Overdue

Sorry it has been so long, here is a blog I wrote on Pages. Mainly so I didn't get distracted by the tabs I have open in Safari. Anywho, check it:

I opened this up without any idea what to write about. It’s not a creative block, it is that I just don’t feel like trying to get what is in my head on to Pages. I think the reason for this is my head is still catching up on stuff that has happened recently. My head still isn’t even around me coming to the ROC so I don’t know what’s happening.

I’m having a long weekend vacation to Chicago. I’m hoping this will give me time to think. The problem with this is that my mind always wanders off into day dreams or into what’s going to happen in the future. I do not want the power of foresight. Lots of people want to know what’s going to happen in the future. I personally don’t it makes the bad times worse not knowing, but it makes the good times so much better. I think it is worth the trade-off.

Just a huge sigh there and nothing more to say, I think the next one I write is going to be documented with the time it’s written just so I can see how long it takes for me to write utter shit. Listening to nothing bar the odd car whizzing past and the sound of my ancient heater trying its best to heat this arctic room

My tiredness is trying to engage my body into sleep, but I’m fighting it in an attempt that I will spill pearls of wisdom all over this place and people will scatter to try and collect them. Very similar to dropping cash out of a 19 (notice the 19 reference) story window.

I haven’t updated my blog for a long time. Someone mentioned it today to me, I blamed a creative cycle. The only way I can try and put it into a simple diagnosis. I have been lacking in the photography action too. Hopefully Chicago will reignite this, if not Bristol has just opened 5 trails so we shall see what it has to offer shortly. Big snow storm is expected tomorrow, hopefully will hold off till I get back after the weekend.Apparently the first one always scares ‘first-timers’. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

I’m off out in 20 minutes to head to a happier place. Not to say I’m not happy now, I’m always pretty content on the whole of things, it is just that I like the other ‘happier place’ more.

Still not watched the Jolly Roger movie, the book has fantastic photos in it though. May take it to watch on the epic train journey, may also take some jack and coke which will negate the idea of watching anything. A polite nightcap.

‘nuff said

This just in!

Just purchased Jolly Roger with the artbook.

That sentence alone seems like one of the strangest things I have ever said. For those who want to know more check out Pirate Movie Productions

I still have Forum Forever and Get Real to watch, still!

Today has so far been a joyful day, most certainly on my palette. Down at The Old Toad we had a nice whiskey tasting session, with guest Whiskey speaker Spike Mclure. A crazy arse Brooklyn man, who was pretty dam entertaining and also knew his stuff really well.

Bushmills was a great single malt Irish we tried, great for a 10 year at least. My favorite of the 6 we tried was Johnny Walker Blue Label. Finally got to taste this, was so smooth for me to drink as opposed to some robust highland whiskeys. The thing is $26 a shot, which in my opinion is totally worth it for a fine blended whiskey now and again.

This post is so disjointed as I have a hundred different things running through my head and no coherency in how I want to lay it down. Bad times!

'nuff said (I guess)

Sunday Funday

Its such a beautiful day outside, sun shining blue skies and all I can think of is how much it sucks that it is not threatening a huge dump of snow. Every Sunday I get off work I will be sure to get myself off to any mountain or steep hill, even a small grassy bump on the local park.

Today my life is packed full of football (of both kinds), food and maybe some light (read: heavy) drinking. Currently not happy at the Bengals thrashing the Ravens and Dolphins pulling it back to equal score.

A few things to share; my tache is coming along amazingly/terrible depending whether you argue for or against trashy taches. Not really worth a photo update just yet!

I spent $20 on digital downloads yesterday on iTunes. I purchased Get Real, courtesy of Burton, Forum Forever and N,E,S,W from Forum again. Can't wait to get a chance to watch these and see what is being thrown down. I have heard and seen good things about Get Real. Check out the teaser here.

'nuff said.

Breathtakingly Beautiful

I headed over to Letchworth Park today and just had a gentle drive through, needless to say it was like a bloody dream for me. Insanely picturesque.

Rather than try and describe it I'll let you try and imagine it through my pictures. They do not do enough or any justice at all into how stellar this place is.

Check 'em out here.

'nuff said.

Mo Mo Movember!

Movember is upon us and since I have been swamped and acting lazy and using all my free time drinking, sleeping and watching football (American and the proper football) I haven't actually got my arse into gear to sort out sponsorship, it is on my list of things to do!

