Dirty Nails, Dirty Wheels

The five-year-old I nanny for, walking home cold and wet after jumping in puddles.

One of the kids I nanny for, during a conversation about how when you’re a grownup, you grow hair in more places, described hair under your arms as “pit beards.” I fuckin’ love it.

Late last spring, skating with some folks back in Lincoln, I was running up a set of stairs with my Vanguard to try the run we were working on again, when I felt my board’s weight shift weirdly under my arm.  I turned confusedly to see one of my wheels bouncing away back down the steps, with a length of my axle still through it. I was able to slip it back in and cruise home without incident, but I replaced both hangers before riding it again. Comparing the fresh pair and the broken ones, I was surprised to see how much the kingpins wear on the hole where they fit through the hanger—they steadily enlarge the opening, forming little cresting waves of aluminum on either side. The new pair have held up great, and for the intervening year, they and my bearings were the only things I’d ever replaced on a board I got in July 2007.

But the other day, I noticed one of my baseplates had a crack in it, so I dry-docked the board and ordered a new pair. While waiting, I went to a shop to get the old plates taken off, ‘cause the bolts had rusted to ‘em after nearly five years of periodically riding through rain without ever being removed (they’ve been like that since at least spring 2008). The guy at Shrunken Head (a skate shop here in Portland) just hammered the bolts out from below, something I’d never thought to try, but will remember for the future. In the process, three of the bolts fell behind the counter and I didn’t think to get ‘em back. So when the new baseplates showed up, I realized I couldn’t put ‘em on. I went to assemble the trucks, though, thinking I could at least reattach the hangers (already showing those little wear waves), but I found that in fact, no: my old baseplates and kingpins had slowly, slightly, but significantly deformed against each other over time, and the kingpins wouldn’t slide into the new plates any further than the threading.  So today, I’m goin’ out to get new hardware and new kingpins, and possibly new bushings too, ‘cause I’m looking for a firmer ride.

Lesson: the stresses on a board are intense! Also: I’ve cracked an axle and a baseplate on aluminum-and-steel Randal 180s, worn my ABEC 11 Gumballs into gentle cones, and gone through a bunch of Bones Reds, but my Loaded Vanguard, for all its nicks, scratches, and nose-and-tail wear, is spry and strong as ever. Bamboo and fiberglass are freakin’ tough!

Update: The bit about my kingpins deforming turned out not to be true. I was trying to put them in backward; that’s why they didn’t fit. They’re back in now—right way ‘round—and turnin’ real nice.  Didn’t find any new bushings for the Vanguard—that’ll be a future adventure—but I did replace the ones on my shortboard, which is good. The old ones were comin’ apart.

From Al Jazeera English. That’s one of the rockin’est uses of quotes I’ve seen.

Holy SHIT!

I started listening to these guys in middle school, and I was so bummed when I learned they’d gone on hiatus.  But then they came back again.  And damn did they every come back in good form.

Puya, Hecho el resto, from the 2010 EP Areyto.  The title track is likewise amazing.

thesimplebest:

As president, Mitt will work to expand and enhance access and opportunities for Americans to hunt, shoot, and protect their families, homes and property, and he will fight the battle on all fronts to protect and promote the Second Amendment.

A bold stand.

(hat tip to Harris)

For too long have our hands been stilled!  Let the hunting, shooting, and protection commence!

(via jwisser)

From beastieboys.com:

“It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.

With fellow members Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums–including the first hip hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band’s 1986 debut full length, Licensed To Ill–win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend.

In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985’s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans–each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources.

Under the alias of Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch directed iconic Beastie Boys videos including “So Whatcha Want,” “Intergalactic,” “Body Movin” and “Ch-Check It Out.” Under his own name, Yauch directed last year’s Fight For Your Right Revisited, an extended video for “Make Some Noise” from Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, starring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogen as the 1986 Beastie Boys, making their way through a half hour of cameo-studded misadventures before squaring off against Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Beastie Boys of the future.

Yauch’s passion and talent for filmmaking led to his founding of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which in 2008 released his directorial film debut, the basketball documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot and has since become a major force in independent video distribution, amassing a catalogue of such acclaimed titles as Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Oren Moverman’s The Messenger, Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze’s Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, and many more.

Yauch is survived by his wife Dechen and his daughter Tenzin Losel, as well as his parents Frances and Noel Yauch.”

The Beastie Boys have long been one of the most innovative and excellent groups in hip hop and in music as a whole.  Adam Yauch was an admirable person as well as an inspiring musician.  His death is a really, really sad loss.  For hip hop, for activism, for his loved ones, for everybody.  Goodbye, and thank you.

Hot damn!  Sergio Yuppie, tearing down the false walls between shortboarding and long.

From a dear—and tremendously multitalented—friend of mine:

ejlandsman:

I have been TERRIBLE about posting regularly.  Sorry guys!  To beg forgiveness, here is a sneak peek of the reason I’ve been gone—a track off of my band’s soon-to-be-out album, Skip!  We are called Skolkis, and all four of us—plus the various people helping us produce this album—have been an insane blur of recording, rehearsing, fine-tuning, nit-picking, etc, for the past two months, coming to a head in the past two weeks or so.  I’ve been designing the album art, which is fun and challenging and frustrating, and has commanded ALL of my time.  All the files have to be in to the printers in the next few days, so I should be back on track with art soon enough.

We’ll be performing and selling our CD at Northwest Folklife, so come say hi!  This track is called Kalla Kårår, which means ‘cold shivers’. :)

transcouchnetwork:

Hi! I just started a tumblr, the Transgender Couchsurfing Network.  After seeing dozens of posts come across my dash about displaced or homeless trans people needing places to crash, I decided that there had to be a way to organize these posts somehow, and to put those in need in contact with those willing to lend a hand.  If you’re trans and need a place to stay, or if you have a couch or floor or spare bedroom available for someone in need, I urge you to reblog this post, follow the blog, and get the word out.  Everything is still under heavy construction, but the more people that see and hear about this blog, the more people will be able to benefit from it!  I know that there are so many people here on tumblr who are in need of a place to stay for a night or two, and I also know how many amazing, wonderful people would be willing to host someone and help out a trans person in need.  We all know what a huge problem unemployment and homelessness are for trans people (especially TPOC and trans women) — even a place to stay for a night can make the biggest difference!  So PLEASE, even if you can’t offer up your couch, REBLOG AND SIGNAL BOOST.  I really, really think that this is something that could help a lot of people, and I would LOVE to see this spammed all over my dash and the dashes of all of my lovely followers!!

(Source: transhousingnetwork, via skiesskies)