Max Olijnyk

Roadtrip part 2 - the final chapter

2012-01-13T15:58:00.004+11:00

After our river-crossing hot springs adventure, Rosie and I bid farewell to the gang and hit the road. The plan was to explore the East Cape, which is accessible by one main road that snakes around the whole thing along the coast, with state forest backing onto it. The scenery was pretty spectacular the whole way.

On the first night, we were determined to get some good fish and chips and find a spot to camp near the beach. When I say 'we', I mean I. Rosie agreed, though. This was a no camping area, but look at the horse! Lots of horses around here. People ride them to the shops.

Jackpot! We found this place as we rolled into Tolaga Bay.

They did not disappoint. Wrapped in newspaper and everything. We took them to the beach.

It was worth the wait.

Doesn't get much better than this. Can't think of any suitable puns, but it is a pretty suggestive scene.

Double rainbow! We had spotted one of these on our way in and knew it was a sign that this was the place for us.

We set up camp nearby, between two flowering pohutukawa trees.

Our campsite also was next to a graveyard. Spooky? Not really. I was cool with it. Note the horses in the background. They're everywhere.

We borrowed Sam and Jessica's blow-up mattress to sleep on in the back of the car. It was a bit squishy and ridiculous in there, and to make matters worse, we had lost the mosquito repellent and the little buggers were everywhere! No ghosts to speak of, though.

After a morning swim, we had a bit of a look around the township. It's a nice place! Wish we could have stayed on for a while (in a better bed).

It even had a skatepark! A multi-spined affair.

We drove on, to another amazing bay that starts with T. This one was even better! We swam. The water was cold but lovely.

We had a hot tip that they did big ice creams at the dairy. It proved to be correct. I sampled an NZ delicacy - goodie goodie gum drops ice-cream. Delectable! I also enjoyed jelly tips.

This beach doesn't look that flash, but the water was lovely and warm.

Interesting van

We made it all the way around the Cape in two days. It was a ridiculously beautiful, endlessly winding road. We managed to get a bach (beach house - what's the deal with bach - is that like beach without the e?) for the night in a touristy town at the end of it. It was a cool little place!

Lots of driftwood washes up on the beach here. People make crazy structures out of them that wouldn't look out of place in a Melbourne artist-run gallery. This one got the seal of approval from a passing JRT.

Gen told us to check out the geothermal thingees outside of Rotorua. I'm glad she did, because they are freaking incredible!

It was like being on another planet. A stinky planet.

The shock factor was starting to wear off when we came across this bright lime green lake. Absolutely amazing.

Nearby was a bubbling mud pool, like the swamps of sadness.

We stopped at an exciting waterfall/rapids.

We also stopped in Foxton, the home of Foxton Fizz softdrinks and once the home of Caroline Anderson. It was like the whole town had been art directed by Caroline, in fact.

The enigmatic Mona Rosie

Stopped for chips again at a chip shop Rosie went to when she was ten years old. This impressive tire swing was near the beach. I wanted a go, but there were some teenagers sitting in the tree and I didn't want disturb their summery chats.

Our last beach for the holiday

And that was it! It was a great holiday. Stay tuned for more adventures.

Roadtrip part 1

2012-01-10T18:23:00.004+11:00

Ah, New Zealand. It's all over now. Sayonara, Aotearoa. We're back, safely ensconced in Melbourne life. My feet are on Tess as I type this. But we had some times over there! Postcard times. Let me walk you through some of them.

On new year's eve, we all went to see Sam's band the Phoenix Foundation play. It was the first time I'd seen them live and they were really impressive. I would say that, wouldn't I? But seriously, they were great. Sam told me he spotted me taking photos while they were playing.

Ned, Dins and Rosie

Max squared, enjoying the show.

Jan and Emily were letting their (short) hair down with their mates.

"I love you man"

Backstage VIP area. Sorry Jessica!

Meanwhile, back in the forest near Tom and Averil's, the taggers had been busy.

We packed up the car in preparation for our big road trip. Lulu thought she was coming, but she was sadly mistaken.

We dropped in at Helen's place, where many Scwalkerlongs were still in attendance and up to no good, including Harry.

We connected over an idea to make a huge origami frog, then he and Archie both grabbed my legs when we were leaving. Touching stuff. I nearly fell over while taking this photo. Not afraid to put myself on the line for art.

We drove to Sally and Bruce's farm in the countryside. They greeted us with open arms, fresh lamb and lots of red wine.

Sally is Rosie's auntie. Bruce became a sort of god to us. He kissed me on the head.

Cousin Stu shot this stag. It was the biggest one shot in 2010 apparently.

We slept in the handsomely kitted-out shearers quarters. I couldn't believe I wasn't hungover the next morning! Everyone wore denim shirts because we were city people in the country and that's the done thing.

On our way up to stay in Sally and Bruce's other farmhouse, we stopped for a walk in an old forest, which Bruce described to us as "some good sticks".

Max is a fun guy.

Moody album cover shot

The other farmhouse was kind of creepy

Even the water tank was scary

I busied myself drinking multiple cups of tea and reading Bruce's back issues of Hunting magazine.

The plan was to drive to some hot springs, but this river crossing was pretty much in the dangerous red zone. We were going to punk it, but Jake threw a big boulder in as a test of the strength of the river and it was swept away like a scale model of our car. When we rang Bruce, he surprised us by advising us to leave it until the next day.

So we went back to the house and watched Wedding Crashers.

This hedgehog sauntered past. Very cute. Apparently, if they're getting around by themselves during the day, that means they're a bit sick. poor little bugger.

Went for a walk and saw what looked like a body under a tree. Spooky!

The next day, we went back to the river and drove right over it, moments after this photo was taken. Turns out the car wasn't quite in gear, and we stopped two thirds of the way across, but we made it in the end. However, as we gingerly drove along the crazy mountain road, each car we encountered was smaller and less well-equipped than the last, leaving us in no doubt to what we were - a bunch of cowardly city kids. Not even Bruce could save us from that harsh reality.

After all that, there were a bunch of people in the hot springs. We almost turned back.

But they politely left as soon as we arrived. We bathed to our hearts' content. It was pretty sweet.

Afterwards, we went down to the nearby river and dunked ourselves in the freezing water.

I was feeling pretty darned relaxed, though I had to stay alert because of the heroic driving and such.

Then Rosie and I went on our road trip, but I will save that for next time.

Wairarapa

2011-12-31T11:46:00.002+11:00

Hello again. On Xmas day, we drove through the Rumatakas to the Wairarapa, to Tarureka estate, the huge, amazing place where Helen lives. Did I get all that right? It was to be a congregation of the "Skwalkerlongs" and their accompanying hangers-on (ie me). There are quite a few kids involved, not least Henry, pictured here with a scary mask.

Anyway, when we got there, there was a full-on water war going on, with Archie at the helm.

Henry also was instrumental in the drenchings.

Much of our time was spent preparing food and eating food, in the grand loft.

Bloody good food it was, too.

Ned and I got the same awesome gift in our crackers: kiwi bottle openers! His is black, though. Mine is silver.

We all made a 'creative' present, which were dispersed amongst the guests. Gen got Emily's amazing "Skwalkerlong" family tree, which I appear on!

Speaking of Gen, she made an awesome John Key-ring. For those out of the loop, John Key is the Prime Minister over here, who likes to eat dagwood dogs. Archie was the lucky recipient of this one.

Speaking of Archie, he made a batch of Xmas cookies that I was lucky enough to receive. Thanks Archie! I put in a copy of my photo zine. Emily got that.

Summer pudding, just one of the many desserts we pounced upon during the course of the few days.

I got Rosie a badminton set for xmas. Here's Rosie and Gen having a secret practice session, with me spying on them through the bushes.

Sophie and Max brought Pimm's supplies, perfect for the Great Gatsby vibe.

Gen and Rosie

We had a big group photo taken - this is the view from the group.

Helen and Rosie

Max and his meat

Henry

Gen doing some recycling

Sunshine

Jan with Max, Archie and Soph

Roger and Ned

Late night card session

Rosie and a Ralph present (I think?)

Lotsa boules

Rosie got a chest infection and was confined to the couch for the last day or so. She's still sick, but getting better.

Heavy cards session

It was Jessica's bday, so Rosie and I looked after Ralph for a bit. It was great for a while, he went to sleep and we just drove around, even stopping for a quick wade in a river. Then he woke up when Rosie was out of the car getting some fruit and he freaked out because he thought I was kidnapping him.

Ned and I checked out the nearby Featherstone skatepark - not much chop.

Ned hadn't been on the board for the best part of a decade, but got right back in the swing of things. Though the trick count wasn't high, the well trained eye can tell from this shot that he has a very good style.

That's about it for now. Too many photos! Happy new year!!

Christmas week

2011-12-30T15:25:00.002+11:00

Yesterday it looked like this out our Wellington window:

Today, it looks like this:

So I've finally got around to uploading some photos from the past week. This is Maggie. She is a great dog, very fast and clever.

This is Lulu, who reminds me of a person sometimes.

Tom draws a cartoon every day for the newspaper.

I experienced the wonders of the Warehouse

And skated this park, was great fun. I love oldish parks that have got all weathered and rough, then have been painted over so they are sort of rough and slippery at the same time. Will logged some rollerblade footage of me shredding there (on a board). Confusing sentence.

Ralph is pretty amazing

He loves Auntie Rosie

This is the antipasto platter that Sam constructed - it has ruined all future platters. Note the very photogenic Jessica in the background.

Averil's turkey, wrapped in muslin cloth and looking a bit like a big crab. It was very baconny and delicious.

Everywhere's a party when Ralph's around!

xmas eve mayhem

Slinky madness!

Milly arrived!

The reaction to Rosie's infamous marmalade joke.

We went for a walk somewhere in there too (Sorry, I'm switching between two cameras, it's a bit confusing).

Xmas morning on the balcony

Beau - the best cat

Tom burns all the wrapping as he goes. Once he burnt all Averil's presents by mistake!

Then it was time to trek over the hill (crazy mountain range) to Helen's place. But that is another story for another blog post. Besides, I've got to go and watch Tintin. Oh, what the hell, here's a taster:

Merry xmas!

2011-12-24T08:10:00.003+11:00

It's a xmas miracle! Sam is back on the board! Well, he was for a few seconds, before deeming it a stupid idea and walking to Danny's instead.

I was sick last weekend, it seems my body decided I was done for the year a week early. So instead of working on my tan at suburban skateparks, I made a little book of my favourite photos from 2011. Dion very kindly agreed to printing out the bastard on his amazing riso printer.

"Happy accidents" ensued, such as this mash-up of Conor and Bonnie with Sam. This is to become a collector's item.

We printed the hell out of it, then all there was left to do was bind the sucker and get it out to the people.

I went on a quick mission around the local hood, slipping the little book under unsuspecting doors. Jason happened to be walking out of his door at exactly the moment that I appeared. Another xmas miracle!

I also dropped in at Grey Gardens - Penny's HQ.

The next logical step was the Compound - Scottie's HQ. Here he is adopting his stoner persona.

As per usual, we did an impromptu glamour fashion shoot.

My Santa-like rounds were cut short when I realised we had to clean the house, pack and fly to New Zealand within a couple of hours. I will deliver more books upon our return. The downside of going on plane-like travels is always leaving our little muse Tess behind. She is in safe hands with the lovely Sarah T.

At the airport. I just can't get enough of these things.

BAM! We're in NZ. Here's Tom, Ralph and Rosie, with parents and fellow Scotts Sam and Jessica in the background.

Being a grandpa must be so much fun

We dined at the most picturesque cafe in Wellington.

Sam took us to a pretty incredible South African food wholesaler place. He is kind of a big deal there. They swung into action as soon as he appeared, offering us coffees and tastings of various cave aged cheeses and expensive, buttery pork products. Pretty good!

Later on, Rosie had me losing my shit making Ralph (the dog) play songs on the guitar.

Ralph (the person) and Jessica appear to be non-plussed, but Rosie had them eating out of her hand. Ralph is yet to warm to me, but I am determined to win him over.

We did a spot of xmas shopping in town. Spotted these beauties.

Took Lulu for a walk around Tom and Averil's place.

It's getting pretty xmassy here. It's perfect Max weather too, nice and bright and cool.

Pot lucks

2011-12-13T15:42:00.003+11:00

On Saturday a beetle load of us went to Fawkner for a skate. As luck would have it, there was a competition happening. Prior started trying this frontside rock and decided he had to get it. There were quite a few slams and near collisions with a young girl and her dad, but he got it in the end.

Sweet victory!

The same day held more skating and more surprises. We are filming for a clip of epic proportions. Here we are on an expedition to a cool full pipe way out in the sticks.

Turns out it was the wrong full pipe.

Prior went on a little lone mission to check out another prospective spot. He was, quite rightly, freaking out about snakes the whole time. We enjoyed it.

Amanda had a birthday pot luck on Sunday arvo. It was a lovely gathering.

We tried to keep the eating to a minimum though, because we had another pot luck dinner to attend at Liege and Jane's place! Back to back pot lucks!

It was also a lovely, very Christmassy gathering. The food was awesome.

I felt a bit like how Reggie looks by the end. Grey and unapologetically bloated. Not as cute though.

Brisbane

2011-12-01T07:41:00.003+11:00

G'day! The travel has been running thick and strong at our place of late, what with last week's trip to Sydney and now a long weekend in sunny Brisbane! Rosie got a sweet gig writing about a house there, so I tagged along for the ride. Fortunately, our trip coincided with schoolie's week.