I'm going to try and update every few days with how the tache is getting along and what other quirky things I have been up to.

Tomorrow I should be going to Letchworth Park and hopefully take some sweet looking photos. I have more photos to share but they need to be developed and somehow digitized!

My hand is healing pretty well, each week getting more degrees of movement in them, my strength is virtually zero but I'm told that will come with time. I need , NEED NEED NEED it to be healed before the season starts for sure, or at least be rideable and not to conscious about messing it up even further. Speaking of the upcoming season check out the SkullCandy app on the iTunes Store. Great free app for any extreme sport you like, snow, skate, surf and more.

On a side/professional note I got the assistant bar manager role at the pub so I'm super pumped to get some projects flowing to get some amazing beers in for everyone to enjoy.

'nuff said

My Taste Paste(d)

A list of all my last.fm top artists from the past 12 months or so. Just interesting to see who actually made it in there. PC Playlist is my old school Limewire tunage, I am not proud of this fact!

side note: Brand New shall be in my dreams on the 23rd November then in my life the 24th November.

'nuff said.

It's been too long!

No idea why my posting has been lax recently, I'm going to put it down to lack of motivation to actually write about anything. I'm going to be the laziest blogger too with this post. A list will suffice till I get chance for a full update of cool/random videos/photos/websites

So recently I :

• I got a new tattoo (see photo)
• Got my hand back even though it is still gimped
• Re-built the skate ramp after breaking it (Carraway did this actually, I watched)
• Skitched on the back of a truck pulling at 17mph
• Watched too many episodes of the office
• Got black out drunk on Thursday

Think thats about it really, not much kicking off. Got some sick videos to share too, I'll embed them in tomorrow!

Best TFLN

516 : Thank God they found balloon boy, I was afraid that Michael Jackson was ordering take out from heaven.

Brutal.

Brutal but Heroic.

(Not so) Smart Idea

At Toad Hall the other night we got board and built a mini skate ramp, indoors, yeaaaaaah not so smart. Here is a little time lapse of how the building went. It lasted 4 hours before the front bit of the ramp kicked in, admirable effort for sure!

On a quick side note, I officially took the plunge and changed my DVD Region on my Mac to Region 1, eek!

Fresh This Season

A little Web-clip straight out of Boreal, CA. Enjoy!

Hot Mess Express from SPEC on Vimeo.

Visual Reassurance

For all those people who are unsure about where they are right now in there life or have no idea what anything is about everything, heed this advice:

The 'B' Movie Mini-Review

I have decided to just bang the movie on again as I write this but let me just say that the first time I watched it blew me away and I wasn't paying attentive critical attention, my guess is that it is only going to get better.

First off just take the box it comes in and re-live the old days of VHS, mine were limited but I still lived it. It even has a be kind and rewind 'sticker' on the graphic sheet box insert.

Another thing worth mentioning besides the riding is the soundtrack. It is absolutely phenomenal, such a blended range and all fitting so well to the riding that is going down on-screen. While on the topic of soundtracks, I downloaded a majority of That's It, That's All's soundtrack thanks to this website which lists all the tunes in virtually every snowboard movie.

The intro kicks off with a helo focusing on what looks like a graphically enhanced B sculpted into the ice, more on this later! After this its just an assortment of riders throwing down and doing what they do best, apart from one guy who slams his face, hard think it was Keegan Valaika

Opening part goes to Keegan who tears it up on the streets and some nice shredding on the mountain, taking a huge portion of the spine with him. Highlight for me is the huge rail combo he did and the kicking about in a snow bowl.

Next up we got Shaun White, what can be said about this guy huh ? I wanted to see more variety in terrain from him as al he did was rinse the halfpipe. His riding is so clean and effortless and makes it look like you could strap a 89 year old into a board and they could nail it no problem. I'm sure its a 1260 attempt he destroys himself on or even a 1440 from the looks of how he was trying to twist it so late.

Next up we got Nicolas Muller, Jussi Oksanen, Jeremy Jones. JJ & Muller both brought it in That's It, That's all so I was expecting something just as big and they brought there A game yet again Very similar to some of the riding in That's It but its what people pay to see, them doing what they do best. As for Jussi he threw down as hard as any of the others did.

