Not a Museum, Actual French Camera Store

So, Janine and I were walking around France for about five days and we stumbled upon a camera repair / camera store. The owner was super nice and they had what looked like antiques but he went on to show us that nothing in the store was dead and let us know that everything functioned, but formats had moved on making some of the equipment obsolete. He did have a really clean Bolex which was really interesting, but a couple quick phone calls and it just seemed like it would be way to much work. What really bummed me out was the idea that out of everything you shoot you might only get 40% back on DV tape from a company that would handle the transfer for you. Even then, the colors could be wrong and all sorts of problems not to mention the cost of operation being high as well. It was still an amazing shop, they seemed to pretty much have it all. I wouldn't doubt if they either have or could get you pretty much anything you could want. It was a little bit overwhelming as shooting with a new camera is never just an immediate thing in regards to turning out quality work immediately. Since I currently have a camera that can do variable frame rates digitally, I kind of felt like I was copping out of the real craftsmanship that went along with camera operation even fifteen years ago. Check out the images, photogs eat your heart out, I did.

Points of Interest

Figured that you guys might be interested in what is going on in these images. The first one is of Chaz Pineda at an after the trade show free beer and tacos party. When we spoke he let me know that he was living about six blocks from the beach in a small place by himself. He was making rent and skateboarding at Washington Street as much as possible. When I ran into him they had just run that sequence of him coming out of that gnarly U shaped thing at the top of the big wall at Burnside. It was nice to see a Chaz that knew what was up and had a direction as to where he was going. The next image is of the shear magnitude of Ameoba Music in Los Angeles. This is just a small part of the entire store, it really doesn't even do it justice at all. The Miller Time beer lamp is at the Shortstop Bar just outside Echo Park in Los Angeles. All you can see is a pink sign that says "cocktails," so keep an eye out for that. The bar is dark, has different rooms and is the nicest "local" that I had been to in a long, long time. The last picture is me hold my friend Steve and Natalie's dog Winston. He is an English bulldog and is currently in his massive puppy phase. He is too lazy to lift his head up when you hold him and he always wants to be held. Kind of crazy that he looks so sweat right now, but is going to turn into a gnarly, snarly full grown snorting bulldog.

Girl Open House Sightings

Sorry but I had to backtrack when I was going through my photos and noticed that I never had a chance to post about the Girl Open House in Torrance, CA during January 09'. This was the second Girl Open House that Janine and I had attended so it was nice to run into some more familiar faces from 08'. Andy Mueller is always down to hang out and shoot funny photos for www.crailtap.com photo collage that they always put up during the week of ASR. Girl Skateboards and Fourstar do not have many more contacts to make as they have been the top selling board brand for about the last ten years or so. Instead they extend an open invitation to anyone who would like to come out and enjoy a free In-N-Out Burger and watch the Girl TF jam format contest, that is a shop sponsored skate only invitational. It always brings out some of the most talented kids from all over California and the occasional nowhere guy as well. On www.southsideskatepark.com I had posted a quick little montage that captured some of the best skateboarding of the day. This years event seemed way more intense than last years. Sam Smyth is the host and keep the contest flowing as longtime Girl/Chocolate pros watch and score as best they can, which is hard because so much ends up going down during the limited jams. I love this one mellow hubba they have, complete with a nice smooth cement top that seems to grind and slide properly. i am kind of tempted to put one in at Southside but we have so many hubbas already that there might not be much point to it. The park itself is always sick with a tight quarter across one wall with cement "noping" that always seems to work someone over every year. There is a flat gap and quarter to wall which is a lot of fun too. I suppose when you are looking at entire pallet of each graphic that they produce it is easy to figure out just how they afford to sanction and section of their warehouse and keep it fresh with a smart small set up that can be enjoyed by everyone, that knows someone of course.

Southside Product Prospectus

So, for Southside Skatepark's 15 Year Anniversary we decided to try to step up our shop decks with a five deck series from Give Up. You are probably thinking,"So what, Give Up always does your graphics." That would be correct, but this is a little bit different in that it is a five deck series in which the graphic stretches across the five boards with the middle deck being a Zig Zaggerish shape. There will only be fifty full sets produced as the middle deck is such a wild shape. We have been having a couple people hit up the shop and get on the list to reserve the entire series which is nice. Give Up has a lot of fans and although this thing has been in the works for a long time we hope that it is available no later than June 21st, for our Go Skateboarding Day birthday party celebration for Southside Skatepark. We are also having about 1500 sheets of MOB produced with our logo in a chill spot near the back truck. Hopefully people will grip their decks and rock the Southside MOB with pride. We just wanted to give you guys a heads up on where we are heading with all of this good stuff. Hats are probably around the corner and we are just about to jump back on the tee shirt press and bang out some more tees for the summer. If you have any rad ideas for a Southside shirt email them to bigo@southsideskatepark.com , you can scan them or provide us with a layered .ai file, that's Adobe Illustrator, in case you were wondering. Well, it looks like rain and I hope to see everyone at the park tonight for a big Friday night session.

Images of the Las Vegas Strip 2

Ridiculous interiors and amazing architecture, that is what we might be seeing in various cities throughout the United States just before I die, are ready to be seen and enjoyed in Las Vegas. There are plenty of things to see and do. As soon as you think you have seen it all you enter another one of the immense casinos and your are hit with more things to see and enjoy. It goes on and on, with only minor glimpses of what Las Vegas used to really look like. We really enjoyed walking around all over Las Vegas. Every day we found something new to go and do. Super fun place to check out and since it was our first time going, it was that much more intense.

Club Tao at the Palazzo in Las Vegas

This club is apparently very difficult to get into, but luckily for us a friend of ours, who recently moved out to Las Vegas, works as a bottle service girl at Club Tao. Before going in to work her and her boyfriend stopped by our room at the Wynn to warm up with a couple of drinks. After which we made our way over to the club, and with our handy dandy password were granted access at no charge and without have to work our way through the insane mob of people waiting outside. The club is massive and apparently was a nine million dollar installation within the Palazzo hotel, on the strip. Throughout the night our friend kept turning around over by the bottle service area and kept hooking us up with free drinks. For some reason her and her coworkers were given two free bottles of Gray Goose as a new hire mixer of some kind. She doesn't drink much so her boyfriend and I were more than happy to help her out. Janine, having recently discovered that she (and I) are pregnant, was unable to partake, so we drank her portion as well. At the conclusion of the night, yes I was vomiting, but I did make it back to the hotel room quite smoothly for the record. I don't know exactly how many people were in the club but it was rumored that the club had done over two million in sales during the previous Spring Break weekend. Kind of hard to put that many beverages in perspective. Enjoy the photos, I am sure the bartenders, drink runners and girls of the scenery make a shitload in tips, no doubt.