Heliticism

I've been posting on the Surface blog (www.thesurfacelab.blogspot.com) while I'm in Canada at Mica Heli with The Levitation Project (www.thelevitationproject.com), which I am currently. Really good place to be. First heli trip. First time in a heli. Skiing hammer terrain. Snow consistency is tip top. Accommodations are five thumbs up. Ambiance is rad. Go to www.micaheli.com or the Surface blog and have a look.
First heli ride, Will Wissman at my side...

View from the lodge...

First ski heli ride, cockpit reflection...

LZ's all over the background...

Escramble

I'm going to start somewhere around Thanksgiving. Not that people are interesting in my habitual daily living or a travelogue, but since everything is turning digital I like to use this blog as some sort of diary for the future lineage...if any. Anyway, back to the topic. Utah had a slow start. Park City made a bit of snow. We went and had some. It was mediocre, but was hyped they got open. This is a photo of an old couple on the way to the resort. Classic Ford, classic couple, classic gal sitting to the right of her man. Makes me want to listen to some Myrle Haggard.
This is a photo of my skis. That is dirt beneath us.
Up next we've got some photos of me getting hives. I was in a hurry one day and needed some sustenance, so I made a quick stop at Burger King to try one of their veggie burgers. Wasn't too keen on supporting the beast, but convenience won the battle, then it later resulted in me having an allergic reaction to the food and hives breaking out all over my body. Hard to see, but they're there. Texture and all. And a bit of crack.After pumping my body full of weird drugs I was able to stop itching, rest and be able to make it to Colorado the next day to watch my brother in the Beaver Creek World Cup. He did well. We did some ice skating, spectator-ing, and saw a Volvo built out of legos.
While in Colorado it was snowing a bit. We heard it was doing the same in Utah. It was. Jordan, Mike and I went to Alta. T'was rad, but check out the wait lines...
I later went to a basketball game. My pal Chris was kind enough to bring my new roommate Christen, Grete and myself to a Jazz game. AK47 is tip top.After the jock games filled with crazy sponsors, mass crowds and plenty of money we moved our focus onto something with a lot more mellow sponsors, smaller crowds and hardly any money. Skiing. The Surface "team" of sorts came into town for a bit to shoot next years catalog. Here's some Smurfs at the Canyons...
Le Sid Garcia from viva la France and follow shred mec Eric Strand from Sweden decide to come to Utah until the beginning of February. This is Sid...
That character will be living with me until February. Within the first few days of him staying with me I already had plenty of stories. January will be a fun month.

Well out of all that mundane jargon and images, I don't have much say except, don't eat Burger King veggie burgers. They can kill. Image what the beef does to you...
Bon nuit.

Change is Good

Updates have been slow. I have two friends staying with me. I have moved. I have been skiing. I have been working. I have been all of that stuff. I'll have some better stuff to look at soon...

American - Firing Line

vbs.tv has great content. this is from their show americana. gives some insight into the world of guns and their users. the middle aged gun happy gentleman and the greeny kid with his grandpa are super interesting. interpret it how you may...

POC

Done and done.
http://www.pocski.com/?m=3
Finalized and released. Excited. Shameless self plug.
Enjoy your day.

Airtime brah!!

Just got home from the World Cup races at Beaver Creek. The downhill airs tomorrow (Sunday Dec. 2) at 12:00 MST on NBC. Watch my brother destroy some Euros. Giggity Goo!

Buy Nothing Day

In contrast to my previous post (which was meant to show the beauty of sport, not to stimulate consumption of Nike products), here is a video done by the Adbusters Organization depicting the difference between class consumption.

âme

here is a handful of nike commercials. their marketing department is tip top. always gets the inner jock in me going...





this last one is definitely my favorite...

Helvetica Doc

Concept seems interesting. I love it when my eyes are opened to new perceptions that are everywhere.
Check out the documentary when it surfaces...

Old Man

Was sorting through some photos and I came across this one. We were on our way to Oregon for some skiing and right inside the border I found this guy collection cans. Seemed quite content with his path in life...

Little Bunny Foofoo

This piece was created a few years ago but I just saw it for the first time on www.oidocumentary.com. After bitching to Steveo and Tim about not being able to see through the mask and facing the wrath of all the little Park City ski gangsters in the lift line, this is the final product...
http://www.oidocumentary.com/mov/xbunny.mov

La Familia

Ran away to Southern Utah for the weekend with brothers Nyman and Smurfass brother Jordan. I got some scabs. If you're in Utah now is the perfect time to go mousy around the South. Fun fun fun.

Me trying to kite board...


Steven actually kite boarding...


Jordan and I taking our bike off some sweet jumps...



The ranch with clear skies. No pollution is rad.


Southern Utah.


Urban in rural.

Autumn Garage

Been helping some friends open up a new shop in the Cottonwood Heights region of the Salt Lake valley. We're about 8 business days into our opening. People have been coming by and we've been receiving great response. Thanks people.

Had a little shindig there last weekend. Brought some friends in. Brought some friends of friends in, showed it off. Take a view at www.autumngarage.blogspot.com and keep in touch.
Also the online shop shouldn't be too far behind... www.autumngarage.com

That is all. Thanks.

Arcade Fire

Been wanting to see them for years. Finally had the opportunity last week. Thoroughly enjoyed it. But its always bothersome when you got to a show and people whine about the crowd being a bit rowdy.
"If it's illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!" - Kurt Cobain
Heres some photos...

Blank Paper

Excited about this one...

What has 2 wheels and is...

I came across these ads on the trackosaurusrex blog. They're rad. Open your eyes.