Nicolas Muller snatched himself a whole part all for himself too and proved why he is considered world class. Not to sure about laying down on a cagey looking precipice right up on top of the mountain, crazy fo'. Needless to say he threw down some tech nightmares but also carried some really sweet looking 5 variations with such style. He seemed to nail several tricks on the first attempt as fresh track ride-aways were on the cards.

Squaw Valley Session is up next, nailing big gaps with super 7s and 9s. You see the craziest hippy rainbow pants in this session too. Best song for me on the whole soundtrack, only just though! Love the handheld camera through the tricks and the lodge riding, epic!

Frederik Kalbermatten & Nicolas Muller (yet again) shredding it to funk. Frederik has a different style to Mueller, his riding is a bit more edgy but makes it look a bit sharper and more tech as opposed to free flowing james from Muller. The amount of buttering in this section is enough to fill enough slices of bread for the whole of Africa, fact!

Frederik Kalbermatten & Jussi Oksanen (also again) very much the same as before, great riding and slashing. Some nice natural hip transfers, wall riding and again capping off a huge portion of a spine. Some fun spinning on the ice too, gotta love it.

Next up is the most mind-blowing action from Jeremy Jones dropping the bomb with 360 foot spins thanks to his front binding being able to rotate. This enables him to shred up urban terrain like no one else before. Some sick mountain riding too. If I was to pick any individual's part to watch then this would be it for sure. I don't want to give too much away. Check out him stand-up riding on his bike, smooooth.

So back to that sculpted B, yeah it's real, an actual B. It's the best group sessioning of one individual object I have ever seen, frickin' mental. Everyone is throwing it down something insane. Again don't want to give much away about some of the tricks going down.

Thats it, great riding, great music and great terrain.

Go check it out now!

'nuff said.

Bristol Mountain Trip

Today I was lucky enough to be able to go check out the local mountain, needless to say it got me amped for the forthcoming season, cannot wait!

All the info and map of the mountain terrain can be found here.

I took my camera and got a few decent photos, my new photo of the moment is from a selection of photos I snapped. Check out the rest of the photo gallery.

I also purchased a copy of the new Burton Snowboard Video, the 'B Movie'. It features all their sponsored riders. Check out the video teaser/trailer below:

Check Yourself

I'm a day dreamer, simple as. Tiff forwarded me this video titled 'Last Day Dream'. I pounced on it straight away, needless to say its 42 seconds of pure raw emotion. Check it:

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Inspired by all

The previous post was actually linked from Transworld Snowboarding and not the actually Plenty website which is pretty dam awesome.

Check it out here.

'nuff said.

Stolen Content - Stimulus

Check out this video courtesy of Plenty. More and more recently I have found that there are so many more web clips out there worthy of a part in a major video release. It goes to show you that these guys are just having fun but ripping it so well too.

Enjoy!

Geeeeeeek

I came across this geeky website some point this. Well worth checking out for a cheeky cheap laugh

Something gross to share!

Had a visit to the doctor's yesterday and had a brief check up on my hand.

I wish I could have taken a photo off how fucked up my hand looks. Has a curvy scar that I can dig but the thing that freaked me out and made me laugh the most was the fact the rod they put in my hand was sticking straight out my freaking skin like a mini Wolverine claw, insaaaane.

I now keep seeing it in my mind's eye, psychological pain!

'nuff said.

Going GaGa for Live Lounge

So I have been looking at Radio 1's live lounge videos on youtube and they all blow me away, whether its a new take on there own work or a cover of someone else, they all are brilliant in there own way (blanket statement, the odd one sucks).

The one I wanna share is courtesy of Lady Gaga, do not question my sexuality before watching this video, if you appreciate good music you will understand why.

See! She can sing and is classically trained, it's bullshit how money hungry record companies portrait there artists to maximize profits and disregard an artist's true talents

Another video worth checking out is this one courtesy of the Orange Unsigned Act

3 Months & Growing Strong

Well it has been just over 3 months since coming here and I celebrated in true Andy fashion. I didn't announce to anyone that I was drinking for my 3 month stint anniversary it just kinda happened. I could talk about all the things I've done and learnt about myself but I'm going to talk about beer & whiskey, not in a way I would have done 3 months ago either.

I don't know where to even begin so I'll just tumble off the tallest point and freestyle while approaching the metaphorical sidewalk and see where that gets us.

