An Afternoon At Golden Gardens

Thought this was a great idea at the time

Notice the "No Skateboarding" sign. What the fuck are they worried about? Snack bar lake sessions...

Just one receptacle from one afternoon at Golden Gardens. Going green meets Not Giving a Fuck

Lucky to snap this just as the sun went behind the Olympics

The Driving Dead

It's You And It's Me Against An Army Of Zombies

Took this photo at Wal Mart of all places. Amreican culture fascinates and sickens me. I consider this photo a significant sign of the times #1 becuase it was taken in a Wal Mart parking lot #2 because of the epicly terrible parking job and #3 because of the decals on each of these vehicles.
The one on the left is one of those "family" decals. You know, the mom, dad, kids and cat or whatever. Everyone's hyped on breeding I guess. Right next to it is a "zombie family" decal.
It seems like we as a culture have become obsessed with zombies. Which is ironic because the first popular zombie films were statements on consumer culture. But that shit is lost. Here in Seattle we have an annual zombie parade where regular folks dress up like zombies and walk around as they spend money on food and beer. Brains!
Don't get me wrong. I love The Walking Dead as much as the next victim, but I think reflection is sometimes called for. The society grows more and more violent and what was once reserved for the underground Troma set has been brought to the masses, with acceptance. I can't be the only one who thinks that when it is commonplace to watch (and fantasize about?) the undead eating the flesh off of someone's face, there may be a sickness in our culture.
As I type this I listen to Slayer. Zombies, Metal, etc. used to be underground because only a certain type of person could really stomach exposing themselves to these things on a regular basis. Now it is banality. Gangsta rap, violence and face eating have become the norm. Fifty years ago Football and Ice Hockey were considered violent. Now football is the new religion in this country and the UFC is the cream of the violently athletic crop.
Maybe I'm a gentle hippy. Or maybe you've been bitten...

Neo Northgate

Made it to one of those weird Japanese conveyor belt restaurants the other night. Maybe you're familiar with this. I was not. It kind of blew my mind, like most things do I guess (lucky me!). Anyway I had to document the scene. Basically all kinds of food cruises by and you take what you want and get charged for it at the end. I don't really know how they keep track. It was remarked that the situation harkened to one of my favorite films, Cloud Atlas. Yup. What a world.

Birth Yourself

Kindred Spirits

Cinco de Mayo, I went to check out Court's booth at the Fremont market/taco rodeo event. That's when I met her. Marcy Moonstar. Court had met her before, about a year previous. He remembered her and asked her how come she wasn't wearing purple. He did give her a bit of an out: "You were just feeling some different cosmic vibes other than purple today?", he presented.
"Yes, exactly.", she agreed.
I was introduced and we were certainly vibing. I took a photo of she and court and then she had me take a selfie of her. We talked about blogs and art therapy. She said she wanted to teach a class. I told her about my friend Alyssa, an art therapist. She gave me a paper copy of a rap she had written. She said she wanted to bust into the hip hop game and rapped me her poem. She said she could detect my hip hop vibes. She made me promise that when I saw Alyssa I would rap the poem unto her. I did later that day and that's what happened.
Birth Yourself.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Your Move, Seattle

Skatepark De-volution

It's been over a year since Inner Space indoor skatepark closed its doors. It seems like an unfortunate trend in skateboarding that privately owned indoor parks don't stick around too long. The Skate Barn in Renton shut down a few months before Inner Space and while BISP has been holding it down strong for Seattle indoor skateboarding and The Garage has recently opened in Everet, it sure was nice to have an indoor park within the city limits.
I read/heard a statistic one time about ski resorts--that they start losing money the day the open. It was described that running a ski resort is essentially a hobby for rich dudes, until they get bored and pass the burden onto someone else. I guess running a skatepark is much the same, except skatepark owners aren't usually rich capitalists, but dirtbag skateboarders.
What's been particularly distressing about the closure of Inner Space is the fact that the facility was bought by Evo, a well-to-do snow bro shop with a thinly veiled interest in skateboarding. They sell skate shoes. They sell skate fashions which have been misappropriated by hipsters and popular culture as a whole and they sell longboards, cruisers, and some core skate products too. They talk the talk, but don't necessarily walk the walk (or roll the roll as it were).
I fling these allegations because it was widely known that when Evo purchased the dusty core skatepark as part of their glossy, sexy, fashion-orientated storefront, they made idle promises of preserving and incorporating elements of the skatepark into their business model. It would make sense for them to do so, and I wouldn't be writing this post about their failure to do it, because I support all skateparks whether their shop caters to the frat boy skier/longboard set or not. I skate at Rye Airfield, which is a great park, but also a bit of a razor scooter shop.
No one asks that Evo change their business model or marketing scheme. No one expects them to be some core shop selling only skate hard goods and the rawest skate shit. But they should have made good on giving Seattle skateboarders a place to ride in the rain when they bought, chewed up and spit out the only one we had.
A source close to both Evo and myself admits, "Evo bit off more than they could chew. Skateboarding has historically been the weakest link as far as what they sell. They thought the skatepark would be a way to strengthen that, but it turned out to be not as easy as they thought. Evo is definitely not moving on building a skatepark, for sure."
A visit to Evo and a conversation with an employee verified this. "We were just told (by the company) that we have no definite timeline on it", the young bro nervously informed me.
So it becomes a chicken and the egg scenario. If Evo had built or maintained the park as they were expected to have done when they bought the space, maybe more skateboarders would say, "Oh Evo is actually down for skateboarding, it's not just some yuppie store." But the fact that they have not gone through with the park kind of proves that Evo prioritizes skateboarding as part of an image--an extreme sport whose presence in their store is necessary to help them feel validated and sell more skis and patagonia vests at astronomical prices.
"I thought Inner Space was fantastic. I was pretty ticked when it closed and Evo opened with no park," a local skater told me.
What's even more disheartening is that the Inner Space indoor skatepark sign is still attached to the Evo building, leading consumers to a parking lot, not a skatepark.

Thanks, Homie

#26 Of 50

Just received my copy of Homies by Adam Amengual in the mail. There has been a good bit of buzz about this project on the Internet already, but I thought I'd chirp in a cent or two, particularly because Adam is one of my oldest friends and this here blog was started as a light-hearted tribute to Adam's Blog, the Wandering Wayfarer.
Homies is a collection of portrait photography shot by Adam at Homeboy Industries, an LA-based non-profit that works with former gang members and prisoners in giving them hope for the future and doing something positive with their lives once they leave the past behind. This is certainly an extreme case scenario, as most of us reading and writing blogs aren't directly involved with the pitfalls of gang culture, but I think that the model of Homeboy Industries is applicable to anyone's life: You fucked up in the past, do something positive and move on.
On a photography level, the images are beautifully shot and lighted (I don't know too much about photography but Adam's been doing his thing for a long time and they look very good to me). Some of the more interesting things I found about this book published by Straylight Press were the quotes that Adam was able to extract via interviews with his subjects as well as his insights from an interview with him which concludes the publication, particularly the idea that gang culture has been glorified by the popularity of gangsta rap, popular movies, video games, etc (even toys!). It's real easy to look at these portraits from afar and feel removed and fascinated, like watching National Geographic or visiting a zoo, but Adam's pictures and subsequent interviews help to remind us that we are all human beings born into various scenarios and that our differences are indeed arbitrary.
I don't know how many of these are left but I'm thankful to have a copy, support my friend, and hopefully be able to gain more insight about human beings in America next time I come across a "scary" type of person on the bus or street or whatever. There's a reason why utterances become cliche, mostly because they are at their core, universal truths. And with that, I would like to say "One Love". Thanks, Homie.