Sammy picked us up from the airport and took us to a trendy cafe for breakfast. What a host!

As luck would have it, we bumped into Elissa and Ben.

After inspecting Ben's impressive skateboard collection (he is a skateboard distributor and has literally thousands of them) and borrowing Elissa's car, we hightailed it to the art gallery like the cultural couple we are. They had an awesome Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition on - my inspiration in blogging.

At GOMA, there was a really cool show by Yayoi Kusama, who I had never heard of before but am now crazy about. This was a weird song she sang about people killing themselves.

We couldn't take photos in the other rooms, but this one was ok for some reason. She made a gallery white and everyone gets a sheet of coloured stickers to put wherever they want. Great idea!

Rosie was loving it.

It's a good spot.

After we checked in to our luxurious hotel (I'm serious!), Ben swooped in and took me off for a skate around our old stomping grounds of the Brisbane CBD.

There was a parkour class going on at red tile. We had a ball. Footage forthcoming!

We walked to the Valley for dinner at this cool Harajuku gyoza place. You have to wait outside and get a little bit grumpy, but when they lead you in everyone starts shouting in welcome and you cheer up immediately. The food was great, as was the sake!

After dinner, we searched out Matt's bar the Woodland. It's down an alley and quite hard to locate - Matt had to come and find us to show us where it is. Once he got us in there, he threw some Lei's around our necks and set about getting us drunk.

Great to see you Matt! We watched a cool '60s style band play, drank about 10 drinks and stumbled back to the hotel.

Remember this tunnel Marty?

Up bright and early, we went to a little cafe next to Matt's shop the Outpost for a bloody good breakfast.

Our mission for the day was to the Sunshine Coast, to go to my favourite beach at Peregian. This is the track from the car-park.

You have to eat these suckers pretty quick at the beach. You can see why the Calippo has been so successful, with its wind-proof sheath. We went swimming and hit a couple of other beaches. The less said about the lunch we had at Noosa, the better. Sunshine beach though - amazing!

We went to Ben and Elissa and Sam's place for a BBQ dinner. Turns out they live on one of the top 3 xmas light streets in Australia!

This isn't their house, by the way.

I thought this looked a bit like a Howard Arkley painting.

Angel feature.

The next day, after Rosie did her work and I read through the skate magazines Ben gave me, we hsaw the sights on the citycat.

I thought this was the Go Betweens bridge, but I was wrong. It's pretty cool that there is a Go Betweens bridge, anyway.

After some more roaming, we headed to the airport and caught a plane back to our home in Melbourne. Goodbye for now, sweet princess Brisbane!

Ah, clouds.

A few more.

Lightning Sydney trip

2011-11-25T07:36:00.003+11:00

As part of my half an hour of fame (I think I've been afforded an extra 15 minutes), I got to fly to Sydney for a night. I was immediately struck by how pretty the place is, and set about taking photos of nearly every street I walked down. This happens to be right near Trent's place, where I was kindly put up for the night.

We wasted no time and headed to the Shakespeare Hotel (Trent was shocked I hadn't been there before) for a business meeting over a $12.50 steak lunch. I went a little hard on the English mustard.

After lunch, we headed over the road to 'Shaky bowl' for a skate. It's a tricky one to adjust to, but hilarious and quite enjoyable indeed. Trent is good on the board.

Speaking of good on the board, Joseph showed up! It's been a while between drinks - Joe is now a dad and runs his own art game. It was great to see him. After about half an hour, it started pissing down rain. It was not to stop for the rest of the time I was in Sydney.

Another street, on my wanderings. Maybe it's because I'm reading the new Murakami book, but I felt like I was in Japan. The funny thing is - I've never been to Japan.

I entertained idle thoughts of relocating and living in this hippie-ish abode.

The main objective of my trip was to attend an exhibition of photographs from the Sony campaign. I got there early and checked out the scene. it was a tad surreal!

I met Mark Drew, who was also a part of the whole thing. We had our photos taken and I felt uncomfortable.

My big three prints

Things heated up later. These guys came along, as did Doug and Kashi. Good laughs. I was also involved in heated talks with Sony and marketing people, who had been staring at my face for the past month or so and wanted to meet me. They liked me, which is nice.

I gave Doug his red shorts that I had attempted to put a pocket in many moons ago.

This is me with Jamie from Vice magazine. My lordy we got drunk.

Morning debrief with Kashi

I wandered around in a hungover daze, walking in the rain to a gallery, which was shut.

This is where it all happens.

These purple flowers are from the Jacaranda tree (I think). They are absolutely beautiful and don't make me sneeze like the trees in Melbourne.

Here's Trent in his office, making calls, being nice to me even though I was a bit sick on myself and his couch the night before. Thanks Trent and Nadia! Sorry!

Ah, Doug. Look at him! He picked me up and drove me to the airport. What a champ.

Me me me

2011-11-11T07:30:00.004+11:00

Plenty of other stuff has been going on, but I had to report on this development. I'm on a tram stop!

We checked it out last night. It's the product of this thing I did for Sony, where they gave me a sweet camera and some $$ to take photos for them.

You can see all the photos and a clip here or whenever you're waiting for a tram. In this shot, I'm explaining to Tom how good the deal was from Sony.

We were in the city to see Amber's opening at Utopian Slumps and also the opening of Lou's new window gallery called Chapter House Lane.

'Twas the golden hour.

In less narcissistic news, I finally met Charlie, the product of Anna and Ben's unholy union! He's been alive for about two months and he is cute!

Torquay clip

2011-11-09T19:16:00.003+11:00

An audio-visual accompaniment to last week's coverage of the Torquay trip. There's a crazy storm here right now! I had a funny experience at a day spa yesterday. Bye for now!

Rest in peace Todd

Long weekend

2011-11-02T21:43:00.004+11:00

Guess what? I went away for a crazy weekend with the lads, skateboarding and the like. Here's a group shot that Jay insisted on taking. I'm glad he did.

Here's Jay, the Torquay local, along for the ride even though he had a shoulder operation a few days previously.

This is Eddie, eating a mango next to the sink, the crazy bastard.

That's Jason, catching up on my infectious journalism in the Sunday paper. Nice one, Jase!

That's Dave.

Dion, ever the businessman.

And grandmaster Pete, having a bit of a skateboard.

Marty also came along for the ride, driving us about and such. He's quite a funny character.

He's also quite handy on the board. This park was great! We called it the botanic gardens. It has a forest in the middle of it!

It has a massive bowl that is fantastic fun. I convinced Dion to have a go at it, a move that paid off with dividends.

It was quite hot. Dave was concerned he was getting sunburnt. It's funny to think of Dave wearing a hat. It just doesn't seem like something he'd do.

Dave is good on the board.

Here's Marty again.

Dave, fs air after I fell on the left side of my bum for the first time.

Dave again. I'm besotted.

This was funny. Dave went over to have a chat with Jay and Eddie, but our new (rather drunk) cohort Jordie went ahead and skated between them.

Eddie and Jay, telling asian jokes.

Here's Dion's first 50-50, pretty cool!

We all stayed in a house that Pete had organised. Jason and I shared a room, which meant I took photos of him while he slept, amongst other things.

Breakfast of champions

Dave led us in a yoga session, which made me able to walk, and eventually skate, in spite of my extremely sore bum and everything else.

It was wet, so we visited the DC mini. It's a pretty decent mini ramp in a shoe shop! It made me like DC a bit more. We even joked about buying some shoes on the way out, but thought better of it. There were loads of kids skating the ramp, whom I studiously ignored (uncharacteristic!), but Dave coached with aplomb.

Eddie somehow pulled down the safety net, rendering the ramp illegal and the session over. Hilarity ensued.

Here's the ocean! No surfing this time round.

Jay managed to get us a session at this private ramp. It was awesome and fast. It was also where I fell on my bum for the second time, rendering me useless for several days.

What a terrific barbecue we had that evening!

This was one of the most hilarious moments of the trip. A few of us decided it would be funny to take lots of photos of Pete soon after he retired. Dave got the best shot, on Eddie's camera. Oh how we laughed!

We stumbled home and I managed to limp to Rosie's dance recital, which she and her friends have been preparing for for months. It was spectacular! They came out dressed as mummies, dancing to Walk Like an Egyptian. Half way through, they transformed into Egyptian queens and kings!

Celebrity judges.

All the teams were amazing, but I thought the 'Tomb Raiders' should have at least got the best costume award. Ah well, dancing was the winner on the night, etc!

a skatepark, a backyard mini, a game of football and some food

2011-10-25T09:59:00.005+11:00

Everyone knows the best new skatepark is Fawkner. We went there on Sunday expecting the usual gaggle of scooters, rollerbladers and assorted skate tribes, only to find it relatively empty. This ollie was one of Eddie's lesser manouveres and I can hardly walk now. I should really do some yoga.

Dion put a ramp in his backyard!

It's pretty whippy and amazing.

Everyone smiles when they are in its vicinity.

Jake did a feeble stall on the 'extentch' - no mean feat, I assure you!

It was the final of the rugby world cup, so we assembled at a pub with $3 pizzas to cheer Rosie along.

It was a real nail biter, or head holder.

They did it! Awesome!!!

update

2011-10-20T22:20:00.005+11:00

I got a sweet gig taking photos for an ad campaign! All because of this blog. So I've been taking literally thousands of photos over the past couple of weeks, but I can't use any of them and my blog is suffering. The irony! I thought I'd put just a few of the ones I can't use up, to keep things moving.

I went to Adelaide for my mum's 60th birthday.

It was great fun!

It was good to see all is well at that end. Anna is hypnotising Penny,

and Pij is an expert photographer like his big brother. Here he is falling into a box.

We went to a show in the country. I didn't get this guy to sign a release form after I took this photo of him eating a sausage on bread.

Just one of many amazing photos of Sam that didn't quite make the cut. Sorry, Sam.

Speaking of the GP, he's only gone and got himself a pimping bachelor pad!

It came fully furnished.

There's been a lot of this kind of action, too. That's right, these guys are making a film about me blogging! Luckily, it's Raph's brother Johann and my new friend Derry, not Ryan Seacrest and a big filmer guy from Survivor.

This is a great photo of a guy who looks like when Tintin disguises himself, but I didn't get him to sign a release form, so here you go: photographic magic.

Here's Derry, capturing my life. Hey Derry, shouldn't you be pointing that thing at me?

That's more like it!

Derry again, on my cruiser board at our final filming session at the museum. That's all for now!

Bday weekend

2011-10-04T14:13:00.003+11:00

Let's kick things off with a photo of Joey playing with an air horn. He got some decent volume out of that thing - really annoying stuff!

Here he is again, amongst the crowd at my birthday drinks! We had the back room at Long Play, which is conveniently located just a few thousand centimetres from our place.

Sam having a taste of my espresso martini - one of several delicious cocktails I ingested.

The lovely Romy, with Amanda propping up the window in the background.

Jase

The lads kicked in and got me some new kicks! Thanks lads.

Andy and Duncan.

I must have been getting pretty abstract by this point. Rosie looks on adoringly, while Emilio is obviously amazed at the previously unrevealed depths of my intelligence.

The bar closed eventually, so a few of us hit the streets in search of... something.

That something turned out to be more drinks, at the Gasometer.

The worried look in designated driver Sam's eye speaks volumes.

Must have been getting a bit late. Thank god for that espresso martini!

Our gracious publicans let us stay on for a few. Sorry if I was ridiculous, guys!

The rest of the weekend was spent in a horrendously haungover state, which is not to say it wasn't fun. I just stopped taking photos, which is a shame, because we set up some massive obstacles from Joey's work at the museum and skated the absolute crap out of them.

Lovely Rosie came to pick us up.

I managed to snaggle us a couple of tickets to see Jonathan Safran Foer talk on Sunday night. Quite the parallel (in terms of family background and interests) life to my own. He had a lot of interesting stuff to say. I liked him!

weekend

2011-09-27T08:36:00.001+10:00

Tess and I were exploring down by the creek the other day, when we came across this skate spot! I fell in the creek in the process of getting closer to examine it.

A posse gathered at our place for a skate in the wilderness. I can't recall exactly what we found so amusing here. It may have been Tim's cap.

My skate coverage is slipping. We hit three parks, of which Yea is by far the superior. I believe Joey is about to fall over here. He does that a lot, it's quite unnerving.

Jason is back from a month away in his Canadian homeland. We are all stoked to have him back, none more so than Marcelle.

Dave performed an amazing alley-oop manouvre over the hip.

Scenic stuff

That evening, it was the Gasometer's first birthday celebrations, which I have been looking forward to for some time. Strangely though, it was full of people I had never seen before - younger people than I. They all wear glasses and beanies and talk about clothes and look at each other furtively. Scottie tried to put on a brave face.

Part of an ongoing series shot by Scottie, a sort of goodbye as he bailed out from the evening. Rosie is suitably disturbed.

We had some fun times, wished Kody and Liege well, ate some ribs and drank some great free beer, and kept it pretty sedate. I guess I was just expecting some sort of Cheers like craziness, but it's bigger than me.

We went to a BBQ at Kate, Alana and Nadia's house, which used to be my house too. Tess was loving the attention from two of her faves - Charlotte and Bonnie Bee.

Kate's mum had brought a swag of free make-up for all the ladies in the house, which Georgia wasted no time in getting involved in. "Straight to the blog" she observed as I clicked this shot. Indeed.

It was good to catch up with old housemate Alana, who showed me her artwork and interesting chord playing stringed instrument.

