Well, with the rain-day off from work today (seems like we've had a rainy weekday at least once a week every week this year), I decided to clean up the shop a bit, and while doing that, I decided to install two more boxes in my Simmons and try it out as a quad. And, judging by the surf forecasts, it's looking like I might not have to wait too long to test it.
There's SF 004 in the back there, healing from some ding repairs and very lonesome. Someday, 004, someday. On the mini-Simmons, put the trailing edge of the front fins up 10 1/4 I think, with 1/4" toe. I'm hoping it works well, at least until I get some more keels for the board.
I found this Clairtone Stereo Cabinet while walking Henry before work yesterday, so I quickly grabbed it, thus saving it from rain and/or the junkyard. It has a tube-powered Clairtone amplifier/receiver in it, and I tested the tubes; they all work, just two have a faint gas leak, nothing major. The AM/FM on said receiver does not work as of now, but it's just the dials that are messed up I think, because you can hear the a faint station and static. It also has a Garrard Laboratory Series Type A turntable, which, I am happy to say, DOES work, and sounds pretty good.
It blows my mind to think that someone would throw something like this away. "Hey, Trashman, here's a relic from the past. Nope, they don't make them like this anymore. Yes, it's in good shape and works but I don't want it, please smash it to pieces in your truck." Unbelievable. What blows my mind is that this was found on one little side street in Tuckerton, NJ. Just think what kind of stuff gets thrown out everyday the World over? I can't think about it...
It even had the manuals.
To test out the record player, I grabbed this record from the stack in my living room. Herbie Mann Live at the Village Gate, recorded November of 1961. I hadn't listened to it in a while, and after listening to it now, I don't know why. This song, "Comin' Home Baby," is the first of two songs on side A, and it's really, really good. The whole album is actually. Check it out.
Found this "blank" in the trash around the corner from my house this morning. It appears that it was a long/fun board that someone stripped and attempted to cut down into a short board, then realized that they were off their rocker (pun semi-intended) and threw it out. It's about 5'6" x 19 1/2 x 3, and that's 3" almost all the way through.
The problems with the blank are the 19 1/2" wide point is about 1 1/2 feet forward of center; the tail gets pretty narrow, and it looks like someone tried to shape the nose with a hatchet. Also, there's the finbox and some glass on the tail, as seen below.
That glass is easily ground off. So really, if board was a bit wider, it would be a usable blank. But, what to do?
As if by magic, an idea emerges! My plan is to eventually glue those rail cut offs onto the board, figure out a template, and make something within the restrictions presented by the situation. I haven't worked on anything yet, but I have ideas in my mind of either a mini-simmons type board or maybe a small egg-type. We'll see. That won't be for a while yet, as I've got some more important boards to make.
Waves coming this weekend, and if the forecast stays like it is, it could be glorious. Let's hope. For now, everyone take care in this heat. I know I almost died this morning running in 94-degree-in-the-shade heat. Good practice for the Dog Day Race, which is coming up. Of course, when you get blisters on your feet because the ground is too hot, something's not quite right there.
[Spoken:] Ooh man, dig that crazy chick. Who wears short shorts We wear short shorts They're such short shorts We like short shorts Who wears short shorts We wear short shorts. [Repeat 2x]
Those are the lyrics in their entirety to hit by New Jersey's own The Royal Teens. Not much of a deep message here, just digging those short shorts with some really fun summertime sax solos. But, really, if we were to look a little further, we might be find that there's more going on here than it initially appears.
The song, a #3 hit, was released in 1958, which was a few years before short shorts, or hotpants, really took off in London, thanks to fashion designer Mary Quant. So, in 1958, these "crazy chicks" were a little ahead of their time, and instead of being fearful of ridicule, they are bold and courageous in their ultra-cropped clothing. "Who wears short shorts?" asks the male, who in the post-war America that forms the backdrop to this song was the dominant member of society, the one who asked the questions, and who got answers. So, at seeing this revolutionary new garment, he demands answers. He wants to know who is behind this symbol of social upheaval that could be equated to the freedom-loving flappers, with their jazz and their bobbed hair and their short skirts (he shudders to think that this could be happening again, but no, it couldn't, not in his America). So, who's responsible for this outrage. And the women of this song, instead of being ashamed, instead of hiding, declare, in a resounding chorus, "We wear short shorts!"
