MUSTACHIO the GREAT

Growing a mustache.

Plans for an "even grosser" version that last spring's offering. Not that anyone cares. We don't have any one to impress. Take it or leave it. Real gross.

More "breaking news" on the way, as it comes in.

PHOTO STRIP FROM NOWHERE NEAR THE STRIP

Scenes from a day at the SIA trade show.

Credits, where credit is due:

01. Looking out the window, up high at the rest of Mandalay Bay.
02. Goo feeling the miles away from our Portland home.
03. Michaylira had something to do with this. Tevis too. Me rikey.
04. Evan Rose garnered the coveted "Most Uncomfortable Person in the Industry" award, second year running.
05. Chris Coyle is muscling himself back to Portland. Real Good™.
06. Industry Heavy Hitters: Michaylira, Dave Lee, Embry, Arlie and Peter Line.
07. Mark Sullivan and Joel Muzzey had a baby together. Half goggle, half snake.
08. Picked up Airblaster as sponsor. Nemo Nick brokered the deal. Thanks, Travis.
09. Got loaded on free ale, courtesy of faceless company parties.

BACK FROM THE CITY OF SIN

Came back from Vegas up.

VEGAS MONDAY, VEGAS TUESDAY

Plan on hitting that "34" a whole bunch.

What time do we get in? Where do the whales play? Hit me. Double down. Here's a little something for you. I was up. I should have walked out. Burp. Call me. What's up? 300 units, yep, from China? Multiple impressions. What room are you in? Hyperlight core structure. I'm so over this. Get yer own drink, asshole. Where are we going for dinner? See you at the Hard Rock. Knock, knock..."Room service." These guys are blowing up this year. Did you see his part? What times does our flight leave?

Plan on hitting that fuckin' "34" all night long.

DOWN TO VEGAS

Goo and I are headin' down to Las Vegas tomorrow morning for the Snowsports Industry of America trade show. We'll spend some time with clients and "industry schmuck" colleagues. Plus, "time" will be spent on that roulette wheel. 34 is gonna hit, a number of times. Fly down on Monday morning, whoop it up for 24 hours, then fly back Tuesday night.

Here's an outtake from last year's Vegas outing. A good time was had by all.

SHOWING LOVE, WHERE LOVE IS DUE

Last night, on the way to those Dirtbombs, I picked up Jay Floyd at a little bar in NW Portland called the Lompoc. He was there with his lovely wife Heather, as well as Zanger, Jake, Jak and Cari. Here's a couple shots from my 20 minute visitation.

01. Ice Water, Jay and Zanger..
02. Me and Jake.

I just gonna put it out there: I've known these fucks for going on 10 big years, and I gotta tell ya, they are Good People™. We've never shared a coarse word or raised set of brows. They've backed me up in bar fights and pointed out monster hits in the Bachelor West Bowls. No shit. I thought I'd show them a little love on here, as I really appreciate how good they've been to me over the years.

And Jay Floyd, well, don't lump in the previous paragraph as he's just a regular ol' asshole from somewhere around Detroit.

Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs. The dueling drummers were the best part. Those fuckers beat the shit out of those sets. Good stuff.

Spent the afternoon with Fred Green (as seen above), Matt "Rooster" Leonard and Pam-Pam Lanckton. We had lunch at Nick's Coney Island up on Hawthorne and shot the shit around the flat. A good time Was had by all.

Plans for evening include: Dinner with Rod Snell and big night out with those Dirtbombs at Dante's downtown. The Dirtbombs are from goddamn Detroit and well, considering the flock of recently-popular turd bands from there, they give my birthplace a good name.

FRIDAY AND B-YOND

Today is Friday and we woke up and took a big ol' breath of crisp, cool air.

Our day will be filled with watch designs and other day-to-day design debris. Plans for the weekend include: Junk shopping with Rod Snell, dinner with Pam-Pam and Matt Leonard, wrestling that bathroom into something hygienically sound (man-to-man...we look that shitter in the eye armed only with paper towel and 409.), pre-Vegas mojo harmonics meditations, dvd watching, gen'l laying around, sleeping in, more "refinement" of DDC archive material, big words, glances at wild women, follicle stimulation (we're fucked up on top), sinus pressure, etc.

Do yerself a a favor, you sorry goddamned bastards, and click through all of these. Good stuff, via someone over at Coudal.

Our links are strong and proud over at Coudal. Basically, anything with "-ad" after it means we had something to do with it. Get on over there and click through those "daily signals"...the links never stop. Waste some time. Pitter patter. Wonder.

