Old dog, new tricks

In the past, I’ve looked toward the future in terms of age.  ”I’ll be turning 21 in 2000.  That’s the future.” or, “I wonder if I’ll still be alive when I’m 35?”.  Stuff like that.  I’ve grown out of that phase.  Don’t really think in those terms anymore.

I turned 40 yesterday.  And what I can say to you youngsters out there is, don’t sweat the small stuff.  I had a great birthday and did a bunch of things I’d never done before.

Started off the day going to court and dealing with some shit I needed to deal with.  Biz handled.  Next I made breakfast.  Mushroom, tomato, green chile, and chedder scramble with avo and salsa.  Bagel with cream cheese on the side.  Beligerant.  But damn tasty!  Oh, and OJ too.

Layed in bed for a couple of hours watching tv and napping.  My homie Bob McFairbanks (AKA Laura) came and swooped me up and we went to 7 falls.  Made a half-ass attempt at finding the upper falls/swimming holes and decided to leave it for another day.  On our way back down we ran (almost stepped on!) a beautiful King Snake.  Laura got some close up photos and the little guy got nervous and slithered into a hidden hole in the ground.  Radical.

Photos - Fairbanks

Cafe Del Sol.  Margaritas and tacos at Mike Pugh’s favorite restaurant.  The birds tried to steal Lauras food, but I fought them off magnificently!

Laura dropped me off at home and I went back to napping and tv.  The roomies woke me up with talk of Crocodiles.  The Crocodile bar to be exact.  That place is awesome.  Art deco style with tribal art accents.  I guess the pool is saltwater.  No clorine.  Dope.  Anyway, a couple-a Peroni’s and a shot later it was back to the pad for a quick shower.

Next on the list.  Velvet Jones for stand up comedian Neil Brennen of the Chappelle Show.  He was funny and I got drunk.  The homie Roman Dongleskirt was spinning.  Alan Thicke was in the audience and I got a photo with him and the homie Donut Bags.

After that I did a little club hopin’ with the 555 crew.  Checked out my old road dog DJ Nagai then threw myself in a cab and passed out with my clothes on.  Mission accomplished.

Now I’m sitting here typing this.  Moseley just showed up.  And it’s round 2.  Gonna make it to the upper falls this time.  I have no doubts.  Thanks to everyone that came out for my birthday.  I love you all.  You made my night.  One Love.  Peace out.

E

Epilogue: (6:30pm Oct.1st 2011) It was a serious challenge.  But I made it to the top of the falls.  It was one of the most worthwhile adventures in a long time.  Time to BBQ. Praises to God.

My New Gig

After losing both my jobs, I ended up working at random little jobs, making music until 5am most nights, and drinking entirely too much. I would hole up in my studio on my computer until I went stir crazy and then go out until the bars closed and then work on some more music mixing and then pass out in the morning… shit, I didn’t have anything else to do!  And…  I put together a 20 song CD!!  I don’t give a fukk if you don’t like it either.  I did it and I am stoked.

Mandatory Nudity - Produced by yours truly - 20 songs for 20 bucks - Send me an email if you'd like a copy

 

Finally, I got a job doing filing for SB File Storage… my homies parents company.  I blew through the work they had for me in 3 months and was again flat broke ( on the flipside, I got caught up with most of my bills “so I got that goin’ for me” – Bill Murray).

Workin' in the file room

File that under "another Lakers victory!"

So, unemployed AGAIN for a couple of months, startin’ to think about stressing.  Then one night drinkin a couple of beers with Trent & Joe and Joe says he might have some work for me.  Fast forward to now and I’ve been employed 2 and 1/2 months by Joe’s dad David Shelton for Shelton Designs.  I’ve never done metal work before, so it’s a whole new ballgame.  It’s physically demanding but I’ll tell you what… it’s fun as hell!  Getting paid to be an artist is the best…. well, except for getting paid to be a pornstar.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story to be told down the road.  Check out some pics from the new job.  Thanks David and Joe.  You guys rule.

Lamp

Lamp painted

Chrome Sausage

Antenna for a huge gate

The gate

 

Don’t park in front of the shop!

 

...if you do, we'll put you in here.

starting on some doors

Off to a job site

Upstairs railing at the Downtown Womens Center in LA

Front entrance DTWC Los Angeles

Curvy handrailing for a private residence

awning - private residence

This is where those giant metal doors are going. Tea Fire Rebuild. Designed by Jeff Shelton.

Never in a million years would I have guessed I'd be here. Pretty cool. One Love.

A relaxing walk?

