A.B.C. - Always. Be. Closing.

While at the gas station this morning I was approached:

Solicitation: You got a dollar?

Response: “I don’t have a…” (interrupted)

Pitch: “One day you’re gonna blow all this up aintcha?!"

Assessment: “Is that your pitch? Does that work on other people?”

Negotiation: “Gimme a dollar!”

Point of contention: “You gotta be kidding me. I know who you are! And every time I pass you look at me like you want to kill me. Go try your pitch somewhere else!”

Closer: (Walks away on unneeded crutches)

There's a Full Moon Rising

TOMMY G

One of my favorite photos of old, that I remember staring at for great lengths when I was probably 12. The word "style" comes to mind. The weird thing about this pic is my memory of it was from the other side of the street.

ZIP-ZINGER ZING ZING

Satisfied a powerful lust for a Zip-Zinger. A friend (thanks Jesse), knowing how broke I tend to be, suggested I make the deck myself. It worked out really well, after 7 hours of labor. Used an old Flip deck I randomly won in an online trivia contest. The hardest part is definitely the drawing of the shape. Much props to the board shapers out there.

Yes, a mess.

Stole some curve from the G&S my high school history teacher gave me. Mr. Smith is The Man.

I learned this fold-symmetry method from some footage of Rodney Mullen.

New wheelbase. I made the tail too small.

Getting a clean line was impossible for me.

The old man's orbital sander is apparently broke, so I had to sand it by hand. A good workout.

ZING!

Indy 129's and Powell All Terrain, 80 du.

I went to the Wing Luke Asian Art Museum...

....and all I got was a piece of art that was much cooler than most of what was being sold in the auction, designed by a high school kid.

Fundraising dinner at the Wing Luke Asian Art Museum for the building's 100 year anniversary. That's a mouthful, which is a lot more than I could say about the vegetarian dinner options.

Style is the answer to everything.

Style is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it
To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art

Bullfighting can be an art
Boxing can be an art
Loving can be an art
Opening a can of sardines can be an art

Not many have style
Not many can keep style
I have seen dogs with more style than men,
although not many dogs have style.
Cats have it with abundance.

When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,
that was style.
Or sometimes people give you style
Joan of Arc had style
John the Baptist
Jesus
Socrates
Caesar
García Lorca.

I have met men in jail with style.
I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail.
Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.
Six herons standing quietly in a pool of water,
or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me.

CB

CLASH OF THE TITANS 3-D!!!!!!!!

Rare still from the new Hollywood Blockbuster!!!!

SPECIAL EFFECTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AVATAR!!!

!!!!!!!!SCARLETS MERCHANDI$E!!!!!!!!!!

Posters, CD's and FULL FRONTAL GOLD GRILLS NOW AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SNOW-WHITEY

It's snowing today....on April 9th.....so why not some snowboarding photos of a perfect-weather day on Rainier?

J.J. with a rare behind-the-back-foot strong-armed indy. His other arm is either pointing to zenith or swinging from a rope.

Reason #1 to snowboard: you can do things, such as mute grabs, that you may not be able to do on a skateboard. 

I miss the Rainier back-country hiking days. This day I received the worst sunburn of my life. I remember not being able to sleep because my nose would crack open and pus would leak down my face. The mountain is a mirror. Whitey need SPF++. 

Still a perfect day.

I GOT SHIN SPLINTS THAT DAY*

Think demo, circa 94, Bainbridge Island. Matt Pailes, pre-Rasta cult. Backside 180 over the volcano*, a smooth move. Taken with the old trusty (yet stolen, R.I.P.) Pentax Asahi.Probably one of my first skate photos ever.

INK Inc.

Tattoo designs have always been fun projects.

This one was for friend of old Lisa. She had a loose idea of wanting a wood-carved hippopotamus with her name in hieroglyphics somewhere. I had this Egyptian rubber stamp kit that I used as a reference for the pictogram. Later, a google search would contradict what the stamp set showed to be the letters L-I-S-A, but I never found out which was more correct. The background fill between the body was photoshopped. I have to get rid of the gold look. It aint hippo-bling. The rest is just colored pencil. Time-consuming medium but a very unique result.

This is the first computer-generated logo-ish image I ever created. The idea required perfect lines and angles. Started with doing the math of the angle of the axis, deciding how much twist I wanted to each side, making the outline symmetrical in Illustrator, and doing the shading in Photoshop. It was a good learner, as I was just starting out with those applications. I wanted to do something Escher-ish, as he's somebody I looked up to since I was little. And I liked the look of the Penrose triangle. But I wanted something I hadn't seen before, so I closed off the space in between and mulled on that for a bit. I got lucky and after a few sketches, this took an impossible yet sleek shape. I'm not often proud of my work, but I had to be if I was going to put it on my body. Got lucky. It often gets mistaken for the Japanese symbol for family, and most people think it's a fan. Yes, I am just a fan fan. I love fan.

Took the final print to Baby Ray at Spotlight Tattoo and tho hesitant to do some other dudes work without a personal touch, he did it. It has a bit of scarring and needs a makeover, but I'm overly-sketchy/anal about having other people permanently draw on me, and thus, it's been about 10 years now and no new ink. Yeah yeah, I know.

Big Lou was a friend I worked with from Los Angeles. A 6 foot 4 inch, 300+lbs Mexican, (a real teddy bear actually) he was shot in a drive-by at a party for him, the night he got out of being hospitalized, for being shot. He was getting out of the street scene, but still had an affinity for the art, as did/do I. He wanted a clown, and I knew right away the type he meant, fairly prevalent in Chicano art. I had seen a good one Mr. Cartoon had sprayed south of downtown. I didn't do it justice, but this was decent enough for ink. Never saw the finished product. Hope Baby Huey is staying out of trouble and doing well.

I want to design some more tattoos. Anyone?

SCARLETS POSTER IS IN.

I love it when printing projects finalize...now waiting for cds.