12/21/2011

I've been slacking on the blogging...it happens. Sometimes I feel compelled to write...sometimes I feel compelled to watch Beavis and Butthead at night. Other times I just don't feel like editing photos to post along with the written word. This time around I have the time, some photos, and some words far from sounding like they contain even the smallest trace of wisdom.


I have noticed a trend recently that I don't really like and it has to do mostly with girls. When did it become "cool" to be nerdy? Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with nerds. I have a lot of friends that I consider nerds...again that EYE consider nerds not that consider themselves nerds. The problem I have is hearing girls now a days referring to themselves as nerds. The way I look at it, if you have to refer to yourself as a nerd you're trying a little too hard. I doubt that a real nerd would have to tell you this because it's probably an unspoken kinda thing...you just kinda know. You dig?


I don't really know where I am going with this but I see some girls who one: don't look like nerds, act like nerds, do really nerdy stuff, but for some reason they still GIVE themselves that title. Shut the fuck up. How's that for a title? If you see me with a skateboard yeah I doubt I have to tell you I'm a skateboard. If I see someone shredding guitar...okay you're obviously a musician. If I see some hipster girl or guy claiming s/he is a nerd...okay you're obviously a fucking idiot. I think real nerdy girls are hot (always have)...and usually intellectually interesting. These new age nerdy types I've found myself running into in LA are neither intellectual or do they seem like they drown themselves in things like fantasy novels, anime, and video games. That's about all the ranting I feel I need to do at the moment.


I have some photos that I'm pretty stoked on right now. I am by no way saying that they are great photos or anything. Just saying that for the kind of crappy photos I happen to take well...I am happy with the way these came out. Shall we?

Earlier this year I met a girl up in Santa Cruz. We hung out a few times. Had some laughs. Had some good times. Then she got a boyfriend. Whatever. Girls come and go. I had some late night fun with her while I had the chance I suppose. This one time I brought my camera and hung back while I let her walk ahead of me. The setting/lighting/mood in this alley reminded me of a scene from the original Nightmare On Elm Street.

This one is probably self explanatory.

Eduardo Craig and Adam Bertolet talking and shit in Downtown LA. Love these guys.

This was the view that Micah Hollinger and myself had from one of the windows of our Washington DC hotel room during Maloof. Kyle Walker would be hanging with us most of the time at night up there with us and the 3 of us would be heckling every person walking by or at the bar down below us. GOOD TIMES! Except when we'd walk down to the bar and everyone would see that Micah and I were the ones yelling at them :o

Took this while flying to Washington DC. Location unknown. Oh how ugly we make this world look. A grid of ever spreading cancerous death that we call humanity.

I have some family out by Visalia in a town called Woodlake, CA. The last time that I was heading back to LA from Watsonville I stopped by Woodlake to visit some of my family out there and hang for a bit. Take a different route from the usually 101 trip (which I love). I found this ditch/aqueduct thing on a rural road while heading back to the freeway. I had to cross a hectic bridge and dodge cars to take this photo. It was worth it.

The drive continued on. I am not sure where exactly I was for this. I believe it was somewhere along the 99 freeway just south of Bakersfield I want to say. I pulled over onto the shoulder and posted up and shot a few long exposures and I think this one came out the best. The moon looked so ridiculous this night!!! It was huge and glowing bright. This photo really doesn't do it justice. I couldn't stop looking at it while driving. Love solo drives when the moon comes out of hiding like this. Enjoy the little things in life.

This is the photo I am stoked on the most as of late. I shot this one about 45 minutes to an hour before the moon one above somewhere along the 99 again. I pulled over to the shoulder for this one as well and shot tons of different looking photos here. Walked up and down the freeway shoulder for a few minutes but finally got to a point where the sun was behind the building out there and finally got what I needed. It was obvious that there was something cool there to capture. Without a doubt! After walking around and pondering it the apocalyptic image I saw in my head but couldn't translate to the proper angle, composition, exposure, and shutter release was finally found. The beauty of our natural world diminishing is saddening in a way. Trees > Metal pillars.

That is all for now my fellow folks, skate rats, acquaintances, and NERDS. I hope you all have a good Christmas and get to spend it with family (and or loved ones). As much as I love to be a misanthropic, nihilist at times...I do cherish holidays and time with the family. Take care of one another and let us hope that 2012 brings less corporate greed, less government corruption, and a less violent world to live in. I only say this now because I'm covering my ass incase I don't blog until then :P 

Theresa's new movie: Pete Smalls Is Dead

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a screening of a new movie that Theresa starred in called "Pete Smalls Is Dead." I didn't really know anything about the movie going into it. Didn't know what kind of movie it was, what kind of role Theresa was playing, or just anything about it...period.


