C'est la vie Blazers

A really weird night. Had some dandelion greens from the farmer's market, cooked them up with a little red sauce and buffalo, w/ pasta. Dandelion greens are really bitter. I dumped in ~ 1/3 c honey, still really bitter. Went over to Keely's to watch the game, except the Bulls game went 3 overtimes, so only saw about 2/5 of the Blazer game. They just didn't have it tonight. Oh well. They just might go all the way nest year. 

Rise With Us

Diamond Viper Radeon

Hola amigos, I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. Well, not that long, but I hear Molly checks the blog twice a day cause I sometimes post so much, so I wanted to give her something new to read.

Go Blazers!

{The first line is blatantly stolen from Jim Anchower's column for the Onion, give him a read when you need to laugh}

{post title is the name of the new video card Dylan is putting in my computer, it's got a nice ring to it, eh?}

Green Cooking

Chocolate & Zucchini did a nice 2 part post about greening your kitchen habits. Some good ideas...

Blazers 2, Houston 3

LaMarcus came to play tonight. Blazers lost by a total of 4 points in the 2 games in Houston, can they win the next one?

Had a fun dinner. Popcorn using coconut oil to pop it + a salad of cilantro pesto + an avocado. Good listening-to-basketball food.

Merle Haggard/Onion II

A really funny read. Good songs, too.

Pineapple Express/George Washington

Watched Pineapple Express this weekend. Yet another Apatow project. Alright. But the director of it made a genius film a while back called George Washington. I saw it a year or so ago, and wish I remember more about it. Basically it was set in a dying town in the south. Factories were abandoned, and kudzu vines were taking over. The film followed the lives of a couple of ~13 y.o. black kids who weren't professional actors, but completely lit up the screen. It's a slow, subtle indie movie. Criterion did a nice job on it. Cinemtaography is gorgeous. I'm doing a terrible job of explaining it... but it's very highly recommended.

Update: All the Real Girls is pretty good, too. Same director. I liked it for similar reasons -- small town southern US is interesting on film or in books.

Blazers 1, Houston 3

+ got to watch the game with my dad

- Battier

Rudy needs to play more.

Swine/SARS

My friend Kevbo was in Beijing when the SARS outbreak happened, and now Amy is in Mexico City for this Swine Flu chintz. Maybe I'm bad luck.

This I Believe

The only thing I really don't like about NPR is the This I Believe feature. And it just finished! Yea. For the final essay they did a long, boring preamble story, although the last essay was actually pretty good. They got a real writer, Amy Tan, to do it, and her ghost story was interesting. Actually this is one of those the exception proves the rule cases -- usually random people do the essays and as the topic is the nebulous 'This I Believe,' how the heck do you write about that??? Anyway. It's a 14 minute story, you have been warned.

Oh. The reason Ira Glass never submitted an essay? Cause he used to believe. The TAL bit about This I Believe is pretty interesting.

I am a Fool for Rhubarb

NPR sent a little bit of rhubarb love my way just now. Pity it's 5$/lb at the co-op. I reckon I'll wait until Amy's rhubarb gets a little bigger to get my fix. 

Muddy Waters 21 March 2008

So Eliza is trying to convince me to go see Damien Jurado and Laura Gibson at Muddy Waters on May 4th. Getting me to leave my hermitage is difficult.

We saw an awesome show at Muddy Waters on 21 March 2008. Bon Iver, Phosphorescent, and White Hinterland. The story about that show is pretty good, so:

I'd read a review of Bon Iver's For Emma Forever Ago and it seemed like an interesting album. About a month later, the day of the show, Eliza randomly was surfing the interweb and found out about it. She then proceeded to bug me about it all day, and I was being stuborn. But I listened to his show at the 9:30 club in DC that NPR recorded, and listened to the myspace music pages of Bon Iver, Phosphorescent, and White Hinterland. And kinda begrudgingly realized I might have to leave the hermitage, a.k.a. Trattoria Scorpacciata.

So went home at 5 or whatever. Put on some bike shorts to ride downtown. Psyched myself up. And then my brother walked in the door. He had been in Baja for 2 months, randomly came back that friday. So I got a ride instead. We waited around outside for Eliza and Amy, et al., and finally went in when White Hinterland started. The crowd was mostly skinny jeans hipsters, and all the guys had beards. I had just taken the hedge clippers to my winter beard, and felt really naked :) Because we went in late it was standing room only, and we were in the entryway, which happened to be about 5' from the band. It was sweet. White Hinterland is a band, I believe, but she was touring alone due to logistics. Muddy Waters is a small room, but she kinda got swallowed up. Plus the audience was wrong for her music. I liked her voice, but she was kinda overwhelmed. 