News

Got an article in the University of Utah newspaper. Here's a massive link...
http://media.www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2007/10/02/Sports/Nyman.Is.A.HomeGrown.Skier.Making.A.WorldWide.Impression-3005251.shtml

Man of this Town

Awhile ago, well actually quite awhile ago I went to the Salt Lake City Mayoral Debates. I went to support Keith Christensen and possibly be swayed by the other candidates, but it was so long ago that the primaries have already occurred. He didn't make it and none of the other candidates did much swaying. Can't expect much in the most Republican state of the Nation. Anyway, the reason for this post was the format for which the discussion panel took place. It was very interesting and productive. We were all logged into a website, if you had a question you would submit it on the site, then the other users would vote on the question. The higher the votes, the question would move up the list and vice versa. The question with the highest votes would be the next question asked to the panel. It was a great way to get your voice heard and have them address the issues that have the most general interest. Politics are crazy.

musique

i'm going to continue to post random music videos on here. good, quick, entertaining content for viewing. first up this combo...

Bats for Lashes

I really like this song and video. Some of her other stuff reminds me of Bjork, but a little more conservative. I think she's the new scenester craze, but who cares about all that pop culture trend crap?...

El camino largo detrás... del camino largo a continuación.

Nico Melendez extended the invitation to join the Levitation Project in Las Lenas, Argentina for a bit of this and that. After coming home from Canada and being in the abhorrent Utah summer heat, my enthusiasm for the Southern Hemisphere was growing. The fares out of San Francisco were much cheaper than Utah. Also Mike Wilson and Travis Ganong were aboard the same travel ship, so I got behind my trusty Subaru steed and drove West...



Mike always has to have the newest ish on the gadget market, so we used his iPhone and its expensive stopwatch to calculate the alloted travel time from Tahoe to Las Lenas...so counting my drive from Salt Lake to Tahoe and the cabin fever in Mendoza and all the other unfortunates it ended up somewhere around the 98 hours sum.

Once there I met up with the lens crew of Adam Clark, Will Wissman, Bridger Nielson, Dustin HugeBigGuy and Nico Melendez. The shred heads were Bode Merril, Phil Damianakes, Austin Granger, Billy the tool Poole and Julian Carcass hucker. Jumps, bumps, humps, lines, spines, wines, powder, chowder and...flan all were had.
The food usually was some sort of combination of ham and cheese. Not a very friendly place for a vegetarian like myself...,but I made due until this chile relleno came about one night...

Las Lenas is wild. Not much room packed with Argentina's elite brown eyes and their commercialized attitudes, along with the gnarliest wind storms, sideways snow and latest dinner time known to man. The American can be loved, hated and everything in between within a 10 meter radius. But our money is something that can cause one emotion to stand above all...greed...or maybe its the language barrier. Regardless we got away with a lot of rowdy behavior. Food fights, cop fights, McDonalds tent fights, arcade fights and others.


After the decadence in Las Lenas we ventured back to Mendoza for more mellow times. A little bit of tourism and nicer weather. If you ever end up in Mendoza the Damajuana Hostel is highly recommended. Fausto and Gabi will treat you well. Spend some time in and around the Plaza Indepencia, eat lots of Dulce de Leche and most food choices around there are tip top. But keep your possessions close. Some people like to have lose hands in those parts.




The travel home was up to par with the way there. Mendoza-Santiago-Dallas-San Francisco-Tahoe-Salt Lake. Two hemispheres, two continents, three countries, five time zones, three states and countless cities all in two days time. I couldn't make the final push into my Utah destination, so car camping in the Salt Flats it was, but sunrises always lighten the day...get it...get it. Lame.



All in all it was a super productive and fun trip. The movie is going to be a banger. You can't beat the El Ray, Stuntman Mike, Cherry, Levitation snow shred combination for a film. If you're in Utah on October 30th come see some good slasher action. www.thelevitationproject.com

hecho le casero

back in utah. wireless isn't working at my house. its late and borders books is closed, so i'm sitting in my car getting what i can out of their wireless. once i get my technology back in order, i have some pictures and stories from the southern hemisphere.
back to creeper in the car mode...

El Gringo

Made it to Las Lenas, Argentina. Place is crazy. Very remote, ominous and real. But at the same time it is the ski destination for the South American elite. It feels like an oxymoron...hopefully that gives you a sense of here. I wish I could post pictures, but the internet can't handle uploading photos. I'm down here with The Levitation Project (www.thelevitationproject.com). The first couple days were super productive, but this seems to be the land of horizontal snow. So the good snow we had, has now been relocated to somewhere else in the Andes. Another storm is forecasted and it seems to be trying. Hopefully it continues. I'll have some more insightful content sometime in the near future.
Adios.

Lost in Translation

Have I already used that title?? Not sure...

I'm on my way to Las Lenas, Argentina. I have never been to the Southern Hemisphere before. Traveling is crazy. I have been consistently thunderstruck by experiences in foreign places. We have been traveling for more than 53 hours and still have many to go. Hopefully less than more. Being stuck en transit is fun, but arriving at your destination is gratifying. I love Argentina and its people.

Chez Moi

I have made it back into the States, Utah to be exact. My body was craving the hot, dry air, but after an estimated 17 hours of it, I was ready to retire to a cooler, more humid setting. I'm still waiting to find that place.
Utah is hot...really hot. I forgot the feeling of a soggy, sweaty car seat or vehemently using lotion so your skin feels somewhat moistened. I also forgot the feeling of massive 10+ passenger SUV, with one occupant and their massive ego's ruling the road with their poor driving skills. Utahn's love their wide roads. I wonder which of those begat which.
On a more positive note, I came home just in time to see Mike and Lisa Schneiders new baby girl before she turned a day old. New life is crazy!!!

Plebeian Living pt. 2

I am back to my old rushed lifestyle, but here are some pictures of more mellow times. I miss the canoes, the clean air, and the patience lessons taught through dial-up internet.