THANKFUL

Thank God It’s Friday.

Thank someone for things like,

01. A smile from a girl.
02. The new Polyphonic Spree album.
03. A cool summer night.
04. A plane ticket to Colorado to see Rod tie the knot. (Congrats!)
05. Knowing mom and dad are coming out in a couple weeks.
06. Sending off a stack bills and feeling good about it.
07. Clean sheets.
08. New socks.
09. Being productive amongst friends.
10. Flat files.
11. Stars above.
12. A mint hookah at the Pied Cow with Ms. Cale.
13. A plane ticket to Burlington to see Capozzi tie the knot. (Boo-Ya!)
14. An email from DiPonio.
15. A cloudy day in the middle of the summer.
16. Sunrays as the sun sets over those coastal mountains…
17. A jingle of a dog’s collar.
18. A slug of cold water in the middle of the night.

- - - -

Today is Goo’s last day at CINCO. Man, thanks for being rad. He’ll be missed by everyone here, you bet. He’s mellow, and this point, he's family.

- - - -

Unca Kevin and (soon-to-be “Auntie”) Kim are getting married tomorrow in Detroit. Happy wishes to them. I was blessed with good uncles….and shit, what a colorful cast of characters…Unca Terry, Unce Kevin, Unca Pat…ehhhhhhhhhhh…Unce Mike! Good people. Wish I could make it back, but hey, I’ll see you guys in the fall!

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Embry Rucker is in town for a couple days, and hell, it’s always good to see him. His latest photo work is “really onto something” and well, he’s married to a beautiful gal, and, and, and…a little Rucker is on the way! Wow. Embry has been good to us since ’96, when we used to run the mean streets of Elgin Street in Bend. Oregon.

Good times, we had.

One time, we all went on a big ol’ roadtrip to Jackson Hole, out in Wyoming. Embry shot photos and hit jumps. We were almost snowed in at Grand Targhee Pass. We made up a word that trip that goes something like this: “Fassy.” That’s when a bunch of dudes sweat, sleep, shit, eat and dry out snowboard clothing in a cramped hotel room… a combination of “feet” and “ass,” resulting in, “Fass.” Used in the context of, “Yep. Pretty fassy in here.”

The world is big.

I need color, more color. I need atmosphere. I need sounds that make me smile. We could all use things like these in our lives.

Turn shit up. Be lazy. Miss a deadline. Forget. Put something off. Relax. Wonder. Don’t give a fuck. Get lost. Try something new. Make a friend. Place a phone call to someone you miss. Do things that are stupid. Do stupid that are things.

Lift yer head up and take in a big ol’ breath of fresh air, look at the sun, look at the stars, look at the dirt…

It was what I needed. My day is that much brighter. The Pantone book in our studio just folded itself inside out and did a flip and dissected into a billion more colors. The numbers were messed up and no one lifted a brow in disgust.

Let the sound be huge. Fill up yer apartment with it. Fill yer head up with it.

I nominate the Polyphonic Spree to be the official band of “feeling better about a big wide world of dismal things.”

“Wonder-full,” we’d say.

Confessions Of A Pack Mule

Real tired of humping boxes out of apartments, into cars, across town, out of cars, into houses, down stairs...

But all of this action is behind us. Things are coming together.

Many thanks to all who have lent muscle over the last week. Much appreciation.

Here's an outtake from the Grenade Gloves "Revenge of the Grenerds" shoot. Zimmerman did an amazing job with the shots. Zimmerman set up a good sweep/lighting system and even found time for some quickie portraits like this one. In the backgroud, just to the right of Zimmerman, you'll see Asian Tony. He was running "crowd control" that night. No one messes with Asian Tony.

- - -

Matt and Nicole Kass left for Mammoth yesterday. You guys are always welcome here. They even left behind a new futon, for future "upstairs" use.

- - -

Yesterday was hot and mean, again. Ouch. Much progress was made in the setting up of the DDC Factory Floor, ran some errans, sweated, installed things, etc. Lots was accomplished for the house transition.

