Natsuki !

Give it up for Natsuki Yasunami! Natsuki skates for 5Nuts skateboard shop, Japan.

In 2006-2007, Natsuki, myself, and friends skated all over Yokohama's Naka Ward, and Shin-Yokohama, every week, usually at night after we got off from work. We had some really fun times living the urban Japanese dream through skateboarding; guzzling beers and devouring butter peanuts outside of convenience stores, wandering the dense urban forest that Yokohama and major Japanese metropolises really are, and catching the last train home, exhausted with sweaty socks and beer breath. Experiencing Yokohama's vast array of architecture and 19th century European influence, as well as Yokohama's China Town, was a blast! And to experience it with Natsuki and friends (5Nuts crew) really made my time in the Far East memorable.

Oden

Last Minutes with ODEN from Eliot Rausch + Phos Pictures on Vimeo.

MIA

Give Thanks Every day

The world needs more role models, and we all need to realize we encounter role models everyday. Observe and learn from people, cultures, and nature; observe and learn from your surroundings in a positve manor.

"The greatest patience is humility. "

Farewell San Francisco

After a four year stint we decided to press on into familiar AND uncharted territories, with hopes of establishing a new base camp. The food options better be good...

1/2010

Carlo poppin' bottles
That's right, we are lucky men
The Year of the Tiger commenced with what was an easy, memorable night out; a quick walk to Carlo’s crib, champagne with vodka and cranberry juice, some classic soul tunes, and three grown women rolling around on the floor just as the ball dropped screaming indefinable bits of what we thought was the native dialect. Carlo, Trav, and I just sat back, watching and smiling, and we never made it out to the Mission where we hoped to dive into a bar that wasn’t charging $40 to cheers your glass at midnight; amen to plans that didn’t pan out.

Pre-floor layout
With the coming of a New Year means my lady turns over another leaf and continues on recalling her birth, hence her Continuation Day celebration, or what most people refer to as “my birth day!”. Rather than taking her to the Olive Garden and whispering in the waiter’s ear to serve her a scallop cupcake and rally the troops for the ever-embarrassing birthday chant, I decided to surprise her with a trip to the arctic, or what non-Floridians call Colorado. Jean’s birfday happens to be a few days after Teresa’s, so I thought it’d be appropriate to get her man’s-and-‘em in on the surprise. And so Trav and I did what suitors do; we put up the cash and then called the boss-women and told them our ladies would miss a few days of work. It’s good to be a romantic…
T-Money is a true Floridian, and J-Kim is Laker fan?
We stayed in Boulder, CO, a small country college town that reminded me of FLA’s capital, Tallahappy. The first night we arrived it was 9 degrees!!! I motivated the mob to walk a mile in the cold to a Victorian themed bar for micro-brews and fried foods; praise the gods for the invention of snow pants! Upon walking into the bar we were all mistaken for four Stay Puft Marshmallow peoples. After the walk back we hit the hot tub with cocktails and proclaimed the tub as our savior and a must for nightly indoor acclimation.
Estes Park was our next destination for another micro-brewery, grazing with the local elk herds, and a 10 degree drop in temperature once the sun set behind the Rockies.
SZA, T-Money, J-Kim, Camtron, T-Rav
Micro Brews are a must in the CO
The Vail seen from the bar
OK, so this trip marked numerous personal records for me; 1. The coldest weather I have ever experienced. 2. The furthest inland I have ever traveled within the good ol’ US of A. 3. The most snow I have ever witnessed and come in contact with. 4. The first time I tried snowboarding/snow-butt-boarding. 5. Possibly the most food I have consumed in a weekend.

