I skate, who cares.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8032571127102547954


Picture and video courtesy of McCellphone.

Home sick home.

So we're "totally not in San Francisco" now.
Back in Toronto, which is fine with me.
I like it here.

What I don't like is the inevitable sickness that comes with a journey from the west coast to the east coast.
It's a guaranteed fact, you will get sick, every time.
Rather, I will get sick every time.
Especially when there is a drastic change in weather, accompanied by 40 hours of being awake, and slumbering in an American airport to the soothe of "ATTENTION, SFO international currently at homeland security threat level orange, please report any suspicious behavior to airport security, or dial 911 from any airport payphone", every 10 minutes.
Comforting.

I found a little salvation in drinking beers at the 24hour food court, but I've got an irregular digestive system, and 2 beers turns into 100 farts, which as rad as it may sound, can become a little uncomfortable.
Good way to keep people away from you though.
The sour malt barricade.

So the trip back was pretty hell, I just wanted it to be over, so I tried to not even think about it while it was going on, and as soon as I put my foot on Canadian ground, my throat swelled up, and now I'm a total bag of shit.
I woke up this morning with a fearsome headache, which I convinced myself that it was a building pressure in my head, which would surely cause my left eye to pop right out onto my pillow.
Seriously painful, then my hands went tingly, and my skin started to burn hot, and all I could do was kick my feet, and wriggle them together to take my focus off the pain, and then like a miracle I vomited a clear jelly substance, and the pain vanished, and I slept until 3pm.

Work on Monday ought to be a blast!
I sound like that ugly green nicotine demon in those nicorette commercials.

Shitache Hotel

This morning started of as a real lazy susan.
Slept in til' 10 something, which hasn't happened yet this trip.
We've been early to bed, early to rise everyday, and its been feeling pretty good so far.
You get a lot done when there's more than 8 hours in your day.

And I have been doing surprisingly well without the weed too.
I miss it a little less every day.
I guess sometimes you need to detox..........(Ben, finish this one up for me would'ya)
I aint never gonna quit though, but maybe I'll save myself a few bucks a month if I cut er down a little.

We made a real day out of 'er today though.
I started it off pretty rad.
We were on our way through the bullshit tourist strip down at Powell and Market, to the BART station, where it's just swarms of fat Americans walking with their eyes NOT on the prize, and brains full of the desire to vacation to San Fran, only to hang out in a 2 block radius, and shop at the same fucking stores they can go to back home.
We've all walked through the same sea of stupid.
It's a frustrating game of stop and go, jerk and dash, "ghahhh" and "FUCK!!!"
So when some unsuspecting dipshit with her head turn 45 degrees away from the direction she was walking got a serious face full of my left shoulder, I was all but apologetic.
I actually felt good about it, even though it was more of her own doing than mine.
I would never mean for it to happen, but there is something so rare and special about shoulder blocking a woman square in the jaw.
There was an even rarer moment of silence, when she looked at me, in total shock, without any words, and I wasn't sure if I should apologize, or injure her even more with my belittling stare.
I chose the belittling stare. The kind that says "you fat American dunce, your face is on the front of your body for a reason, so that you may see the dangers than lie ahead of you, you don't have whiskers like a cat, to alert you of things off the side of your face, if your face and my shoulder should ever meet again, I'll gladly introduce you to a verbal thrashing, and maybe a shove!"
I think she got the point, as no words were exchanged, and I carried on with my business.

The business I was trying to tend to was getting Annie and I down to the Mission for some lunch.
We made plans to check out a place called the Pork Store Cafe.
What an awesome name by the way. What an awesome restaurant too.
There was like 30 different lamps, all hanging from the ceiling in no particular order at all, and a nice bottle of Maple Syrup on the table.
Nothing makes me more comfortable than MAPLE SYRUP.
It deserves to be spelled with capital letters. It is the lifeblood of any true Canadian.
An ounce a day keeps the lonesomeness away.

Now, I will say that for a place called Pork Store, there was a disproportionate amount of non pork items on the menu.
But maybe thats OK, because the pulled pork sandwich I ordered was a 10 outta 10.
I highly suggest anybody who knows the real truth about pork, go visit this place.

Pork is your friend.
Its the cleanest animal on the farm.
It's the cutest.
It requires the lowest cooking temperature of meats.
It's the tastiest.
It's the most tender.
And I like that it is a formidable opponent to a human, when it comes to "eat or be eaten".
A pig will eat you given the opportunity, and I respect that kind of challenge to my authority. At that point, it becomes "game", like a bear, or a mountain lion.
It's kill or be killed, and if I was going to be killed by a cow, or a chicken, I would be pretty fucking bummed out.
Hats off to the pig.

