new york city - loreley on rivington

so after our miracle of getting into Laguardia on friday night, we headed from Park Slope to the lower east side of manhattan to a great little German pub called Loreley.  it was mike's birthday (magic 29) and he and crew had been there since 4PM.  We arrived at around 6:30, a few beers and one road Sparks deep.  it doesn't get much more lower east side than drinking sparks in a brown bag on the F train.

me and the birthday boy

robbie G.  amazing friend and amazing designer as well

comp and lauren.  make love to the camera. 

german wonderfulness

a specific glass per each specific beer.....

i thought it was funny.  rob thought differently

starting to feel the effects

comp and rob are letting us stay at their place during our NYC adventures

2 of my favorite people.  100% high class.

the OTC reunited

not very tough

my life....picture perfect

honestly, this is a perfect look into our relationship!  so funny

new york new york

I'll be posting pics from the trip so far tonight......my camera is in brooklyn and right now I'm visiting my parents in Rockland. Back to Manhattan today to brave the high temp of 27 degrees farenheit while hitting up some old time favorite stores on Madison and meeting up with more family.

for the time being, check out this gem.

These scientists seem to have it together and know how our planet will survive.......

snow...board....reminisce

man, all this rain in so cal and all i keep thinking about is getting some snow.  which brought back some memories from my trip to AK a few years back.....here's some pics down memory lane.

Nixon decided to have their sales meeting in Alyeska, Alaska which of course meant snowboarding every moment possible.  Only issue was that Mike and I were in Switzerland the week before the meeting, so we had to fly directly from Switzerland to Alaska, and by direct, I mean....Zurich -> Frankfurt, Frankfurt -> Chicago, Chicago -> SF, SF -> Anchorage....or something like that.

But once we got there, met up with the crew, we did what we had to do......

first night, just landed in Alaska on a flight from Zurich, Switzerland.  all who know me know that i WILL find a bar with karaoke and get it done.

Mr. Nelson, looking ever so 1979....its a timeless picture and overall look....

getting in some freshies.  looking up at one of the bowls we just came down.  10 people, 10 tracks and that was it...nobody else was near us.

our transportation back up the mountain all day....beats hiking, but doesn't beat the heli that just wouldn't fly due to the incoming snow

my lame-ass air, but an actual picture of me in motion which is good.  I could swear to you that it was HUUUGE!

apre shred, apre sales meeting, Dustin and I hit Anchorage off....found some rad dolphins at a playground and decided to surf.

you wouldn't even understand this move.  pure hang 5.

you gotta be kidding me...

.....the top picture is the civic looked when i was leaving from work to head home.....after that is how it looked last night after some guy decided to try to drive through my car.  the cops took him away in hand-cuffs for a DUI.

wyld wednesday

One of my greatest memories from working at Nixon was when everyone in our crew would skate during lunch.....it didn't matter if you ripped, or sucked.  you could pull a scummy trick out and everyone would go nuts.  Nollie heel, rad.....no comply to ghost ride the skateboard to hop back on, to revert, super rad.....

we decided to bring back some sweet bunny hops at crankbrothers yesterday and get some sick footy to remind ourselves WHY we work where we do!

enjoy.

click here for the video....i couldn't upload it to blogger for some dumb reason.

riding december

ok, gotta hit the road before it gets too cold/dark

OMG! All-Clad I love you.

I love waffles.  Belgian Waffles are the best way to start any weekend morning.......and my favorite cookware company All-Clad will NOT let me down with their newest release:

New 

All-Clad Classic Round Waffler

A breakthrough concept in waffle makers, our exclusive stainless-steel waffler creates the best we’ve ever tasted – golden, deliciously crispy on the outside and meltingly tender inside, with pockets for toppings. The secret lies in a sophisticated steam-release system that prevents condensation from building up as the waffles bake. Advanced heating technology ensures perfectly consistent baking and browning. An indicator light signals when the waffler has reached the optimal temperature, and excess batter is channeled away to simplify cleanup.

DID YOU FRIGGEN READ THAT????    Secret Steam Release System?  Amazing.  Let me repeat this line "golden, deliciously crispy on the outside and meltingly tender inside"

good cooking tools can be like macs, when the new one comes out, you feel like you just gotta get one.

