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.

Southside Skatepark 15 Year Anniversary Mural

So, Janine and I were recently in California for the Berrics, Crossroads Show and ASR. We spent about a week out there and while we were at a Bones/Powell after party we ran into Chaz and his friend from Portland Jay Meer. The party we were at was a small thing that they were putting on for the anniversary or the "Ripper" graphic in which many famous skateboard artists from over the years had submitted their work. Jay Meer was one of those artists, his was an especially small piece considering the media which he used was Aerosol. Apparently Jay Meer had been doing a lot of murals and large pieces at Burnside since 1993. In 2003 he and a friend of his that had moved to Texas arranged to roll out 13 of the Burnside homies for a "Burnside to Southside" trip and session. All the heavy Burnside locals were in attendance and Jay never forgot about Southside Skatepark. When we met him at the party he introduced himself to us and gave us a short rundown, the event was vaguely in my memory, 2003 seems so close yet so far away, you know. Janine and I went back to the hotel and eventually back to Texas a didn't think much of it. A few month later the phone at the shop rang and Dakota Roberson spoke with Jay regarding Jay being in Texas and wanting to come by and possibly "Get Up" in the park somewhere. He called again and spoke with Janine and confirmed that, yes you can come down a put something up, but no we had no idea what. once Jay arrived at the park we walked around and settled down on the large wall above the big prop. The big prop is scheduled for a change for this year's Johnny Romano Skate Jam but we are fairly confident that the prop won't be getting any taller so the 9'x36' canvas seemed like a safe bet. So, Jay and I went to the bar to start figuring out what to do, we went through a ton of his previous works on http://www.jaymeer.com/ and I let him know what I liked and what I didn't like and what I thought would be good for the park. Eventually it dawned on me that Southside Skatepark is in it's 15th year of operation and that we really hadn't done anything to kick that off yet. I always loved the "First Ten Years of Burnside" mural that Jay did in 2000, see Skateboarder article "Ten Things You Didn't Know About Burnside" to see the image I am talking about. I was wanting Jay to do something along those lines, the regional imagery choices were his idea, he wanted to tie it in to our area. He said he had never done a Cow Skull before, but skulls were his specialty, if you asked me, he nailed it. Thanks go out to Jaymeer, I was having a hard time getting my head around putting up something like this in the park due to my normal cleanliness battle cry. Thanks for opening my eyes to something fresh and new all the locals and the staff are really enjoing it and it makes us very proud to be a part of such a long history here at Southside Skatepark.

Talk About Potential

Now, everyone knows someone who absolutely kills it on a skateboard, but doesn't seem to care much about doing anything with it. You know, the guy that doesn't skate for two months and but somehow can still kickflip backside noseblunt a ledge among other ridiculous skateboard oddities, without an effort what so ever. It isn't that these people make us mad, it is just that it is frustrating seeing them throw it all away. This is a picture of a kid that is super underrated, quite possibly one of the top ten best in Texas when he "feels" like it. Everyone is sleeping on this kid, even him. I guess it is the kids that take life like this that help the rest of us keep it in perspective. Their motto definitely seems to be,"if it isn't fun, don't do it, no matter what anyone else says." Anyway, when I do cross paths with this kid I am always really glad to see him. i am ever more glad to just sit and watch him destroy it and make the people around him skate that much harder. I just wish that sometime, maybe one day, he will actually skate the park for a solid week before a contest and show up and let everyone know just how amazing he really is. Guru would back me up on this kids ability if you need a second opinion, if you had a chance to see him for yourself, you wouldn't, you would just know. The other image below is of my wife's good cooking and silliness when I am still half awake, just look at all that potential staring you in the face.