I have a rather weird, twisted, deranged sense of humor and I found myself laughing during most of the movie. I will refrain from divulging any real details and leave it up to you to watch the movie. There are some amazing people in the movie including: Mark Boone Junior, Tim Roth, Rosie Perez, Michael Lerner, Seymour Cassel, and the one and only Steve Buscemi. The movie is complex, well written, and shot well. Good stuff through and through. Find it. Watch it.

Here is a photo of Theresa and myself at the party thrown down the street after the movie :)

Black And White

I know I haven't posted in a while...things had gotten crazy there for a few months. Real crazy. But now life is starting to kind of fall back into place. Slowly but surely.


Been super busy as of late. I no longer live in Culver City! I have since moved to Westwood and am settling into my new place at a snails pace. I am about to head to 6 Flags with Dylan Witkin and Andrew Langi so I have minimal time to write about all that has happened since my last post...which is going to take a long time for my fingers to transfer the data to this screen you're reading.


I was up super late going through photos I have shot over the last few months and ended up editing a ton of them. I ended up with a handful of black and white photos so I figued why not post all those desaturated photos together. So here you go!

I caught my brother walking out of my parent's house...

not the best framing. I know! But I wanted to blog him so whatevs.

Buster O'Shea.

Dominick Walker looking haggard after putting in work.

Elliott Murphy hanging out in Chino Hills, CA.

John Motta does it.

Kyle Walker about to grind at Rincon.

Marquis Henry has got "the right pop."

Micah Hollinger on his computer in Washington, DC.

Ryan Reyes and Nico Magalhaes.

Ryan Reyes.

Micah Hollinger reads the plane away.

That is all for now. The homies are here. Drinking has commenced. We are about to get on the road. Peace ya'llz

BLACK LIGHT

I thought this day would never come...but it alas it has! This is the top secret project that Clint and I had been working on for a while. That random Arizona trip I took with him resulted in us shooting this. We kept it hush hush. The great Micah Hollinger and myself shot this in one night. I edited it in the confines of my room with no one knowing what I was cutting besides Allen and Clint. A few people got to see little glimpses of things here and there, but it was pretty much kept completely in the dark. It took a long time to finish this because it was mentally taking it out of me working on it. It took so long to make such little progress...but it was all worth it. BEHOLD:

WATCH IN HD ONLY!

There will also be a behind the scenes type video that will accompany this at some point. We all did interviews after we had finished shooting and talked about the experience. I need to take a break from the editing table for a while because I had been working on this non stop for the last 3 days. I've gotten very little sleep and now I'm moving on to finishing shooting my next "secret" project, haha. This one however is not skateboarding related at all...:0

Best Coast

Best Coast is one of those bands that I feel is easily accessible for most of the general public. They're one of those bands that you can usually assume most any girl likes. You gotta find a way to "connect" on some level with girls when you first meet them right? Why not ask if they like Best Coast? ;) But on the real, I do like this band a whole lot. They remind me of a Americanized version of Camera Obscura with less of a cynical, misanthropic view of the world. Camera Obscura...although sounding sweet and mellow tends to have some really dark, and edgy lyrics despite the tone/mood of the band. Okay, okay, they're not very similar at all really...the singers just kinda, sorta sound the same is all. Whatever!

Back to the subject at hand. I love this video. A Lot. Apparently Drew Barrymore directed it? I guess that's kind of cool right? I'm indifferent about that little fact. I wonder how much of this she actually conceptualized herself...or if she had minions do all her dirty work and then just slapped her name on it. I'm not saying that's the case at all, just assuming things for the sake of assuming. Who cares. This came out great. Kudo's to her and to this band for writing such a great song. Watch it!

MTV Supervideo - Music - Best Coast

The crazy thing about this is that for a while now I have been wanting to edit something to this. Pretty much since I heard the song I knew I wanted to use it for something. I'm on the verge of wanting to start a new video project and I was thinking about putting together some kind of "thang," for lack of a better word, with this song being part of this so called "thang." I think I still want to! I can see it in my head already and know what I want to make. Just something to remind people that me and the homies are still doing what we do...if that makes any sense. I got all this HD footage laying around and I wanna put some of that stuff to use. Nothing too crazy...just tricks that may not make the cut in a bigger project. I don't want to get too deep on the subject because talk is cheap...

I have a slight headache and I feel like I am having major problems just forming complete thoughts/sentences. Just watch the Best Coast video. That's all I can say. Just watch it <3 

Warpaint Stuffz

A while back my boy Theodore Robert Newsome directed a video for Warpaint's song "Warpaint," and he asked me to come out and shoot the behind the scenes clip that would accompany the video. Of course I was down.