And of course, available exclusively through Williams-Sonoma.

little changes are good

so I had some time in the last week or so to do some changes on the sporty.  First thing was to mount my Max Schaaf x Vans grips that came with my Mountain Editions....

so I broke out my trusty grinder, aka, Dewalt drill with cutting wheel attached to it and decided to narrow the Friscos by an inch on each side.  its funny how much you can do with what you have just sitting around.  

starting the narrowing process

so the dummy (clutch side) grip went on in a pinch, but that throttle side was not as fun/easy.  Basically, on harley's stock throttle grips, they co-mold the rubber grip to the throttle sleeve itself, so i had to shave away portions of the rubber grip in order to get down to the plastic sleeve, then it was out with the rubber mallet to pound that new throttle grip on....after 5 minutes of wondering how much damage I did, i put the key in and sure enough, after checking all vitals; headlights, throttle, brakes, everything still worked.

grip one....on.   the easy one.

next, i took some time to get my license plate bracket mounted all nicely.  Originally when I put it on, i didn't clean up all the wiring nicely, so just routed the brake light wire clean and out of the way.

license plate and tail light sidemount (huge thanks to Chris Brown)

Lastly, grinded off the extra tab that is no longer in use on my speedo, painted my little mounting plate black and cleaned it all up a bit.   

shot of the re-mounted speedo.  down low.

patio set

Dirty 30

yes, its true....I'm officially 30 years old, which makes me feel fine, but probably makes my parents feel OLD as hell...... because, well, they are.  Or at least they're getting there!

I received this picture in an email from Chris over at Biltwell.  I honestly felt a little bit of throw up in my mouth from laughing so hard while trying to read the text on this t-shirt.  He bought it in Taiwan for his girlfriend.....ahhhh, its nice to know people that share the love of typos and general English nonsense on things from Asia.

is that not the most precious statement in the world?  I mean, who doesn't love "RED BUMPS ASNAKE VEINS".  I gladly accept this .jpg as a birthday present.  that's how much I love reading it.

spread the venom

man, with the announcement just made....wait, there wasn't much of an announcement, but No Knife officially sold out their 1st show back in action at the Casbah.  Luckily, I might be able to pull the, "hey can you guy get me in since you practice at my band space and use my amp(s)....?" card in order to get in.

I feel super fortunate to have met the boys from a band that I loved and still love from back in the day.  I've been playing in GYDO with Brian for about 3 years now in some shape or form and I still remember the first night that I found out 'who he was' and 'what band he used to be in'. 

it was a chilly fall night and I had met Brian through Sean.  Brian wanted to be in a band and learn to play drums.  I've been playing drums since i was a kid so I figured I'd help him learn and I would play guitar in this band......then after a few practices, during a skate/slappy break, he picked up the Bass and just started OWNING IT.  I had never heard someone play bass that way and when I aske

d him why he wasn't playing bass in our little band, he just casually let out "well I used to play bass in my old band, No Knife, but I just wanted to try something new".

GYDO at Tower Bar with Planes Mistaken for Stars

Brian unleashes the 'demon eyes'

There I was, super embarrassed and psyched at the same time.........Needless to say, he jumped back on bass and we recruited my long time no see college friend John Foothills to play drums and GYDO was officially born.

SO....try to come on out to the Ken Club in San Diego this upcoming Saturday Night to catch us play some of our loud tunes and just have fun, doing what we do.  The lineup for the night is the following (headliner is the top band):

OAKS

Get Your Death On

Hellrancho

Sea Pansy

Check out some songs from our first demo/EP and other stuff at the myspace page.

GYDO in LA somewhere in 2006 or 07. Jon pre-two years of no haircut or beard trim.

Me with Sperry Top Siders and some cuffed jeans (wtf on the baggies)

can't catch a break

as you can imagine, I was super stoked to see the weather report calling for rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.  what's that ? you say... well its always pretty sunny and warm here and I miss those rainy fall days where you can:

Put on a rain jacket (non-insulated)

Get to work and turn off the lights (except task lighting)

Put your headphones on at your desk

Pull your hoodie over your headphones

Grab a cup of coffee (preferably in a STYROFOAM cup)

Lean back and work, staring at the bright screen

well, it rained finally last night, so nice to sleep to that sound and now the weather people have moved my glorious rain days to today and tomorrow.

BUT you can imagine my dismay when I woke up this morning and looked outside and saw blue skies.

hopefully, i will get my rain soon...

can't wait to cook

this little gem from Joseph Joseph definitely hits the nail on the head for 1) smart storage and 2) getting its owner to the kitchen.

best.motorcycle.souvenir.yet

i saw this....i laughed....i bought it....i can't wait to wear it....

scooters and motorcycles are a major part of everyone's lives that live in Taiwan, so I made it my point to get some sort of motorcycle memorabilia as a reminder for this trip.  not only did i find a sweet helmet, I found an amazing typo.   if you know me, you know I LOVES a' typo in Asia.

The Floral Lab

....just got a great little write up on local San Diego photographer Justin Lee's blog.

check it out here!!!!!!

keep it going, Leigh....

maintenance

yep, I'm still totally blowing it on updating this thing with pictures.  this trip has been way too busy for my liking.  just too much movement.

Finally, though, I'm at an amazing hotel in Taichung, Taiwan called hotel ONE.  Every room is set up for being away from home on a work trip.  Huge built in desk, flat panel TV, A/V wires to connect your laptop to the TV screen OR to connect to the surround sound Sony system that each room has...

Yes, Astrud Gilberto was nice to wake up to coming through the speakers and keeping everything mellow.