Eliza and Amy showed up towards the end of her set. But the place was full, so the door dude wouldn't let them in. It was hilarious. Eliza bitched me out all day, and then she showed up too late to get in! My brother smokes like a chimney, so he went outside and talked with them, and at some point Eliza weaseled her way in. Every couple of minutes Amy poked her head in, she was comparing my face with my brother's. We don't look alike at all. It was funny. Phosphorescent kicked ass. A great bar band rocking out 5' away from me. I was happy. Their lead singer has great stage presence, and he had us eating out of his hands. Bon Iver on the other hand were terrible. My brother had the explanation: one of the girls he talked to outside had smoked them out well before they played, and they were still stoned out of their gourds when they played. I'm serious, they were terrible. They started sobering up for Creature Fear/Team, the last song. And it was epic. The song features the drummer just going off on the kick drum, and the vibration was resounding throughout the tiny room, and pounding into my chest. Creature Fear made up for the rest of their show for sure. As we were going back to the car Justin Vernon/Bon Iver passed us, running, looking for a dark corner to pee in. Luckily Muddy Waters is in the Funk Zone, so running crazy/drunk/stoned people don't look too out of the ordinary. A good night.

the Road

I'm going for 10 posts today, which involves some scraping of the bottom of the barrel. The Road is a movie which will come out in october 2009. It's based on a Cormac McCarthy book. The reason I'm mentioning it is my brother was almost in it. He was working in Astoria, OR last summer, on a UC Davis research project involving salmon smolt. One day he drove out to the Columbia River Jetty to walk on the beach, and he saw a whole bunch of non-Oregonians looking him over. Kinda freaked him out. Later he found out that there was a film crew in town, and he figured that with his big beard he kinda looks like Viggo Mortensen, and they probably wanted him for a stand in. Oh well.

George Greenough/Mike Stewart Surf Movies

These 2 guys have been really important to the development of surfing. Greenough started riding kneeboards in the 60s because longboards turned to slow, and it's said that that led to the shortboard revolution. Mike Stewart has been the best tube rider on the planet for 20+ years. Greenough made 2 movies, The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun in 1968 and Crystal Voyager in 1972. Mike Stewart shot footage for about 15-20 years, and finally released Fire in 2008. If you look close in these 2 images both guys are filming while surfing -- Greenough is using a backpack-style harness, and Stewart is hand holding his camera.


The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun is a neat movie. It's generally a pretty traditional surf movie, with the exception of his in-the-tube footage which was brand new to surfing audiences. Actually, I'm not sure how common tube riding was in general in 1968. You can't really tube ride on a longboard, so while his footage definitely was groundbreaking on the big screen, it also probably showed many people things they hadn't seen before when out in the ocean. Most of the footage in Innermost... is from Australia, mostly from Lennox Head. That said, the session from Kirra was my favorite -- I love sand bottom, very hollow tubes. The in-the-tube stuff was very, very interesting. He was definitely not just documenting the experience, but trying, and succeeding, to make artistic images. Also, most of the tube riding was done on a mat, which he rides prone, like a bodyboard, but he couldn't hold an edge as well as you can on a bodyboard, so every so often the lip would hit the camera, which led to some really unusual imagery. He also included quite a few unmade barrels, longer tube rides where he got shut down at the end. Great, great movie.

The following few pics are from his website. Tube riding somewhere in the the Ranch, I think, tube riding at Sandspit, and with a tiger shark jaw in Australia.




Crystal Voyager is only available in PAL format, shipped from Australia. It's pretty cheap though, I got it for under 10$ new. With that out of the way.... It's a very different movie than Innermost. The first 52 minutes are much more documentary-like than surf movie-like. About his life in SB, about his boats and car, his boards. Lots of footage from the Channel Islands and Rincon. A couple of the in-the-tube shots from Rincon were unbelievable. They would have been long barrels at regular speed, but slowed down they were very long, very cool. The last 23 minutes is pretty crazy, the soundtrack is the Pink Floyd song "echoes." I think it's all water footage, dolphins from underwater, waves from underwater, in-the-tube footage. Really quite epic. The Australian National Film & Sound Archive has 3 clips from Crystal Voyager on the interweb. Check 'em out. The 2 movies cover different territory, Innermost is more traditional in form, Crystal is unique, and has some amazing footage. I highly recommend both.


This is a pic of the motorboat he built, 'the pod.' It comes from a neat article about Greenough by Denny Aaberg {you have to scroll a ways down the page, or search the page for 'aa'}. It's an interesting read.


