VALENTINES NITE

Stoke yourself this Wednesday (that's tomorrow).

9.5 Minutes Well Spent

This is the loop that John Smart recently showed at Tyler Warren's opening at Surf Indian. I must confess I slept on it until today. The Tyler Warren Experiments looks like it's going to be a great movie with some great surfing, some great music, some great art and some great surfboards. There's even a White Pony in the trailer. Great!

"Innermost Limits of Pure Fun" at Lifeswells

I love the title of the classic surf film "The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun." Those words just pop into my head sometimes when I'm surfing and get stuck there. I've never even seen the movie. All that will change tonight when Lifeswells will be projecting George Greenough's masterpiece, along with Andrew Kidman's new flick "Last Hope."

And there will be some twangy tunes as always, courtesy of DJ Zach Reno. Grab a few cold ones and enjoy one of the last few warm evenings of summer with some good people who love surfing almost as much as you do.

I think it starts around 8pm...

Dear & Yonder Movie, Music, Art and Tacos

Tonight! I'm really stoked to have my artwork included in a couple stops on the Dear & Yonder surf movie tour. Mine's the one on the left side of the flyer above (Nat Russell is on the right). The show takes place at Holocene, where good people will be chowing street tacos, checking out a great surf film, drinking cold beverages, and listening to the sweet sounds of Tara Jane O'neil. Rumor has it that Kassia Meador will be here to give away some stuff. Thanks to Alberto and Jeremy for making it happen and asking me to be involved.

The Details:

Tuesday August 4th

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St.

Portland, OR 97214

Doors at 7pm

$10.00

21+

And another great poster by Alberto Cuadros...

And the official flyer (where my name is parked in the tube):

LET'S HAVE SOME FUN

This coming Saturday, July 25 @ 7pm
Miami Specialists Front Room Gallery
(2324 SE Belmont @ 23rd, Portland,Or)

Good Movies:
Beach Blanket Burnout (PDX Premier)
Tubular Swells
Blood Surf

Good Times:
Bring your own brews and meat and something to cook on the BBQ too.

The Present: Different Stokes for Different Folks

As promised, here's my quick review of The Present: I really enjoyed it. Done.

Just kidding, but please pass the Kool-Aide. I'm a sucker for surf movies that try to accomplish something a little different than what's expected these days, so when Thomas Campbell's voiceover started at the beginning of the film, I immediately got a buzz (and it wasn't from the tall boy I was nursing). It has to be kind of tough to follow-up a film that defined an era of surfing (quadfish, please), but by integrating some of the elements that existed in Sprout and moving forward with profiles on Dane Reynolds and some of the tube-loving ladies in the beginning, it stood apart from the first two flicks in the trilogy.

I didn't really mind the alaia-fest that went down 3/4 of the way in. It's pretty amazing to see how those boards tap into different parts of the wave and glide so simply and smoothly along. It also illustrates how, under the right surfer's feet, almost any board can look effortless, which I'm sure is not the case. But it also makes you wonder about the influence a well-made surf film can have on the surfing masses. Potato chips, fish, hulls, wooden planks. They all look pretty damn fun on perfect waves with world class athletes maneuvering them. But what board is "perfect" for individual surfers who surf average waves is another subject entirely -- one that would make a great movie in itself.

On that note, I actually related most to Michel Junod's sequences in the film. His humility and inability to ham it up for the camera was refreshing and it actually looked like he was riding the right board for his skills/age and the waves in Africa. That single fin looked really fun, especially on this bomb he caught that went forever. I didn't mind that he wasn't throwing buckets off the back. It kind of reminded me of that scene with Dora surfing J-Bay in Litmus or Gerry Lopez in Chile in Brokedown Melody. Great wave knowledge is a radical skill in itself.