Met up with 3 fellow crankbrothers last night and today all 6 of us will be traveling to visit vendors together.  that should be interesting....i'm usually not a big fan of groups larger than 2 traveling around places together as everyone has to get organized and stuff, but it will be fine....just breathe....ok, it will be alright.

8:04 am and I'm just waking up and the crew is meeting to leave at 8:30 and I still haven't showered or had coffee yet.  AWESOME!

hopefully tonight I'll have some time to sit down at this computer again and get some of the pictures from the trip posted.

gettin' 'spensive

little bit of a travel update

....no photos right now.  I'm actually in a meeting with a vendor right now, watching Vincent argue with them....

all I can say is that China is getting expensive.

Hotel prices in mainland China have gone up 25% to 50%, costs at the vendors are going up for finished goods, and now, just now, a saddle vendor just told me that that its cheaper to buy Kevlar from Italy and import it to their factory in China than to just buy it from a local Chinese supplier....wtf.

On a lighter note, I've been visiting a lot of bag vendors lately.

Went to the makers of Acme Made, Head Porter, Burton, Nixon, Billabong, Kate Spade, Samsonite, Kipling, Oilily, and Incase....some overlap in there, but basically 3 different factories in 3 days.

Some amazing stuff.  Nice and clean factories, super advanced assembly lines and tons of manual stitching and hand-made sweat going into these things.  

china, a few days in...

there are certain things that will always make my trips to china easier.  one of them being typos or mis-translations.....lost in translation-isms.....

I've been in mainland China in the area called DongGuan for two days now.  At dinner last night, I sat down grabbed a drink menu and as I paged through the drinks, I found this gem on the Sherry and Port page....go ahead read....

yep, go ahead, get closer....

you can only imagine my astonishment when i saw that they offer a nice Dry Sack...mmmm

the other thing is that most chinese people love making connections with who you look like....unfortunately for me, this guy keeps coming up.....It's actually pretty acurate and haunts me every time I am here.

am I related.....?  sure seems to be.

back in Hong Kong

the view from my hotel room.

well, here I am.....back in Hong Kong.  crazy to think that it has been almost a year since i was last here, but that's the truth.  still feels like a home away from home.  

Staying in the trusty Sheraton in Kowloon.  but just for one night tonight and then I head into main land China to the city/provence of Shen Zhen for a week and I'll be staying in China the whole time.  Usually I like to do day trips into China from a Hong Kong "base camp" but this trip I'll just set up camp at a hotel in the main land.  Then next Tuesday I'll be heading to Taiwan for a few days and then back to Hong Kong for 3 days.

another few hotel room views:

straight out my window

Looking down to the left and to the right

history and a bright new day

right now, they are adding a new chapter to the US History books....and it will be a chapter that forever changes the country we live in.  I can only imagine how it will be like when our grandparents "remembered when Women gained the right to vote".  A time that would be hard to imagine before these changes took place.

Congratulations America.  I think alot of people will be pleasantly surprised that all of their fears about this man were nonsense, that he has what it takes to unite the country, and that he will be the leader that we need in this time.

curtains, my friends

so, we're hanging our last set of curtains at that house tonight.  pretty big accomplishment I think.  its nerve racking, spending money on things like that.  I mean, $250 on stuff that is for fun, clothing, music instruments, flower stuff, clothing, motorcycle helmets, leather jackets, clothing or any other fun stuff (haha), it would be fine, but on CURTAINS???  just not fun.  practical, yes.  

wait till Leigh sees the set I got though....

But this reminded me of an amazing band and a great album title.....Piebald's If it weren't for venetian blinds, it would be curtains for us all....

I would say Piebald were ahead of their time, but I don't know if that's true.  Maybe it was the right time, but from that time until now, people couldn't handle trying to grow with bands as they grow..........It was such a damn good album and a good time to be into music in New England.  also, it could've been that they just plain sucked too.

It looks like they might be breaking up now....or not, it seems like they were always on the verge of not being a band anymore, but hey, what do i know?

wtf...its the weekend, baby

This will be a 4 for Friday update:

1) I can't wait to spend time with my wife this weekend, even if it will only be Sunday.

2) the John Foothills Band has a show tomorrow night at the Ken Club in San Diego with the Donkeys (SD) and Norman (Portland, OR)

3) happy 'hit a jew day'....yes, this news story is for real.  what is this world coming to?  the parents are the ones who should be punished here, not the kids.

4) Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8.  This is a big deal for a corporation to be so politically charged.  Personally, I'm with them.  Will YES on 8 people stop buying or using their macs?  They are using a pro-gay marriage machine, you know.....

ongoing projects are the best kind

Chris stopped by to check out the sportster to get some measurements for a new seat that he's got cooking up.  Turns out my bike won't work with the current design that he got going on, but still it should work with the mid and late 90's models.

Most Importantly though was the fact that I got to check out one of his amazing bikes.  This one is great.  check out all the little bits going on, especially the knotted up pipes.  

I'm loving the gas tank graphics as well...super clean and geometric.

super good dudes are hard to find sometimes, and chris is definitely one of them....