December 2006
Monthly Archive
Thu 28 Dec 2006
Posted by seth johnson under
General[2] Comments
Tuesday morning I walked to my truck to drive to a meeting scheduled at 10:00 AM. Thanks to the mild freeze that had hit San Antonio during the night, my windshield was covered in frost. I used an old trick I had learned when I lived in Washington, DC. I reached into the flotsam behind my seat and pulled out a CD case to scrape the ice away. Looking at the disc, I noticed it was an early-nineties rave CD I had bought in a dollar bin a long time ago because I thought the artwork looked interesting. It had probably lived behind my seat without a rotation for the past three years.
This evening, I decided to reduce my truck’s clutter by bringing the disc in the house. That’s when I noticed the significance of the disc I had grabbed the day after Christmas. It was the LA Style’s self-titled album with their only chart hit as the first track on the disc- James Brown is Dead. How un-timely. Here’s a copy if you would like to reminisce the days when this song didn’t make sense. Maybe it could be used on the soundtrack of the biopic that Spike Lee’s going to direct…
(more…)
Fri 22 Dec 2006
Posted by seth johnson under
skatepark1 Comment
Not a lot going on these days. Most people I know have either left town or become considerably dormant.
Just a few things to report here before Christmas arrives. Rabbi has been onsite in Round Rock for more than a week working with Doug King and Matt Gatsby on that skatepark. I stopped by there to say hello yesterday and shot some photos of the bowl under construction. It’s mostly above ground due to the soil conditions. They’ll backfill with dirt after the concrete’s poured.
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Tue 19 Dec 2006
Posted by seth johnson under
DIY Concrete[2] Comments
YouTube is now the proud host of another ASN video piece. I threw together some clips of people skating over the weekend at Mabel Davis and a couple DIY street spots. Also grabbed a few snippets from when I visited Carbondale a couple years back.
To clarify an earlier post, Jake Nunn’s new skate shop is called “No Comply” and is located at 2210 South First Street, just south of Polvo’s. He should have a grand opening in the next week or so.
Sat 16 Dec 2006
As I walked to the newspaper vending machine at the Flightpath this morning, I thought about how many times during the course of purchasing newspapers I’ve found that the stack of newspapers in the box has been depleted, but there’s one left in the door’s window. I wondered if there’s some trend among newspaper consumers to not take the paper from the door when they find the stack empty. Perhaps it’s an actual phenomenon. Anyway, after I inserted my 50 cents into the machine, the window copy was the last one in the machine.
Chad Balcom called in yesterday to report that Jimmy Finley is now the father of a newborn boy. Carly and Jimmy have chosen the name, Sloane, for their baby. Apparently, that’s some kind of gaelic word for “warrior“.
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Tue 12 Dec 2006
In the movie Rushmore, Bill Murray’s character tells Jason Schwartzman’s character that he served in the Vietnam war. Schwartzman’s character responds with his own question, “Were you in the shit?”
This funny exchange needs no explanation, but it frequently comes to mind while I’m here in Tyler, Texas helping Dave Reynold’s Lonestar Skateparks crew construct a skatepark. (more…)
Mon 4 Dec 2006
Posted by seth johnson under
General ,
skatepark[2] Comments
After the successful benefit jam hosted by Joe Rich at Terrible One, Adam was able to afford a new set of front teeth. He stopped by the ASN office with his fiance, Rachel to show off the new smile paid for by the generous contributions of the Austin skate and bike community.
Darrell Lowrance sent me an excited email about how Matt has broken ground for Grindline on the Round Rock skatepark. He ran out to the site and shot this photo.
Dave Reynolds’ dog, Ruby, underwent surgery last week to reconnect bones broken when she was run over by a minivan. She’s recovering now, and Dave said that he’s read several reports on the internet of similar surgeries restoring dogs to healthy conditions. He’s still out in Tyler working on the concrete street course with Cody and I’m planning on heading back up there later this week.
Tuesday morning I walked to my truck to drive to a meeting scheduled at 10:00 AM. Thanks to the mild freeze that had hit San Antonio during the night, my windshield was covered in frost. I used an old trick I had learned when I lived in Washington, DC. I reached into the flotsam behind my seat and pulled out a CD case to scrape the ice away. Looking at the disc, I noticed it was an early-nineties rave CD I had bought in a dollar bin a long time ago because I thought the artwork looked interesting. It had probably lived behind my seat without a rotation for the past three years.