On a side note my first ever alcoholic drink in America was a Car Bomb and I relived it yesterday when a customer bought 10 instead of 9 at the bar. I have mastered the art of top bombing now!

Back to tallest point and taking a huge step, infact, a huge leap. My beer knowledge was minimal walking into the job, my beer life was Carling Culture intersped with Leffe & Peroni when money permitted, being a stingy student and all. My evolution truly began in the primordial ooze of The Old Toad.

I started off hitting the lagers and pilsners like Warsteiner, Brooklyn (still my favorite lager) and I think it may have been Troegs (excuse lack of um laut) Sunshine Pils. I slowly moved on to Ommegang Witte, which is still a guilty pleasure that I have and indulge now and again. This took me into Heffe-Weizen, mainly Franziskaner (Gotta love that banana taste it kicks up). Then slipping into pale ales from the likes of Ithaca and Sierra Nevada

Now this is where I went through a faze of drinking everything I could to get a good taste for beer and try and sophisticate my palette. What I do remember is that I discovered some of my favorite beers through this phase:

Victory Prima Pils

Dogfish 60 & 90 minute (120 was too crazy for me)

Ithaca Flower Power

Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout

Guinness, a new appreciation for it rather than discovery.

Delerium Tremens

Stone Ruination

Hop Wallop

I'm sure there are many more but I cannot think of them right now.

So my beer taste is still expanding but so is my interest in whiskey. I have a lot less to say about whiskey as I feel I do not know enough yet, but give it time. I do know that The Glenlivet 18 years rocks my world in terms of flavor, smoothness and general well rounded finish.

Before signing off I would like to share this site with you, it has great content and external links for anyone interested in craft beer and beer in general. Mark Tichenor pointed me in the direction, a regular customer and someone who I can call a friend. Mark loves his beer and to share his knowledge and some of his beer enthusiasm rubs off on me and makes me push my beer comfort zone. Best thing Mark has brought into taste is a beer called Pretty Things I think, my knowledge of it is terrible, cannot remember the style for love nor money just know I love it.

Anywho I'm rambling now.

'nuff said.

Stolen Content for the Soul

I am taking this post straight out of DC's blog because this is one of the best thing YouTube has given the world. It was long overdue with all the absolute shite on there.

Here is the YouTube version of the video description:

"Filmmaker Marc Isaacs sets himself up in a London tower block lift. The residents come to trust him and reveal the things that matter to them creating a humorous and moving portrait of a vertical community."

It is a truly heart warming and inspiring thing to watch. Trust me and take 25 minutes of your life and watch something truly stellar.

Fffffound!

My friend Tiff recently pointed me in the direction of ffffound.com.

It is an absolutely amazing concept for a website, image-bookmarking. Here is an extract from there website explaining what its all about:

"FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!" I'm going to get registered later and I'll link my tastes for all to share. They also have an iPhone App for it too. Cheers Tiff, 'nuff said!

Digging in the Archives

Here is an oldish video of Tyler Chorlton shredding it, check out the jib action to front flip on the side of the lodge, immense!

'nuff said

Reppin' Large!

This season I'll be bringing it on a DC XFB, so as soon as the slopes open I'm gonna be terrorizing the locals for sure on this popsicle stick!

My hand is ripping me so bad, no sleep and ridiculous pain. Eating Vicodin like there skittles, not so good I guess. Hating my loss of complete independence, but at least my left hand is getting some skills. Still want both hands back though.

Introducing you to Joe Sexton!

THIS VIDEO SUCKS JOE twsnow from Stepchild Snowboards on Vimeo.

US Healthcare Vs. NHS, Part 1.

Yesterday I went into Rochester General Hospital to have on the day surgery on my broken hand. It got me thinking about how very different our healthcare works back in England compared to here. Due to one handed typing I'm not going to go into full on-depth in this article, I'll save it till my hand has been fully rehabilitated.

The only downside of my experience was that my surgery got moved back and they couldn't reach me on my phone, which is fair, but when I arrived like 5 hours earlier than I should have been they didn't even think to point this out which sucked. Once everything got underway I found everyone to be really friendly & professional. Didn't hurt that I was English either though!

The only other thing I'm apprehensive of is insurance coverage, if I'm completely covered I can easily say that the NHS is pretty weak compared to US Healthcare, but like anything else you get what you pay for and insurance is nothing short of a small fortune!

