Vans Triple Crown 1999...

So, back in 1999 Vans Shoes held the Triple Crown of Skateboarding in DWNTWN Milwaukee, WI. on June 4th-6th.

On June 2nd the Milwaukee Brewers asked Steve Caballero to throw out the first pitch.

Randy, the former owner of WARP skatepark, had asked if I wanted to go because he was gunna buy tickets for everybody so we all sat together. I think he got asked by the owner of Vans because we were all sitting in the saem section.

When I say "we" I mean, Jason Ellis & Collin McKay were sitting right in front of us. When I say "us" I mean, Randy, Ray (from Skate Shack & RQ), these dudes Ray & Kevin from Scrap skatepark, Adam Tobler, oh and we picked Dave Duncan up along the way, we all drove up there together in Randy's Van.

Adam sat in between Jason & Colin during the game.

Apparently it was Colin's first baseball game ever, and I think Jason too. We got them yelling "hey batta batta" and all that ish you yell in little league.

If you've ever heard Jason Ellis on Satellite Radio you can get the idea of sitting behind it for a whole game. He was yelling "YOU SUCK!!!" in that loud booming voice.

The reason I know it was Colin's first game is because when I went to the bathroom we both walked out at the saem time and he told me "man, this is fun, this is my first time going to a baseball game ever."

The owner of Vans would stand up every time one of the concession walkers came by, and look back asking "who needs what?" and point around, we'd raise our hands, he'd pay the guy, and the guy would come by and drop our beer, hot dogs, cotton candy, wahtever... we just had to tip the guy a $1 or two.

We were also taking turns walking down to the field seats that Vans had. You know, the ones right on the field with four seats behind a 3 foot wall at field level?

I walked down with my camera and sat in the box for about 10 minutes with Kris Markovich, Dave Duncan, and Steve Caballero. I asked if I could get their pics, they hugged and I took a pic, then Duncan says "lemme get one of you guys."

So, I have a pic soemwhere of Kris, Steve, and Myself. I'll keep digging for that one.

Right before I left I asked Cab if he could sign mai ticket stub, he said "sure" and then also gave me a fingerboard keychain. I still have those in a cedar box.

Ray and I got super drunk, because Randy drove his conversion van up there, so there was plenty of time to get sobes from Milwaukee, WI. to Woodstock, IL.

Wow, storyfest. Could you follow?
Anyway, here's one sequence I got of a skater that I don't know. I do know that in the last shot is Sean Sheffey setting up for a trick. I got this Camera on June 3rd, 1999 so I didn't know how to use it fully, plus I bought tele-photo lens thinking I would be further away. The cammy and tele wanted to auto-focus between each shot, so soem of them are 3fps... I was luck to get 4fps on soem.
Now, remember this was all film so I took 10 rolls and maybe got 4 rolls worth of good shots.

If you have any clue as to who this skater might be, please let me know.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Cause of Sexual Thought" by Bill Hicks from the album "Flying Saucer Tour" recorded on June 20th, 1991 and released on November 12th, 2002.

Spring Installation...

INSTALLING SPRING...

████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

33% DONE.

Install Delayed... please wait.

Installation Failed.

Please Try Again :(

As of the end of this post I'm currently listening to "Fly Me Over The Rainbow" by Indica from the album "Fairy Tales" released in 2000 on Agitato records out of Israel.

Indica is Eliad Grundland.
He also records under as the artist "Space Buddha"

Chicago Summers...

So, if you've never been, you should soemtime. I'm talking about Chicago in the Summer, cool breeze off the lake, great views, soemthing free going on in Grant Park almost every WKND, and of course patio seating with soem of the finest food on Earth.

 These pics were taken last year at Lollapalooza 2010, Marfa and I got all access passes. Here we took each others photo in front of Buckingham Fountain hamming up the whole tourist experience, even though we're both Chicagoans and have seen it a trafillion times.

We were there for the skateboarding demo by Character Skateboards and the free lessons for kids as part of Kidapalooza, an awesome place for kids and family. Great kids music and activities so the whole family can make a dei or WKND out of it.
So you can go see Green Day or Social Distortion in between getting your kid's faces painted or shaking your sillies out to some great music your kids will love. The whole family will be happy, Dad with his Beer, Mom with her SoCo slushy, and the kids with their cotton candy, ice cream, and free spirits.

I think you should start planning your summer trip to Chicago and see waht all the fuss is about. If you skateboard you should hook up with the dudes at Uprise skateshop, Wellborn Clothing, and Character Skateboards. We'll be glad to show you skate spots, great food outside the tourist trap, and hopefully friendships that will last a lifetime. If you don't skate I'm sure we could still help you find an awesome place to eat, either way hope to see you this year at Lollapalooza or Kidapalooza in Chicago.
Mention this blog.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "The Unicorn" by Peter Grudzien from the album of the saem naem "The Unicorn" released in 1974.
He is quite possibly the original gay New York country musician (or at least openly) with songs ranging from noise to straight up country folk music..

TB-303 Acid Shoes...

 So, back in August 2010 I got the idea to design a tribute shoe for the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer.
Shortly after designing these I posted them on Twitter & Facebook. Later, the Synth blog Matrixsynth contacted me about getting him pics and he'd do a post about them, here's his post.

I bought one of these silver acid boxes back in 1997, got to use it for just over a year and then it quit on me. I still have it laying around just in case I find soembody worthy of looking at it / fixing it. Oh yeah, then there's coming up with money to fix it. I could prolly sell it to soembody and they could pay to get it fixed, maybe do soem crazy Devil Fish mods to it.
I currently have it up for auction on Ebay.

In 1998 I bought a 303 clone and Novation Super Bass Station and was able to emulate the 303 pretty damn well, but nothing will ever replace the sounds it produced.
One album that uses the 303 to its fullest, or may well abuse it, is "TB Resuscitation" by Hardfloor.
A fine example of Acid Techno.

These shoes are available at Zazzle and have been a big hit in places like Belgium, UK, Italy, Germany, and France.
I've only sold two pair in the USA... SF & NOLA.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Hard To Survive" by Zoetrope from the album "A Life Of Crime" released in 1987. A metal band from Chicago.

Rave Krisp●E-tards...

So, B in the D on May 30th, 1997 I went to a rave, in Chicago, with mai friend Destry. We got there KNDA early, the place was in a sketchy area on the South Side in an old Church/Community Centre/School building. I really don't know waht it was.

I remember that there was a shit load of stairs to get to the party on the 2nd floor, they only had one open door to the fire escape for air andone fan at that door. There were tons of Kandi Ravers because I think that was the zenith of Kandi Kulture.
Lots of E-tards walking around like zombies, sitting against the walls passed out or rubbing on soemone special [for that night].
There was even a rumour [because an ambulance showed up] that Paul Johnson died because his wheelchair rolled down all those stairs, which I'm pretty sure Destry started.
Oh yeah... and Keoki was a no show, and even though Keoki didn't spin we still had a blast, enjoyed the music, got home safe.

After watching Party Monster a few years ago I understood why he might not have shown up that night.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Brainspinner" by Johann [Bley] from the "Trip Trough Sound 2" compilation, released in 1998 on Blue Room Released.

Johann Bley played drums on the song "Achtung!" by KMFDM on their 1990 album "Naïve."