SEARCH AND DESTROY 09'

This past weekend, for the third year, I was a part (albeit a very small part) of a growing tradition in New England skateboarding called Search and Destroy. Now, I'm not a fan of skateboard contests, considering the “sport” (I don't consider skateboarding a sport) and lifestyle are based on individuality and have always appealed to those people who don't typically care for team sports and/or rules. Anyway, Search and Destroy is an entirely different type of contest and it goes like this:
1. Get your team together. Ours was/is called Sale Carpet Sale (don't ask) and had 11 members (almost twice the number allowed).

2. Secure a video camera and transportation. (Red Bull payed for two shiny Toyota vans for the team and Identity Footwear and Apparel provided the camera)

3. Get to Nashua, NH on Saturday by 9am with 25$/person and to pick up the always anticipated S&D trick list. (next year)

4. Travel wherever you need to complete the tricks on the list and videotape them all. It's kind of like a skateboarding scavenger hunt if you will, except you might have to pour a beer down your friends throat while you both bomb a hill and/or find a decent ledge to film a 270 cab to backside lipslide (Tony/Zach and Dylan are the proud owners of those gems).

5. Meet up by 4 pm Sunday to turn in footage and skate/eat/drink with the homies. (you have about 31 hours)

6. Months later, go to video premiere where the hundreds of hours video have been whittled into a great movie (by Mr. Andy Gould) and find out which teams completed the most tricks and got the most points (and win the most money/prizes).

7. Repeat.

A few observations about this past weekend:
Connecticut is simultaneously the richest state in the union and a depressed, boarded-up, shell of a state. While driving through small suburbs of Hartford and New Haven, we witnessed some truly sad examples of areas that are always in a recession. I took a picture of the saddest example: a package store that advertised the beer they sold and their lack of hope for the future. (look closely at the writing below the sign. click on the pics for a larger image)

The new Bristol skate plaza is the business and Academy (Woodbridge, CT) is by far the most accommodating park I've ever skated. Thanks to Patrick for the session (see pic) and the much appreciated roof to sleep under.

An open letter to Connecticut's own Duchess: You make a decent breakfast for a ghetto-rific fastfood place, but why the flatscreen TVs on the menu display? Your appetizing shots of hot breakfast foods on the 30-inch screens looked fantastic but contained no information about your products and only distracted my ADD self from deciding what to order. So I have to ask, can you afford that Duchess? Your name is not fooling me by the way, I see through your lofty ruse to fool rich Connecticut people. (not a bad idea though, nobody ever said money makes one smart) Regardless, your texas french toast was like medicine for a man who passed out on a wooden floor only 5 hours earlier. Also, hash browns are supposed to be cooked, but kudos on the 2 pound serving size.

Dropping into a mini-ramp standing on a log on your board is nearly as impossible as you'd think it would be. (see pic and no, that sure hell ain't me) It didn't help that it rained that morning either, but Justin came pretty damn close to making it.

Thanks to Andy Gould, Red Bull, Identity and of course, Sale Carpet Sale for another great year.

BEST LOOKING CAFETERIAS AND LUNCHES

It has often been suggested (and clearly ignored until recently) that a healthy lunch and a comfortable, friendly environment will improve student production and behavior. I eat 5 "meals" a week in a high school cafeteria, constantly choosing the lesser of evils in a sea of brown tables and speckled tile floors. Luckily, I don't have to actually eat in the cafeteria, (though arguably, the teacher's room atmosphere isn't much better) but the students who do would clearly benefit from a change of scenery and nutritional content.

Enter the School Food Trust, the British answer to childhood obesity and poor nutritional content/taste in food. Their latest project was the overhaul of the Applemore Tech College (the equivalent of a U.S. high school) cafeteria in Southampton, England. It is, dare I say, the most handsome place to eat a high school has ever seen and the school says it has had a visible, positive effect on its students. The change was extremely inexpensive as well, at a total cost of approximately $85,000. Obviously, not every school in the U.S. will be able to duplicate this type of design in seating (due to student population and space), but the atmosphere (colors, walls, etc) could easily be matched at a minimum cost to the school.