Folks, the time is now. Every day, a couple sets are shipped out, to all point on the globe. The numbers dwindle. We think you need one. The 2002 DDC OAC card set has lifted the spirits of many a tough customer: Dark prison cells have been filled with hope, cold days made warm, moldy apartments made dry. SUCH A DEAL: Five little tinkering bucks gets you a heap of "the latest" shit from the DDC. Guaaronteed Enjoyment, or our name isn't the Draplindustries Design Co.

Get it over with: The "Anthology of Loose Truths" 2002 Once-A-Month Card Series

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Back in snowbanked wilds of Northern Michigan, Dad is enjoying his new enclosure unit for his John Deere rig. No driveway is safe. Old fucker fills it up pretty good, we'd say.

"There's no business, like snow business."

I got the most amazing email this afternoon from Todd "Spod" Keeney way down in the Bay Area. Turns out Todd was interviewing Mike Watt for an upcoming documentary on college radio and well, a DDC hat I sent down to Todd was laying around. Turns out, Watt was into it. "Oh yeah, he took it. He wanted to keep wearing it (during the interview). I felt bad for making him take it off." is what Todd had to say regarding my, "Well, did Watt make off with it?" inquiry.

So, we fall asleep tonight with dreams of Watt manning the boat on some hellride to the next gig, with one of our severely limited edition DDC hats on his head, protecting his thinker from the elements and his eyes from the settin' sun. Real Good™.

More about Todd Keeney: I met Todd way back in the winter of 1995-1996. My first design job, I was his right hand man in the art department at the Nickel Ads. We built ads and logos for a multitude of sketchy car salesman and entrepreneurs. Now, this mentoring situation was shortlived, as the infamous "Nickelgate" went down, whereas many of the good folks I looked up to at the paper moved on to start the Northwest-famous Volcano magazine. I remember sitting through a smoky interview with the boss man and walking out with a lyric along the lines of, "Yeah, I understand yer duties have doubled with the recent changes. Tell you what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna adjust yer hourly rate accordingly." Motherfucker gave me a 25¢ raise.

Heading down to San Diego this morning. We fly down, spend the day at the Action Sports Retailer tradeshow with Nixon watches, and then fly on back up to Portland. Lots of flying, basically, six hours over the course of the day. Yuck. It'll be good to see everyone, as well as the new Nixon booth. Plus, Southern California is so, like, beautiful! Uh, yeah.

Remembering our summers in Alaska, cussin' out each and every second in the pit.

WEEKENDer

Enjoying my weekend, free of freelance pressures. Ahhh, the air is so clear and the day so long. Stayed up good and late last night, and slept in real late this morning, and well, we plan on doing much of the same tonight, and into the afternoon tomorrow.

Looked at a humdinger of a house today, and plan on pursuing it a bit. Thanks to Tommy for the encouragement and gusto.

Got to missing those parents real bad a couple nights back and purchased a ticket back to Traverse City. Enough of this shit. Six days on their couch. Real good™.

Many, many thanks to all who have bought a card set. I appreciate the support immensely and hope–with calloused fingers crossed–that you fuckers enjoy them. We do our best, with varied results. Speaking of, there are still a good number of sets available, with a couple going out each day. Be sure to reserve one now. All details are just a click away, just below. THE SKINNY: A mere five bucks gets you a pile of "sorta annual" shit from the DDC. Guaaronteed Enjoyment, backed up my yards of postive testimony from pleased customers.

Details, details: The "Twelve Reasons To Keep On Living" 2002 Once-A-Month Card Series

The Draplindustries Design Co. is roud to announce the arrival of our new bookmark "favorite icon", or, "faveicon.ico." We had no idea how this tuff worked and a couple web searches later, we were enlightened, and properly branded. Thanks to Cam for the keys to the site. Bookmark us, as we promise to deliver day after day of basically nothing.

CONGRATULATIONS SARAH!

Homeowner! Sister signed the dotted line on a spacious condo north of Detroit. Goddamn. Good for her. Very excited for the gal, as she gets going insuch an exciting chapter of her life.

We look forward to spending much time with her there, just like the old days.

COAL IN MY STOCKING

BREAKING NEWS: We finished the new 2004-2005 Coal headwear catalog.

Nonstop for three days. Another weekend shot to hell.

Highlights/lowlights from the marathon session: At one point–due to the lateness of the hour,–Brad found himself speaking in tongues referencing a certain colorway combination. Draplin broke down numerous times, spitting out venomous outbursts along the lines of, “Brad, so help me God…you change that again and I’ll kill ya.” and the client-losing, “If I had any sense at all, I’d quit this shit and get a job hustling Slurpees at fuckin’ 7-11.” Much fun was had by all.