Then we walked our sluggish bellies along 16th street, to a store called Needles and Pens, where Annie bought a shirt with a sketch of some funny shoes on it, and I bought another book.
I bought the book You Can't Win, by Jack Black, of post civil war times, not School of Rock times.
It was right beside the Charles Bukowski book I tried to read in Barcelona, except I spent too much time smoking hash to be of mindfulness to actually READ it.
Which reminds me, Ben, do you have that book, I wouldn't mind giving it another go.

Anyways, I bought the book, because it sounded like a good read, and I like the title.

A good title is important.
They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but I think you can judge it by the title, which happens to appear on the cover, so I call bullshit on that statement.

Then we went to Ritual again, because I wanna have as much mind blowing espresso as I can, before returning to Toronto, where it happens only as often as I go to Mercury, or Matthews apartment.

I really don't want to think of what is going to happen when I come home, and every espresso that I make will only fail in comparison to what I have had at Ritual.

Even more saddening was when asked by the Barista what machine I work on, and I replied sheepishly "uhhhh, Elektra", he said "hrmm, never heard of it"
That sucked.

What wont suck however, is the day trip we are gonna make to Berkeley tomorrow!
Goodie!!
We booked a tour of the Scharffenberger chocolate factory, we're gonna go to the Buffalo Exchange, which everybody whos been to one knows, is the greatest thrift store on Earth, and then we're gonna do some hippie watching at the University, and hopefully smoke weed with some freedom fighters!!

Oh yah, and this hotel actually does suck.
I killed a cockroach on our TV stand this evening.

Bye!

7-7-7

So my buds came up from San Jose yesterday, and it was really rad to spend a whole day with some dudes, doing some skating, and having a car.

We bombed some scary hills, and when I put my foot down to brake, the sole of my shoe peeled off!
Thats how steep the hills are.
New rule.
I dont bomb hills that cars have to park sideways on.


We also drove out to Treasure Island, because apparently "its full of spots, like mad banks and Puleo type shit"
The only thing we found was a lack of human inhabitance, used fireworks, and a traffic jam on the bridge when we decided that Treasure Island was stupid, and came back.

So I took the dudes to the Mission, cuz the Mission is the illest shit in SF.
I took the dudes to a Mexican spot I've been to before, and when we walked in, we saw Mr. Negative Poopypants.......Kenny Hughes.
I've never seen somebody make such a "ghahhh, I can't escape skateboarders anywhere I go" face.
Yah, duh, you're in SF retard.
Anyways, I guess Jarrod knows him from Barcelona, so he said hey, and Kenny just got ruder.
Thats alright though, his punishment for being a douche is having to skate for Zoo York, or whatever company nobody cares about.

Then I took the dudes to Ritual, where we had some Macchiato's, and I couldn't resist chatting with Drew, who I had met the first time I visited Ritual.
He was on the machine this time so I also got him to pull me a shot, and it was the best yet.
I also got a mug for myself, and one for Nicky Brown.
Too bad I couldn't get the Ritual x Wu-tang logo tee that Drew had on.
It's sort of an employee thing.

Then we toured back to the car, where I got shoulder blocked in the neck by an old junky who was obviously not stoked on us skating past his stretch of sidewalk.
I didn't contest it, the shoulder contact was as close to Aids as I was willing to get.

We parked the car right at the 3 up 3 down long ledge thing.
It is crazy, more than I thought.
I didn't even ollie up it, let alone try any of the crazy shit other people have done up that bitch.....fakie flip?????
Eric got a nice 3 trick combo there, it was pretty sick, cuz as long as that thing is, it's barely long enough to do a trick up, one in the middle, and one down.
Oh, and Justin Strubing showed up for bit, and we exchanged funny stories about Jet Lag.
He did a back bluntslide for a few feet of the beginning of the top stair and transfered up.
Looked cool.

Then we ended it with a trip to DLXSF, cuz Jarrod needed some shoes, and Eric needed some pants.
Actually, Jarrod wanted some shoes, and Eric NEEDED some pants.
You could see his bum through all the holes in those shitty Levis.
DLX sorta sucked this time though, we kinda got the "hurry up and buy stuff and get out" vibe.
Actually, I dont even know if they cared whether or not we bought stuff.

Then a game of skate was had, and the dudes headed back on their way to San Jose.

It was a good day.

whoaaaahh, half way there, whoahhhohhh livin on a prayer!!!

Ok, so we have moved out of our first Hotel, which I can say was great, and moved to a slightly lesser quality hotel, which still is nothing to whine about.
It's just one of those shared bathroom joints, so Im gonna shower with my socks on.

Today is gonna be a good one though.
Coming up to visit from San Jose, are some friends I met while in Barcelona last year!
Jarrod, Eric, Gabe, and English George are on their way here as I type.
Poor George though, there wont be any brothels here for him to spend his fortunes at.