Five days before Ted's shoot I had ended up going out to Arizona with Clint (on a drunken whim at midnight) and we planned to come back the night before...we almost ended up running out of gas in the middle of nowhere coming back from Phoenix the night before said shoot! Needless to say, Clint's Hemi got us to a gas station (barely), we fueled up, and made it back to LA! I got home and went right to bed. Woke up less than 4 hours later and had to drive to Echo Park to go shoot this behind the scenes stuff...I was in a daze to say the least. Five days of non stop hanging, staying up all night, and shooting out in Arizona, followed by the long drive back did not quite put me in the proper mind state, or mood to go shoot this stuff on little to no sleep (sorry). I was hating life and the zombie state that I felt was going to last all day/make my brain devoid of basic functions. As soon as things got rolling at the pool though...it was on.


I think it's safe to say everyone had a lot of fun the day of the shoot. It was a long, and hard day (haha long and hard) but it was all well worth it! Click and watch:

That was, what now seems like, a long time ago. Because of this though it allows Theresa and I to even dive back into the "Shadows" video and maybe make it that much cooler. Soon enough that one will be done, I swear. I have so many projects that are close to being done at this point and planning on shooting a comedy skit with 2 of my friends this week. When will the madness end? Hopefully never because madness is too fun.

Last weekend I did some other random Warpaint related stuff as well. When will I ever pull away from these kooks? Time will tell, I guess. Theresa and Stella got asked to be a part of some art instillation in Europe. We basically rearranged Stella's whole livingroom and I set up a green screen area all up in there. We got a little weird to say the least. I will not divulge any details other than these photos.

 Things were about to get interesting...

I tried telling Theresa not to exfoliate during shooting but would she listen? No.

Stella looking she could be on the cover of a kvlt black metal album.

Peep dat footy.

Stella spinning the digital turn tables.

Powder.

Who knows if people in The States will ever even see what we did that night. To be perfectly honest...don't really care either. It was fun doing this though...that's all that I DO know. I'm too busy laughing at Derek and Brandon's dogs to write anymore regarding this subject.

Here's two more photos I shot that same weekend over at Theresa's place. Emily stopped by and got Tiger ready to take a dip in the kiddy pool and run around the backyard naked.

The grass is greener on the other side...of the backyard.

Let the naked anticz begin!

I've been lagging super hard on posting as of late...that mean's I'm busy having fun. Remember fun?

Insta.Posts

I found a way to download all the photos from your instagram profile to your computer today. Exciting...right? If you'd like to do the same I urge you to go to here to do so.  Now you can share instagram photos easily with non-iPhone users :0

I was glad to see this thing go. It's been a month since it got cut off and I'm still not back to normal yet...

This was my first instagram photo taken. I see this cat more than I see most people in this world.

I got flown out to Maloof along with a few other heavy hitters this year to camera operate the webcast. A day before the contest I got to watch Evan Smith skating the course for fun. I knew he was going to kill it from the looks of it at the moment. This photo was a make. Kickflip in...with ease!

Don't worry Gonzo...weed isn't a drug? No need for the thumbs down?

The only name in my phone that's in ALLxCAPS. Since day one (no pun intended).

My little nephew stole the west.

I wish I could bring you down south with me every time I go home.

 Ryan Reyes doing the first of many of this pose in different places.

Cerebral Ballzy music video shoot.

Theresa foaming at the cup.

It's good to know that when the DSLR is too clunky to bring along my phone can still put it down. Us iPhone owners have quite a powerful little tool in our pockets. Put it to use!

7/12/11

I want to edit right now. I want to blog right now. I want to edit photos right now.


I don't feel like spending much time doing either of them right now (if that makes sense) so I don't know what I'm going to do. I guess this is what I ended up doing since I am laying on the couch typing this right now. I have a headache and ultimately that is what I blame for creating this sense of "I want to do things but I don't want to" feeling. There are a bunch of photos that have just been laying around on my hard drive for a while that have yet to be posted. This is the time where I dump them all out and then I hope edit a new batch of stuff. Time to unload...haha I said...

2/3's of MEECHabartALET.

Mike Abarta and his little buddy.

Adam Bertolet and Jesse "The Canadian Stefan Janoski" Landen relaxing after shredding.

Westside Ryderz.

So glad to have that thing off.

Adam broke 2 boards in 5 tries.

Daniel Knapp brewing it up.

San Francisco photographers, Ken Tadashi and Brad Burt, posted.

Watsonville Skate Park OG's reunite!

Laban and Vito.

Laban lurking in the outskirts of Joshua Tree.

ChriSlambert reflecting on ones self.

Tosh.0 is on and my attention is fading from the laptop to the TV screen. BAI!