OK.  So Noe’s out of town and I’m watching The Dude (his dog) for him.  I took him on a walk from the warehouse down to the zoo and back.  I was about 100 yards from my front door, walking through the alley behind Chase Palm Park, thinking to myself, “What a relaxing walk”.  I look over and see these birds (plovers I think) trying to coax their 3 babies over this curb.  They were too small to fly yet, and could not hop up over the curb.  I call the bird rescue and they tell me that they don’t have time to come help.  So they ask if I can put them in a box and bring them to Goleta.  As I’m on the phone, one of the babies just stops moving.  The lady on the phone won’t stop talking and all I want to do is get off the phone and see if the little bird is ok.  Finally, she hangs up.  I quickly tie The Dude to a pole and walk over to the bird.  The parent birds are freaking out and chirping wildly.  The little guy was actually sleeping.  I pick it up and he immediately starts chirping and trying to escape my hands.   A random lady walks by and sees what I’m doing.  She says she lives close by and goes to get a box for me to put the babies in.  So here I am, holding a baby bird in my hands, keeping an eye on The Dude, and trying to keep an eye on the other babies.

The mom bird goes and lays down in the middle of the alley and the other 2 babies come and lay under her.  I’m waiting for what seems like forever, when a SUV comes driving down the alley.  I yell at the driver to slow down, but he doesn’t and before I could do anything, the mom bird flys off leaving the babies exposed.  The SUV goes right over them.  I see one standing under the axles and the SUV misses it.  The other… got ran the fukk over.  It popped like a little ballon.  The sound made me kringe.  The SUV goes to the end of the alley, which is a loop, turns around, and starts heading back toward me.  The guy was driving really fast and had his family in the car.  I stepped out in front of the SUV yelling at him to slow down.  He didn’t.  I stepped to the side as he drove by me.  If I wouldn’t have moved, he would have hit me.  As he drove by with his window down, I said, “you just ran over a baby bird!”  ” Oh, yeah, a baby bird.”  He said sarcastically.  I was blown away.  What an asshole.  If I didn’t have the bird in my hands and The Dude to watch, I would have chased down his car and beat his ass in front of his kids.  What a fukkhead.

Anyway, the lady came back with the box and, with some help, I rounded up the remaining baby bird.  I walked around the fence and curb and let them go close to the parent birds.  The babies walked out of the box like they knew exactly where they were going.  They met up with the parent birds and walked down the train tracks as one happy little bird family, well, minus one of course.

Big shout out to my OG homie and SB legend, The Dude, for being so patient while I was dealing with this.  Even when 3 drugged out kids going to the gay pride festival in the park backed him in to a corner, he handled it like a champ.  Although, he did look like he wanted to bite their faces off… and at that moment, I wouldn’t have cared if he did.  One love ya’ll.

I love Santa Cruz Market

OK.  So as you may or may not know, I lost BOTH my jobs early this year.  I was basically cut with no warning whatsoever.  Being that I get paid per project, I usually get a nice fat check every so often and then budget it out to last.  Since I got no check, I got no cash to budget.

When you’re broke, you have to make due with what you have.  I tend to experiment alot with what I got in the fridge, and what I can get at Santa Cruz Market with the change off the floor of my car (which, by the way, has been all used up).

The following are two such experiments.  First up, chorizo and eggs with avo and tomato.

I don’t usually eat Chorizo to often.  But homemade Chorizo at a buck a pound?  Decided to give it a go.  This was the first time I ever cooked it myself.  Came out great!  With Tapatio.  MMmmmm.  And check the Tampico on the left.  Orange Juice is a luxury when you’re broke.  Tampico’s first ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup.  It’s basically like drinking a Coca-Cola for breakfast.  Oh well, it kinda tastes like juice?

Next up, burger.

Nothin’ fancy here, but I’ll tell you what.  This burger was the BOMB!  So tasty.  Ground beef at SCMarket… yup, you guessed it, a buck a pound.  This awesome piece of burgerness probably cost about 45cents to make… including electricity.  No buns, just some sandwich bread, lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, ketchup, and some salt and pepper.  Cheese is a luxury when you’re broke too.  Tasted just fine without it.  Tight.

In case you haven’t guessed by now, I really like making food.  Don’t really care for the cleaning up after part.  But the making and eating is awesome.

Special shout out to Santa Cruz Skateboards (NHS INC.) for not giving me any kind of heads up that I was losing my job.  Thanks for not giving me any severence pay after 3 years of dedication without any complaints.  And thanks for NEVER giving me a Christmas bonus in any of that time.  Without you, these meals could have never been created!

