Jack Johnson’s new song: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
video directed by the incredibly talented Malloy Brothers. featured briefly in a hilarious and touching Ireland surf trip in the beautiful STEP INTO LIQUID.
Marcia and I are going to LA on friday and I can’t freaking wait! It’s gonna be so much fun. She’s been there before but not with a local of this man’s caliber. There are so many things I wanna do and things I want to show her. plus a million things I need to do while we’re there, like getting the house fixing stuff straightened out and picking up all the necessary supplies to bring back to Vallarta like coffee beans and wifi gear (I’m still convinced I can siphon a wifi signal up to my apartment from my parents’ house. we’ll see how that goes).
We’ll go out for sushi everyday (even though she’s a vegetarian) and of course we’ll hit up Real Food Daily because it’s got the best veggie food in town. oh and thai food and italian food and breakfast at “Home” and “The Griddle” and chinese food and the list goes on. That reminds me, I need to rent a car.
Marcia will, no doubt, get to meet all my LA Homiez. They’ll all love her for sure. It’s gonna be a wonderful trip, especially after the two mediocre ones. We’re only staying four days, but I’m betting we’ll have to extend our dates.
“The Client from Hell” came into town this weekend and and so I worked furiously last week to finish up on the remodel in La Cruz. All went well and the house is looking so fresh and so clean. It’s amazing what 100k can do to a place. Trust me, this place was such a dump, albeit a dump with some awesome bones and one of the best views of the bay imaginable.
As usual the client had 200+ details that she wants changed and only managed to insult me or my team a handful of times during my hour long house tour with her. but all is well and this job will be over in no time. It’s such a shame that a beautiful place like this is owned by someone with so little gratitude. So now, we rest for a week while she is here and then back to work fixing all the little details. I can’t wait to see what the place is like after the interior decoration is done and I can take some good press shots.
This is the world famous and famously well traveled photographer extraordinare Mark Callanan. Mark most definitely does not authorize the use of this picture as a representation of him, it is most certainly a bad picture. Bad – meaning of inferior quality. But seriously, it’s the only one I had that didn’t involve Mark lighting off illegal fireworks in my front yard, precariously close to people, plants and palm trees. And he probably doesn’t find this entry humorous either. But that’s just Mark’s personality. I’d say he’s most like an australian Ernest Hemmingway with a large camera set-up and an eye for gold (Mark would not authorize this comment either).
Ok I’m digressing, back to the point. Mark is a pro-photographer in every sense of the word. His images are insanely beautiful, lush and luxurious. yes, i just said luxurious. and completely photoshop-free (now can you say that?! i can’t). Mark’s book Luz y Color is a collection of images taken in Puerto Vallarta. the images are top-notch and I just discovered his website, a fully searchable, tagged collection of his photos taken from around the world. visit CallananPhoto.com
This is Pablo. Pablo lives in Guadalajara and is the brother of my good friend Pinky. Pablo has visited Bucerias twice and Marcia & I have been to GDL once, so we’ve hung out several times. Pablo does not understand why I take so many pictures. He does not know it is so that I can put my friends’ photos up on the internet so that internet lurkers everywhere can mock and shame them. at least i’m not putting his email address up here, if he has one.
This is a photo of Pablo giving me “The Bird”. Pablo uses the “half extended hand and fingers” technique, as do I. This technique is clearly the better and more refined technique as compared to the “tightly crunched up fingers into a ball” technique.
Pablo and I share similar fashion tendencies. He wants my brown cowboy surfer shirt with the pink shoulder insets and he showed me an insane belt buckle that has an inlaid scorpion in transparent plastic (yes, i know, how un-pc of me). I promptly went out and got my own.
This is the first in a series of portraits of people that I find interesting, people who I come into contact with on a daily basis. weird, interesting people. people just like you (and me). This is Jorge. Jorge of “Jorge & Nancy”. Jorge owns and runs “Tapas del Mundo”, a nice, funny little restaurant in Bucerias, where adults can draw on the walls and ceilings. How quaint!
Jorge is from Berkeley (i’m pretty sure – which automatically puts him way up there on the cool-o-meter as far as I’m concerned) and he’s crazy. Example: look at his shirt. I think it’s made out of taphita, or however you spell it, and look it even changes colors from purple to black. You gotta be a little crazy to wear a shirt like that and be able to pull it off! too much tequila to the head eh Jorge?!
Visit Tapas del Mundo. The girls behind the counter are worth the price of admission alone, very cute. and the entry fee? my favorite: Free ninety-nine.