Clouds are over head. Phew. Some sweet relief.

HAPPINESS: After a long, hot Saturday, there was nothing like taking a cruise with all the windows down in the 72 degree night. Felt like heaven. Got back home and laid on the porch feeling the cool breeze...so nice.

Whoo-eee, it was hot today. 'Sposed to hit the big 100 tomorrow. Damn.

Facts are stubborn things: We sweat real bad under the scrutiny of the sun. Man, we sweat hard, and in ugly places, relentlessly.

The world just wasn't right. I saw a guy get off his bike today, and man, his ass was really sweaty. The heat drowned out any compassion I should have been feelin'. I saw a dog this afternoon, tongue hanging well pass his knees, and he was giving sideways* looks left and right. The concrete bakes. Small insects die in the sun. Things retreat for shade. Religious people were praying for cloudcover. Goo made his pants into shorts. Nakamoto took a "uncool" amount of loot off the honest, hard-working, red-blooded DDC in the CINCO dice wars. Chris Soli pumped some iron and checked out his muscles in a mirror. Josh Nelson refrained from "pretzel-ing on the couch" with the little lady while their favorite television program aired. Jay Floyd just plain "wouldn't shut the fuck up" over a list of heat-related woes. Cameron Barrett had the sweatiest head in Northeast Portland. Matt Kass brokered some hairbrain deal with businessmen in a sweaty country oceans away. Naz pedaled a bike under the hot Chicago oven rays. Ryno developed a rash due to a saucy mix of pine tar and ass sweat. Kurt had to bust out his Diesel® "Right Said Fred" shorts. Evan Rose shaved his back to beat the heat. Pat Bridges refrained from any and all extra lighter flicks. Pinski wore black jeans and a black shirt. Dabica read a dictionary. Chris Hötz dropped the "ö" from his name due to general discomfort. Andrew Jenkins built extra shade for his little girl. Eric Campbell gnawed a hole in a water tower and treated the neighborhood kids to some summer fun. Harry Bremer went by "H. Bremer" cuz "Harry" reminded fellow Swedes of all things hirsute. Dean Gross gave me a look that was a mixture of armageddon and locust plague. Lance Violette didn't return any calls. Jared Eberhardt rowed a small raft down from Long Beach to the sandy shores of San Clemente. Michaylira read a book titled "Magazine Design For Shithogs." Fred Green suffered all over town, in corduroy pants of all things. Jeff Baker found himself wondering, "Man, that sun is hot." Zimmerman's glasses were fogged from sunup to sundown. Jon Baugh swam the entire length of Lake Calhoun. Big S had me check his freon levels. Mike Kirkpatrick shook his head in Alaska and said, "Fuck the lower 48! This is God's country up here." Brad Sheuffele didn't wear a COAL beanie at any point today, and started work on a "sun visor" prototype for the '07-'08 season. Leonard ate a handful of high desert dust. Ben Munson went by "Ben Mun" due to "son" reminding CINCO brethren our sizzling orb. Kirk James kept a close eye on the CINCO air conditioning, and had a direct line installed to an "AirCon specialist" of SE Portland, if any problems arose. Porterfield changed his last name to "Porterocean." 2946 NE 67th Ave reminded me that "shadeless windows" let in more heat. Zirgebel put all home improvements on hold and hung out with Mikey in the tub. Matt Cooley managed to walk to Powell's where he promptly collaped in the philosophy section. Ben Cooley shaved his beard. PJ Chmiel took a swing at a coworker over a comment about how they "just loved the summer months...". Dimmel threatened to "command-delete" a couple thousand CSA Printstock images referencing fire, heat, brimstone, flames, devils, woodstoves and matches. Chief Nusenow sat between two sweaty frequent flyers as he made his way back to Bro-Cal. Pross-air wore a sweater from his new line. Sherowski swore off all woman-to-man contact due to the scolding temperatures. Watt opted for a Polvo t-shirt in stead of flannel. Nemo Nick went pantless from the hours of 2 in the p.m. to 5:30 in the p.m. And finally, in a moment of ungodly agony, Jim Draplin drove his minivan off the northwest corner of Traverse City's "Open Space" into the pristine waters of Grand Traverse Bay.