Banjo jamboree

2011-09-20T10:00:00.004+10:00

It was that time of year again - banjo jamboree! Dedicated viewers will remember my coverage of the 2009 jamboree, though not many of you will recall my entry from last year. That's because we didn't go. It was raining.

Anyway, we went this year! In the midst of feverish packing, hurricane Bret showed up and hilariously took over our lives for a while.

On the road again, the newly crowned queen of driving was at the helm. That's right, Rosie got her provisional license! Tess had no idea what was going on.

We stopped off at Kyneton for a minute, which Tess quite understandably presumed was our final destination. She made the most of it alright, tearing around and getting all outdoorsy in the middle of a creek. Little did she know what adventures were in store.

Banjo jamboree!! Here are Indigo, Chris and Marcel, enjoying a beverage while sitting around lazily - basically the essence of jamboreeing. Tess is blissing out.

A few things were noticeably different this time around; for one thing, Roopa and Sarah have a new camping buddy - South!

The good doctors Che and Kyle don't jamboree by halves.

Two of our faves - Banjo himself and Georgia! In a dress! It was nearly time for the barn dance.

Chris, however, wouldn't make it to the dance. He took that sign super seriously.

Indigo stayed in also. Rosie on the other hand was dolled up and ready to strip the yearling or whatever it is. Hang on, that's a dance move, you know.

The pub was jumping.

The barn dance delivered.

Roopa and South were favourites on the dancefloor. South occasionally stepped in with the handclap component of the dance moves. Such a happy time. How often do this many people smile like this at the same time?

Afterwards, we visited the pub. Every room had a jam session going on.

This back room was a hot spot. We decided to go to the window on the other side for a better view.

En route, we found Georgia and Kate tuning this young afro dude.

The view from the window was good.

A guy took lots of photos of Rosie and I looking through the window. Hopefully I will get hold of them.

Katy's friend Stacy revealed her Tamworth roots with a bout of spooning that left the old musos speechless.

We headed back to the campsite to brush our teeth and go to slee... I mean drink heaps more beers and party on.

Tess slept outside, of course. She wouldn't be comfortable burrowing into our bedding.

The next morning, we engaged in our traditional jamboree ritual of sitting around comparing notes on the night just been and laughing at the contents of the Sunday paper.

The dogs were loving it.

Another great jamboree. Let the camping season begin!

Later on at Clifton Hill, I spent a sparkling couple of hours with good folk including Shane and Mike.

On the way home, I dropped in and said hello to Tim and Charlotte, who just returned from a trip abroad. Good weekend!

In other news, I updated my folio site. Have a look if you're interested!

Faces

2011-09-13T11:15:00.003+10:00

I'm running a bit late this morning. I mean, I can do whatever the hell I want on my day off, but there's a lot of stuff I want to do. For one, I want to get my website back online - holy hell! Lord knows how many clicks I'm missing out on, even as I type these wise words.

Max Creasy had some pictures in a group show on Friday night at Light Projects in Northcote. We trooped up there and ate some tacos. It was freaking cold. Over there in the corner, you may spy his Maxness, chatting away to your friend and mine, Sam. If you don't know what either of them look like, ponder the two ladies in bright blue coats.

Riding with Scottie is always a joy, particularly when you find yourself meandering down laneways not designed to accommodate cars and the only art rock song ever written about me comes on the stereo. Magic!

Rosie and I drove to the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday, to rest our weary bones in natural springs, in the rain. It was lovely, but no photos were clicked. Michelle gave us a tip off for the best chips she has eaten in Australia and we hit up this classic joint.

The guy has been there for 36 years he reckons, and didn't even flinch when I told him of Michelle's glowing recommendation to his establishment. He knew he was the best.

That's the good stuff! Rosie says this is how fish and chips are in New Zealand.

This would make a good t-shirt design for the Serps.

Head down there. It's in Rosebud.

Fruitless antiquing followed, with amusing, disturbing sidenotes. They saw us coming a mile off.

Dogs licking themselves bookends.

Genius! I would've bought it for Sam but it cost $60 or something.

Good mask.

Banjo jamboree is coming up this weekend. I could've been the envy of the campsite with this number, but once again, it cost like $500.

Fruitless skate on Sunday in relentless gale-force winds. Adam Elford was still smiling and jumping around at this rough as guts spot.

I noticed this orchid flower looks like a Chinese emperor. Imagine the emperor telling his couturier to make him look like this flower.

Another Max cooked us gumbo at Jake and Gen's on Sunday night. Good rue!

Sophie is loving having Frank Black back in her life. They brought him along in his little hutch for a visit.

Spotted this underbite missing dog flyer on our walk this morning. He's been gone for a while now, I hope he responded to some treats from the right people. Remember that bit from the Mad Circle video? That was good.

Lisa sent me the new issue of New Planes. Thanks Lisa!

It has some interesting stories in there, including one from Amanda. I wrote a story to accompany a photo Andrew Long took and it turned out marvellously. It's about the world trade centre going down, unknowingly coinciding well with the ten year anniversary.

Two photos

2011-09-06T10:03:00.001+10:00

I don't have much to tell the world this week. Straight off the bat we have Tess in her favourite '80s film clip morning spot.

Secondly, it's Rob with a smith grind at Coburg.

Halubki

2011-08-30T11:50:00.004+10:00

When we were in Adelaide, my dad translated a Russian recipe for Halubki - aka freaking delicious cabbage rolls, like my grandma used to make.

I made them last week on my day off. I carefully dismantled a whole cabbage leaf by leaf.

Because my hands were covered in a delicious (to Tess) mixture of pork, beef and onion, I neglected to take photos until the rolls were getting a little pan fry before going into the pot.

All piled up and with tomato sauce on top to stew in, then more cabbage leaves on top to seal them up.

A couple of hours in the oven later, voila!

Ah, delicious! Even more tasty a couple of days later, mind.

In other news, I went to visit Joey at work. Mike had put up a poster of Joey riding around on his bike in Paris.

Joey had returned the favour by putting up a picture of Mike and his dog.

We went for a romantic drink by the beach in Joey's native St Kilda. He's on the mineral water, which, according to Joey, tastes like piss. I had a beer.

The next day, Tess looked like she was sizing up this tree to chop it down. Turns out there was a possum up there.

We met up with old friends Ben and Elissa and new friend Sammy, over from Brisbane town! Rosie was in Sydney for the weekend, by the way.

We went back to St Kilda (I know, I've lost my marbles) to go to this off-leash dog beach Joey has been telling me about. Utopia!

Staunch north-sider Tess was not keen at all.

Joey and Mem's hound Gigi on the other hand, was in her element.

Later on, we met up at the pub for dinner. Sammy was dressed for the occasion, with some locals mistaking him for a visiting hip-hop performer of some description.

Unfazed, I engaged Sammy in a red hood staring competition. He won.

It was great to make his acquaintance. Awesome to see you guys!

Sam and I continued to 99 Problems, where Dion furnished us with exotic drinks. That spiced rum is delicious!

We continued from there to the Gem, where it was Sarah and Andy's engagement party!

To be safe, I had skated to the pub instead of my usual bike ride. Didn't stop me from having a couple of minor spills on the way home.

The next day, Pete freshened my wheels with his belt sander.

We went shredding in Melton, where lo and behold, we bumped into Jordan! Here he is on his way towards trying a trick.

Then on his way back again. What a guy.

Oh, my new jeans are up on the NTS site - have a look! I'm trying to set up a web store at the moment, but please drop me a line if you're interested in buying a pair from me directly.

Animals and kinfolk

2011-08-23T10:17:00.004+10:00

Last weekend, we jetted over to Adelaide - the home of my kin. We went because Rosie had to write a story about a house there for a nice architecture magazine. We felt very fancy and professional, but still found time to hang out at my dad's house and play with Mandy.

We were only there for one night, so we assembled for a family dinner. It was great.

We visited our old friend Cate, who has built her own house up in the hills. Very inspiring stuff!

Cate was looking after a motley crew of dogs. This one had a crazy unhinged tongue, apparently acquired from an obsession with licking furniture.

We visited the zoo, where Pij and his girlfriend Tess are basically running the place. Here we have one of the Pandas sitting in a moat, eating a branch of something, looking at Pij.

Here's Tess feeding some red pandas. Her phone started ringing while she was in there and Pij told her to answer it. She nearly answered it before he told her he was joking and not to answer it, because a bunch of people were standing there taking photos and such. Turns out it was her brother calling her to tell her he was engaged!

These monkeys were amazing. Swinging around like incredible skaters.

Then they sat there staring at us like the fools we are.

Back in metropolitan Melbourne, where trends are hatched and tended to, Tess and I headed to 'the Compound' to make our next assault on the world of fashion. Levi (Jeremy's dog) had seen the photos of Tess in her dog coat and, understandably, repeatedly tried to rape her. Tess was amused.

Meanwhile, Scottie and I were setting up an incredible fashion shoot.

Tess took a seat on one of Scottie's special red chairs and looked on.

Understandably, Scottie put a white sheet on the special red chair.

The (hot) photos are of my new jeans that you can buy if you so desire. I will be putting them up on the Note to Self site shortly, fingers crossed.

Went to the pub to say goodbye to Jason, who has gone to Canada for a month. Jason took this photo.

Here he is, clutching the orangutan toy Rosie and I bought him from the zoo. Bon voyage Jase! In other news, many other people have gone overseas for exciting trips. In other news, it's a year since we went to New York. Oh, the depression!

To get myself out of the non-travel funk, I went for a big skate on Saturday at the wonderful new park in Fawkner. God it's good. We got there early, while there were but a sprinkling of overly confident scooter wielders. Duncan amused us all at lunchtime by attaching his luxurious moustache to a huge lamington.

Next stop was the polar opposite of the icy smooth curves of Fawkner: Reservoir. I battled a 360 ollie for an hour or two, rendering me basically disabled for the next 40 or so hours. Mike Martin, in the meantime, prowled about the place like a laconic panther.

Checked out Duncan's backyard mini on the way home.

It has a deadly feature of a missing part of platform, which has already claimed a couple of poor souls. Should be a great spot for some springtime shreds.

Went and had a burger with Condor and Bonnie Bee, who is impossibly cute. Bonnie aint bad either.

When I got home, Rosie had given Tess a bath.

Behind the scenes

2011-08-09T08:51:00.003+10:00

As shown in my previous posting, Tess and Soph were in the Herald Sun on the weekend. It was the result of several hours planning and me taking the morning off work. We arrived early so Tess could get a feel for the place (take a crap) and noticed that Molly had been there before us.

Sophie arrived next, which Tess was very happy about. Soph happened to be staying the night at our place when the gig came up, so was basically trapped into doing it. Thanks Soph!

The photographer was pretty nice, really. He got them to do some pretty lame stuff, but we all knew that was on the cards, didn't we.

In between takes, Tess would break into brief bouts of crazy chase with Christina's dog Walter, defusing all on-set tension.

There's Christina, wrangling Walter as Tess is doing her thing. The best bits were when Sophie would hold Tess and let her run to me, so the photographer could get action shots.

She got a bit knackered by the end of it and kept trying to go to sleep on the bench. Job well done!

Later on, it was the opening of the denim exhibition at Mr Kitly.

There were all kinds of artistic interpretations of denim, including this crystal type structure that I was quite taken with.

My Woody Allen jeans were a big hit, of course. However, the hook they were suspended from fell out and we had to get a big ladder out to fix it. All part of the show.

Later on, Scottie attempted to insert Fia into a dumpster.

The next day, we decided Tess needed to get away from it all.

We went to Castlemaine, the home of many antique shops with many office chairs.

And nicely worn in saddles

Graffiti HQ

Tess was loving it.

As was Rosie.

Me too. I love the inside of hedges!

These canons scared the hell out of Tess. She barked at them for quite a while.

We decided to stay there for the night and found a b&b that let you have a dog. It was pretty awesome, a bit like 60 minute makeover with a porn vibe.

Indeed.

Massive spa bath!

Statues and candles and such. The scene was set.

We slept ok, though Tess got us up three or four times due to all the rabbits hopping around outside. The next morning, we went into town to check out this truck and also go to the farmer's market.

We bought the shit outta it and reflected upon our yuppie lifestyle while heading to a winery for a tasting.

A little bit pissed, we scoffed down pies and prepared for the journey home.

It was raining.

dog coat frenzy continues unabated

2011-08-07T17:31:00.003+10:00

I know it's getting a bit repetitive, but it's just too amusing not to report. The Tess pro model coats I'm doing with Best in Park are causing a media frenzy the likes of which have never been seen in the history of fashion.

First we had the Design Files write up, which was pretty sweet.

Then there was a piece on ThreeThousand by Joe Miranda, a bunch of 'likes' and such on the book and now, the pinnacle of exposure - a puff piece in the Herald Sun!!

Sure, it doesn't mention Note to Self and yep, Tess looks like a scared possum, but Soph looks great and the masses are informed. It's a game changer. Rosie, Tess and I just got back from a weekend away - that's another story, but also an example of how rich and successful we are now. More to come.

On the subject

2011-08-03T20:06:00.004+10:00

Good old Jason showed a David Lynch documentary at Long Play. It was quite a Lynchian event in the end.

For some reason, all the skin came out bright blue. Quite amusing indeed, especially when Jason tried to fix it.

Eventually, we just settled back and took it in, Avatar style. Lynch, what a great chap. Jason, what a great chap also.

Back at the office, someone left a contemporary art piece sitting around.

On the subject of work, we went to see Penny (who I worked with until recently) interview Mike Mills (who I interviewed recently) as part of the film festival.