Then, taken aback, the man, hoping to win with reason, says "But, they're such short shorts." And the women know that that is the reason, that they are such short shorts, and that they "like short shorts." So, in the final couplet, the man has changed his tone, looking out to the world, asking the question just so the women once again can answer and let the world know that they, in fact, do wear short shorts.
Or it could just be a pretty fun song with some good sax solos.
Next time, how The Coasters (who have so many hits that you'd recognize that they are like their generation's Tommy James and the Shondells), with their 1959 single "Charlie Brown," foreshadowed the student protests and complete overhaul of the Universities in the United States and around the world in the coming decade. The lines "Walks in the classroom, cool and slow / Who calls the English teacher Daddy-O," clearly shows this Charlie Brown to be a passive protester, and unlike those hotheaded Frenchman of 1968 he keeps his cool, all the while causing just as much damage as a Molotov cocktail. He greets his English teacher, who is a staunch believer in proper grammar and rock-solid traditions of language that can not be shaken by some know-nothing student, he greets this teacher with a new term, his term, one of cool disrespect that the English teacher would have never dreamed of addressing his mentors by. A term that would not have even appeared in his professor's OED, that's for sure. But, in fact, it's in there now, first cited use 1949, and Charlie Brown is letting him know that this colloquial slang term is here to stay.
Oh Charlie Brown, he's a clown, that Charlie Brown.
Use it up, wear it out. Make do, or do without.
This past week produced a plentiful bounty as far as finding things for free in the garbage. A friend was working on a house that had been sided with cedar shakes, but sided incorrectly, so as a result it had to be resided. All the old shingles were almost brand new and in useable condition, so I grabbed a bunch of them, enough to side my future shop. On the way home from that, I spied an almost full roll of tarpaper in the garbage on 14th St. in Surf City, which was the only other thing I need to side the future shop. Noticing a lot of other things thrown at that location, I looked further. I took some stuff home, and found a whole bunch of old tins.
Some of them were pretty cool, so I kept them. I also found some pretty cool old kitestring spools, made of wood and painted. I have plans for them...
But so, realizing that this was probably the leftovers of a yard sale, I decided to go back the next morning to investigate the remaining bags. Long story short, I found some cool stuff. Two of the standout items are the following:
A pair of leather Converse All-Stars, from way back when they were Made in U.S.A. They fit perfectly. I almost bought a pair of white Vans a couple months ago, but didn't, for which I am glad, because these are way cooler, not to mention free.
A Leica IIIf Rangefinder 35mm Camera. I used the serial number to date it and found that this particular model was made in Germany in 1951 in a batch of 20000. The body alone goes for upwards of $250.00 on eBay, and with the lens, like the one I have, seems to be worth upwards of $350.00. I feel like I should sell it, what with closing costs on the house we're buying getting steeper every day, but I at least want to shoot one roll of film with it. It'll kill me to get rid of it, because A) it is such a beautiful camera and B) it is something I will probably never own again. But we'll see.
So, the moral of the story: It pays to go through the trash of others. There is a seriously disgusting mindset in our country that is geared towards waste and the disposable. Within the past couple years, I have noticed that people tend to be throwing out less, but waste is still a huge issue. The saying at the top of this post is a Depression-era saying, and is something that everyone should try to adhere to, or at least keep in the back of their minds. The problem is that sometimes, in feast cycles, we tend to forget the famine, and then when the famine comes it is too late to "use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without," because there is nothing left to do that with. Everyone wastes stuff, it's true (except for maybe my Pop-pop, who I don't think wastes a thing), but it's important to try not to.
Of course, it is also important to remember: while trying to live as frugally as possible and keeping the famine cycle in mind, don't forget to feast.
Oh yeah, meant to post this song the other day. Blossom Toes, "Peace Loving Man," the opening track from their 1969 album If Only For A Moment. A really great bit of late '60s psych. If you listen at 2:25, you'll hear
what could have been, but probably wasn't, the inspiration for a lot of hardcore, punk, and metal vocalists. Take this bomb, drop it on old Hong Kong....
This blog was started as a way to chronicle my adventures into surfboard shaping and just surfing in general. Since its inception, it has evolved into a log of whatever I feel like rambling about and sharing with the world, including, but not limited to: photographs, bicycles and bicycling, film, music, gardening, cute pictures of Henry, and more.
