No matter what your political party or affiliation, no matter what your stance on the big issues is today, I think we can all agree that this election cycle has beat the hell out of us, and I think we’ll all be glad when it’s over. If you, like me, have found yourself surfing between news websites, political blogs, and strange YouTube channels today and finding yourself stressed out about the results at the ballots today I think you’d appreciate some solace, so here’s my contribution to that. Below are a few links to interesting stuff on the web that is wonderfully politically neutral, there are no attack ads or threats of impending doom. Enjoy, and remember in a few days this is all history.
I awoke that morning in shock, incredulous at the electric glowing phone in my hand that was proudly displaying the time with myriad of bells, whistles, and lights emanating from its cold façade. Four AM. I hadn’t seen this side of the clock in quite some time. Begrudgingly, I dragged myself out of bed, slipped myself into the pile of clothes I’d set out the night before, and washed my face in the sink, doing my damnedest to make sense of the world at this ungodly hour. Four fifteen, time to hit the road. I took my dog out back and stared at the misty halo surrounding the moon as he took care of his business in the cold. I put my dog back to bed, gathered my things, and hugged my sleeping wife tightly and kissed her forehead while she muttered some soft-spoken broken sentences of encouragement half asleep to me. I grabbed my gear, started the car, and punched the address into my phone. Lancaster, CA, a decent little trip from my house in East Oakland, I was on schedule to be there somewhere around 10am. It’d been a while since I was out on the open road by myself. When I was younger, I drove a truck for a construction company and delivered parts to jobsites all over the state. The long hauls down endless highways to all corners of the Golden state are where I discovered…
Last weekend was the grand opening of our friends at Deadend Magazine’s new flagship store in Salinas, CA. It was a great time, every time I make it down to Salinas I find myself wondering why I don’t make it out to this town more often. Their shop at 16 Midtown Lane seems to be in the perfect neighborhood, it’s a charming part of town that reminds me a lot of my hometown (as it was when I was a kid, at least). The street was packed with exactly the wide range of cars and bikes you’d expect for a Deadend event; customs, hot rods, and lowriders were parked in every open spot down Midtown Lane.
When I was a child, he was the Goblin King. When I was a teenager, he was Ziggy Stardust. As an adult, he is and will forever be David Bowie.
Before, when I said “it’s hard to put to words for how this makes me feel”, that was a total cop out. I’ll try. Doing so will inevitably out me as a total nerd, but if you can see the value in an electronic web-based platform for sharing pictures and thoughts across the world in an instant, I’d ask you to consider yourself one as well. It’s ok, you’re in good company. I never met Jobs personally. I’ve been a Mac user all my life, I learned to type on an Apple II at my elementary school, my family bought the Performa when it became apparent that we needed a computer in the house. My Dad, who was never really a “gadget” guy once brought home a Newton, which was a device way ahead of it’s time, and the obvious inspiration for the iPhone I’m writing this on right now (although I’m glad to not be writing in pseudohieroglyphics using a stylus). I learned how to edit photos and film on the eMac, and in fact, most of my schools had all Apple computer labs. I realize this “credibility statement” probably isn’t that important, as my Blogger Stats show about 50% of you reading this right now are using an Apple product too, and probably do so for similar reasons. My Dad and I have, for some reason or another, never been too close, we never did the typical father-son…