so totally sick and rad.com

This skateboarding dog catches more air than you, frontboards better than you, and has more style than you….accept it.

Rarely do I reap enjoyment through another’s actions in the sense of vicarious pleasure, but today is different. Today, Cerre is experiencing her first Sunday without the anticipation of going to a underwhelming job in the morning.

Tomorrow she will get up and focus on herself.

No, she didn’t win the lottery. No, I didn’t get a raise (big surprise there huh?). Instead, she focused on making a positive change in her life.

Three months ago, Cerre made a resolution not to say negative things about people around her. She embraced Thumper’s Rule. Soon after that she decided to really quit the job that was making both of our lives lame. Now, while I face the prospect of getting up tomorrow and dealing once again with the same old BS, she will get up and begin planning her new career. I have never been happier or more excited for someone else in my life. I am truly living her excitement. I am experiencing vicarious pleasure. That I have to go to the grind tomorrow doesn’t really matter, because knowing she is free from it is enough.

I’m working to get myself to the same place. I recall a younger time, a more idealistic time, when I believed all that matter was staying true to one’s self, one’s passions and love. I’m less idealistic now, much more jaded and cynical, but I return to an understanding of this basic truth. Do what you love, be passionate about it, give yourself to it completely and it will provide for you.

Why?

People love passion.

It’s simple but true. If you love something, there are hundreds of others out there who love it too, and there’s a better than 90% chance that those people are not doing the thing they love. I don’t understand why, but it seems to be a human condition. We are programmed to believe that we must achieve all of these non-self-important things to be successful, often all at the expense of what we love. It doesn’t make sense, but in my experience, it is a human paradigm. Maybe it’s all about the dip. To be successful we must first go through the dip…and that is too terrifying for most people to do, so 90%, no, 99% back away from that slog and enter the veal fattening pens of corporatopia.

I’m so stoked for you Cerre. I’ll see you on the other side soon.

sometimes when I’m at the gym doing my PT…pumping iron…I wonder: “If our number system was higher than a base ten system, would people be stronger? If we used a base 11 system would everyone do a little bit more?”

“It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where? ”

“I don’t know. ”

“Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? ”

“Put it up to eleven. ”

“Eleven. Exactly. One louder. ”

“Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder? ”

[pause]

“These go to eleven. “

Jonny Atencio asked me to throw this recipe together for this chickpea thing I make. It’s more of a little-of-this, a-little-of-that recipe, but I’ll throw the gist of it up here and y’all can wing it from there:

Ingredients:

EV Olive Oil – ~5 times around the pan (1cup-ish)

1 small red onion- finely chopped

Few cloves of garlic – to your liking

Fresh ginger (or dried powder) – 2 TBSP

Turmeric – ~1TBSP

1 tsp fresh green chilies – finely chopped

1 red pepper – diced

2 cans chick peas- drained & rinsed

1 tomato- diced

Bunch parsley- chopped

Heat the oil on medium heat for about 1 minute. Add turmeric, ginger, garlic, and onions. Sautee until onions are wilted and have absorbed all the yellow color from the turmeric. Add the green chillies and red pepper and sautee another minute or two until red peppers begin to soften. Add chickpeas and sautee another minute. Add tomatoes and sautee 1-2 more minutes. Remove from heat, mix in parsley.

This recipe can be tweaked in a number of ways. Add cumin and curry powder, a little tomato soup, and chicken or tofu for a slightly different flavor. Serve over quinoua or on pita with plain yogurt.

Have fun.

So I was out of the country for a bit….Went to Turkey with some friends filming a new movie for MVM. The area was called herakleia, also known as bafa golu. Herakleia is the fabled hometown of Hercules. The area is literally layered with history dating from around 2000BC, when the original inhabitants left paintings in the caves under the rocks, and carved sarcophogi directly into the rocks. What is now a lake was once an inlet on the Aegean Sea. Around 300BC a Roman port town existed on the same site as the fabled Herakleia, and Roman artifacts, fortresses, and roads are still visible throughout the landscape. At some point (I need to study the history more) a landslide landlocked the inlet turning it into a salt water lake.

If you go to the momentum video site you can see some shorts (MC calls them dailies) of Turkey.The shorts don’t do the place justice. We looked upon miles of untouched golden granite. Lots of highballs. I think I climbed 2 previously established problems….everything else was cleaned and climbed for the first time on our trip. More posts to come with some pictures and videos of the area.

In the meantime, here’s an excerpt from our first two days in Istanbul:

It snowed in Istanbul! A lot. We’re told it hasn’t snowed this much here in years….which is a mixed blessing. The snow has made the roads so bad that we have delayed our journey south to Bafa Lake (Bafa Golu). That’s a bummer, but it also means we get to stay in Istanbul an extra day and check it out. The snow also makes everything beautiful and surreal. Snow plows and shovels seem to be a foreign concept to the city. Merchants clean the sidewalks in front of their shops with squeegees, and the roads are a bit treacherous even to walk in – imagine cobble streets filled with a mixture of sheets of ice and 6″ deep puddles of slush. Today we explored the Blue Mosque – the wood, tile, and stone work is phenomenal, as is the architecture. The scales are colossal – pillars as big around as two elephants facing head to head, 60′ vaulted ceilings, one giant 500′ square carpet…it is all so impressive. We tried to check out Aya Sofia, the oldest and largest mosque in Istanbul, but it was closed. Next we went to the Grand Bazaar, the giant indoor market. With 12 of us and hundreds of narrow, crisscrossing alleys all under a roof, it was difficult not to get lost or lose each other. Trinkets were acquired, semi-precious stones, apple teas, jewelry, turkish evil eyes, hookahs….rugs were bartered over and almost bought (at far too high a price) but we all escaped relatively unscathed. Next stop was the spice market, with piles and piles of colorful spices as far as you could see in any direction (again, all under one roof). Apricots, nuts, turkish delights, turkish coffees, and of course Baklava. Baklava and coffee stops were made every hour on the hour, where we all recuperated over syrupy coffees and pastries that oozed honey.

 

The smell of coal in the air brings me back to China, but the people, the atmosphere, and the commerce is much more modern and western. About six times a day, prayers echo through the city over loudspeakers. They begin at 6am and occur every few hours for ten minutes at a time throughout the day. This also is surreal.

 

Tomorrow we hope to catch an early ferry (6am) across the marmara (sp?) sea and then drive another 5ish hours to bafa golu where we all hope the weather is drier and warmer. Everyone is having a great time, and Cerre says “P.S. Granny was right, the pastries are divine.”

my dogs are fucking sweet.
if you haven’t met them, you haven’t lived an important part of your life yet.
here’s a pic of sophie the ghostface killah:
she’s bad to the boner.
when I come home my dogs are so stoked to see me. It doesn’t matter what time it is or how long I’ve been away. They are happy.
When I fight, they get upset, they are afraid the pack is gonna break up.
When I’m home, they are content. Chewing, sniffing, licking, chewing.
I’m trying to unlock their secret. They don’t even need to meditate to find that kind of balance.
They are just present. All the time.

That’s inspiring to me.

One year ago today…the drive up this morning was scary. Flashbacks.