Saturday

Sarah bought a new bike! It's beautiful, befittingly.



I'm driving a van with the Girl team from Melbourne to Sydney over the next few days. It's quite the surreal experience.



Went to a pool in a hastily abandoned mansion.







Creepy wedding photos everywhere, along with signs by the guy who squats there that he will beat the crap out of you if he finds you there.



Koston remarked that this was a good rug.





Shredding ensued. I watched, frozen to my seat.





There were some sweet clothes you could just take and wear.



Skate Mental ad, perhaps?



Rick ollied around the corner to decker. Quite the sesh.



Rod presided over the whole thing.



The ugly side of that business. Could be worse.



The demo at Frankston had it's ups and downs due to windiness and the park being to big to see everything. Plenty of shredding though.

Skart

Remember all these killer graphics? There's a great collection of them on display at Steve Gourlay's studio in Prahran. Unlike most exhibitions, they were accompanied by explanatory notes, which was awesome.



Keegan, Blake and Callum. Three guys who like a drink, I mean shred.



Three more guys who like a drink.



I met Sam and Keegan's mate Will. He is a top bloke and even gave me $20 to get home later. I got really drunk, due to the preceding two weeks of detoxing and an abundance of free beers and good dudes.



Callum doing some crazy explanatory performance for his new video on the Guy Stokes channel.



Keegs and Beebs. Did I mention the Girl team is in town? More about that later.



The two sets of shoulders upon which the hopes of Melbourne's skateboard population rested for the realisation of the fabled switch back tail on the big tiles ledge. Trotter holds the title.



This was pretty impressive.



I knew I was missing the last train home as I watched this absinthe thing happen. In the morning, I realised Joey had given me $300 and it had fallen out of my pocket. After speaking with Joey, I figured out he never gave me money in the first place and I must have dreamt the whole thing. Drunkie!

Sonic

I went to see Sonic Youth play Daydream Nation with Sarah. It was incredible.



They played the whole album from start to finish. It was strange because they are all about exploring new territory, but they seemed to lend the material (from 1989) a new, jazzier freeform feel, especially in the breakdowns. It's amazing that the feedback they generated was exactly the same as on the album.



I hope I age as well as they do.





In the encore, Kim rocked out and danced around.



It was killer.

In lieu

What with sleeping in, hawking jeans to the masses and acquainting myself with the wonders of the westside, I've not found time to blog. Priorities! I'm also on a detox type diet, which has made my brain lethargic and less than humorous. However, I have just ingested my allocated caffeinated beverage for the day and also have an article due. Perfect blogging weather.



It was Joey's birthday. I couldn't make it to the festivities, as I was attending the ill-fated one day match between India and Australia at the MCG (more about that later). On Monday, Joey kindly took my brother Pij (more about him later) and I along to the go-kart track they all went to for his birthday to renact the excitement.



Safety first. Well, after a half-assed hair-netted nod to hygiene.



The dude who worked there was pretty good. He gave us the spiel about keeping it clean on the track, much like a referee of a boxing match.



Pij and Joey thrashed me. I think they lapped me three times during our 15 minute run. At first, I was being a tad conservative behind the wheel, feeling it may roll over and I may die, but towards the end I really let loose, pedal to the floor at all times, feeling the slide on some corners. Good times. The guy told us we were very well behaved and regaled us with tales of lap records (which Joey was not far from) and crashes aplenty. When I asked if the karts ever rolled, he told me they do all the time.

I've just remembered we used all our internet at home. Well, I used it all. So photos are very slow to upload. What a shame, I was on a roll.

stuff

I live out on the west side now. It's a bit of a change. My bike broke so now I catch the train in, which really sucks, though it gives me the opportunity to catch up on texting (on the way into town) and MX (on the way back).





The other day, I went to check out a spot in Brunswick with Jason and Sean. Jordan met us there too.



There's heaps there, but we mainly skated this pallet as a bank. So much fun!



I wanted to put it next to the bin and try wallrides, but didn't get around to it.



Documenting shredding with the aid of the self-timer.



Jordan raised eyebrows with a selection of amazing skids on his unfixie.





The tramway takes all types.



Joey fell off his fixie. A continuing theme.



Before I left my employment to become a full time blogger, I helped this fellow put up his art show. Pretty rad!





Sold out basically before it opened. His stuff is pretty bankable, especially after my masterful write-up.



The opening was nuts as per usual. Callum had good footage of Andrew Mapstone skating. Callum also got very rowdy.



This shot of Tom is just after he was doing a 'what's this art stuff all about?' pose.



I met Paul Brabanec! Brett and I were fanning out a bit, reminiscing on the old Grenfell days.



Showing off to Brabanec with the patented step-off bigspin heelflip.



Sam, tre flip.