Speaking of the topics of Warhol and Snowboarding… See previous post… have you seen what the kids are riding these days? Now I know I am speaking to my age right now but when J & I were looking at boards the other day we came across something I truly don’t understand and definitively proves that I am mostly out of touch! :)

Think of two extremely vicious animals that you wouldn’t want to be locked into an empty room with! So do you have them in mind? Great! Now I am sure some of you thought one of those animals should be a shark, but did you think the other to be Laser Kitties? Yup well Atomic Snowboards has. The pivot freestyle board is Atomics answer to the age old question on how to thwart your enemy’s. With sharks wielding laser kitties of course. SO ODD!

So those of you who know me may know that I have this love hate thing with Andy Warhol. It is really hard to explain but in a nutshell I sort of feel that this man and his actions single handedly pushed the concept of photography as a serious art form into our present/future while simultaneously knocking photography as a serious art form into the Stone Age.

“My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person.”
- Andy Warhol

I view Warhol as a brilliant artist; I love the concept of breaking the boundaries of conventional art, and finding art wherever you go, in the most insignificant routine things. I just don’t like Warhol’s art. To put it succinctly I enjoy his method but not his madness.

“An artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he – for some reason – thinks it would be a good idea to give them. “
- Andy Warhol

So why are you talking about Andy Warhol exactly?? Well I felt that it was a good segue into MY NEW SNOWBOARD!!!! Yes via Craig’s List I was able to snag a Burton’s 2008 Andy Warhol Snowboard!!!!

Super sweet board that I was able to get back of a truck prices on. (I went to his house and he had all the original boxes so I am reasonably confident that it didn’t actually come from the back of a truck) To buy the snowboard itself from Pacific or Comor would be about $700 new. It came with the Burton C60 bindings which are again according to Pacific or Comor about $550 new.

So all said this is a $1250 to $1350 setup after taxes. I was able to get this all for $700 big ones!!! SWEET!!! And sweet it is. Yesterday I bought some boots (the Vans Fargo) and Coaxial and I headed up to Cypress for a few runs. So I don’t know a lot about snowboarding being that this is a new hobby that I have just picked up! But man this board was really responsive! Almost too responsive, It was super easy to carve with and also super easy to fall on one’s head with! After a few epic falls (thank goodness I also got a helmet)

I was rocking down the hills! Like it was my second day snowboarding in ten years. (cause it was) This is so going to be my winter passion I can already tell! When I get better I will start carrying a camera so you all can see it. But for now all you get is my bad spelling and poor grammar to describe it to you!

So I am home from the epically cool day of snowboarding. It was awesome even if we couldn’t see twenty feet in front of us! I was totally getting the hang of it by the end of the day. Even if I am already as epically sore I still have to say that it was pretty much the best fun that can be had while sticking snow down your pants.

So today this rocker is going to rock out on a ski hill. I am for the first time in over ten years going snowboarding. I fear that I am going to love it and insist on doing as often as possible because I am a little manic that way. I am in fact so uber excited about this that I couldn’t sleep past 5am. Seriously I don’t get this excited about much but I am about potentially hurting myself while strategically falling down a mountain covered in snow on an object that has little to no friction. I am also up because my cats have decided that they need to be the largest pain in asses that they can be! Well I am trying to figure a way to carry a camera without breaking it or me so hopefully I will have some photos.

especially when it is super nice & sunny out! I almost took my scooter instead of walking but I am glad that I didn’t!

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II Aperture: 2.2 Shutter: 1/320 Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.4 ISO: 400 Date Taken: Jan.11.2008

This is definitely has to be the case for Photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek. This pair has been working together since fall 1994 on a fantastic project they call Exactitudes.

The fact that they have such a volume of photos with this project makes is unbelievable. This is definitely worth checking out. But volume isn’t everything. The fact that they have completely normal people in the exact same pose that changes from grouping to grouping is amazing not to mention finding these nearly exact people from all over the world!

Yuppers this is a bike! A motor bike in fact! I grabbed this while wondering the dark wet back alleys of Vancouver.

Camera: Canon 5D Aperture: 2.2 Shutter: 1/250 Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.4 ISO: 640 Date Taken: Jan.02.2008

So after a fantastic evening rocking out at Tanya’s place with Rock Band (photos to come sometime) D and I decided that we are really going to start a band so we can rock out for real! This time we mean it! We mean so much in fact that the very next day after some fabulous breakfast we fired on over to Tom Lee on Granville and I bought a new Electric Guitar.

