Church on a tuesday

Thought I'd fill you in on my day off. Part one involved myself, Dom Marley and Jon Laidlow. The day's holy grail was your friend and mine The Harvester. Haven't had one for so long but remember the last time being a Grandmother mission. The Cawdor crescent residence was in close proximity to one so I took down quite a few at that stage in my life. Now that visits are less frequent it was quite exciting.
On our way in I was enticed into parting with money on one of those soft toy machines with the electronic hook. I got seriously close, if the pink cow I was going for hadn't velcro'd itself to a donkey I would have won the soft toy I neither want or need. The appeal of those things is just how satisfying it would be to see that toy roll in the prize door. It seems impossible to win, there's always next time. Quick meal run down. The salad cart was banging! Those crispy bacon bits are the nuts-so good! Opted for the surf and turf which is a favourite of mine and an obvious base coverer. Dom got a rotisserie chicken piece and used the barbecue sauce provided rather than getting the barbecue option on the menu and saved himself the princely sum of 50p, savvy. Jon got the burger and his meal cost half what mine did and looked just as good. He wasn't duped by the pink cow trick on the way through the door either. I'll learn one day.
The part of the day I hadn't banked on was the Skaterham trip which transpired. This is what the headline is all about. The skate park we went to is located in what was formerly the Caterham Army Barracks Chapel. It is frequented by the MIghty Cougar, Frank and Andy May on a tuesday. Tuesday is F.O.V day, the Federation of Vert. Jon and myself 119'd it to the Cougar's and along with Ash who was at the Cougar residence for a jam we hitched a lift in the mystery wagon to the Army Barracks chapel. There were a lot of people there, good Vert ramp action, scary roll in action and good surprise guests. These were John Gomez, Lee Stewart and the man of many hats. The man of many hats had a roll and then executed a smoke screen departure. I admire this technique, sometimes it's the only way to fly. It was good to see Lee killing it. Big old melons over the spine. Our host for the evening was Adam..



Pic lifted from the Skaterham site, apologies. Adam runs it, literally. He's been hurt but he gave the spine some fluid attention while we were there. If you pay the park a visit he'll most likely be the man accepting your sheckles and making sure you're looked after. It was good to get a skate in especially with such an epic crew and hopefully I'll attend more F.O.V outings in the future. Adam gave me the heads up on a new board he has coming out this week. Check out the drawing boards site to see what Adam's company is all about..

http://www.thedrawingboards.com

As soon as it's in it'll be on the site, it's one for the heads apparently. All I can taste are those crispy bacon bites.

I am Jaguar paw..

..son of Flint sky. Hell boy 2 never came to fruition. I seem destined not to see it. Instead it was Mexican food in Dos Amigos and then home to watch this..



It's pretty action packed and I enjoyed it more than I expected. It's a lack lustre post today so I apologise, certainly not a puff piece. Today's day four in the shop but now I have two days off to skate weather permitting. Here's some weather Rob saw on his travels. It's a cloud that looks like Pacman..



Thought I'd leave you with this tasteless flower arrangement..



See you in the next couple of days

"I ain't your scout. And we sure ain't no damn militia"

Here's the second trailer for Joe Perrin's Last of the Mohicans dvd hence the Hawkeye quote above.



There's a box heading our way from the States as we speak so I'll keep you in the loop as to when it shows up, I know it's left already. The top two floors of our local battle cruiser were ablaze a night ago. There's no photos of the flames but here's a photo in the pubs honour..



Dan said it was pretty gnarly. I was at the Wonk show at the time. The top floor and the floor below are stripped bare and the windows are now black holes. Some fire people were still clearing debris while we ordered drinks, in true British tradition the show went on. Thought I'd let you know, it's not every day there's a fire. Outside another public house in the East end I saw Lev's new whip. Feeling that a regular bike offers less Jazz upgrade potential he opted for this head turner..



Think I'm going to take in a viewing of this tonight with my brother..



Been looking forward to it for ages but it's taken a while getting round to going. One brand that does well for us in here is ..



..Toby Shuall's head space is everywhere in here, on the racks, on the wall even on old bits of wood and upside down spaces you'd never think to look at. All of Toby's new shirts will arrive soon as well as an adventurous hoody. Jewellery is expected again before the year is out too. If you are new to Toby's world and what his company is all about here's some text I lifted from his site..

