Not just any day.

Been looking at this car for years, and this specific one for weeks.
Today was the day.

Can't describe how happy I am.

I get to pick it up from one of the mechanics I had take a look at it in the morning.
Pinch me.

Last week in Mexico.

I've been to this rally three years in a row and it's a treat.
The town of Guanajuato is amazing and the locals are so stoked on watching cars fly by.



For those of you who are fans of rally or Ken you should read this article Speed Hunters did from Mexico.
http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/03/wrc-behind-the-scenes-a-weekend-with-the-hoonigans

 That's me, sneaking into an area where only credible media can hang out.

Evan Smith

For some reason there's been a lot of skating since I started bloggin again. Not sure why.
This new clip with Evan is pretty nice.

New spots and kinda new way of reading the terrain.

New Gino clip. OMG.

When he did the bs slide and lifted the rear wheels over the crack I think I might have giggled out loud.




A few years ago I was bored on a train in Sweden and ripped a few clips of YouTube and did this Gino edit.

Great skate clip

Clever clip with Kyle Leeper.
I used to do clips like this back in the days of vhs editing after watching a similar clip of Mark Gonzales doing a half cab to a bs ollie in Blind Video Days but they were annoying and not very clever.

This edit on the hand is very well executed.

Following Kyle from predatory bird on Vimeo.

Go to 3:24 in this clip to watch the early 90's Gonz version.

In Mexico

Still no internet.

Still in Australia

This past week I've had access to what Australians call internet at a 5 star hotel ($25 / day) and since that didn't work I bought a "4G" router for $150 to try and access the web. 

The first night I left it on (to charge) with no devices connected to to it and the next day it didn't work any more. Apparently here you use the internet regardless if you're using in or not, by the minute kind of.

So I called and asked what was going on. They said I had used up my 5 gb last night while it was charging. 

I said that was a really bad set up. Anyway I got my 5 gb back but then fell asleep with the router on, so now I've used 10gb in 48 hours and I haven't even used more than maybe 100mb.

Leaving Adelaide now. Currently at the airport trying to send emails. The wifi here is what you'd expect.

Lewis Marnell

Most skaters know that Lewis passed away recently.
I stumbled upon this new clip today.
The fact that I'm in Australia made the clip seem even more important.

So my new start at blogging is getting off to a slow start.

And it's not that I haven't been wanting to. It's because I'm in Australia, one of the worst countries (developed obviously) in the world when it comes to reliable internet.

I'm here hangin with Ken Block and the Hoonigan Racing Team anyhow.

See you soon. 

Btw, I'm in a weird time zone. A 1/2 off time zone! That's a first, super confusing actually. 

Best thing P-Rod has ever done IMO.

I'm not a big P-Rod fan but I liked this clip. Big ups to Network A for making it happen. Here's a behind the scenes clip.

Ty Evans talks about Pretty Sweet

I was fortunate enough to get a seat at the premier of Pretty Sweet in LA. It was a cool experience and I had a feeling it would be one of the last big skate video premiers ever and I have mixed feeling about it. Mostly good though. I understand where Ty is coming from and what he as a filmmaker wants to accomplish. I also understand some of the criticism and I relate to some of it with Brainfarm and the snowboarding world. At the end of the day it's just us cruising on a board sideways and if you like watching a raw Off the Grid clip (I love these), Killian Martin dancing in slow mo with dolly shots, Pretty Sweet clips or snowboarding through gyro cameras it's all there. If you don't like it look the other way. When I grew up I recorded anything snowboard and skateboard related on tv, anything. Then I watched it until the vhs tape wore out. It's fair to say that's not the case anymore. Especially with snowboarding. Anyway.. here's the interview: http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2013/02/20/ty-evans-answers-your-questions-about-pretty-sweet

Dinosaur Jr

I've always liked Dinosaur Jr. Pretty sure the first time I heard them was in an Alien Workshop video called Memory Screen in the late 80's and I've been hooked ever since. Or was it in Speed Freaks / Mike Vallely?

 
I was a huge fan of the crisp video footage blended with super 8 and other lo fi filming.

Mike Vallely's part from around the same time.

I sat for hours hitting record on MTV's 120 minutes to maybe capture a Dinosaur song. This was the first video I saw of them.



Since then they've been in closely connected to skateboarding. Just look at them skating / bmx:ing in this video.
My first cd I bought (1990) was Dinosaur Jr's Green Mind, as well as a Janes Addiction's Ritual De Lo Habitual.
I even used a song in a snowboard movie called Afterlame in 2004. 3:54 into this clip. Anyway, been listening to their new album a lot lately. Some songs sound very pop / Foo Fighter esq but others are closer to the Dino Jr I like. This song especially. Been thinking of what I can film that would fit it. It deserves a good visual presentation.

Maybe this time..

I see that there are still almost 100 people (or spam computers) visiting this blog daily. Even though I haven't posted anything in about 18 months, or maybe a handful of times in the past 2-3 years.. Since I flood my Facebook friends with links and stuff it seemed like a good idea to start posting here again where it doesn't bother people. If you like out planet and space things I encourage you to watch this. It's 20 min and it's awesome.

OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.