Now I do technically sort of know how to play the guitar. I would haul my amp and my cheap/beat-up white electric to school every day and we would practice in the choral room at lunch, our spares, and well whenever I didn’t feel like going to class. Some friends and I even had a band. We were called the Outhouse Poets and our claim to fame was a catchy tune called ‘This Is What It Is Like To Be On Acid!’ (written by John our singer who as far as I know has never done any acid) But I have to say we sucked. We played one gig and one gig only at the ‘Games Room’ (the local Arcade where we were living) and we really sucked. After that I started to play less and less and less till well I can hardly play at all. I have always kept my Acoustic Guitar around but my electric has been long been gone. I have been craving playing for the last year and well Rock Band made me realize that deep down I am a rocker and I wanna rock out! So here we are! It’s one of the cheaper Yamaha guitars that was on sale for 160ish when they normally sell for about 325ish and well it is orange and we all know what I think about orange things! :) I have been playing it a lot and man my fingers haven’t hurt this badly since I was in grade nine! (the last time I was building up calluses like this) D has been looking at drum goodness so we are almost there :) Joy even came up with awesome band names. Shan? You wanna come rock out with us with your new found guitar skills?

This is a photo that I grabbed when I went for a photowander/delivery trip the other day. I find its always interesting what you find when you look down. :)

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II
Aperture: 1.4
Shutter: 1/400
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.4
ISO: 125
Date Taken: July.03.2007

Ok I know that this photo blog has turned into a Guitar Hero blog.!!! You see I will have a documented path to look back at when I decide that it all went wrong somehow but alas! Alright if you thought that guitar hero was an awesome game then Rock Band will blow your mind I know that it did for me. I seriously foresee no work getting done ever again! But it will be ok because I will be a rocker and I will rock out! You get to play as a band and you can start to hear everything come together in one sweet united session of group rocking out. It is so cool except I can’t play the drums evidently :) Tanya was lucky enough to snag a copy/kit from bestbuy so we went over and played! So cool!

So Guitar Hero both kicks ass and sucks ass at the same time.!
Awesome game!:)
So much time :(
I can feel like a rocker :)
I stay up late not being productive :(
I can feel acomplished when i pass a level :)
I feel silly when i realize that this doesn’t mean squat in the grand scheme of things :(

Looks like a tie! MMmmm…bed now.

So I know that this is both cliché and a day late but I thought I would do a best of, worst of plan to do more of, list for 2007 mostly because I am not very exciting and not interested in working today. So let’s get started shall we.

Music

Best New to me band/artist discovered in 2007 – Well I would have to say that this is a hard one! I will have to say it’s a tossup between Tokyo Police Club and You Say Party We Say Die! (who are playing in Jan BTW) I will say You Say Party We Say Die as because …
Best New album of 2007 - …Tokyo Police Club’s Album A lesson in Crime truly rocked! Even if it’s not much of an album more of a seven song EP!
Best Show of 2007 - Well hands down I would have to say The Arcade Fire show at Deer Lake Park! The Arcade Fire didn’t really come up very often in my play list before this show. They were a good band but for some reason I really just couldn’t get into them! Then in a whirlwind of other great shows at Deer Lake Park that month Arcade Fire came along and showed them all how it was done!

Movies

Best movie - well considering that I haven’t really watched more than 5 movies this will be skewed. I would have to say Sarah Polly’s Movie Away From Her. Awesome movie that really sticks out in my mind!
Worst Movie – Well I haven’t watched a lot as I said and nothing is really sticking out in my mind as an obvious stinker, I will think about it and get back to you!

Camera/Photo

Top 5 Favorite blogged photos of 2007 - Well these aren’t necessarily the best photos that I have taken just the 5 best blogged ones!

Best photo shoot – Well I have to say that they are all great! I know that this is a copout answer but I and supreme dictator in these parts so that is what you get!

Best New Camera

• Film - hands down the Limited Edition Seagull TLR. This was a pretty camera that really surprised me with awesome photos.
• Polaroid - The SX70 has been the most entertaining, mostly because you are never really sure what you are going to get! Is is always a surprise!
• Digital - Well I only bought one camera so it wins by default! The Canon 5D Nice small camera (I decided against the battery pack) that is full frame and has wicked detail. I like it even if the colour is nowhere near as vibrant as our Mark II’s

Other stuff!

Wish I had done more of - Both photo wandering, and photo processing. I know that the second part sounds funny to those that know me being that my year was spent 96% in front of Photoshop and DPP but hear me out. I have about six to seven hundred gig of photos taken over the last few years that I haven’t even looked at not once! I have taken them and placed them neatly in folders on my computer, but I have never seen them not once!
Wish I had done less of - Fighting with computers! I lost probably the better part of a month this year fighting with computer issues. That a lot of time, and Microsoft I would like it back!
Silliest thing I bought this year - Well hands down that would be my kayak! Yup I am an owner of a 3000 dollar Kayak that I have used once! I bought it in the spring when I still had delusions that there was going o be time in our lives! Well that didn’t really go anywhere! This year for sure!
Best thing that I bought this year - Well Hands down Sassy Sally Scooterson! For sure that has provided me with the most joy one can have in 2600km’s.

Yup we have succumb the evils of GUITAR HERO!! In our home, cept they don’t have it anywhere for the wii so i felt it was best to get an XBOX to go along with it! I am such a kid sometimes! Well so long to that resolution about being productive in 2008 that one didnt last the day before it was fatally wounded by a game consul.