These things could very well happen again tomorrow, too so let's fight to stay cool.

(*DDC RULE OF THUMB: Never trust a dog that looks at you sideways.)

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Slowly getting things in order on the new and improved DDC Factory Floor. The “final punishing blow” was dealt yesterday evening with a last-ditch transfer of the office gear out to the new pad.

Desks are set up. Boxes are quickly being emptied, flattened and filed into storage. The flat files are absolutely amazing. The top drawer is a tool drawer. One flick of the wrist and you have the meanest array of triangles, paper clips and rulers you’d ever need. Very, very happy with the purchase. Not only good storage for a myriad of tools, paper stock, and poster archives but also an amazing work station. A gigantic cutting mat is being ordered soon.

- - - -

Gigantically busy. Wow. Feverish pace of output.

- - - -

More big news is on the way, so stay tuned you lonely fucks.

MOVIN' ON UP, TO THE BIG TIME

A couple of gruff bastards woke us up early Saturday morning to deliver the new washer and dryer set. Fisher and Paykel brand, mate, from New Zealand. Those Kiwis know a thing or two about laundry. Uses 1/3 the water, 1/3 the soap, 1/10 the energy...and gets clothes about 1/5 as clean. Just kidding. The rigs work really good. We dropped a boatload of loot of them, as part of our "spare no expense" shopping campaign. Real Good™.

Also, we moved another big load over to the place. I'd say we're at about 97% moved. Phew. Now we gotta put everything where it "belongs." The new storage opportunities are gigantically welcomed. We're gonna be able to breathe again, and soon. Nice, sparse bedroom...mellow living room...and a dense DDC Factory Floor.

Many thanks to Cam, Kass, Baker, Pinksi, Nicole and Zimmerman for their moving muscle. Without you, we'd be fucked. Phew.

BIG GODDAMN NEWS

Changes are being made on the DDC Factory Floor.

We’re excited/proud/a-little-bit-sad to announce the “putting in” of a “30 Day Notice™” to my superiors at the CINCO Design Office.

After 25 months of kinetic design action, we’ve put a plan in order to lead us down a new path on the graphic design trail.

Our time at CINCO has been an amazing chance to build alliances, learn valuable tools, witness “how to do things proper in the big leagues”, produce work-we-are-proud-of-and-stand-behind-100%, guide a client, “win” an account, split a hair, hone skills, get my ass kicked then picked right back up, travel up and down the coast, sweat in the SoCal sun, fund a little Portland life and win a ton of money off Nakamoto.

So, we’d like to offer up a Pacific Ocean of thank you’s and handshakes to Kirk, Goo and Gary for the opportunity to work with an amazing group, in an amazing space, for “more than ample” wages…for clients who have allowed us to do amazing work…for things like support, “believing in me”, exotic travel, good computer boxes and air conditioning in the hot summer months. CINCO is on a serious path upward. CINCO is growing…seems like a new face is being added every month. My contribution will hopefully continue to rattle those who have been unlucky enough jump into the ring with us.

Thank you to CINCO. Thank you.

- - - -

So we’re gonna try a new approach.

Here’s the thing: We’ve got to make a living. We’ve got big mouths to feed, a car to keep filled with octane and a new house that is slowly being transformed into a NE Portland castle.

Plans are in the works to team up with GRENADE GLOVES to help out with “all projects that comes down the line” as they slowly–inch-by-inch, insulated-finger-by-insulated-finger–wreak goddamn-fucking-apeshit havoc on the snowboarding world.

COAL Headwear is gonna keep us around too. Very proud of the new ad campaign. Wow.

SNOWBOARD Magazine has more that enough pages for us to lay out. Our first issue will launch sometime in August. Good team, good shit, fresh look, new challenge.