Uno mas de Barcelona

As Iman mentioned in a previous plug on our travels in Barcelona, Mother Teresa and I were fortunate enough to have beautiful friends living a stones throw away from the apartment we occupied. Travis and Ana, a sun fried Americano and a fearless Finnish matriarch, were our revered comrades who clarified where to buy El Raval’s best bagets, wine, and shawarmas. Another month of November passed and I was reminded of the need to look forward. Teresa, Carrie, Ana, and Travis helped me devour fresh seafood, more wine, and an amazing chocolate cake, and the local Barca couple even bought me this perfect Continuation Day gift, a Clint “The Squint” Eastwood mask. It’s scary how well it fits my mug. If you fancied our photos from Barcelona, check out this link for more...TRAV DIGI

Barcelona

Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia

Barcelona is definitely alive and well; a city full of strapping energy and vibrant colors, good eats and sweet pastries, café con leche, street performers, Roman ruins, Gothic cathedrals and churches, and fresh bagets, seafood, and olives so tasteful that dousing your being in their leftover fluids sounds like a plan worthy of pondering and executing.

A city and sea view from inside one of the towers at Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia's ceilings are something like 60 feet tall
Looking up a staircase in the tower as we ascended for what felt like 20 minutes
Spain has fathered amazing artists like Antoni Gaudi, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro, and Barcelona was the city that made their creative insights fly high like the local parrots that squawk at bystanders from the palm trees. I couldn’t help but sit in silence, basking in the architecture, sculptures, murals, and mosaics, and feeling an artistic itch that annoyed me to search for a medium to release the over abundance of imaginative influence that engulfed my bag of bones. It’s no wonder that the entire population of Catalonians favors their beloved gifted artistes, especially Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi’s masterpiece, Sagrada Familia, can be seen from almost all view points in the city. He started working on this grotesquely magnificent gothic church in 1883, and it is expected to be completed in 2030. Park Güell is another brilliant gem that Gaudi worked on from 1900 to 1914. In my opinion, this park is a monumental perfection. It’s off the weathered saturated tourist path and it offers magnificent views of the city and the Mediterranean Sea while luring gypsies and musicians who serenade the masses with sweet harmonized sounds that perfectly fit Gaudi’s organic architecture and mosaic overlays. And, there is no admission fee. On the roof of Gaudi's Casa Milà, aka La Pedrera, built 1906-1910
La Pedrera
La Pedrera

Overall, Barcelona is as good as all may have heard or foretold, and it’s not surprising why the Romans conquered this skirt of land almost 1600 years ago. Thank you Travis and Anna for exploring with us. Oh Barcelona, how I love thee, that lively vivid city by the sea, whose salt and wine remind me of glee. Cathedra de Barcelona, aka Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, was completed in 1450. Eulalia is a co-patron saint who was said to be a young virgin who suffered martyrdom during Roman times in Barcelona. The story suggests that she was thrown into a public square stark naked by the Romans and an inexplicable snow fall in mid-spring covered her naturism. The aggravated Romans enclosed her in a barrel with inner protruding knives and blades, and proceeded to roll the barreled virgin down the street. Her body is enshrined in the cathedral’s crypt. That church is eerie
Carrie, Teresa, and Anna; of course Travis and I roll with the most beautiful women
Ms. Carrie, thanks for coming from London to hang out in Barca
Tapas
Bagets, cheese, olives, and fruit; a magnificent meal
Did I mention how good the bagets were? Eating while freezing on Montserrat's mountain peaks
Carrie asked for a quick massage from Teresa, and it looks like it hurt
Of course we drank sangria
At the oldest bar in Barca, absinthe's ~90% alcohol gave Trav and I a new perspective on Tom Petty's greatest hits
Barcelona's labyrinth
Even close friends square up at times; SZA SAD vs. Travis Digital
The bar closed at 3AM, so street beers kept our engines fueled; Me, Trav Digi, Dallas, Mother Teresa, and Satu
The Maritime Museum has this wooden submarine on display
El Raval's finest indian cuisine and strangest mural at Punjab The Mediterranean Sea provides the best sea salt; Tarragona seaside
Gaudi's Casa Batllo, built in 1877, mirrors his love for nature and water therapy
Gaudi's Park Güell, built in 1900-1914, overlooking Barcelona
Me mate Travis and his lovely lady Anna at Park Güell
Park Güell

Park Güell's gypsies and onlookers

This was our last escapade, a night of flamenco at Jazz Si. Jazz Si is a bar where music students play each night. Friday is flamenco night and it was packed to the rafters, filled with two types of smoke, and the Spanish vibe was more than irie, it was Catalonian.