The quality of American school lunches is another matter entirely. Change is coming, but it has been extremely slow. Pizza, ice cream, chips and several high fructose drinks are always available at my school and while I'm not sure it's been proven, lets just say our students' productivity, behavior and health are not what they could be. There are great examples of U.S. schools making the change to healthy, fresh school lunches, but largely, it hasn't happened yet. Schools often argue the costs (both costs of fresh products and loss of sugary sales) of improving the diet of school aged kids would be too high. If this continues, the rising cost of health care, poor scholastic performance and discipline problems/incarcerations will be an unaffordable price to pay for America's future. (Not that I'm suggesting that's the ONLY thing that needs to change).

(cafeteria design via cool hunter)

CARTS OF DARKNESS

Canada may not be known for its film making (outside of comedy anyway), but Murray Siple's hour-long documentary may turn that reputation on its head. Carts of Darkness is an insightful story of homeless bottle collectors (Canada's recycling program pays pretty well actually) who bomb hills in their shopping carts. These aren't stupid "jackass" style stunts, but a unique lifestyle choice and a desperate attempt at meaning and happiness. However, as these guys hit 45 mph riding shopping carts down some crazy hills, the visuals get pretty intense. The movie, shown for free on the National Film Board of Canada site, recently won a Leo Award for best documentary film and also includes some fantastic music from Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Vetiver, Bison, and Alan Boyd. Perhaps Jonathan Orr puts it best:

"Murray Siple's feature-length documentary follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts down the steep hills of North Vancouver. This subculture depicts street life as much more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk. Shot in high-definition and featuring tracks from Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Vetiver, Bison, and Alan Boyd of Little Sparta."

CARBON FOOTPRINTS: GOOGLE SEARCHES VS. NEWSPAPERS, CARS, YOU

Thinking green is not a new concept, however with pressures on the world (and to a large extent, the United States) to quickly clean up its act, the intensity with which people are evaluating our carbon foot prints has increased just as fast. It's about time people are looking into the impact of even seemingly insignificant tasks performed dozens to hundreds of times by your average American everyday. Google has been feeling this heat recently as Harvard scientists computed how many grams of carbon dioxide were generated by a single search on the leading engine. The massive server farms and technology necessary in the process creates 7 grams of CO2 in each search. Obviously, considering the hundreds of millions of Google searches that occur every day, this does indeed have quite an impact on our environment (or it will in the future anyway), but how does it compare to the other tasks we perform or the products we consume?

To prove how eco-friendly Google really is, their scientists have created a comparison of CO2 emissions by Google searches to those of print newspapers, beef and even orange juice. (see below) Since newspapers are currently transitioning to online websites, I'm not sure it makes a whole lot of difference, but it would take 850 google clicks to equal the 6,000 grams of CO2 they produce per paper.

It's still a bit surprising to see the environmental impact of something as simple as clicking your mouse, but look at how many clicks it takes to equal just ONE cheeseburger (15,000!). It's no secret how incredibly inefficient it is to raise cattle for beef, but to see that EVERY CHEESEBURGER creates more emissions than 5 miles of driving is astounding. As is the 3 MILLION clicks it would take to equal the CO2 created from only one month of electricity in the house of an average American. (via TechCrunch)

I WAS ALWAYS A NERD

I didn't make it all the way through the Transformers movie (the 2 hour live-action General Motors ad, not the cartoon) and chances are I won't sit through even a trailer for the new one either. However, hearing the buzz about the new movies, I remember how excited I once was to see the 1986 animated film and how awesome the original toys were to my 8 to 10 year old self. I kept a few of the ol' transformers for old times sake and one of my favorites even managed to surface in my current apartment decor. (Note: I'm not the kind of adult guy who displays many toys in his dwelling) This particular one is a testament to the creativity (and possible drug-use) of toy designers in the 80s and perhaps more fitting, my life-long dedication to nerdery. That action figure is/was named Perceptor, the autobot doctor who transformed into a microscope. The toy was an actual working microscope and magnified (slightly) various objects from my backyard and scabs. Now, he holds my toothbrush.