Suburban Bliss is an independent clothing label based and started in London.
It began in Suburban London in my parent’s house but was conceived in
northern California. The company itself is inspired and influenced by nature,
music,art, friendship, love, dreams and independence from the ever increasingly
controlled world that we live in. The main aim of the label is to put new imagery onto
clothing and other stuff. Largely featuring my work and others like Nicola Pecoraro,
Fergadelic, French, Jethro Haynes, Nik Taylor and Simon Peplow the images
and themes are ever evolving as the company is itself.

If this hasn't satisfied your curiosity visit his site yourself. Click below and look around..

http://www.suburbanbliss.co.uk

I'm telling you all this so you attend the sale Toby has arranged for you..



..all the details are there for you. It's happening next saturday and I'll remind you nearer the time. Get down there and pick yourself up some bargains. Sampai jumpa lagi. That's Indonesian for see you later. See you later

Punk's not dead..

..apparently. It's alive and well in G-man's world for sure. He's taking the Sid Vicious look to some kind of disco party. This is his look pre-accessorising..



He looks a little bit more dance troupe here but I accompanied him on an accessory trip which furnished him with a padlock and chain. I left before the hair gel and fake blood was picked up which will finish roughening up the look. Punk was alive and kicking for me last night too. I caught the Wonk Unit lads keeping it real in Kings Cross..



The Mighty Cougar gave it his all last night. Sans instrument he smashed it, dance moves, wobbly legs, poetry. Pure VFM. The crowd was loving it and the venue was a good one. With no stage and the Wonk at crowd level it was easy for the Cougar to roam around as he pleased. There was a good level of banter, top notch. It seems to have been a week for seeing friends perform live music. We caught Brennan AKA Worthless on wednesday at the Slam night. Here's a picture from Callow cam. Better late than never..



Looks like two guys having a chat. That's what it was. Worthless and Chad Powerz starting one of the new tracks with a little conversation. Brennan put on a good show and Oliver Sudden joined him at points as well as Powerz. Old favourites and a bunch of new stuff too. Opening with "The Business" was a power move. You weren't there? You want to hear the set? Jackson wacked it up on his site for you. Click the link below to hear it. Parental discretion advised...

http://www.markj.co.uk/mp3/shows/slam-document+1worthless27aug08.mp3

Two gigs in a week is always decent and it's nice when it's your friends you're going to see. We had a good although brief visit from Oliver Barton yesterday. Sick to see him on home turf before heading off to the States. Another friend missing to sunnier climes is Ben Dominguez. He's testing his survival kit in the Outback in between shifts at Gant. Another gem from Callow cam is this footage of Ben executing one of his good ideas ...



Antics like this are sorely missed. I'm going to finish off this punk post with a quote...

“A guy walks up to me and asks 'What's Punk?'. So I kick over a garbage can and say 'That's punk!'. So he kicks over a garbage can and says 'That's Punk?', and I say 'No that's trendy!”-Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day)

Forever bother the Italians

That's what FBI stands for according to John Gotti in the film Gotti. I watched the best part of it yesterday and you should too. It's peppered with characters from the Soprano's too..



I had a little run in with the feds on the way back from the Slam night which was amazing by the way. The lady told me my pupils were dilated hence the search. If drinking since seven o clock hadn't dilated them maybe the dark and the fact that they're brown anyway could have given that impression. Always nice having somebody look through all of your pockets for twenty minutes when you're miles away from home. Henry brought us all a good gift back from Revival today..



Takes me back to school days and reminds me of watching Inspector Gadget for some reason, so does Jelly though. Michael J Fox enjoyed his. Imagine having a breakaway for the first time! Never a dull moment in here. We have a good little drop of Landscape and Heroin stuff in having had an absence of them for a while now. The wall looks like this..



One we haven't had in is the Heroin everything board. It has mini versions of most of the old graphics. That's it on the top row, the second and fourth board along. It comes in three sizes and the top has a little thank you note on it from Fos. Have a gander..



Have you ever visited 48 blocks? Why not? Click below and have a look around. There's loads of interesting stuff on there, good interviews. The good folk over there have linked up the latest Hold Tight London episode Henry just put out. Think of this as a double link, visit the 48 blocks and click on the London Calling link to check that out..

http://www.48blocks.com

Here's a good image to leave you with. Taken by one of Earth's nicest human beings Max. It's our favourite wally doing a Wallie. Charlie Young relies on his own two feet to get air born where civilians cash in tickets to do the same thing. Wallie to flat outside JFK..