I love Santa Cruz Market.

Santa Cruz Skateboards?  Not so much.

Peace out,

E

This is NOT a jam session

Kick’n it with the crew at the studio.

Marina and Noe were there.

B was spinnin', Chavo was listenin'.

Mr. Innocent. AKA Moseley.

Karla brought cigars.

Breakdancer.

Stepped out for a minute.

Back to the studio.

Redwood plays bass.

Karla on the mic.

Trent playing drums.

Alfred playing drums.

It started getting ridiculous right around this time.

Peace and Love.

Like I said... this was NOT a jam session. Just hangin' with the homies. Until next time...

How I Spent My Saturday

Remodeled the bathroom in an Alhambra home.

Went to Redwoods.

Went to a swanky artshow at a Malibu ranch-house/mansion. This is the only photo I shot there... the Saint Bernard guarding the door.

We went to some other artshow in Santa Monica where Jesse Hazlip was showing a piece or two.  Place was packed.  Hipsters.  Great food.  Bad wine. And no place to piss.  I turned into BA Baracus, and that was that.  Bounced out in a hurry and forgot to take one photo.  Off to…

Next stop, Spaceland in Silverlake. This is Wounded Lion. They shred. I guess I'd call it NerdPunk with a flare? Somethin' like that.

Redwood made me drink Cazadores. Tequila no bueno... at least not for me. That shit makes me crazy.

This is how we ended the night. TacoZone. Word'em up. Tasty. As a matter of fact, I want TacoZone right now! Guess it'll have to wait till next week.

The...

...End.

NAMM 2010

Been doing a little work down in LA.  Remodeling a house.  While I was there, the 2010 NAMM show was going on in Anaheim.  Pretty cool.  It’s like ASR for music.  Check the pix…

DRUMS

Road Dog

This is Mark Karlstrand.  One of my very best friends from High School days.  He’s pretty much the reason I started skateboarding.  He lived one street over from me when we first started to hang together.  Trying to see how much of the hill in front of my house we could bomb.  Listening to all the punk rock we could get our hands on.

Eventually, Mark got his license and we started travelling anywhere we could to skate.  This is a photo of Mark that I shot somewhere in the La Mirada/Alhambra area.  Late 80′s.

Summer’s still kickin’ in SB

West Beach Music Festival.  I’ve been a Steel Pulse fan for a LONG time.  Since I was a little kid.  This was the first time I had ever seen them.  They did not dissapoint.  I got right in the middle of the crowd.  The kick drum sent a huge thud through my body every time it hit.  They were so on point!  It was worth the wait.  Steel Pulse on the beach at sunset.

Walked up the street and stopped by David Flores studio.  Hung out with Noe, Lamont and Boffa as well.  Talked shit.  Dave took the dogs for a walk, and Noe and I went to check out DJs Magneto and Nagai.

That could have been a bad idea, (considering the bus left at 9am the next morning) but we kept it mellow.  Watched the fine bartenders dance on the bar.  Bounced out and got to sleep by 1am.

Up at 8am.  Picked up Noe and Marina.  Picked up Benny.  Fat-ass SWAT/ATF raid at 8am across the street from Benny’s.  Automatic weapons and drug bust across from an elementary school.  Anyway…

We made the bus with time to spare.  Dodger charter that is.  Food and drink along with the ride and the ticket.  First beer at 10am.  First shot at 11am.  Wait.  That’s just wrong.  I blame that on Liberty.

The bus ride was hella fun.  Loud and crazy fun.

The game was maybe the best baseball game I’ve ever been too.  We had ground level seats just off of left field.  Manny was in shouting distance. After I got a beer and a Dodger dog, I started to walk to my seat only to hear the crowd go nuts, and a ball go flying over the fence.  A grand-slam by Ronnie Belliard to start the game off right.  Also saw back to back homers, and Randy Johnson pitch an inning.. the Big Unit!  Dodgers 12, Giants 1.

Oh!  I guessed closest score on the bus and won $100.  Tight.

Partied all the way home with big sunglasses, and Pugh got a job!  Good weekend.  Summer’s still kickin’ in SB.

reply to a dream

I had a beach dream last night too. I was in a beach house too… but the beach house was on stilts, way out in the water. There were 100 ft waves breaking on the beach, that I was watching from behind. I looked over and saw some bubbles on the surface of the water… an underwater earthquake. Next thing I know, I was trapped under falling rubble. My friends were there. Then I must have woke up ’cause that’s the last thing I remember. And nope, no drugs.