RIDE snowboards has been gracious enough to throw me some work from their 2005-2006 board line. Wow. Special thanks to Styk and Fank for being “gigantically kick ass.”

Other projects are being negotiated with good companies and colleague design firms, as well as the usual, hairy, ugly onslaught of projects from friends, industry colleagues and DDC website passerby.

Here’s to a good Fall and Winter.

- - - -

We aim to “keep ourselves busy” with work that we’re proud to help out with, with new sets of challenges, that allows us to keep the bank account well-stocked. So bring it on.

Plus, you fuckers, we’re gonna take Fridays off! That day is going to be devoted to carving, garage sale-ing, sleeping in, drawing, walking around town aimlessly, working on the house, courting beautiful dames, volunteer work, wrestling, getting the hell out of Dodge, exploring the junk stores around town, listening to music and bugging my rotgut buddies on the clock.

- - - -

THINGS WE ARE GOING TO MISS AT CINCO: Goo, Nakamoto, Dean, Ben Munson, Edgar “All Smiles” Morales, Chris Soli, Josh Nelson, Kirk, Aaron Lee, Sunny, Gary V’kemper, Montagne, Matthew, Cristin, Shari and Danielle, as well as furry, long and mean Tyler.

OTHER CINCO ITEMS THAT WILL GENERATE A TEAR, WHEN THINKING OF THE GOOD OL’ DAYS: Birthday cakes, nice desks, the air conditioning, gambling debts, long-winded conference calls, an array of eager Salt-of-the-Earth™ vendors, amazing color work, CINCO’s woodwork (goddamn, I’ll miss that trim.), the color printer, the gigaflop server, the spacious shitter (A man needs to stretch out.), crazy-ass Aeron chairs for my crazy ass, big words, champion metaphors, cold water, Nakamoto’s mobile, Goo’s colorful array of “um” and "dude..." annd “uh, yeah…” outbursts, leaving for lunch, CINCO parties, field trips, the smart people who attend the parties and Rosco the FedEx guy who used the shitter daily, like clockwork.

OUR CLIENTS, OUR BLOOD: Nixon watches of Encinitas, Matt “Brass Balls” Capozzi (“Guys! It’s perfect! Best ever. Here are the changes.”), “Big” Chad Dinenna, Peter McBride, Andy Laats, Will Redd, Hopher, Yo, Meg, Niki, Turtle, Tom Faux-Kasha (Man, I’m gonna miss you real bad.), and of course, the watches themselves (You little bastards.).

- - - -

Real excited.

Got some painting going last night on the basement. Cam Barrett is in town, and well, he’s “up for” helping me getting the pad up and running. We tooled out to Home Depot–which mysteriously felt like a magical expanse of possibilities and headaches–for supplies for the night’s project.

Kilz latex primer. Virgin white. Thick and mean. Covers up basically anything.

And man, when I paint, I paint “Barracude Style.” Nothing survives the flick of my brush. Spiders, cobwebs, silverfish…all extra debris is laid to waste in a chaotic flurry of brushstrokes. Sure, dads and those with experience might shakes their heads with wisdom, thinking, “Asshole, you gotta clean all that stuff out before you paint.” Well, we did for the most part, but, we were running hot and man, the paint needed to get outta the can and on to the goddamn wall.

And it did.

And it actually looks good.

That foundation wall soaks the paint up real good too. It’s gonna take a couple coats to get those walls pure white. That’s fine. We got the time, paint, muscle, determination, dumb luck, adventurous spirit, tunes, cold beverages, complete lack of talent and blind ambition to get the job done.

Once the walls are whitewashed, we’ll start the campaign on the floor. First, we’ll scrub it with a mild dish soap concoction, y’know, to pull up any dirt/grease/blood to get it ready for the “slate gray massacre” that we’ll blitzkrieg with all guns firing. The plan is to start in a corner, and literally paint ourselves up and out of the room, toward the stairs, up the stairs to where the kitchen hardwoods start. Barracuda Style, no less.

