skateboarding (88)

Skateboarding, the Whole Earth Catalog at MOMA, bread and sushi in Manhattan

Photo by Walt Denson

A blast from the west coast: today I’m sitting on the bus after a long (and productive) day at Book Expo America, and I check my email on the iPad, and there’s a message from my friend Hans with a link to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, showing me skateboarding in a weekly column called “Healthy Obsession.” https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/24/DDM31JHPOO.DTL

Yesterday I went to see an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art Library on the Whole Earth Catalog and other books from the cultural revolution of the 60s and 70s, including our Domebook 2. It’s a nice exhibit, with maybe 50-60 books, and it’s a blast to look back at those days and see the newsprint books we were producing about what was going on. 1st photo below is an early WEC; 2nd photo is Domebook 2 at top and Steve Baer’s Dome Cookbook (which actually preceded the WEC) at lower right.

(See Wikipedia on the WEC.)

One thing about all my years’ running is, I can navigate city streets pretty well. I’ve always told my kids, “Watch the cars, not the lights. New Yorkers cross against red lights en masse when there’s a break in traffic. I saw a mother with a kid in a stroller crossing on a red light. (Kind of reminds of a time years ago when I heard a mother in a park playground here tell her kid, “If you don’t get over heah I’m gonna break yer ahm!”)

I love this chain of restaurants here called Le Pain Quotidien. A great bakery, and breakfast and lunch. A lot of the food is organic, everything is freshly baked, and tables are broad-planked pine with one 35-foot long community table, and motif of a French farmhouse kitchen.

Had fabulous sushi last night across from the Beacon Theater at Fusha. Four sushi chefs dressed in all black were putting sushi together with lightning hand speed. I said to the guy next to me at the counter, “They could make a movie of these guys,” and he said, “It’s better live.”

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Sporting-Sails for skateboarding

I just got one of these sails and tried it out for the first time skating late yesterday afternoon. It’s mainly used to slow down when skateboarding downhill. Fun! I’m still getting the hang of it, but I was able to go down some hills where I’d normally get going too fast and have to jump off.

Two women came around the corner when I had the sail deployed and one said, “Oooh that looks like fun!”

I also tried it out last week on my paddleboard, sailing with the wind.

https://www.sporting-sails.com/

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Longboarding: TOO MUCH

I picked this up on Loaded Boards website this morning. Great way to start the day, watching these young magicians! Whew!

“A beautiful tale…. 4 total strangers coming together (Dustin Hampton, Alex Tongue, Ethan Cochard, Alex Limbach), having never skated together before and riding together close in a pack, having complete trust in one another. Alex Limbach makes a brief appearance; wish we could have captured more with him–in due time. Tried out something different in this video than my usual “clean” style. This video is raw, dirty, a bit rough on the edges, pretty much all filmed with follow shots (I killed a pair of shoes). All the editing is done while in action with no breathing room. I had the guys always enter the frame a certain way (convergence of action); skating in synchronization, so to speak. I was stoked to try something different and push my level of follow cam skills, and I learned a great deal. Hope you enjoy.” – Adam Colton

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Off on short trip today

Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning…

Took off at 6 AM for Berkeley today, meeting Kevin for breakfast at 9:30; I always come early to the Fertile Grounds coffee shop on Shattuck, with good latte and wi-fi. Catch up on news (read real hold-in-hand NYTimes).

Then this afternoon I’m shooting photos of a young woman who built her own $3000 tiny house in a friend’s backyard. Turns out there are a lot of women builders in our forthcoming tiny houses book.

Tonight I’m heading over the hills to the coast, to hang out with my friend Louie for a few days. I’ve got “my” little circular room in Louie’s shop, with wood stove and desk for writing. It looks out on grape vines and apple trees, with redwoods in the background. Gonna skate; there’s a half-mile downhill with v. few cars. I’ve recovered from operation and injury, good to be rolling again.

Stay tuned…

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Layering, music, running, sk8ing

Layering for the cold: Yesterday I managed to get up at 6 AM – needed to get work done on tiny homes book before heading over the hill – dark and cold at that hour. We have very little heat in the production studio, so I wear layers. Silk t-shirt, other layers of various wool shirts*. Gloves with open fingers for typing. Yesterday I had on 7 layers. Lesley came out and draped one of her homemade coats on me. (She dyed and wove the fabric, then made the coat), So I had on 8 layers. Plus my Cowichan warmest-of-hats with ear flaps (from Hill’s Native Art).

*My favorite article of clothing of all time is my Icebreaket Sport 320 shirt, which I wear every cold day (all winter).

Music on the mountain: Took off around 9 for Mill Valley, sun was out, yahoo, powdery blue skies, sun reflecting off water in the lagoon, felt warm, John Lee Hooker singing Chill Out (Things is Gonna Change), perfect. On the road again…

As I drove, I was thinking of the “downturn:” Fact is, we (Americans) were way over-consuming. It couldn’t go on. Plus the money-savvy pricks , with Bush & Co. leading the way, caused a huge transfer of wealth to the few.

“It’s not over til it’s over,

And it’s not over yet…”

by Billy Joe Shaver came on, a great song by a great songwriter/singer. Then Lay Down Sally by Eric Clapton, next Good Old Boy (Gettin Tough) by Steve Earle, and I turned up the volume full blast as I went through the redwood trees with dappled sunlight on the mountain road. Creeks were gushing. Little seasonal waterfalls were streaming, the mountain’s alive…

Running at night: I ran by myself south along the coast from Muir Beach last night. I counted  lights of 14 crab boats out there. Best crab season in many years, they’re all over out there, creeping along the ocean bottom. Deep blue black night, here they are once again after all the rains: Orion, the glittering Pleiades, and my boy Taurus. A beautiful night. I’m running lightly, boy, when you don’t care about speed or training for races, it’s a whole different experience. Went down the ridge to a lookout spot, San Francisco across the water, 1000 feet down to the waves. Place of power.

Pic of Mt. Tam yesterday driving into Mill Valley

Oh yeah, I got on my skateboard for the first time in 4 months yesterday. Old brown eyes is back.

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Rockaway Taco, A Selby Film

The real thing! Surfers, beekeepers, East Coast seaside tacos, fresh baked bread, cops, firefighters, skateboarders, waves. Trust me. Watch it.

Better than clicking on below, get the bigger screen at Vimeo direct: https://vimeo.com/15293107

Rockaway Taco, A Selby Film from the selby on Vimeo.

There’s a lot of great stuff byTodd Selby at: https://www.theselby.com

“Todd Selby is a portrait, interiors, and fashion photographer and illustrator. His project The Selby offers an insider’s view of creative individuals in their personal spaces with an artist’s eye for detail. The Selby began in June 2008 as a website, where Todd posted photo shoots he did of his friends in their homes. Requests quickly began coming in daily from viewers all over the world who wanted their homes to be featured on the site. The Selby’s website became so popular—with up to 55,000 unique visitors daily—that within months, top companies from around the world began asking to collaborate.…”

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Full Bleed: New York City Skateboard Photography

Fabulous photo book of NYC skaters by Alex Corporan, Andre Razo, and Ivory Serra. This photo is a stunner. Credited as: Dan Pensyl. C Squat ramp, by Patrick O’Dell. 2002.

Double entendre of “Full Bleed,” in case you don’t know: in book layout, photos that run off all four sides of a page with no margin are referred to as “full bleed.” Blood also being dues all skaters pay from time to time.

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