Wreckage from the Night Before

People of Earth,
Behold!
Another movie detailing more adventures!

Trust me when I say ... you've never seen a skate movie like this before.
Click here to watch.

Penciling and Inking

A couple days ago, I was talking to my friend Tori (who's a pretty great illustrator and inks in a completely different style than me), and I asked if she'd be up for working on a penciling & inking project. She said yes with zero hesitation. The plan was to sketch the same sculpture at National Gallery, trade the sketches with each other, and then ink each other's drawings. No photos could be used for reference.

Here are the results:

Houdon's sculpture of Diana and Tori's inked version of my sketch.
Click on the image to view a larger version.

The museum was about to close, so we had to act fast. We looked around at a few sculptures and ultimately selected a bust of Diana by Jean-Antoine Houdon. It's from the late 1700s and resides in the same room as David's portrait of Napoleon chillin' in his study.
The angle I chose to work from is pretty typical for me: profile with a lot of focus on the hair (I went back to the gallery today to take the above photo). Sadly, Tori didn't get a photo or scan of my pencil sketch, but you can see her finalized ink version... and I assure you, her shading technique is wildly different from my own. Nowhere in my pencil sketch did I shade anything remotely in her style, and I was thrilled to see her inking style applied to my drawing.

Houdon's sculpture, Tori's pencil sketch, my inks, then my ink wash.
Again, click on the image to see a larger version.

And here's the same sculpture, but this time from Tori's perspective.
I tried to take a photo of the sculpture today from where Tori was sitting while drawing, but there was a girl parked on the seat (snoozing), so this is as close to the angle as I could get without putting my camera in front of the sleeping girl's face.
Here you should see the sculpture, Tori's pencils, my first round of inks, and finally the ink wash.

Three Parks

In the past three weeks, I've been to three different skate parks.

Quite honestly, I'm skating worse than ever these days. By the time I get semi-used to the new terrain, I'm usually too exhausted to keep skating.
That, however, hasn't prevented me from documenting these experiences.

Behold!
Another video.
Click Here.

The music is a bit all over the place on this one.









Shout-out to Q (again) for "Congratulations."
Shout-out to Chafe and the mix tape I made him years ago featuring "Congratulations."
Shout-out to Kate, Rob, and Mark Herndon for our Twin Peaks marathon back in '94.
Shout out to DEVO and the shirt that Jon Lyons owns.

Crowds and Justice Being Served

Ever wonder about all those dummies in the backgrounds of photos taken at crowded sporting events? 
Here's how Erin and I became a couple of those faceless blurry ovals. 

Friday. Baltimore, MD.
While skating the bowl in Hampden with Todd, a fourteen-year-old kid from Florida mentions the Dew Tour to me and is shocked to discover that I'd never heard of the event before. In fact, my naiveté caused me to assume the "Dew" was spelled D-O, which I thought was a ridiculous name for a skate tour ... until I found out it was D-E-W as in Mountain Dew ... then I thought "Do" was a much better choice.

Saturday. DC to OC.
After the final Ophelia performance at C.H.A.W., Erin and I drive to Ocean City.

Sunday. Ocean City, MD (birthplace of tasseled sleeveless half-shirts and red Solo cups).
Erin and I find out that the Dew Tour bowl finals are taking place that day... and better yet--the event is FREE. So we take the bus down to the pier to check it out.

Sunday. Grounds of the Dew Tour.
Erin and I find the bowl competition area, but there's a line for standing room only, and it's not moving. We stand around anyway with a handful of other dummies. Eventually, the line gets super long, and we realize that we're pretty close to the front, so we may actually have a shot a getting in.
While waiting, three girls semi-cut in line to chat up the boys who are in line ahead of us. They're flipping their hair, laughing, and being so cool and nonchalant, but everyone in line behind them knows they're just trying to cut.
THEN
One of the sweet bros from the Orwellian Mountain Dew Security Force announces that there's room for ten more people in the standing room area. The girls start easing their way into the mix, but ERIN EXTENDS HER ARM AND BLOCKS THE GIRLS FROM CUTTING IN LINE, saying to the closest girl, "Sorry, Sweetie, but y'all ain't getting in here--you need to go to the back of the line."

THIS WAS THE SINGLE GREATEST MOMENT OF THE DEW TOUR, I'm sure.

Okay, so here's a shot of Bucky from the depths of the Internet.

And here's me and Erin chillin' in the distance (rootin' for Greyson Fletcher and Tom Schaar).

Driving to Chicago

I know it's been a long, long while since I last posted anything. I took photos and video footage during my recent trip to Chicago, but it really does take a while for me to comb through it all, so sharing images (obviously) hasn't happened.

The road trip was LONG. What should have taken between ten and twelve hours turned into nearly twenty-four hours on the road. Now, I wasn't driving the whole time ... I slept in my car like a teenager (or a young adult). But with no one to talk to, the urge to sleep was nearly constant. I'd be a terrible trucker.

I spent some quality time with This American Life podcasts (a must for any road trip), and the audio version of Stephen King's new novel, which I still need to finish.

Seeing the Minutes fellas was wonderful. I really love how easily we can fall right back into step with each other, like no time has passed. We didn't spend a bunch of time catching up. We just kicked like we always do. 
The highlights:

• Post show conversation (not about the show) over Thai food.
• Shouting a polite greeting from a car window to the-band-who-cannot-be-named from Georgia.
• Mystery Science Theater-ing some original Star Trek episodes (Gorn, y'all).
• Checking out Wilson Skate Park.

Below is a video I put together that should emphasize how much time I spent in my car. I'm trying something new here: I'm hosting the video through another site in the hopes of eliminating some of the pixel-heavy compression.

CLICK HERE
Just so ya' know, I tried to sync the footage with a bunch of different songs (Beatles, Breeders, Aaron Young, Suicide, Common, etc.), but this Elastica jam worked best. 
I would've never heard this song, by the way, if it wasn't for Melissa the Q. She's the only person on earth who owns the second Elastica full length. Seriously, go back in time and check your dusty CD tower. You may find their first full length in the stacks (the one with the "Three Girl Rhumba" cover), but I'll bet a small sum of dough that their second record is no where to be found.