Anywho, Mr Vicodin is here to help me recover. Also a big thanks to Megan who looked after my drugged arse through out the day!

'nuff said.

Niagra Falls

Even with my super gimp hand I have been able to do a few things, such as like . . . well nothing exciting other than learning to wipe my arse with my left hand annnnnnnnnnnnnnd heading to Niagra Falls. It was pretty dam amazing but not what I expected. it has been bastardized by tourism to the point that you can almost convince yourself that it is man-made just from looking at it.

On closer inspection when you could feel the water and hear it at a deafening sound you then convince yourself that you must be dreaming. It is nothing short of epic to fullest, the full on brutality and beauty of mother nature, a combination that is always stellar to me no matter what. All in all a good day with the guys from Toad Hall (minus Rob who is lucky enough to go see it today).

Hope you enjoy the photos which are available here

Stolen Content

Stolen off a friends Blog because it's just that insane. Music is the acoustic version of Creep by Radiohead.

Check it out here

Reasons for lack of updates . . .

I have broken my hand, simple as.

My right hand too, super hard to type.

Surgery on Friday, not good.

Too frustrated to try and type.

Stupid football game, smashed my hand on the floor.

Nuff said.

I'm an idiot at best

It has been a crazy week so far, horse riding on Sunday, Golf, whiskey tasting and Monday Night Football on Monday, the drunkest I have ever been on Wednesday night ending in me being carried to bed and having no recollection annnnnnnd getting thrashed and half breaking my hand at football last night.

I dare anyone to check out my Facebook photos from Wednesday, consider this a forewarning !

Broken hand right there too ^^^

The life of a Snowboarder, how it should be!

partysnake again teaser from leepipes on Vimeo.

This video has some of the best jibbing action in it I have seen for a long while along with some of the craziest riders you could ever wish to see!

Sunday & Monday are my Fundays

Soooooo it's been an action packed 2 days for me, not action packed in the sense of physical activity, just the fact I have utilized my days off for funness!

I was going to write about Sunday but I pretty much summed it all up in the short post without giving you boring details. Yesterday however was such a good day. Kevin had invited me to go play Golf with him and some other people from the industry courtesy of The Glenlivet. I hadn't played golf in 2 years and was pretty nervous to see how I would play. If I could play every shot like my first shot I would be the new Tiger Woods. I hit it beautifully, unfortunately my inconsistency was pretty consistent, just a but of fun though so it was all good.

After golf we had a quick lunch followed by some scotch tasting and just general chit chat. By the way Canandaigua Lake is probably the nicest place I have ever been, all you need to do is look at this blog post photo and see how beautiful it is. We headed back to the Toad and rinsed some more scotch. Monday Night Football was on at the Distillery and is was the Bills Vs Pats. Was a pretty entertaining game to watch and resulted in the Bills chucking the game away and a fan smashing his glass on the floor, pure comedies!

Our whole Toad Crew is out now too which is pretty amazing, excited to say the least!

Click this link to see all the photos from Sunday

Prologue to Yesterday

Didn't get any chance to update about yesterday and have even less time today with playing golf and scotch tasting so here is a tiny update.

The jist of it it all is that my friend Megan invited us to go to her grandparents farm and to go ride one of her horses. We did, it was insane and something I would totally do again. We also went for a whizz around the lake that her cottage is situated on in a speed boat, again insane and something I so badly want to do again.

I'm currently working on photos for it and only have a few done so far and need to edit the rest and arrange them, but here is a little taste, which incidentally is one of my favourite photos I have ever had the chance to take.

Actions > Words #2

Pat Moore first came to my attention in That's It, That's all and blew my mind not just with his skills but his ability to appear more insane that the maddest madman you could wish to meet.

Anywho, check out this edit from Forum Forever.

Dean Gray = Hero

Ever since the end of February this year I have followed Dean Gray's work at Blotto Photto. It's one of the best blogs I have ever come across in terms of content. I love his photography work and this guy is all about sharing his knowledge and experience.

Well worth a check if you are interested in photography, snowboarding or just good old fashion blogs!

Actions > Words

Tore Holvik reppin' it

Where's George At?

I'm deciding to jump on the bandwagon here.

It's just a little fun to see where your money ends up, and who knows, you might even get the exact same note you spent back. The note I'm tracking is a $1 bill that I'm going to make sure I spend tonight somewhere

Serial Number : D02153632D

I'll try and keep you all updated when i figure out where its moved too. Here is the tracking link if you want to track it on your own accord.