Amongst the star-studded crowd were these two characters: Scottie and Tim.

The Forum is a crazy place. Mike Mills is a good guy. His film Beginners made me cry.

I've been quite busy at every turn of late. One thing I've been working on is a contribution to the Denim exhibition, opening this Friday evening at Mr Kitly.

It was exciting seeing what everyone else has been up to, and to look through the amazing catalogue Dell has made. I look forward to Friday night to see it all!

Speaking of jeans, I got a new batch of 'Max' jeans! They are great. I am wearing a pair right now. They are a touch more roomy in the leg than the last lot, and have a few more features. Made of the same good stuff.

There will be some pairs for sale at the show this Friday night if you would like to have a look. When I get Scottie to photograph them and stuff, I'll put them up for sale on the internet and so on.

Speaking of the internet, Tess has been causing quite a stir with her modelling skills in the new dog coat. Have a look at the Best in park site! or the Note to Self site for more professional photos than this one of her at the park this morning.

Also, I was interviewed by Sunday Ganim for the Blackmail this week. I am chuffed!

Links

2011-07-27T08:16:00.004+10:00

These winter months pass by with nary a blog post, but 'tis not for want of trying. It's not as if I'm not still getting up to mischief, au contraire. In the place of beautifully composed photos of Jason, Sam and co at the pub or skateparks, I have a couple of links to share.

Firstly, I spoke to artist, designer, director and dog lover Mike Mills a while ago and wrote an interview for the new dog-centric site Four. He seems like a lovely man and the interview link is this sentence.

Ed has just launched his site called The Heavy Mental. It is awesome and I have written two things for it so far: an interview with Lev Tanju of Palace Skateboards and another interview with Fergus Purcell aka Fergadelic, a very inspiring fellow. A link to the site is in this sentence. I hope to write more for both of these guys soon.

I am also making something for a show all about denim opening next Friday! Dell Stewart curated it and it's at Mr Kitly in Brunswick.

Meanwhile, new jeans are on the boil! As well as the chino pants made in cahoots with Passport, that is.

What's this fellow up to?

Why, making the labels for my new luxurious jeans!

Ah, what the hell. Here's Sam and Jason!

Austere

2011-06-13T17:41:00.001+10:00

Since I've started working with the new camera, people have been saying I've been getting too big for my boots. Well, maybe they're right. Yesterday I found myself saying that I was going for an 'austere' look with my footage. Dave asked what that word meant and wrote it down on his hand, presumably to use for his comedy routine.

Goings on

2011-06-07T21:45:00.001+10:00

A couple of weeks ago now, Zach had a get together to officially bid farewell to our shores yet again, before heading back to his native NYC. Will Brown was in town for the occasion, looking suitably slick. It is the look of the moment.

It's persimmon season! What a relief! These ones look amazing, but taste quite unpleasant.

The tree is in the new backyard of none other than Conor and Amanda - the prodigal son and daughter have returned! They're not related! Who are they (and Andy) looking at I wonder?

It's Bonnie Bee!! She is loving Melbourne, and gave me a rowdy tour of her new digs.

Chewing on some mixed spice, lying on the rug. Doesn't get much better than that.

Flash forward a week, and Beatbox had set up shop at the velodrome down the road from our house. Dutifully, we trundled along, only to discover a seething hotbed of bike enthusiasts! They were having a competition, riding around the track, through the mud and over fences. This little 'un was a particular crowd favourite.

A group of us did a skatepark crawl on Saturday, winding up at this beauty in Langwarren.

But the real hot news story was Scottie's bday celebrations at Handsome Steve's. Here he is with his mum, making a slightly awkward speech after we sang him the song.

Penny led the charge on a ghost tour of the convent. I went along, skeptically may I add. I don't believe in no ghosts.

We made our way down a stairwell that was blocked off with a chain, to a pitch black corridor with a door at the end of it. I don't mind telling you, it gave us the spooks. We did a giggle and run, then thought better of it, and headed down the corridor all brave like, made it to the door and heard mens voices just outside. This tipped us over the edge. We hot-tailed it back to Steve's.

Things had moved along, the crowd whittling away and Scottie stepping behind the bar with the proprietor.

Pouring a frothy one.

Not a good pour. That may have been my work.

I engaged in the dangerous new craze of planking.

Sam and Rosie capably took over DJ duties.

Sam found a few doozies, such as 'Satan is Real'. Steve is quite the connoisseur.

Ah, Steve's.

Things got pretty foggy from thereon in.

Skate and dance

2011-05-27T08:09:00.003+10:00

Last weekend, we checked out yet another strange little bowl that Pete read about on the internet, located way out in a new housing development that until a few months ago, must have been just bushland.

Predictably, it was very strange and enjoyable to skate.

Melton drains were close by, so we stopped by for a look at the scenic spot.

Unfortunately for us, the dam has been overflowing, rendering the drain unshreddable. Good news for the farmers!

It's a crazy place

So we went to the Melton ledge park instead. Pete made a video of the day which features me dancing like a terrorist, among other things.

We realised we were running late for our evening engagements. The traffic was terrible on the way back, and to make matters worse, Rosie's mum Helen was waiting for me at our place! Fortunately, Tim got me back and we made it in the nick of time - to the Body Electric dance spectacular!

Rosie's group, the Dead Ants, were amazing! So were all the other groups. I particularly enjoyed the Doggs (dancing to Snoop) and the Flies (dancing to the Cramps).

Here's Rosie's group in video form:

Body Electric: The Dead Ants - Ant Music from Max Olijnyk on Vimeo.

We think Ben Strong should be the host next time.

Rosie did all the Dead Ants' Day of the Dead style make up - amazing!

Milly and Jo with Dead Ant Rosie. She also made her own costume.

Rosie and a very proud, slightly threatened Helen.

Stopped for a swift burger at Danny's on the way home. Noone blinked an eyelid.

Heide the next day

It was the first time I had been inside the old Victorian home. Such a beautiful place. I liked Barry Humphries' fork sculpture.

Lovely stuff.

Tasmania trip part 2

2011-05-20T08:00:00.004+10:00

I woke early and did a little pre-breakfast Selby work.

We drove up (or down?) the coast, stopping briefly at this place because it looked so good.

This policeman was standing out the front, squeakily waving and freaking everyone out.

Shy mermaid. The others waited in the car.

Stopped at some crazy Tessellated rocks. Ah, nature, you crazy thing.

Ridiculous!

Speaking of nature, this was an arch or a blowhole, maybe just an arch. We went to a couple of blowholes, but the party was sort of over because they had eroded away to just big, bizarre holes.

Went for a walk with backwards woman.

Jake and I strayed to dangerous, non-official lookouts

to see this! It must be said, there was a perfectly good, safe lookout further on that we should have waited for.

Another cool thing. Quite spectacular stuff over there, especially considering we were prancing around in the snow the day before.

Equally as spectacular were these tempura mushrooms. Though we decided they were more just battered mushrooms, they were absolutely delicious!

Sundown on the way back to the ranch.

Here I am on the final morning of our stay. I wore this cardigan from Heddie and Peter's collection for our entire stay. Very sad to say goodbye.

Got right into the swing of things.

Our final mission was sort of the whole point of our trip: MONA. This place is freakin' incredible! It's hard to describe how huge, epic, weird and funny it is. This water wall dropped all the most googled words. I can't remember the names of any of the artists, sorry.

This skull is made from beetles and is holding a bird in its mouth.

This is a mummified cat.

Gen and Jake checking out a Kandinsky that happened to be in a room with some crazy swinging poles with lights on the end of them.

I saw a lady asking this sculpture if it was okay

There was so much stuff there. Our friend Laith even has a picture in there.

We took a short break for a delicious lunch we had bought from a gourmet deli on the way to the museum, including some of the stinkiest washed rind brie any of us had ever encountered. It smelled terrible.

There were so many rooms full of crazy stuff this eccentric gambler has bought.

A highlight was this machine that makes poo. It smelled exactly like the cheese from lunch.

It has a poo every day at around 3pm. We just missed it!

Thought Joey might like this one.

I loved these ancient coins.

This was the final room. I won't spoil it for you, but it was pretty cool.

One of many mummies. This is the end of my Tasmanian communication. It was an amazing trip! I have to go to work now.

Tasmania trip part 1

2011-05-18T08:18:00.002+10:00

I hadn't visited Tasmania for over 20 years until last weekend. We got super cheap tickets and stayed at Gen's mum's place outside of Hobart.

Gen was happy to be back.

Heddie and Peter live in an amazing house that Peter made himself.

Here it is from the outside. It's right on the water, in a big forest. Pretty good.

They're rebuilding the old shack on the property.

Should be ready for our next visit!

Gen and Heddie, examining a scarf.

Jake was in top form for the entire trip, right from when he realised he had left the heater on at home with some undies drying on it in the taxi to the airport.

Zissou-style underwater study centre

We were pretty sure this was going to be amazing.

But this guy was the best thing we found in there.

Rosie pointed out this fork in the road.

We stopped for pies and headed up this mountain

Which was covered in snow!

I flew into action. It was a crazy time.

Snow woman?

Lovely stuff

Jake in Hillary mode

As if the day couldn't get any better, we stopped at the amazing West Hobart snake run. I skated this with my brother every day on our last trip. It is an incredible place and is about 40 years old by my estimation.

Trying a move on the infamous Thrasher wall.

So happy!

The snake run feeds down the hill and ends up in this big bowl.

They don't make 'em like this anymore.

I really love it there.

Nice coastline stop.

Then back to the house for a few rounds of Jenga.

Heddie cooked us a delicious roast dinner.

Peter entertained us with his fiddle and handmade mandolin. He oftened answered questions in song.

New pants

2011-05-11T22:08:00.003+10:00

After some time in planning, I've produced some pants with the fine Australian skateboard brand Passport. They are made from nice, stiff (but lightweight) cotton, perfect for skating in.

We called it 'Note to Self by appointment to Passport', sort of because it was like I designed Trent and myself some custom pants, but we made 100 of each colour instead of just one. It's also meant to be a bit like how the royal family have brands make things for them 'by royal appointment'.

Trent made this little logo for the project, combining his Passport plane, star and anchor with my little snip snips I hang around my neck and cut threads with.

Both navy and sand colours should be available online and from stores in a few weeks. Take a look at the Passport lookbook to see the rest of Trent's range and hopefully, I will have some new jeans ready soon, too!

Alive and cooking

2011-05-09T08:59:00.002+10:00

If the trees weren't reflected in the still water, it would look like Tess was staring out over a misty gully.

It wasn't until I examined this photo closely that I noticed the duck has an olive in its beak.

I attended the opening of the Sister Corita show at Neon Parc. She was a nun who made these amazing bright posters in the '60s. Highly recommended.

I caught up with these guys at the opening. Ackroyd, Tree and Luke G.

It's been a while since I passed the possums. It's just not on my way home most evenings. Cute!

On Saturday, we drove to a deserted skatepark in the countryside. Then 3 vans pulled up full of all the bearded shoe reps. These guys roll deep; they even had Joey with them (in lycra) and a couple of kids who went off to the playground!

Niddy tumbled to the bottom of this bank and hit his noggin. Poor Niddy's noggin.

Then we drove to a newish bowl in Cockatoo, where the air is cool and sweet. The locals are very polite and call 'I'm in!' before they take a turn in the bowl. Look at Chris, he's loving it.

Black and white Pete.

We stopped at Knox on the way home, where Jason and I had a heated physical discussion with the nearby drainage ditch. Jason left this shirt at the park, by the way.

The park is fun. Look at Chris up there, weeeeee!

Whoooooshhhhh!

We shot the cover for the new Minor Threat album.

The broken board

2011-05-03T10:43:00.002+10:00

The other day, we found a skateboard in the creek. I pulled it out and had a look - it was cracked in the middle, severely waterlogged and caked with dirt and rust.

Some kids had rigged up an ingenious vehicle with a baby's car seat sitting on top of a skateboard and were rolling down a hill nearby, really having a ball. I clued them in on the skateboard I found in the creek and they rushed over there to see what the cool guy had told them about. Rosie looked on, bemused. The next day, the board was still there, sitting on the creek bank. It was useless. I guessed it had been left outside by someone after it broke, then washed away in the recent floods.

This morning, only half of it remained. I suppose the last bit of pleasure it could offer someone was the satisfaction of breaking it in two. I wonder if it was those kids. The little rascals.

What strange magic brought it to our doorstep? One can only ponder.

Andy and Heather get married

2011-04-28T08:13:00.002+10:00

The other day, my old mate Andy got married in the park.

His bride Heather rocked up, flanked by several generations of her tribe.

Young Olivia sprinkled petals on the ground.

Before the ceremony began in earnest, Heather handed her bouquet over to the most logical recipient...

Ed!

They promised each other things with the guy

It was Milo and Sofia's first wedding experience

We hightailed it to Joe's for a celebratory drink. Rosie was resplendent in her rich woman's outfit.

Liege and Jane were also looking very smart. I had an orange tie on, by the way, courtesy of Scottie.

The reception was up the road at the Northcote Town Hall. We ate delicious Italian food for dinner and drank hearty bottles of Coopers beer.

Faces from long ago. Morrissey and Tim!

If Andy and Tim ever get their shit together and start that electro-pop duo, this could be a profile shot for their myspace.

Jason pointed out I looked a lot like Barack Obama. Whatever you say, Jase. Maybe it's more in the 'leader of the free world' vibe.

Andy and Heather had their dance to, oh craps I can't remember. It was a good song choice.

