Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Super secret mini half-pipe somewhere in a small town north of Seattle :))


So my friend Andrew leaked a photo of what looked like a mini-pipe the other day on the Facebook.
It looked cool, something some kids in California might build in their free time in the sun.




Next day I a fellow skateboard buddy of mine and his girlfriend
walked into my restaurant while I was working.
He mentions that he and his girl built a 4 foot tall mini-pipe in her backyard.
Later that night we got our shred on.


This dude rips pretty hard, even on a min-pipe.
He's a self proclaimed "non-skater" and says he and the girl built the pipe
so she could get better at snowboarding.


Its all top secret for now but hit me up and I might show you where it is.
Depends on what you got to offer...
I hear beer works exceptionally well :P


So I've bought a new skate and already started donating skin to the single ply.
More layers to come, it's gonna be pro.
By the end of the month I should be able to get over the coping :)


It'll be a while before anything like me being in one of these photos...


Until then,

Peace, love, and skateboarding.

Sean

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Previous Adventures

This seems kind of backwards.
But here goes:



Where to today, Charlie?



Dead Ford on the other side of the street.
That street being the Panamericana somewhere in Northern Chile.
Contemplated buying the junker for about two seconds.
Then Carlos and I got back on the bus for fifty hours straight.
Got off in Buenos Aires.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Alger, WA

A little travel poem I wrote the other day for other rolling stones...




Clouds rise and
break the ashes
brake lights light
the empty highway

-I wonder
what lies beyond us.

The truth I
seek approaches
as the miles
pass by the
minutes time
arrives

I'm in Vancouver.

Home is many places
I love people and
their faces
I love people more
than places

I love,
wherever I am.


Sean

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Bicycles and beer both are bueno

brap brap brap

the signal of a start

a race dowhill on bicyles
with friends
I'll never know

It is not that I
don't want to

it is just that
destination that defines
the times that we are in

some solid thought
forged freely for a million fires
burned into the wood
the waste of paper
justified by the other side of thinking.

All of that aside this race that I did ride
was fast and fourtunatly for me
ended at a beerful party

women booze and bicylces
summertime sublime

I wonder if the end will come
naivety is bliss
not real

I know I should
know better but
reality is bummer

For another day to come, I write...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Te Echo de Menos Uruguay

I miss moonlit nights wandering around on the rambla...asados every Sunday in the middle of the street...the glass roof on the house that we'd open when we smelled summertime...the music that we made and the parties that people came to...


I miss the dirty streets, you know here they're all too clean for me.  I miss the ways of living that I fall into when I live in Spanish.  I miss the clash of culture, architecture, and the days that ran one right into another and before I knew that it was over...


I miss my German friends who lived with us in the hostel.  I miss that big brown door and the ill-lit marble stairs that I fell down more times that I can count.  I miss the spiral staircase, Seba's room, and the roof above.  I miss my papa, Pepe and Uruguays new presidente.


Don't worry I'll be back but not for long you'll have to miss me.  I cannot feel your spirit glow as I lean into kiss you.  You musn't cry or fuss about, a minute soon is over.  And all we've to do is move along, I think we're finally getting closer.

The storm that I can't see.
The rain that I can't feel.
The thunder I can't hear it yet.
But the pressure I can smell.
The wind is blowing our clothes off.
I'm waiting for the rain.
I see bright lights
from miles away.
I'm waiting for the rain.


I'll be back again,
sooner than later,
with new friends
to share with old ones.

Te amo seba y sam y lukas y alvaro y pepe y patricia y
las dos marianas y noelia y emil y ari y roly y todos los pibes!!

Siempre comes bananas.  Son buenassssssssss!!!

Hasta luego, buenas noches, y paz.

Siempre,

Sean

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Finally the Taj Love-All's Funkadelic Finale

Over the past six months I have been fortunate enough to live in and out of a house in Vancouver that the world has come to know as the Taj Love-All.

Everyone has been welcomed, the door has always been open, and we tenants always understood from the start that one day the end would come, the building would be demolished and it would be up to us to keep the spirit alive.

I fell pretty safe saying that none of us who lived there knew just how profound of an impact the Taj would have on our community in Vancouver.  The art that has been conceived there, the music that has been written, re-written, and recorded there, the magic that has happened, has blown all of us away.

I remember writing about this place months ago while still in Peru, dreaming of my eventual return to Vancouver and wondering nervously where I'd be living.

I got Gaelen's closet, and for that I am eternally grateful.  I'd like to think that some of Sam and Will's wisdom rubbed off on me as I lived with them for a few months on and off before heading to Whistler, and then back to Seattle, returning all too often to interrupt their productive academic careers.  Charles and I wandered around in our heads and everyone painted pictures and played music daily.  I experienced some of the best growth in my creative career there.  And this, after one of my best adventures to date in South America.

At times I felt as though I was stalling.
Now I know I wasn't, I was just soaking it all in.