Best One Liner Ever

I was talking to Mr Scotney recently, just shooting the shit and how tricks are over here and over there when he just randomly dropped this line:

'nuff said.

Sharer and Carer

I like to share sites that make me luagh uncontrollable and that are a little twisted and mildly disgusting to some people. Today I share with you Texts From Last Night (TFLN).

This is mainly for English people, most Americans I have spoken to know about it, well worth a view to make your day a bit brighter knowing someone out there is having a worse day. The odd case it's a better day there having than you, don't be jealous, deal with it. It's all swings and roundabouts!

Epic Video

Tiff e-mailed me the link to this epic snowboarding video, a bit unorthodox to say the least but it keeps it fresh!

Entrepreneurial Behavior, A Question of Nature Vs. Nurture

So I decided to share some of my better written reports from my university work for people to read and peruse over. Only things that I think will interest people outside the business world as well as in it will be posted.

Here is a short 2000 word report on Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Final Enterprise is the document name

Nikon D70

I have just purchased a sick second-hand Nikon D70s for a bargain price! My first DSLR so I shall be very much snap happy to try and get some pictures up on here super quicktimepro.

Also got some of my Fisheye photos back from NYC, not a happy bunny as several of the films were blank, which leads me to believe that the film must have been fucked up from when I purchased it back in England then dragged it through several X-ray machines, never fun. As soon as I get chance to digitize these photos I will do!

Hot pocket time for breakfast, the life I lead huh !?

Modern Morality

Someone at the bar today mentioned the way in which we judge certain things in history. We always judge with today's standard of morals and not of the time period. It's really important for us to again understand the evolution of ourselves in terms of behavioral patterns. It's by far the most interesting thing I have ever heard while at work.

Fashionable Networking

Before work today I had a little talk with Ro Ro about blogging. I have been trying to get people to get a blog (mainly so they can comment really) to share what there doing. Many have a twitter account. What I can't understand is if you have a twitter account and update frequently, why can't you condense this into a daily blog ?

Direct quote from Ro 'You should ask all your English pals with the excuse it's the perfect way not to lose touch and scope of each other's lives. Could work! :P'

A simple look at how I have communicated over the years made me realise how social networking is such a fashionable activity. In my experience this is how it went. First up we had Chat Rooms on Yahoo, or chat rooms in general. After this MSN followed, allowing IM between friends. Next for me was MySpace. I believe this to be the first significant social networking tool. This is down to the ability of artists, musicians and actors etc to be able to promote themselves and for people to have an actual profile to put themselves out there in virtual social society. It is literally a virtual socialising world.

After MySpace we had FaceBook, still very much used today by virtually everyone I know. This evolved as a tool for students to communicate to a worldwide tool available to everyone. FaceBook & MySpace very much take ideas from each other and put them across in the way they want for there target audience. Mainly MySpace being for 13-17 year olds and 18+ for FaceBook. This is just generalities, I'm not being exclusive.

Somewhere in the mix Bebo got added in for the younger generation, followed more recently by Twitter, which is obviously sweeping the world and everyone is jumping on the latest social bandwagon. I did try it but I wasn't commited enough to post every 5 minutes of my life about what I was up too. Plus no one would read something as dull as my daily life in 5 minute segments. Now Stephen Fry, I can understand why people would read that!

So I'm a bit perplexed as to where blogging came in, for me it came only this past couple of months. Driven by my responsibility of keeping people up-to-date with how I'm doing in NY and what I'm up too, I actually find it a good outlet for things like this. I also think its good discipline to get into a regular routine of something like this, not get obsessive but keep it going.

I started writing this blog before I had to head to work when I had a clear idea of where I wanted this posting to go, no it just got lost in the ether. Only thing I really have to say is that like clothes fashion, social networking is just as fast moving, constantly evolving and for some people a huge addiction. Bad thing/good thing, down to you I guess . . .

Labour Day Fun

I feel weird even celebrating American only holidays (Canadian too in this instance), but I'm down with any excuse for us all to have a day off together and have some fun. We spent the day drinking a little, wolfing down some burgers then shooting the shit for a while.

