My Daddy PWND You...

So, who doesn't love kids, especially ones that call you out while wearing a Thomas the train shirt.?

Waht's In...

So, "waht's in a day but Mini-Spooners, Rain with a chance of Snow and left-over air for breathing.
Gladly becoming open with faults to propel forth angular rejections of night flights and left-over air for breathing.
To which do you belong in the micro jib let of soon-to-be-faded sunbeams only touching ground for just long enuff while your lids are shut during constant cold air blinks looking for left-over air for breathing.
Communal neglection and occidental reflections fill balloons of thought like gorillas flinging poop at a viewing window and drinking his own urine yearning for the taste of left-over air for breathing.
Manual retractions become more irrelevant to the outside viewing individuals peering towards an underestimated future constantly searching for left-over air for breathing.
Ham & Cheese on sweet bread with swiss cheese and pickles. Soem sort of delicacy or just soem ish slapped together for $6.50 while you gasp the left-over air for breathing?
Huffing exhaust for arousal and personal exploration can become a luxury in the midst of sentiment and hypo-analytical mumbo jumbo when all you want to do is take in waht remains of the left-over air for breathing." - Spencer Montgomery, 2009

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Now & Beyond" by Pigs In Space from the album of the saem name, "Pigs In Space" released in July 1998 on Phonokol Records out of Israel. Pigs In Space is none other than Ofer Dikovsky, who is better known for releasing material under the guise "Oforia"

The image is by Melanie Weidner 2005, "Deep Breath"

The History Of Dogs...

So, you're prolly thinking "hey is this post about how Dogs are descended from Wolves?" Well, no. It's not.

This post is about an album that came out in 1991 by Butthole Surfers guitarist, Paul Leary. Ever since around my freshman year in HS, 1988, I have been such a huge fan of the Surfers. I mean I had seen some of there tapes in the "Alternative" section at the local Camelot Music in the St. Charles Mall. You see, back then alternative actually meant something, it was meant for music that was without classification or was not POPular in the mass public's eye, Skinny Puppy, Big Black, Greater Than One, and the Butthole Surfers were just such groups that were meant to be in that section. In 1991 Paul put out this album and I had gone right out and bought it at The Turntable in Schaumburg, IL., which was THE indie record store in the Subbies for those who needed their fix or just plain didn't wanna drive to Chicago to go to Wax Trax!. I still have the receipt taped on the inside of the cover insert. This album was made pretty much using only Guitar MIDI and was one of the main reasons that i wanted to get into Synths and Guitar Synthesis. After my graduation party in 1992 I had about $400.00 (US) that I wanted to go out and spend on a MIDI Guitar kit, my then HS GF had to chime in and say "why would you wanna go and spend all that money on a toy?" As to which I replied "Fine, I'll go out and spend it all on baseball cards."

I would later regret this choice, I had no interest in baseball, actually kind of despised it in HS, I have since become a fan of just the experience of being at the game, who cares what's happening on the court. All my cards are still at my Mommy's house in the basement safe in a box, half of them are unopened. So, maybe in two more years I will go through them and look to see which one of them is worth $5.00 (US).

When I got my guitar for Santa's Birthday 1990, I had gone to Guitar Center in Chicago with my Daddy, back when they were located on Clark Street where The Alley in now Located. The whole way there we were listening to "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" & "Cream Corn From the Socket of Davis" on a Memorex cassette I had made for just such rainy day trips, even though it was December, Chicago still like to rains. I remember that I wanted a Les Paul Standard because that's what Gus Warsaw had and it was also what some guy let me play while me and my friend Brian Miller were at his brother's apartment that summer on Southport & Addison in Chicago. I also remember that visit I had to be the driver while they bought weed from some bruthas in an alley behind the Wild Hare, a Reggae bar. As I walk around Guitar Center I was in awe of the whole upstairs synth section, as I'm having a butterfly attack at all the knobs and sliders producing such warm familiar sounds that my soul had been waiting for, some guy starts to play "Stranger Die Everyday" by the Butthole Surfers. It was then that I knew I had to get a synthesizer or some sort of electronic music equipment.

Putting the synths on hold due to the $$$ on the price tags was hurtful, but always kept me searching for more music that pushed the musical boundaries by using them, I had settled with a nice 1990 Fender Stratocaster. When I had gotten home my Dad had also picked up an Ernie Ball guitar book for beginners. I learned all the basic chords and even Jingle Bells. I then Just started to take what I learned in that book and applied it to every Butthole Surfers song I owned, those being their first two on Alternative Tentacles records on Vinyl, Psychic..., Rembrandt, Cream Corn and Hairway to Steven. Other bands that were there to help me learn songs, riffing and other types of guitar techniques were Didjits, Helios Creed, Dinosaur jr. and Cro-Mags. OOH! lest we not forget the famed Ministry.

I think I got side tracked and just went on a rant about a bunch of ish, but oh well, that's the beauty everything neurological. You kinda get the idea though, eh? Paul Leary's album pretty much rules still after almost 20 years and it seemed like the Surfers were around me the whole time during my guitar search, on the drive there, the guy on the synth, and they helped me learn guitar in a way that I found fun and could understand. I hope you can get your life back now.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Muerto E Ido" by El Ritual from the album of the same name "El Ritual" 1971

Old Friend...

