A Muse,

and,

A well of inspiration

You guessed it! Hill Bombin skills or hospital bills! I took an unfortunate yet thrilling fall while running into a pretty hefty gravel patch at high speeds the other day. Definitely a good learning experience as well as an ironic slap in the face that my injuries would have been reduced perhaps by 90% if I had adorned the proper safety gear that I had purchased not more than a day before. Funny, huh? Not haha funny, though.


Matt Walsh at Winston-Salem Christian Rally.

The tour went wonderfully well. This is probably the tightest the Andy Friedman roadshow has ever been. For the last 3 days, it has been four piece plus Paul Curreri, monster musician/finger-picking guitar extraordinaire. A highlight came while I was reclined on a street bench outside of the Hunter-Gatherer in Columbia, SC where I was mistaken by the cops for a 17 year-old runaway. I had the whole bar rooting for me, but it only went so far that 10 people hit the streets to help my cause before the fuzz realized that I was a mature 24 year old in town on business. Yes, very mature.

Now, Andy, Greg Donahue, Caleb Stine, and myself are held up in the Curreri-Sproule household to record a new record. As I type, I hold a 1950s toy guitar in my hand after having an enlightening lesson with Paul. It's been raining today. The house overlooks the Thomas Jefferson's Monticello residence, even though the mist engulfed it for most of the afternoon.

Stoked

So I've been getting into skateboarding lately. I've realized that it so very close to surfing and being in New York City, I need some kind of experience that reminds me of home and is functional. Originally for my transportation around the city, skateboarding has turned into an amazing way for me to push the limits that I place on myself as well as experience the growth that takes place when one focuses on mastering a task. Blah Blah Blah, no really, this is so much fun. I went to my first skate park yesterday on 103st on the Upper West side and began to learn the way of the half pipe.

Here's a useful quote:

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."

---Frank Herbert, Dune

I finally finished The Life Aquatic after watching the first half twice without successfully making it through to the end. One word: genius. Each scene is quirkier and wittier than the rest.

Here's a clip from an American Express commercial with director Wes Anderson.

Self Portrait in White Knuckle Death grip

A new music video from Andy Friedman, a guy I've been playing around the country with.

My new favorite band

ओम्ग!!!

Oh My God!

I'm on the road with Andy Friedman and the Other Failures, The Defibulators, and The Two Man Gentleman Band--all worth checking out. Being on the road is enlightening in many ways: one that comes to mind immediately being the fact that NYC is not the center of the world as illustrated above by the New Yorker. Right now, Minneapolis is the center, in two hours it will be Madison.

Two Gentlemen in a bed.

Selda

I just bought this record in Baltimore. It's a really awesome fusion of Turkish, politically fired, rock/folk music. From the good year of 1975.

Amy Winehouse and NYC

Things I have learned in NYC #1

You know something's wrong when you hop in a cab, tell the cabbie where you're going, and he replys "Where's that?"

Run away!!!

www.gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com

thoughts

So Al Gore won the Oscar. That was fun. But I'm having doubts about him running for prez. Don't think its gonna happen. Would be cool, but I think he doesn't want to eff with all the BS. I wouldn't. I'd get all emo and spend my time in a room with burgandy shades pulled with a glass of brandy by my side, lamenting the weight of the world that I had so wantonly taken upon my now weary shoulders.

Did you watch 24 tonight? It's weird how it parallels present day society and the darkness of politics. Let's just leave it at that. By the way, speaking of dark: Dick Cheney. Wooo, what a man. You have to love him. You just have to. If you can't show that dude the compassion and love that you say you have, then we're all up the creek. Plus, he needs it. Do you think he's stoked? I don't know, maybe he is and that's great, but it looks to me like he's waiting to start over.

New York City is the Rome of modern day Western Civilization.

Something about the band Battles has peaked my interest. Maybe it will yours.

Check out North Brother Island on Google Earth and then see its history.

A New Era

Hello again! Sorry it's been so long. I actually can't believe it has been so long since the last post. You all probably think I'm traumatized or something. Well, I'm not. I am very tired though. Life is CRAAZY! I just moved up to Queens, the Brooklyn of the Future I have come to call it due to the impending construction of 6-8 high rise buildings in downtown Brooklyn. I don't know how I feel about that but I guess it is the way of the world.

Speaking about ways of the world, I've been saying it for a week or two, but I think Al Gore is going to be known as President Al Gore in several years. Did you read the Rolling Stone Article? That was what Tippe(r)d it off. He not only has a serious chance, but history is on his side: two presidents in the past have lost the electoral college while winning the popular vote while following up with a presidential win the subsequent year. In this case, Gore would have lost said election, made an Oscar Award winning documentary, and THEN go on to win the hardest game in the history of the world. I'm just ready for someone who gives a motherf*#% about what matters most: the environment. I overheard someone say, "If he runs solely on the global warming thing, that's, like, totally lame . . . like." Ok, so they didn't say all the "likes", but it makes their argument sound way lamer, right? No, but seriously, what better issue to concentrate on than SAVING THE WORLD?!?!?!