February Trip to Austin

Somehow Dakota Roberson and David Langston convinced the powers that be at Southside Skatepark that I needed some days off to go on a weekend road trip to Austin to film it up. Accompanying us was Sean Villars and George Karvounis. This was the first time that I had gone on the road with the latter two, but it worked out and they held their own on the road for sure. When we went up to Austin we stayed at Jacalyn's place, since she resides in a house waiting for it to sell for her parents all by herself. It's great being able to hit the road and go to a different skateboarding scene and be taken care of, it never happens more often than in Austin, Texas. The weather was amazing and we stopped by to meet up with Guru Khalsa at his new place which was really nice. He seemed to be enjoying the new house and trying to get out and skate with the locals such as Flint Brewer and JD Clark. We skated street all day while being shown around by Shaun Mefford as he was shooting photos. On Sunday we made a point to stop by Alien Pod as we heard that it might be in it's final days. It seems as though recent rail construction in the area as put the secluded and hidden spot up for demolition by the Transportation Board of Austin. To bad it doesn't seem as though the City of Austin is going to turn a blind eye to the do it yourself "Dream Destroyers" creation. We filmed our last lines there and kissed it goodbye, just in case the next time we are in Austin the spot is gone. Thanks for the good times Alien Pod, hope to see you again soon, take care and rest in peace.

Houston, Great Place to Live

Believe it or not Houston, Texas might just be one of the best kept secrets in regards places to live in the United States this millennium. Somehow Houston has managed to dodge the brunt of an economic downturn, while still affording many of it's citizens a decent living wage and a high quality of life. Everything is less expensive in Houston. We have some of the best restaurants and bars in the country and you can still have dinner for two at under $100. If you are out traveling the US and are looking for a place to visit you should really stop by and have a blast. Recently, and I never thought I would live to see it, Houston put in a massive public skatepark downtown. It has a downtown skyline overlook and is a really great place to roll around and warm up before heading out and getting some street footage. The only problem is that you have to wear a helmet, but hopefully not for long as people are working hard to change that. We also have access to the Gulf of Mexico, just 50 minutes south of downtown. You can literally go out to the beach for the day and go out downtown the same night. There are not to many places in the US that you can enjoy those types of amenities and still be able to afford a really nice home for under $200,000. Of course, Southside Skatepark is there as the only problem we have in this town is our violent changes of weather. One day it is hot and muggy, the next chilly and brisk. Southside Skatepark is there taking care, just look at how happy people are to be there.

Farewell Federal, We Will Miss You!

I took this image about a year ago when the Federal Bank was moving from this location to their new facility on Allen Parkway. I suppose that security was somewhat compromised during this process so they posted a armed guard outside. I knew that eventually one of the spots with the highest bust factor in the city, might become skateable for a few months. Surprisingly enough it became a hot spot that ended up getting a lot of coverage and attention from the industry. Footage from the spot was in numerous online montages and various videos. I knew it wouldn't last but was pleasantly surprised that it lasted as long as it did. When it was all good to go and skate there I would try to go as often as I could. When the crew I was rolling with wanted to go elsewhere I tried to remind them that the spot would not last forever and that once gone, it would be missed. Eventually a church group acquired the building and immediately started the harsh process of shutting down the spot. It didn't die easily and the Habitat team and photographers ended up getting their equipment confiscated and thrown in jail for an overnight stint. The church group being so forgiving tried to go down to the jail and force Houston's authorities to hold the offenders for a longer period of time. I suppose that is the Christian thing to do, nah probably not. I know that the group was trespassing but to take it further than it had already been taken was just ridiculous. The spot is still there but I haven't heard of anyone touching it since, time to let it cool off for a little while, we'll have to wait and see.

California Days and Nights

So, apparently when you order a latte at an organic foods restaurant in LA they carve a little bird out in the froth. When it came out to the table I had to shoot a photo. Isn't that tight? It looks like it could be the cover of Blueprint and Alien Workshops bastard video child. I really like the way it looked and after I drank it I was reved way, way up. Lunch was nice to, apparently the restaurant had recently been renovated, it dubbed as bakery as well. All their breads were baked daily and all meats and greens were organic. After lunch we went back to the Berrics for a little while and then went on down to Pacific Highway 1 to dinner. The view from the table was really nice. We ate dinner while watching the sunset on our first day in LA, which was probably one of the highlights of the trip. You would of enjoied it too, if you had been there.