Anyways, I wanna challenge Ryan Allan to come up here and have a burrito eating contest with me.
It's gotta be somewhere in the Mission though, cuz I went to a Taquiera around our hotel last night and there was a gigantic cockroach just chillin on top of the guacamole!!!
Gnar bar at level 11.

If you dont attend the challenge Ry, I'll just assume myself the victor.
Im glad my name isn't Victor though, it's kind of a psycho name.
V is a freaky letter.

Not as freaky as Jason Jesse's murder desk.

Oh Ben, skate trivia question I thought up.
It may be too easy, cuz I know you and I will get this in a second, but give it a shot.
What skateboard company used the phrase "self medicate" as their slogan for a period of time in the 90s?

Later.

No shit, all golden.

Ok, so first off, I apologize for the last posts Mac bashing, and to those I may have offended.
You love your Mac babies, and I will grow to love this one some day as well.
It’s probably more of the internet connection I’m using having no balls, than it is the computer. For what these things cost, they oughta have a 3rd ball.

SF continues to be great, and so does my daily dose of Mexican food.
Although we haven’t been eating ONLY Mexican.

On Bens recommendation we hit up the Squat and Gobble, we sat in chairs like westerners though, no Nammer squatting.
Shit was delicious, I think Nutella should be an integral part of every restaurant menu.

Stanley Steamers rank pretty highly, and I gotta thank Nick, and Jeremy for reviving my love of hot dogs before this trip.
If it were a month ago, I wouldn’t have eaten a hot dog on a dare, but I’m back in the game, and the tubesteak is king.

One of the best things about eating food here is how much other free shit they give you with it.
Taquiera spots always give free chips, Chinese spots give you free rice, soup, AND spring rolls, which I gotta say, are fucking amazing, the ones we got today were crispy rolls with curried cabbage in em…..mmmmmm.

Also in the category of delicious, resting at the very top of the heap, is Tartine Bakery.
I don’t even know how they can make baked goods that good.
I’d bring home a huge box of stuff for everybody to try, but you all know how long baked goods last around me.
They don’t even last long enough to spell the word LONG.

I finally got to go check out Blue Bottle Coffee as well, located on a small side street, tucked behind a garage door, with just enough space to make coffee, and send you on your way.
I was lucky enough to catch JoEllen kicking it around the shop, even though it was her day off, and also lucky enough to have a pretty decent shot, and the legendary San Francisco “Gibraltar”.
Everybody there was really nice, and asked tons of questions about coffee in Toronto.
I gotta say though, Ritual still takes the cake when it comes to espresso.

So with that said, we headed back down to the Mission, for another shot at Ritual, and another Gibraltar.
My shot this time wasn’t as good, not as fruity or floral, and I shook a little in my shoes when I caught the barista giving the portafilter a Mike Tyson strength “smack” with the tamper.
The cool thing about this visit was that they were doing a bit of inhouse roasting, so I finally got to see some roasting go down.
I didn’t lurk though, as I didn’t recognize anybody from my last visit, and I just wasn’t in the mood for breaking more ice.

Just up the street from Ritual is 826 Valencia Pirate Supply, which we missed out on last time, due to inventory, but boy oh boy, we made ‘er today.
Fuck, what a cool store.
We were lucky enough to be in the store while they had a childrens writing workshop going on, and a group of kids were constructing a story about Pirates, Ninjas, and Teddybears.
I read some of the books the kids had all made, and there were some cute stories about how Peter Pan killed Captain Hook, and the “cursed booty”.
It’s a lot cuter in their words though, because nothing is spelled correctly, and some words are even backwards.
There was also a drawer full of beard trimmings, and a poster of 10 good uses for lard on a ship.
My favourite use was “ #6. Little lard boy sculptures”

SF is really weird.
Good weird.

Yesterday was a good day too.
It was Independence day here, and there was a giant skateboard critical mass type thing that went all the way from Pier 7, to 3rd and Army, which is a fucking hell of a skate, but I participated, because why not.
The cops even motorcaded the whole thing, and I’m sure a lot of people cursed skateboarding forever as they waited at green lights while a parade of hundreds of skateboarders blocked their way.

After all that, Annie and I went to a little 4th of July house party with our bud Terry, where we watched the fireworks, drank some beers, and finally got to smoke some weed.
Not just any weed either, we got to smoke weed from a Volcano vaporizer.
I’ve never used one before, but after last night, I am convinced that $700 is a small price to pay for what you gain in a higher form of weed smoking.
I think I took like 5 hits from that fucker, and I was baked, like REALLY baked.
I was gonna buy a new bike when I came back from SF, but forget that, I can really go for a ride with the Volcano! WHOOOO!