The lovely Rosie and the teacherly Jason.

Jen keeps Sam at arms length.

Happy marriage Andy and Heather!

Movie night

2011-04-14T22:41:00.002+10:00

I come up with most of my good ideas while I'm out walking Tess. Just last week, I was thinking about the new Real video that Ben is distributing and how I'd like to see it for the first time on a big screen with my friends instead of on my computer by myself. It occurred to me that Long Play, the bar around the corner that Mike lives upstairs from, has a 30 seat cinema out the back. I made a couple of calls and arranged it then and there.

I invited people I go skating with regularly (or would like to), and a lot of them came along - including Liege and Eamon.

Tim and Jason shared a distinctive look and a flick through the fancy book that comes with the DVD.

Sam maintained he was completely disinterested in seeing the video and skateboarding in general, yet requested me to hold off from beginning the screening because he was running late. No worries mate. I was also very chuffed to spot Pete among the crowd.

Chris and Marcelle, who I've been lucky enough to roll with on the regular of late.

Callum and Keenan, both of whom I don't get to roll with very often. This doesn't mean I don't think very highly of both of these characters.

It was a case of quality over quantity.

Clinking glasses as the opening credits rolled. It was a sweet set up and we were enjoying ourselves.

Keegan rolled in about half way through the film, then left before the end of it, Hollywood style.

The heckling and sparkling calls hit fever pitch around the midpoint of the film.

We discussed the finer points at the bar afterwards. Jake Donnelly and Busenitz have the best parts in my opinion, but it's a keeper all round.

The bar is damn good. We requested songs off various records which Carly the barmaid happily put on for us. Well, Jason requested them. I don't know about Nosferatu from Ethiopia or whoever he is.

Kati hugging Cathy (at least I think it is, the memory's a bit hazy at this point).

A fabulous evening all round! Hopefully, we'll make it into a more regular occurrence.

I took this photo on my walk home, thinking 'I'll write something about how it was sort of misting rain on the way home'.

Card locked!

2011-03-23T07:47:00.003+11:00

The last couple of weeks have flown by, relatively unchecked. You see, I thought my camera was broken. 'Card locked!' it screamed at me every time I tried to use it, even after my repeated attempts to fix it by turning it off and on again. So I worked at Golden Plains and only managed a few iphone photos - which frankly, don't cut it.

It's not as if there wasn't stuff to take photos of. For instance, when Beci and I had a few drinks and went on the ferris wheel.

We were seated in a carriage thing with these two, Mel (I think!?) and Jamie, he of Architecture in Helsinki fame (the band). They were really nice, big fans of Raph's burgers and even had bought some of my jeans! We had so much in common! We stalked them for a while afterwards.

Good view of the place from that ferris wheel.

Closer view of the stage while Os Mutantes played. They were pretty good, but it did seem like they were a bunch of session musicians playing Os Mutantes songs. That's what my friend Jamie from Architecture in Helsinki thought anyway, and I agreed with him.

The vast majority of my time was, of course, spent working in the Beatbox. We killed it.

I was tired for a whole week after that. Then one day, I was lamenting to Scottie about my camera's 'Card locked!' horror story when he grabbed it, flicked a tiny switch on the memory card and made it work again. 'Amateur move, Maxi'.

Hallelujah! I could take photos at my work's national conference day at our new office in Collingwood! This is the crowd giving Penny and I their undivided attention as we launch into our talk.

Penny gave a great, impassioned talk on writing, which everyone asked for notes on afterwards. 'Tell it, don't sell it' and 'think of the third thing' were amongst the inspirational highlights. I gave a talk about taking photos of a grey bag, which was slightly less awe-inspiring.

After we finished up with the talking and the listening, we started on the drinking and the skating.

Penny was really into it!

Here's a letter from Bob Hawke's secretary after a young Penny suggested Australia and the rest of the world would function better without money.

Scottie came along to our dinner, where we sampled a cocktail called the 'Karate Kid'.

Here's Rachel, putting on some lipstick, or lip balm perhaps.

The night culminated at our very own karaoke room, where Frunch had dressed as Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Barrie dressed as himself. I had never sung karaoke before, and kicked it off with a duet with Scottie of 'Be with you' by Mr Big.

Penny is quite the consummate karaoke pro, with impressive performances of several numbers throughout the evening. The crowd loved her 'Livin' on a Prayer'.

This is Alex from Sydney, a great chap. Not to be confused with Alex from Melbourne.

Kane was also a very impressive performer. There's Wilfred in the background, and the other Max, the one who knows about money.

It was our Alex's goodbye night from work, as he's off to New York to live, the bastard!

Another karaoke pro, Rosie gave a beautiful, ego-warming rendition of 'Stand by your man', though she complained the version they had was in a different key to the original.

The next day, Bonnie Bee had her first birthday in the park! Olivia celebrated by carrying Bonnie on her head.

Both Bonnie's parents turned up, which was a relief to everyone.

Cake time!

Cool kids, chillin' on the bench, hatchin' plans.

Some guys performin'

Photography

2011-03-08T10:13:00.004+11:00

'What's been happening?' I hear you ask. Well, Ben was here last week, but you'd know that already from watching my hard-hitting debut into the world of hard-hitting documentaries.

'What else has been happening, though?', I ask myself, since I can't hear you ask anything anymore. Well Scottie and I did a quick camera-off the other day, just to test the relative merits of our equipment. First off, my portrait of Scottie:

Next up, Scottie's photo of me. With this evidence in front of me, I admit it could be time for an upgrade.

In the razor department, that is! Speaking of photography, Stuart helped me create a piece of art for an exhibition to raise funds for the Lost Dogs Home.

It's a photo of Tess running! This is the first layer of printing on the Risograph machine, which is a sort of colourful photocopier.

Stuart changed the ink cartridge thing and we printed a pink layer on top of the teal, creating a wonderful picture that will hopefully sell and look great on someone's wall, reminding them of the joy of life, like Tess does to me every day when we go walking.

The show is at Somewhere gallery on Wednesday night from 6.

Speaking of shows, Conor was back for a flying visit, to open his new show at Block Projects. Go and check out that big icy rock picture, among others.

Across town again, The Selby aka Todd Selby was doing a talk to launch his book of photos of people's houses. Tom weirdly managed to be next to both Todd and Conor in my photos. Good on him.

The talk was well attended, due to Todd's huge fame and popularity, but also probably a lot to do with the incredible interview I did with him only days beforehand.

The inevitable outcome of attending numerous art events is you wind up getting a bit tipsy and having adventures with these characters.

The next morning, I awoke and made Rosie and myself a cup of tea. While waiting for it to brew, I performed a Selby style photo shoot of our house. Here's the couch area, where we watch TV and guests sleep on (sometimes at the same time).

Here's Tessy having a little sleep.

My portrait of Sam, situated in the toilet.

More toilet action.

Another loungeroom shot, complete with our original Marc Baker piece.

Fridge time.

Stooge.

Old herbs and condiments - in the kitchen, no less.

Larger spoons and cooking utensils.

Some glasses. Note the smaller ones with ships on them, which I enjoy a snifter of Jamesons on ice from on occasion.

During the shoot, Tess switched positions from the rocking chair to the couch, just keeping in line with the morning sun. The tea was lovely.

I must have been a tad hungover, as we went for an epic skate and I forgot to take any photos, save this one of Marcelle buying a cake.

And this amazing barbecue made of cake, complete with smoke!

What's up? with Ben Ventress

2011-03-04T11:23:00.003+11:00

Ben came over for a day or two earlier this week. We went for a breezy skate at Coburg and Reservoir, then met the gang at the Gasometer for dinner and drinks. It was good to get the band back together. It also presented me with the opportunity to begin my series of probing documentaries based on my friends: 'What's up? with Max'(Tom J came up with the name for the series).

Joey's bike ride

2011-02-18T10:09:00.002+11:00

Last weekend, it was Joey's birthday. Well, that's not strictly true - his birthday was the Thursday beforehand. As part of extensive celebrations, he gathered a few of his mates and rode to Mornington and back.

This was my view for a lot of the ride. I took it upon myself to take the last place (very important spot).

We stopped at Mordialloc skatepark for a beer and a brief review about Joey's new video camera.

Tim was the only other geared passenger, as the other chaps rode fixies or single speeds. They're crazy.

This is the top of Oliver's hill, just outside of Frankston. I made it up there first with time to spare, thanks to my gears. It's called progress, people!

We made it to our destination, a ridiculously expensive pub overlooking the beach at Mornington. One of the Tim's (there were three) advised against eating carbs for lunch, as it would make us feel sluggish for the ride back. We said 'nuts to that, make mine a parma!'. It was lovely.

The way back. I felt quite sluggish at this point.

Going down Oliver's Hill wasn't nearly as difficult as going up it. Well, for those of us with gears.

Visions in lycra, two Tim's show the contrasting vibe at Mordialloc on the way back.

But we made it, no worries! We stopped at Joey's to crack some bubbly and compare sunburns and bum complaints.

Happy birthday, Joey!

Un voyage au réservoir

2011-02-11T13:43:00.002+11:00

Summery times

2011-02-08T14:55:00.003+11:00

Ahoy there! No, I'm not a seaman from the past, I'm just saying hello in a funny way. A couple of weeks ago, we went to stay in the country with Anna and Ben. Nice swimming holes abounded. Look closer to see my position of choice.

Saving you the trouble, there I am, luxuriating in the spoils of recent floods.

We stayed at Anna's mum's new holiday house - it's pretty darned nice up there in Kelly country.

Look at Tess - she's loving it.

Also along for the ride were Rob, Ang and their child Lucia. She is quite young but still managed to get amongst the action, doing things like having her first swim ever and stuff like that.

Meanwhile, I was leaping off rocks like noone's business. Check my review of Polly McQuinn's swimming hole here

Ben and Anna were keeping it adult/contemporary back at the shore.

Do you remember the first time you ever ate watermelon? This is it for Lucia. She spotted me enjoying a slice and I inspired her to give it a whack. That's the way I tell the story, anyway.

Conor stayed with us last week, which was awesome as per usual. We embarked on a road trip to visit Dr Jay in Torquay, who is now completely hooked on surfing and living next to the beach.

It's quite infectious. I went for my first ever surf!

Early morning surf mission the next day.

Jay has these hilarious mu-mu type cloaks you put on after coming in from surfing. Dr Jay, what a bloke. I have a self timer shot of us 3 all in mu-mu's, but this shot is better.

Ah, what the hell!

Back in the sophisticated confines of the city, Conor had his book launch in conjunction with Rob and Sinisa at Rainoff books. Sofia attended the merch table to great effect.

A tad camera shy, what can you do, she's only young.

Who should rock up but Dr Jay, en route to Japan on a snowboarding trip! I love Dr Jay.

Tim bought me a nice beer at dinner. Delicious idea!

Leah, Tim, GP, TH

I did a casual 12 hour shift in the Beatbox at laneway festival with Fryman and the gang. It was pretty awesome: great crew, great burgers, great dad jokes all day.

Raph in his element.

The beatbox, taken as I stumbled homeward clutching a black doctor (can of coke).

But it was not to be, as it was Jason's bday celebrations at the Gasometer.

Harriet, bday boy, Mel, and my lovely Rosie. And some beers.

Jason was playing music, all very good, despite no Dire Straits, which I was desperate to hear for some reason. Money For Nothing, what a song.

At first, I was a bit tired and grumpy, but after about 5 pints I was feeling just fine. Adam was to my left.

Isn't Sam handsome! So is Conor, but this is a particularly good shot of Sam, wouldn't you agree?

Shona giving Scottie the cold shoulder

The bday boy. Happy times, Jason!

Liege buckled his knee yesterday. Get better soon, Liggee. You too, Mike. Mike broke his elbow off.

The sale and the rest of the weekend

2011-01-25T07:59:00.003+11:00

The day of the sale had arrived. I felt well prepared, even managing to bake some ginger poofs for the occasion, featuring portraits of Sam and Jason.

The space out the front of Joel's studio was really nice! We set it up with a couple of plants, some signs Rosie printed out and of course all my old stock.

I was a bit nervous that noone would show, but people were filing in from the very strike of ten. Rosie and Tess were perfect assistants.

Many a friend dropped in to say hello and give Tess a scratch, like Liege.

And Riley, who had some great stories from his camping new years.

Comedy pairing Jason and Ed, reunited!

John, who I coincidentally bumped into at a cafe the day before.

Sofia and Miles hit the ginger poofs pretty hard.

Sam and Adam, who had just returned from a holiday in India. Just Adam, that is. Sam's been knee-deep in code.

Nadia's cafe is just around the corner, so she dropped by during her lunch break. Chris popped over the road to get some money out and narrowly avoided getting run over by Kyle Sandilands on his way back! Luckily, he made it back in one piece to tell the story and give me some sweet cash.

I nearly sold out of everything! To celebrate, I went and had a a burger (well, I had two) at Raph's Beatbox. He showed us his Burger of the Year award, which he had been presented with the day before. Well deserved.

Later on, we wound up at a very big party at Malisha's house. If you made your way through the crazy dancers and fashion crowd, there was a crowd of folk up the back, like Keegan.

I took this of some people doing something amusing on the way home. The resulting picture told me two things: 1) my camera is on its last legs and 2) it was time to stop for a bit.

Sale update

2011-01-21T14:23:00.002+11:00

I've been busying myself making new things to accompany the not-so-new things that will be on offer at tomorrow's sale.