See you over the weekend.

"He's fat, he's a dork, and I'm awesome"

Watched this with my brother last night..



..funny stuff! Take my word for it, I was creasing up. Henry isn't backing it however. It has feel good factor nine. Nothing like a comeback movie. Another flick I took down upon my return which was funny and also provided the onions as Ray would say was..



Thouroghly reccomended! The Linguini I had from Zizzi yesterday was off the chain. Rob is angling for a repeat performance today with his two for one vouchers. Tiger prawns! Look to your right and click the Tweaker zine link, there's a brand new issue out! Any Hold steady news always makes the Alley, apologies t those of you not feeling it. Dan was offended yesterday that his new album purchase didn't make the inter-web. It earnt it's place on here with complaint or praise following it for being on the wireless 6 times in a row! Dan's backing..



..there's even talk of lil' Dave being erased and filled with only this album so it gets a decent play out on his travels. Dan's also excited about the soon to be released Oasis box set. I told you Andy May was the photo master on our little trip we just took. Here's an example of some long exposure, torch flash drawing that went on. Steve took position and I drew him a Diplodocus steed with a torch..



..there's a snack fest on the horizon. As you may have gathered if you were to look on the Slam news page any new product will be beamed to you via this blog. Orders may best be place by calling 0870 420 4146. Forgotten what you're doing tonight already? Let me remind you...



..see you in the pit

"Don't pray for rain if you are going to complain about the mud.”

Well we certainly weren't praying for rain. The rain which did fall this past weekend made a mire of the field we slept in that's for sure but it did it's falling at night. This made for a gloopy journey out of the camp site but didn't stop skateboarding happening each day. The vans had to be pushed a handful of times but surprisingly nobody Mr Wilson'd up and back into a mud puddle. Our very own Mr Wilson did fashion himself a moustache for a brief while though..



... complaints had flooded in about an itchy beard so Steve lent him some clippers. The alley cam accompanied me on the trip unfortunately I am a bad picture taker. I always forget to take them. On our second night I remembered for a few hours and they are all that filled the camera. I'll have to weave a little narrative around what I have.One person who was good at taking photos was Andy May. The ones he took the night before were amazing, hopefully I can show you some in the future. Photo one on my camera was provided by Dan, he found a route to the river behind the over grown trees by our van. After some scratching around through the bramble we got there..



Bottle of Cava on the go, Shier would be proud. What we didn't know then was that this photo's theme would later crop up again and again throughout the night. Many beers later and with Dan and guitar guiding the sing along "Down by the river" got more than one play out. Our second night was bbq night. Here's Frank furnishing the Cougar with some ammo...



The barbecue was soon tamed by the Mighty Cougar..



..while we all waited for our food after a long days skate. We'd been out all day hitting first an old and then a new concrete park and we were hungry, hence photo taking occurring on my behalf. Steve who made our trip possible was perhaps a little surprised by this photo..



..thanks to Steve we had transport down there which doubled up as accomodation too plus a more than patient navigator. Patience had perhaps reached a low for Mr May at this moment..



..the food was top notch. One thing I took away from that meal was that Branston chilli relish is a handy accompaniment. The bar stool which had supported the barbecue later housed a camp fire made of cardboard..



...which nearly got us in a lot of trouble. Camp fires were not allowed and it had to be extinguished. This took us into the tent where a night's entertainment was kicked off by the chef. You have it, the Mighty Cougar...



He started proceedings and everyone got involved with pots and pans and all sorts. I sung like a Hill-billy for a bit and ended up Gospel preaching for some reason. Music went on all night. To hear some of the Cougar in action click below and if you like what you hear go and see the Wonk Unit play this Friday in Kings Cross. Details are on the page..

http://www.myspace.com/wonkunitband

..It was a good old time. I'd go as far as to speak for everyone and say that Playing place in Truro was skateboarding highlight and it's been there for 40 years apparently. Pin met us at one park with his canine companion Toffee which was nice and unfortunately we just missed the Pizzer's. Well I thought a little tale was owed to you after a brief absence. It was time well spent and thoroughly enjoyed. Hopefully another skate trip can materialise in the not so distant future.