Fashion

Soccer Team's playing a show tonight. This is an old photo of us, taken back before our label manager (Mr. L) forced me to change my look completely as means of selling more records. Now I'm rockin' more of that "hip vagrant from Brooklyn" style.

With my transformation from square-old-man to happenin'-young-guy, our Q now wants to change her look up, too. She asked me at practice what she should do, so rather than running through our set last Saturday, we spent our time huddled around a dry-erase board coming up with a perfect new look. 
Will there be time to acquire all these new threads before the show tonight?
I hope so.

Poster

I finished a new poster design for the Taffetys last night.
Thought I'd share the process with you:

1. Erin films different sections of the Ophelia rehearsals, and I go through the footage to grab some still shots. This is far better than asking dancers to remain motionless for 3 hours while I draw.

2. I draw using a bottle of ink and a brush while watching episodes of Twilight Zone. I happen to love Twilight Zone very much.

3. I scan the figure drawing, hand-drawn text, and any other components I may need.

4. I put all that garbage together, and it usually takes me about a hundred years. I hate this part of the process because I have to use my computer for the final arranging--which means I can't watch Twilight Zone while I work (unless I set Erin's computer next me--which is totally what I do when she's not home).
For this one, the background texture came from the severed back cover of an old paperback (it was either I Am Legend or The Martian Chronicles). There's really nothing quite like dog-eared and sun-bleached paper.

Below is a jpeg of the finalized version.

Jeans

That's a photos of me drinking coffee. If you look carefully, you should see that I'm really drinking that coffee--not just posing with a mug to my lips.
Erin and I went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, courtesy of the generosity of friends. Our place for the weekend was beyond nice. I completely fell in love with the house and daydreamed almost constantly about owning a house just like it ... one block away from the ocean.
Unreal.
Everything about the weekend was wonderful: the walks on the boardwalk, the video games at the arcade, the ice cream, the lobster (that I mangled like an idiot novice). We relaxed. We watched the Vans Pool competition and Poltergeist. We ate carryout Chinese food. And we both fell totally in love with the house and its surroundings.
Everything was almost perfect.
Almost.

There was one disturbing feature in the house that I (or anyone else on Earth) could've done without...

The denim upholstery.

Wow.

Not just one piece of furniture was covered in denim. 

Not two. 

BUT THREE.

In case the photos didn't capture the denim in all its glory, I took the following photo for you, dear reader, so you could see how my legs would just camouflage right into the couch.

That being said, the texture and horror of a denim couch did not prevent me from taking a delightful nap Saturday afternoon on it. I slept like a baby. 
No one could see my legs, but I slept well nonetheless.

Links

Two things:
1. I read an interesting article online from The Believer today, written by Tara Jepsen.
Click here to read it.

2. I can't really even see the word "believer" without thinking of Charles Burns. After reading the article, I was wondering if there was an archive of Believer portraits by Charles Burns... and BEHOLD, I found it. Whoa.

"Don't drink, don't smoke ... what do you do?"

I've been a little behind schedule with the posts. Of course I know, in order to maintain my readership (which may be up to 7 by now), I need to update regularly. But I get busy, you know?

Hopefully soon I'll post some photos of my annual birthday walk around the monuments, but I'm sort of hoping that Soung will send me a few of the pictures she grabbed.

As for now, and sorry to post something about skateboarding again, but I'm just super excited...
My girlfriend bought me a new board for my birthday, and I finally got to set it all up tonight with trucks, wheels, griptape, etc. I even managed to skate it down the street for a bit. Attached is a photo.
It's a Welcome deck.

Click for a larger view. It's totally worth it.

After skating a Scum board that I really liked, and since I grew up riding a series of Luceros, I really wanted a board shaped by Paul Shmitt, and I selected this Adam Garuda model for the shape alone. Since I'm well out of the loop on current skaters, I've never heard of anyone named Adam Garuda, so before Erin bought it, I had to do some Internet searches on that name to make sure that this Adam Garuda person wasn't a miserable piece of doo-doo. For all I knew, he could've been some sexist, or racist, or some guy who lights farts... and I wouldn't want to support that. There's a lot of that in the world of skateboarding, and I'm not trying to support any of it.
So I searched the name and found nothing. I mean, I found nothing about a guy named Adam Garuda.
So I searched Garuda and found out that it's the name of a mythical bird/human-like creature from Hindi culture. Cool.
Then I looked a bit more closely at the graphics and realized that the Adam is supposed to be Adam Ant, and he's riding on on the back of this Garuda. Unbelievable. The graphics magically 180'd from the ugliest I'd ever seen into the coolest I'd ever seen.

Alright. I've got a ton to draw tonight for a new Taffety Poster.
More later. 

Success/Failure

I'd love to take credit for this video, but I can't. This one's all Grady.
It's not long, but it tops all the ones that I've put together so far.
Enjoy.

Special Treatment

A while back, a friend (let's just call him Ghris Crady) accused me of receiving special treatment when I bought a new skateboard deck and had it shipped to me at Dischord. In his defense, he was giving me a hard time jokingly ... I mean no one really cares about additional swag (or schwag, as it's often and annoyingly pronounced. Seems like the equivalent of saying "Shweet" and "Noice"). I ordered from NHS, and I received (along with my board) stickers, a dvd, stickers, more stickers, and other assorted stuff (like dice and shoelaces). However, I wasn't actively trying to get "the hook-up" by having my order sent to Dischord. Since I live in a basement apartment where deliveries sometimes disappear, and since Dischord receives packages every day, AND since I worked there on and off for around 10 years, AND since my girlfriend works there presently ... having the thing shipped there just seemed like a better/smarter/logical/practical option. 

That being said, when Ghris ordered a complete board from SoCal and had it shipped to his house, he received only the following: 

How one finds stickers this small in a box full of packing material is beyond me. That's good diggin'!

When I ordered from NHS FunFactory (a different company, mind you), I received this:

Do not overlook the "SK8 Dice" and extra shoelaces.

Now. My argument was, and still is, that NHS FunFactory is simply more generous with the promotional material.

Ghris's argument was, and still is, that I got hooked up because the box was being sent to Dischord.

Well, today I believe I have finally stumbled upon new fuel for this debate.

Erin ordered a board for me for my birthday, and she had it sent to Dischord.

Inside the box (along with the board, of course) was the following:

1. Some crumby Socal stickers.
2. Three sheets of griptape SCRAPS--none of which were long enough to cover the board even if combined.

I actually find the latter somewhat offensive, especially since the griptape was made by two separate brands and featured wildly different textures.

My SoCal stickers were indeed bigger. Look left and check 'em out.

But I honestly don't think there was any special treatment considering the griptape came straight out of SoCal's trash.

European Airport

I turn forty on Saturday.
There.
I said it.

Forty.

The video below has nothing to do with turning forty, though.