We all get aching to do something energetic and fun and 6 of us played a little game of touch (American) football. Needless to say a mix of my QB skills, Matty's RB skills and Clay's kicking skills we owned it! The most fun though was when we all had a little game of softball. Was great to get everyone involved and just have some giggles and banter. I tried not to let my super serious competitive nature out and tried to keep a handle on it, I hope I did anyway!

This morning I moved into my new room and had a bit of downtown after getting it all settled and rinsed Bataleon for all it's little teaser and trailer videos. Well worth a look if you like snowboarding.

Hopefully some photos of today will be up and about somewhere soon for all to see. I'll link in the album when I get chance.

Cheeky Update

Just a quick update to wish everyone a happy Labour Day and to also check out this insane snowboard video. Not insane in crazy, just insane at how well its shot and the content!

Inglorious Basterds at The Little

So I went to watch Inglorious Basterds on Thursday. Pretty dam crazy film as you would expect from Tarrantino. I'm not going to type much about the movie due to the fact that I want whoever is reading this to be utterly surprised by the movie, I will say one thing though 'The Bear Jew'. Was great to go to a small independent type cinema, pretty much like the Showroom in Sheffield.

One thing that angered me about the film is how Hitler was portrayed. He was portrayed as an absolute whack job. Fair enough he was so wrong and radical about his views but I have no doubt in my mind he was not as crazy as the movie suggests. I'm not agreeing with Hitler on how he wanted no Jews in Nazi Germany, he was influenced by others to use genocide as a solution to this 'problem', but I believe he would have been a much more poised, charismatic and an awkward charm about him. After all he was voted Times man of the year in 1938 and managed to incite racial hatred in a whole nation.

If you want an entertaining film with gore, violence and the odd laugh then go see Inglorious Basterds. If you want to watch a Hollywood movie with some truth and (sort of) realism in it then go see Valkyrie, the bad side about Valkyrie is that even the Germans speak American. Then again the only people in the film are Germans virtually so its not so bad I guess.

Side not, got Brand New tickets for Novemeber, get in!

My NYC Trip

This blog is taken directly from my personal blog. I have decided to start putting my thoughts out here into the blogsphere for anyone and everyone to look at.

So with me heading to NYC this weekend and having a terrible memory I decided to jot everything down in my little Moleskine. I’m going to write it up exactly as I wrote it down in the journal, mistakes and sillyness will remain unchanged. I have also decided to start posting this posts on blogspot just to put them out there to the general public too. I also want to apologise for lack of photos. It’s pretty difficult to get film put in digital media so I’m saving up for a scanner!

So here goes nothing:

8/29/09

I wanted to save this moleskin for a special occasion. Today is a special occasion. I’m heading to NYC for the first time + I’m going solo. Nervous, excited, nervous. Also surreal. Another epic trip, hopefully for an epic time, that time being 3 days. I have a book to accompany me, music to drown the sound of the world + several cameras to catch its beauty/uglyside. This is NYC, the beginning of the story

After dropping to and from consciousness I finally come truly awake in Albany, the state capital. Grim weather, reminds me of home. A good + bad thing. Kind of just want to arrive there now + familiarise myself with the City. What I see out of my window is very much the same as every other train ride so far, but what was I expecting to see though ? Unicorns maybe !? Infact just a waterfall pulling into Poughkepsie, seemed out of place but nevertheless impressive!

Heading into Penn Station in half an hour, the hills look amazing, covered in trees with mist rolling down up into the air like it’s trying to escape. mesmerising.

After a journey of sleep + non-sleep I arrived in Penn Station (note the switch from present to past). I get out into the city air and my perceptual senses are overwhelmed, flashes of yellow, a shrill horn, the rattling subway, the taste of the air and the stellar mist covering the tallest buildings, truly amazing, but expected I guess. That makes me sound ungrateful, I’m not. My expectations were high + they were met, full stop.

I wonder up (+down) 8th Ave for a while + shoot off a text to DC aswell as shooting off a few snaps with the Diana(mini). Mosts shots are of taxis, don’t ask why but I was fascinated. So I end up taking a ride downtown instead of uptown, these things happen I guess. So I decide to walk all the way from 14th st to 34th street, stopping off at the triple crown. Here I discovered I was starting to turn into a dreaded beer snob, not so good. What was also not so good was the fact that my hostel had no vacancies left (sold out as the put it). Thankfully DC had offered me a place to crash ( Praise Jésuz)

So me + DC meet + take a trip downtown + hit 1894. A nice bar + grill style place. For some reason our server ran outside after ‘us’ thinking we were dodging out on the cheque. We were just in the bar area, bless her huh !? So we head to a few shops, 3 different heavens in the form of WeSC, Burton + DC (the brand) shops. I got some new cans I have been after for a while + some nice Nike SB kicks.

