A mesmerizing compilation of various surfing videos and surf-culture significant movie and tv clips for today, the longest day of the year.
Due to corporate jackassery, YouTube has disabled the audio track, most likely because it contained some unlicensed surfy music from the 50s or 60s and some zombie record corporation complained. The ironic part is that the record label owns the rights to the music and the musicians who made the music most likely sold their rights for a good roast beef sandwich and now don’t receive a dime when someone officially licenses their songs.
So in response, I’ve put together my own soundtrack for this video. As you watch both parts just open the track in a new window in your browser, press play and switch back to the video. Don’t download the track cuz that’s stealing from rich, mafioso corporate douchenozzles that will sue yer ass for 2 million dollars and they’ll win and you’ll have to pay $80,000 per song, cuz you know, “it’s not about the amount, it’s about sending a message” 1.
Above videos politely borrowed from Fin Foils + Crafts, an atrophying, dusty surf blog. I happend on to FF+C from one of my new favorite blogs Surf a Pig, following the link to FF+C’s post on The Other Women, a pignar board that is so sick I’m immediately going to my shaper to ask him to hook something similar. I love the pinched rail that goes all the way to the tail and the ‘D’ fin is stellar.
I think people that use this form of rationalization for anything be it corporal punishment, jail sentences, having to stay late after school, etc.. should be drawn and quartered ↩
I’ve been listening to a lot of Lata Mangeshkar’s music lately. If you don’t know her by name, you’ve almost surely heard her voice. Her songs float through our house like incense. Look at her photo, how could you not fall in love with this lady. Lata’s career has spanned 6 decades and she has sung in over a 1000 Bollywood movies. Together with her sister Asha Bhosle they are the two most recorded singers in the entire world.
Here’s a good Lata primer: 19 song medley, live in concert. This isn’t a highly studioified live recording – and still – her voice sounds better, live, than most studio-recorded singers. And a bonus, my favorite song Pani Pani Re
I’ve had this song on repeat for the past day or so. constantly going back to it. moving on and then coming back. It’s been floating around my mind for years and a brief screening of The Wackness, prompted me to dig in the (pixel) crates for a copy of this beautiful, haunting, insanely wonderful song. Some true true soul.
While gooooogling for an image for this post I ran across an Oxford American Mag article that explains the historical context of the song and its resurgence (after being sampled by Rza). An amazing article and great read.
It would prove to be Rene’s greatest artistic success, but it had little commercial impact upon release. Rene released a few more singles, including the exuberant “Bar B-Q,” and sang and toured with Rufus Thomas and Otis Redding before fading from the public eye, retiring to motherhood and church-singing. “After Laughter” languished, more or less forgotten, for over a quarter-century.
“I love the fact that hip-hop has helped soul music to get back on the shelves or allowed a lot of people to rediscover these songs in their four-minute versions instead of our sampled hip-hop versions. Because those songs are great, man,” he says. “A song like ‘After Laughter’ probably spent two months in the stores when it came out, you know what I mean? To see that song as something people recognize now, that’s a beautiful thing.” – Rza
Even though I’m fairly disconnected from my Irish heritage — and I do have a bit o’ Irish in me — I did a stint in Catholic high school where I got into art and punk rock. My religion teacher turned me to The Pogues1 and the irish spirit (If I should Fall From Grace with God being in my top 10 albums of all time). I enjoy a good Guinness every now n’ again and I love me some Pogue Mahone2. Today reminded me of the bar/cop/wake scenes in The Wire, where they all sing a pretty horrible, drunken rendition of “The Pogues’ The Body of An American” (as it should be). So happy Sint Patties to eryone a ya chip bastids.
I’m been listening to the soundtrack for Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, which is the third movie in his informal trilogy of Days of Being Wild, In The Mood For Love and 2046 – a cinematic remembrance of the 60’s and a meditation on time, love and memory. If you haven’t seen these films, do yourself a favor: go out and buy the dvds. I try not to condone the unnecessary purchase of plastic discs encased in more plastic and wrapped in plastic and stickered with more plastic. But these films are worth it.
Wong Kar Wai is a true master.
Here’s the theme song from ‘In The Mood’: Yumeji’s Theme and bonus song from 2046: Adagio.
This is a series of 38 photos I’ve taken over the past few weeks that we’ve been up here in Guadalajara, waiting for Godot1. We’ve been taking daily walks around the Ciudad del Sol and Chapalita neighborhoods of Zapopan2. With no real intent, I just aimed to capture some of the urban/suburban flavor here in Zapopan. Enjoy!
Long story. best shared when the story has a triumphant ending – right now it just filled with different levels of waiting for one very special person. ↩
Guadalajara is actually surrounded by a much larger municipality called “Zapopan” but for brevity, they seemed to get lumped together as Guadalajara. ↩
The proper spanish translation for “to give birth” is “dar a luz”, directly translated back to english this means “to give light”. I can’t think of a more poetic way to say it. Amazing.
We’re now in the 40th week, and depending on who you talk to, our date was either the 12th or it’s tomorrow (the 17th). We’ve been in a kind of escalating limbo, waiting for little man to decide he wants to be born, (although technically speaking, it’s probably the woman’s body that makes that decision). We’re trying to catch up on sleep, movies and fending off hourly calls from concerned family and friends hoping that things have progressed. My father has taken to calling him “Godot”, as we’re definitely feeling a little like main characters in Waiting for Godot.
Stevey B sent me a set of interview questions a while back and I did my best to answer them as long-winded and ramblingly as possible1. His questions allowed me to go in to some of the things I haven’t really been talking about on this blog. It’s kind of an interesting digression from standard blog-talk:
Q: I find Mexico is an inspiring place; The “do it yourself” mentality permeates everything. How inspiring is that on going further with your photos/design/architecture?
I love Mexico’s DIY aesthetic. Mexicans are an inventive bunch; they excel with working with what is available. I’m constantly having my preconceptions smashed with regards to ways of doing things. But that mentality is a blessing and a curse. I’m constantly in awe of Mexico’s abundance of hand-painted signs. They are omnipresent in daily Mexican life, from the taco stand to the small business, to the “slippery when wet” signs at the airport. Conversely, the DIY aesthetic applies to things like infrastructure as well. One day our municipality tore up the perfectly fine paving stones on our street and it took them 3 months to finish the job; with no direct car access to our house. There are no words.
I wanna thank Stevey for hooking me up with a great interview and in the spirit of paying it forward2, I’ll do my best to highlight other people’s creative output and vibe in a similar way. Thanks Steve.
there could definitely have been small amounts of fermented cactus juice involved ↩
Despite common beliefs, this concept did not originate in the American Beauty-esque rip-off movie Pay It Forward but rather, it originated in a letter from Ben Franklin to Benjamin Webb. ↩
Free music! The Archivist has an EP for free downlow over at his site. Go downlow it now, you won’t regret it. the songs are gorgeous ‘Jeremiah’ runs through my head as I sleep. [via GvsB]
Check it out. I had posted a tid bit about Yewknee.com’s Summer Mix Series. i was inspired to post my own mix. Go grab it while my bandwidth is still available:
“No summer road trip is complete without a hand-picked mix. This is the soundtrack for your mexican adventure. Destination? Lake Chapala, the high-plateau lake sanctuary hidden in the hills above Guadalajara.”
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...