For starters, I've made a batch of selvage denim iphone cases. These things are pretty sweet, and age nicely like a pair of selvage jeans - especially if you use your phone as much as I do. They accommodate both iphones - 3 and 4.

I've also reinterpreted the classic supermarket 'Green bag' as the 'Blue bag'. The intention is to make a strong, good looking shopping bag that will age well and hook into those little spaces at the counter so the supermarket people can pack your bag with your purchases.

This is the other side of the Blue bag - note the selvage edging on the handle!

Hope to see you tomorrow! I'm off to bake some ginger poofs.

Note to Self sale!

2011-01-19T07:35:00.003+11:00

This Saturday, I’m setting up shop at the end of the 96 tramline, just a couple of doors down from Milkwood café in the Smiley McSlidey studio front room. I’m selling a pile of top shelf Note to Self men’s and women’s jeans (as well as samples, one-offs, bags and iphone cases) for really cheap prices. Normally, these beauties fetch somewhere between $200 and $300 a pair – that’s because they cost a lot to make, then the shops I sell them to have to make a profit too. The only reason I’m having this sale is because I’m getting some new ones made, so I need money to pay some people to make them for me.

I can’t make them all myself, because it would take me ages and besides, I have other things to do! Not saying I’m above making jeans all day (it’s a noble profession), but, well, you know, it gets a bit repetitive, hot and noisy.

Drop in for a bargain (and a ginger poof). One pair for $70, two pairs for $100. You heard right, yes, crazy prices. I’ve gone mad! Tess will be there! And Rosie!

What can I say?

2011-01-13T10:56:00.002+11:00

G'day Australia. As I sit at my dining table, the rain pouring down outside, washing hanging on the toe-catching trestle, the TV tuned to coverage of the floods in Brisbane and muted from the comical strains of Karl Stefanovic, I think to myself: time to blog.

I realised that in all the fuss before xmas, I forgot to cover a few important events. One of these was the launch of Mel and Georgia's amazing calendar, featuring photos of semi-naked blokes set against collages made from National Geographic magazines.

They held the launch at this awesome bar that I would love to write up for work, but I can't because it's in some chap's backyard.

It was nice to see a few faces I've missed lately, particularly Georgia.

Tim is Mr July! Jason and Rick look on approvingly and some might say a little enviously.

It was Callum's 21st birthday before xmas also. Quiet a crowd had gathered at his house, just down the road from our place.

His dad serenaded him with bagpipes, and Syd made a special short film of Callum skating. There was heaps of great food. It was really nice.

Scottie's back from NYC in a big way. Voltron is forming again, even if he does still have a bung leg.

On a whim the other day, we went to taco Bills for their half-price margarita Friday. Turns out the deal is a crock, but their full price margaritas aren't half bad!

They give you a ridiculous hat if you buy a jug.

Shona dropped by and drowned her babysitting sorrows.

We only got two hats, but we all took turns wearing them, because they're so good.

In other news, Tess has been well. Here she is, inspecting a makeshift bridge over the creek.

We went to see one of Rosie's faves Lawrence Arabia play two nights in a row. He's quite a talented fellow, complete with trademark NZ dry wit, tunefulness, skinny legs and spot on social commentary.

Bret and I went and ate pho - it was delicious.

Chatted to Joe on the internet, even virtually met his son Ellwood. Amongst other things, we discussed the new release from his Izrock pressings of Keegan's photo book Hot Dudes.

I visited Keegan and had a look at the book, which is causing quite a stir on the internet. It's great. He also gave me some orange shoes.

holidays again

2011-01-05T12:52:00.002+11:00

We've just returned from yet another of our holidays, this time to Adelaide and back again. Read on for plenty of hilarious (and cute!) antics predominantly based around Tess.

We drove over to Adelaide in one day. I picked Rosie up from work at 11:15 and it was on. We must remember to pay the e-tag thing. This was a quick toilet stop in the middle of Australia somewhere, complete with a locust storm like in the TV show Monkey (no, not Monkey Magic - that was the chorus of the theme song). Tess got more than she bargained for when she ambled into a pond to cool off. These ducks started chasing her around! Seems they were trying to protect their young or something.

One of my new year's resolutions is to collect photos of pun-based businesses and create some sort of amazing calendar or tote bag collection come December. Submissions welcome!

In Adelaide, we reunited with my family and did stuff like hit the beach.

Anna and Penny, who didn't take too kindly to Tess muscling in on her turf. Though they did have some fun, it must be said.

Every year when we ask my dad what he's planning to cook for xmas, he says, 'Not much. A few salads. Some chicken. And a ham...' and so on. It's quite an impressive operation.

Joy and D getting stuck into some crackers before the guests showed up.

I'm also getting into photos of gloves this year, finally.

Xmas dinner

I managed to fit in a quick roll at my old local, the West Beach skatepark. The vert ramp has been resurfaced and is as amazing as ever, though someone had waxed a section of the transition!?

Ran into Steve Wilson in the little shop next to the park, and met his kids Daisy and Maxx (with two x's, unlike my solitary one). He gave me a copy of his band the Slimeballs' CD (which features a photo of him grinding the vert ramp while playing the guitar!) on the proviso I listened to it loud. True to my word, I put it in the car stereo on the way home with the volume turned up around the 20-22 mark.

Taking a walk at a good track.

Koalas aplenty!

One of the highlights of the stay was a rousing game of french cricket in the backyard at my mum and Anna's house.

Ball retrieval.

Next stop: Rendelsham, the tiny town where I spent my formative years. This is the cricket pitch where I spent a lot of time honing my skateboard moves. It's been since rendered unskateable, along with the gutter drainage thing up the road. Apart from that, the place is pretty much unchanged. Very pretty, but not really the place for a skateboard enthusiast.

However, nearby Millicent now is home to a surprisingly good facility. I couldn't believe it.

Neither could Tess. 'Nearly as good as Newport' she said, though she lamented the lack of uneaten chips.

I went through a few boxes of my old stuff that I had forgotten existed. This Star Wars fighter (the Luke one, shit I can't remember the name, I'm slipping!) was inherited from my cousin Jason when he died.

Box of formative tapes - had to throw them in the bin, in spite of their significance. Trying to cut down on nostalgia this year.

Next stop: Johanna Beach, our regular haunt, for a spot of camping.

Tess was up to her usual tricks, skulking back to the campsite, sausage in mouth.

Her belly was extremely swollen. She vommitted profusely in the tent one night, though I think by this point she was handling her excessive food a bit better.

Some friendly skater folk were camping next to us, allowing me to take photos like this, supporting the illusion of our wild new year's eve.

The beach was the focus of much of our activity. Tess really hates kites, it seems. They enrage her!

It's a pretty spot.

Our campsite was significantly improved from last year. For one, we got a white and red beach umbrella for shade.

Also picked up a handy little cooker, making lovely things like coffee a reality.

Rosie, in our faithful tent.

We played a bit of Scrabble Scramble, a bastardised travel version of Scrabble. Being completely out of the grips of phone and internet reception, it filled the gap our iphones usually fill quite nicely.

Rested and refreshed (but somehow very tired!), we're now back in Melbourne.

Meredith

2010-12-14T22:05:00.002+11:00

I worked at the Meredith festival over the weekend, in Raph's Beatbox.

We arrived the day before it started and got a sweet camp spot. Me and Fryman put up Raph's hilarious 'baby boomer' tent, also known as the 'Taj Mahal'.

Business was brisk at the Beatbox all weekend. We made and sold a lot of good food and also had a lot of laughs.

By the end of it all, we only had fries left. People kept buying 'em.

A lot of the time, I was cutting up tomatoes, washing lettuce and 'pounding cow' (making patties from big bags of mince-meat, which I always seemed to be carrying when I saw the Hari Krishnas from the tent next door). I also made the coffee to keep up staff morale.

Working with customers is fun and sometimes nerve-racking. I was tongue-tied for the first half hour and kept saying words like 'mate' and 'hi' at the wrong point in the conversation. But after a while, I slipped into it and started enjoying myself - it's a bit like performing on a stage, I imagine.

The campsite had expanded exponentially, a mass of guy ropes, cooler bags and driza-bones.

One night we couldn't find the tents, because Raph's Taj Mahal had collapsed in the rain.

When I wasn't working, I mostly lay in the tent eating fruit and biscuits, reading Steve Martin's autobiography 'Born Standing Up'.

I also listened in on people's conversations as they sat around being hungover or drinking.

A happy coincidence, I ran into Milly and her friends one night and hit the Pink Flamingo bar for a couple of cocktails. Ed and I returned there the next night to a very different scene, which he likened to a place set up immediately following a natural disaster.

Raph let me escape the box to watch Neil Finn play as the sun went down on Saturday night. It was really beautiful! I was frustrated with the people standing near me who carried on talking and making boring jokes, but they paid for their tickets and I didn't and they're probably really nice people.

It got pretty muddy at some stages, but it didn't bother me or anyone else that much.

The man of the match was unquestionably Fryman. Raph and him have a special relationship, illustrated well in this shot taken on Sunday while packing up.

We stopped for our traditional meal at the pub in Meredith, where it became apparent we were all a bit knackered.

Gingernuts, Gayfag, Cohen and the beach

2010-11-23T11:32:00.002+11:00

Hello everyone. The other day, I got it into my head that I wanted to cook up a batch of gingernut biscuits. After procuring the ground ginger, I mixed up a batter of sorts, using a recipe from the internet but improvising wildly to keep it punk.

Without the aid of regular flour, I lavished the mix with a bit of self raising.

They came out a bit fluffier than a textbook nut, earning them the title 'ginger poofs'. Delicious.

Not long after the poofs came out of the oven, I drove over to Elsternwick with Sam and Tess to visit Tom 'Gayfag' Walsh, for the hell of it. Tom, as you know, is highly skilled on the board.

We skated a surprisingly functional pre-fabricated park for an hour or so. Sam looked on, offering the ridiculous trick suggestions and actually very beneficial technique pointers he has made his trademark at such occasions. Tess ran about eating scraps of food and repeatedly stealing a man's tennis ball. A good time all round.

Saturday brought a trip to the famed Hanging Rock, to work for Raph in his Beatbox Kitchen.

My chauffeur was Sebastian, or Seb-o as he is known in 'the box'. He brought a hell of a mix CD (to which I am listening to now, I think this is Danzig), as well as bucketloads of his characteristic skewed charm.

Although we worked like dogs (or much harder than dogs, if you use Tess as a barometer of hard work), there was much merriment and fun to be had. In this shot, Hannah from Neighbours is talking to Aaron (a newcomer to 'the box').

The line-ups were pretty crazy throughout the show. My role as 'Fryman' ensured I didn't exactly see much of the show, but I did relish performing my tasks to the tones of Paul Kelly, then the man himself, Leonard Cohen. What surprised me was these people were standing in line as Cohen played, you know, 'Bird on a Wire' and 'Hallelujah' in an absolutely beautiful setting. Wouldn't you just take a seat and enjoy it? Good burgers, I suppose. I cooked about 400 servings of fries.

Raph on the grill. It was good to be back in 'the box', plenty more to come this summer.

The box by night.

I took a walk to the toilet towards the end of LC's set, pausing to take in 'So Long, Maryanne'. Not bad at all.

On Sunday, Rosie, Tess and I went to the beach.

It was bloody lovely.

Tess loved it too.

Well, hello there!

2010-11-11T13:59:00.003+11:00

It has been a while. I'm sitting here at the table at home, on the computer. Listening to music by Frank Black, my old fave. Tess is asleep on the old couch. Let's kick off this blog update with a shot of some people who were kind enough to accept the flyers I was handing out for Dion out the front of an Ice Cube concert.

Mavie is up to his old tricks, screening movies in the park guerilla style. For halloween, he chose Beetlejuice.

Quite a crowd gathered, to the joy of my unfocussed lens. Screw you, spellcheck, I like two s's in unfocussed. Is that wrong?

Tess definitely has two s's in her name, and she sure loves a movie screening in the park.

We've had a few storms, causing interesting flooding of the track.

Our walk was cut short this day.

One very rainy day we drove to the warehouse for a skate, before that was encroached by creeping puddles too.

That's right, it was halloween. Marcelle kept finding costume ideas amongst the detritus of the warehouse.

Sam and I put together some last minute outfits that turned out quite well in the end. Sam was a mummy and I was Sam.

Mavie as a very convincing Beetlejuice.

Riley's secret Riley growth!

Dave was a great handy man, and Andy took our breath away as Bubble'o'Bill.

But outfit of the night went to Tim's highly disturbing half man/half woman.

Jason 'Sleazy Aal', Harriet's dead cowboy, Georgia's troll doll, Mel's ghost and Sleeper's Laura Palmer also get a collective honourable mention.

Chris and Marcelle

Action shot

I went with Joey to skate the new Cranbourne skate shed, hallowed turf indeed, the proving grounds for one Scottie Cameron, etc etc. The new street course sucks!

But the bowl is tops.

We flailed around for a while, scared out of our wits.

The foam pit is a hilarious addition, utilised to great comic effect by Joey (clip forthcoming)

My mum came over for a few days last week, which was lovely. We went around doing stuff, sat around doing not much, and ate at Beatbox on Friday night.

I have been missing all the social events of late, but am determined to correct the situation. Dropped in on Z Man's exhibition - not the opening, mind.

He had described it to me via email and it was exactly as he described. The pic to the left is called 'a big fuck you', if memory serves correctly.

This flickers on and off slowly, to great effect.

Raph has expanded his burger empire to the rooftop of Curtin House in the city, which is also where I work. Very tempting stuff, but I keep it to one a week. Nice to pop up there for a chat whenever the mood strikes me. He had an opening do this evening just been, it was a grand affair!