We hit one final bar before I retire to DC’ pimp bachelor pad + he heads to see his girl. I’m sat here writing this (back to the present) while chilling to some Bon Iver and obviously reflecting on the day. Honestly I’m exhausted, but its to be expected to a certain extent. It’s going to be fun typing this up exactly how I have written it, poor sentence structure, grammatical errors, important things missed + the refusal to use the word ‘and’.

I wanted to sign off saying something profound or something with heavy weight behind it. Only thing I have (is weak) is that sometimes you gotta get away to the city. I guess thats it, I’m off to make more progress on the Gunslinger, half way through the book already. It may turn into a long night indeed. Every word I add reduces my attempt at a profound sign-off, guess I just don’t know when to shut up.

8/30/09

So I get up at midday + clean up the mess of inflatable bed + sleeping bag and chill out for a few minutes. I head out to broadway where I’m finally greeted by some sun + blue sky, get snap happy + finish off my roll of Diana. I rinse some chicken fajita panini and head to central park (the direction of Central Park anyways). I stumble upon a little seating area with a dark iron statue in the middle, it stands on a pillar 8ft high + the statue another 8 more.the horses front leg (right) is off the floor, this means that the guy died out of wartime I think, horses on hind legs means he would have died during battle, I dunno. All thats important is that it looks amazing, Puzzled by the fact it looks like plate armor the statue is wearing, so he might not be American. At this point I think screw it why don’t I just look at the front of it. Turns out its Joan of Arc (edit: the main picture at the top is the best view of the statue I got on the old iPhone), ‘nuff said.

3/4 quarters of the way through Gunslinger, getting quite interesting to say the least. Just waiting on DC before we head to CP on the bikes, should be epic! Ended up heading DT again. Spent far too much in the Lomo shop. DC got hooked up with the latest Fisheye2 too. Back at the apartment + prepping to hit CP, just had the realisation that it’s my 2 month anniversary today, its so craaaaazy!

31/8/09

The rest of yesterday was amazing. I fell in love with CP something rotten, pure stellarness, cannae beat it. Cruising around, awesome views, like nothing else, utopia for me. The night time was just as fantastical. Off the wagon for a few drinks then Club Wha? It was crazy, food, good beer, good friends + amazing live music. Such an eclectic set, All Night Long by Lionel Ritchie blaring out, Creep by Radiohead later, I’ll be missing you by sting, 70’s funk that would make the god father proud. I’m back at home as I write this, happy in the fact I have had an amazing day, amazing night + connected DC to Lomography, ‘nuff said yet again.

31/8/09

I was going to write about last night before I realised I had done it last night, only had about 7 or 8 beers, light weight. O I did remember last night that I had a double order of wings for the table, apparently most were vegetarians so I had to eat them all one (bar one). there were equal amounts of awe and disgust, make that mostly disgust ha.

It’s weird, I’m sat in CP surrounded by what seems an infinite amount of people, yet I feel alone, not lonely, but alone. Its invigorating to sit and look out at the lake nd write in here, yet I’m saddened as to not be able to share it with anyone. This + a couple of earlier conversations has led me to the conclusion that I’m ultimately an experience sharer. I like doing a lot of stuff on my own, but to be able to share somethings with someone else special + talk about that + have that memory + bond forever, that to me is more worthwhile than having a solo story to share.

Excuse the terrible 5 minute sketch (edit: my moleskine has a little stupid sketch on the previous page), just one of those things. So I spent the rest of the evening getting food + ended up locking myself out out of DC’s apt. Neighbour found me face down alseep. Once DC got back we shot the shit + ended for some fine Chinese cuisine. Wasn’t too bad actually, good value for money at least.

Now back at the apt solo listening to Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (re-mixed) crazy album! Gonna hop in the shower, bang on my jim jams (shorts + a stolen shirt) + read esquire for the rest of the night. Up bright + early for a 7 hour journey again. A Journey worth every second!

Post edit: Gunslinger is now finished, bring on The Drawing of the Three!