KEITH SHORE RESPECTS THE BEARD

We've seen Keith Shore's paintings in a variety of places (Dwell, Listen Skateboards, Arkitip, Complex, The Shins' album art, Blood is the New Black) and his work is the business. His best pieces are dedicated to the beard (check the bearded portraits), but I included a few others because non-bearded folks are people too.. sort of. (via Booooooom)

MY TOP THREE JUDICIAL ACTIVIST SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

NOTE: WITHOUT JUDICIAL ACTIVISM, AMERICA WOULD BE WITHOUT JUDICIAL REVIEW.


All this talk about Justice Souter's replacement on the Supreme Court has brought the conservative rhetoric machine to life.. sort of. As if Americans know what "activist judge" or "judicial activism" even mean, Republicans have been hitting the talk/news circuit to pre-emptively decry Obama's upcoming choice as an "activist" based on a single word he used to describe a qualified candidate.. empathy. Apparently empathy=activist judge. Even if that was true, why is no one talking about the massive, necessary changes that have occurred in our country thanks to judicial activism? Here's my TOP THREE JUDICIAL ACTIVIST SUPREME COURT DECISIONS:

1. Marbury V. Madison (1803): This radical decision ESTABLISHED THE ABILITY OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICES TO DECLARE LAWS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Otherwise known as Judicial Review.

2. Brown V. Board of Education (1954): SEPERATE IS thankfully NOT EQUAL. This decision marks the beginning of the end of segregation.

3. Roe V. Wade (1973): A controversy-free decision about a practically invisible issue called abortion rights.

Honorable Mention: Engel V. Vitale (1962): Declared official school prayers (the Almighty God kind) unconstitutional. You know, the whole seperation of church and state thing.

In closing, activist judges can be liberal OR conservative (see Dred Scott V. Sandford, Lone Wolf V. Hitchcock, U.S. V. Lopez). The big issue with the upcoming nomination of Justice Souter's replacement is whether or not he/she will uphold Roe V. Wade, i.e. is he/she pro-choice. The details concerning abortion rights can make for a tough conversation, no doubt, but DOES UPHOLDING A SUPREME COURT DECISION FROM 1973 MAKE ONE AN "ACTIVIST"? I don't think so, but more importantly, should we be chastising the decisions that shaped America thanks to this activism?

AMY CASEY PAINTS HOUSES

Amy Casey's latest work is official. Houses on stilts, on strings, hanging over the world's debris and blowing in the wind; all part of Casey's nervous take on the state of the world. As she says, the paintings allow her to "explore the ideas of anxiety and vulnerability, community and the illusion of safety". According to her site, a few of these paintings are still available so put some houses on your walls. (via booooooom)

BLOGS ARE LIKE PAMPHLETS (GIVE OR TAKE A FEW HUNDRED YEARS)

Watch CBS Videos Online

CBS explains the return of the pamphlet and the growing mass movement in indie publishers as they (possibly?) thwart 90+ years of media consolidation. Of course, blogs are instant publishing and people have mountains of info at their fingertips 24/7, so it's not quite a pamphlet world again, but close enough.

FUNNY EXAM ANSWERS

As a high school teacher, I do occasionally see some pretty damn funny/creative responses to homework/project assignments and test questions. Rarely do I get anything as crazy as the work seen on Funny Exam Answers, but I have a small, fairly-entertaining collection piling up in an unused drawer in my desk. The site (no explanation necessary) is good for at least an hour of wasted work time and should give you some confidence in the creative talent of our nation's youth. Not sure how comfortable I'd be sharing my students' work (or lack there of) on line, but I'm glad somebody is. I've included a few gems pictured above; the one about the dissolving bears is dynomite. (click on the image for a larger version)