And then there is Fire. I saw Fire before the 2 George Greenough movies, so didn't know how influenced by him they were. Alot of the shots were similar -- the backlit shots through the back of the wave for instance. Also, the climax of Fire is done to Pink Floyd's "Tme" from Dark Side of the Moon. Mikey was giving a nod to George, I reckon. The footage in Fire is very different from Greenough's. For one thing alot of the waves are lefts -- Pipe and Teahupo'o. But also with the benefit of better wave riding technology Mike rides the waves a bit differently. He also makes most of the barrels. I really liked seeing him riding waves with his kids. This is a good movie, but over-edited. The best part of the DVD is that it is a 2 disc set, and the 2 hours of raw footage on the 2nd disc is just freaking awesome, especially the 'bliss' segment, barrel after barrel after barrel. This interview includes some footage from the movie. Highly recommended.

The following pics are from Cloudbreak at Tavarua, Pipe, Teahupo'o, and Pipe.

Caprica

Fire up your netflix, the BSG prequel pilot is out.

Well, it was supposed to be a "very long wait" but I got it, and it's AWESOME. 

Random thought: the young actress pictured looks alot like Zooey Deschanel, and her character's name is Zoe...

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I liked this movie alot. Definitely my favorite Judd Apatow involved movie. I love Freaks & Geeks, and thought Undeclared was good, but I haven't liked his movies all that much. Too much gratuitous bathroom humor in my opinion. Basically it seemed like when he was no longer having to deal with network censors he went too far for me. Anyway. 

Super basic plot, guy and girl break up, he meets someone else and that helps him get over the 1st girl. But. The guy is from Freaks & Geeks. Girl #1 is Kristen Bell/Veronica Mars. Girl #2 is Mila Kunis from That 70s Show. They put Kalani Robb in the movie (it is set in Hawaii). There is drunken singing of the Muppet Show theme song. A funny yoga scene. And a nod to Lebowski: "this isn't Europe, there are rules here."  There's also a vampire puppet show/rock opera. Two more bits from the movie:

Let me tell you something about these tattoos. That is buddhist, that is nordic, that is hindu, that is just jibberish. They are completely conflicting ideologies. That doesn't make you a citizen of the world, it makes you full of s&*^.

This guy is like Ghandi, but better. He likes puppets.  

Freaks & Geeks/Onion

This came out on friday. I've mentioned the show alot, if you haven't seen it, the article will make you want to. 

Any visitor from anywhere temporarily holds the position of Funniest Person in Iceland

This is a cute little read about Iceland.

All Organic Milk is not Created Equal

These guys rate and talk about different organic dairies. I found it pretty interesting.

Blazers 1, Houston 2

What a lovely day. Watered, weeded, laid some mulch. Went over to Keely's to get the key and play with Nala. The Dalai Lama was great. Good sense of humor. Prepared a nice long blog post for tomorrow (I wanted the Dalai Lama post to be the first one all day today in case anybody had forgotten about it). Scarfed down some Jungle Curry (beef + carrots, leeks, cilantro, dandelion greens), and then came over to Keely's to watch the Blazer game, and play with Nala.
Houston got EXTREMELY lucky. I think the Blazers might have finally woken up. Rudy played great. Oden played well in spurts. If either Brandon or LaMarcus had played well they would have won easily.

Live Simply

If I pulled any of these organic cotton Patagonia t-shirts out of the free bin I would be over the moon. Nice designs....

the Dalai Lama at UCSB

The Dalai Lama is speaking at UCSB this friday, 24 April 2009, and KCSB is going to stream his talks (9:30 and 2 PST). No word on whether or not Bill Murray will be carrying his bags.

Update: I'm getting kind of excited. As I biked by the Thunderdome this morning I noticed tables, tents, crowd barriers, port-a-potties. This is a major happening at our little slice of heaven! The only question is: Caddyshack or the Razor's Edge tonight???

Update 2: Caddyshack. As for the Dalai Lama, turns out he is quite funny. The second session is particularly full of laughter. KCSB is going to put up podcasts of the talks! Nice.

Tap

I posted this this morning before I read the article fully, knowing at least one person out there on the web would find it interesting. Hi Clare. Did some work, and just read it, study break-style. Lenny from Laverne & Shirley is one funny dude....

the Triplets of Belleville

Awesome

Can Can

Onion AV is going to be at Cannes this year. Cool. New Terry Gilliam film will be shown there. Very cool.

22 April

Blazers 1, Houston 1

Still not looking too good, but we'll take the win. Brandon dropped 42. But after him only LMA played really well.

Strawberries tasted pretty good at the farmer's market this week.

Merle Haggard/OnionAV

Don't know much about Merle Haggard, but I reckon this article will help. As an aside, how much does he look like Warren Oates from Two-Lane Blacktop, eh? Their facial structure is pretty damn similar, I've watched Two-Lane about 20 times so it really popped out at me.... Couldn't find a great pic of Oates, but I think you get the point.