Charlotte was there, feeling my pain on the hayfever front. It's ridiculous!

Dion casts a disapproving (or is it menacing?) glance my way, while Sam explains something in the background.

That's all for now!

Tess and creek

2010-10-27T20:36:00.001+11:00

Here's a short film I made about Tess and the creek.

New York to Reservoir

2010-10-17T15:16:00.002+11:00

I promise this will be the last time I mention New York, until the next time we go there, that is.

Off the grid

2010-10-07T12:11:00.002+11:00

It's true, I have had a case of the post-holiday slump. It's inevitable, you spend a couple of weeks traipsing around buying sunglasses and eating tacos, then you come home to tax bills and a cute dog. We've pushed through though, and are embracing Melbourne with all our might.

Liege is the manager of a pub just down a few roads from our house, it's definitely the new local. Here's a peek at the sterling crowd that gathered just the other night. Top shelf!

We stayed quite late and walked/rode home. Liege has a lovely rusty bike that is difficult to fall off.

Not sure what's going on here.

I woke up very early the next morning to meet Joey and some other characters at the city skatepark. We were off on a mission!

A few exits down the highway, we picked up none other than Morgan 'Morgs' Campbell and Mike 'Mike' Martin. We had the good car. Hilarious banter ensued.

First stop: Sale. Quite a good park, though the bowl was unskateable due to a mattress being burnt in the deep end. I took it upon myself to suggest Mike ollied this gap, which he managed with remarkable aplomb (not on this go, silly).

Then we visited this backyard, featuring a very impressive mini ramp. Turns out it's more slippery than a greased up eel, but fun nonetheless. Freindly folk.

They had some good dogs, a tad larger than Tess.

Then we drove through the bush for a bit.

To this fellow Ben's place, where he lives with his parents. They're pretty much self-sufficient, creating their own power and even their own skatepark!

Quite a chaotic, yet highly enjoyable scene.

There is a hut next to the park full of bunk beds and pages from skate mags stuck to the wall - quite utopian. Turns out it is where the family lived while they were building their house - more on that later. Oh, and that's Adam, he's good on the board.

They had a long rider, a ridiculous invention that may or may not be partially related to the present day scooter. Reminds me of Fossil's name for snakes in Mighty Boosh, the long mover.

Leaving those guys to it with the landing of the tricks on the boards, we fired up the barbie. We quizzed Ben on his plans following his matriculation, smiling knowingly when he said he wanted to escape this country life for the smooth pavements of Melbourne town asap. I was about to suggest that Joey recommends him for some shifts at the skate shop (to follow in our footsteps) when he informed us he had lined up a position at a photography studio that starts at $85 per hour. Kids today.

The barbie went down a treat. Look at Seve, he's loving it.

Here's their house. They built it from clay bricks made from their soil, and wood from trees on their property. It's a pretty amazing place!

Morgan had hurt himself while attempting a trick on his board.

Next up was a session on the rope swing, which Ben had pretty dialed. Here he is after jumping off the roof of the house, bouncing off a tree.

Casual as you like. Fresh swinging style.

Not to be outdone, Mike stepped up to the plate.

Slightly less stylish on the swing to the board, but entertaining nonetheless.

Joey, on the other hand, managed to generate more hilarity in the short time he had 'control' of the swing than the world's most revered comedians. Amazing stuff! Mike is sending his footage to Funniest Home Videos. Mine was too shaky from laughter.

Morgan bombed the dirt hill, no mean feat.

The local kids were friendly and also very good on the board.

Morgs, attempting his trick again.

Mike, a keen blogger himself.

We stopped at this ridiculous park, where we were threatened by a hammer-wielding 10 year old girl.

Had a look at another nice park after being challenged to a duel by a drunken youth at the bottle shop. This photo was taken while searching for a huntsman spider I had just put my hand on.

A long and entertaining drive home, in which Morgan consumed multiple Magnum Gold's and pushed them on the rest of us. He was right, they're delicious!

Hitler's revenge

2010-09-28T10:25:00.002+10:00

Woke up on Sunday morning and while surveying the land, noticed something was amiss with the beetle.

Upon closer inspection, it seemed some petty thugs had chalked the back window with the slogan 'Hitler's Revenge'.

They repeated the phrase in smaller script on the front bonnet, and finished it off with a swastika on the roof. I had to tip my hat to them. Scoundrels!

San Francisco

2010-09-14T07:04:00.003+10:00

We flew into San Francisco a few days ago. Hang on, maybe it was four or five days ago. Any way you look at it, it’s 5am, I can’t sleep and we’re back in Melbourne. Dammit.

Our hosts Esther and Adan live in Oakland, which is sort of the Brooklyn of SF. They have two children named Joachim and Jasper. Me and Joa hit it off pretty well from the get go.

We sailed over the bay to the city on a ferry, along with a couple of guys talking about Obama’s hypocrisy and blowing stuff up in general, seen in the background here.

It was a lovely crisp morning and we got a great view of the city as we chugged underneath the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate Bridge – that one’s red and a bit further down).

Straight off the boat was the fabled Embarcadero plaza, the site of my teenage dreams. I could not believe it. Here I am sitting on the three stair, vibing out all the out-of-towners.

Like examining ancient Egyptian ruins at the Met, the mind boggles as to the executors of these pock marks.

Just down the way, there lies the remains of Pier 7 manual pads, just as significant in their own way, in skateboarding’s slightly more recent history. Once again, I was in awe. Rosie was loving it, also.

Upon my insistence, we ventured to a non-skate-related landmark, this time the steps up Telegraph Hill, where they made the film about the parrots. Lots of steps.

The gardens are beautiful. We spotted some parrots too.

As is the view from the top.

The famed hills of SF are even steeper in the flesh.

After strolling through North Beach, drinking coffee from what seemed to be a famous place (you can always tell if they have lots of old photos on the wall) and sampling some salt water taffy, we jumped on an old cable car up the hill. These things are pretty touristy, highly enjoyable relics from the past, much like the old trams in Melbourne.

After some good old fashioned shopping, we shared a buffalo burger at Pearl’s, the Raph Burger of SF.

After a somewhat traumatic bus ride, we found ourselves at the top of the famed Haight-Ashbury area, and gathered our wits with a bit of a sit down in Golden Gate park.

Haight-Ashbury is sort of depressing, just lots of bong shops and people buying into being a so-called hippie. There were people playing music, though, which is a good thing.

Beautiful painted ladies.

We walked to a big park overlooking the city, which you may find familiar from the credits of the popular TV show Full House.

Saw a dog with two balls in his mouth. There’s a huge gay scene here.

Rosie just wouldn’t stop pointing out awesome skate spots.

We walked along a nice quiet street over to the Castro and then the Mission.

Then dropped in at 826 Valencia, the writing school/pirate supplies shop run by McSweeney’s. Rosie got mop heads dropped on her from a mop box in the rafters, then we threw them back up.

It’s a nice looking place.

The Mission was the most interesting area in a lot of ways, sort of the Smith St of SF.

We ate dinner at this Burrito place some guys in the Levi's store (which was pretty impressive) recommended to us.

This thing was incredible. It weighed more than the computer I’m typing this on.

To my amazement, it was right next to another iconic skate spot! Rosie kept going on about all the great photos she’d seen of my fave skaters on this thing.

The next morning was to be our last in America, and also September 11. We walked down to the farmer’s market. I pushed Joa in his royal carriage.

Caught up with Barack on the way down. He was campaigning up a storm, but still found time to pose for a quick snapshot with yours truly.

The markets were fun, particularly as there were free tastings of everything. Main observations: tomatoes are very sweet, as well as stone fruit. Raw milk is the new goji berry.

Flowers in your salad, just like that famous song.

Adan and Joa on the grassy knoll.

Awesome old theatre where the owner posts his lefty messages on the front instead of the names of the movies.

On our way back, there were some good hills.

And even better driveways.

For lunch, we drove to a taco truck for $1.25 tacos.

And Mexican Coca-cola.

Tasty stuff!

Then even deeper into Oakland to a restaurant that specialises in Tostadas and delicious fruit drinks called Aguas Frescas.

Pretty good scene.

We ate some amazing food on this trip! I’m obsessed with Mexican food now.

Adan, Esther and Jasper, our gracious hosts. Thanks so much for having us! Actually, I believe Joa took this photo.

He definitely took this one. His primary fascination is with Lego, trucks, and general physical comedy.

Rosie, from Joa’s point of view.

Later, I managed to actually have a little skate, sampling yet another famed SF spot – the red painted curb.

Joa impressed me with his adept fire hydrant jumping skills.

Inspired, I also jumped over the hydrant (not the little bucket) without too much trouble. Rosie shot the photo a little late.

A still from another round of that classic game, ‘pretend you’re asleep then Joa jumps off the couch to wake you up’.

A still from another classic, ‘pretend you’re tidying up the room and pile everything on Joa’

The inevitable punchline!

Our last supper. We loved it here, if only we had a few more days!

The flight home was textbook. My last food photo for a while?

Ah good, it’s time to wake up.

The last adventures in NYC

2010-09-11T14:50:00.004+10:00

Ah, New York. It's become like my second home these past two weeks. Many say I became the city's favourite son, striding the boroughs like a newly crowned king. I wouldn't go that far, but I did love it. There are many things I will miss about the place, for instance the subway. It's so good! So quick! So easy to figure out because Rosie does all the map-work. You just follow her.

Iced coffee! They don't do iced coffee right in Australia. Who wants a litre of milk and two scoops of ice cream every time they drink a coffee in summer? Not me. I like these ones. I drank 'em every day.

Cold Tony! He's a graffiti person we find amusing.

Colette! In this picture, Rosie is buying an iced coffee from the famed cafe on Scottie's street.

Amazing skate spots freakin everywhere!

And I could go on. But I won't, because I want to tell you about Pops. I left it to our last day to go here, because I am stupid. It's just down the road from Scottie's house, and sells workwear for obscenely cheap prices. I got there early and sat on the other side of the street, sipping a, you guessed it, iced coffee, admiring the handsome facade. A convertible screeched up and there he was, Pops. With a young chick who worked there. 'Sorry I'm running late', said Pops in a thick New Jersey drawl, 'traffic was more heavy than I anticipated'. We went on to open the store and welcomed me in, where I bought some pants for me and Pete. It was awesome. He loved Australia. Ah, Pops.

What else did we do? Lots. But one thing was, we went to the Met. It's massive!

Our primary fascination was with the Egyptian section.

There were big footed mummies galore, and more sarcophagus' than you could poke a stick at.

They even had whole sections of ancient ruins, reinstalled in the museum! You may remember this part from When Harry Met Sally.

What else was there? Well, a bunch of paintings for starters. Look at these two mates, thick as thieves.

Sam had recommended the armory section, quite right too. I found this Japanese fellow that bears quite a striking resemblance to the 'ginger prince'!

Haha! Those Germans.

On the roof, there is a Bamboo installation. They're building it over a few months, quite the operation.

There are paths you can walk around up there, but you have to do a guided tour. We weren't that organised.

Pretty impressive stuff, overlooking central park and Manhattan.

The modern art section wasn't too shabby either. It's nice they let you take photos in there, too.

I really liked this. A nice presentation of something cool that humans have figured out.

Looks like Conor

Looks like Chris Baker

It's a really nice gallery. I would love to go back there and spend some more time. On our way out, we saw some Navy people buying hot dogs on the street.

You know you're in a nice neighbourhood when there's a Scientology centre specifically for celebrities.

We were in the crowd for an episode of Letterman! I wanted to take photos, but you weren't allowed to and Rosie didn't want us to get kicked out. She was right I think. They ran the whole thing so efficiently, there was always an over-enthusiastic employee watching us like an ambitious hawk. Rest assured, it was a fun (and free) experience, even if we did have to laugh and clap excessively.

Met up with Z Man, who invited us up to the apartment he is staying in with a bunch of friends nearby. We drank a Jamesons whisky which was lovely, but made us thirsty for the taping of the show.

Spotted these Italian shoes that have actually been preworn to look skated in. They cost $600. Fashion.

We went to Diner in Brooklyn for our final NYC dinner. The waiter comes and tells you the menu and writes it on the table cloth.

The gang - Sarah, Andy and Scottie, who had just returned from a grueling photo shoot with none other than Jay Z!

This is a terrible photo of the restaurant - rest assured, it's a lovely place.

Good burger!

Amazing desserts too. And that was that.

Look how tired and calm he is. Thankyou for having us, my dear friend!

We caught a cab to the airport early this morning. It's been an amazing trip. We're on the plane now, flying to San Francisco for two nights. Haven't even had a chance to get excited about that yet!

More from New York

2010-09-10T13:22:00.003+10:00

There have been some whispers on the streets that we have not been making the most of the nightlife during our stay in New York. Some people have even been saying I haven't been skating enough. Au contraire. Look at this scene - a skate party!

John Cardiel and Ray Barbee were there providing musical accompaniment to the standing around and the skating. It was too loud for us, so we left.

To watch kickball in the park. Some dogs were playing crazy chase, Tess style.

The next day, Rosie and I had some touristy plans.

We went to 30 Rock! NBC, the home of one of our fave shows. We were going to take the guided tour, but it looked a bit shit so we didn't.

Here's Rosie making a sort of 30 Rock inspired face, at 30 Rock. She could be one of the stars!

Then we went to MoMA. Don't forget the little 'o'.

While we were there, we rang Letterman to see if we we had tickets to the taping of the show on Wednesday.