I got the chance to surprise the boys a couple times last week, dropping into Vancouver for some poetry on Wednesday and then for the grand Funkadelic Finale on Saturday.  The last dance for the Taj.  It couldn't have been better.

Here are a few shots of the place at the end of it's existence.

It has been a trip and a half.  We lived the dream.
We still do, don't forget that.
We threw some epic parties.
We all enjoyed ourselves and each-other.
I await the day when I can call another place with such spectacular energy, "home".

I can't wait til someday I can throw parties like we did.
And I'll invite you all, just like we used to at the Taj.

The door will forever be open.
More stories wait to be written.


"Mother Music"
by Ciann Lochlainn

Beer.
Always somewhere in the house.
This time in Granville Island
Keg form
:)

Photo by Alban DeGrully


Alban picks the perfect parking spot
A day for adventure in Van

I posted a picture of this sign board a while back.
It always says the most motivating things.
"Don't wait to have a good day- make one"


And the blueprints for the "Proposed Residence at West 51st Ave and Marguerite St."
RIP Taj-Loveall
We love it all.

The last week has been a busy one for me.
The art show that the house turned into was wildly successful and I'm glad I got to check it out.
Lots of good stuff from local artists.
Can't wait to have another one.
It is up to us to keep this community alive.

I think we're up to the task.

To all my roommates at the Taj, I love you all.
Thank you for some of the best times of my life.
Thank you for the endless inspiration and guidance.

To all others who know of the Taj, keep it close to your heart.
It is a very special place, with very special people.
You are one of them.

More goodness to come,

Sean

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Film Scans So Delicious

So I have a Holga 120N.  It's pink but I spraypainted it black and gold and baby blue.  Just using up some ends of cans. People always ask me, "Sean, you're not a hipster.  So why do you carry around a Holga?  Does the thing really even work!?"  You're probably wondering, "Sean, what the heck do hipsters have to do with anything."  I don't know myself.  Apparently some people accessorize themselves with broken cameras to boost their image.  I'm not, well, a hipster.  Furthermore my not being a hipster probably has a lot to do with the fact that the thing actually works.  Why the hell would I carry it if it didn't, right?

So here are some photos for the kids with iPhone apps that hipsterize photos some photographers actually compose and click and develop and scan sometimes print for simple satisfaction.
Here are some photos for the diehard hipster: true analog 120mm film.
Cellulose, plastic, emulsified, color dyed, raw shit.
Here are some photos for people that just like to look at pretty things.
Those people are important

Here's for the guy who wanted to buy my camera on the back of the bus, the girl who sold it to me (thanks!), James Cheatley for inspiring me to get back into film, all the homies who have posed for longer than they expected while sizing up shots.  Here's to tripods, long shutters, trips when I don't have to care about wrecking a more expensive camera, and sneaking into concerts ('band photographer," duh)

To all the other photographers out there still rocking the real shit:
It isn't always as easy as your pretty end picture suggests.
But it sure is a pretty picture.

For all those of you out there doing it
(whatever that may be)
I do it for you.

$3.50 for a roll isn't bad for 12 shots,
but it's more expensive than digital.
Even so, film has the feel
the focus
the fashion
the funkiness;
the luck it takes for a one in a million shot happens with Holgas
and other cameras you have to spend time with
developing your own eye to capture just one particular moment in time.

These days we digitally dumb ourselves down.
Compromising composition for compensation.
Fixing photos on photoshop after the fact
flicking flash after flash after flash
clicking
click click click
click at one thousandth a second
taking millions
to end up with
one.

I guess what I'm saying is a picture is just a picture no matter how you take it.

It's only cool if it's cool.

If it looks good
it probably
looks good.

Twelve shots on a roll of 120
 I have scanned something like six
so dipping from seventy-two,
here are three photos
for you
:)


I give you:


Girls and Tents (!!)
Sasquatch Music Festival
George, Washington


La Luz y El Cielo
Light and Sky
Lamp at the Taj Love-All
Vancouver, BC


Sea to Sky Sideways
"Autumn is coming" I heard the wind whisper to me
whilst mist spit before the sun rose in the morning.
I'll be back up to Whistler in no time.
Summer's not over by any means,
but I found this shot of highway 99 and had to post it
:)

There are some really cool shots on OneMonthOneRoll.com/  Check that ish ouuttt!!  Gud stuff from people I've (for the most part) never met.  Better stuff from the people I have :)


And now a preview of whats to come on el blogo...starting with some mundane shit.
 US Postal Service trunks on my way to Seatac airport from the new light-rail.
Isn't real life just the best :)
haha

Seattle, WA

And one from downtown Montevideo, Uruguay since I've been dreaming of South America the past couple nights...
The travel bug has been makin' me itch lately.  I like to be outside and moving.  Experiencing new things and seeing new places.  I gotta get back to work.  Get paid.  Run away.  More on that another day...

Time for bed :)

Rest easy,

Sean