The Cherry on Top

An end-of-the-week-yogurt sundae with chocolate sauce and a little bit of strawberry preserves. I make the choc sauce cause that way it's organic, and doesn't have high fructose corn syrup.

Cocoa Syrup recipe:

1c cocoa

2c sugar

pinch salt

1 1/3c water

1T vanilla

Whisk together the first 4.

Boil 3 min.

Cool, add vanilla.

Makes ~2.5c

The Free Bin State Shirts Project

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try and find a shirt from each of the 50 states out of the IV free bin. Silly, but whatever. Right now I have 12, plus Puerto Rico. They are:

Alabama -- USS Alabama, Mobile

California -- Jeff's Burgers, La Jolla

Illinois -- Tinley Park Turkey Trot 2007

Indiana -- Get in to Indiana

Maryland -- Hooters, Ocean City

Montana -- Montana State University Bobcats

NY -- I Love NY

North Carolina -- Corolla Surf Shop, Outer Banks

Pennsylvania -- the Gymnastics Center of Hershey, Hugs & Kisses

Tennessee -- Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey

Texas -- A big ol' map of the state

Vermont -- Middlebury College

Puerto Rico -- Regata 2000 (a cool logo)

Update:
I'm at 41 now (May 2010) and have switched out a couple of shirts:
Alabama -- the giggling grouper
Alaska -- deadliest catch
Ark -- Ozark Folk Festival
Az -- super elite fitness
Cali -- goleta the goodland
Colorado -- yeti cycles
Conn -- univ of bridgeport
Florida -- margaritaville
Georgia -- georgia youth soccer atlanta cup
Hawaii -- east west fest
Id -- HS sports medicine symposium
Ill -- tinley park turkey trot
Ind -- get in to indiana
Iowa -- pizza shack, Lamoni, Iowa
Ka -- KU jayhawks
Louisiana -- Slidell Habitat for Humanity
Mass -- jim's martha's vinyard
Md -- Melo
Mich -- michigan state
Minn -- minnesota vikings
Missouri -- busch stadium
Montana -- montana state
NC -- corolla surf shop
Nevada -- viva las vegas
NH -- u of nh
NJ -- the best girls are from NJ
NM -- fiesta del porsche/kachina soccer
NY -- Braddock Bay Raptor Research
ND -- 6 images / north dakota
Ohio -- AAU national championships
Or -- prefontaine classic
Penn -- hugs & kisses
SC -- the salty dog café
Tenn -- Memphis/Jazz/Beale Street
Tx -- texas state german contest
Ut -- tour de utah
Va -- virginia tech hokies
Vt -- middlebury
Wa -- country corner -- centralia
Wi -- airventure - oshkosh
Wyo -- ski jackson hole

Drew Barrymore on Fresh Air

Drew Barrymore was on Fresh Air talking about the HBO movie she did, dramatizing the documentaries Grey Gardens/the Beales of Grey Gardens. You can get the originals from netflix, they are amazing. Amazing. The Beales are two of the craziest, most unique people that have walked the Earth. The trailer for the first one sets it up pretty well.

Drew was also in Donnie Darko, She has one of the best lines in the film. When Jena Malone, the new student, walks into the classroom she asks where she should sit, and Drew replies, "sit next to the boy you think is the cutest." Gold. Solid Gold.  

the Co-op

Used my 10% off coupon at the co-op this weekend. Basically spent 90$ on almond butter, brown rice, peanut butter, and raw sugar. Buying in bulk....

Blazers 0, Houston 1

So the Blazers haven't been in the playoffs for 6 years. Unfortunately they are playing Houston, probably the worst matchup possible for them in the Western Conference. I went over to Keely's to watch the game/massacre. Hopefully game 2 goes better. Pics are of Keely getting cat hair off of Eliza. And the offending critter, Nala.

I Hate Baseball, but....

....this NPR commentary about Mark Fidrych made me happy that the boys of summer exist.

I Love ToFU

The flood of backlog posts is on....

Wait Wait had Paula Deen on this weekend. Give a listen, it's pretty damn funny.

Five Feet High and Rising

The weather outside is frightful. Not flooding, it's SB afterall, but rather it's 82 degrees at 10 am. eek. The Lerner is starting to give me a run for my money with blog post titles. Her material is interesting, too. Mexico City doesn't seem anything like Baja....

Lettuce Now Praise Famous Rabbits

Best blog post title yet, oui? Not original though. It is the title of an NPR story from this past Easter Sunday. I don't know what show it was a part of, cause I didn't hear the original broadcast, but whatever. Harvey is a dang sweet movie. And Donnie Darko is epic.

I watched these 2 movies alot as a kid. Maybe that's why I don't like wearing shirts.... Cool Hand Luke, Apocalypse Now, and DD are the best 3 movies ever made, in my humble opinion.