THE UPSETTER

Eastern Exposure Zero

In 1996 I had just entered the 9th grade in Plant City, FL, at a high school strategically surrounded by cow fields. Upon entering this school I had been on a ten year streak of juking out defenders, eating orange slices at half-time, and drilling soccer balls into the upper 90’s. I had also been skating for about a year, really not knowing what I was doing or what actual skateboarding was. My central Floridian suburb kept me safe and secluded from urban America and the lurking street skateboarding scene. This new found interest in thrashing eventually led me astray from my traditional team sport, partly because of the lack of scheduling involved, but mainly because of schralping’s over abundance of personal freedom, much like the feeling obtained from creating art. High school introduced me to some older shredders who then popped my street-skating-cherry, in and around downtown Tampa. I quickly saw the likes of Jeff Lenoce, Chris Williams, Josh Stewart, and a handful of other locals within the city's circumference. Around this time I started my first part-time job at a bicycle shop that reveled in skateboarding. It was then that I bought one of my first skateboarding VHS tapes, Easter Exposure Zero. I quickly and completely dorked-out so hard with this nine minute video, that still to this day, almost 15 years later, while re-visiting it again for the first time in years via YouTube (17,105 views on YouTube, but I must have watched that tape 18,000+), I can almost predict what clip and or skater follows the previous clip. It’s amazing how our minds’ memory works…

Anyhow, the fact that I can watch a skateboard video from 15 years ago and still be inspired and enthused about it, because of the trick selection, the look of the locations, and the individual skate styles of those in the film (blah blah blah), sums up the argument that skateboarding is in fact an art form (at least in my opinion!); it’s timeless, much like a painting or a traditional, academic form of art.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

Homemade MAC-N-CHEESE; serves 4+:

1/2 lb. elbow/macaroni pasta
1 lb. block of medium sharp cheddar cheese (shred it yourself!)
1 pint of 2% milk
2 teaspoons of REAL butter
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 cup flour
2-3 minced garlic cloves
bread crumbs
mustard
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Boil the pasta al dente; perhaps for 5 minutes depending on how hot your stove is. Drain the pasta and rinse with cool water. Set aside your pasta in a baking dish and focus on creating your rue.

Rue, aka gravy, and cheese (medium heat): In a frying pan, saute the onion with butter until lightly browned. Stir in the flour until it lumps together with the onions. Stir in half a pint of milk, mix well, and then add the other half. Continue to stir until the flour mixes with the milk. Add the garlic, a healthy squirt of mustard, and salt to taste, and stir until your rue is gravy-like. Add the shredded cheddar and stir until the cheese melts and your rue becomes an oozing cheese sauce.

Remove the cheese and pour over the macaroni. Stir the cheese in with the pasta and cover with a decent layer of bread crumbs. The bread crumbs keep the mac-n-cheese moist while baking. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the bread crumbs turn a light brown.

Serve with greens; keep it Southern.

Treasure Island, SFC

A view of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge

Bay Bridge

On a clear day, Treasure Island boasts some amazing westward views of San Francisco and the surrounding bay.