Once the basement is tuned up, we’ll “set up shop” to get the DDC Factory Floor up and running.

Night one in the new place.

Laying there in the master’s chambers, looking up at those bare walls, the reality of the transaction starts to set in: “Motherfucker, This is gonna be a great experience.”

First off, I’m gonna have a ton of room to work with. All my gear, and shit, there’s a ton of it, doesn’t even make a dent in the space up for grabs.

01. The Bedroom is for sleeping/reading/wardrobe selection.
02. The Dining Room is where we’ll eat supper, as a family.
03. The Basement Workshop is for fixing things and tending to laundry.
04. The Basement Family Room is the DDC Factory Floor.
05. The Breakfast Nook is for breakfastin’.
06. Crawl spaces will be used for ‘puter box storage.
07. The garage will store Big S. Wow, a roof over his head.
08. The Backyard will be for “relaxing in the sun/enjoying the gray cloud cover.”
09. The Upstairs Loft will house Zimmerman, if he chooses to call it home.
10. The Front Porch will be for “waiting for the imminent invasion from Wash. State.”

Excited to get the new pad all set up.

- - - -

A Fairly Honest Transaction.

Plus, on the way back from dropping DiPonio off at the Max for her flight back to Chicago, some flat files outside of Fairly Honest Bill’s caught my eye. I double-parked and went in for the kill.

“How much you asking on the flat files.”- Draplin
“400 bucks for the set.” – Fairly Honest Bill
“Hmmm.” – Draplin, trying to keep his cool.
“You take $300 for the set?” – Draplin, trying to shame him.
“Hmmm.” – Fairly Honest Bill, in the midst of battle.
“How about $325, and we’ll deliver them and set ‘em up too.” – Fairly Honest Bill
“Deal.” – Draplin, followed up with a clean hand meeting a nicotine’d hand for a firm shake.

Hamilton Flat Files – 10 drawers, 2 pieces plus base, slate gray, built like a tank, weighing in a little over a ton, give or take a file or two. You bet.

The way we look at is, “It’s a good weight for the foundation, y’know….in case a tornado comes ripping through or some shit.”

Very excited.

The transaction is official.

Went to Cannon Beach on Sunday. Gina DiPonio of Chicago was in town, and managed to get me outta the house for some fresh air. Rad gal, got a good head on her shoulders. '

Out to that coast, through the coastal mountains, into the salty sea air.

I love the cool temps of the beach. It was 60 degrees out there. My kind of summer day, you bet.

- - - -

I close on the pad tomorrow. I'm told I'll be signing documents for the better part of an hour. Some might call it "signing yer life away." I call it, "signing up for a new life." This is a big step for me. A dream fulfilled, one of many, as I do my best to carve out a little niche in this mean ol' world.

It's just me here handling all this. Just me. Been quite a learning experience. So many new things to wonder about, so many new things to worry about. This is the big leagues for a guy like myself.

Homeowning. Homeowner. Plot of land. "My Place." The ranch. A safe house for those on the lam. "A real shithole." The shack. Four walls and a goddamn roof.

Just me doing this. Very thankful for the fact I'm able to take the leap.

I sign the shit tomorrow, and get the keys on Friday. Then the "slow burn" move starts. Little by little, I'll run piles out. Many a friend has offered up a truckbed or set of muscles. The big stuff will be dealt with in a week or so, once the gas, electric and cable intra-net is up and running like the motherfuckers that are.

Making this deal official.

Oh, everyone is welcome too, except for the fuckers who've given me dirty looks, written me a ticket, broke my heart, ripped me off, "revisited" a design of mine and/or crossed me in any way.

So close with the house. No shit. Real excited.

Gonna celebrate the big move by "not doing shit" for a long time.

July activities list: beating the heat, fighting it out in the CINCO trenches, enjoying the cool nights, wrapping up freelance gigs, counting the loot, packing/unpacking, planning for the future, etc.

Getting ready to start a new life out here. Wow.

America the Beautiful.