Stumptown Stumble

As Leonard alluded to, I took a skate/filming mission out to Portland. Lots of skating went down, and lots of pain and soreness resulted. Here is the escapade via the lens of my phone camera:

On the flight there, the guy the seat over from me looked like your typical middle-aged, middle-class, professional...reading a Harry Potter book! I was amused. I shot the photo when he went to the bathroom to release his magic potions.



We ate at this Creole restaurant in Portland where they wrapped my vegetarian jambalaya like a foil alien creature/crab (or something). We stopped by the same place to get some food to go on my way to the airport at the end of the trip and I was hoping that I didn't have to go to the airport with another one of these creatures...I got lucky (or maybe the waitress that first day was the one looking to get lucky ;)).



Leonard had to go to work the first couple days I was there. On the second day, I didn't feel like waiting for him so I took the bus to Burnside. While waiting for the bus, this guy stopped at the light in front of me...way to live in a mirror, dude!



I took these while crossing the Burnside bridge on my way to the park:





Chat Childress, aka Crooks/Luda Crooks/Ol Dirty Crooks/Crooked Arm/etc, was there RIPPING!



There were a couple spots that I was looking for (which I had magazine rip-outs of on me of him skating them) and he was able to tell me where they were. Unfortunately, one was gone and the other was outside of Seattle. Dude killed that park, as did all the other locs. I got hurt.



Apparently, skateboarding is awesomer than graffiti!



This sign follows Leonard around:



They love skateboarders in Portland! That skateboarder is totally going to punch that rollerblader in the face!



They also like to make food into animals!



Did you know that nicknames for Portland are Mudtown and Stumptown? Those are tougher names than the Big Apple (which is apparently rotten at its core).

Oh yeah, and everybody wears helmets...even tough looking bikers on their chopper bicycles they are forced to ride since they bikes were confiscated after their 5th DUI.

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

1 knee and hand dripping blood
2 ruined boards
1 shin that looks like it exploded
1 scraped up leg, back, and butt
1 pair shorts shredded from sliding out on butt
1 crushed ego
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filming mission w/ Eby

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.

I find arguing about music pointless.

Of course, I suspect Eby's problem is not really a music-problem at all, but rather a 'brand problem.' PDiddy is embarrassing. Even saying his name is embarrassing. And what?

I think there is another side to him. A kitschy side. I am talking some beyond your garden-variety, cool-dude irony. It is deeper, murkier.

To get right to it: I think that there is something vaguely transsexual about Pdiddy, something drag queenish. For one, there is the glossy charades. So maybe Puff's political costumery seems somehow analogous to gender costumery (I don't care if that's a real word or not). Or maybe it is just the fact that the dude looks like he wear more foundation than Rupaul.

This could really be the future of rap music. Think about how much transvestites did for rock music (Bowie, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls). And, like, with the rap world being so homophobic, what would be more subversive than a transgendered rapper? Trannie-hop? Dragster-rap?

I wonder what would Judith Butler would say. In any case, the beat sounds like early Prince or Cameo in the best way possible. I am not joking about saying I like that song. Dude, what do you want? It's got a nice beat and I can dance to it.

Whatever. I served for jury duty today. We reached a verdict in a half an hour. There were six of us. Everyone listened to each other. No one was angry or rude. Beyond the dirty details of the case (it was a strangulation), the experience was perfectly genteel.

Berrrr, who had the sickest skateboarding clips on youtube, got his account suspended. He had a bunch of clips from the Gnargnar video. I wonder if that was what did him in. This was his final post.



Some final notes:

I keep hearing about how well Sho's memorial went.

When I first met Sho, I noticed he had written a quote on his board. I asked him where it was from. He said it was from Damien Hirst (work pictured). It goes to show how little about art that I didn't know who Damine Hirst was at the time. When I asked Caireen about Damien Hirst later, she let me know how bad this was that I didn't know.

As a note: In the future, I want to talk more about 1) how stupid the skateboarding industry has become, 2) how boring it is to talk about music, and 3) why I am amazing and my life is legendary.

God. That picture of PDiddy is freaking me out. So, in any case, here is something else. Try to forget about it. New Order, "confusion."

Hawt Coulture

Dang! What is with Leonard feeling horrible Puff Daddy songs (are there such things as non-horrible Puff Daddy songs?)?

So it is like 15 degrees here and has been snow-ish lately. This is what it was like on my way to work on Wednesday:






Those pictures are not dirty, that is just God boycotting Head and Shoulders (that is what snow really is, kiddies).



It is going to be in the 50's this weekend! Speaking of this weekend, if you are in or around NYC, you should stop through KCDC on Saturday.



My hood is so confusing. I have so much trouble crossing the street because of at least four of these vague crossing lights within 5 blocks of my apartment.



Speaking about confusing...how are you supposed to try these???



It has to be COOKED!!! You can try samples of cookies and chips, you can try using toys, and you can try out lotions and perfumes, but you CANNOT try Indian food that has to cooked in the store. Maybe one day in the future we can...like when you will cook meals by placing a pill in to a machine and transforming it into a platter of BBQ tofu or something. Speaking of, when are they going to have recycled food? Like in that movie Judge Dread. Or recycled urine, like in Waterworld? Someone needs to get on that.

For the record, professional skateboarders annoy me. I think I am going to stop reading their interviews in magazines...maybe.

Once again, come out to KCDC on Saturday. If you do, you may get one of these stickers.

Analogies, it is true, decide nothing, but they can make one feel more at home.

I don't care what you say. Today, I like this song.


The kids at Boise-Elliot weren't feeling it and staged a wildcat strike.

If you can't do it, give up!

news:
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--New: in Portland, most little skater-kids wear helmets when they skate. Old: they also write the names of their favorite brands on their grip tape.

--I Finished The Education of Henry Adams.

--Zizek seems to be on another lecture tour--on how "only atheists can believe." It is mostly at conservative southern colleges. Is it that since Derrida's dead, Zizek can dominate the market for coquettish atheists who want to whore off religion-friendly continental philosophy? Or is the gift of Lacanian/Hegelian thought intended really as a Trojan Horse?

--Transworld and the IASC appear to be backtracking. The meeting of top pros with the IASC has become just a merely heartfelt, authentic sesh with the bros.

--Hung out with Luke, finally, from Life at These Speeds. I met a friend of his who said his parents were in a Christian free-love cult. They travelled the world being promiscuous for Jesus. Some things are apparently even worse than your garden-variety fundamentalisms.

--Using the word "streetwear" will impress your friends. It is best as an adjective. For example, "Ooh, I like that shirt. It is really streetwear."

Q: Of What Four-Wheeled Vehicle are Cars Jealous?

A: