Whistler-Schmistler

Man, I haven't done a fuckin' thing in the time I have been up here. It's been wonderful. I sleep in every day until well past noon. I eat at expensive cafes and walk along expensively manicured cobblestone sidewalks. This is the farthest thing from reality. I'm a poor fuck in a rich ski town. Oh well. The scenery is nice and the air is cool and I'm not in California. That's the best part.

I miss Melissa, even if she cusses me out for my post-work sock placement.

Viva la Whistler!

Quick flight out of John Wayne Airport up to San Francisco. Flawless. Napped the whole time. Felt good to be leavin' Orange County. Little layover in San Fran and then on up to Vancouver. The cordial man from the shuttle service was waiting for me as I entered the exit area of the airport. In no time we were off to Whistler. The drive up the 99 was amazing. Last time I was in these parts was back in August of '98. On my way down from Alaska en route to my school life in Minneapolis. Those were good days.

I dozed off a couple times on the way up to Whistler. It took us a little over 2 hours to get up here from the airport. We dropped off a party of yahoos from Memphis and continued on up to the Dude's place.

Dudes. Mountain town. Condo living. Beer bottles. Video games. Dripping snowboards. One out-of-tune guitar. Life is good.

Every one went to sushi dinner last night and got wasted. Hoo-ha. Now, they are reliving the previous night's events with rowdy banter = hangover this, hangover that. Hoo-ha. I stayed home and read. It was quiet. I had the window cracked a bit with cool alpine air coming in. Fell asleep and got woken up by a drunken swiss pro snowboarder. Nice kid, dumb action.

We are going snowmobiling today.

Gearin' Up For Whistler

The office duties are completed for the most part. I don't like leaving at this point. Even though files are sent off I'd like to be around to aid the processing. Cody will have to be the conduit between the sources and us.

I'm excited to get up north. Cold weather, funny coins and accents.

If things suck in Whistler I'm gonna rent a rig and do some Canadian rambling. I'm thinking: Mission to Calgary. I've heard some interesting things about it. We'll see.

I just hope it snows up there. Fuck, it better snow up there.

Friday's all right for fightin'

The workweek to came to a welcomed end today. The winters list of magazine projects is behind me. The first products are starting to filter in, little rewards, little reminders of that hectic file you sent off a week ago. Y'know, you complete it and pass it off and you move onto the next. All the drama and shit involved gets erased once the piece is finished. Delivery time: the printerman brings it in. Much like a proud father I hold the piece and reflect on its conception. Uh, yeah.

So I extremely relieved to have all of this behind me. I started the celebration a little early today with a plane ticket reservation. I fly out of Orange County next friday up to Vancouver. Make a little pitstop in Frisco on the way up too. I'm going riding with the dudes from the magazine. Whistler, British Columbia!

Dudes: The mag's crew is holed up real good. We have an official "magazine staff compound.' in full operation. They've all been up there for a good month or so. So I'm gonna join 'em for 12 days of snowboarding, sleeping inn, chowing, fightin', brainstormin' and other unmentionables.

All I'm gonna have to worry about is being a dude. No freeways. No concerned girlfriends. No parole officers. Nothing. Just a bunch dudes bein' real fassy.

Fass is dude word. Fass is a macho word. Fass is the real thing. Fass is a special word conjured up on a Jackson Hole Hellride a good 3 years back in the company of Embry Rucker, Tony Mancino, Jason Mcalister, Jeff Mollencop and Jason Shurtz. Good crew, ugly hotel room.

Here's why: "Fass" means: "feet" and "ass", all in one word. A gamey, putrid combination of man's excretion arts best experienced after long days on either: 1. The road, 2. The hill, 3. A train in Alaska.

Gonna spend some time bein' fassy with the dudes. You bet. Lookin' forward to bein' with the team, representing Snowboarder Magazine's "finer points."

Enough Was Enough

After way too many office-wide searches for the communal Pantone book I took matters(well, colors) into my own hands and ordered myself up my very first Pantone kit.

And man, I got the big one too. It goes by the moniker: "The Pantone Ultimate Color Survival Kit." 6 books with a free "Metallics Guidebook" and "Metallics Chips" thrown in as a bonus. That's all of 'em! Even comes with a pouch for safekeeping of the precious swatch booklets. I hope the handy pouch has belt-mount functionality. Imagine that, the whole Pantone library on yer side. Just like those crafty, quick-witted "IT" guys who come down form LA...all those gratuitous gadgets dangling from their bat-belts. Coated, Uncoated, Matte, Process Coated, Process Uncoated, Solid to Process, Metallic...I can't wait to get to know those numbers and hues.

Dig the colors at the Pantone homebase.

Don From Ohio

Check out www.elephont.com. This is Don Pendleton's site. He is the designer behind the Alien Workshop visual phenomena.

He is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Pay special attention to his skateboard graphics. Amazing. My favorite of the industry. His use of type, color and form is not only inspiring, it is contagious.

I met him in San Diego at the ADR tradeshow. He was very personable and offered some good advice and conversation. That makes two good things to come out of Dayton, Ohio: Guided By Voices and Don Pendleton.

Also spend some time at www.alienworkshop.

Mini-Disc Fever

I've got a bad case of Mini-Disc fever. More about the complications of this ailment in the new gazette.

I'm desperately trying to align the input department with the gazette archive protocol. Times are tough right now. Soon.

Spent the whole Saturday working on the 2001-2002 Snowboarder media kit. It's an exciting project. Full color, spot UV, fabricated construction, edge cracking solutions...John from Continental has been amazingly patient and helpful. I'm a greenhorn in the "real-life" printing world. Gocco action is one thing...web presses and Heidelbergs area another. I have a hard time signing off on bluelines. No matter how much we have check the type, photos and general layouts...I'm always freaked out someone missed something in the process. These budgets are a tad bigger than 12 bucks worth of Kino paper. I love the responsibility.

+ John brought me like 100 paper swatchbooks for a complete paper library. What an amazing resource. Compliments of Continental Litho. I'm getting fluent with the paper properties. One thing though: They have nothing on the French swatchbooks. Nothing. Todd and the boys at CSA in Minneapolis design the fuckin' best swatchbooks on the planet...hands down. They are religious artifacts to me.

Snell-vis

Rod Snell was in town for the night. We met him in Laguna Beach and went out for a bite to eat. It was great to hang with him. Long conversations with colorful content: tank construction, employer dress codes and Johnny White tales.

Ever since I saw him do a 360 judo off the launch ramp, he's been a hero of mine. Location: In back of Great North Sports at the summer skate '88 jam. He won the deck.

Rig Woes.

Need a new rig. First step is getting my California Driver's License. I hunted down the Laguna Hills DMV, made an appointment for a test on Thursday. Got my little handbook to learn all the California driving statutes.

Flipped through the pamphlette a bit looking for the section where it explains why turn signals aren't mandatory. No one uses 'em out here. Too busy I 'spose, holding that god damn cell phone.

Good evening folks.

It was well over 80 degrees today. Marching down the apartment stairs the warm air suckerpunched me real good. I don't look forward to the summer temps. Too hot.

Placed a healthy order with the
buttongal today. Makers of fine promotional items including 1" buttons and stamps, their DIY and down-to-earth operations will keep me doing business with them for years.

The Snowboarder posse is cooped for a couple months in Whistler, British Columbia. Reports have been coming in of good days on the hill, excessive alcohol consumption, and general frolick. I'm the only stray from the office team. Wish I was up there and all, but damn, someone has to design the stuff up. Contributing photographers, miscellaneous field crew and friends have been crashing the confines. Each call up to touch base offers background ranting that sounds like a good time...just dudes being dudes.

I'll do a stint up there towards the end of the month.

Its been a productive weekend. I've been in the office both days tuning things up. The faster the prjects get done, faster I can jump a plane to Canada. Everyone enjoy their sunday evenings...