8/14/21
We had a few weeks of really nice weather which came to and end a few days ago. Right now its 90 degrees outside but it says it feels like 100. I want to go surf but I know driving to and parking at the beach will be beat… its Saturday late morning and its been hot as balls for 3 days now. Its going to be full of the third day sun shriveled, dehydrated, beach fiends mobbing along side the average working stiff fiends that have been pining to make their way to plastic filled ocean oasis since Tuesday… I don’t think its worth it at this hour. So instead I’m sitting at home going through recent rolls of photos by the AC. Here are some recent things from the last few weeks
8/6/21
This morning Saki and I were talking about how fast time goes by when you’re busy doing things everyday. I don’t know what it is that I feel time is running out on, but that makes me think maybe times not running out on anything. Everything is happening all the time
heres a phone dump of recent photos as a reminder that things were happening
Max with SD Max
music from willoughby block party
Greenpoint Tattoo 10 Years
This week everyone from the shop went upstate to stay in a house for a couple nights and celebrate the shops 10 year anniversary. We stayed in a 10 bedroom victorian house with a wrap around porch and pretty much just hung out together, got buzzed and relaxed. We see each other a lot but it’s rare to have the chance to take a trip all together. Late one night through a haze a different substances Elijah, Jason, and I were talking about old times at the shop and Jason was saying how working at Greenpoint was his dream before he moved to new york. I was remembering that it was my dream too, I had gone to Greenpoint to get tattooed maybe 8 or 9 years ago and I thought it was the illest place I had ever been. I thought it would be my goal to someday get to guest there at least. A couple years later I came to town to surprise my friend Wan while he was guesting at GP and thats when I met Jason. We went to dinner together with Wan that night, Wan wanted to get Korean so we went to Dokebi. He said he was going to pay and ordered a ton of food, but basically after he ordered he smoked weed out front and got way too high. Me and Jason ended up having to put him in a cab and split the bill, but after that we were friends. Jason asked me to come back and guest if I wanted so it’s pretty much because of him that I ended up ever working at the shop. After I guested once I started coming back all the time, I felt like everyone treated me like family and got along super well. I also think Reardon maybe liked me because I was from Massachusetts like him, but I can’t say for sure. In the 6-7 years I’ve been around I’ve worked with and met so many people from all over the world at the shop. I’ve gotten to grow as a tattooer and have the space to grow and pursue other things. I feel super lucky to be part of the crew that works at GP, for real, its a special place. If you’ve been through, you know what I’m talking about, and if not, you should come through. Happy 10 Year John and Greenpoint Tattoo Co., heres to the next 10
I abonded my phone for the duration of the trip but regret not getting a group photo or something. So, the best I can do is the following iphone dump of photos I got everyone else to send me
summer presses on
7/20/21 update.
Summer has been summer and time never stops moving, there are a lot of good moments in between the heat advisory’s and sudden thunder storms. They’re there and then they pass just like every moment. I think my obsessive desire to photographically document skating and friends comes from the excitement of seeing unseeable moments frozen in time. Skating and Surfing.. and lots of other things, are basically a way of chasing a fleeting feeling that can’t be savored, which leaves you always trying to get more. Shooting photos is one of the only ways you can really stop it for a second and hold onto it. A photo is moment suspended in time forever, and it only gets cooler as time goes on I think.
Anyway, here are some portraits from the last few weeks
7/?/21 update
Phone dump recent shit update
Side yard x blue park rig
Franco is back
Saki cooked dinner for Koolee
Made zig a bomb shelter for the 4th fireworks… I can’t say for sure but I don’t think he used it
Buna
This one day Max, Coots, and I linked Mike G on myrtle by Fort Green. We had planned on skating some stuff, but Max was hell bent on filming this line at the circle manny and so we ended up putting in time on myrtle. A lot of time, as it turns out, especially for a 95 degree day. It was hot as balls and the deli on the corner had an unsatisfactory snack selection, Coots had turned beet red and must have been close to overheating, I was getting cranky myself thinking about eating a burrito and having a frozen margarita. By the time we could move on, skating seemed clipped and Mexican food was the only thought in our domes. We indulged our cravings and after decided to head to the water for more beers. Mike G didn’t have a bike so he pushed the whole way which is respectable. Although there’s not much to be said for this day… one Max line for the record books, near severe dehydration, some Chimichangas, Micheladas, a full day on myrtle, and sundown by the water… there are good memories for the dome, and sometimes thats the most valuable thing we can earn.
Navigating the June weather so far has been tricky as usual. There is only one rule to plan by which is ; never bank rain. If you bank rain.. it will not rain and you’ll be sitting inside watching the day become beautiful while your anxiety rises. Sometimes it down pours for 15 minutes while the sun is still out, sometimes it just mists all day long, sometimes it just rains regular, but theres always a chance that it will or won’t.
Stu & Nik, battery park
Stu, Ollie
Andrew checking the slide.
Phone dump… Recent good times in the last weeks have been bountiful but here are a few highlights. Multiple things to be hyped about… Mike G and margaritas, Taking the ferry and skating with Coots, and eating at Mission with Saki.
My friend Beej put me on to this record shop in Red Hook called Record Shop. It’s on Van Brunt and its mad chill. Its only open some days but I think sometimes its open most days depending on whats going on, either way I’ve been going on Thursdays. I always find stuff that is sick that i’ve never heard before. Now that its hot my head was making the headphones sweaty at the turntable but its all good. If you like to play basketball these dudes from the shop play pick up games across the street on Thursdays, I don’t like to play basketball so I just go for the records. This is what I got today
This record is crazy its for sure gospel but psych/garage type shit also
Jealous guy live version
First song slaps and a cool Do what you gotta do cover on here
This side of this Willie Colon 45 is fuckin crazy!
RIP secret bump to ledge
Max found this spot last summer on some serious BK combing tip and had the idea to concrete it. It was unclear wether it would be possible to skate or not, but it seemed worth a try. I think it was September that we first went to do the concrete, about 5 months later we went back to check it out and Andrew did a bondo job around the bottom. Another week After that a session finally happened and things were really workin. We went back yesterday to sesh again and found the concrete ripped out. What was briefly a skate spot has now sunken back into the barren landscape of a rundown loading lot behind home depot.
Max was cooking up an idea involving some sort of barrier and the Hasidic ledge. Ideally he thought the blue police barrier would work the best, but we found some white and orange shits in front of the studio available for the taking. He attached all the parts to his rig and brought them to the spot
We were skating this spot in Gowanus and I was filming Andrew do backtail. He did it perfect and I was all hyped sayin, we gotta get a photo of that! I convinced him to try again and sure enough, within a few tries his ankle became homied and Karim was hunting him down a bag of ice.