Stars and Stripes, FOREVER!

Happy 4th of July, everyone. Although a quick browse of the 4th of July wiki page will reveal that legally we became even from evil England on July 2nd, Congress took two days to debate and revise the Declaration, hence we now celebrate on the 4th. Back then Congress got things done quickly, as opposed to nowadays, when they can get nothing done at all. And I am allowed to complain about that and other shortcomings of the government without getting jailed or executed, and that's one of the things that makes the U.S.A. so beautiful.That, and we have some pretty good patriotic anthems.



and one that really gets my patriotic blood flowing...

I prefer the U.S. Marine Corp version of this song, the one with the mournful harmonica solo, but I chose this one because of the video poster's comments below the video. Just another thing that makes this country so great: some genius can spatter ignorant jingoist babble on YouTube, and that's alright, too! "MESS WITH US AND YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE REST" (!?!) Yikes, after reading that I don't know anymore. Oh well! Happy 4th!

Sum-sum-summertime

Apologies to all my loyal readers for the slacker approach I've taken with this blog lately. I've been busy with summer things, and this summer that includes plenty of alright to decent to downright amazing days of surf, and many of them on weekends no less! This summer also includes a decent amount of ice cream: Soft-serve Swirl with Chocolate Sprinkles in a Cone, please.

Got to do the lam coat on both sides of 008, which has been waiting patiently for me to finish it. With the long weekend coming up, I'm going to hopefully at least get the glass-on keels set and the board hotcoated, and possibly, though not probably, get it sanded and pinlines laid. I think I've already got the weekend overbooked in my mind with countless projects, so we'll see how it goes.

Amazing Tom and Jerry episode brought to my attention by FRANK


Are you comin', or are you ain't? The Jamies, with "Summertime Summertime." Great summer song.

A Quick One...

Sometimes I want to sell all my guitars and by a vintage Gibson SG, but watching Keith Moon makes me want to be a drummer.


 

It's the end of the world as we know it....

...and I feel fine. That's right you may have heard that tomorrow may be the beginning of the end, which is true in the sense that any day could be the End, and truer in the sense that for many, many people, tomorrow will be the End of their world, and it could be the End of my/your world. Who knows?

 And since any day now could be the End, I bought a new board this week. Well, new to me.  A 6'2 swallow tail Bonzer, shaped by Malcolm Campbell. I've been reading about Bonzers for about a year and a half, and I have to admit at first I wasn't that interested. I thought that fin setup looked kind of funny. But as I started reading more, I liked what I heard, especially the lightning-down-the-line part.

     There are those concaves. So this one came along and it was reasonably priced, so I grabbed it. I can't wait to try it out, because it's a completely different fin setup than I've ever surfed. Now all we need is a large swell. Hopefully I don't have to wait until fall.



When it comes down to it, I feel like one of the key aspects in all music is repetition. It could be the decision to repeat a musical phrase for an entire song and elaborate on said phrase, or not to repeat a part at all. I find a lot of the music I like has lots of repetition, like the song above. Brain Eno with "The Big Ship" off of Another Green World. Eno is a master of making repetition interesting. I am still waiting for someone to make a surf film using Eno's transcendent "Discreet Music" as a soundtrack. The entire song. Below is half of it. The surfing would have to be very good.

Everyone's Born to Die

This came on shuffle on the way home from work. Amazing ELO song recorded for their 1973 album On The Third Day, but unreleased until one of the reissues. That's Marc Bolan, of T.Rex fame, playing guitar. Funny coincidence, because yesterday, while shaping 009, which is my first board from the EPS block I procured, I was listening to The Slider, T.Rex's spectacular 1972 album. So spectacular, in fact, that I'll also include a track from that.

C'mon give me fever...

Great week of surf. Listen to this as loud as you can.