A couple things I think could have been better: The voiceovers were a little awkward and hard to understand throughout the picture and I wonder if that had more to do with the crappy sound at the Clinton Street theater than the mix. We'll see when the DVD comes out. I also would have liked to have seen more art, not just by surfy artists like Geoff McFeteridge and Barry McGee, but by Thomas himself or whoever was art directing. Sprout had this amazing aesthetic that reminded me of old jazz album covers in the title sequence (and introducing each section) that I really thought was brilliant. Something like that would have been nice to tie things together artfully. I liked a lot of the music in the film, especially the Mattson 2 who played before the screening, but there weren't as many goosebump-inducing moments musically in The Present. There was even one scene where the guitar wailing was so dissonant that it clashed with the kind of surfing on the screen and I wanted it to stop. But that may have had something to do with the venue as well.

All and all, this was a great surf movie though. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it too. A lot of people were lukewarm on this film and that's cool. Different stokes for different folks. I went into it knowing what I was in for. Not Fellini. Not Scorcese. Not even Jonze or Kaufman. Just a fun surf movie by Thomas Campbell.

THE PRESENT IS A PRESENT

It's tough to stay in the iternal present when Thursday is the Portland premier of Thomas Campbell's brand new celluloid stoke-stroker The Present, with special opening performances by the Mattson 2. How often do you get to see surf flicks on the big screen anymore? I'm also loving the above poster that Portland artist-in-residence and resident handplane/alaia shredder Alberto Cuadros made for this event.

Your presence (get it?) is also requested at the Lifeswells afterparty, taking place at Valentine's at 10pm. Rumor has it the Mattson 2 will also bust out a few numbers there.

This whole evening promises to be a hoot. If there are too many rad people at the party and I can't get in for some reason, I'm gonna be pissed.

DEETS:

Thursday April 2nd

Two Showings: 7pm (All Ages) & 9pm (21+)

The Clinton St. Theater

2522 SE Clinton st PDX

&

Lifeswells/The Present After Party

Featuring the Mattson 2 and resident selector Zach Reno

Classic surf films (as always)

Thursday April 2nd 10pm

Free

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny, PDX

HANG LOOSER: Surf Movie Night

I was going to say, "Here's some insta-stoke to get you through the winter doldrums," but if you've been anywhere near the ocean lately, with any kind of wave-sliding vehicle, you've been scoring.

If you were there last time, you know what to expect: great movies, cool peeps in flannel, Tecates, and really good music. Rumor has it they'll be showing Five Summer Stories and On Safari to Stay and maybe, possibly, Sliding Liberia. Starting around 8pm, this is guaranteed to warm your soul faster than eggnog...

SURF MOVIES AND BEER AND BEER AND BEER AND BEER AND BEER AND BEER AND

LIFESWELLS
A Surf Movie Night

Featuring:
Falzon's 1972 surf-hippie/cockfight masterpiece "Morning of the Earth"

Jeremias & Baffa's 2007 epigrammatic epic "One California Day"

And other gems, guaranteed!
(Surfy DJs Too!)

Thursday October, 16th
8-Close
Valentines
232 SW Ankeny St. 503 248 1600
Stumptown, USA

I met this guy at a restaurant who surfs and he bought me a drink when he found out I'm the salty dog behind this blog. A few weeks later he told me he's hosting this killer surf movie night Thursday that should be a stoke booster/slump buster on a rainy night. I made him the art above using an old sketch I did from pausing "Morning of the Earth" on my old TV and drawing the quintessential crouchy singlefin bottom turn with a #2 pencil. I was glad I could find a use for it.

Pass it on!

Hollywood Wipes Out Again: Knight Rider

In case you missed it last night, the new Knight Rider Episode "Knight of the Iguana" featured some of the kookiest surf moments Hollywood has ever put on film. From shots of Mavericks and Pipe representing Todos Santos, Baja, to Kitt rolling "inconspicuously" with boards strapped to the roof, to "Mike" laying on his board with his legs spread eagle, radioing to Kitt to find out how to stand up as a huge setwave bears down on him.