-BUT, Ian. Issues such as homelessness, abortion, gross national deficit, and immigration should not be thrown to the wind so easily by you! And you call yourself a . . .

AND that's when the gunshot earmuffs go ON. I watch TV now and while witnessing such learned programs such as The O'Reilly Factor, Scarborough Country, and The Colbert Report, I feel like the next hot show is just going to be this severely left or right political commentator with a bull horn and gunmuffs on all the time. It would be hilarious. He would get people like Anne Coulter, Al Franken and Ed Bagley Jr. all together, let them go at it, and spout his rhetoric whenever he felt prone to it. Beautiful.

This is fun. Writing I mean. I'm going to stop and leave some for next month when I update the blog again. JUST KIDDING! I'll do it sooner than that. Like next week. JUST KIDDING again! Sooner, more regularer. Check back soon!

Andy Friedman

Artist. Painter. Poet. Country Band Leader.

Band Camp and Beyond

I just arrived back in New York after a week in Fairfield, Iowa where if you build it, they will come. It was a fruitful week of playing with Jonnie and Gemma Cohen--two members of a band we like to call Laser Focus. Together we played organ, sitar, tabla. . .everything! I bought a bass guitar. I played with a Bansuri flute master. I played drums in a futon shop during the monthly Art Walk. I taught drums. Band Camp on every level.

Having come from a relaxing week with friends in the Midwest, I hit the ground running. Gospel rehearsal yesterday, playing for preschoolers this morning, country band rehearsal tonight: I realized that I am living my dream RIGHT NOW. No longer waiting for some future moment of accomplishment, I am absolutely happy living the life I have chosen. Wonderfully, this all came to me while playing a chug-a-chug-a train beat with Andy Friedman and his country band. Amazing.

The Strand

This morning, I paddled out at the infamous Silver Strand in Oxnard--known for its amazing waves given its prime location in between the wave-blocking path of the Channel Islands as well for its ramant localism up until the late 90s--feeling eager to catch some perfect waves. There has been some hefty North Pacific storms that have pushed some god sized swell our way. Coupled with the morning offshore winds, the outcome is as you see above, perfectly shaped waves with spitting barrels: exactly what I had dreamt. I was with my buddy whom I have known since our days at the Growing Place pre-school. I felt ready to hit the surf, he was wary of the oversized waves we were paddling into. I felt ready and in-shape with just the right amount of gutsiness. We both had not surfed since Thanksgiving yet our perceived readiness of our impending session varied greatly.

The water smelled like goat waste. Great. I didn't care. Most of Southern California coast line carried this aroma after a rain. As we paddled out, I felt the power of the ocean as each wave held me back from my destination of sitting past the breakers. It took perhaps 10 minutes and when we got there, I lay flat on my yellow thruster in temporary exhaustion, all the while, mountains of energy peaked and broke around me. I could not fathom taking off on one of these perfect A-frames just yet. The paddle out itself had taken a toll.

The weight of the situation began to dawn on me. It fell on me instantly as I paddled for a peak and looked over a drop that quickly grew to a vertical precipice. This wasn't a longboard wave like Surfrider where you could leisurely drop in and and cut down the line. This was solely a short board wave that jacked up in no time where only a calculated fall into the slot would then lead you into a rushing pit of 50 degree water with a lip of water curling over your bent head. Ok, I thought, wake up. Let's get serious. As I sat in the moving water, waves crashing on the jetty 40 feet to my west, peaks lining and jacking up continuously, I felt my grand influence in the Pacific Ocean: nothing.

A dolphin swam by. Beautiful, glistening monsters strolled into shore. Every take off on a wave was met by the cool, brisk swap of the windswept water in my face. I was humbled. No longer a surfrider who had come to conquer the waves and prove his worth, but a man who is here to witness the awesome power and cold beauty of the ocean.

Now go watch videos of Laird Hamilton on YouTube:

California Break

Neptune's Net.
An upclose look of the inside can be found in one of the greatest California-action-surf-film ever: Point Break.
POSER!
Point Mugu

Overlook from Decker Canyon

Timeless California

KRUU 12.3

Ok, just threw down this week's KRUU FM radio show. For several reason, one being the fact that I have two days left in beautiful California--the only place on earth my immediate family lives--I decided to play my entire Eastman Jazz Recital. Here is the song list:
Hammerhead by Art Blakey
Ju Ju by Wayne Shorter
Crazy Army adapted by Steve Gadd
Say It (Over and Over Again) by T. McHugh
Spiral by John Coltrane
Seven Days by Sting
Teen Town by Jaco Pastorius arr. by me
3rd Stone from the Sun by Jimi Hendrix
" " performed by Jimi Hendrix

Malibu Sunset