39:00.001-08:00

Late in January I had the chance to catch the reunion tour with the UK's original Jammers Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler and their touring outfit known as From The Jam. Along with Dave Moore (guitar and keyboards) and Russell Hastings stepping up for The Jam's vocalist and front man Paul Weller, the power and energy of FTJ was captivating as they rocked through anthems of my youth. Without a doubt, Hastings took control and properly filled the shoes, vocals and guitar duty Weller left behind over 25 years ago. When I closed my eyes, the band's audible energy (and vocals) filled the small confines of Portland's Aladdin Theater as if I was listening to The Jam live. Note for note, their performance was great.

From their set list they nailed The Jam's greatest hits - "Going Underground", "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", "The Eton Rifles", "Strange Town", "Town Called Malice" and one of my favorites, "Smithers Jones." It was an amazing evening not soon to forget. Thanks for the heads up on this one Chris!

Animated and Virtualized

2008-01-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Last year I was asked to be involved as a real life character within Activision's newest edition of Tony Hawk's highly acclaimed skateboarding video game titled "Proving Ground". At first, I wasn't so warm to the idea, but after a bit of thought, I gave into having my likeness animated and voice digitized for the sake of entertainment. The experience is something that I can look back on years from now and perhaps show my family and grandkids. Although, at the moment I've still to reach the "career level" of the game where I (my character) interacts with Stevie Williams at Philadelphia's renowned Love Park.

Check out the game trailer in the window below. And look for the guy clutching the camera wearing the green jacket with the SkateDaily.net tee shirt. Ha!

Priceless Bad Ass

2008-01-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

This one is dedicated to all of the Mark Gonzales fans out there. The date was April somethin' or other of 1988 and we had legally gained permission and access with the US Park Service to shoot a feature story on Alcatraz for Thrasher magazine. We brought along a rented prison suit and shot some images within the prison walls and in the exerise yard under the pretense that there would be no actual skateboarding. Well, long story short, our assigned ranger left us to our own accountability and we did what skaters do and got kicked off the rock by his not-so-impressed superiors.

On our way back to the ferry dock below, Gonz opted to hit up this banked wall just for the sake of being a bad ass. This image was never published and the rest is history. I wonder how many more gems I have floating around my photo archive.

2000 Tahitian Eyeballs

2008-01-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

Back in the summer of 1987 I was shipped off to French Polynesia for spontaneous skate demo in Papeete, Tahiti. My clothing sponsor at the time, Billabong wanted to seed the Tahitian surf culture with modern skateboarding and I was put to the task literally.

While some street spots were discovered and skated during my visit, there were no skateparks or suitable skate areas for a demo. As a result, I worked with Tahiti's Ministry of Sport, pulled together a lumber list, drew up some quick plans and got dirty with the local carpenters. In one afternoon we built a narrow half pipe, a manual box/ledge and two jump ramps for the previously announced and arranged skate demo. I mean, it was promoted in the local newspaper and on the local TV stations so the pressure was on.

The photo above depicts this solo skate demonstration in the South Pacific where all eyes were definitely fixed on me. Fun, but not fun.

Hell Bent Hill Jockeys

2008-01-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

Several months ago I took to the streets of SF to film this short piece with a pair of thrill-seeking madmen. Although they had no previous experience with seated stuntboarding they were up to the task and took care of business.

Far East Flavor

2008-01-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

As 2007 rolled towards an end, the adidas Skateboarding team embarked on a tour to China (via Hong Kong) to sample much of the new, varied and abundant street terrain in Shenzhen and Shanghai. A mandatory stop at the "World's Largest Skatepark" located just outside of Shanghai was also on our hit list. That place is truly ridiculous!

Have a look to view some of the moments we lived and experienced under the cloak of the dimmed afternoon sun. Yes, there's no place like home when you've been on foreign soil for over two weeks.

Mandatory thanks go out to Eric Ray, Lee Jay, Brian Siswojo and the entire crew at adidas Asia/Pacific for their time and help to show us a great time in their regions of the world!

Better Late Than Never - A Portland White Christmas

2007-12-30T00:33:00.000-08:00

The good 'ole wintry white stuff blanketed our neighborhood on Christmas morning... our first ever! Records reveal that not since the winter of 1937 had the city of Portland experienced a White Christmas. Egg Nog and the mighty Yule Log kept us toasty throughout the day. Have a look.

Pedal Power

2007-12-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

As 2007 comes to a close, have a look at this clip I produced from a recent trip to China a few weeks ago.

Onward into 2008!