The dialogue in the show made Johnny Utah's surf-speak in Point Break feel authentic. Here's one of my favorite quotes:

"Seems to me you gotta live life like surfing a wave. Some are big, some are small, but in order to ride any of 'em, you gotta let the wave take you."

"But what if it takes you somewhere you shouldn't go?"

"Heh. Shouldn't is a word that isn't in my vocabulary."

Please, somebody, capture this video on the Knight Rider website before the show gets cancelled. It's an all-time classic to be filed alongside surf gems like:

The North Shore
Point Break
Gidget (TV)
Surf School
Blue Crush
Batman Surfing

If you don't have 45 minutes to devote to the rerun online, you can see the trailer HERE.

Wassup, Daddios?

Happy Father's Day to all you surf dads out there: Mark, Porky, Gaz, JP, Jeff, Whiffleboy, Patchy, Pete, Kyle, Twinfin, Lawless, Writer, Glayfin, Brownfish, Kono, Totor, David, Mick, Jason, and anybody else I missed. We don't all have to be as committed to "the life" as Doc Paskowitz above, but here's to the joys of sharing our love of the ocean with our kids... And of course, big shout to my own Pop, who threw me into the waves way back when we were still Californians.

Last I checked, Surfwise was actually playing in Portland. I may go peep it tonight in honor of Father's Day.

Oh yeah I remembered (while surfing today) that I forgot Doc and Dubstar, who is new to the brotherhood of surf dads...

DOWN IN FRONT: Sissyfish Surf Movie Night

Hey Portland Surf Massive!

I'm hosting a surf movie night Friday, partly in honor of my birthday last week and partly because I need a few beers with a few bros. Last summer I hatched all kinds of plans to do a movie night at a bar, but it never materialized. Probably because I was too busy surfing. Now, more than ever, I need a little stoke injection.

Among the films I've rounded up for the event are:

Waterlogged
Glass Love
Thread
Rare Windansea footage from the 1970s
Swift Movement Goodies
...And a very secret, "I-swear-you've-never-seen-this" PDX premiere...
(We'll see how many we can get through.)

Also on display will the coveted, one-of-a-kind Sissyfish book of drawings (a gift from my wife). And, as an added bonus, Nau--the great green outdoor company--will be giving away some swag. How could you miss it?

The bonanza starts Friday, December 7th at 7pm at the lovely bar Leisure in NoPo.

Leisure (click for map)
8002 N. Lombard St.
Portland, OR 97203
503/ 289.7606

Let me know if you're stopping by...

One California Year

Going through some old boxes in my basement, I found a notebook with papers from my freshman year of college. I went to LMU film school for a year and a half, fulfilling the California dream I'd formulated in middle and high school. I brought a surfboard, but only surfed once or twice at windblown El Porto. I didn't have many friends down there. None who surfed. So I did the typical freshman thing: drinking, studying and walking around Hollywood.

I took my film classes pretty seriously, discovering Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Jarmusch, vintage Coppola, Scorsese, Truffaut. I made a short movie in my Film Production 101 class that was selected to be shown on the campus big screen. It was a super-8 vignette about an epileptic painter named Rabo.

But film seemed too production-oriented and formulated for me. Too much organization and delegation to others between the initial creative impulse and the final work. And Hollywood freaked me out. The next year, I quit film school and moved back to Oregon to study painting.

In the basement notebook I found some critiques of my first films from fellow students. One name in particular stood out: Jason Baffa. I remember him well--we hung out on occasion, as a matter of fact. I borrowed his film splicer/viewer to edit one of my films. He was one of the more motivated and articulate guys in the class. He was also a surfer. Now, he's making some of the most artistic surf films out there, including One California Day and Singlefin Yellow.

Thinking back now, I'm pretty sure he offered to take me surfing. I wonder what would have happened if I had gone to some better breaks with him and gotten obsessed with surfing back then... totally obsessed like I am now. Would I have stayed in California, surfing my way through film school?

The making of One California Day.

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