PAPER WAITS... AND WAITS... AND WAITS...

Please read me.

The Myth of Sissyfish

This brings me back to my first blog post ever.
Available at Nationale in Portland, Orygun.

A Visit from the Saltwater Buddha

When I got home from dinner out last night, Jaimal Yogis, the author of Saltwater Buddha (and many other great San Francisco surf stories) was at my house, dropping off a copy of his novel. He's in Oregon for a few book readings and scoring a little surf along the way. The guy's just as cool as I imagined he'd be. Mellow, despite the fact that his car had just overheated. Blown away by a session he'd gotten in Southern Oregon. Awestruck by the kindness of us Portland folk. I haven't read his book yet, but I'm already loving the first few lines:

"The ocean is in constant flux, and when you spend a lot of time in it you become like a floating bottle with a message inside; you know you're going somewhere, sense you have a purpose, but you also know you're at the mercy of the the winds and currents, that surrendering may be your only good option. Lately I've been surfing a lot..."

For us valleys, he'll be doing a book reading on July 2 at Powell's on Hawthorne.

You can read some of the reviews of Saltwater Buddha HERE.
Check out some more writings of Jaimal's HERE.

Dad's Pad

My dad was thumbing through this Leroy Grannis photography book on my coffee table when he came across the picture above: A 1967 shot of his fraternity house on the strand in Hermosa Beach. Though he was living there at the time, he can't identify the dude out front. I've never been much for frats, I think I might be more inclined to pledge in the '60s at LMU, considering the fringe benefits above.

THE NEXT BEST THING?

A lot of ink has been spilled about this addiction we have. Romanticizing, fantasizing, publicizing. The surfing section at Powell's (blow up the photo above) is a pretty good place to get a fix. The web does a good job keeping the stoke at full blaze, but there's really nothing like grabbing a book and reading about adventures -- fictional or non -- or mindsurfing perfect waves through the lenses of the world's great surf photogs.

The question is, what's the greatest surf story ever published?

A Couple Goofies

I got a chance to meet Gerry Lopez a few weeks ago and it was really cool. I enjoyed the talk he gave at the Patagonia store, especially the end of it, when a little girl in the audience asked him if he's ever drowned before. His response was classic:

"Just hold your breath. You'll always end up floating in the end..."

I also got my goofyfoot hero to give a shout out to Sissyfish. Not a bad endorsement. I just finished his book, Surf Is Where You Find It. It rules too.

Sissyfish: The Book

I can't believe I forgot to post this. On my birthday in November my wife presented me with an actual book of my surf drawings that she somehow stealthed from my hard drive. She's a graphic designer so she did an amazing job with layout and picking images to juxtapose on each spread. The book is 30 pages long, paper back, and roughly the dimensions of an LP cover. When I squeezed the info on how much it cost to print, I was kind of shocked: somewhere between $100-$200. Shattered like a potato chip thruster on a Seaside boulder were my dreams of doing a longer version with excerpts from blog posts, incendiary comments, and photos...

But today I just received an email with a link to www.blurb.com, an online company that gives you the tools to make bookstore quality hardcover books for around $30-$50 bucks. No, I'm not getting paid to pimp this website. It's just something I thought my blog buddies should know about, especially those with artistic compulsions or self publishing dreams. In other words, watch this space. I may need to get ten people together to order the second edition of the Sissyfish Book for a 10% discount!

The Best Thing About Blogs...

...Is that when you open up a dialog about art, writing, film, etc., people directly involved in the subject matter you're discussing can come and be part of the exchange. I bring this up because I just noticed that author of the new Miki Dora book "All for a Few Perfect Waves" came by and gave his two cents about DiCaprio's involvement in a potential film version of his work. You can read David Rensin's comment HERE under "drensin." Basically, he pointed out that all the actors suggested as alternatives to Leo were valid (even Hedaya...), but that none of those guys offered to buy the script. Leonardo did though, and for that I have to give him credit. It's an amazing story that is ripe for the screen. As I said before, I'm not hating on DiCaprio as a person--I'm just not a huge fan of his acting.

As a matter of fact, since writing the post I've had some interesting debates with some of my most film-buffy friends, many of whom also think Leo can pull off 'Da Cat. I hope so, but until we're actually able to squabble about the movie itself, I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of the book and reading it on my next Mexico trip (in about 27 days and counting...) David, if you're still out there, thanks for stopping by!

The book drops on April 4, 2008. Pick it up at Powell's.


Syd Barrett - Jugband Blues