The house party was full of great company as well, a whole list of skateboard, arts, and musical talents.
A bit unexpected, but really cool to smoke weed and drink beers with Dan Wolfe, Satva Leung, Aesop Rock, Jeremy Fish, Eric Norin, Matt Irving and his wife Lindsey, among many other fecal face dudes and dudettes who I wasn’t familiar with, but pleased to meet either way.
I’m really glad we got to meet Matt and Lindsey, they were a beacon of red and white light, sporting maple leaf pins on July 4th, and quite literally 2 of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
It seemed as though almost all of them have some connection to Toronto as well.
Satva and I talked about my good buddy Yasushi for a while, and the hilarious faces he makes when he lands tricks, like he’s surprised that he can even ride a skateboard.

Oh and we went to the HUF store, and the first thing we saw, front and centre was 2 shirts Dennis did for Mishka.
Big ups buddy!

Ok, bye friends, miss you all.

Things I miss.

-Garrison
-Weed
-My buds

First few.

Alright, so we're here in SF, our travels went well, not even a whiff of disaster like the last time I flew....ghahhhh

This is also my first post using our new computer.
I still hate it.

Sf is pretty cool though, the weather is equally that, cool.
I think its gonna heat up though.

Today was our first day actually out doing stuff, we took it easy the day we flew in, prepped up for a busy Monday.

So we got up this morning, I made myself a coffee in the hotel room with my own travelling coffee kit, as pictured below.
And made plans to head to the mission, for a good few hours of fun.

First oder of business was Ritual coffee on Valencia.
This place came on high recommendation from many reliable sources, and met my every expectation.
Although they no longer pull the acclaimed Stumptown Hairbender espresso, in favour of using their own blend, I was still impressed.
It was quite bright, in a really pleasant way, intense, but still delicate...it didn't hurt.
Really sweet, like fruity dark chocolate. I will definately have another...........few.
After that I had a Brasil Boa Sorte from their Clover machine, which actually wasn't so great, but I picked up a 1/2lb of Kenya AA to make at home, which I will discuss in a minute.
Annie had a latte, which was still good, but I think the guy on milk must be in training still.

The folks at Ritual were all too nice as well, I think as soon as I asked "when did you guys stop pulling the hairbender?" they had me pegged as a barista.
It was all sunshine from there on, I had a nice chat with a guy who suggested I also check out Blue Bottle coffee, which I planned on, as well as a chat with Eileen, who must be a co-owner, or manager, or some other important title in the mass of 30 people they employ to have her own business card.
We talked Clover for a while, and how almost nobody orders Clover coffee at the Valencia shop, but their 2nd location is a whole other story.
After a good chat she kindly offered to lend both Annie and I bikes, which comfirms to me that being a barista is like being a Free Mason, once you're in the brotherhood, the only escape from accomodating baristas the world over, is death.
Ritual = Awesome.

Then Annie and I toured around the Mission for a bit, ate plates of Mexican food neither of us could finish, bought a book we've been looking for, sifted through Buffalo Exchange until Annie found a suede hat, and some white Minnetonkas, and lastly went all the way down to 826 Valencia (pirate store), only to read the sign "sorry, closed Monday for inventory".
Thats OK, I think I will go there the next time I go to Ritual, which could very well be every day until we leave.

After our tour of the Mission, we came home, and while Annie napped, I pressed a cup of the Kenya, and sat out front of the hotel to enjoy my coffee, my book, and shamefully, a mooched cigarette (I was fucking desperate OK, you can't bring weed on a plane).
I bought a book of short stories by Miranda July.
Normally I don't read, I don't have the attention span for most writing, but this shit is fucking hilarious, and I like that it's all short stories, very little commitment.
It's even funnier if you imagine her voice reading the stories, but a bit distracting, and I tend to veer off into imagination land the second I start pretending things.
Also distracting while reading is a drunken woman, in the presence of her husband, asking me if I think she has a cute butt, while I was sitting on the ground.
It's a hard question to answer. Do I lie and say "yes", and have her husband kick me in the face, or do I be honest and say no, and have her kick me in the face, and then maybe him too, for insulting his woman, and my travel insurance doesn't kick in until the 3rd!!
So I just decided to be honest and say "Im in a bit of a vulnerable position right now, and I don't really know how to answer", followed by the kind of akwardness that people can only walk away from.
It worked.

Then I woke up the princess, and made the bad decision to walk straight through the Tenderloin en route to DLXSF.
The Tenderloin is what Parkdale would be like if crack was free, or beter yet, if you got paid to smoke crack.
I even saw a black mans penis!
I don't think we will be walking through there again.

I was gonna post pics, but this computer is driving me insane.
Dennis, you were right, fuck a Mac, I shoulda bought a pound of weed instead.