I was looking at my nightstand the other night and it seemed too crowded to fit my little 15 inch powerbook on it when I noticed that there was a pretty interesting collection of stuff that I had amassed. I love making lists, so in the spirit of a good list, here are the contents of my nightstand:
silver specs from LA Eyeworks – “Stich” model. a great looking pair of glasses
Nixon watch “The Key” model – good looking, dependable watch except when you have to change the time and you have to use the little key thingy they give you with the watch, god forbid you lose it or forget to bring it when you travel.
Bathing Ape issue of Refill Magazine – probably the only person for a thousand miles with this magazine
Step Into Liquid DVD, in-freakin-sane cinematography
Jack Johnson’s The September Sessions DVD – great surfing trip video diary
data DVD with 5 really good movies on it including my personal fav: The Big Lebowski, always a classic
data DVD with every january episode of The Daily Show (i ain’t got tv, man!) and the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks
bunch of legal documents sent to me by my attorney in LA – yeah, at night sometimes under the covers with the lights off, i pretend to be a grown-up
and last but not least: right-hand upper corner, a bottle of Ciel water, from the makers of coke, good water though.
last item, not pictured: Bob Dylan’s book: Chronicles
Since last week’s swell-a-thon, there hasn’t been much good wave action. I’ve been checking Bouyweather.com and thursday it said that a decent swell was coming in this morning (sunday). So today I woke up at 8 and headed up to Sayulita which is a great spot, because even when the swell is low, during the mornings there is usually always at least a little motion going on. But alas I made the trek over the mountain separating Bucerias and Sayulita and pulled up to the beach and no waves at all. Actually there was a tiny little break, maybe 1 to 2 feet, very mushy, with some vacationers out there flopping around, but nothing even remotely interesting. So I jumped back in the car, rode up to Choco-Banana and got myself mexico’s version of a Starbucks Latte. At $2.50 it was a pretty good coffee. I was wearing my “Hug Life” sweatshirt and some guy commented on it that had a neck tattoo and a serious case of “too much time in front of the computer” eyes (I was once a member of this rare club). We talked for a bit, not many people get the Tupac Shakur reference when I wear it. So we had a little chuckle together. I grabbed my coffee and headed home.
and baby and I made Mollettes…
*old picture from my LA dayz. love the double chin, Larry
Today we cooked one of Mexico’s finest breakfast dishes. They are called Molletes and are basically a roll (or bolillo en español) with frijoles and shaved cheese on top, preferably manchego, heated up in the oven. served with fresh salsa mexicana and Jalapeño rajas (sliced).
It has rained since early October and today we have been blessed with 24 hours of rain. We awoke to a dreary sun-less day, cold and rainy. But to me the day was perfect. I love the rain. especially when it’s not too cold. and Vallarta has been so dry lately that the dust has been insane. The rain brought much needed relief, albeit temporary.
I worked for most of the day and at 5 o’clock, jumped in the truck and headed up to Burros to see if there were any waves. I parked down the slippery mud slope at the bottom at the start of the path in to Burros. As I was starting my trek, I thought to myself that it will be fun trying to get up the hill, back on to the road and that maybe I should have opted to park up on the entry road, inside of going commando and driving down the mud driveway. oh well.
Clad in my camo pants and “Hug Life” sweatshirt, I trekked through the jungle and in to burros. Sadly there was not a wave to be had. There was a small break, breaking into the rock flats that normally start poking up during low tide. No waves today, my friend. So I shrugged, turned around and headed home. As I got to the truck, I was slightly giddy with anticipation of getting to use my Pathfinder’s 4×4 action. I slammed the stick into 4-Lo, backed the truck up and gunned it up the hill. no problem at all. I was almost disappointed at how easy the truck took the slope.
But God, do I love 4 wheel drive.
update: it’s the next day and it’s still raining! yay, two full days of rain. i actually get to wear a sweatshirt two days in a row. this is coming from a guy who has been wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops for the past 5 months. oh, life’s little pleasures.
My baby just made me “Rajas con Queso”: chile poblanos sliced length wise and oaxacan cheese with tons of hot sauce, done up quesadilla style. I’m literally licking my chops. the perfect food.
Hi, my name is Ed. I’m a graphic designer who lived in L.A. I quit my job, sold my car, rented out my house and moved to Mexico. Along the way, I learned how to surf and fell in love. This blog is my story. In these pages I write about and photograph my daily experience. I also post about things I find interesting: art, design, photography, music, tech, etc...