That's a yes! Turns out if they give you the number to ring, that's sort of their seal of approval. Z-Man didn't get the number, but we gave it to him.

A few good things at MoMA. Like all the books at art school in the flesh.

Modigliani, my old fave.

Rosie doing the Broadway Boogie Woogie

I liked this one because the cat has a bird on it's mind. Like Tess and her otter.

Rosie and Yoko's bums. A lot of the museum was closed while they were installing new stuff, which was a shame because we missed out on seeing a lot of the Warhols and stuff. But we weren't too fussed.

Not when there's sights like this on the street!

We went out for a special dinner at Freeman's.

It's a very cool restaurant specialising in American home-style food, but fancy, you know, nu-rustic. Delicious stuff.

It's actually quite Melbourne, stuck down an alleyway like that.

We stayed in a hotel for the night that we booked through a website really cheap. Turns out it was literally at Ground Zero, with a sparkling view of scaffolding. We saw the funny side.

The view from the top of the hotel. Not pretty. Hard to make jokes about.

We went to Tribeca for a sniff around. Straight out of the subway, isn't this the fire station from Ghostbusters?

We checked out the brand new Opening Ceremony store just a couple of doors down from their other one. It's really good.

Then perhaps the culinary highlight of the whole trip - lunch at La Esquina. I have never tasted Mexican food this good - it was amazing! So crunchy and delicious and light. I would eat this food every day if I could.

Back in the East Village, we made a pilgrimage to Sam's home away from home - the Green Diamond. I was thinking about buzzing to say hello, but decided against it. Let it stay in the realm of imagination.

We took a similar tack with Sam's breakfast/lunch of choice - the Heart Stopper. I think this is where he used to get it from, but I was not about to try it. This was unfortunately the case for a few key NYC food landmarks, as it was either too hot, or the place was shut, or we were simply too full when we went there.

Same goes for legendary polish diner The Stage. Rumour has it the cook flips the blintzes with his bare hands, and coats his fingers with his own ear wax before whisking the omelettes. So sad to miss out on this one. Next time!

We got hustled on the street by a guy selling tickets to this comedy show. It was only $20 for both of us, and it was pretty funny in the end. Because we were sitting right next to the stage, I got picked on by a couple of the comedians. One asked me if I would agree that burning algebra books was a good idea, to which I replied 'I don't have an opinion on that'. He mimicked my Australian accent, saying 'G'Day mate, I don't have an opinion on anything'. It was good.

update

2010-09-06T23:29:00.003+10:00

Ok, that's it, I can't keep doing these retrospective day by day things from ages ago. I'll never catch up, and they will be boring as an episode of NCIS. But I simply must document what we've been up to, so I'll try and condence the last few days into one dreamy montage.

We went to Ps1, a contemporary art museum in an old school. It's an awesome place, even if a lot of the art left me a little untouched.

They were having a party there that night, with DJs and stuff. People were meant to grab the poles and swing them around, so the balls bounced. Interesting.

On Caroline and Sam's recommendation, we went to Fulton St Mall in Brooklyn. It's pretty awesome, very different to the hipster haven of W'burg.

Lots of shops like this: a sneaker/jewellery/airbrushed t-shirt shop.

We wanted to eat at a diner and finally found this one. It was pretty good, but not amazing. The booth was nice.

Mobile RSPCA van, peddling cats.

Brooklyn flea market, lots of good stuff here, but not too cheap. The kind of stuff you see on Ricky Swallow's blog, like Navajo rugs and awesome old shirts.

That night, we had a party on the roof, with all the trimmings.

Rosie enjoying the king of beers, Reverend Jen style.

Sarah looking devilish

Me and Scottie, behaving like perfect gentleman as per usual.

Sydney skate photographer Andrew Peters is living here at the moment too.

Paul and Will

Scottie was on his tiny stool playing his tiny piano

Scottie's friend was playing the tiny guitar.

Milly and her mates came along. It was quite a happening party there for a while!

The next day, I was as hungover as a bastard. We walked around the Lower East Side all morning, coming across bird gardens and the like. What a nice idea, to take your pet bird for a walk.

We got knishes from a famous knisherie (?). They are basically mashed potato wrapped in a thin layer of pastry. Not bad for a hangover, let me tell you.

Ah cripes. So much more has been going on. I'll get back to you!

We're in New York

2010-09-06T22:54:00.002+10:00

The manor where we currently reside.

We caught some trains uptown and went to Printed Matter, a massive zine shop.

New York Scottie

Stumbled across the Comme des Garcons store in Chelsea. Pretty amazing stuff.

There's a new extreme park out there. It looked fun but scary.

Then walked along the high line, a section of train line that has been converted into a public garden/walkway/art type thing.

Near the end of the high line is the Standard hotel. It's a cool building that people like to have sex in the windows for all to see. See if you can spot them. I didn't realise till after I took this, by the way. Would have zoomed in otherwise.

More walking down pretty streets. It's a particularly pretty area, Chelsea.

Then the West Village, home of lots of Marc Jacobs stores, rich 'Gossip Girl' type characters and the cupcake shop that apparently featured heavily in Sex and the City. It was madness in there. The bright red cupcakes are a bit of alright though.

Saw some really nice stores around there, including Freeman's, where everything is made within 10 miles of the store, and they have sewing machines in there and stuff. I found it quite inspiring.

Had a quick bite at the Hommus Place, a place that specialises in Hommus.

Union Square

Later, we went out for a few drinks and darts. Guess who won? Scottie.

Will Brown! We drank beer in cans, served in beer coolers from the bar. There are free twizzlers (raspberry liquorice) and cheetos also. What a fancy establishment! No wonder Sam recommended it.

Later, we adjourned to the taco van for sustenance.

So good.

Scottie eats here a lot.

The challenge began to land various tricks on Will's cruiser board. Everyone rides these things here.

Paul sat it out.

Scottie utilised the power of various ladies garments hanging on the fence.

It created quite a scene

Sarah and Andy looked on, amused yet keeping their distance.

Then we got a slice of pizza. Hence - no hangover!

Continuing continuing adventures

2010-09-06T07:18:00.002+10:00

I've got a bit of catching up to do here, it's been a few days since my last confession and a lot of good stuff has been happening, so without any further ado, we went to look at Supreme on Thursday, but there was a huge line out the front for their new range, so we just looked at that instead.

Who do you think we bumped into there? None other than Paul 'Crab neck' Brabanec!

We then trundled off to visit Andy at his place of work. It's a pretty darned impressive agency type place called the News, who represent some really nice fashion labels here.

We checked over the new Common Projects shoe range. Fancy hoofs!

Next stop: the New Museum on Bowery. This was our first gallery experience here, and it was awesome! You catch a lift to the top floor, then make your way down over 5 sort of perfect sized spaces. The work was really cool and funny.

Scottie taking a moment.

For lunch, we went to Gitane, a very trendy cafe in Nolita. Lots of models getting about with little dogs. Nice food.

We then hightailed it to Sam's stomping grounds, Thompkins Park. It seems to be one of the main meeting place spots for skaters in New York, and it's literally just a basketball court. Who seemed to be Robbie Gangemi was ollieing over a rubbish bin while Chad Muska took photos. Bizarre sighting!

Nonchalant New York Max.

Lots of walking, lots to look at.

This spot is just around the corner from Scottie's place. Much harder to skate than it looks.

So is the APC surplus store, the least signed shop I've ever come across. We tried some stuff on and flashed each other a bit.

Then went and sat by the river

Scottie ate 3 icy poles

After a brief rest, we headed out again for dinner. This pet shop looked good, made me miss Tess though.

We met Miri and James, Rosie's old friends from NZ and went to a Cuban/Brazilian restaurant, a cuisine I'm not ashamed to admit I've never sampled.

It got the thumbs up!

Then we went to a bar with Jersey Shore playing really loudly, where they served really strong margharitas. I went home and left Rosie to catch up on old times. She got shitfaced.

Continuing adventures in NYC

2010-09-02T20:49:00.002+10:00

It won't surprise you to learn that we have continues our NYC sojourn in much the same manner in which we began it. Waltzing around, eating the hell out of the place. For variety's sake (as well as air conditioning), we sat inside at Colette for breakfast.

Lordy.

After a quick subway journey guided by the great navigator known as R.Scott, we popped up somewhere in the middle of Manhattan. We procured a mobile talking device and some luxury eyewear at Barneys, served by none other than Billy Bob Thornton.

We then plunged into the depths of Central Park. It's quite mind boggling how such a thing exists, so expansive and undulating (Rosie's clever word). I said maybe they should build over it.

Had a lovely rest in the Sheep's paddock (or something like that).

Ate an icy pole. Another thing - the street vendors. Why don't we have these guys in Australia? They're awesome! Water, hot dogs, pretzels, icy things - all you could ask for. But no, in Melbourne we have scared looking women frying nuts.

With Rosie's continued navigational prowess and despite repeated attempts of mine to foil her plans, we found Strawberry Fields, the little section devoted to the memory of John Lennon.

Here's where the poor bugger went down.

We then had a stroll around the ultra pretty Upper West Side.

It really is uncanny how much this place reminds me of Sesame Street.

Ordering some goods from an awesome little sandwich shop run by a friendly Indian bunch. Check out the jar of pickles on the counter.

Cuban sandwich

Then we went to the Natural History Museum, which was constructed as the central prop for the movies 'Night at the Museum' 1 and 2. There was a fantastic collection of large prints from the early days of moon exploration on display.

The animal displays are incredible. There is a book available from the gift shop about the making of the panoramic backgrounds, but it sucks.

Everything reminds me of Tess. I'm a wreck!

And these guys reminded us of Scout.

Realising a lifelong ambition, I got to meet my favourite dinosaur Stegosaurus in the, er, skeleton.

The exceedingly ugly side of this business. Seems tramping all over town in Andy's hand-me-down Vans wasn't the best idea in the world.

The Ukrainians are killing it over here! There's heaps of churches, restaurants, cafes, people who look like my uncle... killing it!

Late afternoon, making our way back to the Subway.

Stopped for a swift margy.

Popped our heads up here for a brief glimpse. It was like seeing the whole internet at once.

Firemen are rockstars over here. These guys are even more popular than Justin Bieber!

Speaking of rock, the good doctor seems to have set up shop on West 34th street. Way to go Jay!

Doing the tourist stuff so you don't have to, we made our way to the top of the Empire State building at dusk. Worth every penny.

And made our way to meet Scottie and his cronies at a nice place in W'burg, where we consumed, you guessed it, more delicious food. The burger definitely held a candle to Raphs, I must say!

Adventures in New York

2010-09-01T22:37:00.002+10:00

This is the cafe called Colette where we've eaten breakfast both days so far. It's delightful.

Scottie loves it there.

We walked over the Williamsburg bridge into Manhattan. It was nice but we were buggered within an hour or so. It's super hot!

Here's a cute dog sitting at a Ukrainian cafe where we stopped for an iced tea.

Chicken sandwiches at the diner part of La Esquina, amazing stuff.

The holy grail of t-shirts, thanks to Sam for the tip. K-Mart here is awesome!

Later, I ate my first NY pizza slice at a place in W'Burg, accompanied by Rosie and a copy of the Williamsburg paper, with the startling lead story about a guy getting in trouble for selling lobster sandwiches by appointment.

Right near ground zero - pretty gnarly.

Century 21 discount designer store. We were here for air-conditioned hours. While Rosie busied herself finding amazing bargains, Scottie and I had adventures including an extended stint in a service elevator, chatting to employees.

Hot dog! I realise most of my documentation thus far has been of food.

Down the hatch.

Without realising, I paid less money than I should have for the dogs. Feels like much more because it is all in notes.

Battery park, scorcher.

We went on the free Staten Island Ferry, which is a pretty sweet deal, especially considering they sell beers.

Milly came along for the ride. For a window into what I have to deal with while taking photos of anyone besides Scottie, check the reflection in the window.

Statue of liberty.

Amazing portrait of me by pro photog Scottie Cameron.

Same caption, swap the names.

Amazing portrait of Rosie by me again.

A few stores are shut while they change their stock for the new season, but will reopen later in the week.

We hot-tailed it to Cafe el Portal in the lovely area of Nolita.

There we sampled incredibly strong margharitas, spicy guacamole and delicious corn.

Bloody lovely.

Milly fell in love with her corn, prompting a frenzy of puns.

Scottie, drunk off his tits.

Bye for now, I'm hungry! More food!

Hitting the road

2010-08-30T21:44:00.003+10:00

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Tess and hit the road.

First stop: Sydney, where we stayed with Ned and Dins and Henry.

We also caught up briefly with C, A and Bonnie Bee. It was a frantic hour or two of the latest stories and laughs.

We had dinner at a German Club, where I went ahead and ordered a pork knuckle.

Rosie and Harry tinkling the ivory.

Emily, Henry and birthday boy Ned

Then a whole lot of this.

And this

We landed early in LA, which looked amazing from the plane window. LAX was eerily deserted. I exchanged all my Australian dollars at a rip off place.

Good floor

The final leg of the journey!

Bit of this

Scottie met us at the airport!

We were freaking out in the cab on the way to his place. Skate spot:

Metal curbs!

Crazy lift at his house

Not exactly living in squalor!

Not a bad view from the roof. Bloody hell.

Pretty good!

Our gracious hosts Scottie and Andy.

It's nuts over here!

Sam's kickflip

2010-08-24T22:52:00.001+10:00

Sam's kickflip from Max Olijnyk on Vimeo.