A certain warmness envelopes the entire DDC factory floor knowing, that against the odds, we finished the beast. Much pride is felt as Brad races up that I-5 highway back to the open arms of his printer. One spot color. Uncoated stock with a ton of dot gain. 24 pages. 100lb cover, 80lb innards. Real good™.

I’ll see the little tome in all its glory in Vegas at the tradeshow in a couple weeks. Phew. Glad this one is wrapped up.

- - - -

And for all of you inquiring about the address in which to send "DDC Once-A-Month Card Set" loot to, here it is:

Aaron James Draplin
Draplindustries Design Co.
1425 SE 24th Ave #101
Portland OR 97214

Make all checks payable to "Aaron James Draplin." Send as much as you want. Thanks again for the support.

SWEET 21

Happy Birthday to my little sister Leah. She's turning 21 today. Wow. Seems like "not so long ago" that we were looking into the maternity ward, as she laid there all wrapped up with all the other little newbies. Amazing, how this "growing up" stuff works.

Happy Birthday, little girl...now it all begins.

DDC PRESS RELEASE: LINK'd, via CHICAGO

The Draplindustries Design Co. is teaming up with the Windy City linkmasters Coudal Partners as the January 2004 “Fresh Signals” guest editor. Any self-respecting designer, collector, web surfer, wonderer, artist and/or drinker oughta be checkin’ in and clickin’ away with these folks daily. Rarely do they let you down. Good stuff. Real inspiring.

They were also kind enough to mention our new affiliation, as well as our part in bringing you interesting links to fill up a day, and keep those bigtime important projects that are almost done, well, in a holding pattern.

We pledge to do a good job, so be sure to check in daily over at Coudal.

DDC Portland and Coudal Partners Chicago: Allies in the War on Linking.

Click here for an earful: The "Better Really Late Than Never" 2002 Once-A-Month Card Series

First off, Happy New Year to all who’ll hear it.

Made it back, through the most harrowing conditions the large, forested Northwest has seen in a long time. Now, up in those Cascades, snow is pretty common, as those snowbanks don’t lie. Now, down here, in the lower elevations, snow and the conditions that go with it are sort of a “once a winter” or a “every couple of years” sort of deal. Well, our number came up again, and that white Christmas I had been dreaming about is upon us.

Portland is white. Portland is crippled. From the steep driveways of Clackamas, to the frozen apartments of “just off Hawthorne,” to the warm bungalows of Hillsboro…things are at a standstill. I walked to work today, as Big S was iced over completely. I noticed snailing cars, cautious buses struggling and the occasional huddled mass around a bus stop. It’s cold out, at around 15 degrees, so that rain that we are usually enjoying turned to snow, then to ice, then to freezing ice. The town is crippled. I kind of like it. A good reason to stay home and take things easy. But that’s not the case for me. I’m at work, doing whatever it takes to keep things moving with our projects, like a good CINCO employee. We’re operating on a skeleton crew, as the better part of the CINCO work force claims a “state a of emergency.” Must be nice.

I laid my head down last night at 11:30pm, and slept straight on through to 8:30 in the am. Real good. Just what the kid needed. The last bunch of days were pretty filled and intense. A “NYC wrap up” is in the works, so you’ll get all the details once we have it ready to be posted.

Glad to be back, and to start the new year with a yet another new lease on life. 2003 was a good one for the most part, and we have many things to be thankful for, and a couple lessons learned on the contrary. So goes it. We’re tough and we trudge on.

Highlights of the year include:

01. Dad’s 60th birthday bash in Traverse City, Michigan.
02. Working hard for CINCO and making good things.
03. Making it to 30! We made it! Smooth sailing from here on out.
04. Dragging Melissa back out to Oregon.
05. Getting dumped a couple months later.
06. Traveling the west coast…to LA, San Diego, Vegas, Reno, Seattle and all points in between.
07. The most amazing “turning 30” trip back to the Midwest….enjoying time in big city Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago and a little loop through Traverse City to see the parents.
08. Paying off a gigantic credit card once and for all.
09. Seeing those Flaming Lips, as the sun set at the Gorge at George.
10. Feeling good and staying healthy.
11. A number of bad haircuts.
12. Our first mustache, much to the dismay of many.
13. Powder runs at Mammoth Mountain.
14. A ton of freelance, handed down from amazing clients.
15. A million and one strums on the guitar.
16. Rainy Portland days.
17. Cool summer nights.
18. House hunting: Getting approved for a ton of loot!
19. Another successful DDC Once-A-Month card series shipped out…
20. Making it through 2003 and on into 2004

And thank God they got Saddam. Osama, you are next! Then Bigfoot, Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa and the Easter Bunny.