So, This post will have some old pictures of my friend Sam. The first one here is of Sam at my Mom's's house in her recliner chair around 1996. Notice Sam is sporting some suede Vans Fairlanes for a session later, or earlier, I don't remember. We had a friend who worked for a Beer distribution company and his job was to set up the displays at the stores. He always had free swag left over promo ish, like this nice Red Dog wall sign for your Basement Bar. Now the one thing that was always said about the logo was the fact that if you took the Cap, or any part of any Red Dog merchandise, it looked as if it were Batman going down on Catwoman or any Woman for that matter. A guy in this blog, whom which I'd found in my quest for this story, has done some very elementary PhotoShop skills to bring this myth to a visionary reality.

Sam was and is a great guy who took his skill from skateboarding to transmissions and now has his own transmission shop simply called "The Tranz Shop" sorry he doesn't have a kewl webfacility for you too waste time at, the one review on the link I gave you pretty much Hit The Nail On The Head, I hate when people say Spot On, I mean come on you're not from britain. He had quite a nice pop on that skateboard of his, he never could Ollie that low.

As you can see he KNDA just sucked it up into his chest to get over these here bread crates, now even though he is coming out of a driveway, the driveway is not that steep. If you went to this spot, if it hasn't been torn down by the city of St. Charles, IL, you would see that the help from the bank is very minimal and that the actual Ollie is huge in and of itself.

This picture is just of an Ollie down the Embarcadero 7, even though it's 6 stairs, there is actually a stretch in one of them making it as long as a 7 stair set. This has to be one of the funnestest summers's I have had. We went to Tahoe and Cali with my parents in 1991, they gambled on Keno and Nickel slots while we skated, climbed mountains, ate Spaghetti-O's and swam in 60* Lake Tahoe.

When we got to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Martinez, CA. they had this old ass Video Days type Cadillac in which we were specifically told "not to drive over the bridge into Benicia," Guess what we did? Yup, we went to Benicia anyway, like any normal teenager doing the opposite of what they're told not to, while they all left for the day to do Adult stuff like drive to the top of Mount Diablo or some ish. We skated the Benicia park for quite some time, met some kid who was originally from around the Chicago area had chatted us up in the Taco Bell next to the park and commented on my Public skateboards sticker, apparently he knew someone sponsored by them. I remember thinking it was kool because the house directly across from it had the address of 666. This is the same park that Natas, Julien & Curtis skate in the post card that Natas sends to Jason Jesse in Streets on Fire.

When we went to SF we went to Chinatown looking for the China Banks, only to realize later that it was an actual bridge that we had been walking under the whole time in our search. Well, at least we think it was the bridge we were walking under since we never did find it. So, we skated down the road passing all the piers until we get to the imfamous Embarcadero where we see the most amazing ahead-of-the-rest skateboarding I have ever seen. Big Dirty aka: James Kelch was there doing big spins that were more along the lines of a backside 180 inward late shove-it, Jovantae Turner was there also skating and doing some crazy ish for being 1991 that it left me being a T-dog.

Now, I had no idea who any of these people were at the time we went there until their careers started to take off and they got more coverage. So when I looked at the photos a few years later, it was only then did I understand who I was standing and skating next to. My Dad took the last photo here of me doing a Noseslide to Fakie on the big ledge that Danny Sargent does a slappy on in the New Deal video 1281, either that or it was in Useless Wooden Toys. My Dad is no Bryce Kanights or Otis "O" Barthoulameu so this is the best photo.

Okay, so that was just a slice of life that I really should do something with. I have much more to write about that trip, but don't wanna waste my whole day, it's beautiful and perfect SF weather outside, how fitting. Maybe I will end up writing my memoirs someday or at least dictate them.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Lessons That Burn" by Evan Johns & His H-Bombs from the album "Bombs Away" 1989. This baby is not on iTunes, this is the actual cassette tape of mine from 20 years ago that I am listening to. I hooked up my tape deck with the encouragement of my GF because she is an analog angel who loves and appreciates tape as much as me. I had gotten caught up in the digital convenience of it all that I let it invade and affect my home life.

Picture this Daddy...

So, this photo above is one taken by my Dad. He will be having a few pieces showing in an art show out in Dixon, IL this weekend. Tonight is the opening reception at 6pm at a place called The Next Picture Show located right smack dab in the middle of downtown. My dad has been taking photos pretty much all his life as far as I know, I remember as a kid he would have a tiny darkroom set up in like a closet or one section blocked off in the basement and is one of the reasons I took up photography in college. I was given his old Asahi Pentax which, to this day, I always thought it took the best pictures, they always came out with such vivid color and the clearest images with such great defining edges.

He would take pictures of anything from Trains derailing, Flooded Rivers, Wild Turkeys or even the inside of the cooling tower at Byron Nuclear Plant. He enters these thing pretty regularly and places pretty well, even if he doesn't place in the Top Three he'll be given the Honorable Mention. If you happen to be going out that way this weekend at all czech it out. Maybe you're going to the new skatepark in Davenport, Iowa, maybe just want to get out of the city and go visit a State Park, it's a straight shot out of Chicago on I-88. Have a great Weekend

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As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "The Plank" by Buffalo Tom from the album "Buffalo Tom" from 1988 on SST Records.