December Magic

December in Portland—bright and cold with that tear-wrenching wind. I like it, but I'm excited to get into real winter. The sparkle and bite of the high country. Soon. Only days now.

Anyhoo, to pass the time until then, we went to Dee Dee's art show on Thursday, and it was staggeringly beautiful. Strange animals roaming foreign lands, and mystic shapes that swirl and swirl, becoming something else entirely. A blanket becomes a bird, a woman's flowing tresses grow into a pair of pack animals trudging across the desert. Rare and inspiring, all of it.

Nomad's Land

Remember when I went to Kyrgyzstan last winter? You don't?! Hey, that's okay, I don't blame you. Anyway, it was last February—about two weeks before political unrest escalated into full-blown riots there. We went snowboarding and had a grand time, and now you can read all about it in Transworld—in Transworld Snowboarding's 200th issue ever made, to be exact. Exciting, no? All pics were taken by the talented Frenchman Eric Bergeri. Stop by a newsstand and peep it!

Thanksgiving Shining

Thanksgiving often leads to feasting, which often leads to sitting on the couch watching movies, which in its way eventually leads to digestion. In observance of this, we watched The Shining last night. I'm not drawn to scary movies simply because they scare me, and why put that kinda stuff in your brain, right? But I'm willing to make exceptions for exquisite works like The Shining. I've seen it many times now, so many that I'm beyond getting scared and am now free to notice other things about the movie, like Shelley Duvall's amazing sense of fashion.

I wish I could find more examples of what I mean, but trust me, she's killing it throughout the entire movie, outfit-wise—taking gaudy/resourceful 70s mom to the absolute limit.

While I was looking for snapshots of her kits, I found this little interview with Ms. Duvall about what it was like to work with Stanley Kubrick on a movie like The Shining. Sounds traumatizing.

So Cal Twilight Zone

Generally speaking, shit's getting cold around here, but I just spent two days in Palm Springs for the annual Transworld editorial meetings. As you know, I love the desert, and Palm Springs is in the desert. However, this town is very strange, a kinda twilight zone of senior citizens and other odd LA-folk who got caught out there like a pile of wayward tumbleweeds.

It didn't help that we were staying at the Ace Hotel, which is ground zero for vacationing Los Angeles hipsters. Thus, while the other hotel poolsides were packed with polyester leisure suits, ours was awash with deep-V tees (to better display chest tatts)—and everyone in Ray Ban sunglasses.

The Ace Hotel grounds—very retro modern.

The Ace diner serves coffee from a French press, which is great and all, but we were rolling 9 people deep and there was never enough. "Can we get another French press?"

Before flying home, I stopped off to visit the Koerner-Anson's in Huntington Beach. Wouldn't you know, the entire SoCal coast was in the midst of a "winter storm warning." Brrr. No tan for me this time.

Bo-Bo has taken to boxing. Check out his fight stance.

venice layover

Am escaping for a few days in California. First stop, Venice Beach. I dropped in on Sierra at her cute tiny bungalow off Abbot Kinney. I had the most fun just wandering the streets and studying the humans here.

This is the California dream right here, isn't it?

I love the gardens. So Zen.