looking

the floods in iowa are crazy and heartbreaking. the pictures on this blog are pretty incredible.



this is rad



and though youve probably already seen this, i like to watch it quite often...

some things of late

the other day i looked out my bedroom window down to the washing machine and saw a lizard larger than i cat. “my fucking god” i screamed and it jumped off and waddled away into our garden. waddle i say because it was actually large enough to have enough weight to require a waddle. this is not an exaggeration... the height of a regular cat, but wider and longer.

another interesting site... my normal drive from sanur to renon takes me from a 3 lane one way to a 2 lane two way... i zip that drive quite often as it leads me to seminyak, and renon is the home of my preferred internet cafe, not to mention the home of the man i visit most. so anyway, after some sort of music industry conference (i just used the wifi and said hello) im driving through, hit the two way and all of a sudden my little motorbike has to slow to about 40. well this of course is killing me because as always im late for the next place im supposed to be, so i weave back and forth until i get to the front of the line of this slow waiting traffic. oh of course... how could i not have guessed. there was a giant replica of the volcano Batur and its accompanying lake plopped on top of a giant yellow truck. a fucking volcano. it was too wide to scoot around the truck as the sides of it stuck off and one as tall as me (at a whopping 5’3’’) would have taken a head off. so i drive behind this volcano for awhile... the plastic trees making up the forest surrounding the lake were actually quite amazing... and then a thankful left onto the bypass to head home. the actual Batur by the way is totally worth a visit if youre here. its a quick but ass kicking hike, straight up a little slippery from the leftover volcanic sand, best done at about 4 am. you reach the top in time for sunrise and all of a sudden its magic morning looking over clouds, until they separate and you get to see the stunning shining blue of Lake Batur squinting back up at you.

ahhh a drive in bali. i actually run into quite a bit of trouble on my bike. its not the driving of the bike thats a problem, or even the insane traffic that now seems not very insane. rather its my constant habit of running out of gas and/or popping a tire. the gas tends to not be a problem as there always seems to be some kind young 14 year old riding by with no helmet happy to take my waiting (yes i keep one in my bike for this very purpose) aqua bottle and fill it with bensin. maybe thats my problem... ive made friends with all the petrol/bensin sellers in my area that i feel badly buying gas from the actual station. to clarify there are gas stations, and then there are a million bensin “stands” on the side of the road where you pay about 10 cents more to fill your tank with some cut diesel... which means it runs out faster... which propagates my run out cycle. which i guess keeps things interesting.

anyway... life is good these days and ive bought 2 of the 5 tickets necessary to get to my destination in India 12 days from today. cant wait... although of course its when you plan to leave that work always picks up and the youth center is garnering more and more support and hopefully at the end of August the afternoon program will begin to complement the courses we already have running.

ok back to indexing and james pants for me. oh and by the way... can somebody please tell me what thurston moore is doing working with starbucks?

also im totally behind the times as i live in asia but the lakai video, fully flared is killer


happy father’s day.